The next evening, Victoria, Arthur, and I gathered in Crown Prince Maximilien’s office after being summoned.
Maximilien rested his chin on his hand and looked back and forth between Arthur and Victoria, who were standing on either side, glaring at each other as if they meant to kill.
The Crown Prince glanced at me, wedged uneasily between the two of them, and opened his mouth.
“So, the reason you two fought yesterday while smashing up the underground of the imperial citadel was merely a matter of whether or not to put muscle on this fellow’s body? Am I understanding this correctly? Good grief.”
“Brother, what do you mean, merely! Ian is a born talent! If he trains steadily with me, he’s more than capable of reaching the same level as I have!”
“Shut up, you musclebound moron! Are you trying to turn the finest delicate beauty on the continent into a musclebound monstrosity like you!!! I’m the one who conquered the Kingdom of Sterling! He’s the hostage I brought here, so I have the right to do with him as I please!”
“What nonsense are you spouting, Sister! Ian is a being with the freedom to judge and act for himself! And Ian chose to exercise on his own. Isn’t that right, Ian?”
“No chance! Look in the mirror, Ian. Isn’t your face too precious to waste???”
At the force of the two beasts beginning to growl again, I quietly took a step back.
It was the Crown Prince who stopped the fight from breaking out once more.
Bang, bang, bang!!
Maximilien mercilessly slammed the thickest approval file he was holding down onto the mahogany desk.
Along with the dull noise, the Crown Prince glared, and an enormous pressure that weighed down the air in the room burst forth.
Even if his martial strength fell far short, the chilly authority he exuded as a ruler was the spitting image of the Emperor’s.
“Both of you, shut up and sit down. Now.”
“……”
“Do you think I called you here just to watch you fight when I’m so busy I could die? I called you here to reach an agreement over the collapse of imperial discipline and to readjust your relationship with Ian to an appropriate level.”
“An agreement, Brother? I have no intention of compromising with that moron who has no sense of aesthetics.”
“What sense of aesthetics! You swing a sword day in and day out and your whole body is muscle, yet you tell other people not to build muscle? Such cowardice!”
“Shut up already!”
As if exhausted, the Crown Prince pressed hard against his eyelids and let out a deep sigh.
“I’ve prepared a compulsory mediation plan at what I consider an appropriate level. All you have to do is listen and follow it.”
“…I’ll hear it.”
“Good. From now on, Arthur, you will limit your training with Ian to exactly two times a week. And one of those days must be cardio instead of muscle training, no exceptions.”
“What?! That’s absurd, Brother! Even three times a week isn’t enough! If he loses muscle, will you take responsibility?!”
“Victoria, you are also not to interfere in any way with Ian exercising. How about that? Reasonable, isn’t it?”
“…Can’t we stop him from exercising, Brother?”
Both of them scowled as if they disliked it.
Arthur was furious that the number of workouts would decrease, and Victoria still seemed dissatisfied with the very fact that I was exercising and putting muscle on my body.
Regardless, Maximilien pushed up his glasses and smiled coldly.
“If you cannot agree to this adjustment.”
“……”
“Starting tomorrow, I will lock Ian Sterling in this office every single day and make him do nothing but paperwork until he withers away. I’ll make him push a pen from sunrise until the moon sets. I’ll work him until he’s nothing but skin and bones, let alone muscle, and make sure he can’t lift anything heavier than a pen.”
“……!!!”
“You know what the Crown Prince’s office is nicknamed, don’t you? You should know very well how many officials who worked here were carried out from overwork.”
The faces of the two, who were well aware of the ominous rumors surrounding the officials of the Crown Prince’s office, said to be overworked day after day, turned pale.
A place said to drag in even ghosts who had died from overwork and make them work; an office so infamous that even ghosts avoided it.
Well, would ghosts even come to a place where the lights never went out, day or night?
Perhaps imagining me turned into a skin-and-bones mummy buried under piles of documents, the two of them recoiled at the same time and shook their heads.
I, too, trembled as I imagined that terrible future.
“…Understood, Brother. I accept.”
“Haa… It can’t be helped. I will follow your mediation plan, Brother.”
“Good. If it’s agreed, shake hands in front of me.”
In the end, the two of them declared a truce, forcing themselves to shake hands with expressions as if they’d chewed on dung.
Before leaving the office, Victoria looked at me and threw me an affectionate remark.
