The servants called Kunikida maniacal, a young prince spending his time working instead of playing, but he preferred the word organised. He planned his entire life out from the moment he turned ten all by himself. He spent weeks organising the book he would come to call his life guide, his Book of Ideals.

"He'll grow out of it," voices in the hall would murmur, words often reaching him in his quarters while he studied. "That boy doesn't know how to live." My life is perfectly organised. "I pity his parents." My parents love me. "I pity the woman he's going to marry." ...

Kunikida never once strayed from the path scheduled in his book. He spent every day as planned, working hard to be worthy of serving his kingdom. His mind rivalled that of the Kingdom's greatest scholars and his literacy preceded those around him. The boy trained day in and day out with the knights, and even ~~tried~~ sleeping with them at the barracks to truly understand them.

However, the hardest task had yet to be accomplished. Kunikida planned to marry the moment after entering his twenties, sooner if possible, no later than twenty-one. That was where his troubles lay.

Courting would've been easier had his parents selected a suitable fiancée for him when he was younger, giving him time to get to know them and grow to acknowledge their future status. But no. They opted for, in Kunikida's opinion, a more barbaric approach.

They called royals from distant lands, beyond mountains and oceans, just to meet the prince for a day and see if they... "click". They usually didn't. Kunikida felt a bit ashamed that his proposal would happen this way. Some clearly did not want to marry him, and neither his heart nor mind wanted to force them to. But his options were limited.

"Are you alright, Your Highness?" He asked, offering you a hand to descend from the horse.

Kunikida had quickly realised that personal time spent outside the castle tended to be more comfortable. So he opted to take them on horseback through the woods.