w. william van der berg, king of the netherlands // @vandcrberg
frederick’s whole situation still feels a bit off and weird—there is a lot he has to learn, a lot to study so he could become as much of a good king as his father once was, and as his older brother would’ve been, had he survived to take his rightful throne. he isn’t feeling the most confident person lately, and with a reason: he is young, he hasn’t been prepared for this his whole life like the others that were surrounding him there, judgement and skeptic and more experienced men than he has ever been. talk about war and fights and training, he would proudly present his skills—but as a ruler… there was only so much he knew.
his wife has been helpful, and so have been his advisors, but he wouldn’t be surrounded by any of them during the whole day, of course. so it isn’t at all uncommon for him to be found in the less crowded places during this time of the afternoon, when the court was surely going as usual with the whole socializing. it was in one of these moments that he had met william—the man was as quiet as him and it wasn’t hard for frederick to feel comfortable in his presence, cups of tea and books between them as they rarely talked. when they did start doing so, however, he couldn’t help but know it would be a good talk, different than the others. and it was like this that he’s started to see the man as a mentor, hearing his comments as the king of the netherlands and wishing to learn more from him.
“so that’s how you’ve been dealing with former enemies?” he asks then, eyebrows slightly raised. austria was a former enemy, like many others, though they’ve taken their ways off the war a few months before it actually ended, with his marriage. it was a good move, he supposes, knowing that it helped leading to where they currently are.
