Bab 8: Leaving the Palace
Early morning of the next day Amadeus was already running towards a certain location. He really wanted to start training. He had tried before, but he realised that there would always be someone looking over him, he never got a chance to train and even if he did start it would raise some questions about where he learnt how to train the way he did.
Running through the hallways, he got a proper look around his surroundings. The way the Ruby palace was laid out was quite medieval. They didn't have lights bulbs or the like but rather shining orb, most likely caused by magic of some kind.
The world seemed to be in some sort of medieval era but with magic they had things ahead of their time. Things that needed technology to run had magic to run them. For example, the sources of light he was seeing now.
"Your highness, please wait for me"
Eriko was behind him keeping up. She could keep up, but what was slowing her down was the all the goods in her hands. Medical supplies, food and the lot. It was all arranged by Lily while worrying for Amadeus. She knew her husband, although he said that it will only be light work, she couldn't help but feel uneasy.
Amadeus carried on running but visibly slowed down a bit. It wasn't long until he arrived at a big open field where his father was already waiting. He wasn't wearing his robe but rather a normal black training attire.
"You're here"
His father's welcoming his voice was heard.
"I see you've already changed. First, we will start to test your limits"
After testing his strength by lifting weights they moved on to endurance where he had to run until he collapsed. Various other exercises were performed, with each of them reaching his limit. Naturally, there were breaks in the middle with Eriko tending to him. Baldrik had nothing to say about his wife's worries, as he was also worried. But as a father he had to steel himself and make sure his son doesn't become some sort of wastrel.
Dragons had an extremely long lifespan but had a very low birth rate hence the overprotectiveness.
Amadeus had barely met anyone apart from a few servants and guards. Naturally, his parents worried for him not having friends but due to him being really weak right now, their overprotectiveness won.
However, the knights who had come to train saw their crown prince's limits and sweat dropped.
He was two years old and he his limits were similar to a grown man, albeit someone that hadn't trained. The average lifting weight for someone like that was 20kg, the longest run they could do in full sprint was 200 metres. With a steady jog, it all depended on the person while the fastest they could run in 100 metres was around 15 seconds. Their prince's limits were even above that and he was two years old.
None of them felt that it was weird. The royal family were dragons, so it was natural for the crown prince to be such a freak.
Days passed with Baldrik training Amadeus in all things from close combat to fighting using various types of weapons. He never focused on one aspect but decided to train all of Amadeus' attributes, giving him a balanced strength. He could focus on one aspect after he trained.
It seems that Lily's suspicions were right as the training was anything but lightwork. Still Baldrik was able to persuade her and now Amadeus had etiquette, history, maths, languages and other subjects filling up his timetable. Amadeus however didn't slack off otherwise a beating would be waiting for him. One time he tried ditching class and was wondering the gardens when a figure appeared behind him.
"Amadeus, what are you doing here?"
Turning around he saw his mother smiling face with her eyes saying something else
"M-m-moth…"
"Come here"
She directly lynched him, dragged him to the palace and sat down on a stool. Putting his belly on her knees she pulled his trousers down and smack
That day the Ruby palace was filled with wails and screams. It was also the day where Amadeus had lost all his dignity and pride in that one moment. He did get a day off though as his mother was really sorry when hitting him.
He didn't want to see the sad look she had when hitting him, so he focussed extra hard on his lessons.
The old hag, which he later found out was his grandmother, oversaw his etiquette lessons. She was there with a stick and drilled into him how an emperor would carry himself. His grandmother doted on him the most yet was also the strictest when it came to him.
Amadeus slowly warmed up to his family and any barriers he had slowly faded away. He genuinely thought of them as his own family members.
Before he knew it, it was his fourth birthday. His wish this time was to leave the palace. He wanted to leave on his third, but the country was still in the middle of negotiations with the enemy nation. It was a dangerous time so his mother was adamant on him not leaving but now he could.
A single carriage was seen riding away from the emerald palace. Amadeus' small head could be seen looking out of the window curiously looking at his surroundings. The front of the palace was especially beautiful with various fountains and exotic, yet rare flowers properly arranged throughout the front. The occasional patrol of the dragon knights, also known as the imperial guards, was seen, as they bowed when the carriage passed. Any other situation they would have to kneel but what if they kneeled and a member of the royal family was attacked, it would cause a delay in their reactions.
The palace was quite large and looking back Amadeus could see where the Emerald Palace got its name from. A gigantic palace sat there like a behemoth laying asleep. It was majorly green with gold lines here and there. It was literally something out of fairy tales.
"Beautiful"
"It indeed is"
Suddenly something, caught Amadeus' eyes. Pointing in that direction Lily also looked,
"Oh, that's one of the protectors sent by the clan. He's also a dragon"
Amadeus could tell, as a green western dragon could be seen opening his eyes and bowing its head at Amadeus direction before once again returning to its position.
"It's a wind dragon"
"You could barely see it; it looks like a statue"
"Not it, he, he looks like a statue"
Amadeus just stuck out his tongue before returning to peruse the surroundings.
