Chương 364: Do You Dream?

They headed out of the library, which was fortunate for Rhys, since the librarians were starting to spread out and look for someone (definitely not him). He nodded at the prince.

"Aside from plants, do you have any dreams? Goals?"

"Where's this coming from?" the prince asked, looking at him from the corner of his eye. It's coming from I don't know how else to figure out if you're throwing away your potential but to ask you outright. He felt like a first-time tabletop roleplay player who didn't know how to actually roleplay, so they had to just run up to the bartender and shout "Where's the bad guy?" But earnestly, how did he steer the conversation from plants to potential without just jumping for it?

It was a bit of a leap, sure, but this whole conversation had been a bit of a leap. He'd accidentally nailed some kind of keyword from orbit, and he had no idea how to continue that conversation without giving up the ghost. Better that they just move on from that and forget all about it, and hop to a new conversation where he knew what was going on instead. The prince stared at him for another moment, then scoffed and turned away.

"Dreams? Goals? I gave up on that kind of thing long ago. Now, I only live for the plants." I mean, totally acceptable… if it's his path. If it's not, though, that's when he's throwing it away.

"So you found your path?" Rhys probed. A dry laugh.

"As if I had something like that." Air horns went off in Rhys's head, and he pumped his fist in his heart. Hell yeah! We did it! Poggies! This guy is totally eligible for serial killing! … Should I be celebrating that? He felt like maybe this was a bad path for him. Like maybe he was straying back toward his villain arc. No, it's fine. Serial killers and villains are separate entities. This is a whole new arc.

But maybe still an evil-aligned one, so, you know, I should probably work harder to find good-aligned personal arcs in the future. Take note, Rhys.

"Are you sure? Everyone has a path," Rhys said evenly.

"You know who I am," the prince replied. Rhys nodded, acknowledging that.

"I'm a pawn. A foot soldier in a battle playing out between the heads of our houses, while we children flail meaninglessly. Even if I fought with all my might, I couldn't escape the fate that's waiting for me. So why exert meaningless effort and suffer my whole life when I can do as I please and enjoy life instead?"

"A very reasonable decision," Rhys agreed. And a very reasonable decision that lets me devour all your potential! If I wasn't sure before, I'm sure now. This man fits all my requirements. Now I've just got to get him alone… which should be easy. I mean, greenhouses aren't the most exciting places. It should be super easy to have that whole space to ourselves.

Worst case, he could always change shapes and come back here as Rina (or whoever the prince found attractive, he didn't judge his future serial killing victims). He still felt a little morally bad about killing this guy, but, well, he was an impediment to Ryota, not that he was planning to engage in the battle of ascension.

But even if he wasn't planning to take part in the battle for king, that didn't mean this guy wouldn't change his mind and decide to commit a little brotherly killing instead, which meant he was still a threat, which meant he was justified in killing him. It was the exact kind of garbage logic that the other princes applied to Ryota to justify attacking him, which made him somewhat uncomfortable.

It was bad logic and he knew it, and he was pretty sure he was being some level of hypocrite right now, but it was all he had to go on. He could always abandon having any sort of moral high ground and embrace being a serial killer, but that felt like a slippery slope. He was already willing to do a lot of things that other people hesitated to do. He didn't need to go further down that route. Better to cling to the scraps of moral high ground, however shaky, than totally abandon it all and go full sicko mode.

He still had his sanity, for one. He wasn't sure how long he'd continue grasping that if he went down that dark, tempting route. Maybe I can go join the dark sect, or whatever they were called. I mean, there is a place for crazy mages with no moral compass around here, right? So… maybe it's fine? On the other hand, they apparently slaughter people left, right, and center and trod all over mortals, which I'm not cool with, so on second thought, nah, it's not fine.

I gotta grip to what little morals I have left so I don't end up as one of those guys. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. But luckily he had just enough moral justification to kill this guy, so, feeling a little uncertain on the inside, Rhys followed the prince back to his mansion.

Most mansions were gorgeous buildings with almost no grounds or garden, right up against the edge of the street, maximizing their tiny city lot with house like a bunch of McMansions huddled up on top of each other in a poorly planned suburban neighborhood. One manor, however, stood out from the rest. It was stately and large, but not enormous. Instead of being right up against the edge, it sat back from the road, and its front yard was full of mysterious yet beautiful plants packed on top of each other.

It wasn't a curated garden, and it was something of an eyesore, but there was something about the clutter and maximalism that nonetheless spoke to Rhys.

