The wine was a delicacy best served for those of wealth. The commoners in the Kingdom might have been allowed to buy it, but the royals of Celan knew better than to think that it made them worthy of even being looked upon. Esil had never liked those people below him, their taste for filth disgusting him to no end. That they laid on wool beds, bathed in unclean water, and drank it, all the same, made his stomach turn. If he had control, he would have stopped such behaviour instantly.
“More wine, sir?” one of the many servants close by asked, their tone polite as ever. Yet that did not hide their low-born nature, their body and posture revealing who their parents were no matter how much training had been put in to hide it. Esil knew. Esil could see the truth before him.
A silent nod made his glass fill up halfway. Nevermore than that lest sudden movements would let it fall onto the floor, onto him, or, the gods forbid, the guests close to him. His father, praise be his name, had decided to throw a more lavish banquet. It was the third of this month but was the most expensive of them all.
Three tables down, the man himself was talking loudly, drinking his fill thrice over. Esil, being the good son that he was, had been keeping his alcohol levels down so he wouldn’t embarrass the family more than normal. It had a little point to it, yet he understood that his actions would be looked down on more than his fathers. How loving real life was. Bastards got the blame for losing a bronze coin while those above got to throw away platinum.
“How has the axe-cutting industry been treating you, Sir Esil?” one of the lords close to him asked. He owned one of the more northern areas but the bastard prince had trouble remembering which one of them it was. There were too many valuable areas up there for a sane mind to count.
“It has been treating me quite well, thank you,” Esil responded with a smile, sipping his newly-filled drink before letting it sit comfortably on the table. Looking back at the lord, it was clear the man wanted some more conversation to start up. But then the question was if it was mere boredom that led to the desire or if another lord was once again trying to get close to one of the easier royals. “Management is a newer position for me but I seem to have not failed to greatly just yet.”
The man laughed at the poor excuse for a joke, Esil nearly commenting on that fact as he took another chance to gain a sip from his glass. He felt like he needed the taste if he were to survive the next few minutes of his life.
“Management is all we get to do these days. Back in older times, I remember getting to visit my estates [Crystal-Caves]. That isn’t something easily done anymore. Too many risks for me and my children, if the guards are to be believed,” the lord reminisced, giving a bit too many personal details in such a short time. Though, while Esil couldn’t care less about the man being alive or dead, it at least allowed him to identify the man a little bit better.
A figure that would make a pig jealous, a moustache that could fit onto his bald head, and a few rings with gems on them a bit too big. It was not difficult, with the inclusion of the crystals being mentioned, that Esil was talking to the [Lord of Crystals] himself. Not that anybody called him that, the lord never having gotten a taste for the nickname.
“Caves made of a crystal can be dangerous, Lord Gray,” Esil responded. “It would do no good if an honest man was to have an accident that could have been prevented in there.”
“A right man you are for thinking so wisely,” the Lord said, taking a larger sip of his glass. If anything, he might just have bottomed the glass right then and there. It took Esil a level of self-control to make sure he didn’t show his reaction to such a brutish action. “Though, I do have to ask just how old you are now. It has been a few years since we last met.”
Esil could pointedly remember the lord sitting three rows down from him last week but there was no real mention of that. Not everybody noticed the smaller details, after all. And certainly a lord of such importance. [Mana-Crystals] were used in too many sectors of life that the distributors could be angered and the man who owned the land was not to be made a fool.
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“I am twenty-two this month,” Esil answered, making sure not to mention that the man beside him was likely well into his sixties and wouldn’t be meeting his seventies. In the current age, men could live for two hundred years easily yet those lords couldn’t help but get in dumb accidents. It didn’t help that a certain brother of his was behind too many of them.
“Twenty-two already? How time flies. I remember the days where you must have been nothing more than a babe. I might even have held you back then,” the lord reminisced. Once again, Esil kept his mouth shut. There was no mention of the fact that he had only learned who his dad was when he was six.
