Chapter II

12/04/24

Today I have decided to start writing in my diary, after much pushing from my butler. According to him, it will improve my understanding of myself and what I need to know for when I am king; means little from him, but I am not stupid, I comprehend that preparing for my reign is of most importance.

Too catch up on everything, I suppose I should try and write down as much of my childhood as possible. From what I remember, my family has always lived in these walls, at least my Father's family has; my Mother descends from a distant village in the far east. It has apparently been a common practice amongst my Father's side to marry into distant lands to bring prosperity to their own. In total, I couldn't count the number of nationalities I can call a part of me.

I have never had any quarrels with my parents; I always focused on my education and have been quite sociable with the heirs of other nobles. Well, that was a little lie; I once got into an argument with my Mother, a petty dispute over visiting a cousin in my Mother's old village. I wanted to meet my unseen family; however, my Mother held a staunch denial of my wish. I remember how I was infuriated by her refusal to tell me a reason; maybe, with just a little understanding, I would have been able to better control myself. The point is that I couldn't; in anger I smashed a treasured vast from my Mother's mother. They tried to pay to repair it, but some of the pieces went missing and Father refused to pay any more. Luckily for me, my Mother forgot about the incident and we lived happily together, until her death the other week. It was this and Father's recent downturn in health that my butler had approached me with a diary.

I cannot think of other events, my childhood was average; I had loving parents, a good education, and plenty of time to socialise with the other children my age. I think I'll leave it at that today.

25/05/24

My Father has gone to meet my Mother; he left yesterday. I hadn't thought to write in my diary since then, but I guess I just didn't trust anyone else to tell. I'm going to be coronated soon, a massive gathering of all the nobles to watch another join their ranks. I have been told about this day since I can remember, but it is too early. Now I am the one with the money, the power; I'm too young for it all.

01/06/24

My coronation has just ended, I am now king. I don't feel like one, nothing has changed, I feel no different as I did the other day. If this feeling is being king then I became king as soon as my Father died, as if his spirit passed an invisible crown atop my head before it left to join the rest.

My coronation was nothing like what I had expected. It was less about me becoming king and more about my future. It is now that I realise what it means to be king; it's not a position of power, it's a symbol of power. You do not become powerful by becoming king, you are just viewed that way. I will have less power now than I did in my recent youth; my spouse, my councillors, my courtiers, even the growth of my children will be decided for me. It's at times like these where I wonder if my Father had all the same forced in him. If so – no, I don't want that to be so.

I have found myself with a pen and this diary once again. I went on a stroll into town, dressed in as poor clothes as I could find to not stand out. During my stroll, I met a peculiar man sitting on the corner of the street, in a box. I couldn't help but think of how a box is hardly the most enticing of beds; but to him, it appeared to be that way, he just slept there like he had sunk into the clouds. He must have been startled to wake up to me, watching him with utter most confusion.

I spoke to him for a while, just sitting there, on the corner of the street, in a box. While I couldn't see the comfort of the box, the man explained to me how he was fired from his job running a local butcher. When he mentioned that the butcher closed a few months ago, it struck a nerve as I remember the quality of our roast chicken declining around the same time.

Though I had no money to spare at the time, I left him with a grin on my face. I am now king, and I don't want to be. While I know that I can never change that without sacrificing my true power, I could at least play ignorant and rebel against my forced agenda.