"I'm guessing you don't have an HOA," he quipped. The prince glanced at him.

"A… what?"

"A bloodsucking organization that serves no purpose except to create petty drama and piss off everyone in the neighborhood by giving the most anal-retentive, petty, pretentious neighbors the right to go around and measure your grass with a measuring stick, then fine you when it's a millimeter too long. You might ask, what benefit does this organization offer?

Why do so many people create these organizations for the sole purpose of suffering under them and getting their hard-earned wages sucked out by these vampiric mosquito-esque pieces of shit, who can then do whatever the fuck they want with the money, but usually put it toward enforcing new fines? The answer is, there's no benefit. It's all just bullshit." The prince paused. He looked Rhys up and down.

"Where are you from, that you suffer under the ministrations of such dark sects?"

"A neighboring region. I'm just here to see the sights. By which I mean, peruse the finest the local horticulture experts have to offer." The prince shook his head.

"I grew up with my own troubles, but I think I'd rather be here than in such a horrific situation."

"No kidding. I never got your name, by the way…?"

"Tooru Vineers, Tenth Prince. Friends call me Tooru, Mr…?" Rhys paused for just a moment. This guy was going to die very soon, so did it matter if he gave his real name? On the other hand, why give his real name to a man who was going to die soon?

"R…ice."

"Rice?"

"Like the food, yes. It's less common where I'm from. The food, that is. It's a very common name." A total lie, but hey. He was about to kill the guy. There were worse sins than lying, and he planned to do one of them in a minute. Tooru nodded.

"A fine name. I wish my name evoked plants, especially a fine, working grain that provides the means to feed the population. What a noble monicker, truly." Rhys blinked. What? Aloud, he replied with a smile,"Why, thank you."

"You didn't mention a surname."

"That's because I don't have one. I was a foundling. You can treat that as my surname, if you'd like, but I prefer going on a first-name basis." Tooru paused. He looked Rhys up and down, then raised his eyebrows in appreciation.

"You've come a long way, foundling."

"I try. But that's enough about my past. I have no interest in such a boring topic when such gorgeous plants stand right there before me." At that, Tooru beamed.

"Right, right, how could you! Right this way…" What followed was a fascinating tour through all of Tooru's plants. It was engaging at first—Rhys enjoyed gaining a great deal of useless knowledge, after all, and the minutiae of how to care for exotic plants he'd never own or have a chance to own clearly qualified—but four hours in, the tour was beginning to drag a bit.

Tooru had an encyclopedic knowledge of plants, so much that Rhys almost reassessed his understanding of the man as trash, and he clearly had no one to talk to about them. Rhys arriving and showing the bare modicum of interest gave him the outlet he needed, but as someone who wasn't actually all that interested in plants, it wasn't the greatest entertainment. Tooru was the kind of person who would've greatly benefitted from the internet, where he could actually find someone else interested in exotic plants.

But this was the wrong era, which meant that he had to make do with the scraps that fell his direction, which right now, meant Rhys. Rhys, the unfortunate idiot who'd made every mistake to put himself in the path of this verbal deluge, mouth open, please daddy style, had no choice but to smile, nod, and try not to fall asleep on his feet. Let it end. Let it end! At last, Tooru took a deep breath and paused. Rhys, too, took a deep breath, feeling spiritually like a drowning man finally let up for air. Is it over?

Please let it be over.

"But these ordinary, trifling plants aren't what you came here to see," Tooru said, ignoring the fact that he'd just spent hours going on and on about these 'ordinary trifles.'

"Of course not," said Rhys, a man who had no idea what he'd come here to see.

"No, of course not. Right this way. The choicest selections are in the secret greenhouse inside the manor." Tooru gestured, leading him into the manor. This whole time, they'd stayed in the gardens, circling the house on a path that Tooru had trodden into the undergrowth. The entire gardens was thick with exotic plants, and although Rhys had started to take a nap on his feet at the grand tour, he couldn't deny that Tooru did legitimately had hours worth of plants on the outside of his house.

It wasn't a shock to find out he had more on the inside, but he couldn't help but wonder how many more plants Tooru had. Only way out is through. Besides, they were finally going inside. He was finally getting Tooru on his own. And wasn't that the whole point of this? So he followed Tooru in, glancing behind him just once, but his senses confirmed it: Ryota was nowhere to be seen. He was under the radar, which meant he had a license to kill without any double-ohs to be seen. Let's get 'er done.