So I stumbled upon some....edits.....on TikTok that gave me some spoilers about the latest editions of the comic which I haven't had the chance to read (and by some, I mean a lot because it's been a while since I entered a bookstore or anything remotely similar) and I just realized that when people call Charles red flag and OP, I didn't realize just how much of a red flag, nor how much of an OP he was. Because the dude like (correct me if I'm wrong) yanked Anubis by the hair or something and I thought, that's some.....very concerning display of power over there and it kinda made me feel uneasy because usually, the main character and main villain would be at least on the same level of power, regardless of form, but Charles has proven to have no problem dealing with anyone, which gives off the impression that there is no real villain in prince series, and only cannon fodders with different strength levels. Of course, vast power imbalance works great if it's your villain who's stronger, unless you're Saitama or something. But point is, it's making me queasy. And that's why I'm here instead of actually reading some prince series.
That being said, Charles may have ruined the 'innocence' of the whole story, which makes the general plot seem pointless and far from its original educational purposes. Not that I'm complaining (too badly) because obviously if it remained a kid's comic, I wouldn't want to read it either, but where the princes remained friends, therein lies the distinctive power imbalance between the characters. Kinda like Marvel today.
I would say that this trope is almost similar to Bungou Stray Dogs but then I'd be wrong because each character in Bungou Stray Dogs have their own useful strengths as opposed to the rest of the princes here. I wanted to write a fic where I can include all the characters heavily in the plot but it's getting kinda hard when in cannon these characters didn't contribute much to the....defeat of the villain. They're practically still living in their delulu, being righteous and saving the day (barely could be called that to be honest). I mean, there's nothing wrong with that, but these two types of characters can't fit in the same genre here.
I wanted to write some adult-like trope and that can be allowed technically because both Shao Long and Charles were 34 by the time of their death, so elements of drugs, alcohols and so on and so forth can be more intricately involved compared to What Was Worth A Heart, but then there's the princes.
So what I'm gonna do is assign a speciality to every one of the princes (Gion Squad excluded because they're already equipped with their own skills) and ignore some details in cannon so that all of them can flourish and hopefully I can get rid of the too obvious power imbalance. So that, you know, they wouldn't be too excluded. Like, I need Albert, Ciel and Felix to be more aware of the real world and have a specific role in the story instead of just (possibly) hype characters. What those speciality will be is up for debate and maybe some of them wouldn't be too great or maybe even mentioned in depth, but that's fine, this story isn't very much about them anyway.
I'll try my best to give them more characterization and role here.
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There was a phase that Shao Long went through, that first started when his father died and every single person out there, be it in his industry or otherwise, had gone for his throat, and ended after the second year Shao Long's business profit reached above 5 billions annually. That is to say, it wasn't a very long phase. Just a couple of years, but throughout it all, Shao Long had kept a flip scoreboard in his office that moved with him no matter where his new working place transferred. Sometimes the number went up by one or two, or did not at all. Other times, it shot up by ten and beyond.
It was the number of events that had him defeat an 'opponent'. Not in a fist fight, not in court, but in business. It got to the point where he reached a three digit number before he thought that it was sort of childish and maybe a little petty for him to care so much about who he beat up, because by then, he was already a famed and feared businessman who people would think three to five times before considering to attack. Of course, he had his reasons why he started the scoreboard in the first place. For each and every 'opponent' he had, Shao Long never allowed himself to let them go so easily. The lot of them, all 113 recorded people had suffered tremendously from his wrath that at that point, it seemed as though his reputation and wealth stemmed mainly from the horrors they told other people about it.
This strategy that Shao Long pulled off was one he had created back when he was 27-ish or maybe he had already thought of it long before but just started using it then. There was always some ways he'd think of from time to time on how to handle those pests, some of which were done with seething hatred and anger, others were for his own amusement. This one though, the one he applied in monopoly, was one he had thought of with great hatred, a flashback of humiliation and betrayal and absolute waste of chance that happened back when he was 16 with no one by his side (since he should have realized from the start that there was no one on Earth he could truly trust). It was a little different doing this in the real world. On the game board though, it was so easy and plain to every eyes around them. It takes lesser time too.
