~ Nineteen - Season I ~

As soon as James’ door was in sight, his guards immediately crossed his spears, blocking the entrance. “Your Highness,” one of them greeted, “His Majesty is currently in a meeting. Do you have a message for him?”

“Gonzalo mentioned that His Majesty summoned me. I’m surprised that you didn’t know that,” I said, keeping my composure.

The two guards looked at each other, confused and horrified. The other guard answered, “Accept our deepest apologies, Your Highness. Please, don’t take us as incompetent. However, as long as the king is in a meeting, we don’t allow anyone in.”

Suddenly, the door opened and James’ page appeared. “Your Highness,” he bowed, “Is there something that I can help you with?”

“His Majesty has asked me to fetch the young prince,” Gonzalo entered the conversation. “That’s the reason why His Highness is here.”

James’ page looked at us, confused. “Did he, now?” he slowly turned to Gonzalo with an icy stare. He remarked, “I’m the king’s royal page. If he were to summon anybody, he would’ve told me so.”

“Let us not drag this unnecessary conversation for too long, gentlemen,” I interjected as I didn’t want an argument between them. This wasn’t that big of an issue. I continued, “If my father’s household doesn’t know about this, then I respect that. I have nothing against that. Please, tell His Majesty that I was here.”

James’ guards and page bowed.

I returned a slow nod and walked away with Gonzalo. But, not far along into the hallway, I heard, “Robert?”

I came into a halt. I turned my head, only to see James outside his door.

“Come, please,” he gestured for me to return.

I sighed as I scratched my nape.

As I approached him, he asked, “I called for you. Why didn’t you knock?”

“Your guards and your page said you were in a meeting,” I replied.

James turned to them and immediately scowled over them.

“Your Majesty,” they all uttered as they bowed at the same time.

“Would one of you mind telling me why you stopped my son from entering my study?” James immediately questioned. His voice shook as his fists shook by his sides.

“Forgive us, Your Majesty,” his page replied with a brave front. Although, his attempt to hide his fear was failing him greatly. He continued, “You were in the middle of a gathering with the lords. We thought you didn’t want to be disturbed by anyone.”

“And if I may add, Your Majesty,” one of the guards said, “You didn’t inform us that Gonzalo was tasked to fetch the young prince. We assumed that they were here without your knowledge.”

James let out a long sigh as he crossed his arms. Immediately, the three men went down on their knees and pleaded for their lives.

“I beg of you, Your Majesty, spare us from your punishment,” the other guard cried out. “We didn’t know, Your Majesty. Please, believe us. We didn’t know.”

Guilt quickly built inside of me as they were frowned upon James, all because of me. They weren’t even rude to me when they forbidden me to enter. They told me in a polite manner so I couldn’t say that they offended me. They didn’t deserve James’ anger.

“Your Majesty, if I may?” I bowed as I intervened. I quickly knelt on one knee and he slowly turned to my direction.

I continued, “Spare them from any punishment that you have in mind. They don’t deserve it. They may have stopped me from entering your study, they were only performing their duties. Rest assured that they were never rude to me. They were very polite. And they also advised me to return once your meeting was finished.”

James returned to his servants. “Is that true? What he said about the three of you is true?” he asked.

“Yes, Your Majesty,” his page replied quickly as he nodded with the two guards. He continued, “We would never dare to be impolite towards the young prince.”

Then, there was just silence. I kept my head low as I humbled myself along with the servants.

‘Please, James. Rethink your decision. They have done nothing wrong,’ I prayed fervently in my mind.

After another long sigh, James broke the silence and said, “Because my son said that you’ve been… hospitable, to say the least, I shall spare you for what happened.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty! You are very gracious!” his page threw himself onto the ground. One of the guards followed his lead.

“Let this be a lesson that whenever my family needs to have a word with me, they’re allowed to enter my study,” Jason continued with his sermon. He added, “Whether I am in the middle of anything, they are always welcome to enter. Is that understood?”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” the first guard said.

“We will remember it, Your Majesty,” the other followed after.

His page answered next, “I shall inform this rule to all servants of the castle.”

“Make sure of that. I don’t want this to happen again in the future,” James said as he finally put his arms down. I stood up and he continued, “You should be grateful that my son was merciful enough to convince me not to punish you.”

Without hesitation, the three men turned their attention to me and threw themselves on the floor. “Thank you, Your Highness! Thank you for your mercy!” they all said in unison.

“Please, gentlemen, stand up. There’s no need to thank me,” I replied. As they slowly stood up, I added, “You were only doing what you were told to do. You did nothing wrong.”

James then looked at me. “Would you like to come inside? The lords are with me. I hope you don’t mind,” he asked in a lighter tone.

I nodded with a smile, contained in a firm, straight line.

James entered first and Gonzalo gestured for me to follow. He stood on my right side and showed the path inwards.

“Thank you, young prince.”

“Thank you, Your Highness,” the three men thanked me, shaking my hand as I walked past them. I gave them a light nod and proceeded into James’ study.

~*~*~*~

Upon entering, my eyes immediately landed on the lords of our court. There were only five of them. Perhaps, the others weren’t available or required to attend. And as the doors closed behind me, they all stood up and gave their greetings. “Your Highness.”

