The boy had grown taller compared to before, but his clothes looked really dirty. His hair was unkempt and there was someone kicking him.
The young man curled up, protecting his own head and showed no resistance.
He looked pitiful.
Aurora looked at this scene and then at the two people who were standing. One was standing firm while the other one was busy kicking the young man.
"Your Highness Prince Brian, Your Highness Prince Charles," Aurora greeted.
Prince Brian was already 18 years old, an adult. Compared to three years ago, he had already grown up and looked much taller than before. His blond hair and blue eyes remained the same, though.
On the other hand, Prince Charles was around a year older than Aurora and looked a bit taller than before. But he didn’t seem to have his growth spurt yet because his height was still around the same as Aurora. His light brown hair looked different from his older brother, but it was still easy to recognize him.
In the past, it was Prince Brian who was beating up Prince Lester and this time, it was Prince Charles.
"Cousin Aurora!" Prince Charles’ eyes lit up when he saw Aurora.
He had been asking his father why Aurora didn’t come from year to year, but his father explained to him that the negotiator always took places in different location.
This resulted in him unable to meet his cousin.
Prince Charles was disappointed, but he also knew that it was impossible for him to meet with Aurora when they stayed in different location, have different priorities and so on.
"It’s Cousin Aurora." Prince Brian was calmer than Prince Charles and gave the standard bow to Aurora.
Seeing his greetings, Aurora curtsied politely.
Prince Charles pouted when he saw this and said, "Why do you have to be so polite? It’s been a long time since the last time we see each other and we don’t have to follow the annoying protocol etiquette so strictly!"
Prince Brian only shrugged helplessly and didn’t say anything to Prince Charles.
Aurora heard their words and her eyes flickered. Even after three years, this Prince Charles still liked to play around and forget about his study. He hadn’t grown up at all and he somehow reminded Aurora with Crown Prince Edward.
Both of them disliked studying.
She turned her head to look at Prince Lester who was still crouching down and then asked, "Is the war a foregone conclusion?"
"Even you know that there will be a war," Prince Charles muttered in a low voice.
He knew about this because his father mentioned it but Prince Charles didn’t care too much. In his eyes, his father was really powerful and it would have been easy for him to defeat the Ice Kingdom.
If he had been paying more attention to the history class, he would have known that there was no decisive winner in the long war between the Red Kingdom and the Ice Kingdom.
Unfortunately, Prince Charles didn’t like studying.
"Yes, there will be a war," Prince Brian admitted frankly. In fact, he also knew that these diplomats from other kingdoms would be informed of the Red Kingdom’s situation. After all, the Red Kingdom was the one who had a request.
It was also because of this that the negotiation was moved to the Red Kingdom instead of the Yellow Kingdom.
This year should have been the Yellow Kingdom’s turn.
But it was temporarily changed.
Presumably, the next negotiation had to take place in the Yellow Kingdom instead since the Red Kingdom was in the special situation this time.
"Then him?" Aurora pointed her chin to Prince Lester.
"Useless trash," Prince Charles mocked and snorted. He raised his leg and landed another kick. "Father arranged him to be my spar partner, but he dared to raise his weapon against me. Deserve it!"
Aurora: "..."
A normal sparring partner would definitely fight back and didn’t stay silent as a sandbag. However, she understood that Prince Charles just wanted to win, so he asked his father to let Prince Lester be his ’training partner.’
But when Prince Lester truly raised his weapon, Prince Charles would be beating him afterwards.
It was indeed miserable.
"He had no use anymore for the Red Kingdom," Prince Brian replied. "Father left him in our hands since he had no opinion what happened to him. Even if he died, no one will care."
The Ice Kingdom sent Prince Lester to the Red Kingdom precisely because they didn’t care about this prince.
For this reason, the Red Kingdom King let Prince Lester stayed in the palace. Even if this prince was not really treated well inside, those people outside the Royal Palace will never know about it.
Who knew that this act was useless.
That Ice Kingdom would still launch a war again. It hasn’t evolved to a full scale war but there were already many conflicts at the border.
The Red Kingdom’s King had to be prepared for confrontation.
"Do you want to beat him up too, Cousin Aurora?" Prince Charles asked. "You can do it. Anyway, at least he can be used to vent our emotions before his death, which is already very good."
In the eyes of the nobles, the commoner would never be as good as them. Many of them were not even treated as humans by the nobles.
And Prince Lester who has no use anymore was even worse than commoner.
Aurora looked at Prince Lester and shook her head. "I have no hobby of beating up people, Your Highness."
It would be unsightly too if Aurora were to beat up Prince Lester. Not to mention, she never like to use violence if it was unnecessary. After all, she learned swordsmanship simply for the sake of her health and basic protection.
"Is that so?" Prince Charles shrugged.
"However, it’ll be a pity to let him die here just like that," Aurora said slowly. "How about letting him do some menial work for me? I just need some worker to help sorting things out."