Chapter 17: Drunken Prince (1)

As she stared at the blubbering, incompetent kneeling servant in front of her, Queen Esmerelda wanted to beat him into silence or death.

Which ever came first.

She couldn't understand why he was so incompetent when his job was so simple.

All he had to do was feed the 13th prince his specially prepared meals once a day and keep him locked up in his room.

If the 13th prince dared to fight back, then beat him without permanently scarring him, and kept him out of sight.

That was it.

With the king not caring about most of his children outside of their political value and maternal support, the 13th prince, who had neither, had no choice but to depend on the queen, continue to struggle to survive on his own until he died a slow death from poison, or just commit suicide.

Those were the only three paths available for him.

And after being worn down for years, the 13th prince finally decided to cooperate with her, and things were on track with her plan, so the queen couldn't understand why everything seemed to be going so wrong.

The attempted poisoning of the king failed, and even though she was the queen, she was confined and punished due to the 13th prince's sophistry.

Her servants were being rooted out daily.

Concubine Belladonna's influence was rising alongside the 9th prince's, while hers was shrinking, and to make matters worse, the king was watching her even more carefully.

Tracking her every move and limiting the actions she could take.

And the culprit who had actually tried to poison the king seemed to be living his best life with barely any consequences.

The 13th prince looked healthier and happier than ever.

Each day, she received reports that he took his time walking around the palace as if he were a sightseeing tourist, studied at the library, ate extravagant meals with the royal librarian, and gossiped with the maids and the guards in the evenings.

Rather than being confined and punished, he seemed as if he were on a vacation retreat of his own making.

Seeing that her explicit orders were being ignored, originally, the queen had thought that he was flaunting the suddenly revealed relationship with Emrys, the 9th prince, who was the king's favorite child, but after observing and seeing that the two of them had no contact with Emrys showing actual disgust when the 13th prince was brought up, she thought that the 13th prince was using this opportunity, where she was under the immense scrutiny and restriction from the king, to enjoy a bout of freedom while the 9th prince and his mother used to opportunity to bring her down a couple of pegs.

Naturally, she had ordered the personal servant she appointed to keep the 13th prince under control while continuing to observe, but because of her battle of attrition with Belladonna, she hadn't paid much attention to his actions again.

After all, she could easily handle him once things were back to normal, and being the generous person that she was, she thought it would be a good lesson for him to taste the freedom that the heavens offered before bringing them back down to the cruel reality of the ground.

And once her confinement was done, after enjoying a full day of extravagant pampering to wipe away the stress and disgrace she suffered, when the queen was finally ready to deal with the 13th prince, who should be kneeling and waiting outside of her to call him in, she was informed by the servant who was supposed to be in charge of him that he wasn't there.

He wasn't in the palace.

He had apparently gone on a tour of the city because it was a nice day.

Queen Esmerelda accepted the wine glass her lady-in-waiting offered her, taking a sip to calm her anger before speaking to the foolishly kneeling servant who apparently had air for brains.

"Did I or did I not order you to tell the 13th prince I wanted to meet with him today?"

"You- did, your highness." Tonil stuttered fearfully.

"So why is the 13th prince not here?"

"I- I'm not sure. I conveyed your words properly, and the prince said he would show up around dinner time since that's the time that you usually met him." Tonil gulped out while keeping his head glued to the ground.

He knew that if he didn't, the items being thrown by the queen would be thrown at his face.

And as expected-

CRASH

Another piece of glass was flung at the floor, splattering red wine all over the previously pristine marble as the queen shrieked.

"And you let him?! Are my words a joke to you?! You don't know that you should drag him by the stupid white head of his and force him to wait for my grace? Do you think that because I've been staying quiet, you can defy me and disrespect my authority?! Do I need to remind you who runs this palace?!"

"No! Your highness, of course not! But the prince said that-"

"So you're calling him the prince now? His words have more weight than mine? Do you want me to kill you right here and now?"

"No! Please forgive me, your highness! I apologize."

As Tonil began begging the irate queen, another female servant quickly ran into the room and whispered something into Camilla, the queen's head lady in waiting's ear.

Camilla nodded before sending the servant off and whispering something in the queen's ear.

"What did you say, Camilla? He finally showed up. Drag that bastard in here! And someone, go fetch his meal."

At the queen's shout, the servants who were attempting to become one with the walls and floors quickly began scrambling about as someone went to fetch the 'bastard' who was making the queen angry.

And within minutes-

"Hic. Heelllloo~ your ma~jes~ty your high~ness~ the que~en hic. Toe~nail said you wan~ted to see me~ hic?"

A drunken white-haired prince, wearing clothes stained with brown liquid and smelling of smoke, cheap ale, and sewage, drunkenly staggered into the queen's receiving room, bowed so low his hair swept the floor, fell over, and vomited off to the side.

His pale skin was flushed red, his body smelled like he had fallen into a manure pile or a latrine, and his eyes were unfocused.

As Caellum wiped his vomit-covered mouth with his sleeve, his hazy purple eyes glanced around the receiving room before brightening as he whistled.

"Wow, hic. This is niiiicccee~ hic. Are you rich?~. You're the queen~ so you are right?~ wow~."

"You- are you drunk?" the queen asked with a disgusted expression as she watched the 13th prince stagger to his feet before falling to the ground again with a dazed expression.

"Noooo~, I just had a lit~tle to drink. Or is it a~lot? I went on a tour to cella~ugh, to celebr- blargh"

Caellum threw up again, this time aiming it toward Toenail, who, after remembering the disgusting feeling from when it happened to him the first time, scrambled out of the way and accidentally slipped on the spilled wine from the queen's shattered wine glass, and fell into the glass shards before letting out a blood-curdling scream.

"Aghhhhhhh!!!!!!"

"Blarghhh!"

As the Toenail began screaming and crying, sending blood flying everywhere as he rolled around in pain, while Caellum retched off to one side, struggling to stand up straight, before somehow falling on the servant who was bringing a tray of food, knocking everything over while sending the servant flying, the queen stared at the suddenly chaotic scene before her head began throbbing.

What the hell was going on?

How did the previously calm scene turn so chaotic?

Could all of these idiots shut the hell up so she could think?

Eventually, the queen couldn't take it and began screaming.

"Shut up! Shut up! All of you shut the hell up!"

And Caellum, seeing the queen's face continually turn red from anger as she lost her temper, smiled softly to himself.

This was a good start.

But it was time to push a little more.