Work Text:
With poised gait, Alberu's light steps echoed around the lone hallway. It was not until he turned to a corner was it then accompanied with murmurs and whispers.
Alberu, seeing a few maids giggling and gossiping to themselves, thought it was totally normal and as a good superior was about to turn a blind eye to such behavior on the job when,
"... his highness..."
He overheard familiar words.
'Me?'
It was gossip about oneself, he was bound to get curious. He listened even more.
"...such position...to the commander..."
Not just him, but it seems his dongsaeng was involved as well, unsurprisingly. Curiousity got the best of him and he approached the unsuspecting bunch.
Now closer, he could see a red book in their hands, surely the source of their conversation.
"May I have a look as well?"
The gossiping maids froze. Mentally cursing to themselves, thinking that the chief of staff would definitely assign them more work.
They reluctantly turned around only to immediately gasp in shock, their bodies turning cold.
They wore expressions that would make onlookers think that the man in front of them had just confessed to murdering their whole family. It was not far off.
Forget about overworking, they were going to find their heads on the guillotine.
The source of distress only slightly tilted his head to the side, handsome face questioning, arched brows raised.
"Well?"
They hesitated, before finally, with trembling hands, handed over the book to the crown prince.
Alberu casually flipped through the thick book, letting out a few chuckles seeing as it was clearly based off him and his dongsaeng and how accurately it portrayed their relationship.
But as he continued to venture deeper, his expression turned...strange.
The maids, seeing this, immediately fell down to their knees. They should've done that from the start.
"Please forgive us, your highness!"
"We've committed a terrible sin!"
They fell to the floor with a loud thud as they begged for mercy. Alberu was taken aback at the sheer desperateness in their voices that he could only let out a warm smile before asking them to stand up and raise their heads.
"I will let this go this one time."
Pure admiration was evident in their eyes. A makeshift halo seemed to form behind the crown prince in front of them.
Alberu raised the red book in his hand.
"Also, I will be taking this."
"Huh? Ah! Yes yes, thank you very much, your highness!"
Alberu continued to put on a benevolent smile as he sent them off once they've had their fill of expressing their gratitude towards him.
Now far from the crown prince, the maids, relieved that they would get to see another day, started to get their confidence back and whispered amongst themselves.
"That reaction..."
"Is it true?"
"The crown prince and the commander..."
Alberu, who did not hear this continued to look at the red book in his hand with a very strange expression, benevolent smile now gone, before walking back to his office with haste.
***
Alberu has heard of many absurd rumors about him and his dongsaeng but this...
His gaze moved to the opened book on his desk.
It was very well written. So well, that he found himself reading halfway not until he flipped to another page and immediately slammed the book shut.
Alberu blinked his eyes. Long lashes fluttering.
"...what did I just see?"
Recovering his bearings, he opened the book again and ran his hand over the page that, unlike the others, wasn't filled with words and letters.
"...The paintings are all very detailed as well."
He could see a mix of bright blonde hair and vibrant sunset red hair spread on white sheet, well defined depictions of muscles on arms and legs tangled to each other. Although there were some inaccuracies, the artist must've studied anatomy well.
Alberu could feel his head ache.
***
< The crown prince placed a hand over the bridge of his nose...seemingly distressed before letting out another sigh. >
< He then turned to his only companion in the office, face graced with his usual blinding smile. >
"Chester."
Chester stopped writing at the crown prince's call.
There were definitely a lot of very shocking parts in the whole book, but what caught Alberu's attention was how it was so accurately written.
So accurate that even the placement of each piece of furniture inside of his office—where only a few people have gone in—was accurately described.
He turned towards the constant presence in his life.
"What do you think?"
Chester sucked in a breath, sweaty hand tightening on his pen, shaky eyes looking towards the all too familiar red book on top of the crown prince's desk.
'Why...why is that here?!'
Should he feign ignorance and act like he doesn't know anything? or confess to it? get down on his knees and ask for forgiveness? But of course, as a loyal subject of the crown prince, he chose the latter.
