Cinderella and the Beast

I

Achieving power is a great conquest, but to keep it is even harder. Or at least that's what Viego once heard.

The thing is, he was never meant to rule. He was the youngest of his brothers and even though all of the four received the utmost level of education, it was clear his father was more lenient towards Viego's results, definitely more due a lack of care than a soft grasp of expectations. No, that weight belonged to Nivor, who was supposed to inherit the Camavor Enterprise and keep the "glorious legacy" of the company. His other brothers were the safety nets in case anything terrible were to happen.Three chances of success, and all Viego had to do was not be a loud nuisance and keep out of trouble.

And yet it's Viego who now must deal with the damned numbers in front of him during a hot day of summer, too proud to reach anyone after saying he was capable of checking the month's balance after a semester having online classes on Business.

Viego was sitting on the edge of the couch and his body was leaning over, curved on himself, towards the open laptop on the coffee table as his fingers pressed hard on the keyboard, and thus making the loud typing noises heard all over that empty room. In front of him was the television drilled on the wall, making itself useful by providing some background noise as he worked, but was mostly passively listening to the news regarding the music world.

This really isn't how he expected his life to play out. For most of it he just imagined himself as a trust fund baby who would never have to lift a finger to fight for his daily bread, then he discovered music and the true passion that came from it, so he decided he'd become an artist, and instead of taking fencing lessons as father had ordered he learned how to play a guitar. But it was by the end of highschool that he met his most beloved, his Isolde... A precious rose who loved crafting and making the most beautiful artifacts.

For a moment, he was happy, and he felt he had found his purpose. To love, to live, and to play forevermore.

And then Nivor and Castilla had to die, and Bastillion had to hide. What was the point of the government plastering hundreds of "no drunk driving" PSAs if people did it anyway? And right after Nivor had landed his biggest contract deal. Father was so proud of him, of course he only was proud of the eldest, and died of grief alongside his older sons. After the news, no one could find Bastillion anywhere. So much for a "third guarantee" who didn't want the same responsibility that Nivor left behind, and dear old papa preferred to die over facing the reality of who would inherit the family business. The only one who actually had balls to carry that weight.

"Now look where it got me", Viego thought to himself and sighed before closing his eyes, trying not to focus on the sore pain tormenting his back as a consequence of his posture. And yet he did nothing to remedy that agony, still placing his eyes towards the laptop screen and groaning when clicking on the program's command, seeing an error on the equation and making Viego look over the numbers he inserted to see what had been wrong, but also stealing some of his own attention to the music festival that had been showing on the channel via a live covering.

He did decide to be mature once, and now he was stuck with this rusted corporated crown

Viego, who married at seventeen, divorced at twenty-one and at the age of twenty-two still didn't know shit about business and how to lead a company. In reality, it was mostly his oldest employees who ran everything while Viego owned the company in-paper.

When are you going to grow up?

Isolde once asked after the whole spectacle he pulled off when asking for her hand, and that same question came again when she left their home for the last time. Was it wrong of him to pursue his dreams, as fairytales have always told him to do? He had found true love, had found his true calling and all was good for once! Even Kalista, his niece and best friend, was happy for him and wished that happiness would last forever, until it didn't.