How To Live As The Enemy Prince

𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝟷

Maids bustled around busily.

A heavy curtain was opened and brightened the room with the light of dawn and soon after, the prince's personal attendant came in to stand before the bed, where a boy with a face that showed his young age, slept.

When waking royalty, one must never lay their hands on them nor make loud, sudden noises.

So instead, the servant, with a careful voice, spoke,

"Your highness, it is time for you to wake up,"

The boy, who would usually wake up at the sound of the door opening, alert as though he was hunted prey, for some reason looked as though he was in no mood to wake up today.

'He must have been very tired.'

While the attendant was thinking this, the maid beside him handed him a small golden bell, the soft jingle of the bell rang twice, and the boy's eyes blinked open.

He blinked, pushing out of his sleep-induced daze before sitting up, the attendant, surprised at the sudden movement, lowered his waist slightly and greeted him,

"Did you have a good dream, your highness? It is now time for you to wake up," he said, handing the prince his usual morning tea. The prince always liked to wake himself up with a cup of strong black tea before washing up in the mornings.

'Since when did I have tea in the mornings?' the boy - no Bern thought even as he unconsciously took the tea that was being handed to him. He paused when he saw that his hand looked very strange.

The hands that had once been full of scars and calluses were gone and in their place were soft, pale hands with long, slim fingers. The disparity had Bern turning his head, looking for a scar on his left arm.... there was not even a blemish, let alone scars.

And then another thought - the scarless arm was not the problem here...

"This arm was cut off..." Bern who murmured this under his breath hurriedly bit his lip - because the voice that spoke those words was not his own.

"What a terrible thing to say, did you perhaps have a nightmare?"

A nightmare...

The fall Secretia - could there be a worse nightmare than that? But there was no time to answer the attendant's question. Even the fact of his reattached arm could be examined later.

The most important thing to understand right now was what had happened to his dear brother and king, Chase.

"Where is my elder brother?"

Upon seeing the urgent look on Bern's face, the servant replied uncertainty,

"Both are still in their rooms."

".... both?"

This time, both Bern and the attendant had the same unsure look. He only had one brother, only Chase.

"His highness, Prince Randell must now be getting dressed, the same for His highness, Prince Franz,"

Randell and Franz.

Both names were unfamiliar - and yet it felt as though he knew them very well. In particular, there was one name that he hated with the very marrow of his bones.

Kyris.

And Kyris' King, Franz.

Bern's eyes changed, narrowing at the sound of the name - a fire lit in them that could not be doused even if he killed that man right now.

Upon seeing Bern like that, the servant opened his mouth once again,

"Your highness, you must get ready first,"

The attendant still believed that he had not fully woken up and called the maid who was holding a washcloth and Bern who was watching this muttered,

"Yan," as though speaking to himself.

"Yes, your highness?" At the sound of his name, the attendant turned his head and answered.

An arm that had reappeared and an attendant he had never seen before.

And Kyris.

Bern did not say anything more. Instead, he closed his mouth and began to think.

Bern had never seen that bell before.

In the name of Serenti, he had never seen the faces of any of these servants and maids before. And yet, he knew their names...

Unaware of Bern's steadily growing confusion, the attendant poured water into the basin.

'It was a bad dream.' He recalled the words of the attendant he had called 'Yan' as he dipped his hands into the basin. He could put this entire situation down to a bad dream.

Bern lowered his face to the sparkling water in the basin.

No matter how terrible the reality of things was - he could not run away into his imagination. That was not something Bern could do.

But upon seeing his reflection in the basin water - Bern's hands stopped once again. The red eyes that looked back at him in the water - they were not Bern's.

"...mirror," he spoke in a low murmur.

"Did you say a mirror, your highness?" Yan asked, Bern did not answer, eyes glued to the basin,

Yan quickly came to his senses, in the face of the prince that was so unlike his usual self, he seemed to have lowered his guard.

"My apologies, one shall be brought to you immediately," he said, beckoning his hand behind his back to the maids who stood in attention by the door.

The maids had to bring a mirror from a different room as strangely, there were none in the Prince's.

Yan held up the mirror for him, and Bern stared into it without a word.

"....."

There was a little boy in the mirror, staring back at him, he had black hair and glinting behind long bangs, there were two ruby red eyes.

Bern raised his head. There was a crest engraved on the servant's clothes that definitely belonged to Kyris. It was only upon seeing that symbol that Bern realised that the attendant had called him 'Prince' not 'Crown Prince'.

His lips fell into a thin line - they felt like they had been burned.

"Your highness? Prince Calian?"

Yan, who had been silently holding the mirror through all of Bern's thoughts, called out to him.

'No, I am Crown Prince Bern,' he wanted to say.

As though not wanting to forget himself, Bern repeated his own name - but as though to oppose that - like the memory of a whisper in his ear, a long name he had never learned came out of his mouth,

"Calian Rain Kyris,"

Not Bern, but rather, Calian, the third prince of Kyris - that was my name.