A Pretty Boy?

*Yawn*

Vivian woke up feeling surprisingly refreshed as she stretched her arms wide. Ignoring the fact that she had just been forcefully married yesterday, out of her own will, Vivian was feeling quite happy that morning.

*Bam*

"What?!" Vivian was startled as the door suddenly opened. But surprise quickly turned to annoyance when she saw the figure that had collapsed in front of her.

"Are... are you ok?" Vivian asked.

*Huff Huff Huff* Duke caught his breath as he began to mumble.

"Pretty, *Huff Huff* Boy... Pretty Boy" Duke tried to speak.

His mumbling just served to irk Vivian more as he ruined her perfectly refreshing morning.

"Pretty boy? Did you suddenly turn gay on me? You make your wife sad you know" Vivian sarcastically remarked.

"N-No" * HUUUUFF (Duke greatly breathed)* "There was a pretty boy..." Duke started to retell his weird night.

Duke, after getting denied by Vivian, felt extremely depressed and angsty, and so he decided it would be a good idea to take a walk through the Palace's Imperial Gardens and maybe lay off some steam...

The Imperial Palace, with its inconceivably enormous size, similar to that of a small city, with pure white marble making up a majority of its structure and large quantities of glistening gold here and there that decorated much of its interior and exterior through statues, paintings, and even large carvings, made the Imperial Palace extremely confusing to live in.

Due to its large size, Duke was unable to take a tour of the whole place within his short stay there. And the only place Duke remembered that would be a good location to take a walk in was the Imperial Gardens right outside the room Vivian and Duke were assigned into for their wedding night.

And so, at the Imperial Gardens:

"Yes... I am the misunderstood storm..." Duke was walking alone whilst mumbling to himself, pretending to be cool as he covered his face with a hand.

*Sigh* "The strongest lion is truly the saddest lion" Duke sighed as he began to spout cringy and 'deep' lines as he let the angst build up within him. Feeling himself to be one of those 'misunderstood' yet 'profound' philosophers.

"Maybe I was always meant to be the Lone Wolf..." Duke looked at the moon as he tried his best to look melancholic. (It didn't work)

"I am... The broken-hearted wolf!" Duke continued. If anybody watched him right now, they would probably die from the second-hand embarrassment.

Duke looked at the moon once again as he made a fierce face...

Well, at least he tried to make it look fierce. To anyone looking at him right now, he'd probably just look like he had diarrhea and was desperately trying to hold it in.

"Kuk-" A suppressed laugh suddenly sounded behind Duke.

Duke immediately looked at the figure that tried to laugh at the often misunderstood and fierce (Cringy) 'Broken-hearted lone-wolf'. Warning him to stay away with his fierce (Virgin) aura.

But contrary to what Duke had expected, it was a young blonde boy that was squatting right in front of him.

Duke would've mistaken the boy as a girl if he had hair that was a little bit longer, but since the young lad wore boys fencing equipment, Duke immediately concluded that he was indeed a boy.

"The brokenhearted lone-wolf? PFTT-PUWAHAHAHA" Unable to hold his laughter any longer the pretty boy started to laugh at Duke's constipated-looking face.

After getting laughed at for a while, Duke stared at the pretty boy and asked: "You done?"

"Yes... Yes, I think I'm don-PFTTT..." The youth started to laugh again.

The pretty boy finally caught his breath after laughing for so long.

"Whew mister, let me tell you, not a lot of people could make me stop in the middle of training… Do you want to join my Court, perhaps? You have talent, I can tell!" The pretty boy enthusiastically asked.

"You're Court?! What position would you offer me?" Duke excitedly asked as he was never before invited by anyone to join in their Court when he was still studying at Brune's Imperial Academy.

This was where all young Nobles who didn't have private tutors studied at. Sometimes even rich families who were able to hire private tutors sent their kids to the Imperial Academy so their children could form cliques and connections.

One example of such cliques was the formation of a Court. The Court was a group of acquainted Noblemen that had similar goals and aspirations. It was like a semi-official circle of friends that meet, discuss, and handle problems together.

