2 Who Am I?

“Your highness! Your royal highness! Please rise from your slumber, sire!”

In a large bedroom situated at the very top floor of a mansion, was where I was awoken.

I was woken up by a tanned young adult man with brown eyes, brown hair and a charming smile, his name was Paige George. Paige was clad in a butler's suit, black gloves and brown shoes.

I yawned, “Ha...! Is it morning yet?”

“Not actually, sire. It is noon now and I believe it's about time you rise from your mattress, my lord.” Paige stated with an elegant bow, he had his right hand to his chest and his head bowed to me.

He spoke and looked like a gentleman, even though he was just a commoner to me.

When I was sent to this territory, Paige The Page — a title given to a resident by the lord of the territory, became my personal page and butler. He was appointed to my rule by the chamberlain of the mansion.

I slowly sat up, tired from the long night I had spent researching this territory. It was evident due to the pile of texts, scrolls and books that surrounded my bedside.

While my eyes were still weary, I turned my head towards the window and caught a glimpse of the afternoon rays of the sun. It was very bright.

“Ah... I see... It is noon.” I said as I slightly squinted my eyes from the sun's rays.

I took a moment to stretch before rising from my king-sized mattress with a messy bedhead and an exhausted look. I stood and saw myself wearing my pyjamas in the human-sized mirror in the corner of the room.

I was a 6ft young male, I had jet-black curly hair that covered some parts of my face, and I also had dark skin and dark pupils.

I stroked my bangs backwards and clumsily ventured into my bathroom to wash and cleanse my body for the day.

In the bathroom, there was a large wooden tub which was lined with cloth and filled with hot water heated over the fire. The bath was sometimes covered by a canopy during the winter, and winter was fast approaching as we were in the 10th month of the 41st year according to the Arethian Calendar.

Once in the bathroom, I was met by a young lady with fair skin, full rosy lips, blue eyes and a seductive smile. The young lady was about 5ft in height, clad in a french maid dress of black and white colours. Her plump and bountiful breasts were lifted by the soft fabric of the maid dress and her cleavage was visible.

The moment she saw me she held her skirt by the sides and curtsied gracefully and elegantly. Her posture was beautiful, her bow was even more elegant, however, her elegant bow exposed even more of her seductive cleavage to my unsuspecting eyes.

The young lady before me was my personal maid, Penelope Tenebris, and her duties were none other than to serve my every will.

As I approached the warm, steamy bath, Penelope slowly undressed me from my bedroom garments.

I stepped into the bath with one foot after the other, closed my eyes and dipped my entire body, relaxing my head right above the warm water.

"Ahhh..." I uttered as I got comfortable in the bath.

"May I join you, sire..." Penelope asked, she had undressed, exposing her beautiful body to me and proceeded to join me in my bathroom.

But I closed my eyes to the sight of her curvaceous body, and immediately refused her, "I do not require your services in the bath. I can clean myself just fine."

"Are you sure, sire?" Her seductive voice echoed around the bath and permeated my ears as she insisted.

But I still held to my word and refused her, "I'll be fine, you may leave now."

Penelope's insistence and the reason were valid as it was required that one's personal maid is tasked with bathing their master, unclothed. But I was very uncomfortable with such duties.

From a young age, I had many maids to do my bidding or serve me in any way. But I just felt more comfortable doing things myself. And I've felt this way, ever since I was 15 years of age.

Penelope clothed herself and curtsied once again before gracefully leaving the bathroom and me to my vices.

Once she had left, I rushed into the bathroom, locked the door and bathed in peace.

As I did the scrubbing, washing and cleaning of my body myself. I began to think of a long series of plans that I had thought up for this territory of which I had been appointed as its vassal.

After all, I was a prince of the kingdom of Gladia, Prince Philip Tenebris Gladia. Not only that, I was just 17 years of age when I was sent to this barren territory named, Sterilia, also known as Dead Man's Land.

As the firstborn child of the King of Gladia, I was the heir apparent to the throne, which meant that I was the crown prince.

But that was merely in title alone because to the residing nobles of the kingdom of Gladia, I was nothing more than an incompetent trash of a prince. Why? Because it was a well-known fact that I was born weak and thus incompetent in any kind of physical labour.

As I grew up being a child of royalty, all my flaws were laid bare to the nobles and before I knew it, I had become 'The Incompetent Prince'.

Although the nobles did see me as a washed-up royal, the peasants saw me differently. For some mysterious reason unknown to me, when I was 14 years old, there was a rumour that had spread among the commoners of Gladia.

The rumour had caused the commoners to appoint me the title 'The Dark Prince'.

But I sense that it was due to the evident fact that I was born with dark eyes and had a darker complexion just like my beautiful mother's eyes and skin.

However, that meant that I looked nothing alike my father, the King. But all my other siblings from a different mother did.

It wasn't a rule but, in the history of the royal family of Gladia, every royal was birthed with beautiful, shining golden locks of hair. Hence, the people of Gladia had already acknowledged the possibility that the throne would be handed to the secondborn child, Prince Daniel Benedictus Gladia.

Why? Well, other than the fact that he was the second born, was competent and talented in martial arts and also had golden blonde hair. “He was strong, crafty, sharp-witted and more capable than his elder brother, a truly perfect heir to be the king of Gladia,” or so most people would say.

There was no greater shame than the fact that I was always being compared to my younger half-brother of five years, but I accepted it. And it's not like I don't have other half-siblings, but it was a fact that none of them would ever hold a candle to my first sibling, Prince Daniel.

In the royal household, there was a tragedy I refused to accept for a long time now.

It was the death of my birth mother, the previous Queen of Gladia – Queen Victoria Luna Gladia, a loving, caring, strong queen and mother who had passed away five years ago.

After a lax investigation, it was announced that she had died due to a heart attack, but I refused to believe it. Why? Because I knew my mother for who she was, she was an Aura King – an extremely strong and powerful aura bender in the mastery of aura. She was a strong lady that had defeated giants, traitorous kings and queens even before she married my father. Thus she was a very healthy woman in her prime.

Also, as if it wasn't suspicious enough of how she died, just a few weeks after her burial, to take her place on the throne as the new Queen of Gladia, the second wife of my father, the King.

She was also the birth mother of Prince Daniel and my other two siblings, as well as the former princess of Moldovia, my daring stepmother – Queen Patricia Pecunia Moldovia, who was now crowned as Queen Patricia Pecunia Gladia.

When my mother died those five years ago, I was just 13 years old at the time and the trauma affected me... horribly. I ended up in a bad place, a dark place. It was like a never-ending nightmare for me, I was bullied by other noble kids, and I ended up in fights with some of them. I was shunned by my so-called noble friends, my siblings, and even my father.

For the year that followed, I began to take all my pain out on certain people at bars and inns situated in the capital of Gladia. I became... heartless.

I lost so much in the first half of that year and I didn't think it was ever going to stop until... I met her, my sensei, and she pulled me out of the darkness with her care, teachings and training. By the next year, I turned fifteen and had changed in more ways than one.

However, even with all the changes, I never forgot my mother's unexplained death. I'd always suspected foul play, in the sense that my mother may have been murdered, I knew it in my mind and soul, but I had no proof.

So what did I do?