The kingdom of Glanzreich stands tall, bathed in bright sunlight. From the royal palace, the sprawling kingdom looks somewhat glittering, true to its name. It truly is so captivating that one might just spend their entire morning sitting in a comfortable armchair near the large glass windows, sipping piping hot coffee from a ceramic mug with a good book in hand and gazing out, now and then. Alas, I do not have the luxury to do so. Being the Royal Tutor and having the responsibility to groom four headache-inspiring princes into worthy candidates for the kingdom's throne doesn't give one time for oneself. However, some of that golden light steals in through the wide open windows to fill the spacious room, lighting up an (ahem) short figure and his very bored-looking charge.
Sparing the view a brief glance, I lightly tidy up my messy side table and peer over my glasses at Leonhard, who seems to be squirming in his seat. It is the better part of the day - given the natural light - and the worst part of the day for Leonhard, I believe.
"Madri has a very unique culture," I tap my teacher's pointer on the blackboard for emphasis, "Also, the history of the kingdom is very profound... Prince Leonhard, are you listening?"
The prince stares straight out of the window behind the blackboard, not even pretending to look at it. And to think that I am avoiding the same window in order to concentrate...
"Prince Leonhard?"
"Does it look like I have a choice?"
He's at it again... " Do you wish for a choice? \" I watch him carefully. He just grumbles in response, twirling a pen between his slender fingers. Very elegant of him - as he would usually be throwing a tantrum by now.
Choice, huh?
Well, time for a much-needed lesson.
I put down my pointer on the side table and walk up to his desk.
"Your Highness," I deepen my voice to drive my point home, "You are a prince and a potential candidate for the throne of this kingdom. It is absolutely required of the future king to have good knowledge of the neighboring kingdoms' history, culture, language and geography, among other things, in order to establish strong relations with them. If you are serious about being amply eligible for the throne, please do not take your studies lightly. Are we clear?" I try not to let irritation lace my voice. Leonhard stares at me with blank eyes. Then, as the meaning of my words dawn upon him, his face shifts from baffled to startled, and then settles on infuriated.
"I'm not..." Leonhard groans in frustration, "Fine. Whatever. I'm still annoyed anyway."
"Of course, you're fully entitled to." I pick up my pointer once more, " Shall we continue then?"
"God, you're ANNOYING!" He exhales, "Yes, PLEEEEASE do..."
"Good." I turn back towards the blackboard and start writing. " As I was saying, Madri has a very complicated history, so we will study it later." I get the feeling that a pair of eyes are watching me very warily. "For now, we shall focus on the geography of Madri and- "
"Heine..."
"Yes prince?"
"Don't do that!"
I blink, completely taken aback. "Pardon?"
Leonhard makes a point of not looking at me. "The way you just launched into a lecture about being future king and stuff, it's really... scary. Also, you start to use such hard-to-understand words like potential, vast and eligible..."
Those words are hard to understand for a 15 year old. Alright.
He's uncomfortable with this topic and tries to avoid it at all costs - and of course, I smack him in the face with it. My bad.
"My sincere apologies, your highness." I speak with genuine regret, as making him uncomfortable is the least of my intentions. Also, it increases the chances of him picking up the habit of running away once more.
"Do you..." He hesitates once, biting his lip, "Do you really think that I can be a good king?"
And here we go again. He has been asking the same question again and again ever since Eins called him, in short, most unfit to ascend Glanzreich's throne.
I look up at Leonhard.
My height... just kill me NOW.
Oi prince, grow up first. You're still too young to be worrying about such things. When I was your age, my chief worries used to be how to get food for over a dozen bawling kids and whether their threadbare clothes will last for even a fortnight or not. Okay, I know that even this is not part of a usual 15 year old's daily worries either. Leonhard and I seem to be on the bow and stem of the same boat, I guess.
Viktor, this is why I hate you. Making someone like me responsible for Glanzreich's future. A commoner with a pitch black past. A person so insensitive to others' weaknesses that he hurts his own pupil's feelings and makes the pupil, a prince no less, question his own potential. There was a time when I used to take advantage of these same weaknesses in order to get by each single day. But now, I'm... different. Or at least, the circumstances are.
