Michael

Michael was looking at the uniform lying on his bed with a frown, "I don't understand this punishment. Is it supposed to humiliate us or what is the point?" They had been ordered to be servants for the rest of the day, serving food and drink to the nobles. Geron was standing in the room with him, he was unmoving and with an expression of stone.

"I guess, is to show you the importance of following orders. An event will fall flat completely if the servants don't do as they are told, the same as in warfare," Geron said plainly.

Michael fidgeted nervously with his shirt and then asked with a heavy heart, “Do you have any information on what happened on the plaza? We were dragged to the palace immediately, so I don’t know.”

“Hundreds are dead, and it would have been more if Eydis hadn’t killed the Shadow Crusher. The monsters never left the plaza with the overrun streets, but the city watch took long to get there. In the end, it was Lord Strom who quickly reached the plaza and slaughtered most of the monsters,” Geron explained, still holding on to his neutral tone.

“Unbelievable that there is still a party after something like this.” Michael shook his head in disbelief.

“Nobles are not prone to care about those that are under them.”

His tone didn't get past Michael as he looked at his knight, "Look, I know that you are mad that I didn't tell you that I was going out and I am sorry, but I didn't want to put you in a difficult position."

The knight chuckled dryly, "With that, you failed spectacularly."

Michael scratched his head; he knew they screwed up, but it was not that bad, they had been just unlucky. "In the end, it is like my father said, I have to take the consequences and if anything had happened to me it would have been my problem," Michael said with slight annoyance, he knew that it was his fault, but he didn't want to get reminded of it. After all his foresight with bringing Eydis had saved their lives.

Geron looked at him with a frown and walked over the short distance. "You really don't get it, do you? For all that knowledge you have, you really are stupid sometimes." Michael stared at the knight in surprise, he had never talked to him like that.

"You are not some random city kid, you are a noble, your life doesn't only belong to yourself. If something happened to you it wouldn't only be your problem." Geron's eyes were intense as he focused on Michael. "Have you ever thought about how strange it is that your father allowed Eydis to be free and your bodyguard? Have you ever thought about how everyone advised him against it, and everyone is expecting her to kill you as revenge for her family? Hells, even I thought she would. With that in mind, what do you think would happen to her if you died on her watch and I wasn't there to tell if she let you die? They would assume that she did it to take revenge and not get blamed. She would be hanged immediately."

Michael continued to stare at him while his brain wrapped itself around what Geron was saying.

"And what about me? How do you think my life would continue after my ward died because I wasn't there? I would be shamed and possibly thrown out of the knighthood." Geron seemed to get angrier the more he talked, and Michael got more devastated the more he did. "Solon has finally found a reason to settle down, I don't know if he ever would again if you died."

He was nearly yelling by now, "Sola would be devastated! She loves you like family, and you go on dying in a place she refused to go to! She would blame herself! You are our lord, we are dependent on you, if you die who will take care of us? If you put yourself in danger, you put all of us in danger."

"I didn't know this would happen," Michael said with a lump in his throat.

Geron sighed, rubbed his eyes, and said with a calmer voice, "You can't predict everything, but it is exactly my job to be there and take care of things you can't predict. Sure, Eydis does the same but as you saw a single person can have difficulty protecting multiple people, especially with a fighting style like hers that focuses on attacking."

"I am sorry," Michael said with a breaking voice.

"Just keep in mind what I said, and we will be fine," Geron said but he still looked upset.

- Some time later in the kitchens -

"You will follow every order I give you, exactly when I give it, and exactly how I give it to you," the chief servant said to them with a stern voice. "To be honest I don't want you here, any of you. You are small, weak, and obviously unreliable. We have a tough crowd out there, nobles, merchants, and the royal family so no mistake will go unnoticed and unpunished. So, keep your head down and follow your colleague's example. I don’t want to hear any, and I mean any complaints about you, or you will be cleaning dishes for the rest of the evening.” Michael would have been amused by the lack of consideration for the royal children, but he was too distracted by the notion of having to clean hundreds of plates.

Michael, Zen, Mira, and Theodore were standing in a line in the kitchen, they were all dressed in the servant’s uniforms. They all nodded as the chief servant inspected them with strict eyes. "Good, Jeremy," he spoke to another man, "Show them how it is done, I don't want them to embarrass us just because they are being punished." He then turned around and walked away.

