chapter one

Maids were whirling around the busy kitchen laboriously lifting and taking filled platters of all sorts of cream-filled pastries and jam loaded desserts garnished with tropical fruits that were imported from innumerable parts of the world, trolleys of hot food leave the room one after another by men dressed identically to each other.

The emperor had just recently arranged for pastries to be sent to his chambers immediately as he and his guests were rather famished and deserved a selection of sugared delights.

Not wishing to keep the emperor waiting and become irritated I pushed forward adding on little details onto each various pastry, dredging sugar onto the top of one and adding an extra few berries to another. Swiftly dusting my powder-covered hands off on a nearby piece of cloth I made way for the small pair of double doors that were both the exit and entrance to the kitchen making sure not to bump into any other worker and possibly ruin what they had been kneading or stirring.

Walking in front of all the maids and servers pushing and holding towers of desserts I pushed forward, turning countless corners and walking down what felt like endless hallways passing by oil painted canvases more than one can count alone along with hundreds of large wooden doors which each had different carvings chipped into every pair that I ushered past.

Eventually stopping outside of the emperor's chambers I halted, fixing my toque and tucking any strands of hair that had spilt out onto my face, And with everything in place I knocked on the doors which were significantly larger and a darker wood than the others not to mention this door had golden embroidery carved into the intricate chippings on the door.

Hearing the emperors deep voice playfully chime out on the other side of the door I was happy that I had been granted permission to enter the emperor's bed chambers, I couldn't disappoint him,

After all the new emperor was a rather mean man, he had managed to repulse and scare everyone that knew him and knew of him in only under one year after his father, the late emperor had passed, the last emperor had caught a bug and fell ill resulting in his health plummeting and him to eventually pass away during one of his afternoon naps surrounded by his empress and concubines.

After the once emperor had died, everyone had seemed to have stopped functioning properly like how they had done a few days prior, that was everyone but his son. The next day after his father had passed the new emperor had been crowned and made haste to ruin everyone's lives, those that he could. The young emperor made quickly to cut ties with countries he deemed 'useless' which resulted in workers having to work later hours to be able to meet the heightened food prices for them and their families.

the young emperor had also made it a law that all executions were to be public and everyone would have to watch, if you were caught lurking elsewhere you would have also been executed right there and then being called a coward and a traitor for not following the emperor's laws. He had managed to earn the respect and fear from those below and those socially higher than him in only a few months, the poor fearing him and his gruesome acts whilst rulers of other countries admired him and his iron fist.

Once, hundreds of men tailed horseback and watched as the emperor burned down a small village outside of the city, they watched as the emperor's sadistic smile grew whilst he watched women scream as they ran around on fire, their skin melting and burning to a horrid char, the men were running after their wives trying to extinguish the flames that grew on their clothes along with their own flames.

there was a time when the emperor had bludgeoned a beggar on the Street, the rumour tells that the beggar grasped onto the emperor's ankle asking for forgiveness and a purse of silver coins to get himself back on his feet and save his son from the orphanage, in retaliation the emperor spat at the beggar before swinging his ankle away from the beggar's hands then smashing his foot against the beggars head making the man's face slam against he brick floor crying as the sound of his nose breaking echoed throughout the streets, carelessly the emperor continued to kick, spit, and swing at the beggar until he grew bored and left the unconscious body of the man sprawled put on the floor as a growing puddle of blood grew from beneath his body.

not only was I petrified of the emperor himself and his cruel intentions to everyone he meets, but I was also scared to not meet his expectations of my talents as this was my first time serving the emperor as I had only just been granted the position of head chef at the emperor's palace earlier today as the pa's chef had some complications with the emperor and he was dragged to the dungeons where I presume he would rot for the rest of his life.

taking a deep breath I exhale thinking of the emperor and all the heinous acts he had Done in the few months of him being the emperor, clearing my thoughts as my heartbeat began to fasten in nervousness I enter the emperor's private chambers.