Royce wakes up in his bed once again

“Rise and shine…”

He pushes himself upright and starts getting ready for the day ahead

“I’m finally getting a schedule going”

Royce gets to the training area and starts with his training

Learning makes the time fly by

Months go by with each spell

Years with each swing of sword

Day in and day out Royce trains without any complain

Royce gets closer and closer to Tori with each passing day

Her kind nature making each harsh training session to look forward to

Her calming voice vanishing all the exhaustion Royce felt

Building fires in winter and Picking flowers in spring

Stargazing from the castle walls in summer and Running through leaves in fall

15 years fly by in an instant

But happiness doesn’t last forever

4 days before Royce’s 16th birthday the nation’s most beloved King Delris Eldermor died

The family broke the news to the public

The masses attended the funeral with a heavy heart and tear stained eyes

The Church bell rang as Beth took a step forward and raises his hand

The crowd turns silent as he starts speaking

“To the esteemed citizens of Gresha”

“Today we gather here to bid farewell to our beloved king”

“To the guiding light who lit up the way for the Nation of Eldermor”

“To the Courageous and Strong leader”

“To the one who gave us all hope”

“And to the one I called Father”

With quavering voice Beth continues

“Though he may not be among the land of living anymore”

“His spirit shall live on within us the people he cared for the most”

With the crowd in shambles and tears rolling down Beth’s cheek

“As I step into the role he has left behind”

“I hope to make him proud and do the duties of a king with utmost sincerity”

“Thank you”

Beth takes a step back as the tears come flooding down

He steps off the stage as Royce stands there with the whole family witnessing all that was happening

“I… was just expecting him to be a little teary… of course it was his father… and he was way closer to him than I was”

Royce sighs as Olivia puts her hand over his shoulder

 “Don’t worry hun, It’s all going to be okay”

Royce smiles and nods

“Thanks mum, But I just have a naturally sad face”

“Guess there are some things not even the gods can’t fix”

“I still look good though”

The ceremony conclude and Royce walks back inside the castle to his room

“Man… have I changed coming to this world… I don’t know… Things are so much different from Earth…”

He opens the door to his room and lays down on his bed

“It feels weird just laying on bed in afternoon”

“Past few years all I’ve done is train endlessly, not like I’m complaining”

“It’s better than sitting in my room all day”

“Fucking old fucks making stupid ass traditions ”

“The prince or princess mustn’t leave the castle till they are adults”

“Or else what you fucks will see a child and couldn’t control yourself”

“Fucking old fucks”

“Good thing people here are considered adults at the age of 16”

“BUT EVEN THAT DOESN’T HELP CUZ ONE YEAR IS LIKE 15 MONTHS HERE AAAAAAAHHH!!!”

Royce sighs and rolls over and looks at his wrist

“Man… I’ve also made almost no progress on the job”

Royce opens his status screen

Name: Royce Eldermor

Age: 15 years

Sex: Male

Race: Human

 

Level: 64

—-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

STATS

< >

Health Points - 221/221

Mana Points - 3080/3080

Strength - 99

Stamina - 201

Intelligence - 255

Agility - 135

 

“They are growing pretty fast… Just not as fast as I want them to be”

“And my strength is still in double digits”

“I need some way to quickly raise my stats, I tried using CB on my experience gained but that just make me puke uncontrollably”

“I'm getting close to the age I was when I passed away in my previous life”

“Whatever… let’s just… rest I guess…”

As Royce was about to fall asleep he hears a loud knock on his door

“Yess.. Come in”

The door opens and Rose enters the room

“Oh hey Rose… Did something happen? You look concerned”

Rose replies

“Father is calling you to the council chambers”

“Get over your lazy ass there I need to get others too”

Royce replies

“Jeez-... No need to be mean about it… I’ll be there in a sec”

Rose sighs

“Yea whatever be quick”

Rose rushes off and Royce makes his way to the council chambers 

“Man… she was such a lovely little lady when she was young… now all she does is call me lazy ass”

“Ah… kids grow fast these days”

He reaches the council chambers and opens the door to see Beth standing near the window and Olivia sitting on the sofa

“Father? Did you call for me?”

