Prologue: Part 4

The Past

After Eleanor disappeared into the trees, Reynart and Reck lingered in the clearing for a long moment. The encounter with a naked beauty had left them both profoundly shaken.

After a while, Reynart spoke, his voice surprisingly bright.

“Come now, Reck, let’s find those wild strawberries. The days of spring are short, and if we are late, it will worry the Queen Dowager…”

“Indeed. Understood. Let’s make quick work of it, then…”

Reck replied and began to scan the area as he walked. Reynart followed suit, eyes cast downward, searching the ground.

“Damn it, that stings…”

Reck’s curse echoed from a distance. Perhaps he had pricked his hand on a thorn bush. Reynart’s thoughts drifted to his attendant. Just as Reck understood Reynart’s heart, Reynart understood Reck’s feelings with painful clarity.

When Reynart was brought into the royal palace at the age of two, six-year-old Reck had been brought in as his companion. For the fifteen years since, Reck had been by his side. Of course, Reynart had no memory of the day they met, yet in all his recollections, Reck was always there, standing close.

Reynart’s father, Arrendel, had ascended the throne following the sudden passing of his older brother, Galavari. That was when Reynart was two.

The brothers had been close; the younger idolized the elder. Upon the King’s accession, Arrendel had gladly stepped down from his position to serve his brother. Arrendel, then the Grand Duke of Loquian, was a former member of the royal family and one of the Five Great Dukedoms. With his brother, the late King—having died without an heir, Arrendel had been the first in line for the throne.

However, Arrendel had initially been reluctant to take up the crown.

For one thing, the high-ranking ministers were intent on having him take the late King’s queen, Celia of the Grand Duchy of Lydian, as his own. Such arrangements were not rare among royalty, and though she had suffered a miscarriage following the sudden death of her husband, it was clear that Celia was not barren. The ministers saw no problem.

But Arrendel himself believed that his gentle, soft-spoken brother and the graceful, kind-hearted Celia had been the perfect match, more than any other pair. To take his sister-in-law, who had just lost her husband and her unborn child, as his own queen was simply unthinkable. He told the ministers he would never accept it.

The other concern was Reynart, his illegitimate son born to a maid during his time as the Grand Duke of Loquian. The epidemic that had claimed the King’s life had also taken Reynart’s mother, Marias. During his bachelor days, Arrendel had taken the maid as a lover by circumstance, but he had loved her from the bottom of his heart.

If he ascended the throne, he would have to take a queen and sire an heir. Once King, he would have no time to dote on an illegitimate son, even if he were his own flesh and blood. If the boy lost his mother and now his father, what would become of young Reynart?

As an individual, he did not want to be King.

However, at that time, Istella had only just established a truce with the neighboring kingdom of Distenia, and the situation remained highly volatile. A political vacuum left by a missing King would be exploited by their neighbor. It was a scenario that had to be avoided at all costs.

In the end, Arrendel could not defy his fate and accepted the crown, provided the ministers agreed to two conditions.

First, the late Queen Celia would be elevated to the position of Queen Dowager and relocated to the Western Palace. As for his own queen, he would take Erene, the daughter of the Grand Duchy of Eolian, the oldest among the eligible ladies of the Five Great Dukedoms.

Second, Reynart would be raised within the royal palace.

The first condition presented no problem for the ministers. Considering the Queen’s feelings, it was a perfectly reasonable proposal. But the second was something they could never accept.

Even if he has royal blood, he is a commoner’s child, an illegitimate son. There is no precedent for raising such a person in the palace…

What of his status? If you treat him as a prince, the nobles will not be silent. They will rebel in unison…

If the nobles lose faith in this climate, the very survival of the kingdom will be at stake…

And where would he live?

Of course, there are commoners in the palace. Many of the servants and guards are commoners…

But they are here to serve, not to reside in the palace…

To the ministers’ interrogation, Arrendel replied quietly.

He will remain an illegitimate commoner. He shall reside in the Western Palace, under the care of the Queen Dowager.

The ministers were ultimately pushed into accepting these two conditions. Rumors suggested the Distenia army was making restless moves along the border. To waste time on idle debate would invite catastrophe. The ministers made their painful decision.

Thus, Reynart became a resident of the royal palace while retaining his status as an illegitimate commoner.

The Queen Dowager, having moved to the Western Palace, gladly took on the responsibility of raising Reynart. Perhaps it was to fill the void of loneliness, knowing she would never hold a child of her own in her arms again.

She poured every ounce of her love into Reynart. She immediately summoned her own ladies-in-waiting who had children of a similar age and brought the boy, Reck, into service. He was six years old at the time.

