Finding a Good Place to Die

Chapter 1: The Unfavoured 4th Prince

"At most, you have a year left, Your Highness. At the very least, eight months."

It was late afternoon when the news was brought out in the open. There was just him and the old physician inside the dilapidated clinic, but the older man still gently explained the fact to the thirteen-year-old with a hushed tone, perhaps worrying that someone might have heard their conversation. It was all because the boy was not an ordinary boy. As you can see, he was from the royal family.

Prince Quillan Aphelion, the fourth prince of the Avian Kingdom.

However, even though he was a royal — a prince at that — he was not living the best life.

He was born from the trickery of a cunning neighbouring princess, who had used blackmail to force the King of Avian to marry her. To protect what was dear to him, King Erasmus had no choice but to give the evil Princess Serafina what she wanted, and that was for her to be the Queen of Avian Kingdom and to bear an heir to inherit the throne. Serafina was even very shameless to say that she was generous enough to let the original Queen stay married to the king, but not without conditions. One of them was that the former Queen needed to remain in her quarters and had been denied any visits from anybody. For years Queen Tatiana was imprisoned inside her own palace, surrounded by Queen Serafina's men. Not even the king was allowed to visit her.

Their resentment was piling up with every malicious deed Queen Serafina had done. It wasn't until the day that Serafina gave birth to Quillan that King Erasmus finally had the chance to turn the table and stop Queen Serafina's ridiculous actions. She was punished and eradicated four hours after giving birth to Prince Quillan. Three years later, the king of Serafina's home country had no choice but to surrender their kingdom to the Avian Kingdom.

What happened to the motherless Prince Quillan, you might wonder?

King Erasmus wanted to be seen as a kind and benevolent king to his people, so he took his advisor's words and kept the poor little prince inside his castle. On the outside, King Erasmus had the image of a loving father who kindly took the son of the evil woman who had done him and his family wrong, acknowledging the little prince as his son instead of throwing him away for the sins that the prince's dead mother did. On the inside, however, it was an open secret that the royal family was upset with the boy's origin, thus alienating him from the rest of the family. So, instead of losing a parent, the prince was akin to losing both of his parents.

By observing the royal family, the royal servants decided not to treat the little prince as significant as the other royals; instead, the servants often took advantage of him. It wasn't until Prince Quillan was granted a nanny that the bully stopped. That nanny, who was called Nonna by young Prince Quillan, was very nice to him, and she cared for the poor prince as if he were her grandson.

Alas, her life was cut short. However, Prince Quillan had never known that she had passed away. For him, she had suddenly disappeared, and he was once again left alone.

Currently, with no one to care about him, Quillan had no choice but to drag his own heavy body to the worn-down clinic of the former royal physician. It was pretty far, to be fair, but he didn't have the heart to call the current royal physician. The current physician was younger — appeared to be only in his thirties — and was the good friend of Queen Tatiana. That meant he was not fond of this direful offspring of an evil witch who had harmed his dear friend for continuous years.

Quillan was the thorn wedged into their flesh.

"You said there was no cure, Sir?"

Quillan was still a young child, and most children his age would be terrified at the idea of death- pardon me. I worded it wrong. Everyone would be terrified of the concept of death, especially if one were told that Death itself was just around the corner, hot on their trails. Yet, this thirteen years old boy was strangely calm. If not for the slight tremble in his voice, the old doctor would have thought that Quillan was indifferent to the news.

"Because it was a newly discovered illness," stated the old doctor. "We don't have much information about it except for its symptoms. Usually, the patients were required to be observed for further studies, but..." Doctor Virgil slowly lifted his head to look directly into Quillan's quivering eyes.

"I don't want to," said Quillan with a shake of his head.

"As I've expected...." Virgil mumbled with a weak voice. He, too, didn't know what to do to help the young prince. There was nothing he could prescribe to Quillan except for painkillers to help the boy go through his last days comfortably. Frankly, he was angry at the king for neglecting this poor child. Even if the boy was the child of that vile woman, even if the boy's birth was unneeded, King Erasmus was still the father of this child. It was cruel of him to throw this child away from him as if Quillan was a cursed doll who would bring them harm.

No matter what his mother did, Quillan should never, ever be held accountable. It was never his fault.

He deserved to be cared for and to be loved as much as other children.

Alas, he had no right to condemn the ruler of this kingdom. He was a mere insignificant old man, waiting for his life to run out. Perhaps that was why he was dismissed from his position when he blatantly argued with the king about how he treated the fourth prince. The king was wrong, but it was wrong of Virgil to condemn the king who held the most power in this kingdom.

Quillan left the run-down clinic in a poor mood but still refused to let himself down for too long. What about death? Surely it wouldn't be worse than his life right now. He was alone and certainly would be alone again when he died. See? It was all the same routine. He was currently in so much pain, and he really wished with all his heart that he would be in pain when he died. He had read somewhere that the moment the soul was ripped out from the body, it was as if they were skinned alive. It was that painful. However, he couldn't be so sure because the one who had written the book was definitely not dead. It wasn't as if the author could interview the dead. Or was that possible?

He knew that there was such a thing as necromancers, and those people could control spirits and dead bodies. Regardless, Quillan had never heard of souls who could remember the moments when they were alive.

While thinking random thoughts, Quillan gradually could distract himself from the sad reality he found.

By the time he arrived in his quarters, the sun had already retreated into the horizon. That day, Quillan spent a very long time standing on the balcony watching the red sky until the night sky faded in. He stood there motionless, his face seemed indifferent, yet if someone cared enough to look at him carefully, they would see how sorrowful the eyes of the child were.

"Eight months..."

What could he achieve in mere eight months? It seemed so long, but it was actually less than 250 days, especially if you're counting your own death.

All of a sudden, Quillan ran towards his bed and shoved his entire head and shoulders under it. Not long after, he took out a dusty tin box with several rusty patches on its surface. He lifted the lid with difficulty before revealing some old jewellery and expensive gems of all shapes and colours. It was his late mother's. Fortunately, the king had the decency to leave him the keepsake of his mother for him and not confiscate them away. Quillan left the tin box on his bed before he rushed to his drawer. He took a used notebook, a quill and a small bottle of black ink. He placed the writing tools on the floor before sitting cross-legged next to it.

He needed to make use of the little time that he had, and he knew exactly what he needed to do.

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