I spent what I estimate was a year in the throne room before I leveled up again. During that year, I learned more about the royal family than I had ever learned about anyone before.
First up was the king, Odval Freise, the former Pride of the Nation of Aeternia. Domineering, cruel, powerful—a man feared by everyone. In his youth, he had been a feared warrior, capable of going toe-to-toe with the strongest foes. Even now, he still ruled with his legendary war hammer, DrakeBreaker, at his feet: a reminder of the power he still wielded, albeit now less frequently than before. Or at least, that was the image he projected. Behind closed doors? When the servants and peasants and guards were all gone, and there were no more delegates to entertain or criminals to punish or commoners to subjugate?
A sad, desperate, paranoid man-child, eternally henpecked by his wife and undervalued by his children. Over the year, I heard Odval snivel and beg his wife more times than I could count. For advice, for reassurance, for everything. She would often say something to remind him he was old and frail now, nothing like the feared warrior she had married. His two sons were even worse; no matter what he bought them to show his love, they only ever complained or berated him before leaving. The only one who wasn't actively cruel towards him was the princess, and that was because she did everything she could to be as far from him as possible at all times. When the throne room was empty, he would cry over his failed family. Like, ugly cry. Big, gasping, heaving, sobbing style. Plus, the paranoia—his aging had left him sure that everyone around him was coming to usurp his throne at any moment. To be fair, he wasn’t really wrong; it was just undignified to hear a king talking to himself with fear in his voice because of it.
I could sometimes hear him trying to exercise, doing what sounded like jumping jacks by himself while telling himself little affirmations about how strong and powerful he was. Over time, I realized the number of jumping jacks was slowly but surely growing smaller.
Then there was the queen. Oh boy, Queen Malbella. In my world, she was portrayed as sadistic, ruthless, and cold, but in a way that implied that everything she did was for family. She was all of those things; she also didn’t seem to give a hoot about anyone not named Malbella. Her two sons were disappointments in her eyes and always would be. Her daughter might as well not exist. The only thing she cared about was herself… and her parade of lovers. Seriously, I don’t know how the king was so blind. It seemed like every other night she had a new man, or woman, or combination of the two. Her captain of the guard, her royal hairdresser, one guy who sold a particularly hardy breed of donkey, foreign dignitaries, milkmaids, butlers, valets… it seemed like she was interested in every person in Aeternia except the king.
Okay, that wasn’t entirely true. She was interested in poisoning him or arranging his death. He just left his castle so rarely and was so thorough in his choice of food tasters that she hadn’t managed yet.
Then the twin princes, Edvald the elder and Bolshe the younger. Edvald took after his father's image; in the novels and games, he was depicted as powerful and competent, one of the best swordsmen Aeternia had ever produced. Tall, handsome, strong, and ever smiling, he seemed like the ideal man. He was even my main in Crown/Last Decree: Legacy Dream Tourney . But he had another side besides gallant, able warrior: insatiable sadist. Physical, mental, emotional—it didn’t matter to him as long as someone was unhappy and he was the cause. When his father would impotently rage from his throne, it was often Edvald's sword that would mete out the unfair Freise style of justice. Often slowly.
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Bolshe, on the other hand, was more like his mother: a quiet, intelligent young man who spoke rarely. His words were always weapons when he did speak, though. His studious exterior hid a man who only enjoyed himself when deceiving someone else or scheming. In the series, it was his actions and betrayal that led to the downfall of Aeternia as he plotted with the foreign Duke Berith, spurred on by visions of himself on the throne. Hearing him from my trashcan position, I realized just how slippery and downright slimy he really was. I once heard him plot to have a tailor murdered for daring to suggest that his color was not in fact burgundy but perhaps a more vermillion. Talk about a piece of work.
Finally, there was the princess Evelinda, or Vivi for short. To be honest, there hadn’t been much written about her in my world. She was usually portrayed as a delicate flower that was unjustly struck down early in the war on Aeternia. Here, she was kind of like that, superficially. When she was alone, though, she would practice combat with her lady-in-waiting and confidante, Athella. She also swore like a sailor and spent her nights sneaking out in disguise to get into bar fights. She seemed kind, at least. I never heard her order any murders or plot to defraud the royal treasury, or even speak particularly poorly of anyone besides her rotten family and the lowlife cohorts they kept. Although I had heard her once swear for so long and so thoroughly I thought my trashcan body would start to blush.
Still, she seemed like the nicest of the bunch, at least to me who could only hear her. It was she who gave me the push I needed to go from level 1 to 2, throwing away a broken training sword worth more than the average house one night after a particularly rough session with Athella. Once again, the voice in my head echoed:
STEEL TRAINING FEDER. EXPERIENCE VALUE: 100
TOTAL EXPERIENCE: 150
EXPERIENCE THRESHOLD CROSSED. CONGRATULATIONS, YOU ARE NOW A LEVEL 2 UNADORNED TRASHCAN WITH MINOR ENCHANTMENT.
STATS HAVE CHANGED AS FOLLOWS:
STRENGTH- 1.1 -> 1.4
DEXTERITY- 0.52 -> 0.54
CHARISMA- 0.32 -> 0.34
INTELLIGENCE- 1 -> 1.2
MAGIC OFFENSE- 0.32 -> 0.34
MAGIC DEFENSE- 1.1-> 1.2
HIT POINTS- 5.5 -> 6
MANA- 1.2 -> 1.4
SKILLS UNLOCKED:
BASIC PERCEPTION
BASIC APPRAISAL
CAPACITY INCREASED
And just like that, I could see. Thanks to Vivi, I could now see that I was, in fact, a trashcan in a throne room. Slowly, my life as an object for disposing literal garbage was getting better. Not much, mind you. In some ways, it could he seen as negligible amount. But slowly, surely, I was becoming better than I had been before, which is more than I'd ever done in life. That was progress.
Even if it came from eating trash and I had nothing to do with it at all.