Beth turns around and replies

“Yes I have something important to discuss.”

“Take a seat, I’ll start once everyone’s here”

Right after Beth finishes the sentence the door opens and both Rose and Tori enters the room

“Oh, nice timing”

Everyone sits down on the chair and Beth starts

“What I’m about to tell you all is a national secret at this moment”

“And something that should not go out of this room”

“For some time now we have been reviving reports from the Marquees of Parth saying the neighbouring nation of Silvanorium is sending in spies to our nation”

“But that is not something that concerned me since we had spies of our own working in there”

“Till today when I received another letter from him”

“The letter said the Silvanorium is deploying a small number of troops on its border”

Royce raises his hand to talk

“Father… I understand what you are saying but… why are you telling us this…?”

Beth sighs

“Son… The reason I am telling you this is because there might be war close by”

Royce replies in his head

“No shit sherlock”

Beth continues

“And including the things I am required to do in the capital, I also need to visit Parth to see things for myself”

“And I need you all to take care of things here in capital”

“But I’m not so sure about leaving the capital without any supervision”

Royce interrupts

“Or… maybe you can stay and take care of things here while one of us can go to Parth”

Beth sighs

“Because Olivia and Rose are needed here and Tori is your instructor”

Royce replies

“I can go too you know”

Beth replies

“You have your training here”

Royce half heartedly replies

“I can go with Tori you know… and the training doesn't mean anything unless I get some real world experience… like sure sparring sometimes helps but we know both Tori and Rose go easy on me even when I tell them not to…”

Beth sighs and sits down

“You are still underage to leave the castle”

Royce continues

“Yea… Only 3 days underage… If you even remember”

Olivia stands up

“ROYCE!? IS THAT HOW YOU SPEAK TO YOUR FATHER THE KING?!”

Royce quietly replies

“I am sorry mother…”

Olivia gets next to Royce and replies

“Apologize to your father young man”

Royce sighs

“I am sorry father.”

Beth looks at Royce and continues

“Even if you are over 16 how will you get real world experience?”

“No way in Mor’s domain I’ll allow you to be in a real all out war”

“Even if we pay someone there will be no person on the entire kingdom who’d go all out on the Prince of Eldermor”

Royce replies

“I can fight monsters or mana beasts”

Beth replies 

“No, There are already people for that job”

Royce looks outside the window and replies

“Adventurers? I know… I can join a guild an-”

Royce is abruptly interrupted by his mother

“NO YOU WILL NOT!”

Beth continues

“Does that answer your queries?”

Royce replies

“You know what? No. It doesn’t, Why can’t I go be an adventurer? I can’t even leave this damn castle, I was told that I can’t leave the castle because I was too young then you were like not till you’re of age it’s the ‘Tradition’. You were an adventurer right? Why can’t I be one?”

Olivia speaks

“Watch your tone Royce.”

Royce replies

“Whatever… I’m going to leave it’s not like what I say will change your minds”

“In your head you think I’m still some frail child who can’t even stand up for himself”

“But how would I know you never let me out of this cas-”

A sharp smack echos as Olivia stands there in front of Royce while his cheek slowly turns red.

After a while Beth speaks up

“Let’s… leave the discussion at that”

Royce stands up and leaves followed by Tori

“Ugh… I’m so done with this shit fucking no one even listens or cares about anything I say”

As Royce rushes off to his room Tori comes and grabs him hand to stop him

“Royce, Listen”

“Don’t worry, I’ll talk to them about it okay?”

Royce stops and waits for her to let go of his hand before continuing to walk to his room

“Fuck this… I just wanted to help… Ugh… I hate it here… at least in my last life I… Ugh…”

Royce reaches his room and falls onto his bed putting his face in the pillow

“She doesn’t even listen… like… Ugh… and then she asks me why I never talk to her about anything… Like you’d ever listen…”

Royce rolls around in his bed trying to stop thinking about what happened today

Some time passes and He hears a knock on his door

“It’s probably Tori”

“Come in”

Royce still with his face in the pillow hears footsteps approaching the side of his bed

“What are you doing?”

