'Well, I did make a promise not to tell anyone about Will,' Simon told himself. 'It's just right for me to take all the credit, and see what that has already brought me!'
"Long live his highness, prince Simon!"
The people around him sang together with the performers his father had hired to entertain them.
"You are so great, brother!"
Even the rest of his siblings noticed him for the first time.
"This son of mine reminds me of my youth the most!" proclaimed his father who hardly ever spoke to him.
"Tell us, Prince Simon!" they begged him. "Tell us how you killed the behemoth!"
So Simon drank his third cup of wine and stood from his seat and faced the crowd who stared at him wide-eyed.
"It was like hell on Earth!" he told them in a loud voice. "My brothers at arms were falling, one after the other, the behemoth's fiery breath, scorching the Dark forest and leaving only ashes on its path!"
"Where were you then?" Juno asked. "What were you doing as your companions fell?"
"I was at the back, straining from a broken leg from the behemoth's first attack..."
Simon stared blankly before him as the scene from the carnage passed before his eyes.
"The two knights my brothers sent with me tried to help me... one of them brought me back to my tent, while the other stayed behind to ensure that the traps we set were armed properly to keep the monster from advancing, but the behemoth was too big for the traps, and too strong for our army... we were only 500 men strong, after all..."
"Five hundred?" his father the king asked him. "Didn't I sent two thousand men for this quest?"
"That's right, father," Juno answered quickly, "I decided to divide our men into groups and send them to different locations to make sure that the behemoth would be stopped, no matter what path it would take."
"What a brilliant plan, Prince Juno!" supporters of the first prince cooed. "He truly is a great tactician!"
"Tell us what happened next, Simon?" the rest of the audience asked.
"We were about to reach my tent, when the behemoth attacked once more, swiping the ground with it's tail that was longer than this great hall of the royal palace! My faithful knight was able to push me aside, but he was swept away by that tail and that was the last I saw of him..."
Simon fell silent for a while.
So did the whole dining hall.
"I tried to run then..." he confessed. "I knew that I had no chance against it. All I could think of was to warn the rest about the behemoth approaching. But I was backed up against the foot of a steep cliff, and had nowhere else to go.
So I decided to face him instead."
"Then, what did you do?" asked one of his younger siblings, their eyes wide with anticipation.
"I raised my blade then and pointed it at the behemoth," he continued. "It stared back at me, taunting me, for it knew that there was nothing more a mere worm like me could do, until..."
Simon paused once again.
"Until what?" asked the king, dying of anticipation with the rest of his audience.
"Until... I suddenly felt a burning sensation beneath my chest..."
Simon continued with Will's story.
"It was a sharp, burning pain from my solar plexus that felt like my body was breaking from the inside out... as if I was about to explode! All I wantedback then was to scream and push it out of my body, so I screamed with all my might and I hurled all that feeling out and towards the monstrous behemoth that towered above me!"
Simon looked haughtily at the people listening attentively at him.
"I have no idea what happened or how I did what I just did, butwhen I looked up, the behemoth was no more!"
"Oh! What an amazing feat indeed!" his audience exclaimed.
"It was an awakening after all!" the others said.
"Then, brother Simon," Largos pipped in. "Can you show us a demonstration of your newly found power?" he asked with a big grin on his face.
Simon turned to look at him, sweat, dripping down his brows.
"I-I'm afraid I am in no condition to do something of the sort right now..." he quickly answered. "I guess I used too much power to kill the behemoth. I'm still recuperating, and the long travel has made me weary..."
"Is that so?" Prince Juno asked him flatly.
"Yes, brothers," Simon replied. "And I'm afraid I'm not sure when this mysterious power of mine will come back again."
Later that evening, Simon was about to retire to the dormitory where the rest of the princes dwell, but Prince Juno intercepted him and led him towards his own dwellings.
"From now on, you will be given a residence of your own," said his brother. "Since they are still preparing a palace for you, you shall stay here for now, as my esteemed guest."
"Thank you, brother Juno..." Simon answered, feeling tipsy from the wine he drank in the banquette. "Please, lead the way..." he followed with a hiccup.
They were about to leave the main palace, when someone pulled Simon's sleeve from behind.
"Huh? Who's there?" Simon asked, a bit alarmed.
He looked back and saw the healer, Nell, who gave him a curt bow.
"Oh, Nell! There you are!" he called to his healer happily. "Did you have a good time in the banquette? Did you watch the performances they prepared for me?"
Nell gently shook his head.
"I'm afraid that only nobles were allowed to enter the royal dining hall," his brother Juno told him. "Your healer was sent to the kitchen to eat with the rest of the aids."
"Is that so?" Simon raised his brows. "But Nell is my guest, he's the one who has been healing me, after all."
"Be that as it may, he is merely an aid who has not even been ordained as a priest yet," Juno insisted. "You, as a member of the Krems royal family, should behave as one and not associate yourself too much with lowly peasants."
"I-I guess you're right..." mumbled Simon. "let's just go rest for the night," he told Nell.
"The healer will get a room of his own together with the rest of the aids in the servants' dormitory," Juno informed them.
"A room with the servants?" Simon frowned at his brother.
"I don't have an extra room for him," Juno said coldly. "Why would a lowly healer stay in the same place as his master?" Juno snorted and raised an eyebrow at his younger brother.
Simon felt his face burn more than the alcohol he drank earlier.
'I guess I should start behaving like a proper royal now...' he thought to himself.
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Go to Part 22
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