I came to a stop as they greeted me. Along with Gonzalo, I paid them my respect with a bow.

“Good day to you, my lords,” I said as I approached them. I shook hands with them and continued, “I trust that everything is well with all of you.”

“We are all doing well. Thank you for asking, Your Highness,” one of them answered with a smile.

“He’s all grown up now, isn’t he?” James remarked with a proud smile as he stood before his chair.

“Indeed, Your Majesty,” another lord replied. “And to think, it feels like it was only yesterday when he was sprinting all around the castle,” he continued, which earned a brief chuckle from everybody.

“Yes, that seemed like it wasn’t a long time ago. But, before we go further down the trail of memories, I would like to have a word with my son. We shall resume our discussion tomorrow morning,” James said. He then followed it with a question, “Would you care to join us for dinner, gentlemen?”

The lord on my right replied, “I don’t think that’s necessary, Your Majesty. We don’t want to be a bother to you and your family.”

James raised his hand to stop him from speaking. “Don’t think of such things. My family and I would love to have you all with us for dinner.” Turning to Gonzalo, James called, “Gonzalo?”

Coming out from the corner, Gonzalo bowed to James, “Your Majesty?”

“Have the servants prepare five more seats on the dining table. We will be having a few guests with us tonight,” James instructed.

“As you wish, Your Majesty,” Gonzalo bowed.

James added, “Kindly bring them to the accepting room as well. I need a moment alone with Robert.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Gonzalo bowed again. He approached the lords and gestured for the door. “Gentlemen, if you please.”

After their quick bow to James, Gonzalo opened the door for them and they all left without another word.

As the door shut tight, I turned to James and asked, “What is it that you wanted to tell me?”

“Have a seat, Robert,” James replied as he sat on his chair.

I sighed as I took the chair on the left side of his table.

“I already went through all the reports that you took care of on my behalf,” he said as he looked through the scattered reports on his desk. He continued, “I must say that I’m quite impressed with how you handle each and every one of them. I’ve sent more to your study, and I trust that you’ll take care of them as soon as possible.”

“Thank you for your trust and confidence in me. I’ll have them sorted as soon as possible,” I replied as I crossed my legs, putting my hands on my knee. “Most of my time is focused on handling those reports, anyways.”

“Although,” his tone suddenly changed as he reached for a certain report, “There is this one report where perhaps, you may have missed something.” He handed it to me as he added, “I need you to take a second look at it.”

As soon as the document landed in my hands, I was even more confused. How could I even miss anything? I would always review each report five more times before it was sent back to his desk.

I opened the report and read quickly through it. It was from the orphanage that we monitored closely. They asked for additional monetary support since more children had been arriving at their doorstep. I approved of this request because the last thing that I wanted to happen was for the children to struggle. After all, no one supported them financially but us.

“I don’t understand what you’re pertaining to, James,” I said as I looked back at him. Closing the said document, I continued, “Everything in this report is reasonable, which is why I agreed to it. To take in further consideration is unnecessary.”

“Robert,” he said after a sigh, “We can’t just approve every single request of monetary support. As far as I know, you have already approved twenty requests from our people. We still need to think of ourselves. We must not allow our treasury to run dry.”

My frows burrowed. “Why must we think of ourselves when there are people who require our help?” I asked, even more baffled.

“To maintain our home, our lifestyle, and every servant in this castle comes with a cost. Money doesn’t grow on trees. We work hard for it,” James replied.

“We work for our money?” I asked with a brow arched. I continued, “Must I remind you, James, that the money we use to support ourselves, the money that keeps our economy afloat comes from our people. They are the ones who break their bones just to earn money.”

I added, “The money that we use to feed everyone in this castle, as well as for random constructions within the castle grounds, are the people’s taxes. Technically, they are the ones who are feeding us.” I didn’t allow him to reason out. All I could think of was he was willing to let the children suffer. And I wasn’t happy with that.

He snarled, “They are able to feed themselves because of me. They have their livelihood because I allowed trade in this kingdom.”

“Without the people who chose to work in your trading business, you won’t have any money to collect,” I snapped.

His nose flared as his lips formed a firm line. He tapped his desk, a usual sign that he was frustrated with me.

“I may not be king yet, James,” I said as I leaned closer to him, “But, with those approved monetary supports, you wouldn’t be in your position right now. And you already lost so much money in the past months. You should be thanking me for keeping you in your throne.”

He slowly laid back onto his chair, clearly defeated from the conversation. He had no right to be furious about this. This was about our people, the very people who chose him as king. He once said that in order to stay in power, we should cater to our people’s beck and call. That's what I did for him, and now, he was mad about it?

I put the report back on the table as I stood. “This is good to go. If you refuse to heed my advice, then I suggest that you prepare for the outpouring of outrage from the orphanage,” I remarked. I added, “And if that news spreads out to the entire kingdom, I can only pray the our people will still love and understand your decision.”

I turned around and walked away from him. As a royal, I was taught to never forget what was important: the ones we should protect were our people. Should he decide to put his pride as his priority, I had no fault in it.