To Wear The Crown

15

Walking through the streets of the lower town, it's getting harder to see as the night grows darker, and the houses grow closer together. The streets are fairly desolate as Charlie makes his way to his friend's house. The odd lantern hangs by the doors of buildings, candles flickering inside to brighten the streets in the darkest hours, and help those who travel alone to arrive at their destinations safely. Guardsmen mostly patrol the areas of the lower town that are closest to the castle, so as Charlie ventures further away the number dwindles to those only at the gates to the lower town from the world outside. The quality of the street paths also lessens as they spread like veins from the castle, going from clean cobblestone into dirty pebble dash paths— the main road from the gates to the castle is the only constant high-quality street. Charlie has to watch where he steps as fallen hay litter covers hidden puddles left from the two-day-old rain. As bad as that may sound to some, Charlie is lucky that he and his family live in the Orange district of the lower town.

The lower town is divisible into four districts: purple, orange, green, and grey. The purple district is where the lavished and wealthiest live— the upper-class people. They are mostly business people whose money and lifestyle have been passed down through generations, making it the smallest of the districts. They're people who mostly (about 99 out a hundred times) were born there; it is very unlikely that they would have moved from a lower district. These families will have titles like Lord and Lady or Duke and Duchess. Families are occasionally invited to the castle for events if they hold a high enough status. They live life with no idea of what it is to struggle, though not to the same degree as royals. They may live with a silver spoon in their mouths, the royals' spoon is a diamond. Boys and girls living in the purple district are guaranteed an education from when they are young to their late teens.

The orange district is like the middle class. Life may not be as lavish but is comfortable. People can go about their day with little to worry about. They may be able to relax by being new and upcoming businessmen, but they will still work hard as they know the struggles of getting to where they are. Education is more optional and requires more genuine hard work than money. It is practically mandatory for boys between 6 and 13 to attend some sort of school, they may choose where to attend depending on where they wish to focus their studies. For girls, it is optional to attend in the first place, where most do, however not so many continue past the age of 13. Many of the families living in this district have a family member that works in the castle, as the pay is good and it makes it easier to commute on days they do not wish to stay in the servant quarters. Tao stays at his house rather than the castle about six days of the week— the one day being when he's exhausted or if an event that's left him late behind. Isaac lives in the orange district because his father bought a bookstore to be able to get his son a better education and life. They had previously been living in the green district— fairly close to the orange district— until his father saved enough so they could move. Elle lives on the edge of the orange and green district, which is why she works so much to help provide for her family. Elle wishes to one day to move further into the orange district and away from the dangers of the green, also getting away from those that do not see her for who she is.

The green district is a rough area. The quality of life is poor like the people's income as well as mental and physical health. The children will go to work with the parents as soon as they are capable of walking to places like mills. Living their lives always as expendable workers. Any money earned goes straight to food, and even then it is not enough. It's a life no one wishes to be born into, yet the green district is the largest of them all.

Despite all that, the grey district is the worst of them all. Life in villages outside the lower towns of the castles is better than life in the grey district by no small margin. In the grey district, you are lucky to have one in contact window, even a door that locks. People who live in these areas are usually ex-criminals or wives and children of such humans. Often the children will walk into the other districts to steal or beg for food, and their clothes are never clean. It's also not uncommon to see a woman with multiple children and be pregnant because the police and guardsmen do the bare minimum to protect these areas. There is only one physician who agrees to come into these areas, though it is questionable if what he does is to help these people. The grey district is riddled with sickness and drug abuse. Many people who fall in there struggle to climb back out, let alone make it out alive. Charlie is aware of this district, but thanks to him and his mother having worked in the castle, they can have never had to experience such a life. The prince has no acknowledgement of the grey district as the main road from the castle to outside the lower town, only reaches the green district. The grey district is hidden in the shadows.

These districts have no physical borders to define them, the lines are even blurred a little between them, but you can quickly tell when you've ventured from one to another after a few streets.