Title: A Simple Solution

Summary: There was always the spare.

"What?" my half brother asked in disbelief.

"Exactly what I said, Jake. I plan on abdicating my role as crown prince."

"Why would you do such a thing? It's the most important position in the Kingdom! The highest authority!"

"Jake, are you really going to complain when the only opposition is willing to walk away?" I said while resisting the urge to roll my eyes.

Being King was just a mass of responsibilities that boiled down to following whatever the advisers said was appropriate. Well, that and making sure no one was blowing smoke up your ass, which was everyone. Everyone was a disingenuous snake in the royal court.

I could not even fathom living such a lifestyle. I longed for the life of an adventure. My blood called for it.

I had almost surrendered to my fate until I learned of my grand uncle Lucas. To learn that he was able to escape the clutches of the throne inspired me to take the first step forward.

Jake being a willing sacrificial lamb to the altar was divine providence. It was as if the world heard my wishes and gave me the out I so desired.

"Angelica, there is something I need to tell you," I said after having dragged my fiancée into an isolated area of the castle.

"... You're canceling our engagement," she said sadly.

While the response was expected, it still felt off. The forlornness felt more emotional. Too much for someone whose main goal was to become queen. She should have been angry at the prospect of losing her chance at the throne.

Whatever. Best to nip whatever emotional backlash as soon as possible.

"For what it's worth, I'm certain that my parents will have you engaged to Jake when they announce his ascension to crown prince. Mother would not want to make an enemy of the Redgrave family, and she always liked the idea of seeing you on the throne. Jake would also likely suggest to have you become queen to help legitimize his ascension."

"I have no interest in Jake!"

Of course she wouldn't. She was after the throne, not love. Right?

A part of me wanted this to be over and done with, but I was too curious about why she was so emotional. It didn't mesh with what I had associated with her. She would still be the Queen.

A part of me dared hope.

"Did you not hear me? I'm stepping down as crown prince..." I clarified to eke out more information.

"I don't care!" Angelica interrupted.

"Huh?"

"I don't care about the throne! I just want to be with you! It's always been about you! I love you!"

"You... you love me?"

"Always!"

Well, now I felt like a heel.

Lord Redgrave had not been pleased to know that I had stepped down and had convinced his daughter to break away from the Redgrave family. Not only did his route to the throne break away from his grasp, his daughter could no longer be used in his political machinations.

What's more, my family did not improve matters by not compensating the Redgraves. Refused to even pay for the broken engagement. Mom cited that both sides had been found wanting so the royal family would not foot the bill.

With the size of the Redgrave faction, I felt obligated to pay Lord Redgrave back, if only to reduce the likelihood of a civil war breaking out over this. Considering the royal family's needless acts of antagonism, part of me wonders if this was some ploy to dissuade me on my decision. Mother and Father had been rather vocal about their preferences.

How silly of them. Just more incentive to sail the skies and earn my keep as an adventurer. Oh wait, I already planned on doing that.

I didn't expect my grand epic would start with the words, "And thus Julius proceeded to clean shit out of the gutters."

Even with the funds Jake had secretly procured for me to ensure my success as an adventurer, it had been nowhere near enough to purchase the necessary equipment to be an adventurer.

Our parents had saw fit to leave us completely Dia-less as another means to draw us back. Other than the clothes on our backs, we had nothing. No airship, no armor, no weapons, and no airship.

Our names weren't even a saving grace for us since we nearly got kidnapped immediately when we had tried to use it as leverage. It was only by Jake's foster brother's hand did we escape relatively unscathed.

"Oye, Jules! We got to finish this by noon or it'll stink so much worse!"

"Yes, Boss!"

An E-rank job... that was all Angie and I could start out with our current standing and assets.

Just gotta stick with it. While a shitty job, it was the one that paid the most. In a few months, Angie and I could buy some basic equipment. Being able to dive into dungeons was sure to vastly improve our income.

"Why are the rates for transport so ridiculous?! A round trip would completely eat up our pay! At this rate, it would be far better to continue shoveling shit until we could afford to buy an airship!"

"Sorry, Jules. Normally I'd recommend you and your girlfriend offer your services as bodyguards, but neither of you have the necessary rank. As it is, you'll just have to have the airfare eat up your pay until you rank up," Luna apologized honestly.

"Sorry. It's just so frustrating. It just feels as though this situation spits on the very foundation of the Kingdom."

Luna just gave an amused sigh. Clearly, my situation was not unique.