A mischievous, rowdy child, Reck initially hated life in the palace. But as he watched the two-year-old boy following him around, calling his name, “Reck, Reck”—he began to feel a brotherly affection, and reluctantly, he stepped into the role of his companion.

Reck’s mother taught him from a young age that if the worst should happen, he was to die in Reynart’s stead. To a six-year-old child, she told him this.

If anything happens to Reynart-sama, the King will surely be furious. And then, so many people will be sad…

Even as a child who did not yet understand the meaning of death, he took these words to heart. As he grew and realized their gravity, and as he came to understand Reynart’s position, it became self-evident that his master’s life must take precedence over his own.

He was proud of his speed, so he honed his legs further and began to learn swordsmanship. I don’t need a sword that can defeat enemies. I need a sword that can become a shield to protect my master. He told himself this as he endured the grueling training.

To Reynart, Reck was a best friend, a brother, and a part of himself. There was no person for whom that description was more fitting.

Lost in thought, Reynart hadn’t picked a single strawberry. Reck called out to him.

“How is it? Have you found any?”

“Ah, no luck. There’s not much here…”

Reynart, having been too preoccupied with his thoughts to do any real searching, spoke blankly.

“I’ll check over there.”

Reck walked toward the far side of the spring. Watching his back, Reynart began to trace his memories once more.

When Reynart turned six, the Queen Dowager told him of his origins, his status, and the future that awaited him. As a child who had already sensed the subtle, shifting attitudes of the adults around him, it all finally clicked into place. At the same time, it was then that a dark shadow settled over his heart.

I am an unwanted child…

The thought was terrifying and sorrowful; he could never bring himself to speak it aloud. The mischievous boy who once followed Reck vanished. He became a quiet child who always stared off into the distance.

The Queen Dowager reflected that perhaps she had been too impatient. But Prince Alexander, born to Queen Erene, was already three. The Grand Duchy of Eolian stood as a solid, unshakeable shield behind him. One day, Reynart would surely have to face Alexander. Because he was a child of the shadows, one wrong step, one miscalculation, and Reynart’s existence could be blown away like a feather.

The current King, Arrendel—her brother-in-law, had trusted her with Reynart. She wanted Reynart to become a fine man whom no one could deny, and she believed that was the only way for him to survive in a palace swirling with hidden agendas.

The Queen Dowager commissioned her family, the Grand Duchy of Lydian, to gather the finest instructors to serve as Reynart’s mentors.

They taught him everything—swordsmanship and horsemanship, naturally, but also mathematics, history, language, law, and astronomy. He learned the social graces: literature, dance, and etiquette. She even requested that the merchants visiting the palace teach him the arts of trade and commerce.

Perhaps Reynart, as an illegitimate son, had no bright future ahead of him. But for now… no, regardless of what might happen, she wanted him to be able to find his own path, his own meaning in life. She wanted to give him everything she possibly could.

It might have been a substitute love for the child she could never hold in her arms. Nevertheless, Celia was determined to pour everything she had into Reynart.

Under normal circumstances, there was no official contact between the Northern Palace—where the King, Queen, and young prince resided—and the Western Palace, the home of the Queen Dowager. Even seasonal greetings were merely delivered by messengers; the royal family rarely visited in person. There were few official events where the Queen Dowager would attend, and it was unthinkable for Reynart to be present at such things.

Therefore, only those within the Western Palace knew Reynart’s true character. But you cannot bolt the doors against the gossip of ladies-in-waiting. All sorts of things filtered through, especially voices that spoke ill of Reynart.

The rumor that the King and Queen’s relationship was colder than a midwinter storm was one that reached them constantly.

A girl born into the Five Great Dukedoms was raised with the possibility of one day becoming Queen. Lady Celia of the Lydian Grand Duchy had been raised that way, and Lady Erene of the Eolian Grand Duchy, naturally, was the same.

Erene had been sixteen when she married the twenty-seven-year-old King Arrendel. Though she had been raised to be a queen, she was still, at her core, a sixteen-year-old girl. Her heart was far from at peace.

Joy, anxiety, confusion…

With a heart full of conflicting emotions, she faced the marriage ceremony. On the night of their wedding, having fulfilled her duties with tension and without incident, the King told his young bride:

“I have taken you as my Queen for the sake of the kingdom. Your duty is to bear an heir. I shall treat you as my Queen. But do not expect to receive my love, not for as long as you live…”

He had told a sixteen-year-old girl that she was nothing more than a tool to bear a child. No one could know what had raced through Erene’s heart that night. But what remained in the end, anyone could see.

