Where Is My Crown?

Rui gazed at his father deeply for a moment.

And then he began.

He began narrating a tale that began seven years ago on the fateful day his father unveiled his true identity to the entire world.

He disclosed everything.

From the very start.

What happened. How he felt. What he thought. And ultimately, what he decided to do.

"…And so I decided that I would not forsake my Martial Path for the throne." His tone grew fierce. "Not now. Not ever. Yet, at the same time, I did not wish to allow the empire to become ravaged by war. A war that would undoubtedly subsume the long lives that my family had cultivated in Kandria. After all the pain that I had put them through from my seven-year exile, I could not bring myself to do that to them."

His father gazed at him silently with melancholic eyes.