The Pauper Prince

Middle of the year, summer afternoon. Tensions were high within a castle atop a mountain overlooking the country's capital city below it.

Two brothers in separate locations, preparing themselves for a clash that could potentially alter their lives for the better or worse. Two brothers spending their remaining free time differently, before engaging in a dramatic duel that could affect the future of the entire country itself.

The oldest prince spent his time in the guard's training area outside, repeatedly practicing his swordplay until he was able to perfectly master his precision and control. Even though the heat outside was considered unbearable to weaker men, he barely brokered a sweat as he continued lashing his blade at the training dummy again and again like an unrelenting machine.

In his mind, as he left marks and dents on his mock-foe, he imagined the face of his younger brother sneering at him with a contemptible smile. That alone was enough to motivate the oldest prince to put all of his power into each and every swing, causing him to give a frustrated grunt as he continued to lash out his anger and contempt.

A particularly strong swing was finally enough to cause the battered wooden dummy to break apart into pieces, leaving its debris all over the place.

With his mock-foe in smithereens, the oldest prince shook his head with a frustrated sigh. Deciding that this was a sign to take a breather, he dropped his training sword to the side and walked to the nearest bench.

Without a moment to waste, a few men in armor hurriedly rushed past him in order to clean up his mess. The oldest prince paid them no mind as they picked up the pieces of the training dummy and swept the place clean, before replacing the dummy with a brand new one that was ready for training.

The moment he sat down, a maid was already on her knees next to his side while offering a cold glass of water.

"Water to refresh yourself, milord?"

He silently shook his head and politely shooed the maid away. At his command, she stood up while bowing her head and respectfully left him alone.

Leaning back against the stone wall, he took a deep breath and wistfully stared up into the clear sky. The sun shined directly above him, spreading its heat to the area like a sauna. Instead of sitting in the shade like any other, the prince actually basked in the sunlight almost as if it was a relaxing breeze to him.

"It's almost time..." He muttered to himself.

Despite the hatred in his heart for the foe he was about to face, he bore no joy for the duel that was to come.

---

On the other side of the castle, contrary to the first prince, the second prince confidently relaxed in his bedroom.

Confidently relaxed, in this case, meant laying on his bed while having two women servicing him like a guest at a whorehouse.

The second prince was quite thoroughly enjoying himself by engorging his face in between the tits of a mature topless woman wearing a very skimpy maid outfit. Meanwhile, on the other side of him, a young blond girl wearing only white lingerie was keeping a slow steady pace as she bobbed her head on his cock.

For the second prince, having his lips sucking on the teat of a maid while his cock was getting sucked itself was a very average occurrence. Not a day goes by where he doesn't at least orgasm inside the hole of a female's body three times a day. In fact, if he so happens to miss out on a single instance of one of his daily scheduled orgasms, the second prince would become a very cranky and bitter prince indeed.

But it was his birth-given right to do whatever he wished, after all. Being the son of the king meant that he should have his needs satisfied, whatever they might be and whenever he might need it. Someone with the blood of the royal family should be considered a being similar to the gods themselves. If the people in this country did not revere to him as such, then it would be his birth-given right to punish them however he saw fit.

Bored of the maid's tit in his mouth, he withdrew from her boobs and roughly pulled the maid down so that he could switch to having the maid's tongue instead.

Having been accustomed to this treatment for a long time now, the maid reacted quickly and professionally as a maid of her caliber should, sticking her tongue out preemptively for her master to latch on to. Not stopping there, she even brought her hands up to hold her lord's head while caressing his hair and cheek, just to bring him more comfort and enjoyment.

The other girl who was sucking his cock glanced up at the scene with tired eyes. Still, she pushed on and kept doing her best to please the second prince as best as she always could.

Yes, this was indeed the life deserving of such a prince. Once he becomes the new king, no doubt he will be able to use his influence and powers to gather even more girls to form a collection of beautiful mistresses from all over the world. He could already imagine it, his chambers filled with a harem of beautiful women, daughters of aristocrats and monarchs from across the lands, welcoming him back with open arms as they strip him from his royal garments and pleasure him for hours on end as a reward for his hard work as the king every single night.

