Salvation of the Scum Fifth Prince

“You wouldn’t understand.”

The words were quiet under the loud bustling of the crowd, clattering drinks and laughter that vividly contrasted the man’s moody frown. He swirled his drink in his hand, and sighed.

There was a mutter of irritation beside him. “I ran away to have some lovely alone time, why is it that you also had the same idea?”

“Shut up, Haze Prince. I always frequent this bar.”

“And? Do you own it now, Leny~?” A tease contained in the mocking tone that is anything but sweet.

Brioc leaned back with a playful smile at his lips, though his eyes carried a biting dislike that was obvious on his face. It wasn’t that he couldn’t hide his emotions, but that he didn’t care if this drunk prince was aware of his dislike.

Wasn’t it mutual dislike, after all?

His violet eyes gleamed under the lights, pulling at the wooden seat. In the beginning, he had grabbed a random table at a popular restaurant he’d seen a few times in passing, but another hand had stretched out and grabbed the other chair at the same time.

When Brioc glanced up at the hooded figure, and the amber eyes that narrowed viciously when noticing him, he decided against leaving. He wasn’t in the mood to argue with somebody over a table, but this wasn’t just anybody.

This prince had disliked him from the very beginning, for origins that even Brioc didn’t wish to have.

What nonsense.

“Well~ a prince visiting a bar at the dead of the night… I feel like it’d be a pretty popular rumour, don’t you think?”

Erlen scowled, slamming his cup down. “Don’t play tricks, Haze Prince. I’m in no mood for it.”

“I’m oh-so-sorry your highness,” smiled Brioc with curved eyes. “Did you think I’m in the mood for it either?”

There was a scoff, before silence fell between them. Brioc looked away in boredom, taking his time to drink and let the music play over his ears.

A few days ago, he received notice from one of the fox boy’s secret sources, that the group had arrived back at the palace. He’d left in a dramatic manner that was unlike him, but the emotions that stirred in his chest were exactly like that.

Dramatic, explosive, unreasonable.

He snapped his fingers, watching a small flame flicker at the tip before vanishing. Losing control wasn’t something that happened since the event in the Haze Kingdom all those years ago.

A tentative, bitter voice interrupted his thoughts. “What are you doing?”

“Hm~ I don’t want to tell you?”

“...ha. Then don’t.”

Then, the prince added on with casual motions, though his tone said otherwise, “How is Soren faring?”

“Pretty good without you.” said Brioc simply, not even sparing the other a glance.

“.....” Erlen took another swig of his drink, turning away with lowered eyes. Brioc looked over at his silence, unlike the usual arrogance he displayed and decided to speak a little more.

“I don’t like you, Leny. I’m not really a huge fan of some of your other siblings too,” said Brioc casually, resting back in his seat as if he was talking to any random civilian. “But of all of them, you haven’t even tried to do anything, instead just drowning in your own sorrows. It’s pathetic, you know?”

Erlen scowled deeply, snapping his head back to glare at Brioc. “I believe I said before, but you wouldn’t understand, Haze Prince.”

“What part?”

“What?”

Brioc sneered. “What part won’t I understand? The part where you despise nobility and hated Soren for his flirtatious ways, and how he looked down on commoners? Or is it the part where my Father played a part in that fighting ring in which your friend died? I’m curious, Leny. Which part?”

The prince’s expression grew darker with every word, and he leaned forward darkly. “Don’t speak of things you know nothing of.”

“Yeah~?” The magician rested his arm on the table, leaning as he tilted his head and laughed. “Then don’t speak to me as if you know me, when you don’t know a thing.”

Erlen froze, turning his head away as he soon muttered a low ‘sorry’. There was a line he often crossed during his spontaneous bursts of emotion, and he was all too familiar with the warnings or subtle dislike when that happened.

Watching this, Brioc shook his head, messing with the drink that spun around in his hand. Really, these princes of the Qazia kingdom were far too much trouble. Only, there was one prince that he was willing to help and another he refused to.

Yet here he was, listening to the rambles of the latter.

Suddenly, Erlen spoke again in a quieter tone, as if wanting to be heard but unused to the words he spoke.

“Tsk… I never wanted things to play out the way it did. I’m already aware of my faults, and that I’m in the wrong.”

He paused, fingers curling into a fist. “I despised Soren. For the mocking words he had for the commoners, and the disgrace he made of them. I couldn’t forgive him, not that part of him. He was a stranger to me, and his words only increased the divide between us.”

