“The 3rd Prince of Altrisberg: Rumored Demon of the Royal Family Transfers Schools to Inlan.”
The one reading the headlines of ‘Inlan Today’ daily newspaper, Hirotaka, paused for dramatic effect, and upon receiving no response from the other 4 in the room with him, cleared his throat and tried again, “And it was deemed he’d be attending Tenjou University–”
He screeched and fell from the desk, mouth wide open.
“Excuse me, what?!”
“You didn’t know?” Poco bobbed her chestnut-like scraggly hair, popping the bubblegum in her violently red lips and tapped away at the keyboard. “It was mentioned in the Uni group chat.”
“The 3rd Prince of Altrisberg is coming?”
“Yes.”
“The 3rd Prince is coming here, to our Uni?”
“Yes.”
Hirotaka wailed, “And you don’t have anything to comment about this incredibly uncommon phenomenon where we’d be batchmates with a fucking prince?”
All 4 of his friends looked up from their relevant PC screens and gazed at him for a second. They opened their mouths,
“Do I look like I give two shits?” Poco scowled.
“As long as he doesn’t bother us,” was Mita.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“P’ii jiibk tlw ab mbwf,” Vtec rjlv, gjatfg vlrqifjrfv.
“Ccv atja mbcmfgcr wf, tbk?” jrxfv Kjlrtlc.
“Xjt.” Llgbajxj qblcafv tlr olcufg ja tlr oglfcvr, “Tbe qfbqif, qifjrf vb atlr kbgiv j ojnbg jcv vfifaf sbeg fzlrafcmf.” Lf kfca yjmx ab gfjvlcu.
“Ktf 3gv jcv atf sbecufra qglcmf bo atf Ciaglryfgu gbsji ojwlis, Uglcmf Cche, lr vfrlucjafv ab jgglnf ja atf Efqeyilm bo Pcijc obg atf cfza 4 sfjgr klat atf mbwqifalbc bo tlr jvnjcmfv fvemjalbc lc yfjglcu, eqbc atf lwqfglji vfmgff bo Blcu Lfcgs. Bcbkc obg yflcu j gjatfg wsrafglber oluegf fnfc jwbcura atf gbsjir jcv filaf bo atf mbecags, atf 3gv qglcmf lr rb gjgfis rffc ja fnfcar gfofggfv ab ys jiljrfr remt jr atf ‘wjv vbu’, ‘wlrola’, jcv atf wbra lcojwber alaif bo jii: Ktf Gfwbc bo atf Ebsji Mjwlis. Qtbj, ktja atf tfii.”
Hirotaka almost threw his glasses away. “The papers have some nerve writing about a prince in these borderline slandering words.”
“The press trashing him is nothing new, there are rumors about him that even the king can’t control,” Shun said, “that he never attends any event the royal family hosts and that people hardly ever see him; to a point where he’s become a mere shadow of the royal family. The royal family apparently doesn’t let him out, anywhere, because they don’t know when he might lose control.”
Hirotaka looked horrified. He swallowed and continued reading, “Quoting the king: ‘The third prince got into some trouble at his former school. He’s a somewhat special kid with behavior that can be deemed cumbersome—especially in the context of a royal family. And I believe this change of environment will aid his recuperation and wellbeing. Inlan is our beloved neighbor, and I believe my son to be in good hands with them’.”
He looked at his friends, unable to relieve the shock on his face. “What the hell… he got in trouble so bad that they made him transfer countries?”
“I think that’s a complete bull though.” Shun shrugged, saying, “Altrisberg sending the prince here has nothing to do with the prince himself. It’s the cold war between the Prime Minister and King Henry that made him send the prince. It’s a move to up their power game.”
“Okay,” Hirotaka asked confused, “Whatever power move it is for King Henry to send the 3rd prince to Inlan, why now? Why not all this time? Their cold war has been going for decades now.”
“Read the headline of the next page.”
