Chapter Text
The Françoise Dupont Academy for Royalty and Nobility was a large boarding school for the upper classes of society, situated on the borders of the vast Bourgeois Empire. Each year it took in new pupils from various kingdoms all around the globe and trained them in the ways of governing an area of land in accordance with their title, shaping them into competent rulers within three short years. The emperor had invested a huge amount of money into the school recently, wanting it to be ready for the year his own daughter would join.
Imperial Princess Chloé had now reached her 15th birthday, meaning that this September she was eligible to enrol, and by now the academy was considered so prestigious that she would be joined by royalty from some of the wealthiest and most developed countries in the world. In fact, this year there were enough royals joining that for the first time the royalty would be in a completely separate class from the nobility, able to learn about ruling over a country without having to take part in lessons meant for those of a lower status.
Most of the students arrived on the first day of September, though a few from very far away had been there for a little longer to have enough time to settle into their dorms before classes began. The royalty dorms were in a separate area from the nobility dorms, and were noticeably nicer and more well-decorated. It was well-known that the Bourgeois Empire tended to put a lot of effort into maintaining the differences between ranks and especially looking down on commoners, despite that becoming outdated in many other kingdoms.
Prince Kim, of the distant kingdom of Lê Chiến, had already been here for a few days and was impatient to meet up with his friends who were arriving today. He already knew a few of the students who would be in his class – there was Prince Max for starters, of the Kanté Kingdom. When they were younger they had been to several upper class summer camps together and were essentially best friends, or as much as they could be considering that they didn’t get to see each other much. Kim was definitely looking forward to being able to actually hang out with him. He also remembered that Princess Marinette of the Dupain-Cheng Twin Kingdoms would probably be in his class – he knew her too, since Cheng was fairly close to Lê Chiến and they had visited each other quite a few times before and their families were fairly close. It would be good to see her again too.
Heading through the lavish maze of corridors towards the entrance so he could meet up with Max when he arrived, Kim spotted someone else he recognized.
“Hi Ivan, what’s up?” he said, grinning and going over to meet him.
“Ugh, not you again,” Grand Duke Ivan muttered. He had only just arrived and was still wearing a huge fur coat and rather fluffy hat despite the temperature here being warm, and a few porters were helping transport his many bags to his new dorm. Kim and Ivan had met once or twice at various events and did once attend the same summer camp, but things weren’t exactly cordial between them. Mostly due to Kim mocking him more than necessary all the time.
“Hey, aren’t you glad to see me? School is gonna be so fun this year!”
“I should just go back to Bruel and carry on being home-tutored…”
“Is Mylène going to be here this year?”
Ivan’s pale face suddenly flushed red. “I don’t know.”
“Are you telling me you still haven’t told her you like her?”
“I’ll… I’ll do it soon,” Ivan mumbled. “I haven’t seen her recently and… I don’t know if her family would approve or…”
“You’re such a wimp,” Kim laughed. He noticed Ivan curling up a fist and quickly stepped back. “Whoa dude, you can’t touch me. You’re just a grand duke, I’m a freaking prince. I could like, have you executed.”
“No you couldn’t! And how many times do I have to tell you, a grand duke in Bruel is the same thing as what you call a prince in other kingdoms!”
“Yeah, I don’t really care. Anyway I’ve got to go see my friend Max, because unlike you I actually have friends, so I’m out of here. See you!”
Kim chuckled and ran off quickly, leaving Ivan standing there fuming, his nervous porters too shy to say anything. Oh yes, school would be so much fun this year… Needling someone as irritable as Ivan was always so amusing. Kim was never allowed to be himself back at home, always under the watchful eye of his family and royal court, but at least here he would be free to finally do what he wanted all the time, and no one would be able to stop him. Not without causing some kind of political incident or something. If anyone yelled at him? He could just tell them to stop before his country declared war on them. Yes, it would be perfect. At least, he wasn’t quite sure how the logistics of declaring war worked, but surely if he threatened someone like that then they would leave him alone.
He was distracted from his thoughts when he heard someone say his name.
“… isn’t it pretty cool to be here, Kim? I mean, I don’t really like this empire much, it seems kinda backwards, but the school seems good…”
Well, the voice certainly wasn’t talking to him, so was there another student with the same name as him or something? He ran forward and turned the corner to see what was going on, and the first thing that caught his eye was what looked like a long, lime green snake only a few metres away from him. It had a spotty hood – did that mean it had poison fangs? Kim was sure that the snakes in his own kingdom that had hoods were cobras, and he was always told to stay away from those…
In any case, the snake was wrapped around a long golden sceptre that someone was holding. Someone ridiculously short. Kim’s first thought was that surely little kids weren’t allowed at this school, were they? But no, it wasn’t a little kid, it was just a very short but rather pretty teenage girl, dressed in some of the shiniest bling he had ever seen, and wearing a striped headdress that couldn’t quite keep in loose strands of bright pink hair. She was talking to her snake – clearly that was who the other Kim was.
Kim gulped and tried not to look at the snake, not that he was scared of it or anything, that would be ridiculous. He was definitely not afraid of snakes. In any case, the new girl had spotted him and was looking at him expectantly, waiting for him to speak. He ran a hand through his hair and leaned an arm against the wall, saying, “So, did you name that snake after me?”
“No, I have no idea who the hell you are,” she replied flatly. Kim was a little taken back by the flippant use of the world “hell” – usually other royals were always so uptight about how they spoke, it just seemed strange to hear. In that case she probably wasn’t a very high rank. Maybe she was a noble, or even some nouveau-riche commoner who bribed her way in.
