The tapping of hard-soled shoes and the ruffling of clothes consumed the silence of a once vacant hallway, the occupants of one of the many rooms it hosted having spilled into its cavernous expanse. Some of those people wore smiles, others were actively grinding their teeth to the root.
"We had them dad! We were almost there!" A hushed voice spoke angrily to the tallest and most extravagantly dressed of the man walking towards the exit of the castle. "Two more months - two more battles - and we could have secured enough of a threatening position to get it! We could have had a Verdant Globe in our possession!"
"Not now, Levro." Levro and his father belonged to the party of men who came out grinding their teeth.
"What do you mean? 'Not now'?" The young man bordered on mocking his father, for his uncharacteristically timid behavior today. "Ten thousand of our elite troops and a few dozen of our most promising knights are dead, months worth of quality provisions wasted, seventeen galleys destroyed, and we didn't even secure our primary objective! How is this victory anything but Pyrrhic?"
"There he goes using those Terran phrases again. . ." One of the ministers to Levro's rear made the poor decision to speak his mind. If Levro was any less of a rational man, he would have made a fuss. Fortunately for that minister, Levro knew him to be far more competent than the average, an asset he couldn't afford to sour his relationship with. A furious glare was all that was needed to demonstrate that now was not the time for such gripes. "Sorry, my lord."
"Levro, I promise you we have made a much better deal than you think."
"Then why doesn't it feel like it, dad? I know I'm not the most compassionate of men when it comes to war, people are going to die, but I cannot accept this sort of waste!"
"Our army is two hundred thousand strong! We can handle a few casualties."
"Was two hundred thousand strong, dad. Now it's only a hundred and ninety thousand strong, and I guarantee you at least another twenty thousand are going to retire now that the campaign is over because of injuries or age or a desire to live the rest of their lives in peace. That means severance pay, dad, and our coffers have gotten worryingly light after these past few wars of yours." Levro got much closer to his father, whispering far quieter but with far more aggression. "I was at the Sanctum for five years, how did you spend ten years of income in that short a time?"
"I spent it training the greatest army our dynasty has ever seen," his father bent in, also much quieter now, "and it was fifteen years of tax revenue, not ten. We spend a lot of that tax on upkeep."
"Oh, perfect. Tell me dad, how quickly do you expect to make that revenue back?"
"Less than fifteen years." Levro's father wore a face of content now that they were outside the castle. There would still be a short walk to the boat, but after those negotiations it would feel like quite a hike.
"So by the time you are ready to abdicate?"
"Don't say that! I'm only in my forties! I've got plenty of life ahead of me."
"Your late forties, dad, and I'm twenty three. Almost twenty four. I'd like to have a shot at being king too, y'know."
"BAHAHAHAHA!" More than just Levro's father displayed amusement at the sentiment, though he certainly laughed the loudest. "You'll need to have a wife and kid before I even think about handing this hunk of junk off to you!"
Levro scowled at the circlet of steel and silver being dangled in front of him like bait. If he had to be honest, Levro didn't want the burden. He understood that 'Heavy is the Head that Wears the Crown' was not a piece of advice to be taken lightly. People lived and died by that authority, tossed into battles and dungeons alike at the whims of their ruler. Levro simply believed that his father was not wielding that authority as it should be. He would have reinvested that money spent on an army into local industries first, feeling some of the benefits before committing to a high investment low return asset like an offensive army.
"Remind me, who was it that set me up with a whore? I'd have one on the way by now if not for that bitch."
"Hehe-eh~, those things happen from time to time."
"That 'time to time' was the five years of my life I had the best shot at finding a better one, dad." Levro tried to get the face of the skank he once believed to be his fiancé out of his mind. "If I hadn't been taken in and tutored by an exceptional group of individuals during my time there, I would have written my life off as a waste."
The minister who had spoken ill of the Terrans previously rolled his eyes.
"I'm . . . looking for a better one, okay?"
"Oho? Really now? Do you mind telling all of us the progress on that? Last I heard, all of our neighbors think you're a warmonger and won't even consider a marriage with me. Is that why the last seven interviews have been with some particularly rotund women? I heard they were the daughters of prominent merchants."
"Their . . . their pictures made them look better."
"You know, if you didn't bang mom as often as you do, I would accuse you of having a fetish for the obese and retarded." Stifled laughter, even from the most loyal of the King's retainers. "I can only imagine you were after their money to fund another campaign."
Levro's father bit the inside of his lip, refusing to look at his son. That was all the confirmation he needed.
"Oh you motherfucker! You were, weren't you?"
"It wasn't to finance a campaign! I promise!"
"So what was it then?" Levro moved in front of his father, walking backwards just so he could look him in the eye. "Dad, what could you possibly be trying to do with that money?"
". . . school for your siblings."
"GRAAAHH!" Levro barely prevented himself from pulling his hair out. "DAD! If you want to send Elc and Tima to the Sanctum, you should be using taxes, taxes!!! You don't sell of your heir to the highest bidder!"