Brioc laughed lightly, staring straight at Erlen. “I really can’t imagine Renren as somebody as judgemental as that, you know~? But say he was like that in the past, aren’t you the one who knows best how he grew up? A child in an environment that lacked love and teaching, clumsy and unaware… Did you expect him to find perfection on his own?”

“That… of course not.”

Soren grew up watching the icy stares of the servants around him, feeling the distance between family. Yet at the same time, he’d been allowed to indulge in wealth that he couldn’t even understand, as if money were all he needed.

Who taught him equity and equality in the world?

Taught him morals that many of the nobles he saw, greedy, cunning and arrogant, didn’t have?

Brioc watched him and said, “You’re the only one left that hasn’t spoken to him.”

“I know.”

“And instead of acting, you’re out venting to a certain somebody who clearly doesn’t dislike you? I’m charmed~”

Erlen frowned, holding his head in his hands as he said in annoyance, “I never asked you to sit down.”

“I never told you to sit either~” replied Brioc with a wry smile.

“...hey, Haze Prince. If you were me, what would you do?”

“I’d stop calling me Haze Prince, Leny.”

“.....”

“Otherwise, I won’t reply~?” Because in the end, Brioc didn’t really care if this troubled prince continued to remain confused and conflicted, alone in this bar as he wondered what to do.

Erlen grumbled under his breath. “What would you do, magician?”

“Better~” said Brioc, flashing his teeth in a wide smile that Erlen couldn’t help but feel had mocking intent. “I’d have a conversation, for one. Those are pretty helpful, I’m sure you didn’t know. And,”

His voice dropped, lowering. “Apologize. Because the current Renren is anything but how you perceived him in the past, and you’re the only one still stuck in time. I despise nobility, but I’m not so blind not to try and understand some circumstances. If he was still arrogant as you mentioned, he wouldn’t be interesting at all.”

Erlen looked at Brioc through the gaps in his hand as the latter lazily said words with a relaxed posture. Yet those violet eyes stared right at him, piercing and anything but casual.

“You neglected him, and then you judged him for what he became. And now… now you can’t even accept his change. Who are you to deny who he is, all this time?”

Brioc always had many thoughts regarding the tense situation between the five princes. Although he wasn’t very interested in the drama, he found Soren plenty interesting on his own, the magician still had several opinions.

There was the fact that Soren had once been like the crazed, immature and arrogant noble in the rumours.

But there was also the fact that he was neglected and never taught right or wrong. There was the fact that the only way for him to be seen was to act crazier and crazier, as if that was the only method in proving his existence.

Erlen’s justice, Vincent’s responsibility. Atlas’ coma, Deimos’ mission.

Those were the things that caused the main rifts between the brothers, but it was all one sided. Never had Soren hated his siblings, never was there any walls he built to prevent them from getting along.

The entire time, it’d been him locked outside banging on their doors of various things, only to be rejected and left in the cold.

Erlen swallowed and finally, all he could do was nod. “You’re right.” said the prince before taking a deep breath and repeating, “You’re right.”

“So, Leny~ you’re returning to the palace? Soren is already back.”

There was a subtle nod. “Are you also returning?”

“Why would I?”

“Are you not part of Soren’s group?”

“.....” To think the day that he was naturally assumed to belong somewhere would actually come. It was still a little strange, thought Brioc faintly. “I’m taking a break to play around.”

“...? I see.”

Brioc muddled through his thoughts before abruptly asking, “If you learned that everything you knew was a lie, that your world was fake and predestined, what would you do?”

The third prince wasn’t a fan of philosophical or hypothetical questions and said simply, “Hah? Well, isn’t it fine if it was real to me? Even if somebody said that everything that happened was left to fate, I made my choices and survived through my own will. That fate exists because of what I chose to do, not the other way around.”

A plain, straight to the point and confident answer. It was a little stupid too, not containing any complicated thoughts.

But an answer that much suited this prince, who loved justice and fighting.

He opened his mouth and started, “I’ll return— “

“The fifth prince? Really?”

A hushed whisper behind him made him stop in his tracks. Erlen’s eyes also wandered to the source of the sound, narrowing.

“Woah! That’s utter madness, to think that he could’ve changed so much. From scum to hero, it’d made the front page in the papers!”

Another voice laughed gruffly. “Saving the world and nonsense like that, do you actually believe it? That the fifth scum could do anything like that.”