I sigh, making Leonhard jump. "Why do you wish to be king, Your Highness?"
"Wha..." Leonhard stands up and as expected, starts screaming, "HEY - I AM THE ONE ASKING QUESTIONS! WHO ARE YOU TO THROW A QUESTION BACK AT ME INSTEAD OF ANSWERING?!"
I will soon be needing a pair of earmuffs at this rate.
"Just answer the question, Prince." And spare me the grief.
Leonhard huffs," Fine." He scrunches up his face and gives a very compelling performance of facial expressions for the best part of a minute, which passes for deep thinking on Leonhard's part. As for me, I like to believe that my face has gone red from trying not to laugh.
"I..."
I force myself to put up a poker face and turn towards the struggling prince, "Yes?"
"I... don't know..."
"..." After thinking for half a minute, THIS is what Leonhard comes up with? I nearly choke with laughter and manage to cover it with a loud cough.
"HEINE, YOU'RE CHOKING!"
Don't get started now...
"I am fine, Your Highness. No need to worry."
Just do me a favor and stop screaming. I AM old enough to get a heart attack, even though I don't look the part.
I turn towards the blackboard and start writing. Leonhard walks up behind me. "What are you doing?"
"Merely helping you with your answer." I use my teacher's pointer to point out the options I wrote, "Prince Licht is undecided upon this matter. Prince Bruno wants to essentially follow in the footsteps of your father. Prince Kai has the motivation to work for the welfare of the people, which is why he is vying for the throne. Your eldest brother, Prince Eins, wants to be king because frankly, he believes himself to be the only one eligible to ascend the throne and thinks that he is doing the kingdom a favor. So, why do you want to be king?"
"I can't believe that you just made a bullet list on the blackboard." Leonhard murmurs. It's a teaching habit... I ignore him and go on, "Perhaps you wish to prove Prince Eins wrong of his belief that you are the most incompetent to be king amongst all of your brothers?" Frankly, Eins seemed more likely to nominate Princess Adele to the throne than Prince Leonhard. Even his word were unduly... rude. Knowing Leonhard, I would not be too surprised if he is aiming to be king in order to spite Eins and make him eat his words. Not that I would terribly mind that.
"Ya, but... that's not the only reason why."
I look at Leonhard, who suddenly seems to find the carpet very interesting.
"Care to elaborate?"
"Uh..."
He looks almost longingly at the disaster diaries piled up on a side of his study table. He has not touched those in three months now. I clear my throat and walk over to the table, nonchalantly picking up a diary and pretending to read it. I can hear him shifting from leg to leg.
"Yes?" Just spit it out. Don't make me go over to the window and start reading aloud your disaster diary to the world.
His eyes widen as he realizes my intentions. I stare back at him. Yes, I am a wicked man and yes, I can be much worse if I want to.
Leonhard mumbles under his breath.
"A little bit louder?" I prompt him.
"CARROTS!"
I blink in surprise," Pardon?" Out of all the things I had been expecting, carrots were definitely not a choice.
Leonhard pouts," Eins is like a carrot. I hate him."
Staring at my charge incredulously, I imagine his brain to be functioning on another level. Something like 'I hate Eins. I hate carrots. So, Eins is a carrot.'
"Please explain?"
Leonhard makes an impatient face at my question, "Of course a commoner like you won't understand."
The link between an ever-brooding royal and an orange-colored vegetable, and the everlasting impact it has on a prince's determination to be king one day? No, I never will.
"As you know, I absolutely loath bell peppers and carrots." Leonhard's face became quite comically serious, "I sometimes even have nightmares where I have to fight them off."
In a moment of off-guardedness, I am seized by a rather disturbing image of Leonhard standing guard at Glanzreich's border in full battle armor while an immense army of larger-than-life bell peppers and carrots charge at him from all sides...
Leonhard stops talking and looks at me with suspicion. "Heine, ARE YOU LAUGHING AT ME?"
