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90. Beggar Siblings – Names

– Thud.

In the dark alley, Bart heavily stomped on the ground.

He thought he had walked far enough, but he made a deliberate noise, and his friend, who was ahead, turned around and greeted him warmly.

“Bart! I didn’t have the chance to congratulate you earlier. Truly, congratulations! Your loyalty has finally been rewarded after so long.”

Feeling a throbbing in his chest, Bart closed the distance in silence.

“To think both the Prince and the Princess are alive! What a great blessing!”

This friend named ‘Alvin,’ a knight of the Second Knights Order who had now become middle-aged, had always resonated with Bart since their youth. He was not wasteful, decent, and deeply caring.

They were from the same region, and they had once taken a vacation together to their hometown… Bart buried those memories in his heart and drew his sword.

“Bart? What’s going on…?”

He waited for his friend’s hesitation while aiming the sword.

At least he would give him time to draw his own sword.

Under Bart’s pressure, Alvin awkwardly drew his sword. Even then, he said, “Bart? Why are you doing this? Do you think I would betray the Prince? I have no such intentions! Put down your sword!”

Despite his earnest words, Bart did not lower his sword. He exuded a killing intent, sharpening the air.

The Prince had ordered him to kill him.

“Bart, the person you just brought here… swore false loyalty to me.”

“What? How could the Prince know that…?”

“I have a good eye for people. Unfortunately, he lied. Thus… he must be killed. I’m sorry. It’s not a task for you, so I will send another knight.”

“……No. I will do it.”

Bart gripped the hilt of his sword tightly.

He did not understand how the Prince had discerned that his friend’s oath was false. While Alvin seemed somewhat hesitant when swearing loyalty, it wasn’t remarkable enough to raise suspicion.

However, the Prince seemed convinced he wouldn’t remain loyal, and he… had to obey the order.

But his sword did not move.

Alvin was the friend who had chased after him with an apology when he stormed out of the tavern in anger long ago.

At that time, he thought of Alvin as a coward for refusing to help him seek revenge and coldly slapped his hand away, but after all these years, he could understand Alvin.

He had a family.

Bart’s breath became suffocating. The cold autumn wind felt anything but refreshing.

“Bart! Don’t do this.”

Bart prepared to draw his sword. He firmly gathered his thoughts, but hesitation clearly showed on the sword.

‘Please…’

Feeling Bart’s hesitation, Alvin lowered his head. Understanding why his friend was acting this way, he inclined his sword and confessed.

“…I’m sorry. Actually, I lied when I swore loyalty to the Prince earlier. As you know, I have a wife and children, so I have no courage to get involved in the Prince’s conflicts. I intended to tell you later…”

Phew!

Bart exhaled sharply in relief. He relaxed and lowered his sword.

Thank goodness. Really, thank goodness.

“Thank you for your honesty. In fact, I was testing you.”

The Prince commanded Bart to kill Alvin but, perhaps feeling a bit soft-hearted, added one condition.

Go and gauge his true intentions; if he confessed the truth of his lie, let him live.

Wiping his sweaty palm on his pants, Bart spoke.

“The Prince knows you lied. I came to confirm that. If your situation is as such, then it’s fine. I apologize for pointing my sword at you.”

“No, it’s me who should apologize. You’ve given me two chances, and here I am backing out… I feel ashamed.”

Alvin repeatedly apologized and turned away.

Bart watched his friend’s back and tightly closed his eyes.

‘I’ve made a huge mistake…’

The Prince had ordered him to bring the most trustworthy person. So, he brought Alvin first, and now it had come to this.

He wandered restlessly through the alley. The relief of not having to kill his friend was quickly fading away.

Having more people know of the Prince’s survival before taking action was dangerous. If this were to get out, Prince Eric would raise an army and set out to harm his lord.

‘Should I kill him now?’

Bart’s heart wavered like a reed. The thoughts he had while walking left and right in the alley differed from each other.

The happy days spent sparring with Alvin and the loyalty to the Prince swayed like a seesaw, and that dance of weight finally came to a halt with his steps.

From the right.

His lord would be recorded in history as a great king.

Not only had he spotted the lie at a glance, but he had also considered the hearts of those below him. He could have commanded the killing outright, but he had given a condition to spare his friend.

He had chosen to risk his own safety. The Prince would undoubtedly become a wise and great king.

Respect and guilt clawed at Bart’s heart.

‘…’

This simply wouldn’t do.