“How intriguing,” Esil stated, saddened that it wasn’t proper to bottom the contents of his glass himself. Having to listen to a man while holding up his facade was quite exhausting. Reports and threats could be handled with ease. Having to listen to a man with ulterior motives that wouldn’t get to the point? That was the part nobody could truly survive.
“Indeed,” the lord agreed with a deep nod. “Say, you said that you were twenty-two. If you would believe it, I do have a daughter at twenty-three. Would you consider-”
Before the lord could make do with the point of the entire conversation, a clap on Esil’s shoulder stopped him. Looking up at the origin of the hand, the young man found nobody but his oldest brother. Some knew him as the crown prince of the kingdom. Esil knew him as a person who would make his life hell.
“Hello dear brother of mine,” Leo, Duke of wherever he pleased, said with a smile that showed too many teeth to be comfortable. He looked dashing in his thicker clothes, though Esil could very much spot the small knife hidden in his robe. There was little intention to hide it from him, after all. “Do excuse me and my brother, Lord Gray. He and I have a few matters we need to discuss.”
“Oh, no reason to excuse yourselves,” Lord Gray said with a smile, the layers of fat much happier to talk with the more important royal. “Though, do come back with him if you finish quickly.”
“I will try to. You can never know with him,” Leo said with another trademark smile, ruffling Esil’ hair around. It might have looked like friendly squabbles between brothers but the shorter of the two felt like the beginnings of his hair was to soon start actively bleeding.
A laugh was heard as the two went outside the hall and into a more private room. It was one of the few which were isolated from sound and had most of the modern anti-spying gear installed. Esil knew that from the last time he had been brought inside one of the rooms, having been given a small beating while having repeated that nobody would ever know. How fun the age of youth was.
“So what did the crown prince want with me today?” Esil questioned. It had been a few months since the two had spoken. If the bastard had gotten his way, it would have been a few years, yet one of the two had the annoying problem of using the other as a method to stop boredom.
“How has your management of the Royal Hunting Forest been going?” Leo asked without commenting on Esil’s remark. That wasn’t normal. And not normal was not good. “Did everything get set up as planned?”
“Yes, even if you gave me too few resources to work with,” Esil answered, still angry about having to use his own well-earned money for that endeavour. It was either that or face the wrath of his father who couldn’t go hunting during the summer months.
“If you did it, there were never too few,” Leo retorted, though that small smile on his face showed that he knew exactly what he had done. “But, if you insist, I will gladly take you to that position.”
“I did not say that,” Esil said. There were still reparations and improvements that were being made. “The rune-work on the outer edges still needs to be modernized fully.”
“You implied it at the very least. And all the remaining tasks can be overviewed by me,” the crown prince stated, with a tone that showed how big a burden he would be taking on. If not for his larger strength base, Esil would have tried his best at giving him a kick in the knees. “And luckily, I have a new position for you. How do you feel about camping?”
That didn’t sound good.
“Why do you ask?”
“Because that’s what you will be doing these next couple of years. A new dungeon was discovered in the southern part of the kingdom and we need a royal liaison over there. Normally, we’d send a knight or somebody of lower order but I attested to you being perfect for that job.”
… Esil wished he had a knife and opportunity at that moment. This was all one big joke and he was the punchline. Perhaps [Rune-Mastery] wasn’t the best specialization that could have been taken by a royal.
“Do we at least know the Dungeon’s [Title]?”
“Ah, yes,” Leo stated, bringing out a leaflet of papers. Throwing it to Esil, he started to leave the room immediately. “Read through that and find a horse in the morning. Maybe even an escort if you want to feel privileged.”
The bastard prince ignored the last bit as he picked up the leaflet from the floor. Skimming most of it, for now, he reached where the Dungeon’s description had been noted down.
“[The Ancient Dungeon]” It sounded wrong when one said it. Though, it did make him curious about just how old the thing could be.