Side Story: The Secrets of the Lacrofine Royal Family
I descended the stone steps into the palace basement. There wasn’t even one window to allow natural light in. It was isolated in the truest sense of the word.
A solitary candle had been set out, but the light was far too dim to illuminate the path before me. Fortunately, I was already used to traversing this path and made confident strides toward my destination, the innermost cell in the dungeon. Before that ominous door stood two guards, to whom I presented the royal seal, as per usual. It was an inconvenience, but as visitors were restricted, it was a necessary evil.
The only two people allowed admittance to that room were the crown prince of Lacrofine, who was the elder brother of the room’s occupant, and myself, the twelfth royal secretary, Louter Esdral.
“Please forgive the intrusion,” I said with a deep bow before making my way to the writing desk as usual. I set out my tools. Opening the record book, I began the day’s questions.
“Is there no change in your condition?”
“No.”
“Is there anything you require?”
“No.”
He gave me the usual monosyllabic answers, but I faithfully recorded them all the same. This was the job the crown prince had set out for me three and a half years earlier.
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THAT day was the first time I entered the depths of this dungeon and found the second prince seated there. When he spoke, it was in a quiet voice.
I took up my pen and listened closely, recording each word of their conversation verbatim.
“I have lost my mind, Brother.”
“Do not speak such lies. You have not. Everyone knows that.”
“No, I have. If I hadn’t, how else could I have done what I did to that innocent girl?”
When juxtaposed with his brother’s rage, the younger second prince seemed the more mature of the two.
“You mean the daughter of Duke Drayne? You needn’t concern yourself with that. You might have left a few marks, but there was no danger to her life.”
“But now she can no longer be queen. She’s forced to spend the remainder of her days like that. What is left for her? To be sent off to the convent? I truly have done a horrid thing to her.”
The way he spoke about the gravity of his actions was the first real glimpse I got of the second prince’s true self.
One week prior to his imprisonment, at a ball hosted by the royal family, the second prince had poured a strange and powerful substance on the duke’s daughter, one of the candidates to become the crown prince’s bride. The substance burned her skin.
But the way the second prince reacted told me that the rumors, which posited everything from his having an illicit affair with the girl to her provoking him into it, were likely very wrong. There appeared to be a deeper reason behind all of this.
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“YOU found some proof...didn’t you?
“What do you mean, Brother?”
“Regarding the daughter of Count Ortegamo, Annero—”
“Do not say that name in my presence!”
His words hadn’t been for me, and yet I felt their weight all the same.
Annerosa Ortegamo. The count’s daughter. I had heard rumors of the beautiful young woman. She had succumbed to what was believed to have been a sudden-onset illness half a year before the incident with the duke’s daughter. But...was her death somehow connected? The thought crossed my mind, but I decided to keep it to myself and concentrate.
“I am the only one who may speak her name, Brother. You have no right to it.”
When the second prince spoke of her, the coldness and rage subsided from his face, replaced by an odd mix of happiness, sympathy, and affection.
He took a deep breath and calmed himself before turning once more to face the crown prince.
“I committed such an atrocity in front of so many. No matter what anyone says, my life can never again be the way it once was. I lost all hope of salvation on that day.”
After hearing those words, the crown prince left his brother to his confinement, returning to the surface once more.
Hence why, from that day forth, the crown prince ordered me to make a daily record of his brother’s condition. And though the second prince insisted on his own waning sanity, I saw no sign of it. He was at least ten years younger than I, and yet he was far wiser in so many matters.
Little by little, I came to know the second prince over that time, and after half a year, I could confirm he was not insane. Just around the same time, a public incident occurred.
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“WHAT? The duke’s daughter?”
“It appears to have something to do with the death of Count Ortegamo’s daughter. As the duke’s carriage approached the main road on the way to the convent, the daughter apparently leaped out and screamed something to that affect...begging the second prince for forgiveness. Apparently it caused a tremendous commotion in town...”
Before making my way into the dungeon for the day, I had heard the news from one of my colleagues and so hastened to inform the crown prince. The moment I did, we rushed down into the dungeon. The damp air on the stone steps leading into the dungeon was mixed with the metallic scent of blood.
Oh no.
The crown prince, who had never been convinced his brother should be locked away, had ordered that his room be locked only at night. We quickly made our way to his room, where we found one guard splayed out in front of the door, his body convulsing.
“What of the second prince?!” I shouted. The weakened guard pointed into the cell.
The prince’s hands were scarlet, and his clothes were covered in blood.
“Are you hurt? What happened to your hands?!”
The crown prince rushed to his side in a panic. The second prince merely shook his head slowly, throwing the clump he clutched in his right hand aside.
“He dared to speak the name of my beloved Annerosa. So I decided to ensure he would never again make the same mistake.”
Collapsed against the wall lay the other guard, blood streaming down his face.