He planted his resolve and stomped the ground.

He couldn’t leave even the slightest chance. Even if the Prince said to let him go if he spoke the truth, killing him was the right thing to do. For the birth of a great monarch, my personal feelings were of no importance.

Bart hurriedly chased after Alvin.

But, despite his resolve, he had to stop dead in his tracks after he caught up with his friend.

Alvin’s two sons were there, waiting for their father.

The now-grown children, accepting their father’s sword, were asking why he was late. They heard Alvin’s voice making excuses about the training taking too long.

The murderous intent Bart had been begrudgingly fueling faded weakly away.

He could just kill them all, but…

That friend had boasted about his children like a fool. One was to be enlisted in the knights, while he promised to raise the other as a royal knight. He didn’t even realize that having both a knight and a royal knight from the same family wasn’t acceptable.

‘They’ve really grown up…’

Bart sighed. Pressed beneath the long shadows of the three of them, he could do nothing but exhale.

The memories of his beloved, no, loved wife and children floated up in his mind…

Unlike that friend, I abandoned my spouse and children. Obsessed with revenge, I did not seek her out, and when I returned here with the Prince, ten years had passed, and she had completely vanished.

Where had she gone?

Was she doing well?

How did my children grow up? Surely, they must resent their indifferent father…

Bart couldn’t harm Alvin. He found no courage to thrust a blade into his friend’s devoted life.

After lingering near his friend’s home, he eventually turned away. As he returned to the hideout disguised as a family house, the Prince was just finishing tucking the Princess in, carefully closing the door.

“Prince, I apologize.”

Bart bared his mind.

After sending Alvin back for confessing his false loyalty, he reconsidered it to be too dangerous and attempted to kill him again but couldn’t bring himself to do it.

“I have committed a grave sin. Please send another knight. Alvin’s home is…”

The Prince’s gesture silenced him.

Seeing this valuable tool and knight hesitating made the Prince not frown even once.

He seemed a bit concerned as he glanced at the Princess’s room, but he spoke calmly.

“No. Sir Bart, it is my fault for putting you in this position. I became too focused on gathering knights and neglected your feelings. I will be more careful in collecting knights in the future.”

He placed a hand on Bart’s shoulder to comfort him.

“I trust your judgment, Sir Bart. That knight Alvin values his family, so he won’t betray us. You must have had a hard time because of my incompetence… Please accept a drink as an apology.”

“Oh, no. Prince, you are too humble. You’re saying such absurd things. And how could I accept a drink from you? That wouldn’t be appropriate.”

He hurriedly declined, but that night, Bart quietly trembled while sharing a few drinks with the Prince. He thought the last ten years he dedicated to this man were not wasted at all.

His drunken gaze remained fixed outside the window.

*

“Oy, thank you. I’ll come again if I hear any more news.”

A thug grinned slyly as he tucked the coin he received into his waistband. The man who handed over the coin watched the thug walk away happily and then entered the family house.

“Did it go well?”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Leo’s family (or whatever it is) was facing pressure from other families. Worried that their own interests might be threatened, they often sent thugs to spy on the surroundings.

A family, pfft! Just a couple of knights could wipe them out, but for Leo, who needed to lay low, it wasn’t a welcomed situation. Thus, he expressed his intention to operate as an information dealer, which was the least likely to cause conflict with other families.

Leo made a window in front of the family house, inscribing the symbol of an information dealer—a lip pattern—throughout the alley.

Of course, he had no intention of selling information, so the painted pattern didn’t have any tongue.

Once he declared his position, the thugs’ surveillance noticeably decreased, but they still came by frequently. The already dark alley saw even more aimless thugs roaming around since the rumors spread that an information dealer was set up.

“What’s the news?”

“Nothing particularly useful. It’s more normal than usual. They say the ‘Grania Orphanage’ will be reducing the number of children they take in starting next year due to financial difficulties…”

The knight shrugged, gesturing as if to say it didn’t matter, and Leo didn’t care either.

Information brought to him by thugs generally turned out to be worthless.

For instance, some Mr. Momo from a merchant group brought in beauty products that were supposedly trending in the Belita Kingdom, but they turned out to be a complete scam—so what does that even mean?

Sometimes, they would inform him about the movements of large families that occupied Rutina, but that was also not a concern for Leo.

“Is Jenia Jaqueri here yet?”

“She should arrive soon. She’s running a bit late.”

“Once she gets here, bring her to my room.”