This strategy of his was one he was actually quite proud of. It could be really tricky at the start, but once you were done with the first part of the game, the rest would come to him so normally that it'd be just for stress relief by then, watching the people around him tearing up and discussing incessantly on how to combat the attack, as if they of all people could think of one. Shao Long had some hopes for Gion and maybe Shintarou. Charles too, because in no timeline would Shao Long ever dare to underestimate the guy.
That being said, Shao Long couldn't help but feel cautious.
Charles hadn't done anything remotely alarming in the next few rounds, not when Shao Long was lazily on his way to dominate the board yet again, with no pressure or even competition now that the rest of the princes were otherwise debating on when and how they should conceded defeat before one of them ended up losing their rights to study here. Not that Shao Long particularly cared. In hindsight, he did feel a little guilty, the same way adults feel when kicking down a child, because while these princes were annoying, they just...didn't grow up yet. Didn't mature into the kings they were yet. Didn't have that nudge to really work out something with their brains yet. They were still children, so was he back when he first played this fucked up game.
Shao Long may not have the best morale out there, but there were times when even he knows who deserved his wrath and who doesn't. After his father's death, Shao Long was so driven by vengeance that nothing other than gaining stability and inconveniences everyone who messed with him ever crossed his thoughts, much less picking on people who stayed fairly clear off his path. The number of times he failed at the two objectives above also made him painfully aware of his every single move and prevented him from doing more than he really needed to.
And traumatizing these children was absolutely something he didn't need to do.
As much as he'd say that these fuckers messed up his teenage years, Shao Long didn't have it in his heart to hate someone more than he hates himself, not even Charles.
So yes, he did feel a little guilty, especially seeing their baby faces close to breaking down one by one.
Truth be told, this wasn't one of his cruellest strategy, given that those 'cruellest' strategies were only ever used once and scared the shit out of both his enemies and himself. But still, it shouldn't be something teenagers had to handle. So maybe he should.....maybe force them to back down.
It should already be obvious by now.
They all understood that they were losing, but Shao Long was dragging it out, very painfully slowly.
Two rounds of this strategy should be enough to fuck them all over, and if he was feeling extra violent that moment, more than three of them were going to end up with negative numbers within five minutes of complete domination. But now they were entering their third round, and it was moving so slow that nobody was outright trying anything impulsive to overthrow one another or anything. Everyone was silent and dull and sighing all the time.
On another note, that was also probably Shao Long's fault.
The third round could've been quicker if Shao Long wished it to be. He could buy a land, a house, a hotel or several of the last two things within one round and the princes would've lost thirty minutes ago and the game would peacefully (brutally more like) end with the result clear and non-arguable. What he did, however, was buy a land per turn and buy a house if he felt like it. A hotel was built some few turns ago, but everything was so slowly paced, a stark contrast to the previous round of torture, that it created the not-so-subtle implication of obvious power imbalance between the two opposing sides. Shao Long now set the pace of the game. If he wanted the game to be faster, he would. And if he wished for it to be slow, then that was what's going to happen regardless of what the others did.
Now everything was by the mercy of Shao Long.
And he was dragging it out to long that at that point, he looked like he was just playing with them.
But it wasn't exactly without a purpose that Shao Long did it. This was supposed to be the point where his opponents were supposed to raise their hands in the air, raise a white flag, slowly back off and gladly stay out of his path in the future. This was the point where he needed them to surrender, admit defeat and be done with it. No one had to be suspended, no one had to be thrown out, and no out had to be so severely traumatized, because in the end, this was only a game, and if businessman can give up, why couldn't they?
He hadn't actually realized how stubborn they were, too used to winning that they kept on thinking that maybe there had to be a way out of this, that by the end of the day, the righteous ones would figure out how to defeat their enemy and the power of friendship was everything, which required all of them to stay together and continue to fight. Sometimes not giving up easily is a good quality that determined a great person from the rest, but a great person should know when to give up, when the consequence outweighs the benefits and when they were too outmatched to keep going. Sometimes yes, you should never give up on your dreams because if Shao Long did that, he would've died ten years before his actual death. But no, sometimes you need to give up too, otherwise Shao Long would have remained on the lowest ladder in his industry because then he would've embarrassed himself enough that absolutely no one would look at him in the eye and think they saw an adult.