The man named Jeremy then showed them how to safely carry a tray with food and drinks on it, but it was quickly apparent that only Zen and Michael were able to carry a reasonable amount due to their mana strengthening.

"Why are you not strengthening, Theodore," Michael asked him with interest. The boy looked uncomfortable as he said, "My mana well is really small, I can't use it longer than a minute and even that is only weak strengthening."

"Oh, that is why you fought without any augmenting," Michael replied, feeling bad for the boy, and he nodded affirming his conclusion.

"What about you," he asked Mira. She weirdly avoided eye contact and said, "I don't have much mana either."

"Hmm, sorry about that," he said to both of them, but Theodore shook his head. "Don't worry about it." Mira seemed weird about the topic, but Michael didn't want to press the issue.

Zen looked at them with a pained face, "This is so ridiculous, having to serve as a punishment."

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Michael blinked at change of topic with an amused smile. "Oh, it's not that bad. It is actually pretty good for a future ruler to understand how his subjects work, so you should just take it as a learning opportunity." He tried to sound comforting, but he really didn't want to do it either.

"This is going to be so humiliating," Theodore said while making a face.

In the end, the servants decided to just let them carry around small snacks and bread baskets to avoid them dropping something expensive and heavy.

They mostly used the time until the feast started with practicing under the watchful eyes of Jeremy and after a couple of hours, they were finally ordered to make ready. They were placed at the entrance of the great hall and had the job of taking coats and greeting the guests for now until it was time for dinner.

It wasn’t as bad as Michael had expected at first, the nobles were polite and let them do their jobs with dignity. They were probably afraid to make an enemy of the crown prince by laughing at his friends.

This was until Julius Wulfen arrived, with Harlov and Oska behind him. They were probably the three people he wanted to see the least and the twins knew it. They were grinning over both ears as they approached Michael, while Julius walked over to Zen and Mira on the other side of the large doorway.

Harlov looked over to Oska and said with a sneer, “The quality of the staff seems to have taken quite a dip since the last time we were here.”

“Yeah, they must have been really desperate to employ the likes of him,” Oska returned with a derogatory gesture.

Michael said nothing and just ignored their remarks, which riled them up even more.

Harlov came close to Michael’s face and whispered, “I was sad to hear that that bear didn’t rip you to pieces. Would have been quite the service to our country, and it would have been given a medal.”

Michael still stood silent, he had made enough mistakes today, and he wouldn’t be baited so easily.

Harlov chuckled and took a step back. “This is good, I like you quiet and subservient like this.”

Michael saw Zen stare over from the other side and start to make his way over, but Michael shook his head subtly and he stayed put but with an unhappy expression.

“Is there something else I can help you with,” Michael asked with a polite smile, his eyes sparkling with amusement, and Harlov recoiled.

“You arrogant bastard. You still think yourself better than us, don’t you,” Harlov snapped at him when Julius came over and patted him on the shoulder. Harlov politely made way for the duke’s son and stepped back.

“It seems you have gotten in some trouble, boy,” he said with a polite mask.

He got on Michael’s nerves more with that polite smile than his brothers had with their remarks.

“Surviving monsters and saving royals, just a normal day, milord,” he tried to copy the expression the older boy had, it looked way less mocking than Julius’s and he wanted to learn how to do that.

“Running from monsters you mean? If I heard correctly,” he corrected Michael with a raised eyebrow. Theodore was watching their exchange from a meter away with a worried gaze.

“Two skull monsters are not really my specialty but give me one or two more years and I might get there.”

“Dire wolves are only two skull because of their pack mentality as far as I know, and you were pursued by only one and not even an evolved specimen, right?” Michael really began to hate that guy.

Julius just continued on as he pointed to his wolf pelt, decorating the top of his coat. “I killed an evolved dire wolf when I was ten, so you should have been able to handle one with your … magical expertise.” Michael imagined a wolf being held down by multiple men and the teenager with a long spear.

Michael bit down on his teeth, trying to keep his tongue in check, that boy seemed like someone who would complain if he said anything, and he really didn’t want to end up washing the dishes. So, he carefully said, “Impressive I will try to live up to your example.”

“My example?” He made a hand gesture for Michael to continue.

“Milord,” he pressed out between his teeth.

