@sinkorol || Continued from X.
well, he’s not wrong– and the prince doesn’t even try to fend the words off; instead he peers at his most prickly of retainers with a clear lucidity in his remaining eye that had long been missing. even if he tried, there was nothing to defend himself with. he was the source of felix’s suffering, and there was nothing he could do to erase that fact.
“it is my most sincere wish that the title is only temporary,” and he has to give a barking laugh at the thought of it. that had a grim tone that was neither entirely true nor untrue; if the titled ended because of the death he had earned at the hands of those he had wounded, then so be it. but, for the first time in a decade, he hoped. he hoped that it would end, not with his death, but with the dissolution of the throne and the people of faerghus banding together to rule themselves as equals.
“speaking of,” he said as he reached and pulled a page from the stack he was slowly working through, despite the military campaign in front of him. five years of neglect did not disappear overnight. “you have another inheritance, one that i prayed you would never have to bear. i truly never intended for it to fall onto your shoulders.” with that, he offered out the page to the only other man he trusted to get the job done. “that…is the will that i wrote when i was still young, when i still had some semblance of ideals. it is still the most current document, so…”
he propped his chin on his fist. “in the event of my death, you are the next king. there are a few requirements for it, but i trust that between you, sylvain, and ingrid, you will be able to handle it. maybe you will do a better job with it than i ever could.”
His fingers curled into tight fists that turned his calloused knuckles a ghastly shade of white while his dull nails dug rivets into the thick flesh of his palms. Every muscle in his body was screaming at him to march forward and strangle the boar himself; to wrap his hands about his throat and ensure he could never speak such vile words again, and it took every fiber of control he still possessed not to make true his maddening statement with his own, bare hands. Temporary? Did he think he could just up and die and leave the kingdom and all of his subjects to fend for themselves and pray the empire didn’t topple them over thanks to this insane war he’s started? Did he think he had the right to just turn tail and run away from the responsibility of ruling when he had caused nothing but heartache and agony for everyone around him? Did he really think he deserved the easy way out of this? No, no, he refused to let the boar back out of his life like Glenn did; he refused to let him sit here and speak about his own death so casually when he hadn’t earned the right to die.
“How dare you,” he hissed through a clenched jaw; his voice low and soft, but seething with the rage that the past decade or so has allowed to fester within his gapping chest. And he still has a the gaul to try to laugh it off; to pretend all of the lives he’d taken meant nothing. Of course he deserved to die, but he deserved to live and continue to suffer even more. “I’m not about to let you run away and die.” His voice was slowly increasing in volume until he was shouting at the future king with little to no concern about who might happen to overhear their conversation. He was sick of being pushed aside; sick of being told ‘give him time’ and sick of being told that he needed to lie down like a dog and obey the twisted boar masquerading as a ungodly kind like some kind of worthless, deranged dog. The only deranged animal here was that damn boar himself, and everyone who simply followed after him blindly like he wasn’t charging straight to his own demise.
Golden irises narrowed into fine lines like knives as the other continued forward with little regard to the words that had just left his vile lips. “Speaking of what?” he spat, taking a step forward towards the cluttered desk as other began to rummage through the hefty pile of papers that had collected over the past fives years. His lips curled downward into a stern frown as he snatched the paper out of the boar’s ugly hands, crinkling its edges in his anger. He only briefly glanced over the document before his attention was dragged back onto the misguided, fallen king. The last thing he wanted was yet another will to add to his seemingly ever growing collection and he had half a mind to tear it to shreds right then and there, but even he wasn’t so rash, not even in his wildest anger was that much of a beast so he could only stand there and bunch up the edges of that paper in his fist as he felt his heart lurch into the deepest depths of his gut.
“I don’t want your damn will.” At this point, if the entire monastery hadn’t heard his vague threats and angry shouts, it would have been a miracle. How many times he would be handed some stupid, inane piece of paper in a pitiful attempt to make up for everything he had lost before this war was over? By the end of it, would he be the only one left behind to carry out the wishes of his loved ones? If so, he’d rather just fight and tooth nail and tear flesh from limb and bone until there was nothing left those who wished to harm everyone in his life; until this stupid war was over and he was left counting the bodies left behind in his wake to ensure they were all mindless, faceless soldiers or those that had betrayed them long ago. But more than that, he didn’t want to be the one left behind to lead the kingdom. He was born to be a tool of war not a king. Sylvain or Ingrid, they were both from noble households and would have been far better fit for the tile than someone like him, no matter what the prince’s will claimed.
“I’m not letting you die, so you can shove that idea back into your worthless head.” He slammed the abused page back onto the desk with enough force to scatter the collection of documents already stacked upon it. “And figure out how to become a king while you’re at it, boar.” Pulling his hand back, his gaze lingered on Dimitri’s will for a moment; something unreadable in his eyes before he tore his attention away from it and turned his back to the beast, arms crossed over his chest as his fingers held his forearms so tightly that he might very well leave bruises behind where his hands were pressed. “If you so much as think about dying again, I’ll make you regret it, and if you somehow do manage to die, I’ll drag you out of the flames myself.”














