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Victor made no response, though David did spot a small smile on his face.

And again, the Prince found himself struggling to keep up the conversation. He supposed he shouldn’t try to force it. Perhaps just giving the young fellow some peace and quiet was better, anyway. He’d never considered himself very good at keeping his mouth shut, but perhaps on this occasion, he shouldn’t be considering himself at all.

He let the silence linger. It was still a ways to Livingston, but oh well.

At length, however, Victor decided to speak up on his own. “Prince David, sir... um...”

“Yes?”

“...Have you ever... um... have you ever lost someone close to you?”

Ah. So we were going in this direction, were we? Oh, boy. Truth be told, David never much cared for talking about his own past, but he supposed if there was ever a time for it, it would be now.

The Prince took a long, slow breath before finally answering. “I have, indeed. Most recently, my brothers.”

“Brothers?” said Victor. “As in, multiple?”

“Yes. I am one of eight children. And last year, four of my brothers were killed.”

“Oh my god. I’m so sorry. I had no idea. I can’t even imagine...”

“Yes, well... it was a complicated matter with... complicated emotions. Saying that we were close would perhaps be an overstatement. But... we had our moments.” He wondered if he should also mention that he’d essentially lost a fifth brother as well, considering the fact that Luther had been imprisoned for murdering the other four.

But he decided against it. He didn’t think the purpose of Victor’s question had been to hear about royal family drama.

In fact, with that in mind, perhaps bringing his brothers up at all had been the wrong call. Perhaps the death of his father would have been a more apt comparison?

Eh...

Well. He did have a different memory to pull from. It would probably be more fitting here, as well. But did he really want to talk about that? Especially with this young man he barely knew?

Not really.

“...Do you believe in an afterlife, sir?”

Agh. Wow. This hardly felt like the time to say that he didn’t. Somehow, that just seemed too disrespectful. So instead, he chose to soften his response. “I’m not sure what I believe.”