𝐃𝐘𝐍𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐘 | soo-won

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟏𝟗

KING IL STARED IN HORROR, his eyes dilating frantically and his breathing labored. He was going insane, he must have, that was the only explanation for it.  It was a natural human response, to feel guilty about such things.

He had murdered her.

He was sure of it, he had felt her shoulders, those immoveable blades that were caught off guard for that exact moment, fall back against his push. Her eyes, those deep dark eyes that seemed to pierce into his soul, had finally closed before him. Even the soldier reported as such.

She should have been dead.

His fingers shook with the ferocity of a criminal caught in his act. She fell down, there was nobody around to help her. He made sure of that.

A visitor to Kouka? Ridiculous, it was clear she aimed to tear his life apart. His peaceful, glorious life. The one he had put his heart and soul to build. How could she? She was nothing more than a tool to be used.

But she was long since expired. A brain too large for her own good and a body too beautiful for her own design. She ruled with weaponry, she looked down on kingdoms like his.

She didn't deserve it. She betrayed Yona. She betrayed Hak. She betrayed Kouka. She betrayed him. After all he had planned to keep relations settled between the Lotus Kingdom and his.

Princess Ruelle Jia just could not keep her mouth shut.

So he had no choice, he was a pacifist king. That was who he was. Pacifism advocated action, not violence. Thus, he advocated. Over and over again until it became the mantra of his life.

So he advocated peaceful action, but words do not get the job done. No, it must be taken seriously, out of the people's view. Because that was who he was. Not a coward, oh heavens no.

He was a Saint.

The perfect idolized king. The one who would go down in history as the man who loved his daughter with all his heart and ruled the kingdom with the torch of civilization.

He had done everything right; there were a few insurgents he had yet to deal with, and that son of that bastard child, Soo-Won, who got on his nerves. But other than that, he was right.

Then why was it that his biggest nuisance stood before him, dressed in all white without an ounce of hurt, donning a triumphant smile on her face?

The brown-haired woman was perfectly kempt, her hair as glossy and smooth as it was, and her face as bright and lively. With blood pulsing through her veins and a soft glow on her face, she was almost too lovely to be real.

King Il placed his chalice onto the nightstand beside his bed, his gaze almost weary. Perhaps he was seeing her ghost, that's what he deduced. But even so, he felt a pit of anxiety grow from the depths of his bosom.