Royal Blood: Chapter 1 (Patreon)

I’m starting a new story called Royal Blood! Here are the first Patreon chapters! If you enjoy it, swing by the story page on Royal Road and drop a rating? It helps a lot!

Royal Blood

Summary:

A LitRPG progression Fantasy

I am a worthless prince with a useless Blessing in a world where deep running waters threaten to pull even the most experienced warriors under.

Lucky me, I’ve always been a good swimmer.

*~*~*~*

Chapter 1: Blood and Water

The training blade crashed through my guard. It hit me full in the stomach, taking me off my feet and sending me sprawling across the packed dirt of the sparring grounds.

“And that would be my point again…sir.”

I didn’t glare at Knight Captain Myria. I was an adult in a child’s body, and I didn’t glare in impotent rage at one of the few people who’d give me the time of day in the place. It certainly had nothing to do with the fact that she’d beat me black and blue for my cheek, and even mother would only give her a token punishment.

I glared at the ground instead.

With a grunt, I pushed myself up to my feet, ignoring the surprised “Oh?” from Myria.

*ding*

For completing an arduous task, you have gained 1 point of endurance

2 exp.

So close, but yet so far. I pushed the anger down—at this point, I was pretty good at it; two lifetimes of practice’ll do that—and took up a ready position.

My arms shook as they held my training blade in the simple guard position I’d been shown, but dammit they held. “May I request another bout, Knight Captain?”

Across from me, Knight Captain Myria tilted her head, sending her blood-red hair cascading across her olive skin, golden eyes flashing with vague interest. Of course, I just held my blade steady, taking heaving breaths as I mentally prepared myself.

Myria was beautiful, but it was easy to ignore when she didn’t look at me like a man—or like the child prince that I was, even—instead looking at me like a dog that had just learned a particularly interesting trick. Really, I just wished I could hate her for it, but everyone looked at me with those eyes, if they bothered to look at me at all.

Just another day in the life of Third Prince Alexander. No, no, I’m not bitter, I still had my own personal maid, a private room with an ensuite bathroom, and access to better food than I’d eaten in my entire life. If I were anything else, maybe I could have been content with that.

But I hated it when people looked down on me.

“It’s hardly worth my time.” Myria rested the tip of her sword on the ground. It flashed in the afternoon light, bright quicksilver-colored steel matching her half plate and gambeson. “The quest has been completed.”

I held back a frown at that, then I shrugged. “Your class may count the quest complete, Knight Captain, but I believe the words of your promise were ‘train me until I couldn’t get back up’, weren’t they?” Then I looked down. “Of course, if you have something more valuable to do…”

She huffed. “I suppose I should at least keep my word.”

For persuading a recalcitrant ally, +1 point of charisma

+2 exp

“Ah, I got a bonus objective. My thanks.”

My stomach dropped through my feet. I had just enough time for the “Oh” of ‘oh shit’ before Myria’s blade hooked me off my feet. I hung suspended in the air for a brief moment, then the pommel of her sword slammed into my stomach, right over the exact same bruise.

I hit the ground so hard I bounced.

This time I didn’t have the strength to get up.

“Good bout…your highness,” was all the Knight Captain offered me before she strode from the training field. Still, I could tell she was in a good mood. She only called me ‘highness’ when she was particularly happy.

Like when she’d gotten a big chunk of exp from completing the bonus objective of her quest.

Maybe I should back up a bit here; it’s not like I have anything else to do, lying on the ground, gasping for air like a dying fish.

Myria was a Knight Captain. That was not only her position in the royal palace, but also her class. My class was Prince. Everyone had a class, and you got them through a strange mix of real life logic, luck, and raw determination.

Classes would offer ‘quests’, tasks relating to their job description, like, say, training Prince Alexander (that’s me, in case you weren’t paying attention earlier) until he dropped. Quests gave a lot of exp, as opposed to the absolutely paltry amount that raising your stats through hard work provided. Hell, at level 1 I’d gotten 1 exp per stat point. Thank god Prince had stupidly low exp requirements.

Normally, that would all be a good thing. Easy to level up class, all I had to do was quests and I’d rocket into the top tier of high-leveled badasses in this new life of mine.

Of course, there’s a catch.

My ‘blessing’ states that I can’t take quests. Instead, where ‘normal’ people can only get a few exp per level from their stats, I can get an unlimited amount there instead.

Of course, when each quest provides a hundred, or even a thousand times as much exp as raising a stat point, it’s kind of hard to feel blessed. I think a lot of people would have given up in that situation, just play the black sheep of the royal family, like being born a dwarf or something. But like I said, I hated it when people looked down at me.

Also, I had a hunch.

I just needed to get to level 3 to prove it.

With a grunt, I rolled over and slowly, painfully pushed myself upright.

For completing an arduous task, you have gained +1 endurance

+2 exp

Yeah that seemed about right. I leaned on my knees, panting for breath. Still, any progress helped. I was so close to—

“Oh if it isn’t the low-tier prince!”

I froze at the words, lurching sharply to the side.

Another boy a few years older than me shouldered his way through the space I’d just been standing. He staggered half a step before righting himself with a glare.

Bastard. He was probably planning to pass it off as a playful nudge then laugh at me when I went sprawling back to the dirt.

