We rode that fancy cart, heading to the palace, with me, this kid could take what was meant to be his from his nephew, who was the one that substituted him in the coronation and pretty much everything else, and since the royal family is so discreet about its members, it made no difference to the people, he who had the throne was of no importance to them, and the coronation was considered nothing but a festival.

His nephew was the son of a high-ranking member of the army and his oldest sister, he was raised in ‘mud and dust’, raised by his father to be a ‘strong, and intelligent leader’, he was ‘always busy with training’, he didn’t even get to ‘spend time with his own mother’. On the other hand, this kid was the complete opposite, one who never ever in his life endured or ever dreamed about problems or hardships.

As told to me by his uncle, July Caesar had a ‘calculating mind’ and ‘extraordinary resistance to stress’ when faced with problems, he was ‘fair’, ‘polite’, ‘intelligent’, and just ‘excellent’ overall.

‘We’ll see.’, I thought to myself.

We finally reached the palace, the guards welcomed us inside while they took Aspero and Maveros into the royal stable, since I was bestowed this golden opportunity to integrate into the government without resorting to my old plan, that being summarized in making a name for myself and then using it as means to climb the ranks, and needless to say that I just had won quite a sum of money, (about 1000 dollars, it would buy me around ten fancy houses in this country), I was in quite the good mood, we went inside the enormous building, everything in it seemed to have a long history and signified great importance and unimaginable wealth, and to think I’m blood-related to these royals...

We ventured inside the palace with the guidance of the servants till we met a giant golden gate, it was the gate to the most prestigious place in this whole land, The royal court.

It was massive, massive as in that eyesight couldn’t reach the other walls, beautifully decorated with the rarest gems there is, the floor carried the most clean and soft carpets my feet ever touched, but among all this trivia, it was the throne that caught my whole attention, it was ridiculously big, as if it was made for a giant, that, of course, is to signify the grandeur and power of the king. And there, sat July Caesar.

By the fact that he was sitting on the throne without any kind defensive reaction for the true heir, or at least murmurs, I realized how far this fiend has moved in the hierarchy.      

“Oh, the prince has arrived at last!”

‘The prince’, he called him, this man clearly dethroned this pushover from his position.

“H-Hello July! Si-”

“You must be July Caesar.” I spoke.

“Whose audacity is this!! To speak to me in such a-”

“I’m the counsellor of the king, chosen by the king himself, my name is Periergeia, Periergeia Anthrozel. I say it would be in your best interest to watch how you speak to me, prince.”

“A-Anthrozel! You-”

The aroma of shock, disbelief, and contempt I smelled from everyone around, and it was not a pleasant smell.

“Yes, does this pattern seem familiar?”

I showed them the birthmark on the centre of my upper back, a unique birthmark somewhat resembling a fire that I shared with my sister, it was of no importance to me until now. Since I saw the exact pattern on the same place on the kid’s back, I strongly hypothesised that it’s shared between the Anthrozels, and from their reaction, the hypothesis proves true.

“You- who are you?!!!”

“You remember Galileo Anthrozel? the inventor of the legendary Safina, the man who was sacrificed so cruelly just so his brother can rule. The very same one. I’m his descendent.”

My ride with the heir proved somewhat useful, I learned some more about Aversr.

“W-What!”

“...”

“Seems there is land other that this one, wonders!”

He started to laugh, but his laughter soon disappeared as he saw that the reaction of others was not that of scorn and disbelief, but that of genuine surprise, and heavy guilt. You see, all the royal servants however their kind, butlers, cooks, guards... They come from families; families as old as the original royal family with the only purpose of serving the royals.

And, speaking of the servant families, there are 5:

The Caesars, they specialize in combat and war, they make the royal army.

The Blutz, they are the cooks, the chefs, the ones responsible for the food in the palace.

The Ramainees, they’re the ones who manage the palace around and do the cleaning, butlers and such.

The Anjis, they are the ones who do the teaching.

And finally, The Naltes, they are the ones with the task to build and smith. And previously, the family who was responsible for it, was the Yenking family…

Not Latossa who was the source of this information, in fact, I deduced it from the pendant that Oxen Yenking had on him, it was similar to what the royal butlers had on them, an oval shaped pendant with the name of the family carved on it. For the butlers, it was Ramainee.

And it made sense! sensibly, because of their loyalty, they were exiled with the Akimaneods, and for the same reason, they adopted Perses…

Notably, every family has branches, and every branch is tasked differently, and ranked differently, for instance, in the Caesars, there is the general branch, the sub-general branch…

Back onto the subject, the descendants of the servant families held guilt for what their ancestors partook into, that is the deceive of Galileo Anthrozel. Not that they aren’t loyal to the king, no. it’s the fact that their ancestors were bought that gets to them the most.

Yes. My far great uncle Anthrozel stayed in rule because he worked his way through the servant families and swayed with goods and riches and golden promises, making them on his side.

The story passed from one generation to another in the palace, and the servants ‘carried’ the ‘sins’ of their ancestors, such as the sin of covering the murder of many innocent men, whom from them was my ancestor. I figured, that was my chance, to influence the servants.  

“...How in hell! HOW IN THE HELL!! HOW IN THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO BELIEVE YOUR-”?

“How in the hell am I supposed to exist? You think I faked this pattern? Take your time and verify it as much as you want? I think that just the fact that I know about such a thing should be enough, but suit yourself.”

He asked his maids to verify it, and when they confirmed its originality, he came and verified it with his own hands, and given his ‘expertise’, he knew it was not fake. He had no choice... even if he lied, he knew he’ll only make matters worse for himself... no one was of his side...

