Side Story: The Secrets of the Lacrofine Royal Family
Side Story: The Secrets of the Lacrofine Royal Family
I descended the stone steps into the palace basement. There wasn’t even one window to allow natural light in. It was isolated in the truest sense of the word.
A solitary candle had been set out, but the light was far too dim to illuminate the path before me. Fortunately, I was already used to traversing this path and made confident strides toward my destination, the innermost cell in the dungeon. Before that ominous door stood two guards, to whom I presented the royal seal, as per usual. It was an inconvenience, but as visitors were restricted, it was a necessary evil.
The only two people allowed admittance to that room were the crown prince of Lacrofine, who was the elder brother of the room’s occupant, and myself, the twelfth royal secretary, Louter Esdral.
“Please forgive the intrusion,” I said with a deep bow before making my way to the writing desk as usual. I set out my tools. Opening the record book, I began the day’s questions.
“Is there no change in your condition?”
“No.”
“Is there anything you require?”
“No.”
He gave me the usual monosyllabic answers, but I faithfully recorded them all the same. This was the job the crown prince had set out for me three and a half years earlier.
☾☾☾
THAT day was the first time I entered the depths of this dungeon and found the second prince seated there. When he spoke, it was in a quiet voice.
I took up my pen and listened closely, recording each word of their conversation verbatim.
“I have lost my mind, Brother.”
“Do not speak such lies. You have not. Everyone knows that.”
“No, I have. If I hadn’t, how else could I have done what I did to that innocent girl?”
When juxtaposed with his brother’s rage, the younger second prince seemed the more mature of the two.
“You mean the daughter of Duke Drayne? You needn’t concern yourself with that. You might have left a few marks, but there was no danger to her life.”
“But now she can no longer be queen. She’s forced to spend the remainder of her days like that. What is left for her? To be sent off to the convent? I truly have done a horrid thing to her.”
The way he spoke about the gravity of his actions was the first real glimpse I got of the second prince’s true self.
One week prior to his imprisonment, at a ball hosted by the royal family, the second prince had poured a strange and powerful substance on the duke’s daughter, one of the candidates to become the crown prince’s bride. The substance burned her skin.
But the way the second prince reacted told me that the rumors, which posited everything from his having an illicit affair with the girl to her provoking him into it, were likely very wrong. There appeared to be a deeper reason behind all of this.
☾☾☾
“YOU found some proof...didn’t you?
“What do you mean, Brother?”
“Regarding the daughter of Count Ortegamo, Annero—”
“Do not say that name in my presence!”
His words hadn’t been for me, and yet I felt their weight all the same.
Annerosa Ortegamo. The count’s daughter. I had heard rumors of the beautiful young woman. She had succumbed to what was believed to have been a sudden-onset illness half a year before the incident with the duke’s daughter. But...was her death somehow connected? The thought crossed my mind, but I decided to keep it to myself and concentrate.
“I am the only one who may speak her name, Brother. You have no right to it.”
When the second prince spoke of her, the coldness and rage subsided from his face, replaced by an odd mix of happiness, sympathy, and affection.
He took a deep breath and calmed himself before turning once more to face the crown prince.
“I committed such an atrocity in front of so many. No matter what anyone says, my life can never again be the way it once was. I lost all hope of salvation on that day.”
After hearing those words, the crown prince left his brother to his confinement, returning to the surface once more.
Hence why, from that day forth, the crown prince ordered me to make a daily record of his brother’s condition. And though the second prince insisted on his own waning sanity, I saw no sign of it. He was at least ten years younger than I, and yet he was far wiser in so many matters.
Little by little, I came to know the second prince over that time, and after half a year, I could confirm he was not insane. Just around the same time, a public incident occurred.
☾☾☾
“WHAT? The duke’s daughter?”
“It appears to have something to do with the death of Count Ortegamo’s daughter. As the duke’s carriage approached the main road on the way to the convent, the daughter apparently leaped out and screamed something to that affect...begging the second prince for forgiveness. Apparently it caused a tremendous commotion in town...”
