Chapter one: Impoverished Prince

Authors Note

Thank you to anyone reading this novel, as of here and right now this is my first novel. At the time of writing, I don’t have any writing experience in making long form series or really any story meant to be consumed for enjoyment. Since I'm against Ai replacing artists I even am going out of my way to draw everything for this series. Most of the time chapters will be without art, however if there is any big or impactful moments I will make sure to draw them for your pleasure.

Chapter One

Impoverished Prince

My mother was sold off as a concubine to the king of Venreere when she was young, so I wouldn’t know what age she was sold at. I never really knew my dad at all. And now that there’s the threat of going to war with a neighboring kingdom, my dad all of the sudden wants to act fatherly and set me up with some princesses. How it usually has gone for the past two years is some lady named Rebecca from my dad’s palace will come in a fancy horse carriage—Throw some new fancy clothes at me and my mom.

And then she takes us from our little miserable home, scratch that, it’s more like a shack. However, my mom isn’t right in her head, Rebecca told me my dad abused her so badly her mind broke. To cope she convinced herself she was the queen, which prompted her to name me “Arthur” after the legend of King Arthur of course—

My thoughts were quickly interrupted as my mom turned to me and hugged me. I had failed again—I had failed to romance the third princess. The horse carriage rocked back and forth, tonight, it was going to happen again. We’re going to arrive back at me and my mom’s shitty shack, we call home. Rebecca was going to have the guards strip us in the streets and take back the nice clothes they let us borrow. And me and my mom go into our house, find our glorified rags we call clothes and wait for a few months, usually around two for them to find me another princess.

I’ve been alone most of my life, my mentally disabled mother doesn’t make for good conversation and I’m usually the one taking care of her. I don’t think I’ve ever had a friend, and I don’t think I’ve ever had a good meal before this whole ordeal. So even though it sucks that I’m terrible with girls I tried my best, me and my mom get to live in luxury for 6 months every 2 months or so. It’s not all bad, for example I’ve been malnourished my entire 16 years of life. And now because of these temporary arrangements living in castles and fancy rooms with good food I’ve started to grow a little more—although I’m still scrawny.

Maybe that’s why none of the princesses liked me enough to keep me there, I mean I’d imagine when a princess hears about a poor prince coming to try and get you to fall in love with him, they probably imagined a tall 16-year-old with boyish charm who was just the right amount of witty.

Every first meeting went similarly; the girl’s maid would come and introduce me to the princess. The princess wouldn’t even bother hiding her look of disappointment. And then for 6 months I’d try and get her to be friends with me, just friends and yet every time I’ve tried to strike up a conversation with them, they would barely even say a word. Usually turn the other cheek. And not in a cute way! I’d be walking down the halls to go do something like get a book, maybe ask for some food. Then we’d see each other, make eye contact, and then she’d kind of look down in the opposite direction and frown. Ya’know I’m starting to get the impression I’m just not built for the Royal life—

Bam! And thus, again my thoughts were interrupted this time by us hitting a stone over the road, I mean a cobble road doesn’t exactly lead to the most comfortable riding experience

“Get out we’re here!”

“Oh, sweety are they going to throw us out again?! They should know to treat the queen better”

“They will… but it’s ok mom I’ll be here to keep you warm and safe till’ we get in the house.”

Crack! The door to the carriage swung open violently, causing my mom to flinch. A man in knightly armor peered in through the small doorway

“Get out”

And that was all it took for me for to relinquish my seat in the carriage. I got up quickly, gently tugging and pulling my mother with me. We hopped down and off the steps and then soon after we were both grabbed by our arms.

“Give back the clothes we gave you”

I wasn’t going to argue with the knights, I’m sure they didn’t want to be here anymore than we did. So, I complied… However, a certain someone who I’m sure needs not to be mentioned did not.

“Gyah! Don’t touch me!”

I placed my hand on my mom’s shoulder, trying to calm her down,

“Hey mom it’s ok, don’t you remember? This happens every time- “

“Let go!”

She kept thrashing about for a solid minute, I didn’t want this to take any longer than it needed to, so I took my fancy clothes off and gave them to the knight. Although I must admit it never gets less humiliating standing out here in nothing but my underwear. It’s not all bad—since it was nighttime no one could see. The scene was only dimly lit by the lamps the knights carried.

“Fine but just let go of me!”

She’d finally given in; I was honestly a little relieved. I was getting cold out here! I trotted my way towards the entrance of my home, opening the door and closing it behind me to not let in a draft.

“Now where did we leave our clothes again?’ I muttered under my breath.

Our home was a single room with a table, two chairs, bed, and nightstand. That was all that we were left with.

I began to pull open the drawers to the nightstand, it sat to the right of the bed. First drawer, empty, second drawer, my mom’s clothes. I pulled out her clothes, there was a tunic and a moderately long patchy skirt. I flung open the door jogging outside just in time to see my mom handing the knights her folded clothes.