For adroitly avoiding a foe, you have gained +1 dexterity

+2 exp

Still, I never said no to progress, no matter where it came from. “Brother!” I put on a smile. “So kind of you to check up on me.”

Ambrose sniffed. “Please, as if I’d waste my time looking for you.” He shot me a sharp glare.

Ambrose had a massive chip on his shoulder about me. He was seventh in line to the throne where I was third. Useless blessing or not, as a ‘trueborn’ son of the Emperor and Empress, I ranked in higher than Ambrose, the child of the emperor and a favored concubine.

As a side note, this world had settled on bloodline-based inheritance as a way to stop people with a high level thinking they could just swagger in and take over a country. Big numbers did not an experienced ruler make.

Go figure.

“If I was looking for a social parasite, I’d be at the whore house,” Ambrose finished.

“Indeed,” came another voice. “You certainly smell like something Ambrose brought back from the seraglio, Third Prince.”

Of course, hereditary rule came with its own host of problems.

I let loose a small sigh before putting on my best court smile and turning towards the third person who’d entered the training yard. “Fourth Princess Velari, you look radiant as ever.”

Velari raised a single immaculate eyebrow. She was dressed in tight-fighting riding leathers, looking like she’d done nothing more strenuous than an afternoon fox hunt. The psycho probably got a whole level out of it too. “My thanks.” She flicked out her fan, hiding a smile behind it. “You look as…appealing as you always do.”

I kept my smile in place. “How kind of you to say. I did not know my beloved sister had such peculiar taste in men.”

She turned her head, emerald earring flashing beneath her luxurious blue-black hair. “Oh, little brother, as if you’d ever know a woman’s taste. Or touch.”

I gave a polite laugh. “Please, elder sister, it’s Ambrose that has to pay for the attention of the fairer sex.”

Ambrose glowered as Velari tittered. “Perhaps you should tag along.” She gave me a sidelong glance. “Find someone more…your level.”

I clenched my teeth in an effort to hold my smile. Most of the comments—about my youth, or my inexperience, or social standing—slid off me like water off a duck’s back. But damn Velari figured out that the only thing I cared about was my pitiful level, and she needled that weakness relentlessly.

“You’re too kind,” I forced out.

She sighed. “I really am. Say, Ambrose?”

“Yes, Velari?”

I stood there, smiling as the two of them took turns throwing barbs at me. It was juvenile, barely worth being called bullying, but I couldn’t just walk away, or god forbid haul off and hit them. Who cared if neither of them had bothered to earn a stat point in their lives. Ambrose had reached level twelve recently, and he was lazy about completing his quests.

Velari had reached her twentieth level a week ago, and had only delayed picking her first subclass in hopes something more powerful would come along. If I did something rude, either of them could easily mop the floor with me, inflated stats or not.

I pretended to pay attention by opening up my character sheet instead.

I’d been making…progress with grinding my stats. Now if only I could go out and kill things like an old time adventurer for experience. Unfortunately, my new home was a developed country, and had purged nearly all the monsters from its borders years ago. Who needed to kill a gryphon when you could just take a quest instead?

At least, while I was perusing my stat sheet, I caught sight of someone else walking down the covered walkway next to the training yard. My smile turned genuine as I saw my oldest sister.

“Elysia!” I waved a hand, drawing her attention. Elysia smiled as she saw me, quickly coming over to join us.

“Tch.” A flash of annoyance crossed Velari’s face at the sight of Crown Princess Elysia. “We will speak more later, dear brother.”

I flashed her a smirk. “I’d like nothing better, sweet sister.” I glanced over. “Oh, Ambrose, you were still here?”

The boy glowered. He really had no control of his temper. Velari gave a quiet huff of laughter before giving Elysia a brief curtsy and making her own excuses to be elsewhere.

“Alex!” Elysia gave me a hug despite my protests, holding me fast for a quick second before releasing me. “Still training, I see.”

I gave a small shrug. “I have to get stronger somewhere.”

“You will, Alex.” Her smile softened, green eyes twinkling. “I know it, just give it a little time.”

I let out a huff. “Sometimes it feels like I don’t have much time…”

“Oh, Alex, you’re only ten.” She reached out, mussing my hair. It was the only feature we shared, though her hair was a brilliant blonde, while mine was more dirty. Beyond that, she was fair, while I had that kind of effortless tan I used to see on people in magazines back on Earth. It was a thin strand, but the part of me that was ten was desperate for anything linking me to my favorite half-sister.

Elysia, being the first princess, was the only daughter Emperor Raxus had with his first wife, while I was his second-born child with Empress Alyssa.

Like I said, thin threads.

“Don’t suppose you have any advice for how I’m supposed to reach that potential of mine?” I asked to get my mind off of the tangled web that was palace bloodlines.

“You know my blessing doesn’t work like that.” She shook her head. “I see the potential in people, not how they’re supposed to achieve it.” She gave my head one last pat. “Now stop worrying about that, and tell Velari that you have a meeting with me next time she starts needling you.”

I sighed, knowing that we’d had this conversation countless times. “Well, as long as you save a spot for me as your court jester, I guess it’ll all work out.”

She laughed. “Alex, by the time I’m Empress, I’m certain that you will be my knight.”

Despite myself, I smiled. “As you wish.”

For impressing a stalwart ally, you have gained +1 Charisma

+2 exp

Just four more to go