Cheryn was a mostly peaceful, agricultural kingdom—the people were prosperous, too. Trade with other nations was profitable, and the farms produced enough food that precious few people couldn’t afford to eat; all of the extras were sold to the nearby nations, some of which couldn’t produce a sufficient amount of food for themselves—as such, people either wanted Cheryn’s land or let it be, generally leaning towards the latter due to very few nations that knew so much about agriculture. It still had its problems, but overall it was good.

Alyson was the oldest of three; it was her, Jacob, and Miles. They were the children of Cheryn’s king and queen, and Alyson was next in line for the throne. You’d think Alyson would be pretty busy as a result, but honestly the amount of time she spent doing nothing was annoying—especially to her brothers, who had yet to be freed from schooling. The only kind of education Alyson still had to pursue was things her father taught her in the mornings of most days.

She was waiting outside for her brothers to finish up their schoolwork; the school day was typically from breakfast to lunch, sometimes into the afternoon if their teachers were particularly determined to get something done. Jacob was starting on the same kind of ruling knowledge that Alyson was doing now; Miles, being eight years younger than him, mainly learned history and penmanship.

They came out of the palace together, and Miles ran towards her once he noticed.

“Aly! We’re eating lunch now, right?”

“I said I’d buy you two something,” Alyson said with a smile. “What do you want?”

“Cookies!” Miles replied firmly. “Lots of cookies!”

“Before cookies,” Jacob told him.

Miles thought about it for a second. “Oh! I know where to go. Can I lead?”

“Sure,” Alyson said. “We’re right behind you.”

He nodded, laughed, and almost started running—of course, he was slow enough that Alyson and Jacob only had to quickly walk to stay behind him. Miles led them to one of the places that always served lunch, asking for what he wanted to eat; Alyson and Jacob added their orders, and she gave the server however much money the meal would cost. Miles took it upon himself to sit down at one of the tables outside, and his older siblings took spots on either side of him.

Occasionally, random passerby would greet them; Miles usually waved back in response. It wasn’t a rare sight to see the princess and princes in town—Alyson liked to take her brothers to every fun place in the capital, especially during the times where there were festivals, since their parents couldn’t. The heirs had more leniency with policies of coming and going without guards, if only so then the people at the capital knew who might be leading them one day.

The siblings held up conversation while they waited. “My teacher kept on going on about random stuff,” Jacob mused. He looked at Alyson. “Did she do that for you, too?”

“What, go on about her near-death experiences?” Alyson asked. When Jacob nodded, she chuckled. “She talks endlessly about politics as well—I suppose that’s why she teaches them. It could be something that happened on the other side of the world, and she’d still mention it. You’ll only have her for a year, though, so just be prepared to say ‘good riddance.’”

“You’ll be with Father then, right?” Miles asked curiously.

“Yup! Me, Alyson, and Father,” Jacob replied. Their food came, so they thanked the person who brought it to them; they continued to talk whenever they weren’t eating. “I think I’ll like that a lot better. Father’s a bad teacher, but at least I won’t have to hear every single bad thing that happens in every single nation.”

“I don’t like her,” Miles said simply. “She did history for me one day and she was just talk talk talk and wouldn’t stop talking. It wasn’t even any of the stuff I’m supposed to be learning.”

“I think Jacob and I have complained enough that she won’t stay past this year,” Alyson assured him. “Mother isn’t particularly fond of her, either.”

Miles nodded, ate a little, then seemed to get reminded of something. “At least we’re done with school for a while.”

Jacob thought about it for a second. “Oh, hey, we are! I honestly forgot that Mother had something planned.”

“It would do some good to have some time away from the world,” Alyson noted. The queen was particularly fond of celebrations, and held them a few times during the year; on occasion she would hold a ball or something similar just to the children had a break from school. This was such a celebration, with the queen herself finding some odd event that happened during the month to justify it.

They continued eating and chatting, and Alyson brought her brothers back to the castle before she went to help her father. The work of a king or queen mostly consisted of the important things, with less crucial things being given to their spouse and the trivial things being handed off to advisors. There was a little less work that needed to be done, but it still took time to do it—her father was always grateful for the help, even if Alyson was required to do it. She didn’t mind aside from a few doubts she had about ruling.

The days leading up to her mother’s party passed much like that afternoon—guests, ranging from the closest nobility to Father’s commoner relatives and friends, started arriving near the end of the week. Each of the heirs had friends among the guests, so for that brief time they favored their presence. It was a refreshing break, if nothing else.