“You’ll be departing to join the military.” My father’s hoarse voice abruptly said.

I dropped my spoon back into my soup. “W-why? You know I’m not an athlete.” I questioned, completely caught off guard.

“Because you’re not worthy to compete with your brothers.” He said and patted his throne.

Before I could object, he continued, “Don’t bother arguing, the preparations are already set in stone. See those people behind me? After this meal, they will escort you back to your residence and will make sure you get to your basic training on time.” He pointed behind him at four men in suits.

Actually, it was more than just those four men. There were two more behind me to my right tucked away in the corner. I had completely forgotten about them while eating.

“What if I don’t want to be king, dad? Either one of my brothers would be more than fit to be king, especially because they’re both well-liked by the people in their respective fields.” I won this argument.

He paused with his spoon merely inches away from his black goatee, “As I just said, there will be no more arguing on this matter.” And he continued eating.

“Is it because I’m not a Blessed like them?” I thought out loud.

“Quiet.” My father, the King, ordered through clenched teeth.

We didn’t talk for the rest of the meal. Mother didn’t attempt to quail the tension in the air either. Why should I go to the military of all places? Why not a renowned school like my eldest brother? Why not a military academy like my second eldest brother? We’re not even at war and he chose the military of all places.

Looking around I couldn’t tell what the servants’ opinions were, as they kept stoic faces. Except for Eugene, that is; the balding middle-aged man’s face was contorted in fury. My servant seems to be on the same page as me at least.

I finished my soup rather quickly and waited for father to finish eating his food. Mother kept picking at her food, as she always did, eating as mannerly as possible. Eventually, though the king finished his food and it was time to leave.

Father and Mother left without so much as a word. I gave it a minute or two so I didn’t bump into them on the way out and eventually got up. One of the men stopped me by stepping into my path, he was over six feet easily and was broad-shouldered on top of that.

“Your Highness please come with me to a temporary residence we have set up for you.” He was bowing pretty deeply but he still towered over me.

“Who do you think you are to order a prince around?” I demanded.

“These are orders from his Majesty.” He said it kind of softly, but it was still pretty loud.

I snorted trying to contain some angry laughter. “Lead the way then.”

We made our way out from the dining parlor, through the purple hallways, and eventually out into the front yard where two armored military automobiles were waiting for me. I hopped into the back seat and so did Eugene.

The ride went smoothly, albeit really long. In total, it took approximately four hours. We went from the illuminated nightlife into some pitch-black mountains north of the city. I was in the middle seat in the back so I didn’t see much of the surroundings as we travelled.

When we exited the vehicle it was a mansion similar to the size of my residence, but there were only the six men in suits as well as Eugene.

The large bald guy broke the silence first.

“Your Highness I believe I haven’t introduced myself yet. My name is One and I will be in charge of getting you ready for Basic by the end of this week per his Majesty’s orders.” He gave a really deep bow.

Looking him up and down I noticed a few things I didn’t process earlier. His dark skin was lacerated with scars all over. It looked like there was a hole at some point through his right palm. And his other hand seemed to be missing his pinky and ring finger.

“Well alright, then I suppose… First, let's go inside and listen to some radio before bed.” I set off towards the dark building but One’s hand abruptly shot in front of me barring my path.

“Unfortunately, Your Highness, also per your father’s orders, you are not to have access to any technology and must also cook your food yourself with no servants.” He was smiling now and I saw a gold tooth in the top corner of his mouth.

Ignoring the gold tooth, I was getting angry. It took every bit of self-control I could muster to not shout and instead I squeezed my fists til they were burning with pain.

“Fine.” I hissed through clenched teeth. “What’s first on the agenda?”

He smiled as wide as his face would allow. “First we sleep, and then you learn.”

I awoke the next morning to Eugene shaking me awake.

His pudgy cheeks were parted with a smile. “Rise and shine Digna!” He was the only one who never formally addressed me, but that was ok because he’s my closest friend.

