PRIDE
“HEY, PRIDE, that reminds me! Can I spar with your imperial knights again?”
It was the third day after Cedric and his brothers had arrived at our castle. While everyone prepared for Tiara’s birthday party in two days’ time, Cedric enjoyed his stay in the castle to the fullest.
“I don’t mind, personally…”
Tiara and I had been reading in the garden when Cedric appeared, his eyes sparkling. I glanced at Captain Alan and Captain Callum behind me, who agreed so long as Cedric and I both approved. All was well, save for the slight twitch in Captain Callum’s eyebrow.
Once they set a time, Cedric thanked us and headed for the library, where he’d been spending most of his time. I’d feared he might ambush Tiara with his feelings now that he was back at the Freesian castle, but our books had drawn him in instead. Tiara had spent the past month working with Mother on her birthday plans, so it was better that he leave her be while she was so busy.
Our massive castle library was filled with mountains of the rarest books in all the world. Cedric could only read the ones we made available to people from all countries, but he spent hour after hour absorbing their indispensable knowledge. He sought a better understanding of Freesia to facilitate living and working here, so he blazed through the books about our homeland: our laws, our terrain and geography, our history, our culture. It was almost frightening how every last detail lodged permanently in his head.
The last time we spoke, he shocked me by revealing he’d already memorized the entirety of our laws, terrain, and geography. It was a matter of time before he had the other subjects down too. At least Stale hadn’t been around to hear that. He’d only finished memorizing all of Freesian law one week ago, and if he heard that Cedric did the same in a mere three days, even Stale wouldn’t have been able to hide his shock. I had been dismayed as well, having taken years to memorize those laws myself.
On top of that, Cedric had mapped out the entirety of the castle and its facilities using nothing but blueprints and the glimpses he caught from his carriage and bedroom windows. He didn’t have the interior memorized yet, but it was amazing enough that he’d learned both the royal palace and all the unused facilities and towers on the castle property. Even after living here all my life, such a feat impressed me. It took over a day to tour the entirety of the castle, so Cedric said blueprints weren’t sufficient and he needed to see everything with his own eyes next time.
If he followed through on that, he would witness the egotistical expansions past queens had made: vacation homes, spires just for stargazing, and isolated towers used for confinement. He would even witness frightful relics such as the gallows, towers used for torture or storing corpses, and gravesites. I wanted to avoid Cedric memorizing those abominable pieces of Freesia’s history, if possible. Worst-case, he might get the wrong idea and think we still used those dreadful places.
“Gosh, that Prince Cedric sure is something, huh?” Captain Alan said, scratching the back of his neck.
“I just hope he doesn’t do anything reckless like he did yesterday,” Captain Callum muttered, looking concerned as he fiddled with his bangs.
Their gazes were fixed in the direction Cedric had gone. Tiara was reading her book next to me, but she shot a curious glance at the retreating figure of the prince.
“Well, he’s certainly enjoying himself,” I said, watching him with a half-hearted smile. “Please don’t hesitate to refuse him if he’s tiring you two out.”
They thanked me and said it wasn’t a problem, so I returned to my book.
After Cedric’s sparring matches with Stale and Arthur, he’d come to me asking for matches with my imperial knights as well. Tiara and I had been concerned after Cedric’s defeat by Stale, but thankfully he’d returned to us in perfect health. I didn’t understand why he suddenly wanted to spar with them in the first place, but it seemed his enthusiasm hadn’t cooled even after another day. “Please don’t go easy on me!” he’d begged the knights.
In the end, Arthur and Captain Callum took turns knocking Cedric to the ground. Frighteningly, Cedric smiled the entire time.
The prince was no match for Captain Callum or Arthur—something I had expected from the beginning. Facing down sword slashes and unarmed strikes was vastly different from watching someone else do it, so Cedric struggled to steal moves from the knights he sparred with. It was also possible that they were simply too fast for him to keep up.
Cedric put up a surprisingly good fight against Arthur in the world of the game, but in reality, he was defeated soundly, even when Arthur removed his gloves as a handicap. The Arthur I knew here was probably much stronger than the one in the game.
I was told that Cedric suffered a nearly instant loss during his practice battle against Stale too. “I don’t think I’ll ever be a match for Prince Stale,” Cedric had said, a smile on his face. He requested more sparring rounds from Captain Alan and Vice Captain Eric once they changed shifts, whereupon he was completely and utterly pummeled once again…even though Captain Alan had removed his gloves and his boots for their bout. Vice Captain Eric said it was too dangerous to fight Captain Alan hand-to-hand otherwise. Even with that, Cedric ended up on the ground again and again.
The prince had done a good job crossing swords with the imperial knights at first, but it was over once the knights fought with their full strength. “God’s Child” could memorize sword techniques, but he couldn’t copy the raw power and speed of his opponents. But for some reason, that made him oddly happy.