Before making my way into the dungeon for the day, I had heard the news from one of my colleagues and so hastened to inform the crown prince. The moment I did, we rushed down into the dungeon. The damp air on the stone steps leading into the dungeon was mixed with the metallic scent of blood.
Oh no.
The crown prince, who had never been convinced his brother should be locked away, had ordered that his room be locked only at night. We quickly made our way to his room, where we found one guard splayed out in front of the door, his body convulsing.
“What of the second prince?!” I shouted. The weakened guard pointed into the cell.
The prince’s hands were scarlet, and his clothes were covered in blood.
“Are you hurt? What happened to your hands?!”
The crown prince rushed to his side in a panic. The second prince merely shook his head slowly, throwing the clump he clutched in his right hand aside.
“He dared to speak the name of my beloved Annerosa. So I decided to ensure he would never again make the same mistake.”
Collapsed against the wall lay the other guard, blood streaming down his face.
☾☾☾
CALMING the uninjured guard and hearing his side of the story took until late into the night. The guard who had been attacked would often gossip about the rumors circulating around town. Today was no different. He had been discussing what had happened with the duke’s daughter when, suddenly, the second prince charged out of his room and punched him.
He could scarcely remember what he had said, let alone that he had mentioned that girl’s name, but I recorded the details and turned them over to the crown prince just the same.
And so, even though it was the middle of the night, the crown prince read over my report and made his way into the dungeon.
The night guards, who were noticeably less talkative than their daytime counterparts, saw the crown prince’s face and quickly granted him entry.
We opened the door and found the second prince sitting on his bed. He turned to face us.
“I have lost my mind, Brother,” he said softly.
The crown prince nodded, then turned to me and ordered me to record.
“Is there anything you have to say for yourself?”
“I have but one request.”
“Say it,” the crown prince urged.
“I would like to leave this world in exactly the same manner as Annerosa did, the day I turn seventeen, exactly the same age she was when she died,” the second prince conveyed with slow but steady words.
Even as I dutifully inscribed his words, I could not genuinely grasp what the second prince was trying to say. Exactly the same manner as she? I tilted my head and watched the crown prince. Wrinkles formed on his forehead, and he looked as if he might cry.
“I suppose there is no other way,” he replied, “if it is the only way for you to truly be happy...”
“Happy... Ah, yes, perhaps this is it. My happiness lies with Annerosa. So that is all I require.”
For as long as I live, I shall never forget the look on His Highness’s face as he spoke, that even, gentle smile.
After that, the second prince cocooned himself in the shallow shell of his vacant happiness. No matter what I asked him, he would merely answer ambiguously. His eyes gazed far off into the distance as he watched the days slip away.
☾☾☾
“THE crown prince has sent some sweets for you,” I said, pulling a small box from my breast pocket with flowers preserved in sugar inside.
“Won’t you have one?” I asked, holding one out for His Highness. He innocently reached out and plucked it from my hand.
“Ah,” he said, the way lovers did when feeding one another.
I watched over him, then finally made my way to the heavy door. Opening it, I gazed back at him one last time.
For the first time in ages, those eyes were at peace, vacantly reflecting the world around them.
No, he truly had not lost his mind.
He had simply been waiting for this day. When he would be the exact same age as she.
I bowed deeply to the young man I had come to know over three years and gently closed the door behind me.
Ascending the stone steps, I remembered those words he had said three years ago. On that day, his eyes had looked the same as they had today.
“If I am ever reborn, I pray Annerosa and I will be born the same age. If it is to be so, I will choose her, and only her.”
That was the first time the prince’s face truly seemed to match his age.
And so, if the smiling prince, who patiently bided his time until he had reached that same age, were truly crazy, then so, too, must I be, for tears began to form in my eyes.
I prayed that his last wish reached the heavens. The tears continued to flow as I made my way up the steps to give the crown prince my final report.