"I'm sorr—"
"Change it."
"Huh?"
But before he could even get a word out, unexpected words came out from the prince's mouth.
Gone was the smile from Alberu's face. Expression now serious.
"Mine is probably bigger than hi—No, I'm sure of it. It's definitely bigger."
"Huh?"
Chester was so confused that he could only let out a stupid sound.
It was only after a few seconds did Chester finally realize that the prince might've already gotten to that part of the story.
His ears flushed red before enthusiastically nodding his head.
"Yes, yes! I'll be sure to take note of it!"
That seems to be the right answer as the smile is back on the prince's lips as he nodded his head, satisfied with Chester's enthusiastic response.
***
In the far northeast of the Roan Kingdom, Cale Henituse, now slacker Cale Henituse, was enjoying his slacker dream just lazing around and spending his free time reading novels.
So it came as no surprise that a particular red book of a romance erotica of a prince and commander ended up in his hands.
Cale spat out his drink.
"What the fuck."
He couldn't even think of how he just spat out his lemonade drink in front of Ron. Too flabbergasted at the abomination held in his hands.
He flipped through the pages at great speed, record ability subconsciously activating, eyes glued at the overly detailed paintings of characters—features way too similar to his own and one particular prince—naked bodies tangled to each other.
"What the fuck."
One last curse came out from his mouth before the book was immediately disintegrated in his hands.
A record was broken that day, a teleportation circle casted in mere seconds.
Cale arrived in the crown prince's office with the prince looking over the shoulder of who Cale recognized to be the archivist.
They didn't even notice him arrive, seemingly having a very serious discussion judging by their very serious expressions.
Cale cleared his throat.
"Your highness."
Both men turned towards him. One looked panicked, the other happy. Cale started to have an ominous feeling.
"Ah Cale, great timing!"
Alberu, with a bright expression, walked over to Cale and stood infront of him.
"As you can see Chester, I'm taller by a few centimeters so I can easily kiss him on the cheeks."
Alberu leaned in and kissed Cale on the cheek as if to prove his point.
"See?"
Chester let out an 'Ah' and enthusiastically jotted it down as to not forget such detail.
Cale wiped his cheek.
"What the fuck is going on?"
Alberu ignored the rough words and the fact that Cale just blatantly wiped off the part where he kissed him and smiled.
"You see my dear dongsaeng, I just discovered that my archivist has great talents in other areas as well."
Cale raised a brow, questioning, but Alberu ignored it. He laced Cale's hand into his and turned towards the archivist.
"Ah, despite what you think, even after all those battles, Cale's hand remains smooth and soft against mine. It's warm."
Chester nodded his head, hand already dutifully moving to write it down.
Cale squeezed his hand to Alberu's.
"Explain."
Instead of answering, Alberu only turned to his desk. There, Cale could see the damned red book he had just read. His gaze moved back to the archivist busily writing and lets out a sigh.
He could put two and two together.
"Other than his writing skills, he seems to have talent in painting as well. Don't you think so?" Alberu sounded amused.
Cale looked at Alberu with an expression that seems to be asking if he was serious.
Alberu coughed into his hand.
"...if we ignore the context, it was undeniably great art skills."
"Thank you, your highness!"
Cale continued to look at Alberu with a very weird expression. He could not understand what this crown prince was planning.
It was then that Alberu, with the corners of his lips raised, leaned in and whispered.
"6:2:2 we each take 2."
The corner of Cale's lips started to rise as well at those words.
"Make mine 3 then I'll consider it."
"Greedy bastard."
The corner of Cale's lips twisted higher, seeing as Alberu did not protest. He then turned to Chester who had just been staring at them whispering to each other, similar smirks on their faces while still holding hands.
"You better let the commander become a slacker in the future."
It was all harmless writing. They were getting their fair shares of what Chester earned from selling his work so all was well.
If Cale and Alberu started to see the other in a different light as they discover more about each other in their attempts to help Chester in his work, that was for them to work out and figure out in the future.
For now, they were gonna earn big cash while leaving many readers happy and satisfied.