The Overbearing Father and Son

"Whew..."

I picked up the thing that had dropped weakly to the floor with a clatter, and I sighed. No matter how many times I tried, I couldn't do it the way he could. However much I practiced, I was a long way from the movement I pictured.

The way he did it, powerful and yet beautiful, refined.

Remembering his movements that day, I clenched my fist in frustration. Right now she was under a sky far, far away. If only I could handle this thing she had left behind better than anyone, I felt I might get to see her sooner. I wanted to see her soon. Never before had I cursed my own position, unable to leave the royal capital so easily, as much as I did now.

Feelings that don't reach, is that it.

Letting my frustration show, I dropped my eyes to my fist.

"Are you giving up?"

The deserted training ground in the early morning. It was not wartime, so I had thought I was about the only one who used it. But at the voice that came out of nowhere, my head snapped up. Spring was still a little way off, and in the chilly training ground, he alone seemed to radiate heat.

"Get hotter-blooded, hottttterrr! Push! You can do it! You can definitely do it! Give it your all! Here we go now! Hup! Hup!"

"Wha, wait, hold on..."

"Not yet! You've still got it in you! Get fired up! Push!"

"No, um... please wait! Knight Commander Reineed!"

Bearing down on me all at once with the force of a crashing wave, Knight Commander Reineed took the hula hoop in his hands, held it at my waist, and spun it with tremendous force. But because I, the one who mattered here, couldn't catch the rhythm of the spin, the hoop fell with a great clatter and rattle.

"One more time, agaaain! Give it your alllll!"

"Y-yes, sir!"

For about three hours after that, I kept desperately spinning the hula hoop in time with Knight Commander Reineed's shouts.

"Haah, haah, haah..."

"Your Highness the Crown Prince! Well done! It really is the spirit that carries you through anything, isn't it! Where there's a will, there's a way! Where there's a will, there's a way!"

As I lay collapsed and drenched in sweat, Knight Commander Reineed laughed cheerfully, flashing his white teeth in a needlessly refreshing smile.

I had only meant to steep in a little sentiment, so how had it come to this? Thanks to him, I felt I had picked up hula hoop skills to rival Georg's, but my hips ached far too much and my knees were wobbling like mad.

Paying me no mind, Knight Commander Reineed narrowed his eyes fondly, as if remembering something.

"It takes me back to when I taught you swordsmanship, Your Highness. Back then you swung the sword so desperately with your small young hands..."

Something glittered in Knight Commander Reineed's eyes. He talked about it as if it were a fond memory, but that training had been pure hell. If it had only been strict, I wouldn't have minded. As the crown prince of a nation, I have my own resolve and pride. What made it hell was that all through the plain, basic drills, Knight Commander Reineed kept shouting in my ear, overbearing the whole time.

In a voice loud enough to burst my eardrums, the Knight Commander would shout beside me as I did sit-ups and push-ups, "Push! Where there's a will, there's a way! Push! Push!" ...It was truly stifling. I even dreamed about it.

And just as unbearable was Georg, a mini Knight Commander. As he trained, the fellow would keep shouting, "You can do it! You can do it! Get serious! Get serious!"

They really are a stifling pair, father and son, two of a kind. ...For a while there, I didn't even want to see their faces.

As I sank into my thoughts, a hand was held out to me.

"...Georg."

When I gripped it back, I was pulled up. Georg grinned and showed off the same white teeth as the Knight Commander.

"Well done, Your Highness. So this is where you were. I was looking for you, to tell you I'm setting off."

"...Setting off?"

At Georg's unusually polite tone, I had a bad feeling, and I tilted my head, wary.

"I'm off to Lumelica! It's no fun without her around, after all! Ha ha! Well then!"

"Yoooou! No fair! When I can't go!"

"Ha ha ha! Because I, well... I'm on winter break!"

Leaving his laughter behind, Georg went and ran off like the wind. Just you wait, that fellow.

Once Georg is back in the country, I'll appoint him officially as my personal attendant. It's a little sooner than planned, but he was going to end up there sooner or later, so it makes no difference. ...I won't let him steal a march on me ever again.