The Harvest || h.s.

Chapter 22

XXII. DO A LITTLE GOOD

Harry

The Prince awoke in between the moon and dawn. He reached out for his pocket watch in his trousers, a gift from his father, and looked at the time. Half past four in the morning. He sat up, rubbed his eyes and remembered how the night before he had fallen asleep in the bed instead of the couch, against Lena's wishes.

His head was thumping, making him instantly regret the abusive drinking from the night before. He got up from the bed, his whole body was on fire. He tried not to grunt while doing so, and went over to Lena's bathroom, deciding on saving her the trouble of taking his wine stained shirt over to the laundry room.

The maids were at their peak hour, but they still happily took Harry's stained shirt, as they should. He knew it was their obligation, but still appreciated all their hard work. They even offered a new, clean shirt for Harry to wear, hence he was bare chested.

He roamed through the warm halls of the castle, barely illuminated by the rising dawn. He was beginning to walk over to the Map Room, but stopped in his tracks as he saw a uniformed man blocking the door.

"Excuse me?" Harry asked the man, whose back he was facing. He wore a General hat and stood prestigious.

The man turned around, "I couldn't have changed that much, have I?" He grinned.

Harry laughed, happy. He threw his arms around the man's shoulder and gave him a hard pat on the back. "Fitz, my man! What are you doing here?!"

"I just wanted to check in on you and the Kingdom. I'm surprised you haven't burnt it to ashes in my absence." He joked, shoving Harry's shoulder in a playful manner.

Benedict Fitzgerald, Ben for most, but Fitz for Harry, was King Robert's advisor and Army General. He was much younger than the King, barely an apprentice when the King took control of the Kingdom. And he was right; without him, the Kingdom would have burned down to the ashes.

Harry guided Fitz over to the Map Room. That room was Harry's lair. Where he locked himself up to think, whenever he needed some time by himself and his favorite room in the whole castle. A giant map of the Kingdom of Adwick and its surroundings adorned the wall behind the King's desk.

"Everything okay, boss man?" Fitz asked, leaving behind every single protocol about showing respect to the royals. He has gained King Robert's confidence, as well as Harry's, and as a result, he has been dismissed of certain protocols, of course with regulations still.

Harry sighed, slouching down on the velvet seat behind his father's old desk. The playful expression was washed away from his face, being replaced by a stern one. He cleared his throat, looking at Fitz straight in the eyes.

"Benedict," he started, calling him by his first name, something he never did. "I have made a decision."

Fitz stood straight, a serious look on his face, waiting for the royal to continue.

"I will be building a public school for the town. Girls allowed."

Fitz was serious, the light was washed away from his eyes. "I thought you did not like children."

"I do, I love them. I just– I just don't know how to interact with them, but I respect them. And I think it's just right that we-"

"Harry, you know very well that I have a lot of admiration and respect towards you, but you just lost your mind." The General snapped. "It is in times like this that I wish for King Robert to be here with us."

"My father would have wanted this." Harry raised his voice, defending himself and his point of views. "I even have planned to donate books from my private library, maybe even open another public one. I have a spare castle we could for the campus or-"

"Your father would have wanted the nobles to stay by the Crown's side. Their biggest pride are their children having a privileged education, and now you come up with this nonsense."

"What is the point on not having an educated kingdom? What Adwick needs right now is drastic change, and the only way to achieve that is by preparing the future generations, the children are the only hope for this Kingdom and they are our future lawyers, doctors, army le-" the Prince got interrupted once again.

"What Adwick really needs right now is grain, cattle and army. And the only way to obtain that is by keeping the nobles happy-"

"All my father wanted was Adwick to be heard. He wanted us to be recognized by the greatest Kings, to have a name amongst the big players. This is the way to do that. Please, Fitz. There is nothing we can do for our current population, but so much we can for Adwick's future. These kids are starving, they don't go to school because-"

"They don't go to school exactly because of that, Harry!" Fitz exclaimed, trying to get the prince to reason for once. "These kids are working, they are helping their families to survive, they bring food to their table."

"And that's exactly what they shouldn't be doing!" Harry replied, getting angrier by the second. He slammed his fist on the table and got up from his seat. "Children should be playing in the playground at school, making friends, learning about maths and geography, painting the sun on the corner of the paper. They shouldn't be working in factories. It's not fair that we allow that."

"That girl really messed up your mind, didn't she?" Fitz scoffed. "You should have stuck with nobles' daughters. You should have never taken her to see her family again. That family is not any of your business. You have better things to worry about. Your father left me in charge of you, so please let me do my work right."

"List-"

"No, you listen Harry. You can't make this crazed decisions on your own without approval of the King's Council, and while there is no ruling King, this is useless, so don't even bother coming up with these ideas. Your father always said you would be a great leader, and he was not wrong; but this is not the way. This conversation is over. I will now excuse myself to go and unpack my bags." Fitz stated, clasping both his hands behind his back and dipping his head, demonstrating his manners.

As soon as he had left the chamber, Harry turned to a nearby table that held a magnificent set of chess. With a loud scream of rage that erupted from the prince's throat, the marble black and white pieces fell to the ground, crushed into a million pieces scattered on the floor.

He firmly placed his hands on the mahogany desk, his head hanging low. A faint purring was heard below his ragged breathing. He looked up to see the white fluff ball enter the room with gracious moves, and strugglingly hop onto the desk.

"Hey, Perce." Harry cooed, caressing his matted fur. "What are you doing here, buddy? Did someone wake you? Let's go. I'll take you back to my room."

He carried the animal in his arms, sighing before closing the door to the map room, and closed his eyes in an attempt to calm himself down.

"Hey, you like that?" He asked, rubbing the cat's soft back, which caused the animal to bite back in return. "Okay, you clearly don't."

As he was walking to his chamber, he came to a halt outside of two tall white doors. He lifted his hand up to knock on one of the doors, but stopped himself, thinking that the girl could be asleep and not wanting to wake her up at that hour in the morning, as it was still pretty early for himself.

He shook his head and gave little Percy a kiss on the head, a gesture his furry friend enjoyed. Harry placed Percy on the floor, and let him wander off to his own world. He turned to the door across from Lena's and knocked on it loudly, this time not caring about waking up the one sleeping behind it.

The door was opened by its groggy owner. "What the fuck, Harry? It's not even six a.m., what do you want?"

"Get dressed, Niall. You, Crawford and I are going hunting today."

***
Sooo sorry for the long wait! I finally found the will to write again and I hope to keep writing very soon. Hope you enjoyed it!
And happy pride month everyone☺️🏳️‍🌈❤️