The Unwanted Prince

Ch. 2 - Adrian

Anger has always been a problem with me. As a kid, I never had problems with anger aside from the fits I would throw when Stephan would steal my toys. Most of the time it was a petty excuse to get attention from my parents. How useless that turned out to be.

Generally, the baby of the family is the most spoiled.

But that's not how it works among the royals.

It's always the firstborn that is more loved.

It's been like that since I was born. In fact, I was sure I was an accident anyway.

Aside from my tragic childhood- no really, it was tragic. Very. Tragic.

My anger... it's always been with me. It only really turned beastly when our parents died. It was a stupid accident. Their carriage driver decided to drink on the job and he ended up crashing the carriage into another one. To make matters worst, they were on a mountain so if the collision didn't kill them, the tumble down the mountain surely did.

My brother, Stephan, was crowned king at twenty-one. At first, I was devastated obviously. My parents were dead. But I got over it.

What I didn't get over was my brother being crowned king.

With Stephan as a healthy stable king, I wasn't needed anymore.

So of course I'm pissed.

In this land, as a second born, I have to go off and pledge loyalty to the church. I could save my royal blood by marrying a princess. Just like good old fairy tales, I went off fighting monsters to save princesses. I've fought barbarians, trolls, giant snakes, all sorts of creatures to save princesses. With the last princess, I've saved a total of nine.

And I had a total of nine princesses reject me.

It hurt at first. I thought that since I saved their life I would marry them. But then something would come up that would stop that.

The princess would run away, turn crazy from the trauma they went through away from their palace, or they just outright send me away thinking money could solve my problems. Well, money is very much appreciated but it doesn't solve anything.

As the years passed, one can't help but get mad at the world for constant rejection.

I know, it's petty. I don't blame the princesses for not wanting to marry me. Sure I saved their life, but I don't know jackshit about any of them. But my parents didn't love each other, so why should it matter if I love the princess?

It's the same as my brother, he married that bitch because she was pretty and together their children would be beautiful. Though I hope they don't get my brother's ears, they're massive.

The soft silky bed felt warm under my heated body. As I stared up at the ceiling, counting the small dots from the needles I would poke in, the dread started to come back.

At least with my good looks, I could get a nice fuck. My brother says it isn't proper for a prince to sleep with prostitutes or just whores in general. But at least prostitutes treated you like you were human instead of a royal title.

Fuck.

My bedroom door opened and I immediately shot up, ruffling my blonde hair anxiously. My brother, who was out of his royal attire and was now in a simple button-up and slacks, closed the door behind him. Leaning against it, Stephan looked at me with such a disappointed glare even I started to feel bad for myself.

"Terresa wants you to leave," Stephan says, his eyes were downcast and staring at the floor. He was lying.

I hate lying.

And why did he have to act like his wife wanted me gone? I already knew that. I knew what he really meant.

"Stephan, I still have one more year-"

"I already messaged the church while you were gone. They'll be waiting for you by the end of the month-"

I shot out of bed. The lion within me burst as I bellowed out, "I have one year left! You can't kick me out now!"

Stephan took a step towards me, he had his "don't-push-it" glare on. The one where he scrunched up his nose and his eyes squinted so hard they were just two slits on his face. I always hated that face. "I am the king and you will listen to what I have to say!"

"Fuck you! I'm your brother!"

"You're twenty-four and without a princess to marry! You need to go to the church-"

I didn't give him the chance to finish, I usually don't. My temper is just too much for me to control sometimes. My voice was hoarse, stabbing at my throat as I yelled at him, "Fuck that! You can kick me out when my time's up but before then, I'm staying right here!"

Stephan groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. He gritted his teeth, his ears had turned pink. My brother never wanted to understand me, he always got it easy. "When our second child is born, you are going to be a bad influence on him."

"So it's a boy," Tragic. I feel fucking horrible for him. It would've been better if he was born as a girl, princesses are always loved and spoiled even if they're kidnapped and far away. They're still treated well even when being married off. Princesses are forgiven just as much as a firstborn son.

Not the second sons. It's a curse to be a second born.

"When my son is born, you will give him ideas of- of, unreasonable anger," Stephan explained. I could feel my heart being stabbed at hearing that. Me, giving my brother's son "unreasonable anger", yeah right. He's not my kid. It still hurt though.

Sitting back down on my bed, I scratched my neck as I felt the heat climb up it. "Fine, I'll leave."

I didn't have to look at my brother to tell him he had smiled. Typical. My brother liked it when I agreed to whatever bullshit comes from his mouth.

"Good, I knew you would come around-"

Like usual, I'm not going to let him finish. Why would I? I had more to say. "But I'm not going to the church."

"What." He hissed. Stephan walked over to me and grabbed my shirt cooler, forcing me to look at him. I glared right into those green eyes, a color he shared. I always hated our eyes, green eyes ran in the family. Green of greed, envy, and disappointment.

I stretched his lips into a grin, perhaps that of a mad man. "The king of Novaria."

Just watching Stephan's face fall with fear made me grin even more. I wouldn't say I'm sadistic, but Stephan's death glare turning into a wide-eyed gaping mess was entertaining. "You wouldn't," Stephan let go of me and backed away.

Huh, he actually does seem scared.

"You'll die." He said bluntly.

I crossed my arms, victoriously smiling. Stephan was such a bastard, but I'm even more of a bastard. "At least I'll die fighting, not on my knees praying to a God who never bothered to listen to my voice."

Stephan scoffed, speechless. I'm actually surprised he didn't have anything to say. Ever since we were kids Stephan always had a rebuttal to my words. He always wanted to have the last word.

Defeated, my brother marched out of my room, leaving me alone in silence. Dear blessed silence.

My bag was on the floor, the items in it were spilling out. I bent over and looked through it, grabbing my map and a pencil. Unrolling my map, I circled the largest kingdom in our lands.

Next stop, Novaria.

While I was heading back, I realized that I had literally nothing to lose if I decided to go to Novaria. It's infamous for their tale of their lost princess who was kidnapped years ago by the Dark Emporer of Zedan. 

Anyone sent to rescue her was always killed or disappeared. Knights, desperate men, and princes all perished.

I knew it was a death wish but it was better than stating loyalty to the church.

I'll head out next thing in the morning. I'll go on this journey, even if it kills me.