Truthfully, obtaining the position as the Royal Servant is hard to acquire, unless you have the right connections. In this case, Romeo had a good one. His father, Flipptin was the Royal Wizard for the King of Aprok and was able to score him the job. What no one knew about him, except his son, was that he was the long lost brother of the King of Aprok and wanted to steal away the throne for himself and his son.
Maybe I should give you some back history. When my King and Romeo’s father were young, they were separated at birth. You see, due to tradition, the Royal Family could only raise one child who would take the throne. Since they had twins, Flipptin, who was born second, was given away to the Pitchinos, a peasant family who lived on the outskirts of the Kingdom. The hope was that the two would never lay eyes on each other. Unfortunately, fate had other plans. During a terrible storm, the Pitchino’s home was decimated and both of Flipptin’s parents suffered from internal injuries. With their last breaths, they decided to tell their 15 year old son the truth about his past. In a rage, Flipptin began to devise a complicated scheme for revenge against his abandonment, but first he needed to get into the castle.
40 years later, Flipptin was able to achieve the position as the Royal Wizard. Along with his son, Romeo, Flipptin moved into the castle where he quickly became friends with his “clueless” brother, my King. Romeo also became friendly with the Royal Family, but it was all just a ploy. In order to take over the Kingdom, Flipptin had planned for Romeo to marry my King's fair Princess. As a result, he would have the political power to overthrow the current family. But there were two problems he didn't expect to happen. First, one of the benefits of eating the white snake is that the Royal Family could not be touched by magic. Second, although Romeo knew of his father’s plan, he fell in love with a servant girl and got married behind his father's back. Enraged, Flipptin flipped out and placed a curse on Romeo’s wife, Juliet, which made her desperately ill. This was around the time Romeo had learned about the white snake’s power and found the Queen's ring for my King. Although his position as the Royal Servant gave Romeo some status perks, he basically made a little less than minimum wage per hour. Not wanting to trouble his father for money, Romeo asked for permission from my King to go out on a journey to find someone who would give him a loan. The King agreed and let Romeo go, promising that he could reclaim his position when he came back.
But Romeo also knew that money could not solve everything. Not knowing his father had placed the spell on his wife, Romeo went to his father for advice. Flipptin tried to persuade his son to forget about Juliet and leave her to die, but his son could not be swayed. Seeing that his son would be resilient to the end, Flipptin gave his son some advise. “While you are out on your journey, make some allies, even if that means using some tough love. Moreover, make sure each one has a different specialty.” Confused, Romeo left on his journey but followed his father’s advise by using certain “persuation” techniques. But by the time he had returned with the medicine, Juliet had already passed away. It was then Romeo realized his father was the one responsible for her death. Enraged, he killed his father and fled the Kingdom where he changed his name and went into hiding.
While Romeo was in hiding, he became extremely distraught and was losing the will to live. That was until a little pigeon came flying into his room one day. Still having the power to talk with animals, the two struck up a conversation where Romeo has an enlightenment. He had hit rock bottom and needed a purpose in order to survive. To fill this void, he would adopt his father’s dream of overthrowing the Royal Family. This was not exactly what the pigeon was going for, but it decided to stay with Romeo because he seemed interesting. After Romeo "paid" back the loan he owed, the two of them learned that the Royal Family was holding trials to find a suitable husband for the princess. So, using the small pigeon, Romeo learned about each of the challenges beforehand and utilized many of the “allies” he had acquired over the course of his journey.
By the time Romeo had come into power, the pigeon was still by his side. Out of anyone, Romeo felt the bird was his only friend and kept him safe. When the pigeon had finally died due to old age, Romeo, for the first time in his life, allowed himself to cry outside of the public view.