Amadeus was truly in awe of his family. Seriously, having dragons stay as statues just to protect them. Extravagant. Amadeus had heard of this clan many times and when he asked, he was just told it was the home of all dragons. The previous emperor was the current head and managed the clan.
Travelling for a little longer they came to a massive wall that was also emerald green just like the palace. The watch towers were however black, pure black. It was as if they were sucking the light out of the air.
Looking at Amadeus' childlike behaviour as he curiously looked around everything that interested him, a small smile crept up on Lily's face. She knew that he felt stifled in the palace and this trip was supposed to be a breath of fresh air for the boy. She felt something in her heart whenever she saw him in the lessons with that cute face of focus.
Finally, she could allow him to be the child he was.
Amadeus however was thinking something different.
Ever since he had arrived into this world his curiosity had basically possessed him.
"What's this" or "What's that" was a norm for the members of the palace to hear. They had just attributed it to a child's curiosity, but Amadeus knew that he was no child. This trip outside was also due to curiosity and the fact that he actually did feel quite stifled in the palace.
There was a natural moat around the palace where Amadeus saw serpent like creatures.
"Those are water dragons. To others they would look like simple fish, but not to the royal members"
Amadeus just sighed at the revelation before trying to look forward.
Suddenly as they were leaving Amadeus felt something as they entered the streets. Looking at his mother she just smiled at him,
"Look like you are quite sensitive to magic fluctuations. We just camouflaged the carriage to look like a normal one. We don't want the people to feel any pressure seeing a carriage with the royal family's crest on it"
Understanding his mother, he just complied while remembering a certain result of hiding himself. Making sure not to show his change of emotion to his mother he started to curiously look at the scenery around him. People of all races were happily conversing together.
Amadeus himself saw various colours around the people but rarely bad ones.
The only time he saw a black one was when a couple or so nobles were trying to woo a lady. She was a beautiful one but didn't catch Amadeus' eyes nor Lily's. Lily was watching Amadeus' every move and was explaining anything that caught his attention. Amadeus was secretly marvelling his mother's surplus amount of knowledge about the empire.
Looking at where he was looking,
"She seems to be a Viscount's daughter, while those around her seem to be of minor nobility. The stupid looking guy seems to be Earl Smith's son from the Humanus kingdom. The territory we got was his"
He was indeed stupid looking. Straight blonde hair that curled towards the end, two gigantic teeth popping out like a rabbit which was anything but cute. Blue eyes that were filled with arrogance and a head that habitually looked up.
"It seems to be one of the clauses in the negotiations. Deadweight brought from the conceded territory"
The war that had occurred against the empire was not really a war. A mine of Mithril was found near the borders of the two country. As it was within Drakonis territory, by all right it should belong to the Drakonis empire. But due to the geography, the Humanus kingdom laid siege and tried to take it as their own. Naturally this would lead to war, so the Humanus kingdom was prepared. They tried laying siege on a nearby fortress effectively telling the empire that they had two choices.
They can keep the fortress and give up the mine, or have the fortress given to the kingdom while the empire takes over the mine.
So, the empire did neither of them. They kept the mine and the fortress. The thing was, the empire never moved their core forces. This force was known as the dragon army and consisted of dragons and wyvern riders. The water dragons Amadeus saw earlier were part of that army. This army only took orders from the emperor. Wyvern were basically dragons that were half blood and weren't part of the clan. After reaching a certain stage they would have a chance to become pure blooded ones, but those chances were rare.
Without even moving these forces, the empire was able to hold off the Humanus kingdom's attacks. While Mirista didn't move, it was mainly the church and a small amount of corrupt nobles from Alaendra that moved. The forces of these two were immediately defeated, however, this didn't mean that the joint forces of the Humanus kingdom was weak, but rather the empire was too strong.
Facing this defeat, a peace treaty was proposed. At first, upon knowing the birth of the crown prince and engagement with him was proposed but Baldrik didn't even listen and directly left the negotiations table.
How can Baldrik not know what these humans were planning, plus, how would he answer to his wife and mother. Although he was the man of the family and his wife respected him for that, anything involving Amadeus was like punching her reverse scale. Not to mention the amount of love his mother had for him, even he thought that it was a stupid idea.
Although they were magnanimous, they still had their pride as dragons.
It wasn't until a few day later where another negotiation meeting was called and this time that topic wasn't even mentioned. Rather the members of the Humanus kingdom tried to get as much benefits as possible. War costed a lot of money and they splurged it while bringing back no benefits at all, just casualties.
Baldrik felt sick of these politicians and pity for those soldiers.
So, in the end it was proposed that the kingdom would concede a territory and that would become part of the empire.
Although on paper it looked like it was enough, but it just a façade. In the end, the territory had become home to all the injured soldiers of the war and the one in charge was the stupid looking noble. Baldrik however accepted these conditions as he pitied the soldiers. The land itself wasn't too bad but it wasn't great either. It was really a group of deadweight, but Lily wasn't referring to the soldiers but the one in charge. He would eventually be removed but for now, they would leave it as it is and take care of the soldiers.
Hadiah
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