Ventorino Kingdom - Fall or Collapse (4)
Alfonso went straight back to his room. He flung himself face-first onto the bed and buried his face in the pillow. Then he cried. Hard. If it had been up to him, he would have told his father or mother and had Lord Valdes fired on the spot.
But he was no knight of the Ventorino Kingdom, and Valdes was currently riding high as the Hero Marc had built up. Even if Alfonso was a prince, there was nothing he could do.
Part of the shame was his own, too. Even so, he was a prince—going to his parents and tattling that the girl he liked had been stolen by another man? Worse, not even by force, but because she simply didn’t love him. That was the one thing the boy could not bring himself to do. It was a matter of at least a shred of pride.
He soaked the pillow with tears for what felt like ages, and then, as children often did, he cried himself out and fell asleep.
"Mmnh…."
How long had it been?
Alfonso lay sprawled on the bed and let out a groan. It was a real pained sound, not the suggestive sort he had heard earlier in the day. His body didn’t hurt, though. If anything, the shock had been far worse on his mind.
"Ugh. W-what time is it…?"
He had fallen asleep during the day, so the hour was a blur. When he lifted his head and looked outside, he saw a dark, brooding sky beyond the window.
"Ah…."
It seemed it was already evening.
No, maybe it was night. Since there were no attendants around, that was even more likely. If it had still been evening, at least one servant would have remained nearby, waiting for him to wake. The fact that no one was there meant the hour must have been quite late.
Alfonso reached that conclusion, not with perfect logic, but close enough.
He sat up on the bed, wondering how deeply he must have slept to miss even the summons for dinner. Naturally, he never even considered that no one might have come to wake him at all. Alfonso was a prince, and until now the servants had always looked after him.
"Ugh, I'm hungry."
He had burned through his energy crying, and he’d missed dinner as well. At his age, still growing, he felt as if he could eat even foods he normally disliked. At least, that was how it seemed.
After a moment’s thought, Alfonso slipped out of bed and left his room.
He was headed for the royal kitchen.
He knew the way from his bedroom to the kitchen very well.
He also knew how to get there at night, without being spotted by the guards.
That was partly because he was the prince living in the royal castle, but also because Alfonso had snuck into the kitchen late at night a few times before. He hadn’t done it recently, but a growing boy was always hungry, no matter how much he ate.
In the end, Alfonso managed to sneak into the kitchen and fill his stomach.
Then the prince was left with a problem.
What do I do now?
It was a surprisingly difficult question.
Normally, he would have gone for a light stroll or simply returned to bed and gone back to sleep. But Alfonso had cried his heart out during the day and spent half the afternoon drifting through dreamland. He wasn’t sleepy. Calling it a nap would have been generous, considering how much time he’d wasted.
The first thing that came to mind, unfortunately, was Mari.
"……"
The princess from the neighboring kingdom, his first love, now a love that could never come true.
If Alfonso were a little crueler, a little older, he might have thought about stealing Mari away from Valdes. But he was still far too young and too innocent to think that way.
All he could realistically do for Mari now was keep his distance as much as possible and cheer on their love. Of course, both of those things were difficult, but in practical terms, that was all there was.
"...What should I do?"
What came to mind next, absurdly enough, wasn’t family, studies, or play, but the suggestive image of Mari he had seen earlier.
"Ngh…."
Alfonso, who had just recognized desire for the first time, realized that calling a loved one sexy after seeing her come out from being with another man had awakened something in him. Even so, he was still in puberty. The libido that had been quiet until now started to rise in slow, molten surges, like lava breaking through the crust.
"Why does my dick keep getting itchy…?"
Just because he had received sex education and knew the facts didn’t mean he could immediately apply them.
As he agonized over it, Alfonso remembered the sex-ed textbook, along with the book of nude women Lloyd, his sister’s fiancé, had secretly given him. Both were kept carefully hidden in a corner of his room. Even the servants didn’t know about them.
The textbook had been handed to him by his tutor, who worried because Alfonso showed no interest at all in sex education. The erotic picture book, on the other hand, had been a half-joking gift from Lloyd to his young future brother-in-law, meant to bring him a little closer when puberty eventually arrived.
In the past, neither had interested him, and he hadn’t really understood them either. But now it seemed like that might be different.
"...Let's go back."
The prince quickly retraced his steps and returned to his bedroom in no time.
Then he immediately rummaged through his secret box and pulled out the sex-ed textbook and the erotic picture book.
"F-found it!"
Alfonso shouted in delight, strangely exhilarated, then flinched and dove beneath the blanket, worried he had been too loud. But even after some time passed, no one came in. So he relaxed, crawled back out, and opened the books.
"W-wow…."
A new world lay before him.
Since it was a proper educational text intended to teach a prince, the first book laid out systematic and correct sexual knowledge in a dry, illustrated manner. At first Alfonso even found that amusing, but as he went on, it became dull and tiresome, and he quickly closed the textbook.
Next came the erotic picture book Lloyd had given him.
It was a cataclysmic shock, a cultural earthquake even greater than what he had seen a moment ago.
"……"
Countless women, in all shapes and forms, were stripped nearly bare. Their clothing was outrageously tempting, and so were their poses. Alfonso stared at each lewd illustration with his heart pounding furiously, looking so intently that a red line seemed ready to burst across his eyes.
These drawings were obviously stimulating and obscene.
And yet something felt off.
He wasn’t aroused.
His heart was clearly telling him these pictures were filthy, but his member had only stiffened to about half the size it had before. It was an oddly vague feeling.
Unable to make sense of it, Alfonso soon began thinking of Mari. More precisely, of the disheveled Mari he had seen that afternoon.
Throb.
"Uhh, nngh…."