Royce takes his face out of the pillow and looks up to see Rose standing there

“Is there something I could help my dear big sister with?”

Rose sighs

“Were you crying?”

Royce replies

“Can I not?”

Rose ignores him and continues

“Father wants to talk to you”

Royce lazily gets up and walks to the room with her

“What’s it now?”

Rose looks at Royce and replies

“Don’t know something about adventuring, I wasn’t listening”

Royce sighs and continues to follow her after reaching there Rose opens the door for him to go inside

Royce looks inside to see Beth and Tori standing there and gets inside

“Here goes nothing…”

The door closes behind him and Beth starts speaking

“Royce, I understand what you might be going through… I’ve been in your place too… But there were reasons why I wanted you to not choose the same path as I did…”

“But when Tori came in after you left, Your mother and I had a talk with Tori”

“And… as much as I hate to say this… You can go to Parth”

Royce eyes light up

“Really?!”

Beth smiles and replies

“There are a few conditions”

Royce looks around to look for Olivia

“Uhh… did mother leave?”

Beth sighs

“Yeah, but don’t worry about it. Let’s go over these conditions quickly”

“You must take care of yourself first and foremost”

“Second, You will not take any, and I mean Any jobs you are not two hundred percent sure you can do it”

“Third, You will write to us regularly about everything.”

“Fourth, Do not reveal your identity… If you do it’ll cause a lot of trouble”

“And the last… you’ll need someone to protect you when you get in trouble”

“So Tori will be going with you of course”

“And do as she says… she might look young but she’s pretty good at what she does”

“Now go and thank her… without her you’d still be sitting in your room”

Tori replies

“No need to thank me, You should go and rest now”

Royce bows down and thank Tori before leaving

As Royce close the door and turns around to head back to his room Rose stops him

“So… You’re leaving?”

Royce looks at her and replies

“Yea I’ll probably be leaving tomorrow or day after”

Rose replies in a sad tone

“Oh… okay…”

Royce looks at her for a while before walking away

“Rose sounded really sad there… Did I fuck something up?”

Royce reaches his room and gets back into bed

“So much shit happened today… I’m really tired… ugh”

“I just wanna go to sleep but…”

Royce hears a knock on his door

“Come in”

Tori enters the room and walks to the side of the bed

“Well… Are you feeling a bit better?”

Royce rolls over to her side 

“Much better… thank you again…”

Tori chuckles 

“It’s okay No need to thank me”

“Anyway I just came here to say that we’ll be leaving on your birthday”

“So you have tomorrow and day after to get everything you need”

“And remember adventuring isn’t easy so use your inventory to the fullest”

Tori leaves after saying that and Royce starts putting things into his inventory

“I got most things that I need and have right now… i’ll just make a list and ask the butler to get the items”

Royce starts preparing and days fly by, Royce fills up his inventory with things that he think he’ll need

The day arrives and Royce is greeted with a big happy birthday sign outside his door

“Today’s finally the day… ”

“Let’s do this one last time…”

The day goes by in a blink of an eye

After everything is done the butler arrives with a message

“Sir the conveyance is here, Please make your way outside”

Royce and Tori both get outside and get into the cart

Beth and Rose stand there and a butler hands over a bag to Royce and Beth speaks

“Here’s my gift… it’s not much but it should be enough to comfortably live for sometime… also the Guild in Parth has been informed about your visit and will take care of the documents… and there is also a royal insignia in there… to prove that you are the Prince of Eldermor in case you need it…”

After Beth, Rose hands over a little badge to Royce

“Here’s my gift… It’s a good luck charm Grandpa gave me when I was little”

“Stay safe… And don’t forget to write okay…?”

Royce smiles and replies

“Don’t worry I’ll come and visit between trips too”

Rose smiles and waves as the chauffeur closes the door

Royce looks outside the window thinking what new challenges this new chapter of his will bring, as the carriage leaves the kingdom’s gates and to the city of Parth