"Ah yes. The adventurer romanticism. Truly the dream of the youth."

"Calling me the youth? You're not that much older than me," I snorted.

"Moh, aren't you the ladykiller. What will Ann say about your wandering eye," Luna said hastily while playfully fanning herself.

"Think I could woo a lady adventurer with a ship?" I said in jest. However, now that I said it aloud, was it feasible?

Luna's frown said otherwise.

"You do realize women aren't normally interested in adventuring. Ann is the exception to the rule."

I just sighed. Probably for the best. Angie would probably give me an earful for even thinking of the idea.

"Any other option?"

"Well... there is another novice who recently registered to into the guild. He has an airship already."

"A novice? Wouldn't he be too low rank?"

I had to work months to get equipment to even do the D-rank test. It took even longer to hone my skills back up to a level to pass the C-rank exam.

"The thing is he passed the C-rank exam straight up. Paid the extra fees to participate in the accelerated exam process. Said he needed the rank to accept off-capital jobs."

That was impressive. The accelerated examination process was a means to allow the overqualified to attain appropriate ranks without taking the basic jobs meant for beginners. It was also notoriously more challenging than the regular exams. Greg was the only one in the last few years to have succeeded, and he only took the D-rank exam.

For someone to jump straight to C-rank...

"Why would someone skilled enough to pass that exam need either Ann or me?"

"He seems to be in a bad spot. The kind of adventurer who needs capital and fast."

"Sounds like the kind of guy who would not want to split the rewards," I said with a frown.

"He might be willing to haggle. Either pay him a modest fare and take jobs where he is also heading or offer to work on the same jobs as him for a modest split until you and Ann have enough on your resume to get bodyguard gigs on airships. It's probably your best shot."

"A temporary partnership... Where can I find this guy?"

"He's currently plotting an expedition with n the back and drafting letters to our sister guilds to be able to turn him in quests without having to come back here every time. Picked a load of them around the southern regions."

"... Was this a ploy by you to not let a novice go out on his own?"

"Have to look after our members," Luna said with a cute expression.

I don't think I will ever understand how this woman is single.

AN

1) More of an exploration of Julius taking the time say way out if he actually hated being crown prince, how difficult adventuring would be, and how Leon may have planned his expedition.

2) Jake is mainly only funding Julius for the sake of Julius not quitting and coming back to take the throne.

3) Could be interesting to have this develop differently than canon in that Leon could decide to forgo looking for Luxion for more guaranteed results with a party to help him.

4) Angelica and Julius will look fairly different mainly due to more difficult living and changing their looks to avoid being kidnapped again.

5) Could also rope in Julius's friends at later points.

6) Honestly lost interest in writing at the ~1.5K mark. This is just me finally clearing the last of my backlog that I had sitting for almost a year. Man, really vomited out 8 fic ideas in about a week or two when I stopped caring about creating a decent first chapter (not that the quality was the worst for most of them).

7) Look at the acronym of the chapter title. That's how I feel about this chapter quality.

8) Also, I've finally started migrating my works to AO3. This is to avoid losing all my works in case just deciding to combust. I also plan to make changes to the works. Mostly will be the same content with changes primarily being for grammar or slight changes to details. If there is significant change or added sections, I'll post that in the top notes on the AO3 version. For my long fics, I may even add additional chapters that I thought up after arguing with my reviewers. Like in the Marieless Route, I plan on adding a chapter discussing my light magic system/contamination since it seems interesting enough and because people find it contentious enough.

Review Response

lupus23: Honestly, I wish we had more writers and/or people willing to pick up my snippets for their own.

Phlebiac: So there is never a point in which the five could fairly take on Leon. Even when they won, it was likely because Luxion did his best to make Leon lose. It just would have been cool for Leon to have to face them one on one and be forced to acknowledge that they were as strong as him... and even that would not be enough to convince him that they had a chance.

Golden Nova: Honestly, that plot line is fairly similar to what I imagined a second chapter of the Gilbert fic would be.

Pembaca Sampah: Honestly, I (and apparently space battles) have been kicking around the idea of a ranger fic forever. It's just no one actually tried to right out an actual fic. For me, it just took forever for me to just say screw introducing the fic with Greg discovering Zordon.

Vash111: Pretty much what I would have done to Leon in the Loveless portion of my Angst Archive.

Devoidscroll66: Eh, I hardly ever do fight scenes. Kinda of suck at any protracted fight.