“...Servants, take these two guests and serve them well. You, Sir Periergeia, I want to talk to you more about this matter, I have much to say... And you!!”

“’Your majesty’. It’s what you ought to say. Yes, yes, I am not yet done with you, Caesar. How dare you put your dirty fanny on the throne?! How dare you replace him- the king - in his coronation?!”

“...”

I turned to the servants.

“AND YOU!! YOU PATHETIC TRASH!! HOW DARE YOU OBEY OTHER THAN YOU KING?? ARE YOU NOT SATISFIED ENOUGH?? YOU WANT TO SIN EVEN MORE?? GARBAGE LIKE YOU IS NEVER DESERVING THE HONOR OF SERVING THE ROYAL FAMILY!!”

Silence noised the place. I turned to the prince, who was now more confident.

“Your majesty, may you wear your crone?”

“Yes, sir Periergeia.”

The heir walked towards his nephew and snatched the crown from his head. While doing that, he looked something far from timid, he was shaking, his pent-up anger from years of humiliation was formidable, and all it needed was a catalyst, that was the role I fulfilled formidably.

“I AM KING YUME ANTHROZEL, TRUE HEIR OF THE THRONE, AND MONARCH OF THIS LAND. MY WORD IS THE SUPERIOR ORDER.

I ANNOUNCE YOU, SIR PERIERGEIA ANTHROZEL, MY OWN CONSELLOR.

AND AS FOR YOU JULY CEASAR, YOU’LL RECEIVE YOUR PUNISHMENT, YOU ARE NO LONGER ALLOWED TO SET FOOT IN THIS PALACE ANYMORE!!”

“But! BUT!”

“G-Guards!!”

The guards obeyed, and took Caesar away, this, was the best way I figured to dispose of him, executing him is like indulging in war with his parents and giving them an advantage, since they are both strong figures that are hard to face, and the execution will just ease their way through winning the minds of the people with pity and sympathy, but expelling him will put him in a weak position, he’s very probably just following the expectations and orders of his parents, and thus, disappointing them like that will only make him the victim of their anger, then they’ll probably plot to attack me later, but it won’t matter then.

He didn’t deal with the situation quite well, in the end, he’s just a 14-year-old kid, no matter how much his uncle buffs him, the ones I should care to bring down are the ones behind his back, the one that doing the plotting, his mother and father.

Latossa burst out the palace crying, all going accordingly to my plan. I demanded the excuse from the heir to ride my horse and bring the cab with me so I could learn ‘why’ did she commit such an act, and then got out the palace. Whom I wanted to track was not her, but July Caesar, and as quick as I can after this incident, she just gave me an opening, for that I would’ve had to stay for the banquet I advised the kid to throw.

I inquired the guards about him, they informed me of his current location, in the training field, not so far from the palace.

I ordered them to look for Latossa.

In the training field, I found him sparring, it seemed that he takes out his anger in fighting. I waited for him to finish, I wanted him tired.

Once finished. I went to his direction.

“Say now, you are quite the fighter!”

“...”

“I’ll cut to the chase, I’m not an empty conversationalist. I am going to offer you freedom.”

“What are you saying?”

“Freedom, isn’t it what you desire? You are a prisoner, you don’t have anything, you are always following orders, always living up to the expectations-”

“What in hell are on about?”

“Your poor thing, just when have you done something that was out of YOUR reason?”

“Just what are you on-”

“Your parents.”

“...”

“You are taking orders from them.”

“...so.”

‘Good.’ I thought to myself. ‘Very good.’.

“So? They really got into your head, didn’t they?! You should make your own decisions, have it your own way!”

“Heh, what do YOU know-”

“Let me ask you a question? Have you ever in your life thought about killing your parents?”

“YOU WATCH YOUR MOUTH-”

“I did... I hated my parents, I did not love them at all, I saw that I was to them a burden they desired to somehow venge against, they would make me serve them, throw their stupidly high expectations at me and punish me if I didn’t make it, involving in their problems, constantly comparing me and criticizing me, ‘be like him! Be this! Be that!’ as if I were grades below them. But let me tell you this, I’m not, I’m not below them, and if somebody had to be below, it’s them! They were responsible for my birth! They were the one to catalyse it! I, no matter how bad I behave, it’s their fault! ‘Not making it easy for them’ this, ‘A child should satisfy his parents’ that! It’s all nonsense! Parents are the one with the debt! So, either they pay it, or not start it at all! Yes, I wanted to murder my parents, and, I did… They had it coming to them! It’s just like that!”

This of course is not true; however, I would’ve liked it much more if it was…

“...You’re an intruder, what do you know about me?”

“I noticed that look in your eyes, it was similar to mine sometime ago, a look of utter frustration, the same frustration I suffered. I wanted to talk to you about it!! Now I see you don’t want my company!! How sad!!!”

“...Don’t make fun of me! You just-”

“Open your eyes you damn brat! What’s it to you if you ‘ruled’ from the shadows or in public? What’s it to you if you got to order this and that? What’s it to you if you came by and everyone bowed while you walked? What’s all of it to you? You only do it for recognition; you only want praise and love from your parents dearest. That’s all you are, a brat!”

“...YOU-”

“Am I wrong?”

“You come to my world, and like a disease you ruin it all!! and now you’re lecturing me?! You’ve got some nerve!!”

“...Pitiful.”

I walked away, two steps and he’s already screaming my name...

Well, my plan was to …