Tursed my worid upside down

In the morning, Egor woke up and felt that he had finally had enough sleep. The feather bed was so soft that it seemed to him that he had spent the night on a cloud in some paradise garden. The young man lazily stretched and assumed a sitting position. Klaus was drinking tea in a casually thrown on shirt and unlaced pants. Two slaves in gray robes were bustling about, tidying up. They appeared and disappeared from the door in the room opposite the entrance, which Yegor had not noticed yesterday.

"Would you like some tea?" Klaus asked, biting off a piece of toasted bread, thickly spread with butter.

"Yes, I would also like to eat something," the guy muttered sleepily, lowering his feet to the floor, "what's there?" he asked, pointing to the far room.

- A bath. The advantage of being a noble is maximum comfort - the prince smiled.

The bath turned out to be an impressive-sized pool that took up almost the entire space of the room. Water flowed from at least twenty taps installed around the entire perimeter of the bath, filling the space with steam.

Egor hesitantly followed Klaus. Two slaves immediately surrounded the prince, helping him take off his clothes, and then hesitantly turned their gazes to Egor.

"Leave us. My slave will serve me himself."

As soon as the door closed silently, Egor looked skeptically at the prince's naked back.

"Should I serve you?"

"It is not proper for a prince to wash himself," Klaus grimaced, "at least if he is not on a campaign, but in a castle or visiting high-born lords. How else can I get rid of them?" he shrugged and turned to face Egor.

The young man froze. Yes, he saw Klaus's sculpted abs, his lean physique, the bulging veins and muscles on his arms, the thin line of hair that went down and disappeared behind the elastic of his sweatpants or jeans, but Egor had never seen him completely naked, and this picture knocked the wind out of him for a few seconds.

"Are you going to wash yourself? Or are you just going to stand there?" The prince turned away again and began to slowly sink into the water.

Egor felt ashamed. Compared to Klaus's perfect figure, he himself seemed skinny and nondescript, and the prince's impressively sized organ, for some unknown reason, caused an undesirable reaction between Egor's legs. The guy turned his back to the bathhouse, quickly threw off his short blood-red robe and moved sideways to the pool. While Klaus was busy with his hair, generously soaping it with the product standing in a basket on the edge of the pool, Egor plunged into the water, thereby hiding his embarrassment. He plunged his head under, trying to bring himself to his senses a little and distract himself from the image that was still standing before his eyes.

"Do you need help?" a voice was heard behind him.

"No, no, I can handle it myself," the guy answered nervously and reached out his hands to the bottle of soap.

- This can be taken off already.

Egor felt the prince's fingers on his wrist and instinctively jerked, but he was held in place.

"Stop, don't jerk," Klaus slowly untied the bandage, and Egor glanced down. His new brand no longer looked like an ugly burn. The redness had almost disappeared, and the relief image had acquired a pinkish tint.

"Wow, how quickly everything healed," Egor was surprised.

"Ointments are mainly created by earth mages. They are excellent healers, and the bit of magic that they add to their potions increases the effectiveness many times over."

"You take good care of your slaves."

"This potion is not used for slaves," Klaus smiled sadly. "It was applied to you on my personal instructions."

"Thank you," Egor smiled sheepishly, and Klaus finally let go of his hand and returned to his water procedures.

Egor deliberately lingered in the bathhouse longer and looked anywhere but at Klaus when he came out of the water, dried himself with a towel and put on fresh clothes. The young man decided to get out of the life-saving pool only after the prince closed the door.

He was able to calm the elevated mood of his organ only after several attempts at self-satisfaction in the bathhouse, and then, for maximum effect, he poured a couple of jugs of cold water over himself. Having dressed and approached the bedroom door, Egor decided for himself that he would never take baths with the prince again.

The whole next day Klaus was busy with "useless things" - as the prince himself put it. Egor was always by his side. His clothes were almost no different from the usual soldier's uniform, except for the prince's coat of arms on his chest, outlined in three circles, which showed that Egor was a member of Klaus's personal army, but at the same time he was a slave, not a free mercenary.

In addition to Egor, the prince was accompanied by six more guards of his uncle. The fact that Klaus had arrived at his uncle's estate was learned the next day. Everyone who lived in the immediate vicinity of the fortress of Giro wanted to greet him.

From early morning the gates were open for those wishing to make sure that the prince had been found and was arriving in good health. A reception for middle- and low-born citizens was held in a street pavilion, where Klaus sat in a chair on a hill surrounded by his retinue, and the townspeople and representatives of the nearby villages bowed before him in turn, bringing gifts of furs, food and other things.

"It's hard to believe that you are in front of me now!" With a sincere, as it seemed to Egor, admiring look, the old man, accompanied by his entire family, addressed the prince. "We heard the sad news that you died and the crown prince will be a baby just born to the king."