I numbly nodded and got dressed. Afterward, I followed Eugene through the building and eventually we went outside. It was here when I realized the sun was just starting to rise.

Eugene patted me on the shoulder, “This is where I say goodbye Your Highness. I shall see you when you’re finished with your service.” He walked away toward a third vehicle that wasn’t there yesterday. Just like that? Such an abrupt goodbye. I sat there just staring kind of shocked as my servant of over a decade left me. Just. Like. That.

I was angry now, not only was my father going to force me into the military. He was also going to take away my only trusted companion. I know it was him because Eugene would never just willingly leave so abruptly. While I sat there smoldering and getting hotter by the second a cough from my right interrupted me.

I looked and it was One. He was standing there in an alert position with his hands behind his back. I walked up to him yawning, “What’s for-“ I was interrupted by a shout.

“Attention!” His voice boomed loud and clear. My brain froze completely before I copied his pose after half a second of nothing.

“Your training starts now.” He lowered his head and was looking at me over some sunglasses. “And to answer your question, you’ll cook breakfast after some running.”

“Now follow me.”

And so, I followed him. We went through the mansion and out the back door I didn’t even notice last night. The backyard was a large dirt field, easily a couple hundred meters long and wide. On the perimeter, I could see a low-hanging chain fence that I could probably step over.

One pointed at the field, “Run some laps.”

I looked at him and tilted my head, “What if I don’t want to? I am royalty after all.”

One shook his head and muttered something. Before I could gloat over how invincible I was, he swiftly took two long strides and threw a punch right into my gut. It took me off my feet and I landed on my hands and knees. I was throwing up a yellowish clear liquid from last night’s soupy dinner.

He squatted down in front of me and said softly, “If you don’t, I’ll just beat you until you do.”

I looked up at him and saw a completely emotionless face, “How many?”

He smiled again, “Until I say stop.”

So I got up, gave myself a moment to collect myself, and started running. Better to run than get beaten. And I did really well, for the first half of the first lap that is. Once I hit that midway point it felt like my lungs just stopped functioning properly.

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I was gasping for air, grabbing my shirt and pumping it just trying to get some airflow. But he didn’t say to stop and so I kept going. There were a few times when I had felt like throwing up, but there wasn’t anything left to regurgitate. I went from running full speed to just fast-walking to stumbling with my hands swinging wildly.

I stumbled for a good while before I eventually collapsed. It was only then that One had said that was enough. How many laps did I do? I don’t know. It took everything just for me to place the next foot in front of the other.

Thankfully One waited for me to get up before gesturing for me to follow him.

We made our way back through the building and into the front yard, and I was surprised to see a pile of wood there as well as some meat. I gave the big man an inquisitive look. He cleared his throat and began.

“You’re going to cook your food for this next week, once in the morning and once at night. I’m not so cruel as to make you go and procure the ingredients ya’know. But YOU have to start the fire and cook the meat yourself. You got an hour, I’m going to go inside and eat some nice scrambled eggs.” He flung his hand up in a goodbye gesture and went inside.

I sat down to collect myself rather than cook because I was still feeling dizzy. I took stock of what I was given though. I had a large pile of wood, too large for it to be a one-time use, a metal grill gate, and it looked like he gave me a lighter.

I grabbed a few pieces of the wood and threw them in a smaller pile. I followed that up by taking the lighter and trying to light them. They wouldn’t light aflame. I tried lighting them in multiple positions and not a single one would light aflame. I even opened the lighter and there was still plenty of gel inside of the canister. But to be fair that was stupid of me, because the lighter was producing a small flame just fine, it was just the logs were refusing to light ablaze.

I tried rearranging the logs, I tried flipping them upside down, I tried putting them on their side, I tried everything. And I just couldn’t get them to catch fire. Eventually, I resorted to closely examining each individual piece.