With that image in mind, the second prince began to groan into his personal maid's mouth, feeling his cock growing in pressure as he was about to release his fifth orgasm of the day. His free hand roughly grabbed onto the blond girl's hair and her to deepthroat his cock just as he was about to blow.

For the blond girl, it was the only warning she was about to get before she would have to gulp down waves of the second prince's semen down her throat. She fought back the urge to cough or gag, clenching her eyes shut as she did her best to swallow down as much of his fluid as quickly as possible so that she doesn't accidentally . Thankfully, this wasn't the first time she was to take an entire load all in one go, so she was able to go through it all relatively unscathed.

Flopping his head back onto his pillow, the second prince had a widely satisfied smile as he breathed heavily. Today's sexual feast just so happened to be one of the most satisfying ones he's had in a long while. Most likely because he knew what was to come.

After all, today was the day that the second prince will finally be granted the chance to beat his older brother into a pulp and steal his rights to be the heir of the throne.

There was no doubt in his mind that today's duel would inevitably end with him as the victor. His brother could train and train as much as he foolishly wants, there was no way that he was ever going to win against the second prince's dueling skills.

"Are you satisfied, milord? Or would you like to start another session?" His voluptuous maid asked professionally, already in her position to get started again if he so desired it.

Looking down, he finally released the blond girl who was sucking his cock, allowing her to remove herself and breathe a sigh of relief as she gasped for air. She didn't let waste a single drop of his cum, just as he trained her.

"No, I'm good for now." He sighed, "There will be no time for another round anyway. I am to appear for today's duel soon, and I'd rather not waste any time to humiliate my brother."

"As you wish." The maid bowed gracefully before leaving the bed, already in the motions of cleaning herself up and redressing herself properly.

Hearing that the second prince was done for the time being, the blond girl had a troubled expression as she bowed and left the bed.

Stretching himself and giving a relaxed yawn, the second prince rolled out of bed and went to the bathroom. "I'll be showering now. One of you prepare my garments for me. I don't want to be late."

"Yes, milord."

---

And thus, the fated duel has finally arrived.

The second prince had a confident swagger in his step as he made his way down the coliseum corridors. You would think that a duel that could decide the fate and future of the kingdom would be a nerve-wracking event, but not for the second prince in all of his arrogance and pride. In his mind, he just could not even fathom an outcome in which he did not win.

Anxiously walking alongside him was the blond girl from earlier who had drained him of his royal semen, dressed up in her own royal garments, soon to sit in VIP seats next to the king and queen as a spectator.

The coliseum has been privately rented out for the day, as per the king's orders. No outsider beyond the royal family and its staff were allowed inside, in order to prevent any potential interruptions to the duel.

This duel was granted to fulfill the second prince's eighteenth birthday wish after all. To be able to duel his older brother for the right of becoming the next in line to the throne.

"Prince Thomas..." The girl beside him began nervously, "I feel like this might be a bad idea... Do you really have to go through with this?"

The worried tone had irked the second prince, a slight twitch in his eye as his swagger faltered a bit. "Whatever do you mean, Barbara?" He asked with a hint of annoyance in his words. "Do you have doubts about my victory?"

"Well... Yes..." Barbara nodded hesitantly, before quickly correcting herself, "I mean, not that I don't have any faith in your abilities! I know that you are ranked as the number one fencer in the academy, so of course I'm not calling your skills into question. It's just... I feel like you are underestimating our older brother..."

"Really?" Thomas rolled his eyes dismissively, "I have seen the way he fights, Barbara. I've studied him and his techniques daily. In my humble opinion, in terms of combat, I find him wanting." With a smug smirk, he explained, "The cretin that is our brother has spread out too much amongst his studies. Instead of dedicating himself to master one specific craft, he always focuses on multiple tasks at once. Unlike him, I've dedicated all of my spare time doing nothing but perfecting the art of the rapier. Sure, he might be equally knowledgeable about everything else, but when it comes to raw combat, I am second to none. He won't beat me."

