1 Chapter 0

Once upon a time, there was a prince.

The prince was the very fifth prince of the Arcane Kingdom, nicknamed the most useless and trash prince amongst the six princes by nobles and commoners alike. He was deemed as the least likely to take the throne by public opinion and was even titled 'The Worst Being that Arcane had produced', 'The Worst' for short.

He was even worse than his brother, the third prince, who had been rumoured to have anger issues and killed anyone he laid his eyes on for his own enjoyment. Even his own siblings were not let off, which happened to his own younger brother, the fourth prince when he was just born. The worst part was, he would torture his victims for weeks before putting them to rest, only targeting the young and healthy as going after newborns and the elderly were not enough to satisfy him anymore as he grew older. It was better when he was angered, as when angered he would cleanly put the person in eternal rest, preventing the person from experiencing the horrors that he would bestow upon them when clear-headed. It was lucky that he could be angered easily as one could just anger him and get themself a quick and painless death before he shut them up and captured them.

The fifth prince was even worse than his father, King Eleanor the Sixth. Nicknamed as the incompetent king behind closed doors, the king only knew how to indulge in his own carnal desires, not caring about his own kingdom and its own citizens. Letting his own children to freely run around and create more chaos than there was already. With many competent nobles in the court killed off by the third prince and many incompetent ones taking their place, the kingdom, even though having been prospering before, went into poverty and became lawless under the king's ruling, with many surrounding kingdoms waiting for the total destruction of the kingdom to take over it.

The fifth prince however, not only possessed his father's libido, but also the third prince's cruelty and twisted mind. He would often be seen at the brothel ever since young, with many speaking about how the brothel was more of his home than the palace, with the bar being his second. He would often target beauties, regardless of gender, and would even **** them when rejected. Married or even underaged beauties would be taken by him at least once, and not one of his targets could refuse him or they would just end up forced to do worse things with him.

His daily routine being going to the bar and getting drunk before going to the brothel and staying overnight. Not once was he seen somewhere else than the two mentioned places, only going to the palace when summoned.

Untalented with magic, martial arts, and weaponry, picking fights with random strangers on the streets when drunk, and abusing many homeless for no reason other than just having felt like it, it was deemed by popular opinion, that he was indeed, 'The Worst'.

But behind this facade was a talented prince with a bright mind, thinking of ways to improve the kingdom and gathering many loyal subjects along the way, putting up many performances to fool many scheming minds.

It took many a year of planning before the prince rebelled successfully and was crowned King Eleanor the Seventh. The public opinion of the prince, now king, changed greatly in the midst of his rebellion, from the lack of trust in his abilities and capabilities to be able to succeed at all, to the full trust and support of all the citizens of the kingdom.

The title 'The Worst' was changed to 'The Most Worthy' after his ascension. He was the most capable and worthy of the throne the kingdom had ever seen, even topping the founder of the kingdom, King Eleanor the First. He not only improved the kingdom's welfare, but also prevented the kingdom from being swallowed by another. Not only that, he even took over the surrounding Kingdoms, successfully creating the Alynthia Empire.

Those outside of his circle would have spoken of how great and just he was, and how saddening it was that he did not have a lover to accompany him in his lifetime, only adopting one of his nephews and training them from young to be able to take over the throne after his retirement. But for those in his circle, they would complain about how childish and mischievous the emperor was, and of how they would always be bombarded by the shameless acts between him and his lover, though not one of them would reveal who the secret lover was.

However, this tale is not of the fifth prince and his journey to becoming the greatest emperor the world had ever known, nor was it of the romance between him and his secret lover.

This tale is of the forgotten prince, the younger brother of the fifth prince, the seventh prince. Abandoned and cast away by his father straight out of birth, the sixth prince was said to be cursed from birth, with the death of his mother at his birth being a sign of his curse. Added to that, was the ominous-looking red eyes that the prince had sported, as well as the midnight black hair that spelled death and destruction, the cowardly king that was incompetent at being not only a king, but also a father, caged the newborn in a room at the top of a tower hidden in the forest, only leaving a nanny to take care of the newborn until he was old enough to feed himself.

As the years went by, and the prince grew older, the only companion of the prince was the rows and rows of books littered all over the small room's floor. Without any human interaction, the prince grew up lonely, only finding solace from the tales written in his books, but soon, the loneliness grew into indifference as he knew that no matter how much he cared, nothing would change, He would still be stuck in the tower like a bird in a cage, with freedom only a grasp away each time.

When the king died, so did the prince's chance to live. As he had been long forgotten, when the maid that had been serving his meals died during the rebellion, the last person who had known of him had also died, thus no more meals had been served to the prince from then, leading the prince to starve to death. The day of the fifth prince's ascension was also the day the seventh prince died.

"How I wish to have watched the sky underneath it, out in the open, and not in this damnable tower behind bars." The seventh prince said wistfully as he stared at the clear blue sky. One lone tear sliding down his sunken cheeks as he breathed his last, the wish of the forgotten prince lost into oblivion.

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"The End." A young maiden softly spoke, closing a thick book with the cover titled 'The Forgotten Prince' in big bolded words hanging on top of a fairytale castle. "Why did it have to end so sadly…" A sob came out from the young boy sitting on the young maiden's lap. "Well, not all stories have a happy ending, my child." The young maiden chuckled as she looked at her child's tear-filled face. "Everyone is a protagonist of their own story, and how they want their story to end is decided by themselves, not by others. People can influence your journey through the story but at the end of it, it's your decision whether to make it a happy one, a fulfilling one, or a tragic one. But remember, no matter what you choose, just know that I'll be there for it all, and accompany you throughout your journey, as long as I'm in your heart."

"But the prince didn't have a say in how his story ended." The young maiden chuckled again at her son's dissatisfaction. "Well, what would you have done?" "I would free him from his tower and fulfil his wish! Just like the knights mama told me about." The young boy grinned widely at his mother. "Mhm, and you'll be the best knight won't ya." The young maiden cooed as she poked her son's chubby cheeks. "Ya!"

The young maiden smiled softly at her cute son, rubbing his head gently as she said,"Alright Alaster, visiting time is over, you have to go back home with papa now." "No...I don't wanna." The young boy whined. "Come on son, you have school tomorrow." A young man said as he carried his son. "Bye bye mama, see you tomorrow!" The young boy cheerfully waved as the father and son pair left the hospital room.

The young woman sighed, wishing that she could stay on this land for longer yet her time on this land had already run out. It was time for her to return home, to her birthplace, where she belonged. The young woman tiredly closed her sky blue eyes, desperately biding her remaining time on this earth to fulfil her son's wish of seeing her one more day.