"As you can see, these were just rumors. I was simply traveling in order to inspect my future possessions and understand all the injustice of the rule of my father, grandfather and even great-grandfather."

It was a bold statement against the king, even Egor understood that. The old man's eyes widened in horror.

"What, Your Highness, we are simple people from the middle class and cannot complain about our free life. Our king is the true ruler and his reign..."

"Enough," Klaus interrupted the old man. "My father is not here, and I am not interested in listening to flattering praise in his honor. You did not come so far for nothing, right? What did you want to ask of me?"

"I would not dare...," Klaus raised his hand and stopped the old man's speech, he bowed low.

"Besides you, I need to listen to many others. Let's not drag out your speech and get straight to the point."

The old man swallowed, glanced sideways at his eldest son, then at his elderly wife, who nodded uncertainly. He took a breath and spoke more confidently.

"Your Highness. The soldiers have increased their raids on my lands. My humble abode provides meat, wool, feathers and leather to both Sarin, a city near your uncle's estate, and the nearby villages. I also supply wool to Anatodom, but there are few slaves in my lands. I mainly hire lowborn, but the constant raids of soldiers reduce the number of my workers and also destroy the mercenary guards. In recent months, people have been afraid to work for me, and those who do risk it are not enough to cope with such a volume. Getting the necessary number of slaves is tantamount to the collapse of my business, because I do not earn enough from the sale of meat and wool."

"What do you want from me?"

"The thing is... the thing is that the soldiers who attack us wear border uniforms," the old man quickly glanced at his uncle's estate and Klaus understood what he wanted to say.

"My half-brother is serving at the border now," the prince nodded to himself. "I will talk to my uncle, and he will provide a sufficient army. I will also write a letter to Abel personally and order him to leave your lands alone."

The old man and his entire family fell to their knees and thanked Klaus for a long time, who, judging by the expression on his face, did not care at all.

"Next," shouted the soldier on the left hand of the prince, when the family rose from their knees, and Klaus made a sign with his hand.

The prince's audience with the middle class lasted for several hours. Each subsequent one was more confident in their requests, thanks, most likely, to the old man and his family, who told about the prince's nobility and his dislike of "useless chatter."

Basically, the requests were for protection, but if Klaus promised it to more or less large merchants, then it was more difficult with the common people. Egor understood that Klaus could not provide protection to everyone, especially since he did not have his own army at the moment. He offered protection only to those who were terrorized by the border troops in one way or another, knowing that his uncle would not be able to refuse him. Now the prince was even glad that Abel was sent to the border. This way he would be able to strengthen his position at least among the middle-class people.

When the reception was over, Egor could barely move his legs, which were numb from immobility.

"I'm so hungry," Klaus addressed him with a smile. Now his expression was relaxed again, the arrogance and indifference in his gaze had evaporated without a trace. "Let's have lunch in our bedroom, and then I'll have to leave you alone for a while."

"No!" Egor impulsively grabbed the prince by the sleeve, but thought better of it and let him go. - Can't I come with you?

They were in public now, and Egor understood that his status did not allow him to communicate so familiarly with the prince, or with any other highborn. Klaus didn't particularly care about this, but only in relation to Yegor. The prince communicated with the rest of the guards, the slaves, the middleborn, and even with his uncle in a distant, cold, and even arrogant manner.

"I need to talk to my uncle," Klaus grimaced, as if it gave him no more pleasure than eating a slug. "He wants to talk alone. I hope it won't drag on."

"Okay," Egor answered dejectedly, the prince smiled and ruffled his hair. The guards did not react to this in any way, but Egor noticed a crooked, fleeting grin on a couple of them. Everyone knew that the slave was in a special position with the prince. No one doubted that the prince was fucking him and Yegor saw it from the expressions on the faces of not only the soldiers, but also the rest of the inhabitants of the estate.

***

Klaus, accompanied by two guards, approached his uncle's office. He sighed heavily, ready to listen to the elder's moralizing and his dissatisfaction with how the prince had disposed of the army of the owner of the estate. Two even knocks on the door.

"Come in."

Klaus opened the door and entered the cozy room, light from the burning fireplace and candles.

"Uncle," Klaus greeted, only slightly bowing his head in a gesture of respect for his older relative.

"Dear nephew, please sit down."

The prince sat down in a comfortable chair on the other side of the table and looked expectantly at Jiro. The young man did not want to start the conversation first, otherwise it would look like justification for rash promises to the people.

"You had quite a lot of visitors today, Klaus," Jiro started the conversation.

"Yes, it has tired me out quite a bit," the prince sighed.

"I was very surprised by your reception, namely your harsh statements against the king."

"I was expressing my dissatisfaction with my father's somewhat permissive attitude towards the country. I will have to inherit it. And that's all," Klaus answered calmly.

"Many may take your criticism... father as a call to rebellion."

"That's not my problem anymore. I did not express a desire to go against him."