It was despair.

She had heard that the King had sired a child by a maid during his time as the Grand Duke of Loquian. She knew that the woman was dead and that the child was living within the palace. Her father, the Grand Duke of Eolian, had told her before the wedding. She couldn’t forgive everything, but she had accepted it. She had prepared herself for all duties required of a Queen, to support the King, to consider his ministers, to cherish his people. She had aimed to be the ideal Queen.

But with those words, everything crumbled.

She hadn’t been chosen for her character. She had been chosen because she was the oldest unmarried Lady among the Five Great Dukedoms. A tool to bear a child had no need for a personality. A healthy body was all that was required. That was what she felt he had told her.

In fact, as if to prove his own words, once the King learned the Queen was pregnant, he never visited her bedchamber again. Even when she went to greet him at dawn, he would answer without lifting his head. Sometimes, he would tell her that a goodnight greeting was unnecessary due to his busy schedule.

The Queen stood on the edge of despair every single day, plunged into a crucible of sorrow, with no permission to climb back out. Why was she subjected to such treatment? Was she inferior even to a lowly maid?

Her resentment, fueled by anger and bitterness, grew larger with every passing day, and naturally, her feelings turned toward her own child. The ladies-in-waiting, knowing how the King treated her, grew to hate him as well.

But they could not aim their resentment directly at the King. The target of their hatred became the root of the Queen’s sorrow: the nameless maid who had died but still held the King’s heart, and her son, Reynart. If the King had poured even a sliver of love upon his Queen, perhaps she would never have hated Reynart. Perhaps the ladies-in-waiting would never have cursed him.

The Queen Dowager, whether she wished to or not, could not escape the vitriol directed at Reynart. Before they knew it, the entire palace seemed to have been swallowed by a dark, brooding shadow. The Queen lavished an abnormal amount of affection on the prince, and the ladies-in-waiting whispered to the prince about how dark-hearted his half-brother, Reynart, truly was. The Grand Duke of Eolian grew resentful of the King who neglected his daughter.

It was when this negativity had reached its peak, when Reynart was ten, that the first meeting between Reynart and Prince Alexander took place.

The Queen Dowager invited the King, the Queen, and the Prince to a tea party. In truth, it had been the King’s idea. The Queen Dowager felt a pang of fear. I hope this does not lead to something ominous for Reynart…

The party was held in the rose garden between the Northern and Western Palaces. Those invited included the King, Queen, and Prince, naturally, as well as the Prime Minister (the Grand Duke of Ionian), the Queen’s father (the Grand Duke of Eolian), and the Queen Dowager’s father (the Grand Duke of Lydian). No one except the King and Queen Dowager knew that Reynart would appear.

The tea party proceeded, with harmless, polite conversation being exchanged. For the Queen, Reynart was a being whose very existence was unforgivable, but for the Queen Dowager, it was different. The royal family and the Five Great Dukedoms were tied together by complex bloodlines. For Erene, Celia was a blood relative and a senior in the role of Queen. Celia, who was highly regarded as a woman, had been an object of admiration.

Celia spoke carefully, trying not to provoke Erene. Amidst an atmosphere of strange tension, Reynart appeared, walking at a measured pace. He did not look intimidated.

When the guests realized who the boy was, the air became even more tangled.

The Prime Minister and the Queen Dowager’s father looked on with curiosity…

The Queen’s father looked on with displeasure…

The Queen looked on with a burning hatred…

The Prince looked on with malice…

The Queen Dowager looked on with anxiety…

And the King… the King looked on with anticipation…

They welcomed Reynart.

Reynart greeted the King first. Then, the Queen and the Prince. He knelt, bowed his head, placed his right hand over his heart, and swept his left hand behind his back, performing the formal salute of a subject…

“I humbly greet you. It is a profound honor to gaze upon your Highnesses, the Queen and the Prince. As I am a person of nameless and humble birth, I beg that you please forget my presence and do not trouble your hearts with thoughts of me.”

Having spoken these words, he backed away while kneeling, gave a single bow to the Prime Minister and the other ministers, and departed. It was a perfect display of etiquette, unthinkable for a ten-year-old child.

The Queen, the Prince, and their ladies-in-waiting had actually seen Reynart for the first time then.

His reddish-gold hair resembled the late King Galavari.

His grey eyes and cool gaze resembled the current King.

The contour of his jaw was inherited from his mother.