After about ten minutes of looking underneath an imaginary magnifying glass, I found one with a deep indention on its side. Looking at it closely, I saw some loose pieces of wood that would be perfect for giving me a splinter. I was out of ideas, so I just held up the lighter to that crack and it worked. I saw the loose pieces of wood catch fire and it slowly spread and hungrily gobbled up the rest of the wood.

I threw it down into the pile and gave a shout of accomplishment. A servant didn’t make this fire in an oven. I made it. Now it was time to cook.

As I went to grab the grill gate I saw One coming outside again with a bottle of water.

“Time’s up kid, take a drink, and let's go out back.” He said all nonchalantly.

“But I haven’t even had time to eat yet, I’m just getting the fire started!” I objected.

“You won’t be given extra time to eat in the military. Now let's go while I’m being nice.” He shrugged and started for the door he came out of.

I followed him begrudgingly. That punch was all it took to beat me into submission. I longed for that slab of meat though, I was getting pretty hungry. But the water he gave me tasted like some sort of holy water.

We got through to the other side yet again and I saw he had made a pile of sandbags. Next to the pile, there was a backpack with an attached vest.

I looked at him because I had no idea what he wanted me to do. He raised an eyebrow at me and sighed before starting.

“You’re going to put on that backpack-vest combo for starters. Secondly, you’re going to get to the other side of the field and then come back. Then Lastly when you’re back you pick up a sandbag and do it again. And every time you get back here, you’ll pick up another sandbag and do it again with more weight than last time. I don’t care if you run, walk, or if you have to crawl to get over there and back, you’re going to do it. Kapeesh?”

I groaned, “Kapeesh”.

I did exactly that. I walked through the field in order to conserve what little strength I had left. The backpack had a little bit of weight to it but it was more awkward than heavy.

I got back and picked up a sandbag. It was significantly heavier than what I was expecting. But I was still able to get to the other side and back with no problems. I added a second sandbag on top of the first one I was carrying and then I was starting to feel the difficulty. But I still waddled forward.

It was halfway through me coming back with three sandbags did I finally have enough. I threw them down and was going to give One a piece of my mind. I walked right up to him looking down his nose at me. He sighed and that angered me even more.

I was within arms reach of him when I went to open my mouth to shout at him. But I couldn’t get any words out because I was stopped halfway through. How was I stopped? One slapped the soul out of me and sent me flying to the ground. When I was lying on the ground I turned around to look up at him and get my point across, but I was swiftly slapped by the giant that had squatted right next to me.

Every time I opened my mouth to talk, One would send a hard smack across my cheek. This continued for a few minutes before all I could manage was a defiant stare. He sighed again.

“I know exactly what you’re probably gonna say kid, but I don’t care. Your father ordered this and his commands are absolute. So just shut up and get back to working out. Got it?”

I just sighed and nodded my head. I got up and went back to work.

The workout got excruciatingly difficult. I would just do the same thing over and over again with more sandbags than the last, until I hit four that is. Once I got back with four I would put them all down and reset the amount of sandbags.

When I had just one sandbag my legs would feel sore which would promptly get amplified whenever I added more sandbags to it. By the time I would get to four again, my arms and legs would be vigorously shaking. Every time I would drop thr four sandbags, One would give me some water.

This process continued for hours until the sun started setting. When One told me to stop I had never felt so relieved. He told me to follow him and I did, albeit a little lightheaded while I walked. We went to the front yard again where more wood awaited me, just like this morning.

He left to go back inside without so much of an explanation, but I could put two and two together and went to work. It took approximately thirty minutes or so to get the fire going. I immediately set the grill gate on top and threw the slab of meat I was given on top.

I cooked it for about twenty minutes before it looked good and ready to go. I grabbed it and blew on it because it was ridiculously hot. I took a bite of it. For a split second, it tasted like heaven, but then it was quickly replaced by a revolting charred smokey taste. I swallowed my princely pride and ate as much as I could bear.

When One came out he told me it was bed time and he’ll wake me up in the morning. When I inquired about a shower he gave me an unexpected response.

