Polymath Redux

Chpater 55: Imperfect Prodigy

-15 years ago-

Within the aureate castle of Xagontetian lived a certain silver haired youth, the first prince of the Xagontetian Royal family, Prince Leo Crom. Amongst the Royal Family it was widely believed that the proof of their legitimacy to the throne came from their golden hair; all blood members of the royal family had been birthed with golden hair since time immemorial. Thus due to the odd anomaly with the coloration of his hair, the first prince's legitimacy as an heir to the throne was quickly questioned.

At first he was shunned as a deviant of the family, some even going as far as to say that he wasn't really a blood relative to the king. The king too was put at a crossroads as to how to treat this anomaly but it was then the true talent of the first prince started to shine. Everything started with a simple game of chess against a high noble; at only 7 years of age he managed to defeat the high noble who had been absorbed in the game.

Not only that but even in his studies the First Prince showed many promises in a vast array of fields, most notably in strategic thinking. Curious the king withheld his thoughts of banishing the first prince and decided to cultivate this talent further. Over the years the prince's talents was brightly demonstrated throughout many mock battles with the other military commanders. Even if it was only a mock battle the other military commanders had no desire to go easy, yet even then Prince Leo had always won. It was around this time he was no longer branded as an 'anomaly' but now called 'prodigy'.

Serving as the minister of war, the then patriarch of the Granate family, Olivier Granate had seen the vast potential within the young prince. 'It would be a wasted potential to not tap into his talents' he thought as he set out to plan an arranged marriage with his daughter, Katy Granate who had also shown great aptitude for military command. As they both shared similar interests, talents and goals they had instantly become great friends, often playing chess or discussing military strategy together. Eventually they had both agreed to the arranged marriage.

However these days of peace for the young prince were not to last as the state of war within the Xagontetian fronts were beginning to deteriorate. Hearing the bad news come from the front brought more and more anxiety towards the young prince's heart. At first he had been mistreated but then as his talents were cultivated he was truly given a place in the castle; a home, not only that but many of the soldiers had become close friends to the prince through their mock battles as well. So knowing that those soldiers were fighting on the front with their lives on the line and hearing that they were losing could only cause more distress.

"I have to do something..."

The prince told himself.

"But what can we do? We're still just children so we should leave this to the proper commanders on the field. I'm sure they will pull through this, so let's put our trust on them."

A young Katy Granate tried to reassure the prince but it was to no avail. The young prince shot his fiancé a saddened look before shaking his head in disagreement.

"Haven't you learnt from our games of chess that winning and losing isn't about having faith? Winning must be earned through proper strategy and tactics; not by how much trust we put in them, the cold truth is that war comes down to logistics."

To that the young Katy Granate could not refute him, despite their young ages she too understood the cold calculus of war. Throughout the years of mock battles the prince had gathered a wide following of elite soldiers at his command that had come to respect his talents. If it was with them the prince had thought that he could take then onto the battlefield and turn the tide of battle with his talents. He had truly wished from the bottom of his heart to become useful to the country and to save the people whom he had come to recognize as friends.