Time quickly flew by, and a month had passed in the blink of an eye.
King Camos was still the same â overly pampering his little brother. He basically took him wherever he went and specially arranged Garlanâs residence in the side hall to be next to his bedroom.
But within a month, this little Kingâs Brother caused many people to have headaches. Because Garlan and his little sidekick, Tarl, often made trouble in the palace. Although they hadnât made any big mistakes, they kept on making small ones. These troubles made the supposed solemn and quiet royal palace, chaotic and noisy.
However, King Camos indulged him and had never punished Garlan at all. When someone complained, he would laugh and touch his younger brotherâs head while saying that it was a good thing that this child was more energetic and lively and that it wasnât any different from when he was a boy.
Everyone was speechless.
Indeed, their King Camos was also a troublemaker when he was a child and had caused trouble every day. However, King Camosâ father, the former King of Aaron Landis, would at least teach the troublemaker Camos a lesson. But now, Camos not only didnât care about teaching his naughty little brother, but also indulged him so much. What would happen in the future?
Everyone was worried about this.
However, Garlan, as the culprit, was more worried compared to them.
Why was Brother Camos not angry at all?
He had deliberately relied on his identity as a child, acting as a bear child, making trouble every day, just to provoke Brother Camos to drive him away.
But looking at Brother Kingâs eyes⊠he actually supported him?
King Camos, âVery good. Just like my previous demeanor, continue, Iâll support you.â
Garlan, ââŠâ
The first plan had failed and was aborted.
Fortunately, there was a second plan that was simultaneously in action.
âŠ
In the afternoon, a group of young children were sitting in the spacious school hall.
This was an open hall with no walls on any side, only dozens of columns supporting the arched roof. The bright sunlight illuminated the study hall. The breeze brought the water vapor from the clear lake on the side of the hall and the fragrance of lotus in the water into the hall.
On one side of the school hall was a large courtyard with a lotus pond and on the other side was a martial arts field. It was very vast and even connected to a large piece of small grassland that could be galloped. It was specially designed for these children to train in martial arts, archery, and horse riding.
The blond-haired child sat cross-legged in the hall, while the others surrounded him, like stars arching over the moon.
There were no tables and chairs in the school hall, but a soft carpet. Everyone sat cross-legged on the ground when they studied. Those who surrounded Garlan were all teenagers who were older than him. There were even those who were about to reach adulthood.
These youngsters were children whose fathers were ministers of the court, or direct descendants of the nobles. It was customary for these descendants to accompany the heir of the throne to learn together.
One reason was for the successor to better understand his future subordinates and second, this was also the best way for these future state ministers to have a better relationship with the future King.
Therefore, almost all of them sat with Garlan as the center.
Only one person was faintly squeezed to one side by the crowd and sat alone on the other side.
King Camos chose two King Brothers a month ago.
One was the young Prince Garlan.
The other was the slightly older Prince Heimos.
But anyone with a discerning eye could see itâŠNo, even the blind could see it. King Camos didnât like Prince Heimos, who was selected by the ministers according to the test method, but prefered the little prince Garlan, who he chose himself.
So far, he seemed to have only allowed Garlan to call him Brother King, and Heimos had never called him that way.
Therefore, when the title Kingâs Brother was mentioned, the first person that came into everyoneâs mind was the flaxen-haired child. Yet, the title of the other had always been Prince Heimos, not King Camosâ brother .
Naturally, everyone flocked to Garlan, while Heimos was deserted and no one cared about him.
In order to please Garlan, some people even deliberately used various means to exclude and target Heimos, and from time to time, they wanted to teach him a lesson.
After all, in their opinion, the existence of Heimos was a hindrance to Garlan, so Garlan must be very upset about his presence. If they could teach Heimos a lesson, they would be favored by Garlan.
âYour Royal Highness Garlan.â
Although Ziemuer was appointed by King Camos as Garlanâs mentor, he had to assist King Camos with political affairs every day. Therefore, for one day in a week, he would spare some time to teach Garlan.
âŠAlthough the results of a monthâs teaching made him feel that the time he took from his busy schedule had been fed to the dogs.
At this moment, he blankly slapped a piece of parchment onto Garlanâs hand. The force he patted down was so strong that he made a snapping noise and Garlan almost wasnât able to hold it.
The child glanced at the parchment. En, as expected, low-grade, failed.
The people next to him saw the grades on Garlanâs paper at a glance and subconsciously folded their papers to block their grades.
That was right. Among this group of people, Garlan was the only one who received a low score.
