"Your Highness Inox, please, renounce your inheritance yourself."
"Your Highness Inox, you... you are shameless! How could you do that to Lady Iris?"
"Your Highness Inox, you do not deserve to be the Crown Prince."
Inox, a twenty-year-old man and the firstborn son of the King of Belzerg, was kneeling on one knee in the middle of the throne room. Many nobles of the kingdom looked at him with disgust, and some didn't hesitate to criticize him.
The King of Belzerg, Stylish Sword Jiris, had a hand to his forehead as he looked down, shaking his head from time to time while letting out sighs of disappointment.
However, despite the various nobles criticizing him, Inox stood up after kneeling before his father. He looked at everyone present and couldn't help but crack a smile.
"Gentlemen, since you dare to look down on me, can you at least tell me, what was my sin?"
There was a brief moment of silence. All the nobles present widened their eyes and dropped their jaws. They couldn't believe the Crown Prince's absolute shamelessness; they blinked a few times, and some even pinched themselves to confirm they weren't dreaming.
"Shameless!!!"
One man among them didn't hesitate to step forward—though calling him a man would be a stretch. He was actually a teenager, a prominent knight in the city of Belzerg who had earned the esteem of the majority through hard work.
The teenager, Dragon Knight Rein Shaker, one of the most talented spearman who had even received King Jiris's blessing, approached Inox with hurried and heavy steps.
Rein stopped three meters away from Inox, turned around, and, still in his gleaming plate armor and holding a spear in his right hand, bowed to the king.
"Your Majesty, I ask that you please allow me to personally banish the Crown Prince." With his left hand on his chest and his right hand trembling from his grip on the spear, his voice resonated with a distinct emotion.
The nobles who, until a moment ago, didn't hesitate to criticize Inox fell silent. Some of them couldn't help but smile at Rein's action. However, one in particular, who was plump and had a sour face, licked his lips with sheer malice.
After a moment of silence, King Jiris finally let out a heavy sigh, looked up at the ceiling, and clicked his tongue while shaking his head from side to side. Then, he looked at his firstborn son before standing up.
"Ahem..." he cleared his throat. His face showed signs of sleepless nights, and his body looked weaker than usual. "Inox Stylish Sword Belzerg," he pronounced his son's name slowly.
"For the crime of deserting a battle in the north against the demons, harassing the maids of the royal castle, calling yourself a Divine Farmer, fleeing from your administrative duties, and harassing your younger sister, Princess Iris Stylish Sword Belzerg..." Jiris began to list his son's multiple failures. The more he spoke, the redder his face became, and the more he remembered how this son had brought him nothing but headaches, the more furious he grew.
The crimes of harassing the maids were something most turned a blind eye to; however, King Jiris, who had carefully guarded his reputation, could not stomach a son who called himself a Divine Farmer. His nights became a torment remembering how his son had fled a battle against the demons in the north.
But above all, he remembered how Iris had arrived at his royal hall one afternoon with teary eyes, claiming Inox had harassed her.
Finishing the list of the Crown Prince's failures, Jiris stomped his foot hard on the floor and glared at his son with piercing eyes. "I, the current King of Belzerg, disinherit you. Your presence is no longer permitted in the royal capital. You have one hour to disappear!!!" Jiris shouted.
Despite all this, his voice broke at the end. His threatening eyes were glistening, and his body couldn't stop trembling. Only he knew how much he had done for Inox, so that he would become the next king—an honorable king.
Jiris shook his head, touched his forehead, and, feeling a sudden wave of dizziness, slumped back onto the royal throne.
"And I banish you too, Rein Shaker!!! What kind of Dragon Knight raises his weapon against the royal family?!!" the king spat with rage.
Inox narrowed his eyes, stood firm, and fixed his gaze on his father. "Harassing my little sister? Absurd!! I would never do that!!" He patted his chest as if it were a drum to emphasize his statement.
Before the various nobles could refute him, Inox raised his voice. "I am a Divine Farmer!! I just..." However, before he could continue his words, a royal court mage cast a silence spell on him.
The middle-aged, tired-looking mage bowed to the king apologetically, but Jiris simply waved a hand to show it didn't matter.
"Shameless!!!"
"The nerve!!!"
"How is it possible for the king to have a son like you?!!"
Once again, several nobles began to criticize Inox; however, this time their tones were no longer cordial.
Rein seemed deaf to the nobles' voices. He stopped moving and looked like a finely crafted statue. No one could see his expression because his head was bowed, looking at the floor, but his grip on his spear had loosened considerably.
Clack
With a sharp sound, the spear fell from Rein's hands. Right at that moment, several royal knights and mages arrived, using their strength to subdue a Rein who seemed like a lifeless doll, not saying a single word, and an Inox who wouldn't stop trying to break free.
They tied the two of them, man and teenager, with ropes like sheep about to be slaughtered, and dragged them away.
...
"Hey, Pep, aren't you squeezing him too tight?" On the way out, two knights in golden armor carried Inox and Rein over their shoulders. One of them, nicknamed Puppy, spoke up curiously.
Pep, the other knight, smiled macabrely. "Remember Maria?" Puppy nodded at his friend's words. "His Highness—oh, well, His Non-Highness—Inox dared to harass her..."
Pep's eyes narrowed as he gripped Inox far too tightly over his shoulder. For his part, Puppy simply let out a heavy sigh before opening his mouth. "Hey, Rein, what foolishness!! Why did you do that?"
Receiving no response from the man on his shoulders, Puppy didn't press the issue. After all, he highly respected Rein Shaker, a Dragon Knight with a status much higher than his own.
Once the two knights reached the outskirts of the royal capital, they tossed the two men to the ground. Pep wiped his hands as if he had just taken out the trash, and Puppy apologized with a bow in Rein's direction.
Inox, who had been silenced by the spell, could finally speak, and the first thing he did was let out a cry of pain, clutching his own stomach as he rolled around in the green grass.
"Shit..." he groaned, rolling on the ground for a few moments before stopping just as his body hit a tree. "That son of a bitch!!!" He patted his ribs, feeling that if Pep had squeezed any harder, they would have snapped.
However, despite everything that had recently happened, Inox let out a faint smile. "Good, good, good, finally..." he sighed wearily. "I've finally been banished. That took longer than I wanted."
Inox leaned shakily against the tree, and suddenly a holographic screen appeared in front of him. On the screen was his status:
Name: Inox Stylish Sword Belzerg.
Profession: Divine Farmer.
Profession Level: Apprentice.
Available Seeds: Tier 1 Tomatoes, Tier 1 Carrots.
Farmland: None.
"Simple and straightforward," Inox said to himself as he sighed, taking some gold coins out of hidden pockets in his purple tunic. "It's not much, but it'll be enough."
He narrowed his eyes before standing up. He put the gold coins back and, from his other hidden pockets, pulled out some common coins, shoving them into his right trouser pocket.
Inox swallowed hard before biting his lower lip slightly. He looked back at the walls of the royal capital before clutching his chest tightly. "I... I'm betting everything on this system. I hope I'm making the right choice," he told himself, remembering how this Divine Farmer system had appeared in his life five years ago.