"You shouldn't be so relaxed though..." Barbara insisted, "He might not be better at you at fighting, but he's still really strong! He might catch you off guard, or even-"

"ENOUGH!"

Thomas's shout immediately caused the girl to flinch in fear as she silenced herself.

"I won't permit you to look down on me, Barbara. If anyone's underestimating someone, it's you towards me." Thomas growled, "Just be a good obedient girl and sit quietly in your seat when we arrive. Your incessant nagging will sour my mood."

"B-But..." Barbara nervously squeaked out an argument, only to have Thomas slam his hand on the wall and tower over her against it.

"You will remember your place." Thomas glared down at her, "Although you are a princess, you are still just a girl who was adopted into our royal family, nothing more. You are a political tool used to curry favor for us within other families, and I will not have someone like you, who doesn't even have royal blood within her, tell me what or how I should behave."

At the reminder of her position, Princess Barbara looked away out of shame. "Yes, brother..." She responded back in a lifeless tone.

The walk to the coliseum became much sourer after that, with the second prince's mood worsening with each step of the way. Agitated by the reminder that people still looked down on him, still trying to compare him to his older brother, still treating him like a joke just for simply not being the firstborn of the family.

He'd show them how wrong they all were. He will defeat his brother in their duel.

Then he'll become king. Just like he always deserved to be.

---

The entire area was silent.

On one side, a fiery red-headed older prince, readying himself in his combat stance as he gripped onto his sword and shield tightly.

On the other side, an overly confident younger prince, holding one hand behind his back as he steadied himself to a fencing stance.

Besides them, the royal family sat atop the VIP seats overlooking the empty coliseum. King, queen, and princess, the three of them looking down at the arena with varying degrees of nervousness. It was a dire situation, after all. Despite granting Prince Thomas his birthday wish to duel his older sibling, no one wanted to see either of them get hurt during this fight.

The king himself so desperately wanted to jump out of his seat and call off the duel right there. He loved his family to and couldn't bring himself to watch his two sons harm each other. But despite himself, he was a weak father who would spoil his children at all opportunities. When his youngest son demanded to be granted the honor of a duel against his brother for his birthday, the king just could not deny his wishes. He was a strong king, but he was a weak and pathetic father who loved his family too much to do anything about it.

The queen was just as equally doting as her husband. Seeing her two sons preparing to fight each other was heartbreaking, and she could barely stand to watch. All she could do now was pray that their fight would not end up with either of them in serious harm.

The princess, despite being belittled by her brother, despite being told straight to her face that she was only just a political tool that was adopted into the family, could not help but fear for Prince Thomas's life. Even though her attempts to get him to take the fight seriously were in vain, she still hoped that he at least took some of her warnings to heart. She cared not whether Prince Thomas would end up winning or losing, all she cared for was whether he would survive. If her older brother were to win, she desperately hoped that he could find within him the mercy to spare Thomas. Otherwise, she wouldn't be able to find any other reason to live.

The two princes on the arena, however, did not pay any of them any mind. Hell, they were not even aware of any of their worries to begin with.

These two boys have hated each other for so long, this fight between them had to have been coming sooner or later. To them, this was nothing more than a predetermined destiny.

No words needed to be exchanged between themselves. They've known each other long enough to know what the other was thinking.

I will be king, no matter what. Thomas glared greedily to his future.

I won't let you bring this country to ruin. His brother glared back in rebellion.

In the arena alongside them, a woman with steel battle-harden eyes looked between the two, acting as the referee of this match. Raising her hand up in the sky, she announced, "This will be a free battle with no restrictions. Anything goes, and nothing should be held back. This includes magical abilities. The clear winner will be the final man standing, or if your opponent openly admits defeat. Do both of you acknowledge these conditions?"

"Aye." Thomas declared.

"Aye." The older prince declared back.

"On my signal, you may commence the duel." The woman called out, keeping her hand high above her. Staring between the two of them again and deeming them ready, she brought her hand down and shouted, "BEGIN!"

Thomas didn't hesitate to charge first, claiming forth his destiny.

---

Slain in battle. Your journey has now come to an end...

"Ah, tits."

Jesus Christ, that was a quick game over screen... Didn't even give me a chance to react!