Normally such courts were formed by distinguished young nobles from strong families that were still growing and developing in this world.

A Prince who forms a court, when ascending as Emperor also takes his court with him, much like a Presidential Cabinet.

"I believe a man of your comedic talents would do well as my Court's Jester!" The young pretty boy genuinely smiled at Duke.

Duke stared at the young boy's beautiful smile that was arguably even more beautiful than the girls he saw in the past, making his heart go: *Thump Thump* his heart suddenly started beating.

[WHATTTT?! No No No, I'm not gay! Think of manly thoughts...

Manly thought... Yes like, the smile of my wife, or the heaviness of a sword, or being a Court Jester!...

Wait a minute... A court Jester?!] Duke suddenly got annoyed.

"Are you making a fool out of me?!" Duke fumed.

"Hmmm…" The pretty boy thought for a while.

"You don't really need me for that, do you?" The pretty boy cheerfully answered back.

"…Huh, Guess you're kinda' right" Duke immediately shrugged without the least bit of protest.

"No no no, I think you should get a bit angrier by what I've just said..." The pretty boy was speechless at Duke's indifferent reactions.

Duke looked at the pretty boy and the pretty boy looked back at Duke… Finally, after a while, Duke finally responded with a "Meh, I guess…" as he continued with his walk.

[Huh... Is this man mentally disabled or something?] The pretty boy looked at Duke with pity. While Duke mistook the looks he got as looks of admiration.

[Hehe, this kid's probably amazed by the level of self-restraint and emotional stoicism I have!]

"Come, help me exercise... Hold my feet" The boy ordered as Duke was about to walk away.

"Hmm, okay" Duke agreed, thinking to himself [I guess he needs help with his training now] Unaware of the fact that he had just been insulted as a Jester and was now doing unpaid manual labor for the little runt.

Duke firmly held on to the young boy's feet at first but it got harder and harder to control the boy's weight until his hands finally collapsed.

As Duke was trying to regain his balance he accidentally grabbed the boy's thigh.

Then *Wham!*

The boy suddenly kicked him.

"Wh-Where do you think you're touching?!" The pretty boy angrily snarled at Duke.

"Ouch! Why'd you suddenly kick me for?" Duke sadly rubbed his nose from the sudden pain.

The boy looked at Duke then suddenly sighed as he realized Duke was too weak to hold him up.

"I guess helping me out with Aura Training's still too hard for you, huh… Here catch!" The boy then threw a wooden sword at Duke.

"Come at me…" He challenged Duke to a sword fight (Not that kind).

[O Ho~! So you dare to challenge me?! The great Duke?! You're a hundred years too early!] Duke smugly thought to himself... for ten short seconds.

Just ten seconds later, Duke was already writhing on the floor in pain. Duke never thought that a thin weak-looking pretty boy could easily beat him with a sword.

No, wait... now that Duke thought about it, almost anybody could beat him with a sword really.

"Owww~" Duke lazily sat on the floor moaning.

[Huh, poor guy. Being dumb wasn't enough he also had to lack strength...

Maybe imparting some good sword techniques might at least help him survive in this world] The pretty boy pitied Duke's incompetence so much that he decided to show/give him some beginner's training.

"Get up, we still have the whole night in front of us!" The pretty boy evilly smiled as the moonlight shone on his white teeth.

"Y-yes, sir!" In the past, Duke was never chosen as a sparring partner because he was too slow and when he WAS chosen by someone they probably chose him just meant to humiliate him in front of everybody and not to actually train the sword with him.

So Duke was quite excited to be someone's sparring partner right now, thinking to himself: [Wow, I'm actually helping someone in their training!] Little did Duke know that he was the one who was actually being trained.

"And thus I was kept up all night by the young pretty boy! None of it was under my control, ya know!" Duke explained to Vivian as he made the same constipated-looking face, thinking he looked fierce while doing it.

"Ok so let me get this straight... So you met a good-looking pretty boy last night? You know, the first night of our marriage…" Vivian tried to clarify as Duke's story, although vividly told, wasn't the most cohesive story out there.

