[Principalia ,Arteria]

It was another cold and painful morning for Prince Arterius, who laid on his bed in agony as his throbbing swollen left leg woke him up. He clenched his jaw and murmured some curses as he slowly lifted his body to sit.

On the dark corner of his well-lit room, his ward, Stolas slept soundly on his working desk with papers scattered all over the place. Even from the blanket of darkness that covered his ward's face, Prince Arterius was very certain that Stolas drooled over the writing materials that they had.

He smiled even through the excruciating pain that he had. But for now, that wasn't his intention for seeking his sleeping ward. He cupped his hands and tried calling his ward subtly.

"Stolas…Stolas…" He tried to be as discrete as possible.

Prince Arterius was a man who respected sleep as much as the next person. That's why he always took extra care to people who are sleeping, making sure that they don't get rattled as much as possible. It's a reflection from his pet peeve of being startled while sleeping, a simple gesture to respect a peaceful sleep.

He shifted his good leg slightly to the right to avoid numbing. But when he did, his left leg ached stronger than before. He gritted his teeth in pain and decided to break his ward's peaceful sleep regardless of how loud it would be.

"STOLAS! STOLAS!!!" The pain throbbed even more, "AH! SCREW THIS LEG!" Prince Arterius banged the headboard of his bed in pain.

Stolas jumped from his peaceful slumber running towards his prince's beckoning call, "Prince Arterius! What happened?!" The frantic ward knelt by the bed trying to calm his master down.

Stolas came around the bed with a piece of paper sticking on his right cheek and with some ink smeared across his face. It would have been a funny sight to see if only Prince Arterius' leg wasn't bugging him.

"Get me some water, and my medicine, now!" He commanded his ward.

Stolas stumbled across the floor as he tripped over himself. Prince Arterius winced and hoped his ward wasn't injured—it would've been bad if it did.

Prince Arterius trusted Stolas more than anyone else and he didn't want some stranger tending to his needs. He just didn't trust his father's servants, since the day he overheard them badmouthing him.

Stolas hurriedly stood up and finally grabbed his medicine, that was placed at the working table where he slept.

After drinking the bitter syrup, the Imperial doctor gave him, Prince Arterius decided to close his eyes and doze off, as he let the drug's potency to spread and take effect on him.

Prince Arterius woke up to a loud crashing sound at his door. Startled, he looked around and saw his father, the Imperatur, approaching him with a furious face.

"You fool!" The Imperatur slapped him by the back of his hand. "How dare you waste our funds over this useless garbage of a project!" His father grabbed him by his collar and berated him even more.

"I knew, I should've not let you become my first in line!" His father threw him hard to the bed.

Prince Arterius bounced on his cushion. Luckily, he drank his medicine earlier as he ended up rolling over his left leg.

The Imperatur gave him a cold stare, "There are no weaklings in my family!" He spatted. "I order your so-called research division to be closed immediately!"

"You can't do that, father!" Prince Arterius answered back.

His father raised an eyebrow on him, "You dare speak back to me?" The Imperatur's nostrils flared at his audacity.

"Yes. I do, Great Imperatur." Prince Arterius swallowed hard. "I want to bargain with y—"

His father walked away from his bed, ready to storm out of his room.

He felt dejected by the one man he wanted to get approval. The Imperatur was a cruel man, only recognizing those who are strong. Prince Arterius was nothing of that, but he was smart. Smart enough to outwit him at that very moment.

"YOU SAID RECOGNIZE STRENGTH AND YET YOU RAN AWAY FROM A BARGAIN?!" Prince Arterius spat without even thinking of what the consequences might be.

"W-what did you—" the livid Imperatur was interjected by his son before he can finish his question.

"Two days, Father! Two days and I will show you my invention." He looked at the Imperatur straight in the eyes, "If I fail, you can disown me and give my inheritance and birthright to my brother."

The Imperatur met his gaze and laughed, "By the gods! You do have a pair after all!" His smile turned into a grin. "I accept that. At least in two days, I will no longer be a laughingstock at the Senate for naming you heir."

His father stormed out of his room cackling.

Prince Arterius felt his heart broke. His own father still thought of him as a nuisance. A weakling that needs to be purged from the family bloodline. He will prove him wrong.

After the big explosion that happened over 10 days ago, Prince Arterius was able to create the design before passing out. He also was able to instruct Stolas to run over to the smithy to commission the weapon.

He was lucky to think of it in advance and was even luckier for the palace's smithy to make it for him. The dwarves of the smithy were interested in his fascination with the art of weaponry-making that they wouldn't mind making his intricate samples.

Stolas hesitantly approached him, but he smiled at him and gestured to approach him.

"My Prince…" Stolas tried to start a conversation. "I—"

"Stolas, how's our research going?" He interrupted. "Have we solved already the air dynamic problem and explosivity of our design?" He asked.

Stolas fumbled for words, "Well, last night we were redesigning the shape for its aerodynamics but—"

"Good. Let's start from there." Prince Arterius smiled at Stolas with a glimmer of determination on his eyes.

He wanted to prove to his father and the Senate wrong. He might never be as strong as his younger brother, but they shouldn't cut them out from the count. Not yet.

"They're in for a surprise!" Prince Arterius smirked.