Volume 1 Chapter 28 His Highness the Crown Prince, Irritation
"You are going to be a king, so you have to do this kind of thing easily."
How many times have he heard these words? It's certainly enough times that even counting them feels tedious, and in fact, Fabiano had given up on counting. The queen is talented and also passionate about education, which is why Fabiano was raised strictly, but he had no dissatisfaction with that. Because if he became anything, he was to be the king of tomorrow, and above all, he had to be excellent.
What he couldn't forgive was the existence of his sister, who had married into another country, and had done nothing while he had put in effort. She was a girl who always looked vaguely out of it, gazing outside her room, and Fabiano did not talk much with her, but he knew that she had never scored less than full marks in tutoring or tests from the academy.
"Also, learn knowledge like your sister."
The words that came after the first thing he was told was this phrase. Before he knew it, Fabiano began to resent his sister, but she paid no mind. He remembers being especially annoyed by that. It was normal for him to dislike his sister.
The fatal thing was the words spoken at her deathbed when the queen, her mother, passed away.
"Surpass your sister."
The boundary was crossed when she, as a mother, did not whisper her love to Fabiano who was left behind.
"You will become a man said to be superior to your sister."
That day, Fabiano, who was about to marry his sister soon, looked absentmindedly as if declaring war, and his sister, as usual, gazed at him with vague eyes and said,
"I see."
How much time had passed since then? Turning to Fabiano, who kept standing and wondering what the next words would be, his sister said just one word.
"Do your best."
Do your best? Are you saying that you are not doing anything right now? What about the time you spend reading scholarly books, sacrificing sleep? What about the time you are training while experiencing pain? Why must you be inferior to this woman who is doing nothing?
Fabiano, unaware that blood was dripping from his clenched fist, flew out of the room. He feels like he was saying something, but it was something that didn't matter.
* * *
Since then, His Highness Crown Prince Fabiano had come to feel resentful towards capable women. However, all women capable enough to become the successors of the next generation are only women of outstanding talent, and all have solid bloodlines, which continues to trigger his trauma. Before long, he began to feel that peace of mind could be found nowhere.
The exception was the time spent with a court lady newly graduated from an academy with little scholarly background, only based on bloodline. She was not diligent in her studies and considered her work merely a temporary job until marriage; her parents also treated her kindly just because she was the youngest, and she accepted that. Because of that, her heart was gentle, so when asked if it was a failure of child-rearing, it was uncertain.
The important thing was that she began to serve the prince's tea, and the prince found peace in her dullness. Her fiancée, the daughter of a Grand Duke, possessed knowledge comparable to his own, and full of enthusiasm, she reportedly established a merchant guild for making soap and perfume at the age of 11. Her excellence that reminded him of his older sister continued to aggravate his irritation, and that was the moment he lashed out at her.
As he shouted with his face reddened in anger, she gently stroked his head, causing him to snap at her face. When he saw her face calmly trying to soothe his tantrum, tears suddenly overflowed. In the midst of no one else paying attention to him, only she looked directly at him, and at that moment, he sensed a gentle fragrance and the warm tenderness of a person.
Had he ever been embraced like this before? Without shame or hesitation, crying out loud, she gently patted his back until he fell asleep from exhaustion.
He would have her replaced by her, even if she lacked scholarly knowledge. As long as she had the minimum bloodline, no one would complain. With that resolve, he searched for the lady's maid, but she was nowhere to be seen. He caught the head maid and asked about her whereabouts.
"She has resigned because she is getting married."
Important treasures should be locked away in a chest promptly──that was the lesson His Highness Crown Prince Fabiano learned this time.
* * *
Crown Prince Fabiano is a troublesome young man who dislikes and hates excellent women, yet seeks a woman with a sea-like inclusiveness that can gently envelop him while still striving to become a king. His younger brother by one year is not exactly an enemy. He's always lived like a flea, trying not to stir up trouble.
The problem is his younger half-brother, who, despite his youth, is wise and a hard worker like the former Fabiano. Sometimes, when he looks at Fabiano with eyes full of hatred, the phrase he mutters under his breath sticks in his mind.
"Brother will destroy the country one day."
It's too grand a subject to dismiss as a child's nonsense. He's undoubtedly aiming for the throne, and it's only a matter of time before a relationship of cannibalism among kin emerges, which brings out Fabiano's old habit of anxiety.
It was during such a time that he met the tall, rock-like female knight Eleonora. A mercenary-turned-noble, with a status as low as that of a commoner, defeating a noble's son without considering his dignity is naturally offensive to Fabiano's anxiety, and it was only within the academy that he was treated so kindly; one wonders how much more vigilant he would have been under normal circumstances.
This was something even Fabiano himself did not know, and it was the first step towards his decline a year later, unbeknownst to anyone.
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