And it should be in this moment where the princes know that they couldn't keep going. For Gion, who seemed disinterested in figuring out how to get himself out of the situation, Shao Long thought that he just didn't think it was his battle anymore. The moment Shao Long snapped was the moment the game revolved around Shao Long and Charles, one of which hadn't yet made an active move. And if he didn't want to be in the crossfire, something the rest of the princes clearly failed at, he would better be on the sidelines and watch as the game played out. It was no longer about who was better at games. Their supposed battle of intellect had so easily been swept off to some kind of battleground of vengeance and the likes.
It would be easy enough to classify this as such. But Shao Long wasn't just doing this to fuck Charles up. He was doing this because Evan was pissing him off and forcing him to do things he had no obligation to do, and Charles was a major part of why he was forced in the first place. He needed to show those assholes that they couldn't go around forcing people to do stuff out of their own amusement. And these little princes were very much in his way.
But now it was time to end this, because both Charles and Evan had already realized that he wouldn't lose, and whatever it was that they so wanted to see from him was already shown on display. If Evan wanted to unravel his capabilities in business, then there, he already saw it. If Charles wanted to see if he was a real threat, also there!
So the princes could still be saved, and giving up was one way to do it. Not him, of course. Definitely not him.
But as to how to force them to stop, Shao Long glanced at Evan who had taken to watch the board extra vigilantly today, calculating from everyone's watches and making sure that everything tallied up with one another. And then he glanced at the pair of dorms he had yet to touch, wondering if he should really use the last bit of his strategy right there.
There was always something he could do to make things worse. He hadn't lived years of his life clawing his way up the toxic ladder of the socialites to not have contingency plans to every contingency plans.
It didn't take long for Shao Long's piece to reach the dorms, nothing a couple of nudges to the table and a skilled throw couldn't handle. He made a show of interest when his piece took one final leap to the land of the dorms though, and watched blankly as Alex gulped in his seat.
Shao Long rubbed his chin. Was it really needed though, for him to go this far up his strategy? It was technically necessary, because these idiots didn't want to back down so much. It was getting really boring dragging things out, especially when the outcome was already obvious. So with a sigh, he spoke, "I want to buy this property."
There were choked gasps. Someone punched the table lightly. He could hear Albert inhale sharply. From the corner of his eyes, Alex's shoulders dropped so low that his coat looked big on him.
"For 700 dollars." It was then that the princes perked up.
The price of the dorm was 600 dollars. Easily one of the most expensive lands on the board. But Alex had more than a thousand.
"Alright." Evan looked at him with a questioning gaze, a flicker of recognition crossed through his eyes, as if having a general idea of where Shao Long was going with this.
"Wait!" Alex yelped, frantically gesturing to the air, "I can— I mean afford it. The 700 dollars, I mean."
Evan shifted his glance between Shao Long and Alex, hesitantly leaning away from the backrest of his chair and crossing his arms in front of him. "Alright then—"
"How much do you bid it for, then?" Shao Long huffed. "If you can't bring forward the money, then I'd still win the bid."
"I can afford it!" Alex grumbled, showing his watch. "I bid for 800 dollars."
"900 dollars then." Shao Long clicked his tongue. Evan's eyes widened, his theory confirmed.
"One thousand!"
Shao Long rolled his eyes and dropped his hand to the table. "One thousand and a hundred. Stop this now." He half meant it when he said it. If Alex didn't stop now, then it was going to be really messy.
Alex looked panicked now if he hadn't yet before. He kept on glancing at the others, possibly asking for help, possibly for support, but no one had more money than him on his side of the game. Alex was the owner of the dorms, and hence the richest among them. It was their main source of income, with Shao Long almost always landing on the dorms when he neared the area. Some of the princes were still well off, but some, like Ciel, would heavily rely on both Felix's luck and Alex's dorm money to keep them going, and with Felix's luck running out these few rounds, Alex was the only stable breadwinner for them all. And if Alex loses that land today, Ciel and maybe Albert would be the first one to have a negative number before the game could start tomorrow. Because the dorms was an expensive piece of land. They couldn't afford to lose 500 dollars each when they step into their own living space.
It was a shame that Shao Long really really really needed them to stop playing right now. And that meant forcing them to realize that there was no chance of winning.
