Chapter 28: Beastfolk-Hating Third Prince

Translator: AdCaelum

Editor: meli

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Thanks Bell for the ko-fi!

As I mentioned in the Discord server (If you haven’t joined, please do! Link at the bottom. You can get the most up-to-date updates on everything or talk to us about any of the series we work on), I discovered that someone has sniped this series just today. And they’re an AI translator who hasn’t reached out to me to ask if I dropped the series. Only assumed because there was a month since the last update. I won’t drop the series. Trust me. I will see this story to the end unless something drastic happens.

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“I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to our nation’s loving citizens for celebrating my birth each year like this. I, Asher, third prince of the Kingdom of Dias, have become an adult.”

Asher began his usual greeting of appreciation at these birthday festivals with a smile, but the audience was utterly silent. He was terribly embarrassed, but he kept it from showing on his face.

He hadn’t said anything different from the previous festivals, except for mentioning his adulthood, yet the audience gave no reaction. At the very least, he expected clapping or excited whispering surrounding the rare appearance of royalty. However, the crowd in front of him simply stared at him. Had he misspoken somewhere? But because he didn’t know where, he grew nervous and flustered.

In reality, the audience was merely frozen and staring at Asher. A majority of the people present were normal humans, but the beastfolk mixed in were all especially dumbfounded. When one of the beastfolk among the crowd accidentally made eye contact with Asher, their tail jolted straight up. Anyone would immediately be charmed and freeze up upon seeing Asher’s smile, since no one had ever seen such a warm smile on his face before.

Up until now, “Asher” had never smiled as “he” flatly sped through the motions every year. The crowd would cheer, but their emotions were as shallow as “Asher”’s voice was cold. There might have been some who genuinely admired Asher’s beauty when they applauded, but they were by far the minority.

“Now that I’ve become an adult… I will do everything in my power to support our nation… Thank you very much. I hope that today is a good day, both for me and for all of you.”

Although still perplexed, Asher maintained his smile as he thanked the audience and ended his speech. He debated if he should have said those last words, but decided for it in the end. They were his true feelings. Whether it was because he had so few memories of celebrating his birthday in his precious life or because he had never celebrated with people who weren’t his family, he felt both embarrassed and happy.

Although his real birthday was yesterday… Anyways, if they were going to throw such a large festival to celebrate his birthday, he hoped that everyone could enjoy it.

He finished with a bow before looking back at the audience. This was normally the time for applause, but the whole area was silent. The smile on Asher’s face was gradually beginning to darken when—

Loud cheers broke out.

“Prince Asherrrr!!!”

“Congratulations, Prince Asher!”

“Your Highnesssss!”

The fervor felt now couldn’t be compared to the cheers from the previous years. Asher gave an embarrassed wave in response, which only made the cheers louder.

“Thank you very much for those wonderful words, Prince Asher. The children shall now present Your Highness with flowers to celebrate your adulthood,” the town’s representative announced as children younger than Noah lined up with a flower in each of their hands. As it was tradition in Dias to receive flowers upon reaching adulthood, the citizens had their children gift flowers to the royal family. 

The children were restless and nervous as they looked up at Asher, but when Asher smiled at them, they smiled back. However, there was something in this heartwarming scene that chilled the blood of the onlookers.

“There’s beastfolk among them… Is that gonna be okay?”

A beastfolk in the crowd muttered when they noticed the beastfolk children in the line. Others began to take notice as well and unease appeared on their faces.

Prince Asher despises beastfolk.

Everyone in Dias had heard the rumors; they knew how much Asher hated beastfolk. No one could remember when the rumors all started, but when the beastfolk soldiers spoke about Asher around town, they gave the rumors credibility and substance by virtue of the soldiers’ workplace at the castle. And those who experienced and witnessed the discrimination weren’t limited to only beastfolk, as human soldiers added their stories as well. Since royalty only made public appearances around the town for these kinds of festivals, the townsfolk actually didn’t know what kind of person Asher was. Hence why rumors about the royal family from those working in the castle would spread quickly. And the nastier the rumor, the more rampant it was.

The children gifted the flowers one by one, and the crowd watched in suspense as Asher thanked each child and shook their hands. When it came time for a mouse beastfolk child, smaller than the rest, to approach Asher, the crowd watched with bated breath for Asher’s reaction as the child timidly held out the flower.

“Wow! What a big flower~.” Asher tenderly accepted the flower from the child, politely shook hands, and smiled. “You have such tiny hands but you’ve given me this huge flower! Amazing! Thank you.”

The mouse beastfolk’s eyes sparkled at Asher’s broad smile, and the child also broke into a beaming smile. Asher treated the following beastfolk children the same, kindly thanking them without a single sign of disgust and happily shaking their hands. The people who were initially nervous about the exchange soon smiled at the heartwarming scene and sincerely applauded.

