Chapter 9

'Kira, come on.' The other two concubines were dragging Kira. She was eavesdropping by the door, her curious nature got the best of her. However, it wasn't just her but a few of the other servants who joined too. They all looked at each other as they listened by the Queen's door. 

All of a sudden, the sound of a man's groan was heard. 'Please stop... It hurts.' This voice that pleaded was undoubtedly coming from the King. Hearing this, most of the servant's face had turned into a deep shade of pink. Out of context, hearing this could mean something else. 'interesting, you would expect the Queen to be making this sound, not the King himself.' Kira giggled to herself. One of the concubines slapped her and dragged her completely from the door. 

'How outrageous do you plan on being?' This concubine, Haeran, whispered.

Haeran had always compared herself constantly with Kira, Haeran herself was considered pretty, she had light brown doe eyes with fair skin. One might even compare her looks to a princess, her beauty was hard to look away from. Haeran had always hated how she was born into a brothel and not into a more promising wealthy family. Haeran complained constantly to the other two concubines she grew up with about this. Kira and the other concubine, Ave, had always tried their best to comfort this concubine. It didn't help Haeran, as she hated how Kira always continued to stay her cheery self, they both grew up in the same conditions so why is it that she was more miserable than the other?

Haeran, Ave, and Kira were all of the same age, although not blood sisters they had miraculously happened to be born around the same time in the same place. Ever since, they grew up like close sisters. Even if Haeran saw Kira as a one-sided competition, she still took upon the role of an older sister to her. She would often discipline the other concubines if they had stepped over the line, although it was mostly Kira who did. The other concubine, Ave, on the other hand, learned to adapt to harsh conditions as a prostitute. Haeran hated how vibrant Kira remained during these hard times but this was something that Ave had deeply treasured. So she decided to interfere. 

'Forgive Kira on this, but look around Haeran. It's not just her who's interested.' Ave brushed a look towards Kira and smiled. Kira winked back and nodded along. 

'Yeah, Haeran come on, it's not just me.' Kira pleaded with the eldest concubine. The rest of the servants looked at the concubines with awkward smiles and decided to leave. One of the servants, Yara stopped. 'Let this servant show you to your rooms.'

...

Meanwhile, in the Queen's room, the King was lying down on the bed in pain. 'Let's stop here, please.' The King begged but the Queen was still in an awful mood. She grabbed the King's bare back and continued to... massage him. 

Earlier, the King was terrified of what the Queen was to do to him when she found out it was he who bullied her dear servant. However, when she locked the door and turned to him, she said something much more unexpected. 

'Take your clothes off.' 

'...'

The King's eyes widened but he didn't dare anger the Queen further so he did as he was told. Taking his shirt off, the Queen stopped his hands from going to the bottom. Her dark expression remained as she observed his bare body from the back. 

How lucky for him, his back was completely clean. She thought to herself, compared to him, her back was completely marked and bruised from the whipping. She knew she couldn't possibly murder the King because of her servant, if this was to ever get out she did... the servant would have to be the one to suffer the consequences. This infuriated the Queen more.

That's why she had settled on massaging the King as harshly as she could. The King's shoulders turned from pale white to red. However, she didn't stop and didn't plan to all night, despite the King's continuous pleading. 

The King himself felt helpless, he had tried several times to move but with the Queen's legs around him, she had him trapped. Her overwhelming strength was definitely due to the harsh training the Moral Empire puts their Queens through. The King had heard about this severe training but didn't think much of it before. However, while the King felt his delicate shoulders being pressed down harder and harder, he regretted not taking the Queen's training seriously. The pain was too much for him to bear. His cheeks and ears turned red, he was extremely embarrassed to be in this position and begging for the Queen to stop. If anyone was to ever hear about this, about the King's wimpy personality towards the Queen... he would surely never be able to keep his head held up anymore. 

He eventually turned around and turned to face the Queen on the bed. He looked up at the Queen, his eyes were teary. In his blurred vision, he saw the Queen slowly smiling. 'We're done here.' She got up and walked out of the room, leaving the King by himself. 

What had just happened? The Queen told him to strip so that had excited the King, but seeing that she wanted to massage him was slightly disappointing. He thought to himself that maybe the Queen felt bad for shouting at her husband and so he allowed the Queen to do so. The King didn't realize it was him who was being played for a fool!

He lay on the bed, his shoulders were internally bleeding from the unbearable pain. This was just a massage the Queen had given... imagine it was something much worse. 'I wouldn't be able to handle that surely,' the King said to himself, deep in thought.