"Ultimate difficulty isn't messing around... I've been playing this game for weeks now and it's still kicking my ass..." I muttered.

I frowned as I watch the tv screen show my character getting skewered by my evil brother's rapier. He kicked my lifeless body away and flicked the blood off his weapon, before announcing a cold-hearted, "Easy, just as I predicted."

Something tells me this new playthrough isn't going to be a cakewalk like the others...

Ah well, time for a break anyway.

Setting my controller down, I stood up from my couch and stretched my arms and legs.

Combing through my hair, I thought about what I should do in the meantime before my stomach started rumbling.

Food. Definitely gotta need some food in me before I keep playing.

Making my way to my minifridge in my small apartment, I opened it up and scoured inside to see what I could microwave.

The only thing I owned was an empty box that was supposed to hold frozen pizza, some frozen fries, and some orange juice.

"Tom, you really gotta start buying more healthy food..." I muttered depressingly to myself.

If I keep living this unhealthy lifestyle of mine, I was probably going to start gaining a few pounds before I'll know it.

Eh, no biggie. Fries will do for now.

Pre-heating the microwave and pouring the frozen snacks in a bowl, I put the food inside and set it up to heat for a couple of minutes. In the meantime, I sat down at my kitchen table and patiently waited for it to be done.

"God, how long has it been since I went outside?" I mumbled, trying to remember when I first started playing this game.

I think it was around three weeks ago...

I was a college student taking a break for the holidays to enjoy some free time for myself. The hustle and bustle of constantly studying for exams and worrying about my GPA would eventually prove too much for my weak endurance, so I was grateful for the rare chance for some R&R.

A couple of days into my break though, I managed to come across this obscure video game that no one seems to know about. There was this really weird shady guy just standing right next to the alleyway of a local pawn shop, and for some reason, he was desperately trying to get the game out of his hands for cheap.

The box art fascinated me since it depicted a girl posing while wielding lightning magic. As a huuuuuge fanboy for the medieval fantasy genre, you better believe I jumped on the chance to get my hands on the game, especially since I never even heard about it before in my entire life.

It was a pretty good deal too, only ended up being about five bucks to get.

And wow, what a game it was. Once I plugged the thing into my console, I was hooked immediately. I haven't been able to stop playing the game ever since I started. My new schedule during this break period has evolved into doing nothing but waking up, eating, playing the game, sleeping, and repeat until ad nauseum.

Elemental Spirits was the name, and I was shocked to find out how little people knew about its existence. In fact, there seemed to be absolutely nobody in the world that knew about this game.

Even when I tried posting pictures and showing video recordings of me playing the game, nobody seemed too interested or even cared.

Which is a god damn shame, because this game was an absolute gem.

Most likely, it was probably because the game was an oldie that was exclusive to the PS2 and had an Adults Only rating from the ESRB.

The game itself was lacking in the graphics department, but its main appeal was the dynamic storyline and the gameplay elements. It basically functioned more like a life simulator, as you play through the eyes of a member of a royal family who goes to this awesomely cool fancy magical academy. It has an overabundance of different storylines, all leading down to twelve different endings- and I've been spending all my free time trying to get each and every single one. What really made it stand out even more was the fact that the game didn't shy away from the sexual content either. There were tons of romanceable characters in the game that had their own dedicated sex scenes if you play their side quests. Not the lame "take off your clothes and fade to black" stuff either, I'm talking actual pornographic animations of all your favorite characters.

It must have been a freaking miracle to have gotten it available on a physical disc copy, considering the fact that no game console on earth would ever allow a game with an Adults Only rating on their platform.

It was seriously a shame, this game had so much content in it, I felt like I just stole from the guy I paid the five bucks to just to own it.

Right now, on my latest playthrough, I was roleplaying as a super serious and hard-working hero named Johnathon who aims to perfect himself in every skill so that he could become the best leader for his country. I was basically trying to get the final perfect ending, where I make no mistakes and get the good ending for every single character in the story at the max difficulty.

