To Spurn a King
A servant dropped a tray somewhere in the amphitheater.
A collective gasp swept across the place like a gust of wind.
A pin-drop silence followed King Marius' proposal. Not even the exhausted slaves in the arena dared make a sound.
"I'm sorry, come again?" Kai blinked up at Marius, confused. He became concerned that, due to all the stress and anxiety he'd been under these couple of days, he was now hearing things. Ridiculous things. Terrifying things. Impossible things.
"I said," Marius began, still cupping Kai's loins possessively, "You will marry me."
Kai laughed.
He couldn't help it; the sound spilled out of his mouth before he could stop himself, when in actuality he wanted to cry.
"You can't be serious!" Tears welled in his eyes and spilled down his cheeks as he continued to laugh hysterically. "You can't be serious!" he repeated while he reached up a shaking hand to wipe the salty tears away.
Deep down, he knew that this hysterical bout of laughter was mania-induced. This was the final straw in a series of bewildering and cruel events inflicted upon him, and it was breaking his back.
He just couldn't take it anymore.
Abruptly, he sobered as if he'd been doused in arctic water.
"You can't!" he shrieked shrilly, petrified. Chaos erupted in his mind. He heard a ringing in his ears, and for a moment he thought the stress had given him tinnitus.
Surely, he didn't actually mean to marry him! Marius had made it clear how much distaste he held for half-breeds like him, and how much he hated Astria, so why in the world would he want to marry him?! It didn't make any sense and it was driving him even crazier!
Seeking some form of explanation, he looked at King Marius' face, but Marius' face had turned into a stone mask; he couldn't tell what the tyrannical ruler was thinking at all!
Kai's heart sank. "But... but... I'm not gay!"
It was Marius' turn to laugh mockingly, as if Kai had just told the best joke of the century. The deep, rumbling sound echoed in the amphitheater, bouncing off the maroon walls.
Someone in the crowd fainted.
"As you've witnessed, we do not concern ourselves with such technicalities." And in a low voice that only Kai could hear, he asked, "You have a hole, don't you?"
Kai's face lit on fire. Like a fish gasping for air, he opened and closed his mouth repeatedly as he searched for something to say, but words eluded him. A bloodcurdling scream bubbled all the way up to his throat instead, threatening to erupt out of him.
"You...! You...!" he sputtered.
Anger blazed through him, exploding like a grenade that wiped all thoughts from his mind -including his fear. Emboldened by his rage, he slapped Marius' hand away from his semi-erect crotch, no longer able to tolerate his touch -and it wasn't entirely because he was mortified by it.
Another weak-minded fellow in the silent crowd gasped and swooned.
A sense of doom hung in the air, and he knew it wasn't just him feeling it from the pale looks of the crowd. They were all eagerly awaiting his answer as well.
"So I either marry you or I have to fight in that arena?" Kai forced on a smile. "It's no choice at all, then."
When he forcefully pushed himself away from Marius, the King let him slip out of his grasp. Kai rose to his feet, and then looked down at Marius, who regarded him with cool eyes.
The fact that he seemed unbothered by Kai's reaction bothered him even more. While Marius seemed to be keeping his cool after dropping that whopping 'proposal' on him, he was simmering, a boiling kettle ready to burst.
With confidence that he did not feel at all, he declared to both Marius and the crowd, "I will fight." Then, meeting King Marius' gaze, he hissed, bearing his teeth in a snarl, "I'd rather fight a hundred mermaids than marry you."
At least two more people fainted. Oh, to spurn a king.
Kai was expecting Marius to take a swing at him like he liked to do, or throw a fit, but the arrogant ruler did none of that.
Instead, King Marius smirked. There was no way that Kai could miss the sinister, diabolical look that flashed in his eyes.
Kai felt liquid ice trickle down his spine and pool in the base. His heart beat a staccato rhythm against his chest, dancing to the mad beat of a cunning, cruel and relentless king that knew no mercy.
This was not going to end well for him, he just knew it. It looked like the crowd was in for another show.
He said to Kai, "If this is what you would prefer, then so it shall be." To the butler standing not too far away, he ordered, "Prepare him for the fight."
Naturally, Kai felt initial regret at not taking the easy way out, but the emotion was luckily fleeting. Proud and defiant as he was, there was no way that he could ... marry the King of Nostraza, and it wasn't just because he didn't bat for the other team. It was because King Marius of Nostraza was the number one enemy of his people and himself, the merperson currently gunning for his mysterious power.
He was escorted into the arena by two guards. As he walked, he was followed by the gaping stares of a stunned, speechless crowd.
He could most likely imagine their sentiments: their king had just proposed to the crown prince of their biggest enemy nation, who also happened to be half-human. They had to be reeling. Good.
When he was standing on one side of the sandy arena, he turned to look at Marius.
The mighty king, still lazily sprawled in his lavish alcove, flashed him yet another taunting smirk.
Kai raised his chin and squared his shoulders proudly.
Slowly, brazenly, Marius' eyes scanned Kai from head to toe in blatant ridicule. It was like he was undressing him with his eyes. Wherever his eyes touched upon his bare skin, he felt the flesh heat up.
When the embarrassment of standing half-naked in the middle of a gawking, sneering crowd surfaced, he shoved it violently to the back of his mind. This was not the time to start feeling shy. This was the time to kick some ass.
"I'll wipe that smug smile off your face, just you wait," Kai mumbled to himself.
"Who do you nominate as the Royal Concubine's opponent, my liege?" The butler asked, hands clasped in front of him and head bowed to his king in deference.
"My Queen, have you brought your pet?" Marius called to the lady occupying the last of the alcoves opposite to Marius'.
When Kai glimpsed brief movement in the alcove, he turned to look.
The alcove was dark; most of its candles purposely left until, which was why he hadn't paid any attention to it before. Lady Ezaoi with her exhibitionist show of sexual appetites and Lord Luka's foul-mouthed fit of rage had overshadowed the rest of the crowd. And Marius had done his fair share to keep his attention as well.
My Queen, he'd said.
He was already married?!
When the alcove's occupant moved so that some of the light from the braziers fell on her face, Kai couldn't help but stare in awe as the breath whooshed out of his lungs. For a brief second in time, he forgot his worries and troubles.
She was the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes on, and he was about to swear high and low that she had to be the most beautiful woman in existence -ever.
God almighty who made you.
He took an involuntary step in her direction, totally and utterly captivated.
Marius wasn't married.
If her shark-like blue eyes and charcoal black hair were any indication, Kai assumed that the 'Queen' was King Marius' mother.