He was a refined young man. One might even call him a beautiful boy. The boy they had been slandering and hating possessed an elegance that would not have been out of place anywhere. No one could take their eyes off his retreating figure.

He had walked up, knelt, spoken his piece, and left. That was all. But his elegant grace had captivated everyone present. His clear, resonant voice had been pleasant to the ear.

They felt they finally understood why the King wanted to keep him close. That was what everyone thought. Among them, the one who had been drawn in more than anyone else was the Prince.

For the Prince, who had been fed lies, he had initially imagined Reynart as an incarnation of a monster. But when he saw that face, watched those graceful movements, and heard that voice up close, all the malice toward his brother washed away, replaced by the joy of knowing they shared the same blood.

The Prince broke into a run and chased after his brother.

“Brother.”

The word escaped his lips naturally.

The Prince took his brother’s hand and led him back to the tea table. Once a new seat was set for Reynart at the end of the table, the Prince moved his seat beside him and began to talk about one thing after another. The ministers, suddenly struck by a desire to test the boy, showered him with questions.

The boy, while caring for his younger brother, answered each question with precision. Even when faced with spiteful, trap-laden questions, he carefully chose his words and responded with poise.

A child with a sharp, logical mind.

He was never arrogant, never overstepping his bounds, and he understood his place perfectly.

A pity… if only he were not an illegitimate son…

Though it was the fruit of the Queen Dowager’s careful upbringing, one could do nothing without talent. No matter how precious a gem, if it is not polished, it is but a stone. But a mere stone, no matter how much it is polished, will never become a gem. The boy’s excellence stirred a new wave of anxiety in those who witnessed it.

Is the King perhaps considering making this child his heir…?

After this encounter, Prince Alexander began visiting Reynart from time to time, ignoring the machinations of the adults…

Alexander was destined to be the Crown Prince. His security was tight. But the adults looked the other way. Sometimes, even the Queen herself…

While Reynart was studying with his tutor, Alexander would wait quietly in the corner of the room. When the tutor left, he would show Reynart the toys or sweets he had brought. They would eat sweets together and play with the toys.

Alexander was naturally a bright child. That brightness could not wash away the shadows in Reynart’s heart, but it did soften them, at least a little. He grew attached to Reynart, and sometimes, when it was time to go, he would throw a tantrum, refusing to return to the Northern Palace, making it difficult to send him back.

Reynart himself never visited the Northern Palace. The Northern Palace was the residence of the royal family, and as an illegitimate son, Reynart had no right to set foot there unless he was summoned.

As such days passed, Reynart turned fifteen.

After the tea party, the King began visiting the Queen Dowager from time to time, under the guise of paying his respects. The only topic common to a sister-in-law and a brother-in-law was the departed. But that topic was quickly exhausted. Old stories were not a reason to visit again and again. The King and the Queen Dowager would simply drink their tea in silence.

Anyone could see what his goal was. It was Reynart. But the King never spoke to Reynart. There were too many eyes, the ladies-in-waiting and many others. He could not say anything reckless. He would only leave, telling the boy, “Do not neglect your studies, and hone your sword skills.”

When Reynart turned fifteen, the Queen Dowager said to the King:

“I should like to show Reynart the city…”

Reynart had not stepped outside even once since moving into the palace. To go into the city and touch the lives of the common people was not a waste. Moreover, since learning of his own birth, a dark shadow had taken root in his heart. It was reflected in his expression and in the edges of his words.

The Queen Dowager wanted, if only a little, to erase the shadow in his heart. Even when he turned thirteen and fourteen, the King had never mentioned a coming-of-age ceremony. She did not know what the King was thinking, but if that was the case, she thought it better to broaden Reynart’s horizons. A new interest might reduce the shadows in his heart.

Knowledge of books and logic alone could not solve the problems of life. Touching the lives of the people who lived in the city was, in itself, a beneficial thing. Accepting the Queen Dowager’s proposal, the King permitted Reynart to go out into the city.

From that time on, Reynart began to venture into the city, with Reck as his attendant… The city, seen for the first time, stirred Reynart’s curiosity quite deeply…

Reck called out to Reynart, who had been crouching there, lost in thought.

“How is it? Reynart-sama… wait. You haven’t picked anything at all… What on earth have you been doing…?”

Reck said, looking exasperated while showing Reynart his own hands filled with wild strawberries.

“Haha… My apologies, Reck. I was just lost in thought… Ah, you found quite a lot, haven’t you? Grandmother will surely be delighted.”

He spoke to Reck with a bright voice.

“Then, let us go.”

Reynart’s face was bright, a complete change from how it had looked before he entered the forest.