“No, really. I’ve heard the stories, and they’re too detailed to be lies. Do you remember the chaos in the Haze Kingdom? He was the instigator for that and ended the tyranny of that foolish King.”

“What? Quick, tell me the details!”

Before another word could be spoken, a hand slammed on the table and the two men flinched, snapping their heads up to meet a dangerous pair of gleaming purple. At some point, Brioc had wandered over.

“Hey~ those stories sound very, very interesting. Won’t you tell me more~?”

“T-that…” One of the men glanced at the other nervously, feeling as if there was no room for rejection. “There are a lot, sir. Of the fifth prince’s adventures. I-I heard he even went to the lost necromancer land, the one that only exists in stories. That he’s entered the Forbidden Forests and easily escaped with his life, when many never leave.”

The stories were all true, but that made Brioc even more suspicious. By no means was Soren vocal or obvious about what he did, instead slinking off to the side and disappearing while getting roped into all sorts of trouble.

His actions shouldn’t have been known by any other than those who followed Soren on his journey.

“Wow~ and who told you about these things?”

“I-I heard it from another friend. The rumours have spread all across the kingdom, don’t you know? He’s famous right now!”

Erlen crossed his arms, having followed Brioc after noticing the situation. “Rumours about a prince are dangerous ones to spread.”

“But they’re true. Or at least, it’s quite likely that it happened. Anyway, it’s not a terrible rumour compared to the ones about him in the past.”

“Do you know where the rumours started?”

The man quickly shook his head. “No, no, it’s everywhere now. Most people have heard of it, so I don’t know where it came from.”

Erlen and Brioc glanced at each other, one with a deep frown and the other with a seemingly intrigued look that was laced with complexity.

Something wasn’t right.

— — — xxx — — —

Damien opened the letter that had been left at his bedside, skimming through the page with lowered eyes and he brushed a strand of loose hair back. Alvara, who had entered his room to ask for advice on her training, noticed the change in his expression.

It just so happened that Soren and Raphael had also entered the room behind her after seeing the door left wide opened.

“...is there… bad news?” asked Alvara with uncertainty.

The fox finished reading, even reading a second time to confirm he hadn’t missed anything, and looked up.

“Congratulations, master. You’re famous.”

Soren immediately frowned, the word famous being something he had absolutely no interest in. “What?”

“There are rumours spreading across the continent about your deeds. The situation that occurred at the Haze Kingdom, your adventures to the lost land of the necromancers, and your successful escape of the Forests. Including various others.”

Raphael tapped the hilt of his sword and said suspiciously, “They aren’t rumours.”

“They’re facts.” nodded Damien. “And is just anybody aware of everything you have done, master?”

Soren shook his head. The few people that he had met were either briefly as he passed a town or area, or those that he travelled with — most of which were here, in the palace as they spoke. The matters of all the events he participated in shouldn’t have his name in big, bold letters since he had chosen to remain in the background for most of them.

And of course, Damien was well aware of that fact. Otherwise, he would’ve ignored the message if he’d concluded that Soren wanted his name to be known.

Alvara frowned, slightly confused. “All those things… if it wasn’t anyone here that said them, was it Brioc?”

Raphael shook his head. “That magician isn’t very involved with rumours. He’ll only do things he’s curious about.”

Was it the Third Religion, who had remained quiet for so long? With deep investigation, it was possible for them to have discovered what Soren had done. But what was the purpose of these rumours that did nothing but make Soren famous?

“I’ll send Hazel to investigate more thoroughly.” said Damien before adding, “Brioc and Erlen will be returning to the palace shortly as well.”

Soren blinked in surprise. “They are?”

“Yes, don’t you know the reason?”

Raphael chuckled, raising his chin slightly as he glanced at the prince who only seemed confused. “An emotionally dense fool like him knows the reason? Impossible.”

A certain emotionally dense fool scowled. “There’s no reason related to me.”

His words earned a smile from the other. “As I said, emotionally dense.”

“.....”

Alvara cleared her throat, though the corners of her mouth were tugged helplessly as she tried to salvage the situation. “Don’t worry, Soren! Being emotionally dense isn’t bad at all.”

Damien’s ears twitched and his lips curved vaguely in amusement. “Aren’t you agreeing to Raphael’s words by saying that, Alvara?”

“...you’re right.”

And in the blur of chatter, there was something that rang in Soren’s mind like a chant. Three things that could force him into a position that he didn’t want.

Number one, faith.