Beggar Siblings - The Prince
A dense crowd had gathered at Orville's north gate, eager to witness the prince's procession. Leo was among them.
“Woo-hoo~~!”
Cheers erupted as the prince appeared in the distance. Mounted on a black steed, his dark, navy hair flowing in the wind, it was undoubtedly the same prince Leo had seen before. He seemed to be around the same age as well.
The prince exuded an air of authority as he looked down upon the crowd from his tall horse, while soldiers proudly held high the banners of the Astin Kingdom.
It was a truly magnificent procession.
The splendor befitting a prince, it captivated the people of Orville, momentarily making them forget their usual disdain for the Astin Kingdom.
‘I wish I had brought Lena. It's a shame.’
Leo longed to bring his sister, who was bored out of her mind hiding away in the shoe shop, but he couldn’t.
Lena’s appearance had become too striking to conceal. Her once-thin frame now had a healthy bloom to it, and her beauty was in full radiance. No amount of dirt on her face could hide her from the attention of others.
With a figure that turned heads wherever she went, men would surely start eyeing Lena with lustful gazes, and her pretty face would give her away in an instant.
Though Leo himself had grown considerably stronger and could handle most thugs, it was still dangerous for Lena to be alone.
He couldn’t rely on the Family's help just yet.
They still treated Leo as an outsider, and he had kept his sister's existence a secret from them.
As curious as he was about Lena’s opinion of the prince, he wouldn’t risk her safety just to gauge her taste in men.
“Kyaa~! Your Highness!”
“Wave to us, please!”
The prince, seemingly indifferent to the crowd's fervent cheers, continued leading the procession, only occasionally waving his hand. He seemed more interested in observing Orville’s architecture than its people.
The capital of the Bellita Kingdom, Orville was once the capital of the Akaia Empire.
As a historical city with centuries of history, most of its buildings were constructed with granite ashlars (cubic granite blocks 20cm in height). The walls built with these stones exuded a sense of order and dignity.
It was a rare architectural style in the harsh environment of the Astin Kingdom.
Leo watched the procession from within the crowd. He was curious how the Favorability System would react if he could lock eyes with the prince, but unfortunately, that didn’t happen.
There were simply too many people; waving his hand wouldn’t be enough to catch the prince’s attention.
Unless he jumped into the procession, that is.
As the prince's procession disappeared into the distance, Leo swallowed his disappointment.
‘I should get going. Time to work.’
He was keenly aware of the difference in their social standings.
The prince, with hundreds of elite soldiers, knights, and attendants in tow, could casually visit a princess of another nation.
While Leo? He was nothing but a thug who knew how to wield a sword. Even then, his skills were laughable compared to the knights guarding the prince.
It frustrated him that the prince had come all the way to Orville, and yet there was nothing he could do about it. If only Lena were at least a noblewoman, she might have had a chance to meet the prince at the royal palace…
But even that seemed unlikely.
Seducing a prince who came to meet his fiancée would only lead to disaster. It would mean the prince, visiting from a foreign land, was rejecting his intended bride and choosing another woman.
With a bitter heart, Leo returned to his everyday life. He hadn’t expected much to begin with. His goal this time was to raise Lena safely and witness a happy ending.
This event had nothing to do with the current him—or so he thought, before it caused a major uproar in Orville.
“The prince has already left?”
The prince left Orville after only a week. Having journeyed for months to reach this foreign land, it was expected he would stay for at least half a year, but he departed without even attending Orville’s farewell ceremony.
“Yeah. Seems like Princess Chloe is quite the wild one. People are going crazy right now.”
A fellow thug, arriving for his shift change, plopped down beside Leo.
Leo casually pulled out a cigarette and handed a lantern to the newcomer.
“I heard the princess was caught red-handed with that good-for-nothing son of Earl Hermann. You can’t believe rumors, I tell you. Who knew a princess so widely known for her grace and elegance would be sneaking around behind everyone’s backs?”
“Earl Hermann… you mean the Swordmaster?”
“That’s the one. His Majesty must be in a tough spot. He tried to marry off his well-behaved daughter to the prince, only to find out she’s been fooling around with that notorious playboy. Hahaha.”
“What happened exactly?”
“Apparently, the princess kissed that Gilbert fellow right in front of the prince. Hahaha! Leave it to the nobles to make a scene.”
Earl Hermann Forte was the Swordmaster of the Bellita Kingdom.
One of only three Swordmasters in the entire continent, they were figures of admiration for all swordsmen.
Yet, even Earl Hermann Forte—the Captain of the 1st Royal Guard, the Swordmaster, and a brilliant politician—couldn't control his own son.
His son, Gilbert Forte, was a notorious womanizer. He relentlessly pursued women of all backgrounds, keeping the Forte family busy cleaning up his messes.
‘Is this how war breaks out?’
Leo took a long drag from his cigarette.
There was no way the Astin Kingdom would stand idly by after their prince suffered such humiliation.
The princess’s actions were inexcusable.
They couldn’t possibly expect leniency from the Astin Kingdom, even if they argued they were unaware of Gilbert’s true nature.
Moreover, the princess had initiated the kiss.
Right in front of the prince.
This would surely be recorded in history as the kiss that ignited a war.
Tensions were already high between the two kingdoms. The nobles of the Bellita Kingdom looked down upon the Astin & Aster Kingdoms, referring to them as barbaric wastelands, while the northern kingdoms coveted the warm, fertile lands of the south.
With the prince’s visit—a potential opportunity for improved relations—ending in such a debacle, war seemed inevitable.
‘Good thing I didn’t enlist as a soldier.’
If he had, he would have been dragged off to the battlefield without a second thought.
Even in the Engagement scenario, he would have tried his best to avoid it. Being forced into such a situation would have been unbearable.
Leo exhaled a plume of smoke, a sigh of relief escaping his lips along with it. The smoke from the cigarettes of the two thugs, seated in the back alley, dissipated into the night air.