Chapter 1
In the 20th year of the reign of the 75th emperor of the Eridu Kingdom, both the prince and princess of the kingdom were approaching the age of marriage. According to the country's law, only men and women could marry when they were 18 years old. That law had only been enacted when the 75th emperor ascended the throne. Because he knew that getting married and having children as early as 15 years old, as was the law in previous dynasties, could easily lead to many problems in the family.
Currently, both Wise and Belle, the emperor's twin brothers, were 17 years old. Everyone predicted that the 18th birthday party of the two princes and princesses would be extremely grand. Since they were born, many nobles have targeted them. After all, being close to the royal family would have more benefits.
However, being able to marry the prince and princess still depended on their own decisions. So it was inevitable that they would receive countless bouquets and flirtations from the sons of nobles or young lower-ranking nobles every day. Since most of the high-ranking nobles were middle-aged, it was rare to see young high-ranking nobles in this country.
"Now, can you explain to me why you climbed the tree, Your Highness?"
The head butler stood at the base of the tree, his large white tail moving slightly at the 'strange' sight. The usually elegant and refined prince now had to hide in the towering branches, a few leaves stuck to his hair.
"Oh, it's Lycaon. You startled me."
Wise jumped down from the tree and then tidied his clothes. Lycaon looked at Wise, then sighed, reaching out to brush the leaves off Wise's head.
“Running away from the noble ladies again? I thought if you didn’t like them, you could have just refused from the start, why make things difficult for yourself like this?”
“You don’t understand, Lycaon. Even if I refuse, they will still find a way to approach me.”
Wise adjusted his hair again to make sure he didn’t look sloppy. He was a prince after all, so keeping himself elegant and elusive was the most important thing. His position as a fiancée wasn’t something he could just sit on. He was sure his twin sister, Belle, understood that as well.
“What are you looking for me for? Shouldn’t you be keeping an eye on Ellen and Harumasa right now?”
Lycaon’s tail wagged nervously as he realized he had missed an important task. That was to urge the other two to work. Ellen was a maid in the royal palace, and Harumasa was a high-ranking butler, second only to Lycaon in terms of power among the servants. At first glance, the only similarity between the two was that they were servants in the palace.
But no, they were also very lazy people and always found ways to skip work and sleep in some corner of the palace. Sometimes the other servants would find them sleeping in the laundry room, sometimes in a tree, in the servants' room. And they almost cooperated in every case of skipping work.
If Lycaon didn't seriously urge them, they would skip work.
The head maid was Rina, but she usually didn't care too much about the lack of two people while working. After all, she could easily find someone to replace them. This led to Lycaon being the only one paying attention and reminding the two to work while encouraging Corin to be more confident in herself.
"Please excuse me, prince. I will go find those two now."
Lycaon took out a letter, handed it to Wise, and quickly left. Wise opened it, inside was a line of writing that was neat, concise, and concise. It was more like a notice than the content of a letter.
It roughly said that there would be a banquet at seven o'clock in the evening. It seemed to be the birthday of the emperor's relatives. As a prince, Wise should naturally be present at the banquet. As for the gift, it would probably be the usual, gold, silver, or some kind of jewel. Although that sounded rather thoughtless in choosing a gift, Wise knew that was what those people cared about. They needed gold, silver, and jewels, things that were valuable and would bring them wealth, rather than a meaningful gift that was not worth much.
Furthermore, Wise couldn't remember who that person was. After all, the emperor had many relatives, he didn't have the leisure to remember their faces clearly. Just remembering their identification was enough. He didn't like them very much anyway.
The emperor had quite a few younger brothers, as he was the eldest son, and there were eleven of them in total. Wise wasn't surprised that some of his father's eleven younger brothers might be half-brothers. After all, the previous emperor wasn't exactly a faithful man.
But his father was different, he only had one empress, had never been close to other girls, and had always flatly refused intimacy with them since he was young. Perhaps that was why he became a trustworthy king in the eyes of the people. A king who was upright, faithful, and fair to the people, everyone loved him.
Wise put the letter away, then raised his head to the tree where he had just escaped the search of the noble ladies.
"Lycaon's gone, you can come down now."
After Wise finished speaking, it took about thirty seconds for another person to jump down. The man was dressed in a butler's uniform, wearing a brooch for a high-ranking butler. His mischievous golden eyes looked towards Wise, carrying his thanks.
"Thank you very much, prince. I almost fell asleep on the tree."
Harumasa laughed as he brushed the leaves off his body. Then he took out a handkerchief from his pocket. But it seemed like it wasn't just a handkerchief, there was something wrapped inside it.
"Here, for you."
"Where did you pick wild berries again?"
"Prince, rest assured. I tried it, this fruit is definitely not bitter. Besides, it's a plant grown in the palace, how could it be poisonous."
Wise chuckled lightly, taking one of the berries wrapped tightly in the handkerchief from Harumasa's hand. Surprisingly, it had a slightly sweet taste. He had never seen this kind of fruit in a dessert on the dining table before.
"It's quite delicious. Where did you pick it?"
"Secret. It rarely bears fruit, if you secretly pick it all, Ellen and I will have nothing left to eat."
"I remember the royal family's treatment of a high-ranking butler like you is not bad. There's no need to lack things to eat like this?"
Wise frowned and grabbed Harumasa's wrist, his fingers lightly touched the young butler's wrist. The heartbeat was weak as usual, there were no signs of any illness yet, but the wrist was thinner, and the joints were also obvious.
"You can't eat? Why don't you tell the chef so they can adjust your portion?"
"I'm fine, prince. It's no problem to not eat once or twice a week anyway."
Wise sighed, flicking Harumasa's forehead. Harumasa had always made Wise extremely worried. After all, he and Harumasa had grown up together since they were young, so they were naturally closer and more attached than ordinary servants.
Harumasa was personally chosen by Wise during a trip with the emperor and empress. At that time, Wise and Belle were still young, and the emperor had not been in office for long, so there were still many problems that the emperor had not completely resolved. Among them was the slave trade. Not only adults but also children were enslaved. It could be that they were sold by their parents or kidnapped.
At that time, the emperor had ordered the arrest of the organizer of the slave trade, but he had escaped and fled to another country's border. The children were all returned to their families, but no one claimed Harumasa. When asked, it turned out that the child's parents had died.
For some unknown reason, Wise suddenly said that he wanted to hire Harumasa as his butler. Maybe it was because he was impressed by Harumasa's golden eyes. It was quite rare for someone to have such beautiful golden eyes in this country. Harumasa also agreed, so he was brought to the palace.
However, Harumasa's health was not good, he could not clean up areas with a lot of dust. Just accidentally inhaling a small amount was enough to make him cough until he had difficulty breathing. However, he was a genius in other fields, mastering archery with just a few instructions from Wise, and had a very good memory. It could be said that he was a genius. So when Harumasa turned 15, he was nominated by Lycaon to the position of senior butler, assisting Lycaon in managing all the butlers. After all, managing all the butlers was not an easy task at all.
“Regardless, you should remember to take care of your health.”
“I understand, prince.”