“Shower?” He snorted, “There aren’t showers on the front line. Hahahahaha.” And he walked away.

I trudged my way to my bedroom feeling icky all over. I then threw myself onto the rock-hard mattress without so much as a change of clothes.

I buried my face into my pillow and wept.

This is ridiculous. I’m a prince, I shouldn’t be going into the military. Especially this sudden! Just yesterday I was having sophisticated talks with my dad’s advisors while eating top-of-the-line sweets. And here I am today doing menial workouts all day and having to cook for myself in order to eat disgusting slabs of meat.

I’m a prince for god’s sake! So, what if I’m not an academic genius like my second eldest brother? So, what if I’m not an accomplished general like my eldest brother? So, what if I’m not Blessed like my two brothers? I’m still a prince of this kingdom.

There are tons of other fields my father could’ve chosen for me, and yet he chose a soldier. Why?

I eventually fell asleep while dwelling on that thought.

The rest of the week kind of blurred together. I would go for a run in the mornings. Cook some meat right after. And haul sandbags back and forth for the entire day. Then cook some meat before bed.

My runs had improved, I could confidently run upwards of seven laps at a full sprint before needing to slow down.

Additionally, and most importantly, my cooking got better. On the third day, I believe it was, I figured out that it was the fact that I was putting the grill directly on top of the burning wood that was causing the disgusting taste. So, I would take two thicker logs and balance the grill on top of them about arm's length over the flames. Immediately my meals started tasting better.

The sandbag workout never got better. I always felt dizzy, sore, and lightheaded afterward.

One and I didn’t say a word to each other after the first day, that is until the final day when we hopped in the car to go to basic.

“You did way better than expected this week Digna, now Basic is going to feel like a breeze. Oh and before you get too excited don’t forget you’re going undercover, no one is supposed to know you’re a prince.”

“Why not?” I asked leaning back and getting ready to nap.

“Otherwise, your dad said he’ll cast you out of the palace.” He chuckled.

I jolted my body forward, “He really said that?”

One just laughed and nodded his head.

I sat back and cursed. There goes my comfortable military life plan. I dwelled on that for a few minutes before a thought struck me.

“Hey One, what’s your relationship with my dad?”

He raised an eyebrow at me, “He’s my king and I’m his loyal subject. If you’re asking what my job is, then you’ll find out soon enough.”

We didn’t talk after that. The ride took another couple of hours, but he drove into the city instead of to basic. When we finally came to a stop, we were at a bus stop, where there were a lot of young men loitering around.

When I looked at him obviously confused he cleared his throat, “Obviously I’m not taking you to basic, when the green bus comes get on that with all these other kids. That’s gonna take you to basic. Good luck kid, but you won’t really need it after this past week.”

And with that, I bid him farewell and marched through the crowd to sit at a bench. I sat down next to a hunched-over young guy with brown hair styled into a bowl cut.

I was hoping to sit here in silence, but he had other plans. “Hey what’s your name? I’m Karril.” He had a high-pitched voice.

“Name is Digna, and no it’s not like the prince.” I guess I should make some friends.

“Oh, that’s cool. Are you also joining the forces?” He looked at me and I swear I could almost see a sparkle in his eyes.

“Yeah, my dad is kind of forcing me to. What about you? Why are you joining the forces?” I leaned back now, getting pretty comfortable.

“Well, that’s obvious. I don’t know who wouldn’t after the King’s Plea.”

I raised an eyebrow at him, “The ‘King’s Plea’?”

“Where’ve you been this past week, under a rock?” Karril snorted.

“Actually yeah, been out in the boonies with the old man, we had no radio or anything.” I shrugged.

“Wow ok then. Basically, a week ago the King went live across every radio station in the kingdom, asking for us to join the fight. Cause the Western Empire Declared war on us. He said even his eldest and youngest sons are joining the military.”

I could only muster up a single word, “Oh.”

That’s why he wanted me to join the military.