“Hey, who was it who said that Prince Asher hated beastfolk?”

“Was Prince Asher always this gentle…?”

“Well… I guess a prince can’t act too shameless when out in public.”

“He really is an angel…”

“No, what if it’s all an act? From what I heard—”

After accepting the last flower from the children, Asher bowed to the audience and slowly left the stage. Now the birthday festival could officially begin. Small fireworks exploded in the air, and people clapped to the music, cheered, and smiled.

“Asher, th-that was wonderful.”

The first to greet Asher as soon as he left the stage was Noah. He ran over to Asher with a smile and twinkling golden eyes.

“Thanks, Noah.”

“Prince Asher, if you’d like, I can carry those flowers for you.”

Asher turned to the voice and saw a smiling Ward holding out his hand.

“…”

“Oh? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Well… before, you walked right by me, so I thought…”

“Haha, so, about that~ there was someone eying you from the dark.”

“Huh? What?”

“It was nothing. I came here today as Prince Hugo’s guard, so please forgive my previous behavior.”

Right as Ward said that, Hugo walked up to Asher. With a scowl, he asked, “Hey, what are you gonna do after this?”

“After this…?”

All the previous years, “Asher” had come with Angela and ate at the restaurants she had chosen and prepared. But this year, Asher was by himself. Angela had insisted on being present again, even though Asher was finally an adult, but Asher had managed to convince her otherwise. But he had been too focused on convincing her that he hadn’t really thought past that.

“I would always go out to eat with Mother… then we would go back…”

“Um, Asher, when it’s our birthdays, Hugo and I always walk around the festival together—”

“Noah!” Hugo shouted Noah’s name, cutting him off. Noah jumped and shut his mouth. He timidly looked at Hugo, but Hugo plastered a smile on his face. “Let’s see… How about we grab a meal together before going back? But this guy won’t enjoy the castletown like we do… so let’s skip out on walking around.”

“Together… You mean Asher is going to eat with us? Do you really mean it, Hugo?!”

“Yeah.” Hugo turned to Asher. “You’re fine with that, right?”

Although shocked by Hugo’s unexpected invitation, Asher nodded. Noah happily clung to Hugo, and Hugo hugged Noah back with a smile.

“I pick the place, got it?” He told Asher.

“O-of course… I have always gone with Mother… so I am unfamiliar with the stores around here.”

“What’s with that weird tone in your voice…?”

“Tone?”

For a second, a furrow formed between Hugo’s brows, but he quickly turned away, confusing Asher. Asher was about to repeat his question when Ward whispered this into his ear.

“I suggest accepting his offer and keeping quiet. Prince Hugo has a short temper.”

After giving his warning, Ward followed after Hugo who had walked ahead to catch up to the excited Noah.

In all of his memories, Asher had only ever seen Hugo angry. Or rather, he could not recall a single instance when Hugo invited him to do anything. Moreover…

Would Hugo, whose relationship with Asher was like cats and dogs, want to actually eat together with him?

He reflected on this, but he realized he was getting left behind, so he ran ahead to catch up to the rest of them.

“Please wait, Your Highness.” He turned around to see Theodore closer than he thought. For a moment, Asher’s body stiffened. “The flowers the children gave you would get in the way.”

Theodore gently took the flowers from Asher’s hand and told a nearby soldier to pack them into the carriage.

“Hey, what are you doing?!” Hugo’s voice echoed. 

Asher’s stiff body reacted and he hurried off. Theodore followed right behind a few steps later.

Asher’s heart beat quickly in his chest. The mere touch of their fingers when the flowers passed from his hand to Theodore’s felt hot. Then that heat traveled from his hand and surrounded his whole body. He couldn’t understand why this was happening. He only knew that the core of his chest felt hot. This was simply a response from that touch! It had to be… Anyone would react like this if the same thing happened to them!

He was scared of Theodore.

All of his nerves focused on the faint presence of Theodore behind him. He tried to convince himself that he was just overreacting from what happened last night.

Yet, the violent beating of his heart showed no signs of stopping even now.

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Hey, did you know that our editor has written a story on Tapas and that Tapas is currently hosting an award show? You can vote here: https://www.creators.tapas.io/the-inkies, no account needed.

The story is called “Beast Bride” and can I gush that it’s absolutely amazing? I feel like if you like Hated Prince, you’ll love this one. Once I got started, I couldn’t put it down and I was at the edge of my seat waiting for the newest chapter. Meli can’t accept compliments, but if she wins, she’ll have no choice but to accept that she wrote an amazing story. So help me reach that goal!

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