"Well, you didn't want to marry Auder, so I had to find someone."
"Dad, Auder is my cousin."
"Second cousin."
"Does it matter? She's related to me! That's incest."
"The Terrans do it all the time and it doesn't bother them."
"That- Dad, please. You and I both know that's because they don't have a choice. They have two, count 'em, two, common ancestors, and rumor is that the Great Csillacra and Arboreal Maiden did something so that they wouldn't have problems for that very reason."
"So fucking picky . . ." Another of the ministers spoke under his breath.
"I don't want to hear that from you, cousin-fucker! Didn't one of your kids come out cross-eyed?" Some of his compatriots raised an eyebrow towards their fellow bureaucrat. The ones who didn't already knew.
"If you're that concerned about looks, why don't you just call one of the maids to your bedchambers? I know at least a few of them have their eyes on you."
"As much as I love those Cinderella stories, I am afraid that the Hifterg family prestige would take a hit if it was ever discovered that the heir to the throne married the palace dishwasher not out of true love, but because his moron of a father couldn't find him a girl even a quarter as good as his mother."
"Ah, so he likes the dish lady . . . could someone please write that down? I may have to gift her father a minor title."
"It was an example meant to, uegh, whatever. I can't be bothered with this shit right now." Levro jumped aboard the ship, ignoring the gangplank completely. "Let's just go home."
- - - - -
Levro perched himself on the crow's nest of the galley as they made preparations to take off. Here he was out of the way and had a decent view of the world around him. It was unfortunate that the swaying motion of the boat was the greatest here, but he could handle it if he sat down. All things considered, here was the most optimal place to let his frustrations die down.
"We are prepared to begin the voyage home, Lord Bahn." The voice of the ship's captain could be heard even through the wind. "Give the order whenever you are ready."
"Ah, no need for my input, Captain. Just take us home."
"As you wish, My Lord." Levro plugged his ears, familiar with the heavy-set man who commanded the nation's flagship. "ALL HANDS, TO THE STARS!!!"
Moving his hands from the sides of his face to one of the handles of the nest, Levro prepared for the sickening sensation that was about to befall him.
"HEAVE, HO!!!" His stomach lurched as his body was pushed towards the stern of the ship, the bow climbing out of the water.
"HEAVE, HO!!!" He tightened his grip as various wooden panels along the sides of the ship opened, a small sail and mast emerging from each.
"HEAVE, HO!!!" Finally, as the ship finally left the surface of the waves, the a deafening CLUNK could be heard. The keel masts, dropped out of openings in the bottom of the ship, had been deployed.
"All masts and sails deployed, sir!"
"Very good men! Set sail for port Elzie, men, we are going home!"
- - - - -
"Sir? Sir?" Levro awoke to a sailor prodding him from below.
"Hm?"
"Um, sorry sir, but could I please ask you to leave? This is my post for the time being, and there isn't exactly space for two."
"Hm." Levro looked around, his eyes met with a sea of red dots on a canvas of black. "Ah, we're voidborne now? I apologize for getting in your way."
Levro stood up, stretched, and took a moment to scout out a safe landing spot on the deck below before vaulting over the edge. It was a maneuver he had seen one of his friends pull off many times back at the academy, and he always thought it looked impressive despite the ease with which it could be performed.
"Have a nice night, or is it day?"
"We usually just call them shifts, sir. It can be hard to tell what time it'll be where we land regardless."
"So it is, so it is." Levro saluted the man on the rope ladder before making his way towards the stairs. He was going to grab a bite to eat before heading to bed.
Or at least he would have if there wasn't a massive celebration taking place in the dining hall.
At a glance it seemed like each and every man not stationed to a duty somewhere was in that tiny hall, drinking and feasting away. Naturally, Levro's father was included in this number, drinking and toasting with the common sailors as if they were life-long friends. It wasn't a surprising find, neither he nor his father much cared about social strata when it came to the soldiery. That aspect of his fathers was one of the few he had absolutely no problem with, seeing it as a virtue rather than a flaw.
"We did it boys! We got them good!"
What was more surprising for the prince was the fact that the ministers, officers, and generals who had been scowling alongside him but a few hours earlier were just as cheerful as the rest of them.
"How long do you think it'll take them to figure out we fucked them over?"
"I bet they won't see their issue until our next invasion."
"And then it'll be too late!"
""BAHAHAHAHAAAAA!""
Levro found himself genuinely confused as to how this was anything but a loss on their part. They had lost a lot of men, and had gained relatively little for the effort, hadn't they? That was the reason everyone was so pissed off before, right?
"What's going on?"
"Celebratin' a victory Lev! I got us everything I wanted and then some!"
"But we didn't get the-"
"The Verdant Globe was a ruse." Bahn gestured to a miraculously open seat right next to him. "Come on, sit down! We have a lot to talk about."
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