“I’m Prince Kim of Lê Chiến”, he clarified. “It’s kind of far away, in the southeast, but it’s really big and cool and wealthy and…”
“Oh, okay.”
“So who are you? Where are you from?”
“I’m Pharaoh Alix of the Kubdel Kingdom.”
Kim tried not to laugh. “Yeah right, as if someone as young as you would be an actual pharaoh, that’s a good one…”
“Dude, I’m not kidding. The throne is passed to the youngest child on their 15th birthday where I’m from, so that’s me. And yeah, that means I’m already in charge of a country and outrank you, so tread lightly okay?”
“That’s the funniest thing I’ve ever heard… okay seriously though, are you like a princess or a duchess or–”
She suddenly stepped forwards and held the sceptre up so that the snake was right in his face. He leapt back so fast he almost tripped over.
“Get that thing away from me!”
“This snake is a queen cobra, by the way,” Alix said, smirking slightly and still waving the sceptre too close to him for comfort. “He is super venomous. Like, one tiny bite and you’re dead.”
“How are you even allowed to have that?!”
“Because, like I said, I’m a pharaoh so I can do whatever the heck I want and no one can stop me.”
A bunch of porters arrived behind her, pushing a trolley with a few suitcases on it. Alix thankfully lowered the sceptre and went to go check on her luggage.
“Don’t worry porters, I can take it from here, it’s just a trolley, thanks though…” Opening the top of one of the bags, she pulled out a few little wooden wheels and attached them to little hooks on her sandals. “Heck yeah, these corridors are going to be so awesome for skating down…”
“Wait, you have rollerskates?” Kim asked. That was so unfair – he had heard of rollerskates, but he had no idea they were real things. Like rocket ships and hoverboards. Just futuristic ideas that had yet to be invented.
“Yeah, I love skating,” Alix said. “If your kingdom doesn’t have skates then you’re really missing out. Anyway, I’m gonna go find my room now, see you later weird prince guy.” She gave the trolley a shove and sent it hurtling down the corridor, then she quickly caught up and leapt onto it, surfing away from him and out of sight.
Kim breathed a sigh of relief – he did not want to be in the presence of that snake any longer, nor its annoying owner. Hopefully she had been lying about the pharaoh thing and wouldn’t be in his class.
Finally making it to the school entrance, Kim immediately spotted Max sitting on one of his suitcases on the side of the room, waiting for a free porter to help him carry them. It was easy to spot him quickly since Max’s bright green robes and unique spectacles (made out of something called “plastic”, apparently, though Kim did not know what that was) stood out, especially since not many other people at this school seemed to have the brown skin tone that a lot of people from the Kanté Kingdom did. Kim rushed over and hugged his small friend so tightly he lifted him slightly off the ground.
“Max! I haven’t seen you in like a whole year!”
“Kim, it’s so good to see you!” Max said once out of Kim’s grasp, adjusting his glasses which Kim had accidentally knocked askew. “Have you been here long?”
“Just a few days. It’s been kinda boring but now that people are here it’s gonna be really fun!”
“I can’t wait for classes to begin tomorrow,” Max said, causing Kim to suddenly remember how much his friend loved studying and education. “We’re going to learn so much. I mean, I know I could have learnt everything I needed back in my own kingdom, but this will be such an enriching experience. We’ll get to learn about other cultures, and get to meet other future world leaders here… Kim, have you met anyone here yet?”
“Except for you, you mean? Yeah, I saw Ivan here earlier, that guy from Bruel, he’s the same as ever…”
“I hope you didn’t antagonize him again.”
“What? Psshh, no! Well, okay, maybe a little. But I won’t do it again,” Kim added quickly. “And I also just met this really weird girl, she actually had a pet snake! Like, a venomous one! That’s so unfair! You’re not allowed to have those at a school, are you? And she tried to kill me with the snake, so that was really mean of her – oh and the snake has the same name as me, by the way, I’m really offended. And the weird girl said she’s a pharaoh of some country or other, I can’t remember, but anyway there’s no way she can be a pharaoh, that’s like the equivalent of a queen, right? But she’s our age and really weird and really short too, it’s ridiculous, and I told her so…”
“Did this girl have pink hair?”
“Yeah, why?”
Max sighed. “Kim, you idiot…”
“Hey, I almost get killed by an evil cobra and that somehow makes me an idiot?”
“No, you idiot, Alix really is the pharaoh of Kubdel.”
“WHAT?” Kim said, so loudly a nearby noble jumped out of her skin. “Are you kidding me? How do you even know?”
“Her kingdom borders mine so I see her a lot, I was even there for her coronation last year. I know she’s weird but she outranks every single one of us here, even Imperial Princess Chloé, so you can’t just act like an idiot around her all the time! Especially not if she still has that venomous cobra, I did wonder if she was going to bring that with her or not…”
“So if she really is a pharaoh then does that mean she’ll be in our class?”
“Yes.”
“Gah, that is so unfair! She’s going to kill me with that snake!” He folded his arms and grumpily tried to think of ways to kill the snake without having to get near it. Max put a hand on his shoulder.
“It’s alright, the snake’s never bitten anyone before as far as I know, and she won’t kill you with it – she’s not that bloodthirsty, okay? Anyway, I need to go to my new dorm and there are no porters around. Are you strong enough to help me out instead?”
“Of course I am!” Kim leapt to his feet and quickly picked up a suitcase in each hand, trying not to stagger under the sudden weight. “You’ve got a map, right? Let’s go!”
Max chuckled – nothing like a bit of physical exercise to get Kim back in a good mood. Taking the map out of his pocket, Max checked the route. “It’s not too far away, good. Let’s go.”