now playing: No Love For A Sinner by Shaya Zamora

LOWE

March 18, Year 1000.

Exos Empire’s Palace, Main Kitchen of the Imperial Palace.

Being a servant has pros and cons.

For example, we can come and go from almost any part of the Palace, use the facilities - including the vast Imperial Library - and even have amazing benefits with the best salary in the area. For a servant, being able to work for the Imperial Family is a dream come true, even low ranking nobles dream of said positions, becoming a maid, a gardener, a cook, anything at the Palace is almost as honorable as becoming a Magician or a Knight.

However, it also means you're always surrounded by things one must turn their eyes and ears away from, or that you're always with a rope hanging above your head for the moment you slip up.

Lèse-majesté.

An offense punishable by death, even if the current Imperial Family is the most lenient one, they still had their fair share of deaths due to such offense. Not as many as the sixth Emperor that punished six hundred people during his rule, but also not as little as the tenth Emperor that had none.

That's why one would imagine that disrespecting any of the members of the Imperial Family wouldn't be in the mind of those who work inside the Palace, especially after they saw so many executions happening in the past.

That would be true, of course, if it wasn't regarding the Second Prince, the one apparently no one cares about. The one neglected by his own family. So of course anything he does becomes gossip for the drama-seeking servants, who have nothing else to talk about since their lives revolve around the Palace.

So when I arrived at the kitchen to get some food, all I could hear was about the Second Prince's breakfast with his family.

“...He's so arrogant, telling us to leave because he wants to do another Mana test”, one of the kitchen cooks says.

I grab a plate, trying to ignore her words, but hearing them anyway.

“Exactly, I tell ya, he keeps doing this for attention”, another one comments. “If I were his parents…”

“Well, you're not”, I say, starting to get annoyed, settling for a few cut fruits that were leftovers from the breakfast they served, usually bad looking fruits or the ones that weren't ripe enough are left for the servants so that it doesn't go to waste.

“Raphael”, they say, making me frown, they hurriedly correct themselves: “L-Lowe, sorry, I mean, ya work with him directly, how do ya take all of his talk about Mana and whatnot”.

“He's brainwashed to like his highness”, a servant mocks. I recognize him as one of the assistant gardeners, “There's no use trying to get him to speak ill of the Prince”.

I scoff. “Well, considering I value my life and my job, of course I won't”.

“As if anything would happen, we're talking about the Useless Prince here”, the man comments again, his eyes fixed on me. “Or did his tantrums make you unable to perceive normalcy?”

The only tantrums the Prince throws are when he wants alcohol, when he is ignored or the moments people enter his room and try to touch him without permission. To the point where he rarely accepts help to dress himself up or doesn't leave his own room out of fear.

But of course, they don't see the reason, only the consequences.

“I'm just allergic to execution”, I say with a sigh, there's no use arguing, why do I even try? They continue discussing how annoying the Prince is when he exercises his birth rights.

Sure, I am not at all in favor of monarchy, and I do consider it annoying to accept someone who has that much power over his bloodline. However I also do accept that this is the world I was born in, and if I don't learn to adapt, I'll be eaten alive by it. Of all the nobles I ever met, which were unfortunately too many, the Prince was the only one that didn't make my blood immediately boil, no, he was just too human. Kind, scared and sweet, that was fourteen year old Nikias, and although he became more erratic and paranoid as the years went by, he's still a boy too scared of growing up and being swallowed by his blood.

No one would understand, because the more the Crown Prince shines as the star of the Imperial Family, the more they find faults within the star that shines in secret.

But barely they know that his highness is way shinier than his brother… The Golden Ruler… May the Sun god bless his future.

My thoughts are interrupted as the kitchen’s door slams open, the servants that were doing the breakfast service entering with annoyed expressions.

“That spoiled brat made a mess”, one of them says, sitting on the servants' table with a slam, his clothes crooked and his hands brushing his hair back, as if he just did intense labor. “He's such an annoyance.”

“Yeah”, another one comments, she leans against one of the walls. “He started making weird noises and passed out in the Crown Prince’s arms… I mean, he's doing everything at this point to get attention”, the woman snorts. “Brat”.

“Wait, did you just say he collapsed?” I get up, she looks at me with annoyance.

“I mean, yeah, but it's probably fake”, she giggles. “He's always been an attention whore”.

Shaking my head trying to pretend she didn't just say that, I turn to grab a few things from the kitchen, without saying a word as I hear them complaining about cleaning up after the Prince again.

As if they're talking about a toddler that throws a tantrum to not eat vegetables, not someone that barely just recovered from being poisoned and just collapsed again, clearly unstable.

The mark on my wrist starts to tickle, as if it is warning me that my Master is ill. I move around so fast that I barely notice the time passing until I am in front of the Second Prince's room with a tray, water, towels and a few medicine I made on a whim yesterday.

You see, when I am upset or have too much in my mind, I tend to do experiments, with my Mana, with poisons or with new things I've read about. Sometimes I develop antidotes for poisons I've consumed, testing the boundaries of my Mana, after all if I can reproduce poisons I've consumed, wouldn't the same work with the antidotes?

I'm still experimenting, of course, but I was able to develop a few medicine tablets for more weak poisons that work also for fevers, nausea and headaches. That's what I mostly use when the Prince is sick, since the physician never treats him.

After taking a deep breath I enter the room without knocking, since the Prince is probably asleep again. And there he is angelically asleep on his bed, what I didn't expect was the presence next to him, Crown Prince Alkaios himself.

His sickly appearance makes me feel both guilty and annoyed, and his worried pink eyes drive me resentful. Why are they caring so much now? When was the last time he stepped inside the Prince's room? For the four years I've been working for him, I've never once seen them interact away from official settings, and when Prince Nikias spoke about his brother, his voice was always filled with admiration and fear.

