Roman had managed to find his way back to the kitchen after his bath. He had happily relaxed in the water, eaten, and then helped Janus more until he was too tired to do anything before falling asleep. The next few days went like that, Roman being pushed to his brink physically, but always getting the reward of the bath in the morning. If he was being honest, doing manual labor was a nice break for once. His life in the castle had predominantly been studying he had had to prepare for his role of king. It got boring, and though manual labor wasn't as creatively enriching as he hoped, it did afford him the time to sing to himself or tell stories to pass the time. His mind was able to wander but he continued to remind himself that he had to stay on guard. Remus was a challenge he didn't want to face. He was able to avoid him over the week, but Roman was still trying to figure out what the dragon was planning with a copy of him.
Even if he didn't live in the castle, Roman wanted to protect his people.
Janus finally told him that he had helped as much as he could for now and was free to do whatever he wanted. What Roman wanted was to figure out what the dragon had planned, what use could he have for Roman, but he didn't even know where to start. He ended up exploring the caves most of the day. It was uneventful and didn't give him any further insight, but he felt more comfortable knowing a bit more about his surroundings. He felt mildly satisfied as he settled into his bed for the night, expecting a satisfying rest as he had had every night before.
He wasn't expecting to be woken up only a few hours after falling asleep.
"I have questions and you are going to answer them."
Remus was sitting on top of him, and Roman attempted to shove him off. "Get off of me cretin!" He scrambled to sit up, Remus' wide eyes staring at him.
"Answers, now!"
"Who attacks someone in their sleep to ask questions?"
"Who avoids their twin for a week? Oh right, spineless little jellyfish."
Roman groaned. "If I answer your stupid questions will you let me go back to sleep?"
Remus nodded and Roman preceded to rub his face slowly. "Alright, what do you want to know?"
"Who are you?"
"I am Roman Soterios, Prince of Nevarci, who are you?"
Remus rolled his eyes, "that doesn't tell me who you are, that just tells me your title dumbass. I want to know who you are, why you look like me, I want inside your skin!"
"I don't understand what you mean!"
Remus sighed and rolled his eyes, again. "I am the son of a dragon. I was found in the forest as a baby. I like exploring things and learning about this weird world we have and once when I was a kid I thought I was a dragon and tried to jump out of a tree. That's who I am."
The confusion was written all over Roman's face but he opened his mouth. "Um, I am the son of the king and queen. I was born and raised to be the next heir to the throne. I have been taught about world politics and cultures since my birth, and when I was a kid I thought I would be able to slay a dragon to prove I was a hero."
Remus obviously wasn't satisfied with that answer, but he moved on to what seemed to be more important to him. "Rude, what did the dragons ever do to you?"
"Hey! I was raised to believe that dragons are vile and vicious creatures. That their only goal is to exploit their own selfish desires."
"So?"
"So, so that's not noble, and they have so much power that they could easily hurt others in their desire for selfish gain."
"And yet somehow a bunch of humans killed most of them."
"Well... yes..."
"And you never found that suspicious."
"No, I just thought the humans were cunning or something."
"Pfft, humans are the ones who exploited dragons and then turned against them at the first sign of trouble. You aren't some breed of noble saviors, you are just a bunch of conquerors."
Roman gasped, letting out an offended noise. "Excuse you!"
"And, like, were you raised with all of this are you just naturally that pig-headed?"
"Those are the stories of my people!"
"Yeah, well your stories are wrong. Janus is the best dad in the world." Remus' voice had grown softer, and he was picking at his pants. "Janus taught me about the world, but also taught me about my worth, and... and I don't care that I didn't have other parents." He straightened his shoulders. "Your parents sound bad anyway."
"Don't talk about my dad that way!"
When Remus turned to look at him, Roman saw it written all over the other man's face. 'Your dad but not your mom.' His face flushed with embarrassment.
"Or...or my mom." Though his voice was less sure.
"What was she like?"
"She... she was strick. I know she just wanted what was best for me."
"Did you ever get the chance to just be a kid and do kid stuff?"
Roman opened his mouth, wanting to answer yes, but he knew he hadn't. When other children in the castle, usually the children of servants, were playing he would be studying, daydreaming of a day when he could call the shots.
"Yeah, that's what I thought. I'm glad they chose me instead of you."
"What do you mean?"
"Dad was talking to pops about how your culture has some weird thing about twins, so our parents must have gotten rid of me or something."
"No! That's... they..." But his mother would have, wouldn't she? Roman rested his head on his knees. His mother was very superstitious and probably would have tried to find a way to erase the fact that she had had twins.
"It's fine, I just wanna know why."
Roman looked up at him confused.
"Why they didn't want me, duh. I don't really care, but I'm curious."
"Twins are seen as a bad omen. There is a belief that if a family has twins they are cursed to experience much hardship. Which I guess is kind of true considering we lost my father when I was young."
"Sorry, I guess, but you know that's just life sometimes. I've watched the animals, and sometimes one of the parents dies. It's not because they are cursed, it's just how the world works."
"Yeah, but now the heir, ME, isn't there to take over the kingdom."
"Your choice, not fate or anything else."
"Well, what about the curse?"
"A dragon cast that because your family is a bunch of assholes."
Roman opened his mouth to retort but he knew Remus was right, and it made him angry. "Fine, so I just come from a long line of awful people. What now?"
"How am I supposed to know? I mean, you are already working with Dad, so maybe ask him. I just wanted to know why you grew up in a castle and I grew up with a dragon, but I think I get it now. It's nothing that I did, it's just because my birth mom is kind of a superstitious bitch."
"Are you always this crude?"
"Yeah, pretty much. But I like myself." Remus turned to Roman, "Do you?"
That wasn't a question that Roman was willing to answer so he threw a pillow at Remus, he was kind of surprised he was able to, but probably because his intention wasn't to injure him. "Get out, I'm tired."
"Ight! I got what I wanted. Bye Prince of Lame." Remus slipped out of the room, throwing the pillow back at Roman before closing the door, leaving Roman alone with his thoughts.
He liked himself, right? He was everything he wanted to be, a fighter, a good prince, but, then again, he didn't have those things anymore. He was bound not to fight the people around him by the mark on his wrist, and he could no longer be the prince that became king. Who was he when he stripped those things away?
"I am Roman Soterios, Prince of Nevarci." The words felt hollow, and he pulled the pillow over his face in frustration.
[Section Break]
About a mile away from the mountain stood a lone campfire just on the edge of the woods. A young man, about Roman's age, sat by it, studying a scroll he had brought with him. "You have not made this easy on me your highness," he pushed up his glasses before rolling up the scroll and smothering the fire with the dirt he had collected, leaving it as just a few embers to keep him warm. "I will find you, Roman. Just hold on."
AN: Sorry it's a week late, last week felt really long for me and I just couldn't get myself to update. Thank you for your patience! I have another story to edit but maybe I can get another chapter out tomorrow.