Herscherik frowned as he nibbled at his fruit. Corruption had been found around nearly every corner he’d investigated so far. At this rate, some kind of catastrophe was imminent. When corruption was this bad in the capital under the nose of the king, Herscherik could only imagine how rotten things were in the countryside. If the people were to reach their limit and revolt, their anger would be directed at the royal family first and foremost. In all the fictional examples that Herscherik could recall, any king who made his people suffer was dethroned by violence.
That’s why the nobles... I mean, that’s why Barbosse doesn’t want to be king himself. Herscherik’s father endured all of this on that lonely throne just so he could take the fall for the crimes of his puppeteers in the case of a revolution. Knowing how wise his father was, Herscherik was sure that he understood all of that. Still, he knew that his father remained the king to protect his family and to repent for what he ultimately believed to be his own sins, when it finally came to that. I won’t let you do that, Father. Herscherik swore that he wouldn’t let his kind-hearted father be killed without a fight. His fingers tightened around the fruit in his hand.
“Anyone here?” a voice called from the front of the shop.
Herscherik paused his contemplation and stood up from his box. “Can I help you?” He peeked around the tall stack of boxes to find a middle-aged man whose head was already lacking some hair at the top.
“Are you Louise’s kid? I didn’t know she had one...”
“She went over to the commerce guild.”
“Oh, I see. Ah, what to do?” the man mumbled to himself as he rubbed the top of his bald head. “Had a little fruit emergency, so I ran over...”
“If you give me the money, I’ll give it to her when she comes back. What would you like?” Herscherik proposed.
“That would be great, little lady!”
“...I’m not a girl.”
As Herscherik continued to sell fruit to male customers, the crowd at the shop only grew. While it was easy for Herscherik to forget it while constantly comparing himself to his father and brothers, he was quite beautiful himself by any standard. He had Ryoko’s knack for customer service, too. To male customers of any age, Herscherik said things like, “This batch is really good. You look like the adventurous type. Won’t you try one?” while tilting his neck, and he said things like, “See, this one’s as pretty as you,” to female customers, adjusting the compliments depending on the person so it would never sound sarcastic.
From Ryoko’s experience of playing romance games aimed at male and female audiences, Herscherik managed to charm all men and women that came his way. He was pleasantly surprised to find an application for Ryoko’s knowledge. Maybe love really does make the world... go round, he jested to himself, as he kept pushing those fruits.
Seeing that an adorable child was working the fruit stand, many customers couldn’t help but buy a few extra items they didn’t actually need. It was only natural that the stand would do tons of business that day.
On the other hand, there were some that tried to pull a fast one on the little kid manning the stand by himself. For those that tried to shortchange him, Herscherik threatened, “You know it’s theft to take less than the agreed-on price, right? Who should I call, legislature, the military, or the constabulary?” and made them pay a marked-up price.
For those that purposefully tried to confuse him by making an order like, “Two of those and three of these. Oh, never mind the first ones, but I’ll take four of those. No, I won’t need the other ones but I’ll take...” Herscherik mentally kept up and charged them every last bronze coin with a smile. At the end of the day, he had even sold off the damaged fruit at a markdown.
By the time Louise returned, half of her merchandise was gone.
“Welcome back!” Herscherik greeted her with a smile and gave her the bag full of his sales and a piece of paper. “People came to buy fruit, so I handled all the sales while you were gone. I sold everything at the listed prices...” He pointed at the paper, nervously.
Louise looked amazed. For each fruit, Herscherik had detailed the number of items sold, their price, and total sales, with the grand total at the bottom. As far as Louise could recall, this was now her highest selling day of that month.
“I sold the bruised fruit at a markdown to a chef who said he’ll cook them into dishes, anyway. I did ask for his address, just in case.” He pointed to a margin on the paper where he had written the address. Herscherik took Louise’s amazed silence the wrong way. “...I’m sorry.” His face twisted in disappointment.
“Don’t be sorry! I was just amazed at how good you were, when you’re so young!” Louise rushed to clarify. “You helped me out of that jam and watched my store... I have to thank you somehow.” Loiuse contemplated. It wasn’t easy to think of a worthy gesture of thanks for a noble’s son.
“Then...” Herscherik spoke up with glimmering eyes. “Can I come over and help you with the shop again some time?”
Loiuse wasn’t expecting any suggestion like that. “Well, yes. I mean, of course...!”
“Yay!” Herscherik cheered with excitement becoming of his age.
Loiuse gave up on talking him out of it. It was his idea, after all. Far be it from her to tell this eccentric noble’s heir he couldn’t come by to boost her sales again. However, Loiuse still didn’t get the same condescending impression from Herscherik that she did from most nobles.
Herscherik took out his pocket watch. “Oh, I better head home.” He had left the castle shortly after noon, and it was already past four. The sky was beginning to turn orange above them. If he stayed out any longer, he might risk Meria finding out. “I’ll see you again, Miss Louise!” Herscherik began to run off.
“I’ll look forward to it! ...Kid!” Louise called. “Your name!?”
“My name’s Her...” Herscherik nearly told her his real name, but swallowed the remaining syllables. He didn’t think she would buy that he just happened to share a name with a prince. So, he decided to use an old name he had spent so much time with. “It’s Ryoko!” Herscherik called back and hurried on his way home.
Watching him leave, Louise repeated the name. “Ryoko... Ryoko... What a strange name.”
From then on, Herscherik sneaked out of the castle time and time again to help Louise with her shop and gather intel on the town. At first, the people of the castle town would take curious notice of the noble-looking child helping run a store on the streets. But once they got used to seeing Herscherik there, it seemed like the old fruit stand was incomplete on any day he wasn’t there.
As Herscherik was happily working the stand on one of his return visits, Kuro happened to spot him during a rare day off. Once he spotted the prince, the underground agent struggled to breathe from laughter for a while as he walked by unnoticed.