Shramana
The crown prince's life had been smooth enough.
He trained steadily in the martial arts, occasionally dealt with his hot-tempered cousin, and from time to time left the palace in search of the strong.
Until then, his relationship with the crown princess had drifted somewhere between little sister and friend — neither one thing nor the other, to put it simply.
The crown princess was well aware of this, and she was far from pleased. She knew full well that, for whatever reason, the prince did not look at her as a woman.
And so she decided she could not simply sit still. In the worst case, she thought, she might live out her entire life a virgin in name only — crown princess in title, nothing more.
Still, there had been a promise. So she waited for her moment, biding her time, never dropping a hint or showing her hand, all so she could strike the unguarded prince where it would hurt most. A blow landed when someone was least expecting it always cut deeper.
"Ghk—!!"
On the very day the crown prince turned twenty-five, the crown princess paid a surprise visit to his bedchamber.
She came dressed in something far more revealing than usual, the fabric so sheer her bare skin showed through, and she walked toward him with deliberate purpose. For a prince who had treated her like a child until that moment, it was, without question, a solid hit.
Uncharacteristically, he floundered.
"M-my lady? What brings you here at this late hour?"
"Father's restriction has been lifted, hasn't it? So we ought to fulfill our duty to the royal house."
The prince had nothing to say to that. He had always known a day like this would come eventually — but aside from their first night, the crown princess had never once shown any sign of interest, and he had grown somewhat complacent.
Her steps were not hurried. She approached slowly, lightly, with the soft tread of a cat — and yet a strange pressure radiated from her all the same.
In the span of a few years her body had grown far more womanly than before. Her chest was still flat, but her waist had cinched in, her limbs had lengthened, and her hips had filled out solidly. Honestly, the longer the prince looked, the more his resolve began to waver.
Dangerous.
An alarm rang through his mind — nothing like the one that sounded when he faced a life-or-death opponent. For the first time, he understood what it meant to have his chastity threatened.
"Are you nervous?"
She drew close and traced a slender finger across his chest. She had meant to provoke him — but it was the one moving her finger who grew more excited. That firm, vividly muscled male chest was temptation itself. If she could have, she would have pressed her face against it then and there. And the scent of him, so near…
For some reason her lower belly throbbed. The mere knowledge that she could take a strong man's seed had already set her body responding. The thought that she might finally shed her virginity left her head spinning, even as her outward composure held.
Unfortunately for her, the crown princess had sorely underestimated her husband's power of restraint.
"Huh?"
The prince gave her a light push. Light, at least, from his perspective — for her, it was enough to tip her body backward. She was neither hurt nor injured, but she was thoroughly startled.
"…Sorry."
Wearing a sheepish smile, the prince pressed his palms together in apology. And with that, he leapt out through the window into the night.
The crown princess stared blankly after him for a moment. Then the situation sank in, and she flew into a rage.
"You absolute bastard—!!"
Irritation surged up and she shouted — but shouting did not bring the fleeing prince back. Eventually, after thrashing about until her energy ran out, she steadied her breathing and spoke.
"Well. Fine. Today isn't the only day."
If not today, then tomorrow. If not tomorrow, the day after. She need only keep trying until it worked.
Having settled in for a long campaign, the crown princess received an unbelievable piece of news the very next day.
"His Highness… left on a journey? Taking Devadatta with him?"
Unintentionally, the period of the crown princess's virginity stretched on far longer still.
"Serves you right, you little minx!!"
Inanna clutched her stomach and burst out laughing at the crown princess's predicament. She trusted Sunya — and yet, as his twenty-fifth year drew near, she had been unable to hide her anxiety, chewing her nails in restless tension. Seeing the crown princess so thoroughly spurned under those circumstances was nothing short of delicious.
"…Aren't you enjoying this a little too much?"
Enki thought Inanna's reaction excessive. At the same time, he felt a twinge of pity for the crown princess, and wondered whether there might be some problem on Sunya's end.