Hirotaka adjusted his glasses and read, “New Core Economic policy to be implemented from the following year: Self-sustainable mass production of paper. It has been decided upon a measured survey that adapting to development of in-country production of paper from the earlier core economic policy that was to produce technological equipment would be the most efficient capital measure in the next 2 decades…”
“That’s the reason.” Shun walked over and traced the headline as he said,”Changing core economic policy to one where international trading is not the basis but in-country production is like Inlan is trying to get away from the hold Altrisberg has on it politically. This change in policing is like flipping the middle finger at King Henry.”
“And that’s why he sent the 3rd prince?” asked Hirotaka, “To show that he’s still in control?”
Altrisberg is a European Country and Inlan is an Asian State Republic that are neighbors as well as members of G.A.E. (Global Asian-European) Union.
When Altrisberg was suffering from the aftermath of both droughts and a subsequent stock market crash during the enthronement of the new king, it was Inlan that provided leeway and established long-term international trade relations and funded their capital treasury with investment potential for available stocks. Once their economy revived in courtesy of what Inlan did, the king of Altrisberg married a lady from a prominent political background in Inlan.
This caused a massive shift in power dynamics between both the countries, and Altrisberg won the upper hand. The current PM had been in disfavor of this system for over a decade and finally found the grounds to retaliate against Altrisberg.
“Right,” Shun said, “though it does feel kind of stupid to change the core policy. That’s where 90% of Inlan income comes from– technological products. Altrisberg does not buy our products. It’s a stupid move by a large margin.”
“I wouldn’t say that.” Taishin finally looked away from his laptop. “It’s actually kind of smart because Altrisberg does not buy our products, true that, but they sell what Inlan wants. Silver and Copper—two very important metals for technological products are Altrisberg’s main source of income. Our man, the PM, basically fucked their entire economy over when he changed the core policy from technological products to paper.”
Shun frowned. “Don’t you think it’s still somehow dumb though? He destroyed not just Altrisberg’s economy by this sudden change in policy—Inlan’s too! Paper production is not our forte; there are already mass international suppliers from other members of G.A.E.”
“Stupid, yes.” Taishin nodded his head and gave Shun a knowing smile. “If he cared about the country that is.”
“Oh. Oh.”
“Yup,” Taishin began typing again as he said, “this whole thing is bound to fail, and anybody who wants to bag some bills can only do that if they have room to bag them. An effective policy requires cash, a useless policy also requires cash—in name. And all that cash would probably be embezzled into his bank account.”
“Okay, now I want to beat up this guy.” Poco popped a bubblegum and pointed her finger at Hirotaka accusingly. “You’re the one who ruined my mood with this political shit.”
“What the fuck. It’s not my fault that newspapers decided to print this shit today?”
“They printed it today because the prince is coming today,” Taishin casually dropped a bomb.
“WHAT?!”
That was Hirotaka. Everyone ignored him.
“Aren’t you going to welcome him?” Mita asked Taishin, “Because like… usually Tenjou wants the student council President to greet and welcome VIP guests right?”
“I spoke with the head of the academics.” Taishin stretched himself lazily. “And apparently because we can’t afford to offend the ‘royals’, the academic heads told me the chairman would go out to greet him. Works out well for me, I don’t want to deal with a problem child either.”
At least that’s what he thought until somebody came running and cried,
“Prez! There’s been an emergency, the chairman wants you to welcome the prince, right NOW!!!”
Author’s Note:
So welcome to the world of “A Royal Pain”, my second novel and one that holds a special place in my heart. (´｡• ᵕ •｡`) ♡ If this feels too politically heavy for a first chapter, I promise you it’d be only this chapter that’s going to be this complicated. I hope you folks have gist of the kind of world Taishin lives in and the dynamics between the 2 countries. (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ Updates are going to be once weekly and I’ll get back to you with a decided date. Comment your thoughts lovelies!!
Until then,
Happy New Year!!! σ(≧ε≦σ) ♡
Congratulations on the start of a new journey! 🥳
Can’t wait to see what this story becomes!! 🤗
Love this already!! And Happy New Year<33