Leo ascended the stairs and left the lobby. He stopped by his sister’s room, pulled her cheek while she was reading, and received a complaint, (“Hey! Why do you keep pinching my face? You’re really getting out of hand!”), before entering his own room. His room was so sparsely furnished that it hardly seemed fit for a prince.

Who could it be that has such a habit of pinching faces? The bulky Leo Dexter? The taciturn Leo from Demos? Or maybe Minseo?

Who knows?

Leo de Yeriel chuckled and gave a light laugh before moving on to other thoughts.

He had been gathering information on the nobles lately.

When he unofficially adopted into the Tatian family in the previous beggar siblings scenario, he had learned about the political situation in the Conrad Kingdom.

However, the information gathered from other countries only provided a rough outline. That was all due to Marquis Benard Tatian enjoying collecting information; most families were indifferent to foreign political matters.

Unless one’s territory was very close to another kingdom, or the information was profitable, or if it was something that could easily become gossip, there would be little interest.

Therefore, Leo sought out to gather information on the movements of the nobles with the thought of ‘perhaps this might be helpful.’

The sources? Knights.

[ Achievement: Master-Servant Relationship – ’88’, as long as loyalty is not shaken, those who swear allegiance believe in and follow Leo. ]

The knights who had sworn allegiance to follow Leo were rapidly increasing.

After Bart returned without being able to bring himself to kill the knight he had brought, he ordered caution in bringing companions. Yet, as more came, the momentum only grew.

Fortunately, there weren’t many knights who would falsely swear loyalty like Alvin.

They rejoiced at the revival of the legitimate prince, who had been expelled ten years ago, and yearned for an adventure that any knight would dream of—restoring the wrongfully ousted prince.

Unless a significant event like war occurred, the knights only repeated their grueling training day after day without an opportunity to earn honor, which was not peculiar at all.

However, they could only recruit a handful of royal knights to protect the royal family.

Though they would be glad about the revival of the prince, being royal knights, it was not easy for them to blindly support one prince. Moreover, Prince Eric de Yeriel likely had his influence over them, so discretion was required to draw them in.

In any case, as new knights swore loyalty to him, Leo would seat them, asking various questions.

Curious if there might be useful information related to the nobles…

Sadly, useful information was hard to come by.

The knights were reeking of bachelorhood, and the information they knew about nobles was mostly related to beautiful young ladies.

For example, it was said that the young lady of the ‘Wileend Count family’ had some scandal with the knight who was escorting her; once that got out, the count got angry, and ultimately, the knight and the young lady eloped, or so the rumor went.

Feeling sorry for the knight who had made quite the fuss about it, Leo sank deeply into his chair, lost in thought.

‘Who will I end up marrying?’

Considering he would likely marry either a young lady from some noble family or a princess from another kingdom after reclaiming his bloodline and becoming a prince was reasonable.

However, since there was a high likelihood of needing to clear all three scenarios, he might have to marry his childhood friend Lena. After all, he’s a prince, and once married to him, Lena would become a princess.

‘Not that I particularly have someone in mind, but I wouldn’t want to…’

Leo de Yeriel, who knew the boy in the childhood friend scenario better than anyone, found this thought unsatisfactory.

That Leo had feelings for that Lena.

He had only stepped back to respect Lena’s desire to become a priest, but the truth of his feelings was hardly that simple.

As Leo de Yeriel contemplated this back and forth, he clicked his tongue and wrapped up his musings. He hadn’t even become a prince and here he was thinking too far ahead.

– Knock, knock.

“Your Highness, Jenia has arrived.”

“Let her in.”

At his call, a tanned female knight entered and bowed.

“I greet Your Highness.”

Leo lightly returned the greeting and placed her in a seat.

As usual, he asked the newly recruited knight if she had any useful information regarding the nobles.

He no longer had much expectation, but instinctively, one never knows, and for Leo, hiding in the family house, there wasn’t much else to do.

Sure enough, most of the stories this knight shared turned out to be useless gossip…

Leo was startled and asked back.

“What? Gustave Monarch?”

“Yes. It’s almost certain that Gustave Monarch is the son of Cardinal Berg.”

An unexpected name popped up.

Gustave.

It was a name Leo was quite familiar with. It wasn’t a common name.

It was the same name as Count Gustave Peter, the nobleman who recognized Leo’s true identity in the Belita Kingdom and who was a friend of Marquis Benard Tatian.