"Of course I am not, Your Highness." I reply, wiping my eyes with my coat's sleeve and focusing on dissolving the bubbles of laughter still climbing up my throat, "It's just that the seriousness of the situation sort of... eluded me. Please continue."
Leonhard huffs, but continues anyway. " I don't like vegetables in general, but bell peppers and carrots are my most sworn enemies. Heine," He narrowed his eyes," don't YOU have any vegetables you don't like?
"Hm..."I pick up my teacher's pointer and twirl it in my hands, thinking about what my student has asked me," I believe not, Prince."
Leonhard turns around so quickly that he collides with me and almost sends me flying across the room. I hastily back away from his vicinity. The last thing I want to hear from Viktor will be 'Today Helene told me that Leonhard sent a child sprawling across the room. I wonder if it was you... ' Another variation of his ridiculous jokes about my height. It's been thirty years, but that kind of joke still manages to irk me. Maybe because now Viktor is a giant compared to what he was then, while I have pretty much remained the same...
"This cannot be true!" Leonhard points towards me, " You're bluffing! You absolutely cannot LOVE vegetables!"
" It was a necessity, so I have never thought about loving or hating a vegetable."
"Necessity?"
"Yes, Your Highness. As your father told you, I grew up on the streets." I can feel Leonhard getting nervous. Yes, my past - the same topic which caused an unprecedented uproar in the palace and involved a suggestive article in the tabloid, the princes finding out that I was once arrested for attempting to assassinate the then crown prince, Viktor breaking his promise to tell the princes about my past, me resigning, then getting dragged in again after they poured their heart out before the council and fought for me in order to defend their claim that I am the most suitable Royal Tutor for them.
Before that day, I used to belittle my own self by believing that a lowly commoner like me, with a scandalous past no less, was the last person to be eligible for such a revered post. But Viktor's sons made me see otherwise. Even after I returned to the palace, they were careful not to make me feel bad - often acting abnormal in the process - and dropping by my room to talk now and then about practically nothing (Think Licht talking about discipline and Leonhard chirping about coffee... frankly, it was frightening.), just to ensure that I hadn't left again. It took a whole month for things to go back to normal.
"Children like me, who had only themselves to rely on, had a particularly difficult childhood. We were just glad to be able to fill our empty stomachs whenever we had the chance. We didn't have the luxury to choose where our next meal comes from and what it consists of. So, we never stopped to think about what we hated or were fond of. We were too pressed to just survive."
Any other royal tutor would have had shied away from this topic, but not me. I have seen it firsthand, and know that it is too real to be glossed over. Also, I believe that the future king must be made aware of these problems so that they don't happen in his reign.
Leonhard nodded, biting his lip. "It must have had been hard..."
"I'm afraid so, Your Highness."
"...having to eat bell peppers and carrots because you didn't have any other choice. It's so very cruel... I feel for you, Heine."
And I feel as if I am going to have a massive headache for a while.
The huge clock in the hallway chimes eleven, signaling the end to Leonhard's ordeal. I don't believe the fact that we started out on Madri's culture and ended up on bell peppers and carrots in the end.
"About bell peppers..." Leonhard hesitates.
I fold my arms and look at him. After a bit of an internal battle, I have decided to get to the root of the matter and start by asking Leonhard why he particularly disliked the two vegetables. I have a feeling that there's more to it then what meets the eye.
Leonhard looks in my direction and I think about giving him a reassuring smile. But I don't. I guess it will come out as a scowl anyway. Instead, I keep looking at him with a perfectly poker face.
"Bell peppers are... rude. They don't think about your taste buds and just barge in. And they are bitter. I hate bitter. Why can't they be sweet?"
I don't think I would be able to stomach a sweet bell pepper.
"They are like commoners..."
"So, you wish to say that I am a bell pepper for you?"
"NO! I mean, yes, but..." He avoids making eye contact, "You are, like, a better type of bell pepper. You know, like a sweet bell pepper, or maybe, a chocolate-flavored bell pepper?"
