Selfish Boy

This tale took place in a territory not far from the capital of the Kingdom of Courtois on the Courtois Continent, a vast domain belonging to one of the Three Great Noble Houses, known as the “Three Dukes,” which held tremendous status even within the kingdom: the House of Grand Duke Arses. The noble Arses family, who ruled this territory, had become a thoroughly corrupt bloodline over the long history of Courtois.

They squeezed heavy taxes from their people, and corruption and bribery ran rampant throughout the lifeless territory. Yet the residents, unable to easily leave the land, had no choice but to endure their suffering.

Within the household of those wicked nobles, their five-year-old legitimate heir, the selfish and tyrannical “Rudel Arses,” stared up at the sky with his eyes opened wide.

“W-What is that?!”

What Rudel saw in the sky was an enormous body of deep green and great wings that allowed that massive form to move freely through the air… Its reptilian scales and horns made the creature appear truly majestic.

Yes, it was a “dragon”… and the knights who commanded them and defended the kingdom were known as “Dragoons.”

Rudel immediately demanded an explanation about the dragon he had seen from the servants waiting nearby. Even the way he asked was overbearing, hardly the manner in which a five-year-old child should speak to an adult.

“What is that?! I don’t know what it is… Why didn’t you tell me?!”

The servants were more astonished that a child living in this kingdom could possibly not know what a dragon was. But their opponent was Rudel, a rude boy who hated studying and exercise. Despite their irritation, the servants politely explained dragons and Dragoons to him.

“Dragons are highly intelligent monsters counted among the strongest of all magical beasts.”

“And those who bring dragons under their command are the Dragoons… the strongest knights in Courtois.”

“A knight who becomes a Dragoon must possess not only strength, but also ‘virtue.’ They are the proudest knights of Courtois.”

Upon hearing that, Rudel’s eyes changed from their usual arrogant, dead-fish look to those of a boy filled with admiration. And yet, even after hearing all of that…

“How much does that ‘virtue’ cost?! I’ll pay anything, so go get it for me right now!”

Everyone around him was genuinely exasperated by Rudel’s declaration that he would simply buy virtue, clearly having no idea what it meant. Thinking that this boy was supposed to become the next head of the family almost made the servants feel a faint urge to kill him… Then one servant had an idea. They would teach this stupid brat what reality was really like…

At the time, no one could possibly have imagined that this would eventually embroil both the Arses family and the Kingdom of Courtois. Yes, everything began with this little “prank” played by the servants.

“Rudel-sama, ‘virtue’ refers to a person’s character and dignity. It cannot be bought with money. It is something precious that can only be acquired through steady effort.”

Rudel gave them a look that plainly said he did not understand. He hated studying and was selfish. Although he had a private tutor, he never listened and had only attended lessons a handful of times.

“Then how do I become a Dragoon? I want to become a Dragoon!”

The servants snickered inwardly upon hearing that. Did he truly think he could become one? A Dragoon was the greatest of Courtois’s heroes, someone who endured grueling training, was tested in knowledge and refinement, and on top of all that had to earn the obedience of a dragon… The servants carefully explained reality to Rudel.

“It would be difficult… To become a Dragoon, you must first become one of the finest knights in the kingdom. In other words, you need strength and kindness, knowledge and refinement… and beyond that, you must be acknowledged by a dragon.”

“Are you saying I can’t do it?!”

“Yes. But there is nothing unusual about that. Becoming a Dragoon is simply that difficult. Even in a great nation like the Kingdom of Courtois, producing ten Dragoons in a single year would be considered an excellent result.”

Rudel was not satisfied with that explanation. The admiration he felt for the dragon he had seen for the first time had already burned itself so deeply into his heart that it almost hurt.

“…Then what do I have to do? If it isn’t impossible, that means it’s not something I can never achieve, right? What do I have to do to become a Dragoon?!”

The servants were exasperated by Rudel’s attitude and had already grown tired of their little game, so they explained things with the unspoken message of, Fix that awful personality of yours!

“Rudel-sama, if you continue living as you do now, you will never become a Dragoon. A disciplined lifestyle, kindness that does not change depending on who you are dealing with, and tireless effort are what truly matter… At present, Rudel-sama lacks every single one of those things.”

The servants stated it outright. There was a reason they dared to go that far. Fundamentally, Rudel was an “idiot.” His actions were wildly unpredictable and constantly caused trouble for everyone around him. His parents saw little value in him beyond being the heir and had largely neglected him while doting on Rudel’s younger brother.

Besides, he would quickly forget whenever someone mocked him. That had led the servants to treat him more and more coldly.

In that sense, perhaps Rudel was actually rather pitiful. No one paid him any real attention, and even the servants ridiculed him… But now, Rudel had encountered something that made all of that seem utterly irrelevant.

Yes, Rudel had found a goal. From that day forward, the selfish and arrogant boy Rudel devoted himself purely to one thing: becoming a Dragoon.