“Just wait a little, Ian. I’ll definitely save you from that ignorant beast. Endure it just a little longer.”
Maximilien stared after Victoria, who had gone off talking like some tragic heroine, as if he found it absurd.
“…Then I’ll be going too, Brother.”
Arthur also tried to trudge out with his shoulders drooping.
Watching his back, Maximilien let out a small chuckle.
“Ian Sterling, you really do have a strange talent in all sorts of ways. You’ve managed to charm all of my cold-blooded siblings, men and women alike. It’s the first time I’ve seen those idiots obsess over someone like this.”
“Pardon? Your Highness, what do you mean……”
“Well, in any case, go exercise with Arthur today. Since you missed yesterday, I’ll allow an exception just for today.”
At those words, Arthur, who had been leaving dejectedly, hurried back into the office.
“Oh! Brother!! I knew you were the best!!”
“Yes, yes.”
“Let’s go! The place where we usually train is still under repair, so we can’t go there, but there are private training grounds all over the capital, so we can go to one of those! Let’s go destroy our legs right now, Ian!!”
Arthur, excited, leapt up and down while swinging his massive fists through the air.
The problem was that the Crown Prince’s office was far too small for Arthur to get excited and rampage in, and his heavy arm just so happened to strike head-on the tower of documents Maximilien had painstakingly stacked in approval order until moments ago.
Flutterrr—!! Crash!
Like a massive flock of birds flapping up into the sky, hundreds of sheets of parchment and important imperial documents scattered mercilessly through the air of the office before tumbling pitifully to the floor.
“……”
In an instant, a suffocating silence settled over the office.
One sheet of paper floating in the air fluttered like a feather and gently landed atop Maximilien’s gold-rimmed glasses.
“Phew.”
The Crown Prince did not move a muscle.
Slowly, with an exceedingly leisurely hand, he removed the paper covering his glasses and closed his eyes.
Griiiind—
In the silent room, the sound of Maximilien grinding his teeth as if his jaw might shatter rang out chillingly.
At last, when he slowly opened his eyes, murderous intent blazed fiercely in his bloodshot violet gaze.
“Uh… B-Brother. M-Mistake. It was my mistake. I’ll p-pick them all up. Just a moment. I just have to pick them up in order, right? Hm?…”
Arthur, who had been so full of himself until just now, turned deathly pale, pouring cold sweat as he backed away.
After grinding his teeth for a long while without even making a sound of breathing, Maximilien muttered in a voice like the growl of a beast, his teeth clenched tight.
“Today’s exercise with Ian Sterling… will be running. No exceptions.”
“B-Brother……!”
“Nothing else is allowed. You are forbidden from going near any chunks of iron. Only running, sweating it out with your own two legs, is permitted. If you disobey my order and go to some training ground, or if word reaches my ears that you lifted even a single barbell……”
“……!”
“Then in the future, there will not be a single training ground left for you to breathe in and exercise in—not in the Imperial Palace, no, not in this imperial citadel, no, not in the entire capital. Because I’ll burn them all down. Do you understand?”
Arthur’s face, which had been cheering as if he’d gained the whole world, instantly wilted like that of a prisoner sentenced to death, and he lowered his head.
“…Let’s go out and run before the sun sets, Ian.”
“Yes, Your Imperial Highness.”
As Arthur and I cautiously tried to leave, the Crown Prince’s murderous voice flew at our backs.
“Walk out on tiptoe. If anyone leaves footprints on the documents, I will never forgive the bastard who did it.”
“Yes, sir…!”
#
After his moronic younger brother and the southern bumpkin prince that brother was obsessed with left, the Crown Prince leaned deeply back in his work chair and let out a heavy sigh.
Yesterday, he had spent a full hour just organizing documents, but the papers overturned today were twice that amount.
“…Arthur, you—!”
At last, unable to contain his pent-up rage, the Crown Prince sprang to his feet—
Bang!
“Agh!”
And screamed as he slammed his knee hard against the desk.
With tears in his eyes, the Crown Prince hopped around the office, and when he finally came to his senses, he confirmed that footprints had been left all over the bundles of documents scattered across the floor and shed a single tear.
“…Fuuuck. Just endure a little longer, just a little longer and Ian will come. I’ll work him to the bone… I’ll work him to the bone…!”
He took off his shoes and began picking up the documents one by one.