At this point, I don't know whether I am supposed to laugh or cry. Unknowingly, Leonhard has just made me want to sink into the ground. Out of all things to be compared with, a chocolate-flavored bell pepper?!
It is most definitely one of the worst compliments I have ever received.
Leonhard looks almost dreamy at this point.
"Prince."
"But," Leonhard straightens up, "Carrots are worse."
"How so?"
"Carrots are much, much worse than bell peppers. Bell peppers tell you outright that they are bitter, but carrots..." Leonhard makes a strange face, " They look sweet and juicy. You think that they are the best. But when you bite into them, they turn out to have the most horrendous flavor an eatable can ever have, all grey and tasteless and stuff. They're..." He scrunches up his face, "Like those people who are different than what they seem to be. People who come and talk to father about trade and stuff and scoff behind his back. People who hurt others because they are better than them and they can't stomach that. People who write bad things about people they don't even know properly." I flinch at the last part, well aware of what Leonhard was talking about - the scandalous and inconsiderate article published in the tabloid that led to all the drama.
"Your Highness, it's-"
"No, YOU LISTEN!" Leonhard practically screams and picks me up like a rag doll, "You almost l-left because of them!" He shakes me dizzy, "How can you say that it's ALRIGHT?"
I straighten my glasses, "I never said that it is alright, Prince."
"Eh? But I thought you meant..."
Of course you did.
I nimbly slip out of his slackened grip and study him. The poor boy looks wonderstruck. I know that I tend to pamper him more than the other princes due to his 9 year old mindset, but to try and downplay the gravity of the things he was talking about would be harmful to his development as a worthy candidate vying for the throne - and a complete failure on my part.
"I wished to say that it's more common than you think."
"What... do you mean?"
"The type of people you are talking about are found everywhere, Your Highness." I pace back and forth, aware that Leonhard is listening with rapt attention. How rare. "These backstabbing, flattering people are there in the most glimmering castles and the most shadowy streets; you really cannot get rid of them. So, you must strive to act with caution when dealing with them. Do you understand, Prince?"
"Oh God, the world is full of carrots." Leonhard says demurely.
Is he for real? His mind must have blanked out after 'streets'. I look at the nervous-looking prince, still muttering to himself. He wouldn't have had survived out there on his own - he wouldn't have had survived at all if he wasn't a royal. I decide that I've had enough talk about bell peppers and carrots to last for a while, and turn to Leonhard to tell him that class's over.
"That's why Eins is a carrot."
I blink, "Pardon?"
"Ohhh, you commoners are sooo slow and stupid!" He makes a disgusted face which I decide to ignore. "Eins is my eldest brother, he's supposed to be kind like Kai or encouraging like dearest brother Bruno... But he's always so cold and mean to all of us!"
"I am sure that he has his reasons, Prince."
"But he's still a carrot!" Leonhard persists in his theory, "Even Adele doesn't like him!"
Please leave me out of your sibling squabbles. I'm your Royal tutor - not your Royal Babysitter.
For the thousandth time I wonder if this was why Viktor offered me the position in the first place - because it's a fancy name for the latter for as far as I'm concerned.
I walk to my desk and start to gather the various books scattered there, "If you may excuse me, Prince Leonhard - I must go to your brother's room now as it is time for his lesson." No answer.
I look up to see him fidgeting. "Do you wish to say anything, Prince?"
"Um..." He smiles strangely, and I have a vague idea of what he's going to say next. "Can I... get some Sachertorte?"
"But didn't you have it for breakfast this morning only?" I quirk my eyebrows at him.
He pouts, "But it was sooo looong ago... almost an hour ago...Please?"
I have no idea where he manages to keep all of that Sachertorte. I cross my arms, "But Prince-"
"Silence! Aren't you supposed to listen to the orders of your prince? Also, I said PLEASE!"
"I am glad to see that you are finally able to use 'please' in conversation, Prince. My compliments." I spin on my heel and walk out of his room, only to be swept up without warning into the arms of another annoying, overzealous prince.
[A/N: From my ao3 account. Enjoy this short story!]