So when Alex offered one thousand and two hundred, Shao Long pinched the bridge of his nose, and offered one thousand and five hundred.
Alex had a number a little more than two thousand and a half.
He offered one thousand and seven hundred.
And when Shao Long offered two thousand dollars, Alex bit his lips, glanced at his friends, hesitated and then offered two thousand and two hundred.
Charles was positively blank throughout the whole situation, his eyes never leaving Shao Long, but almost making a move to maybe warn Alex or something. Shao Long glared at him and nudged his head to Alex. A clear signal for him to go ahead and fucking snap Alex out of his panicked mindset before he ended up regretting everything.
But Charles didn't.
He chose, instead, to stare at Shao Long, daring him to continue.
And continue Shao Long did.
He offered two thousand and four hundred dollars. That was the most expensive anyone ever paid for a land.
But Alex really, really, really needed the dorms.
So he offered two thousand and a half.
Shao Long looked at Evan dead in the eyes and said, "Fine." What greeted him was a man with slumped shoulders, fingers crossed over each other and his chin tilted downwards. Gaze heavy as he watched Shao Long with a complicated expression, fully knowing that he, as the banker, couldn't possibly help his own son, and having to watch him make mistake after mistake, when the stakes are far too high and in no solution would help him help his son without making him eat his own words.
Alex looked visibly relaxed now, a small smile on his lips. Some unassuming princes, namely Ciel himself and maybe Felix, breathed out a sigh of relief. Albert had looked wary, maybe a little horrified. But the rest of the Gion Squad had stepped back, eyes downcast and sighing.
Until Shao Long deadpanned, "Now you have to pay two thousand and five hundred to the bank."
That seemed to startle Alex back to reality. "...But. But the land is already mine."
"The land is up for bidding the moment I offered to buy it from you. It was no longer your land." Shao Long leaned back in his seat, lazily checking his nails.
"But the decision was never made. Your bid didn't win."
"It doesn't have to win."
"Then there shouldn't be any transaction!"
"Of course there should be a transaction."
"The ownership of the land didn't shift. Even if the land was up for bidding, if there is no exchange, then there is no transaction."
"You're right, if there is exchange, then there is no transaction." Shao Long scowled at him through his bangs, annoyed now that Alex still didn't understand. "Because that's what transaction literally means. Because transactions in that case refers to a deal between owner and buyer. But in this bidding, the bank becomes the owner, and you and I are just bidders. Competitors. Competing for the land grant by who was willing to give up the most money. And you won. So you have to be responsible for your bid."
"But....." Alex looked to his father, awaiting confirmation, and when Evan didn't say anything, didn't even look at him in the eyes, Alex's shoulders drop once again.
A 'ping' echoed around the room. Shao Long didn't need to see to know that it was Alex's watch deducting exactly two thousand and five hundred from Alex's watch. Not that he particularly trusted Evan to not be biased, but because he was a man of his words on the worst of days, and not even his son could break that.
Now Alex was down to his last two digits, lower than Ciel, lower than anyone else in the room. Alex who was one of the richest players on the board just a few seconds ago. Just by some manipulative trick that the evil tyrant that was Shao Long.
That night, it didn't matter how much money they shared between them, none of them could afford to pay the amount that each of them needed to pay, unless they were selfish and spent all their money on paying rent, forgoing Alex who would undoubtedly reach a negative number regardless.
It was either Alex lose alone or they all lose at the same time.
And Alex could definitely not give up on his chance to study at Momosu.
"You..." Ciel hissed. You're cruel.
The words didn't need to be said. Shao Long had heard the phrase far too many times in his life.
"I am cruel." Shao Long narrowed his eyes. "And I could be crueller. I could go around the board and buy every single one of your properties, built houses and hotels on the classes, the garden, the cafeteria, on every single land there was on here, and nowhere you step on wouldn't cost you ten times more than what you could afford the second you leave this room. I could do all that without even touching the dorms, and you'd still lose. So regardless of my strategy or your ignorance, I would still win this game."
Shao Long could feel the glares being directed at him, be it from within his sight or otherwise. "So I'm saying this now. Give up. Right fucking now. And I don't just mean you, Alex. All of you. Before you reach a negative number and one of you got ridiculously thrown out like some idiot who put their education as stakes for a fucking board game."
