Absent Fragments /Anachronism

‎ /‎ ‎ /20XX

Ushiromiya Umbral Castle, Upper Chambers

It was my responsibility to visit the younger prince today. It's been exactly one week since he fell asleep. Though the Grauerprinz's sudden abdication has left the Ushiromiya family as debilitated financially as the castle itself is dilapidated physically, a stark few servants remain willing to devote their minds and bodies to the family, more akin to gravetenders than stewards and menials. I find myself among the number of individuals whom pledge their service to the Ushiromiya family, despite the ever subsiding wages. I suppose there truly are a sparse few impetuses that would rouse one to action aside from the endless passage of coin.

The young prince...

In all truth, I ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎  the man.

When I arrived to his room, I experienced quite the shock at what I witnessed. I suppose a dense skull comes in handy in regards to more than just a physical scuffle after all. Despite the medical staff's lack of certainty regarding the instability surrounding the young prince's condition, it was clear that his naturally high constitution rendered him resistant to whatever affectation suddenly afflicted him.

Upon noticing me, he greeted me with a wide grin, accompanied by that same, boisterous voice of his. He stated that he was glad to see me again after centuries had past, so it was clear that he was aware of the fact that he had been rendered unconscious for at least some amount of time, though the scale was far from accurate. After explaining that it had only been a single week, as well as bearing with his boasting relating to his apparent indifference to the passage of time, he informed me that he suffered no other negative effects relating to his condition, as if the time had "simply disappeared," rather than been lost in a dream-like state whilst unconscious.

Afterward, he explained to me that since waking up, rather than leaving his room in order to discuss the situation with anyone left in the castle, he had been engaging in what he referred to as "routine mental exercises," in order to gauge the current effectiveness of his mental faculties. Granted, when one's older brother takes the lion's share of intelligence from the gene pool, it follows to reason that the mental function of the younger brother would be rather... Unhindered, by going unused for seven days. However, I successfully resisted the unreasonably powerful urge to relay this thought to him, and instead took him up on his offer to join him in one of these "mental exercises."

The young prince had invited me to join him in solving a simple, 550 piece puzzle. As critical of the man as I may be, I could never deny that which is the simple pleasure of spending time with the young prince. He truly is an amicable sort, if only he'd learn to step out of the Grauerprinz's shadow from time to time. Life isn't solely a competition of wits, but when you decide to make it one, the Grauerprinz is quite the rival to chase after. 

However... The surprises that assailed me this day did not end with the young prince's awakening. Upon sitting down with him, I noticed the table was covered in hundreds of plain, white cardboard pieces. Initially, I had assumed that this was the final act of some ridiculous scheme to exact some sort of prank-based retribution upon me for being the last of the young prince's retainers to visit him, and as such, I stood up and began to take my leave. However, I was quickly met with resistance from the young prince, as he earnestly begged me to stay and assist him in solving the puzzle.

With a sigh that obfuscated the true nature of my enjoyment of this time together, we began the rather one-sided activity of solving the puzzle together... As together as such a task could be when paired with a chronic daydreamer such as him.

Several hours later, far longer than I would have preferred to spend on a simple puzzle, we had begun to near the half-way mark when the young prince sprung a question upon me. He narrated the seemingly endless train of thought that ran within his mind as he explained his idea that puzzle pieces had intrinsic value based on their shapes... Or something to that effect. In all honesty, I started to unconsciously tune him out as I focused more intently on the puzzle at hand. I admit, there is something rather fascinating about a puzzle with no details... Especially once I took his words into account and focused primarily on the edges of where the pieces connected, I started to make rather impressive headway in completing the puzzle. Upon noticing our lopsided progression, the young prince attempted to jam one of the outer pieces into the upper edge of the puzzle, even though it clearly did not fit. ...Perhaps his mental faculties truly did suffer some harm as he slept?

Eventually, we completed the puzzle, and a wave of relief flooded my sore body. Though, the feeling was quickly replaced by that which I can only describe as befuddlement. Before my eyes laid a plain, grey rectangle. It seemed to me to be an obtuse puzzle designed to challenge your brain in ways that actually made it a rather effective mental exercise, but the young prince thought otherwise. He began to bask in the radiant beauty of what was apparently a circular map of the entire world, a two dimensional globe.

It must have been rather obvious that I was left dumbfounded by his explanation, as even the young prince himself took notice of my reaction, before quickly changing the conversation to another thought he had. His enthusiasm towards the smallest of things is both his greatest boon and most tiring quirk indeed.

He began quoting some novel that he read recently regarding the concept of infinity relating to angles and circles, but in all honesty, geometry talk had always flown over my head. The young prince was no different from me in this regard, but through an act of sheer dedication composed of countless hours of late-night studying in the castle's library, he seems to have developed a genuine understanding of the topic. Hah... He does share the same blood as the Grauerprinz, so I suppose I shouldn't be so surprised at his ability to process information.

Before I knew it, the sun had discarded its refulgent, golden crown, and donned the pale, glistening mask of the waning moon. I bid farewell to the young prince and congratulated him on his recovery, and returned to my own chambers to get some rest after a long day.