The others were basically first-class, and the lowest class was upper-middle class. After all, these people who could be qualified to accompany the prince were people with excellent aptitudes, so there was not even one middle-class person.
Oh, no. There was another special one. The little chubby boy selected by Garlan was medium almost every time, stuck in the middle, neither here nor there.
However, time and time again, Garlanâs grades were hovering between two grades of middle and lower tier. Everyone became accustomed to it during the month.
Although some slandered him in their hearts and began to look down on Garlan a little, on the surface they still flattered and praised the young prince.
Ziemuer walked to Heimos, who was sitting alone on the other side and handed him another parchment paper in his hand.
Only Garlan and Heimos, who were the princes, were personally reviewed, issued, commented on and taught by Ziemuer. The other teenagers who accompanied them were naturally taken care of by other teachers.
The priest of Shamash looked at Heimos with satisfied eyes.
He praised, âYou did a great job, Your Highness Heimos.â
Ziemuer was an extremely strict person with obsessive-compulsive disorder. For someone who could make him praise the other, he must have had an extremely good performance.
Over the past month, Heimos had achieved excellent results in all aspects. He was the most outstanding existence among them, in extreme contrast to Garlan.
This chapter is scrapped from readlightnovel.org
After praising Heimos, Ziemuer again looked at Garlan without any expression.
He continued, âThe others go back first. Your Highness Garlan, please stay back.â
Garlan scratched his head.
No matter how bad his grades were, the other teachers never dared to say anything to him. Only his tutor, Ziemuer, with such stubbornness would severely criticize him every time he came.
He didnât refute and nodded, indicating that he understood.
The group of teenagers who were still consoling him didnât dare to provoke the solemn and upright priest Shamash, one by one stood up and obediently left. Only the little chubby boy was left. Although he was terrified of Ziemuer, he still held on to his loyalty and did not want to leave Garlan to be scolded.
Ziemuer glanced at Tarl and repeated again.
âTarl, leave immediately.â
Ziemuerâs words made the little chubby boy nervous, he swallowed and stammered, âI⊠Iâll wait here⊠WaitâŠâ
âTarl, you go back first. Donât wait for me.â
âBut Your HighnessâŠâ
âItâs okay.â Garlan continued with a chuckle, waving to indicate Tarl to quickly go. âItâs not a big problem.â
As soon as Garlanâs words came to an end, the temperature around him suddenly dropped by ten degrees, and Tarl shuddered in the cold.
With trembling eyes, he looked at the priest whose gaze had become cold and left obediently.
As a result, there were only two people, one adult and one child, in the large school hall.
âItâs okay? Itâs not a big problem? You look at this and really think âItâs not a big problemâ?!â
In front of other people, he still had to save the prince a little bit of face, so he resisted without saying a word. As soon as the others left, Ziemuer unceremoniously began to berate Garlan.
He motioned to the terribly flawed paper in Garlanâs hand and coldly stared at Garlan as if it would freeze.
âYour Royal Highness, you are not stupid, you just donât care.â
Ziemuerâs voice sounded unsentimental and indifferent.
âYou repeat the same mistakes every time, and you donât intend to correct them. Instead, you let yourself continue to make the mistakes.â
âI donât know what the reason is, but I can see that you donât have the slightest motivation, you just want to stay where you are, or even fall behind.â
The priest of Shamash looked at the little blond-haired prince who was silent, with disappointment in his eyes.
He always remembered what King Camos said to him the last time. Even if he didnât have much hope for this child at the beginning, he still performed his duties earnestly and meticulously taught Garlan.
He believed that he treated Garlan and the one he was more optimistic about, Heimos, equally. There wasnât any favoritism.
Perhaps he was also looking forward to it in his heart. As King Camos said, this child had excellent aptitude and he had missed it- but the facts made him very disappointed.
He couldnât tell whether Garlan had the qualifications of an excellent King for the time being, but he knew that if Garlan continued like this, he would never become a qualified successor.
âCompared to His Royal Highness Heimos, you are so much worse. If this goes on, you will always be left behind by him.â
After Ziemuer said this, he didnât continue, but turned around and left.
Garlan stood there staring at that personâs distant receding figure, looked down at the examination paper in his hand, and then closed the parchment with a snap.
He turned around and had his back towards Ziemuer.
Striding forward with big steps, he walked in the completely opposite direction from Ziemuer, and the rolled parchment was gripped tightly in his hands.
Ziemuer, the priest of Shamash; my mentor. You who are destined to betray me in the future, have never been on the same path as me.
Since Iâm destined to disappoint you in eight yearsâ time, I might as well not give you any expectations from the beginning.