Prince of Pride (Evillious Chronicle × Trash of the Count's Family fanfic)

Chapter 15: Little Brother

AN:

Alver or Alberu. I'm so confused about what should I use. Reading Totcf I got used to Alberu. However, since Alver is the official I would use the official one.

Sorry.

Chapter 15: Little Brother

     Alver Crossman is the Crown Prince of the Roan Kingdom. One of the most influential people in the Kingdom. Nonetheless, being the Crown Prince isn't easy.

Being Part of the Royal Family of the Roan Kingdom, it was guaranteed that you wouldn't live a normal life. It was a struggle for survival and power.

Conspiracies and scheming are normal. The relationship between the Crossman siblings is distant at best. Hostility and bearing a grudge at its worst.

The Queen and concubines are scheming for their children. Doing their best to remove Alver from the pedestal. King Zed Crossman – his father, on the other hand, Alver's relationship with him was complicated.

He was favored once by his father. His Aunt and Mother used to tell him how his father had built the Joy Palace for him because of his birth. At the present, with his mother dead and Alver living his childhood in isolation and loneliness most of the time, even though there was his aunt to protect him from the shadows, it was easy to tell that he wasn't the one favored by his father anymore.

It was his little brother.  The 3rd Prince of Roan Kingdom.

Today, he was called by his Father so early to discuss things with him. Arriving in the throne room, Alver was calm and composed. The complicated feelings regarding his father and the secrets that he was keeping from him are buried within the deep recesses of his mind.

Alver and his father exchanged pleasantries and started their discussion. The King asks him questions while Alver answers them.  The King finds loopholes in his question while Alver defends and counter-attacks the King's reasons and judgments.

However, while they were deep in their conversations, someone entered the throne room.

It was rushed footsteps.

No one of the guards stopped the person or the person was too fast for them to respond to it.

Alver's eyes widened when he saw his half-brother Alexis spreading his hands wide and asking.

" Can I have a hug, Father?  "

However, before the King could respond, Alexis showed an impatient expression. He rushed towards the King and initiated the hug clinging to the King like a bothersome leech.

Alver and the guards become more surprised.

" Prince! "

" King! "

Various guards called out.

The King also appears to be surprised, before his expression turns to annoyance, exasperation, and finally calm and forgiveness. Gesturing to the guards, he orders them.

" Remain in your positions. "

Glancing at the smiling Alexis, the king sighed.

" Did you have fun outside? "

" Yes, Father! I have seen a lot of lots of things! Funny and sparkly things! "

Watching the King (father) and his half-brother Alexis interact, Alver feels various complicated emotions.

His half-brother Alexis...

Among his other siblings, Alver considers him the least threatening.

Alexis' mother is a prostitute who became one of the king's concubines.

Alexis' mother is very beautiful compared to other humans. However, unlike her beautiful appearance, Alver considers Alexis' mother as one of the most unpleasant stepmothers that Alver acquired.

She was cunning and deceptive like the rest. Seducing the king with her beauty and intentionally getting herself pregnant with the king. Using her children to climb to status and power. Using her love and care towards her children and turning her children against their other siblings. Conditioning her children to treat their siblings like an enemy at such a young age and scheming various means to make the other concubines fall in favor.

Concubine Anna is a despicable woman. In Alver's childhood, he doesn't see the concubine in a positive light. Now as a man, his impression of her becomes worse when he discovers the various schemes that she has cooked in the castle for the sake of power and favor of the king.

She was considered the least favored concubine of the King. His father doesn't even intend to take her as a concubine in the first place. It was because she became pregnant that the King decided to take her from a brothel. Bearing the King's children is her only saving grace.

However, despite disliking Concubine Anna, Alver considered his half-little brother Alexis pitiful.

Just like him, Alexis' mother was assassinated. It wasn't only his mother who died but his twin sister.

Alexis' mother and twin sister died in a gruesome and brutal way and Alexis was there as a witness and a victim of those horrible assassins who infiltrated the Flower Palace.

On the brink of near death saved by the timely arrival of the King, and guards and healed by the healer.

But even with his body intact, his half-brother's mind didn't survive the encounter of that day.

He became a useless husk. An emotionless doll and puppet that was manipulated and tended by the servants to survive as per orders of the King.

To live without reason or purpose, why did the King even let his half-brother live a painful existence? He should have granted him mercy and spared him the pain.

Gazing at his half-brother who was clinging to the King tightly and so childishly, it seems that the King has made the correct choice.

From being a doll to a fool...

Alver considers it an improvement.

Alexis is getting better.

Amongst his half-siblings, Alver considers him the least threatening. 

And according to the recent events on Alexis' 13th birthday that Alver didn't bother to attend, the ignorant child decided to give up the throne in favor of traveling and playing around the Roan Kingdom.

It was also irresponsible of the King to leave Alexis around with only one servant while traveling around the Roan Kingdom. It was a relief for Alver and it didn't affect him when Alexis gave up fighting for the throne.

Nothing much has changed aside from those nobles who intended to use his little brother going to the 3rd prince so that they could gain his favor and leech on him.

However, with Alexis getting better as years passed, maybe once he became better, The King would gain their answers on who was the perpetrator behind Concubine Anna and Princess Rianne's death.

There was a chance, that the death of his mother and their death were connected.

Alexis can't die now that he is getting better.

He was an important key so he could finally take his revenge.