That was it.
But he still couldn’t understand why only this made his body react so strongly, why only this filled him with such intense excitement.
Is it because she’s someone I like?
He thought it over carefully, but there was no way he could reach the answer alone.
At that moment, the first person who came to mind was the one who cherished him most, the one who loved him most.
"I should ask Mother."
The other members of his family loved and spoiled Alfonso plenty, but none of them could compare to Katarina. She had placed her own life and future on her son’s shoulders after Marc, all for the sake of building a stronger, greater Ventorino dynasty.
He had agonized for a long time, but his decision came quickly.
Alfonso, a little excited and a little awkward in the lower half, made his way to Katarina’s chambers.
All the while, another intention was stirring in the back of his mind.
I want to suck on Mother’s breasts again.
Until now, it had only been a childish habit—sleeping with Katarina for comfort, kneading her breasts the way he had as a small boy, and suckling as he used to. But now that desire had awakened in him, he understood it meant something else. And he was curious.
If I suck on Mother’s breasts, will my dick stand up too?
A naive question from a naive child.
Ridiculously enough, because incest was such an obvious thing here, Alfonso’s sex-ed teacher—and no one else—had ever mentioned it. Besides, Alfonso himself wasn’t asking in any strange or perverse sense.
But that innocence lasted only a moment.
"P-Prince…?"
"Yeah, I’m here. Is Mother inside?"
"W-well, that is…."
"?"
His mother’s personal maid, who would normally smile and announce his arrival to Katarina, was acting strangely. She kept glancing into the room, clearly hoping he wouldn’t go in.
That attitude irritated Alfonso. His mood was already bad enough after the day he’d had. And no matter how much she served Katarina personally, she was still just a maid—how dare a mere servant block his way? Many attendants came from noble families, unlike ordinary maids, but Alfonso didn’t care about that.
"If she's inside, that's enough. I'm going in."
"W-wait, Prince! I—!"
Alfonso strode forward without hesitation.
Behind him, the maid could only call out his name, unable to bring herself to physically stop him.
As Katarina’s personal attendant, she knew very well how much the queen cherished her son. And she herself had only become the queen’s maid thanks to a stroke of luck—winning Katarina’s favor because she was quiet, quick-witted, and good at reading the room.
By birth, she was only the daughter of a baron, which meant she had no power to restrain Alfonso.
"Oh no, what do I do? Today is… today is…."
It was the very day that boy, that man, had come looking for her.
And the Queen herself called for him….
Completely unaware that she might be thrown out of her post over this, the maid could only fret and do nothing.
Meanwhile, Alfonso marched determinedly into the palace and headed straight for Katarina’s bedroom. There were still a few attendants and guards awake inside, but none of them knew that someone was visiting the queen’s chambers. So they merely smiled and greeted the prince as he passed.
"Looks like nothing's really going on after all. What a fuss over nothing."
Receiving the servants’ greetings, the prince muttered to himself.
And at last, he reached his mother’s bedroom.
Knock, knock.
"Mother, it’s Alfonso."
One of the few places where, despite being a prince, he had to knock before entering.
He waited for Katarina’s reply while imagining what would happen next. Mother would surely open the door wearing her nightclothes.
Come to think of it, Mother’s nightclothes….
Were they not rather sexy?
Alfonso tilted his head. He wondered why she wore such alluring clothes to sleep in. They were surely comfortable, but it didn’t seem as though comfort was the only reason.
"I don’t really get it… huh?"
Not understanding that it was lingerie for sleeping, Alfonso found it strange that there was no answer. Katarina, as it happened, did not go to bed especially early. She often read books, drank wine, and handled documents by herself before finally turning in at a rather late hour.
So she should have answered right away.
"……"
Under normal circumstances, he would have assumed she’d gone to bed early or was simply too focused on a book or a stack of documents to answer. He would have knocked two or three more times, and if there was still no response, he would have quietly left the palace.
But tonight, he didn’t.
He kept remembering what had happened during the day. The moment when Mari had answered late, even though her name had been called in a fairly loud voice.
No, it can’t be… right?
It was ridiculous to even think such a thing.
There was no reason for Valdes to be with his mother at this hour. If she were with anyone, it was more likely to be Clara or Marc. Because they were family.
And yet, somewhere in Alfonso’s mind, he recalled the maid at the entrance acting strangely.
"……No. Yeah, no way."
He whispered the denial under his breath, but his hand had already slipped into his pocket. When it came back out, there was a key resting in his palm—the key to his mother’s bedroom.
Katarina had given it to him in case he ever needed to come get her if she woke from a nightmare in the middle of the night. Because of that, when Valdes had once sneaked in and fondled and suckled her breasts, she had mistaken him for her son. Alfonso intended to use that key now.
Quietly. Secretly.
Swish—click.
"...Gulp."
Across the corridor where faint lights flickered, the sound of the lock releasing echoed together with Alfonso swallowing hard.
No. It can't be. There’s no way….
The boy prayed silently to whatever god might be listening as he carefully opened the door.
Through the widening crack, the scene inside gradually came into view.
His mother’s room wasn’t dark. It wasn’t fully bright either, but several magic lamps were lit. And their glow illuminated two naked bodies.
It can’t… be… right…? It, it… can’t….
On the bed he had only ever shared with his mother.
"Ahh, ah, hhngh…! Heheh… ah, Valdes, Valdes, Valdes…♥"
"Hah, hah…! You really like my cock that much, Katarina?"
"Yes♥ Yes♥ Valdes's cock, I love it so much…! Hah! It feels so good, haaah, Katarina's going to, hic…! I-I think I'm going to cum…♥"
A woman was on all fours like a dog, getting pounded from behind like a dog by a boy.