"A problem? Please. Do you have any idea how magnificent that man is in bed? It's simply that she has no charm. No chest, shorter than me, skin that isn't even particularly smooth — the only thing worth looking at on that girl is her ass. Of course she wouldn't catch Sunya's eye."
"Little one. A woman's beauty takes many forms. Even if she doesn't have that full, overflowing figure like yours, the crown princess's loveliness is nothing to dismiss. Her skin ranks high among humans, her hair is fine, her waist is even slimmer, and those thighs — moderately thick, springy — how appetizing is that?"
"Want me to go repeat that exact line to Auntie Ninhursag?"
"Go ahead and try."
The two gods bickered like children. Their gaze soon shifted, following after Sunya.
Late at night, two men walked through the forest with packs on their backs.
The crown prince and his cousin. Without a single attendant, they carried their own loads and made for somewhere beyond. By now the two of them had become something like friends — though "friends" leaned rather more toward "friendly enemies."
"I don't understand it."
As they walked on, the cousin spoke up.
"What exactly is so frightening about sleeping with a woman?"
"It was quietly terrifying, somehow. Trying to do something I'd never done."
"So you chickened out because you're a virgin. That it?"
"Something like that."
Most men would have been ashamed to admit they had no experience with women — but the crown prince showed not the slightest trace of such feeling. He must have had confidence, pure and simple: that he could have any woman he wanted, whenever he wanted. The prince himself knew perfectly well how attractive he was.
That confidence had always grated on his cousin.
"That's not it, though."
But the cousin knew better. After years of trading blows, he understood exactly what kind of man the prince was.
"You just hate being tied down, don't you? If a child came along, you wouldn't be able to fight anymore — and fighting is what you love more than anything."
The crown prince was a battle maniac. Above all else, he loved life-or-death struggles against powerful foes. The reason he had left the palace to wander the outside world was simple: the comfort of the court could no longer satisfy his hunger.
That did not mean he had entirely cast off his duties.
"Lately you've been having that Mahanama fellow help with the royal family's affairs quite often. You're trying to throw off the position of crown prince, aren't you?"
"As sharp as ever, Devadatta."
"…I still don't get it. I've never met anyone who cared so little about the throne."
"I've had enough of being bound by duty and responsibility. I won't ignore them completely — but I have no desire to spend the rest of my life bored out of my mind."
"You insane battle-junkie bastard."
The cousin sighed at the prince's words. For the first time he felt a twinge of pity for the current king — and at the same time, he envied the prince's freedom. Watching that handsome, powerful, universally beloved crown prince, jealousy kept rising unbidden.
Someday I will defeat him. I will break that arrogant nose of his for certain.
Gazing at the prince's back, the cousin steeled his resolve once more.
Whether or not he knew what his cousin was thinking, the prince seemed lighthearted enough to start humming under his breath.
"Where did you say we were heading first?"
"Varanasi. There's a man there named Uruvela Kassapa, famous for wielding a fire dragon through Four-Image Martial Arts."
Already the corner of the prince's mouth was curling upward with anticipation.
Those who had awakened to Four-Image Martial Arts had each founded their own schools and built up power — the primitive beginnings of what, in the martial epics, would be called sects. The structure was not yet systematic, but the division into master and disciples, the transmission of teachings, the formation of groups — to call them the first raw sects would not have been wrong at all.
And the crown prince was the kind of protagonist who appeared like a comet in those very martial tales.
When Uruvela conjured a colossal dragon of flame and loosed it at him, the prince shattered it with a flying kick — and from that moment, his name spread far and wide across all of Shindu.
Afterward, the prince continued to travel the world with his cousin, toppling renowned masters wherever he went.
Four-Image Martial Arts was more than a set of powerful techniques; it became a way of life, a guiding principle. And so the people of the world, moved by the prince's handsome features, his powerful body, and the philosophy he carried within him, began to follow him of their own accord.
He had never asked for it — and yet admirers and devotees appeared, men and women who looked up to him and begged to become his disciples.