Beginning the very next day, Rudel woke up at sunrise. Since he normally slept until just before noon, there were no servants in his room, so he changed himself out of his nightclothes and into clothes suitable for exercise. Well, there was technically one person in the room, but they were asleep in a chair and showed no sign of waking.

On the day the servants had mocked him, Rudel had gone around asking every one of them what he needed to do. The servants had reluctantly explained things to the irritating boy, and Rudel had desperately committed their advice to memory.

“Wake up early in the morning and go running, eat healthy food and chew it properly…”

Muttering to himself, Rudel left his room and headed outside. …The sight of a child walking through a still-dim mansion while muttering under his breath must have looked rather eerie.

The sprawling mansion was practically a castle. Rudel began running around the grounds of that enormous estate, but he quickly ran out of stamina. His daily irregular schedule and constant overeating finally came back to torment him. …Even though he was only five years old!

When the servants and guards saw Rudel like that, they burst out laughing. Some even openly mocked him. Rudel ran right through them without paying any attention.

By the time he finished running, his entire body was drenched in sweat, and he was in no condition to eat. Even so, he went to the kitchen and “asked” the cooks to prepare something healthy for him. It was the first request Rudel had ever made in his life, but the busy morning cooks barely paid it any attention.

They simply told him they understood and prepared food according to his request.

Rudel generally ate alone. His parents barely doted on him, while the servants looked down on him. And the meal laid out at that solitary table consisted almost entirely of foods Rudel disliked… vegetables, dairy products, and chicken for meat… To a commoner, it would have been a luxurious meal, but Rudel was the legitimate heir of a grand ducal house.

This was genuinely poor treatment. Even the seasoning showed no sign that anyone had considered Rudel’s tastes. The vegetables he disliked were left bitter, and none of the other dishes were prepared in a way children would normally enjoy.

That was how much Rudel was disliked. And because everyone assumed that even if they retaliated against him he was too stupid to remember, they subjected him to blatant harassment.

Even so, Rudel said,

“Thank you for the food?”

He ate breakfast after that awkward greeting. Bitter! he thought, but he endured it and continued eating because it would help him become a Dragoon. After that came studying with his private tutor. Even if Rudel had finally become motivated, his tutor had not. The man merely answered whatever Rudel asked and otherwise left him entirely to his own devices.

Still, Rudel read through his textbooks and repeatedly asked about anything he did not understand. His tutor, who believed Rudel to be an idiot, said,

“You mean to become a Dragoon when you don’t even know something like that? What a ridiculous fool you are.”

He spoke sarcastically… But there was one thing everyone in the mansion had misunderstood. Rudel had problems with his behavior and way of thinking, but fundamentally, he was not unintelligent. He tended to act before thinking, certainly, but that did not mean he was stupid.

When Rudel did not know what he needed to do to become a Dragoon, he asked the servants. He also asked them exactly how he should go about it. Then he immediately acted on what they told him. That was probably Rudel’s greatest strength. His tendency to act immediately was both one of his weaknesses and one of his greatest virtues.

Next came training in swordsmanship and hand-to-hand combat. Yet even there…

“What’s wrong, Young Master?! You can’t even block an attack like that, and you think you’re going to become a Dragoon? Are you trying to make me laugh?”

Rudel collapsed into a crouch beneath the merciless attacks of the soldier serving as his instructor. The man tormented him in ways that would never leave lasting injuries, but he was a veteran mercenary. And after finally entering service in this territory, his very first assignment had been to teach swordsmanship and martial arts to that idiot Rudel… so he took out his frustration on the boy.

Even so, Rudel stood back up.

“You’re stubborn… Well, it’ll be interesting to see how long you can keep this up!”

His first day could only be described as disastrous. He became breathless almost immediately when he ran, barely made any progress with his studies, and by the end of sword training his entire body screamed in pain. Even so, Rudel pulled a single book from the bookshelf and crawled into bed with it.

“Dragoons are the strongest knights, and…”

It was a book almost like a picture book, introducing the Dragoons of the Kingdom of Courtois. As Rudel read it aloud, the servant attending him became thoroughly irritated.

(Go to sleep already, you shitty brat… Ahh, I’m sleepy.)

Perhaps that was why it took the servant so long to notice… the simple fact that Rudel, who had barely studied at all until now, was actually “reading a book”…

Once Rudel finished, he left the book on his bed as his eyelids slowly began to droop.

“I’m definitely going to become a Dragoon… I am…”

Rudel fell asleep just like that. The servant picked up the book and returned it to its original place on the shelf. Then, looking back at Rudel, the servant said,

“There’s no way you’ll ever become one. You really are an idiot… Yaaawn, I should hurry up and get to bed too.”

The servant’s purpose in staying by Rudel’s side was to respond in case of an emergency. Sleeping on duty was absolutely not something they were permitted to do.