Julius nodded and said with a satisfied smile, “Good, it seems you have learned your place after all.” He walked away without so much as a further glance and the twins followed him like loyal dogs.

“What a prick,” Michael said under his breath, but Theodore was close enough to hear.

“Careful, his father is pretty powerful and not the forgiving type. That is what my father said at least,” Theodore said with a shrug.

Most of the guests had arrived by now so they could go back to the kitchen and make ready to serve the food. Zen and Mira came over to them and Zen said, “You alright? You looked like you would claw his eyes out at any moment.”

“I don’t know. I never met such an arrogant person with a talent for being condescending in a simple conversation to that degree.”

Mira chuckled and Zen shook his head, “Yeah, he is something else but Lord Wulfen is a pillar of the kingdom so there is little we can do about it.”

The rest of the evening wasn’t much better. Even though no one confronted him directly, Michael could hear the whispers and laughing behind his back.

At least they managed to go through the evening without anyone complaining about them, so it was a fine event workwise.

Late into the night, they were sitting at the shore of the garden lake, their knights standing a few meters behind them. They were sitting in silence and just watched the reflections of the moon and stars on the water.

Theodore yawned and broke the others out of their thoughts. “Tired,” Zen asked with an amused expression and Theodore laughed. “It’s fine, the festival is over so I can sleep as much as I want tomorrow. I am just sad that we missed the bonfire.”

They returned to silence until Zen spoke again with a serious tone, “I couldn’t sleep even if I wanted to. I tried to suppress it, but my mind always goes back to the monsters. We nearly died because of me. Hells, Michael would have died if he wasn’t saved by that masked man.”

“It was not just your decision, we all made it for ourselves,” Mira said comforting him and placed her hand on his arm.

“That is not how it works, Mira. I am going to be a king and that is not how a king should behave.” He looked distraught and just stared at the water.

“What does it mean to be king,” Michael mused, he liked thought games like that. “I don’t think that you behaved unkinglike. They normally do what they want.” He smirked at the prince but saw that his joke didn’t make him feel better, so he added.

“Okay, on a more serious note, to want to see things and learn stuff is not a bad thing. If your mother had not banned you from going out it wouldn’t have happened either, our full escort would have slaughtered those monsters. That doesn’t mean that wasn’t our fault though, we did handle it wrong, and we need to learn from our mistakes. We were all there at your side out of our own volition so don’t be so arrogant to think it was all you.” He nudged him and Zen finally broke his solemn expression and smiled back, “But what makes a good king?”

Michael thought for a while until he said, “I think one of the most important things for a king is to be a good judge of character. You can’t know and do everything so you need good advisers whom you can trust and that have good intentions.”

“Well, you seem to have that covered,” Theodore said with a laugh, pointing to the group.

They bantered with each other for a while until Mira said, “It is sad that we missed the feast today, I would have loved to dance a little bit after the stressful day.”

“Being nearly murdered by monsters counts as a stressful day? I don’t want to know what a traumatic one is for you,” Theodore joked as a visible shiver went down his entire body.

They all had taken what happened pretty well, all things considered, maybe some were hiding the shock, but it seemed like they were all fine.

Michael got on his feet and held his hand out to Mira, “If you want to dance, I will throw myself at your mercy.”

She took his hand with a smile, and he pulled her up.

“What is with us,” Theodore said with played offense in his voice.

Michael shook his head. “I am not going to dance with you, you have two left feet. Dance with Zen or ask one of our bodyguards.”

They moved a couple of meters away and started circling each other, as last time Mira was more confident on her feet than Michael. Michael stumbled twice because of the uneven ground and bad lighting. “Wait a minute,” he said as he let go of Mira and closed his eyes.

“Illuminate my surroundings, Hovering Light.” A small light formed in his hand and slowly rose above them.

Mira stared at it; the light being reflected in her blue eyes as she followed its path. “It is beautiful,” she said quietly. Michael smiled and gently took her hands again, “Shall we continue?”

They danced for a while longer under the slowly fading light of Michael’s magic. Somehow Zen and Theodore had convinced Eydis to join them, and they were showing her how to dance like a noble. It was quite funny to watch as they couldn’t understand her and just tried to guess what she was signing.

They stayed up deep into the night talking, dancing, and having fun, forgetting the horrors of the preceding morning. Later Michael would remember this evening as one of the happiest he had in the capital.