CH 18

18 The Crown Prince is a Naughty Kid

After – bluntly speaking – queueing for a while, it was finally our turn to give our greeting toward His Majesty the King. So, standing beside my father, I prepared myself to give my greeting to the king and the queen.

“Your Majesty, Her Royal Highness, I come today to congratulate His Highness Elliot for his fifth birthday. In addition, I also want to congratulate him for his engagement with Duke Lilac’s daughter, Katrina Lilac.”

As proper, my father gave his greeting first. The king accepted the greeting with a nod and a gentle smile on his face and lightly cleared his throat. “Uhm, it seems you’re in good health too, good. It’s too bad that your wife can’t come with you.” At this point, the king revealed a teasing smile as he said, “Thanks to that, those ladies got excited and started their plan to become your concubine.”

Excuse me? What the hell is this oldman (King) talking about?! Concubine you say?! As if my father and I will allow that to happen!

“Hahaha, Your Majesty jest. Lord Goldberg is widely known as a devoted husband. That alone is enough to make Serena-sama happy. Though, Lord Goldberg, how about showing that smile to the other gentlemen who are lining up behind you? Surely your gentle smile alone can win their loyalty.”

This aunty (Queen), don’t ‘Hahaha’ me. Stop saying nonsense just because my mother isn’t with us.

“Your Majesties must be jesting. My wife, Serena, actually feels disheartened with the fact she can’t attend this special occasion. Alas, she can’t bear to leave her young daughter behind either. Therefore, allow me to deliver her heartfelt message. She asked for Your Majesties forgiveness due to her impoliteness and inability to attend this banquet.” My father paused, revealing an earnest smile as he asked, “I also wished for Your Majesties magnanimity and forgive her for this.”

“Fine. It really can’t be helped since your daughter is still so young.” The king nodded his head and verbally agreed, “Do tell your wife that I don’t mind her absence for this occasion.”

“My deepest gratitude. I shall convey Your Majesty’s kind words to my wife.”

As expected of Papa. He skillfully dodged the landmine and directed the conversation to safe ground. Lesson learned!

“By the way, I wonder if you’ll kindly introduce your son to us?”

“My apologies for neglecting that matter until now. This is my son, Theodore.”

Following the cue, I stepped forward and bent my knee in front of the king and the queen. I had done it perfectly, like what I was taught about when one met the royal family.

“I’m Owen Goldberg’s son, Theodore Goldberg. It’s my greatest honor to be in His Majesty the King and Her Royal Highness the Queen today. And, congratulations for your fifth birthday as well as your engagement with Duke Lilac’s daughter, Katrina Lilac, His Highness Crown Prince Elliot.”

There we go. There shouldn’t be any problem if I copied Papa’s greeting. I thought, inwardly proud that I managed to say so much without bursting into laughter.

“Oh my, look at him… how clever. You have a really talented kid there, Lord Goldberg.”

“Yes, indeed. He’s truly splendid despite his young age.”

My father burst into a proud smile as he said, “Yes, he’s my treasure.”

Papa, how can you say that with such a brazen attitude?! You look completely like a doting father right now. Look! Even His Majesty and Her Majesty are at a loss for words, you know?! I thought, inwardly face-palming at my father’s descent to silly father. Although I had to praise the King and the Queen for their admirable recovery, especially when the King next spoke.

“Ho, I see. It seems Lord Goldberg is blessed with a clever child. Well, I hope that you and your son will continue to support our kingdom.”

“HAH!”

“YES!”

Both of us saluted in reverence. That seemed to suggest the end of the conversation with the King and Queen.

A~h, that was mentally exhausting. And yet, we still need to greet the crown prince and the duke’s daughter. O God, please end this soon. I’m tired.

“It’s nice to meet you, Your Highness Crown Prince Elliot. My name is Owen Goldberg, the current head of the Goldberg Marquis Household. Happy fifth birthday to you, Your Highness. And congratulations on your engagement with Duke Lilac’s daughter, Katrina Lilac. Allow me to introduce my son, Theodore, to you. Just like Your Highness, he has also turned five years old this year, and I bring him along during this occasion so that he can get along with you and expand his circle.” [TL : FUCK, what kind of sin I comitted that forced me to translate this long ass introduction which can be summed with “Happy birthday to you”]

Without Father’s prompting, I stepped forward and continued with the introduction. “It’s nice to meet you, Your Highness Crown Prince Elliot. I’m Owen Goldberg’s son, Theodore. Happy fifth birthday to you, Your Highness. And congratulations on your engagement with Duke Lilac’s daughter, Katrina Lilac. Please take care of me in the future, too.”

Once we were done with our greetings, the crown prince nodded his head, looking exactly like how his father had done before. And like the king before, he cleared his throat lightly before speaking.

“Uhm. It’s nice to meet you too. I’m Elliot Serendiaz. Thank you very much for coming to my fifth birthday celebration and engagement announcement. I thank you for your well wishes on my betrothal to Miss Katrina, Lord Goldberg, Heir Goldberg. Please take your seat and enjoy the feast that we have prepared for you. I hope that you’ll enjoy it.”

“My deepest gratitude for your warm welcome and consideration, Your Highness.”

“My deepest gratitude for your warm welcome and consideration, Your Highness.”