And still, Alex, sweet, daring, optimistic Alex, clenched his fists and spat, "It's not over yet."
Oh, but Alex, it was over the moment you chose to play the game with Shao Long.
"I'll step up for now."
Shao Long looked away, finally, when another voice spoke up. He watched as Charles placed a comforting hand on Alex's trembling shoulder, and pushed his back to the rest of the princes, away from Shao Long's view and blocking practically everyone else from Shao Long's eyes. He watched as Charles' small smile didn't leave his face as he sat down on Alex's seat, directly across from him and effortlessly took up every bit of his attention.
"I'll represent them all from now on."
"Meaning?" Shao Long raised a brow. While he was aware that Charles may still want to beat his ass for daring to even think about upsetting his friends, he still couldn't figure out how exactly one could go about it. Not to say that his strategy was flawless, but at this point of the game, every weak point of his strategy was covered up, leaving very little chance for another to strike. And Charles hadn't even participated actively in trying to overcome his strategy the last few rounds. Shao Long still thought that he was a bit too late for that now.
"Meaning, only I will be playing. Their pieces will be terminated, their money goes to me and I play for all of them."
Shao Long blinked, and scoffed, "Then if you lose, all of you get thrown out."
"Pretty much, yes." The smile Charles gave him was so bright that it physically hurt to watch.
Shao Long glanced at the princes behind Charles, expecting there to be protests, but there were none. Interesting. Charles must've discussed this with them beforehand. Which means they'd always had a plan all along, just that....they probably didn't like it. And probably never wanted it to be done unless it was absolutely necessary. And now was absolutely necessary.
Shao Long took his time accessing this....younger Charles before him.
The Charles of 34 years old may terrify him any day. Seeing even a glimpse of his face had made Shao Long want to kill himself just so he would never have to talk to him ever again, which, obviously, didn't happen because self-isolation does the work just fine. His hatred, fear, horror and every negative emotion about the man grew to be so bad that he couldn't think about him without feeling nauseous during the first few months of locking himself away in his mansion.
But this Charles, despite still being the devil that had already sprouted his horns at this age, didn't bring about the same fear as he thought he would.
There was only pity. A wonder about what could have been for both of them.
Charles had looked healthier now, both physical and mental. The same thing couldn't be said about Charles of 34 years old, or even Shao Long of that age.
If Shao Long had never begged his father to transfer him to Momosu, maybe that healthy look would stay permanently, maybe it wouldn't. Their presence to one another was so damning to the point where Shao Long had to die for it.
Shao Long would rather not meet him ever again.
So this was going to be the last time he allowed Charles to step up with his ridiculous ideas, indulging in it, continue to watch the little kid protect his friends while he still had them. And then, Shao Long would most probably begged his father again, no matter the amount of scolding or irritation that would get him. So long as he didn't have to involve himself with this person any longer.
So fine, just this once he was going to let himself possibly fail. The last time Charles could get the chance to fuck him over, because regardless, Shao Long had faced this guy a hundred times and lost a hundred things, possibly more during the whole interaction. There was nothing Charles could make him lose that would make him more anguished as he had been all those years ago.
"Does this.....representation extend to....them as well?" Shao Long flickered his gaze over at the Gion Squad, finding them no less impressed about the development than he did. Gion gave Shintarou and Livio a quick glance, a silent communication between them, before he nodded.
"Yes. Charles will represent us."
Ah. So they discussed this with the Gion squad as well.
Just four days was enough for them to single out a common enemy, making him out to be the monster they both would like to exterminate so much that they'd tie down their ego and work together. They must've thought of Shao Long so badly for this to happen, then.
Well, no matter.
If all goes well, then Shao Long would never have to see them again.
"Fine." He said, returning his gaze back to Charles, who fixed him one of those looks he so often had on his face whenever he was about to tear Shao long piece by piece. A 'ping' sounded, signalling that all of the princes' money were transferred to Charles. Every piece on the board was removed one by one until all that was left was Shao Long's own and Charles'.
Shao Long willed himself to calm the fuck down, before saying, "Let's start then."
14/4/2024
Probably won't see y'all in two months, idk. Maybe yes, maybe not. That's a rough guess. Bye y'all.
This was so much fun to write honestly.