Their relationship was what made me understand that blood ties aren't as important to others as it was to me, that sometimes, people don't care about their brothers as much as I care about Raphael.

And that makes me feel absolutely disgusted and furious.

That doesn't mean, however, that I shouldn't act with the proper respect, even if I do wish sometimes to knock some sense inside their heads, especially after watching so many disappointed and sad expressions on the Second Prince's face.

As quickly as I can, I lower my head, unable to do a full greeting due to the tray, saying: “I greet your highness, the first star of the Empire”, I do not wait, however, for the Crown Prince to allow me to rest, I need to check the condition of the Second Prince urgently.

I can feel the burning anger of his gaze, but I do not stop, checking the Prince's pulse, cleaning his sweat with a slightly damp towel and proceeding to administer a bit of the fever medicine I brought.

Hopefully the poison is fully out of his system and this is just an aftermath reaction, otherwise… Before I'm able to finish setting the medicine in the syringe, the Crown Prince speaks, startling me:

“Does this happen frequently?” 

I hesitate for a moment before nodding and continuing the treatment, placing the wet towel on Prince Nikias' head, and administering the medicine into his bloodstream.

 “Doesn't the physician ever treat him?” Of course the Crown Prince would utter such idiotic words when he never even bothered to spend time with his brother. He should know, but he was too busy not caring. 

“The first time the physician visited his quarters was yesterday”, I answer, I am talking to the Crown Prince after all.

He then proceeds asking me questions about Prince Nikias’ treatment when he was poisoned, I answer automatically, my head elsewhere as I check the Second Prince's vitals.

However, I regret answering without thinking almost immediately as such words leave my lips before I can even process them: “...forbid us from treating Nikias”.

Cursing isn't really a thing I do often, but I couldn't help but curse in my head as I can feel the fervent anger of the Crown Prince's gaze on me.

“How dare you call the second Prince of the Empire by his name?”

Although Prince Nikias’ gaze from the day before was fiercer, and his Mana presence stronger, being in an environment where the Crown Prince's Mana is circulating is still incredibly suffocating. I may be proficient in Mana, and my Mana control might be the best in the Empire, but that doesn't make me immune to those with higher quality Mana than me.

As a pink smoke fills the room, my throat becomes tighter, my whole body overtaken by cold chills and I can feel the air leaving my lungs as I suffocate under the Crown Prince's Mana.

I won't die, I survived worse things, and my mind currently can only think about how am I going to escape the harsh punishment of referring to the Prince by name. It was a rookie stupid mistake, usually I wouldn't make such a thing, but the lack of sleep, the worries and speaking whilst treating the Prince… it all made my brain not work as it should.

As I am painfully aware of, being able to adapt and survive doesn't mean I am the smartest in the room.

Luckily for me, before I faint from the lack of oxygen, Prince Nikias wakes up, stopping the Crown Prince. I cannot even hear what he's saying as I fall onto the floor, coughing and grasping for the air that escaped my lungs moments before.

The two Princes exchange words as I attempt to get back on my feet, trying to not bother them further, my lungs burning and my eyes tearing up by the sudden act of violence I suffered. They seem to be discussing my act of insolence but I can't properly understand the words they're speaking, however I can discern that Prince Nikias actually defended me, instead of agreeing with the Crown Prince's actions, which deeply touches me.

Being a servant, being from the slums, I'm not exactly used to others defending me, I glance at the Prince's mark on my wrist, proof that I'm more than just a servant now, a bond that cannot be broken. Perhaps that's why Prince Nikias chose to side with me instead of his brother.

Someone that never bothered caring for him.

I finally manage to get up and the room is silent, Prince Nikias falls asleep again, so I change the towel on his forehead and check if he's properly tucked in, the medicine is probably kicking in, that's why he fell asleep again. It doesn't look like an effect from the poison, is he having panic attacks again? I wonder as I make sure everything is proper for him to rest by himself.

I should leave some water for him, I think, turning to leave, but before I open the door I hesitate, turning towards the Crown Prince. “His highness used to wait for you on his birthday, but you never showed up”, my voice is hoarse and my tone is colder than what I intended, yet there's no trembling in my voice. “So you shouldn't give him any more false hopes”.

There are things a brother like him wouldn't understand, familial love isn't the same for everyone, but isn't the bare minimum to at least wish happy birthday to his brother outside of formal gatherings? In the four years I served the Prince I never once saw the Crown Prince visiting him, or even talking with him in passing except in the rare moments they had meals together or met at official settings, those organized by the Empress, not him.

Not even a disaster would prevent me from wishing my brother a happy birthday, although we don't even know the date of our birth, I still make sure to always celebrate with him, and cherish his existence in my life.

Because even with everything we went through, he is my brother, my family, and I love him with all my heart.

The Crown Prince's eyes might be ones of love towards Nikias, but his actions aren't, and gazes that don't reach the subject mean nothing.

“I always attend his balls”, wow, he's worse than I thought.

But I'm not about to dump at him the years I watched the Second Prince drowning his worries in alcohol, or crying himself to sleep as he felt abandoned and unloved. Because my job isn't to fix their relationship or to soothe the Crown Prince's heart.

I ain't sure if he even deserves a chance to fix his relationship with his brother.

“Then, I'll take my leave”, I can't avoid but snort, trying not to full-out laugh, leaving the room before the Crown Prince can hurt me again for my insolence.

Lèse-majesté.

I judged the other servants for talking behind Prince Nikias back, for doing something that could get them killed if they got caught. But didn't I just do the exact same thing? Shame washes over me, I pride myself in being different from them whilst being the exact same.

The only thing I can be proud of is doing so in front of the subject themselves instead of talking behind their backs.