"I think when the king learns of your discontent, he may perceive it as a rebellion. What will you do then?"

Klaus was counting on a different conversation. He frowned and looked Jiro straight in the eyes.

"Uncle, what are you getting at? No need to beat around the bush. You know I don't like that."

"Well, let's talk frankly then. Your father, that is, the king of Isorobia, clearly has no intention of making you his heir."

"Why such absurd thoughts? I am already his heir."

"Yes, as long as you are alive, you are the heir, but if something happens to you..."

"Then everything will go to the newborn, what's his name? And anyway, when did your father manage to get married?"

"That's not what should worry you, but the fact that Ichiro is seriously determined to get rid of you. He practically told me so directly during our last meeting, and, therefore, if you leave my estate unharmed, I will automatically become an enemy of the king."

"Is that a threat?"

"No, absolutely not," the king's brother spread his hands, "This is an offer."

Klaus watched his uncle in silence. He understood that he had to be careful with this man. Whatever this old fox proposed, there was a high risk that the idea would not end well for the prince himself. Jiro waited. He realized that he was taking a risk by proposing something like this to the crown prince, but Klaus's behavior today convinced the old man that the game was worth the candle.

"What are you proposing?" the prince finally broke the silence.

"We both agree that your father is a little... cruel in his rule. The highborn are forced to hide outstanding slaves, and it is precisely them that the king is currently inclined to. He selects the best of the best, regardless of whether the mages belong to someone or are still free. More than one family has disappeared from the face of the earth in the last few years. The reason for this is the refusal to present the king with a mage he liked as a gift."

"It can't be! I've never heard of anything like that. If an entire high-born family had disappeared, it wouldn't have gone unnoticed!"

"Of course, you're right, but what would you say about a family that suddenly lost its status? Say, all the treasures burned in a fire? Or the entire estate caught some illness that brought everyone down? Or it was suddenly discovered that members of a high-born family were involved in a conspiracy against the king, and the evidence was magically found in the head of the family's office and read out for everyone to hear before the execution?"

With each new word, the prince's face darkened. He remembered every incident. No one suspected that something was fishy. Either someone thought out the liquidation of the families very carefully, or the uncle simply decided to exaggerate.

"It could be a simple coincidence, how do I know that everything is exactly as you say? And what business is it of yours if a couple of high-born people disappear?"

"My, let's say, well-wisher, got hold of some of the income books of the dead families, where each slave and their achievements are recorded. I also conducted my own investigation and discovered that several interesting specimens from their number are now at court, under the personal control of the king. What is that to me? You know, I also have several outstanding slaves that I don't want to part with, and I am also frightened by the thought that the king will single-handedly own the most powerful magicians. What do you think will happen then?"

"They will fear him even more." the uncle nodded in agreement with his nephew's statement and waited for him to continue, "He will no longer depend on the opinion of the highborn and will be able to do whatever he wants without their support," it dawned on Klaus.

"Exactly. You will also be caught in the crossfire. Even if you manage to escape death, then, having the strongest mages by his side, he can simply announce that another will become the heir or give the order to kill you by any means necessary, and then the whole country will start hunting you."

"Let's say I agree to enter into an alliance with you. What next? How do you plan to stop the king?"

"We will persuade the nobles to your side. You have a better chance of winning their trust, as the true heir. We will gather an army and march against Ichiro."

"And then what?"

"We will restore the usual order," Jiro shrugged, "you will ascend the throne, and everyone will be happy."

"Is that all? Haven't you heard what the middle-born say? And the low-born? They're like cattle."

"Yes, Jiro grimaced with displeasure, "and as far as I remember, you distributed a good part of my army to protect them."

"This is a temporary measure, besides, your son started all this mess. What will happen to the houses of the high-born when there won't be enough provisions, furs, expensive feather beds and everything else?"

"Okay, I agree, this can also be used to gain the trust of the high-born."

"But, Uncle, I didn't do it for them. I didn't like what I heard. I didn't like what I saw with my own eyes."

"They've lived like this for centuries and got used to it. The king's plans didn't touch them in any way, which can't be said about the high-born. Klaus, my boy, I just want to return everything to the usual way of life, and I can't do it without your help." Jiro put his hand on his nephew's shoulder and squeezed it a little.

"I need to think about all this," Klaus said, looking at the clasped fingers on his shoulder - and now I want to rest, please excuse me.

The prince slowly rose from his seat. Almost at the door, Jiro called out to him:

"Klaus, tomorrow a reception is planned in your honor, at which several high-born neighbors will be present. One of our mutual acquaintances will also be there, and I want you to listen to him before making a decision."

Klaus did not answer, left the office and quietly closed the door behind him.

"How nice it was in Pouoka's apartment," he said with a sigh and went to his chambers, accompanied by two soldiers who had been waiting for the prince at the door of the owner's office all this time.