It has been a veeeerrry time-consuming process though... Most of my previous playthroughs usually only last a couple of days at most to finally finish. This new one has been taking me almost an entire week just to get half-way through. I'm worried that I won't have enough time to finish it before my break is over and I have to go back to college.

Through the power of save-scumming (that is, the term for when the player abuses saving the game and reloading at an earlier point in order to undo mistakes), I've been able to make decent progress on the story so far.

The only thing that has been blocking my path to a perfect ending though is my main character's younger brother, Prince Thomas.

*DING*

"Oh, fries are done."

Opening the microwave door and carefully grabbing the hot bowl inside with a heat-proof glove, I set the bowl down on my table and squirted some ketchup before digging in.

So yeah, anyways, Prince Thomas.

This guy, Jesus Christ, had to be one of the most spoiled brats in all of gaming history. Power-hungry, greedy, a complete horn dog towards women- he was the picture definition of a villain antagonist. Which was funny, considering he doesn't even light a candle to the game's true villainous mastermind.

If this was any other playthrough, I'd usually just try to kill him early so that he didn't get in my way. Most of the time, he deserved it anyway for abusing his adoptive sister, bullying all of my character's friends in the academy, and even plotting to his own father. Turns out though, the game hinted that he had his own special good ending, which was why I was going through the trouble of keeping him alive.

If I keep pushing forward and choose all the right options, I'd eventually be able to get Prince Thomas to lose all his memories from a duel with him, causing him to forget all about his evil plans and giving him a new clean slate in life. After that, I'm assuming that I'll be able to lead him down a righteous path and convince him to use his powers for the good of the kingdom instead of ending up an evil tyrant. The in-game hint guide has been really vague about what I should do after that, which was weird considering it's been bluntly informative about every other ending before this.

Kinda hit a brick wall though, since his boss fight in this playthrough is so goddamn hard. I died about three times now. The reason why was because I ended up picking my main character's magical element to be something that was weak against his on accident.

It was sort of like the pokemon system. I was a fire type because I wanted to roleplay as a strong leader character who wears red, like a Red Power Ranger. I completely forgot that fire types were weak against wind types though, which was what he was. Not only does he have the elemental advantage over me, but his wind magic gave him an innate speed boost in both attack and movement. Add the fact that he uses a fast stabby rapier as his main weapon and translate that to maximum difficulty, you basically end up with a cheating haxor troll from the Dark Souls multiplayer in your hands.

Still, I love the game too much to quit now. I plan on getting that perfect ending, even if it kills me.

Laying back from my empty bowl, I gave a small burp and a satisfied sigh. With my stomach full, I didn't hesitate to rush back into my couch and grabbing my controller again.

If there's one thing I've always been proud of about myself, it's that I'm stupid stubborn. A brick wall will eventually crack at some point once you smash your head enough times on it.

---

Five hours later...

"Come on come on come on come on-" I muttered furiously, my fingers stabbing the buttons on my controller like a goddamn typewriter.

This was my forty-ninth try against this boss fight, and this latest attempt was the closest I've been to trying to get his health down to zero.

God, I hate Prince Thomas so fucking much. Fuck this guy and fuck the fact that I have to share a similar name with him.

Even after studying his attack patterns so that I could the hell out of I-frames to dodge his moves, he still gets the drop on me if I make even one tiny mistake. He just never stops fucking stabbing- HE NEVER STOPS FUCKING STABBING-

Slain in battle. Your journey has now come to an end...

Eat a croquette of dicks and shove them up your ass, Thomas.

Wiping the sweat off my brow, I refused to give up and started over one more time.

This time, I won't make any more mistakes... I got his moves all memorized...

I took a deep breath... and pressed play.

Fight starts.

First thing he does is lunging stab attack. Block.

Last move is a heavy attack. Parry.

Combo, fire ability, combo, fire ability, combo-

He backs off, taunts, teleports around arena while launching cheap tornado pot shots.

Dodge. Dodge. Dodge-

Sneaks in last heavy attack-

Parry- Combo combo combo-

He backs off and activates his stupid wind armor invulnerability again-

Dodge. Dodge. Dodge-

Built up enough magic to use ultimate ability-

Make vague insult about his mother and political opinions as I spin2win-

Armor is down.