Without feeling the slightest bit of burden, I echoed my father’s words. However, for some unknown reason, the prince suddenly giggled when he heard our reply.

Eh, what?

“You’re only mimicking what your father was saying, huh.”

Well, it can’t be helped, you know. I have absolutely no idea what is the best greeting to use for this occasion after all.

“Yes, I’m still lacking in that regard after all. Please do forgive me. I’ll try to improve myself so I’ll do better in the future.”

I was sure I replied conscientiously, yet, somehow my remark caused the prince to make a strange face.

Eh, what happened to him? I thought, confused. However, when I looked around, I saw that the king was smiling a bit when he saw his son making such a face while the queen seemed to be pouting. So, I became even more confused, especially when I saw the prince’s face flushing red.

Did my remark somehow angered him?

Not finding the answer, I looked at the duke’s daughter standing beside the prince, trying to find the answer from her as my last resort. However, the only thing I found was her shoulder trembling while she covered her lips with her unfolded folding fan, apparently trying to hide her smile.

At a loss, I wondered. What… what happened?

“Lady Katrina Lilac, congratulations for your engagement with the crown prince today. My name is Owen Goldberg, and this is my son, Theodore.”

Fortunately, Papa was quick-witted. He quickly moved on to greet Duke Lilac’s daughter with a gentle smile.

As expected of Papa, his skill in this situation was impeccable! However, the prince seems to still be pissed off. Are you sure we can leave it at that, Papa? Oh, well.

“I’m Owen Goldberg’s son, Theodore. Congratulations for your engagement with the crown prince today. Lady Katrina Lilac.”

Anyhow, I followed suit after my father, greeting Duke Lilac’s daughter after he was done with his own greeting. Looking at her in the eyes, I affirmed in my heart that yes, the duke’s daughter was an adorable girl. However, I could also see in her eyes that she looked like a strong willed girl. Such a strong-willed girl definitely was not my type at all.

“My deepest gratitude for your blessing, Lord Goldberg, Theodore-sama. I hope that the two of you will enjoy this celebration.”

“Thank you very much.”

“Tha–”

“By the way, Theodore-sama.” Before I could finish with my greeting, she interrupted me with curious eyes.

“What is it, Miss Lilac?”

“May I know the reason why you kept looking at me a while ago?”

This duke’s daughter… is she trying to add fuel into fire? I mean, the crown prince beside her is already seething with rage at me, yet this girl actually said that… is her brain… alright?

“Reason, is it? To tell you the truth, I think that you have an extremely splendid hairstyle. It’s so splendid to the point I almost mistook it as your ultimate weapon.”

Upon hearing my honest answer, Duke Lilac’s daughter’s eyes widened before her expression turned into a dejected one. Faintly, I could even hear her muttering: ‘I can’t believe this guy.’ with a low voice.

Strangely, while she looked dejected, the prince seemed to be extremely elated with my reply. Not understanding their reaction, my eyes flitted toward the king and the queen, but…

Why do they look so… dumbfounded? Did I say something strange?

Their expression looked as if they had just certified me as a stupid kid. However, at that point, my father took me away from their presence. After that, he asked, “Theodore, do you know what you have just done to her back there?”

Eh, what?

◇

After my father enlightened me, I finally realized why the prince looked at me strangely after my reply. According to him, the prince seemed to have a thorny side to him. He always acted mean towards the kids who came to greet him.

He seemed to enjoy looking at the children’s troubled faces when he pointed out the fact that they were mimicking their parents’ greeting.

Well, I did hear such a thing happened when we were lining up to greet him, but… frankly speaking, I didn’t really care about it since I was too hungry at that time. Still… I was rather confused with him. After all, when I replied to him with ‘Yes, I’m still lacking in that regard after all. blablabla――(abbreviated)’ as if it was nothing, he also seemed to be displeased.

Hmm… is this that? You know, a straight ball? Oh, well, nothing to be done about it.

Anyway, it seemed I had further pissed the crown prince off when I looked as if I was more interested in Duke Lilac’s daughter beside him. Well, she was his fiancee, after all. That was no wonder.

Fortunately, it seemed that I had somehow diffused the bomb on my own when I gave such an idiotic reply to her question. Still… I silently heaved a deep sigh.

Uhm, I’ve summarized what I learned on this occasion. In one sentence noble society is troublesome.

Although I dearly wished to just do away with this whole event, I was still a noble son in the end, so I need to take more care about this matter. Hence, I turned to my father and asked, “Father, did I just―― make a mistake?”

If I did, I might be hated. I don’t want that. I really don’t want to be hated by my father. So, don’t hate me papa, tell me if I have made a mistake. I’ll try to fix it no matter how long it’ll take.

I suddenly got anxious after questioning him, wondering if I’d be hated for my blunder. Fortunately, Father seemed to notice my anxiety as he soothed me and said, “Don’t worry about it. On the contrary, instead of making a mistake, you have done a really good job son.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, you make me proud. As expected of my son.”

My father brushed my head gently as he told me so, greatly relieving my jumping heart. After this moment, we went to greet Duke Lilac and his wife to congratulate them about their daughter’s engagement. Then and only then was I able to finally enjoy my long awaited dinner.

Finally… that took a really long time and I’m famished. Dinner, here I come~. 

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TN : It’s finally time for dinner, what will happen to Theodore next?