"Yup" Duke immediately replied.

"And you had a good time together"

"Yup, it was really fun!" Duke replied again.

"Then you had intense physical contact with him until you could no longer walk straight?"

"Yeahhh, that kid was WILD!" Duke replied, awaiting a 'Good job Duke!' from Vivian for his extensive sword training last night.

"Hmmm..." Vivian murmured.

"Yes, I just don't know what to say about this, you know…" Vivian said as she did not know what to respond.

"Yes?" Duke didn't understand Vivian's reply.

"Did you at least pay him for his services last night?" Vivian worriedly asked, knowing they currently had no money left.

"Pay him?! He should be the one paying ME!... Ughhh, maybe I shouldn't have sneaked away when he wasn't looking, huh. I feel used…" Duke mucked realizing he helped the kid train all night without any compensation.

"S-So you left without paying?!..." Vivian worried for the poor kid who had to do all those horrible things with Duke without getting paid.

[Then again he'd probably be more grateful if he never had to see Duke's face again…] Vivian weighed the positive side of things.

"Hehehe, I'm quite amazing, ain't I Vivian?" Duke gave Vivian a thumbs-up, forcing her to reciprocate with an approving thumbs-up of her own.

[Is this something married people go through? Is this some sort of ritual or something?! What do I reply with?!] Vivian thought.

"Do you want me to show you the new techniques I've learned?!" Duke looked excited as he asked Vivian his innocent, but oh so horribly misunderstandable question.

"No, thank you..." Vivian looked at Duke with utter disappointment.

[I don't want to know or see any of that!] She thought that morning, trying to erase all of the images she imagined of Duke's run-in with the young pretty boy he had told her about.

That morning, Vivian and Duke's marriage celebration finally ended and they were about to set off towards Duke's territory of Maine.

Nobody sent them on their way, however. In fact, even Vivian's half-brother, the Emperor didn't attend the wedding. Actually, almost nobody she knew or that was important attended the wedding. It was mostly up for "appearances" sake. I mean they couldn't just marry off a Princess without at least setting up a wedding, now could they?

On the way to Duke's small fief, Vivian saw the different urban and rural sights that Duke happily explained to her.

"Oh is that the Caspar Mountain Range?" Vivian excitedly pointed out.

"No no, those are just really tall hills, the real Caspar mountains are much more monstrous in scale and is actually too far from the road to see from here" Duke explained, feeling like a genius for knowing knowledge considered by many as common sense as he explained to the ignorant Vivian.

"Then it must be much more amazing than what was described in the books!" Vivian exclaimed.

Although Vivian was quite knowledgeable thanks to her extensive education in the Palace and the infinite books she could read from the Imperial Library that was opened to every Imperial Family member, Vivian had never actually left the Capital before, and so she was ignorant to most of the things outside the Palace.

Checking the map on her hands, Vivian asked: "If we had just passed the Caspar Forests then this must be Boom's Town"

"No no my dear Princess, it is actually pronounced as 'Bum's Town'. They're quite the rude bunch, let me tell ya' that…" Duke tried to correct Vivian as he grumbled, remembering the very rude encounters he had with the townsfolk in the past, little did he know that Vivian was actually correct in her pronunciation.

Vivian giggled at Duke's statement: "Is that what you've been calling them this whole time? Hahaha" Vivian laughed.

"Yes 'Bum's Town'? Was I… wrong?" Duke wondered profusely.

Vivian kept herself from bursting into laughter as she explained "Yes, yes. See here" Vivian pointed to the map she was holding.

"This 'U' is pronounced as 'OO'. So it should be called Boom's Town" Vivian giggled as she corrected Duke's mistake.

"Ohh... So that's why the Village Head kept shouting at me! Maybe I should go apologize…" Duke finally realized why he'd earned the ire of the villagers during his last visit. Duke just thought they were simply rude people.

Duke learned an important lesson that day.

People didn't like being called bums... An oddly surprising revelation to Duke.