COMBO COMBO COMBO-

He stumbles back, gets upset, starts taking me seriously.

2nd phase.

Fucking spams stupid wind element to push me towards his damn attacks-

Dodge- dodge-

FUCK I HATE THIS GAME AND EVERYONE WHO MADE IT, I HOPE THEY DIE FROM AIDS-

That's just the frustrated gamer in me, sorry. I actually enjoy this game very much and wished they made a sequel-

FUCK YOU, YOU FUCKING COCKY COCKSUCKER-

Yes! Got his health down to one-third! This is the lowest it's ever been! Finally progressing somewhere.

He fell back against the wall and started getting even angrier than before. This time, he looked at me with a crazed fury as he shouted like a banshee, "I WILL NOT LET YOU TAKE AWAY WHAT IS RIGHTFULLY MINE!"

The boss fight picks up even harder now. Even my character seemed intimidated now, judging on the face he was making.

My family in the background was growing more terrified as Prince Thomas got angrier and angrier.

His final move is a suicide attack, losing control of his powers and unleashing tornadoes everywhere.

Just... gotta... dodge... all these... annnndd...

Last hit will be a homing attack, as he aims his rapier at me and prepares to charge.

Wait for it... Wait for it... NOW PARRY NOW-

For my efforts in mastering this boss fight, the game deemed me worthy enough to play an awesome animation of my character blocking the rapier attack with my shield and shoulder tackling Thomas in the gut.

After buckling back in pain, Thomas pushed through one last time with a final stabbing attack at my character. But because he was so weakened and tired at this point, the attack was easy to predict.

My character wordlessly parried his attack away to the point where his rapier even fell out of his hands, leaving him with nothing to attack or defend himself with.

All he could do now was watch in horror as my character, the heroic and badass Prince Johnathon, spun himself around like a fucking Beyblade and bitchslapped the shit out Thomas's face in with his shield.

The impact was strong enough to knock him back a few meters, making tumble against the ground until he collided against the wall of the arena.

There he lied, motionless, powerless, and bleeding everywhere from his stupid ass forehead.

The generic victory theme song played as soon as the cutscene ended, and my character did his signature victory animation where he brushed the dirt off his shoulders, curled his arms up, and showed his back to the camera, like the perfect edgelord that he was.

...

My fucking god.

I did it.

I DID IT.

I DID IT!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHHA-

"EAT SHIT, THOMAS, I FUCKING DID IT!" I shouted in complete elation, jumping on top of my couch like a maniac as I partied my little heart out.

I did it! I fucking did it! HOLY SHIT- That took way too long and way too much effort! BUT I FINALLY DID IT, AND NOW I GET TO MOVE ON TO THE NEXT PART OF THE STORY-

HAHAHAHA- I AM THE FUCKING KING OF VIDEO GAMES, OH MY GOD I COULD ORGASM FROM ALL THIS DOPAMINE FILLING MY BRAIN RIGHT NOW-

WOOOOOOO!

Feeling so happy that I couldn't even contain it, I continued jumping on my couch like a hyperactive monkey, not giving a damn about how I was dangerously teetering on the edge of falling over.

I didn't have to give a damn though, because in my careless victory cheer, I failed to notice the weak creaking sound of my chair leg putting up too much pressure from me jumping on it repeatedly.

Eventually, after one too many jumps, the leg on my couch chair couldn't take it anymore and actually managed to snap apart, causing the whole thing to buckle as I fell from the imbalance.

As if in slow motion, I could see my impending doom right before my eyes, my whole entire body tumbling forward as I was about to have my neck collide full on the edge of my living room table.

The only thing that passed through my mind at this moment was not of my last and final thoughts to my family or any loved ones. Nor did it linger on any regrets I might have had in my life.

Instead, the only words I could properly form in my thoughts moments before I was about to break my neck, was a simple yet appropriate-

Uh oh.

*CRACK*

There I lied, motionless, powerless, and bleeding internally from my stupid ass ninety-degree bent neck.

And thus, I was slain in battle. My journey as Tom, the normal average college dude, came to an end...