2: Royal Love: The Series (1)

"The Kim Clan has fallen!"

"The Dark Night Siege is a success!"

"The Dark Lord, Kim Daehyun, has finally died!"

"This calls for a celebration!"

A young man in his early thirties stumbled into the verandah of the Mistress' room. With trembling legs and torso wounded with the blades of numerous swords, the man fell to the feet of the lady who stood by the brown railings, oblivious to his entrance.

"Madam!" he gasped out. His face held a horrified expression while blood trickled out of his mouth.

The desperate call diverted the attention of the beautiful lady from the lotus pond to the terrified youngster. Her expression dropped as her gaze fell upon the figure of the worn-out fellow.

"General?" she mumbled a little confused.

"Madam! Madam, the Lord has been defeated!" he shouted while panting.

"What?" the Mistress expressed her shock.

"The Kim Clan has fallen! We are all doomed!" were his last words as the receding exhaustion wearied out his body to the extent that he scrambled onto the floor, unconscious.

"No!" the said Madam screamed out once more in disbelief and hugged her swollen belly.

A group of guards rushed to the General to lift him and take him away, calling for a doctor immediately. Meanwhile, the Madam, Kim Haeun, stood paralysed in her spot. Large drops of salty tears trickled down her cheeks and her body racked with the newfound news of her husband's death. Unable to take such a heavy burden that had dropped onto her tender heart, she dropped on her knees.

"My-my husband," she whispered as her breathing got heavier.

"Daehyun..." she mumbled.

She covered her mouth with her hand as her tears of grief kept flowing out of her eyes. Her silent whimpers and her quiet crying slowly turned into ugly sobbing. Her screams and weeping communicated the intense pain of losing her loving husband that crept through her veins and ached her naive heart.

However, slowly, the maidservants of the Mistress noticed a change in the manner she was crying. Instead of sobbing, she was screaming and moaning, but not in grief but pain that welled up through her belly that she held with both hands. The realisation hit the ladies and they rushed to help their Mistress. She was carried away to her room where a midwife was immediately summoned.

After a period of about two hours, the screams of pain of Madam Haeun were replaced by the high pitched crying of a newborn baby. On the day of the fall of the Kim Clan, the late Clan Leader's son was born.

~~~~~

Taehyung nervously stepped closer and closer to the moment when he would have to decide between revenge and love. With his lower lip pressed under his teeth and his hands folded behind his back, holding a dagger, he took small steps closer to the double doors that now stood at a distance of about a few inches before him. Taehyung halted before the doors as he prepared himself for the biggest decision of his life. He squeezed the weapon in his hands and with the deepest sigh, he pushed open the doors.

The creaking sound of the doors turning attacked the attention of the figure seated inside. He had his long, flowing hair loosely tipped up into a ponytail with a long red ribbon to hold the hair together. He had only a few layers of loose robes of light red and maroon shades on. A jar of wine sat in his right hand as he glugged down the transparent liquid. A small smile slithered across his gentle, yet chiselled face as he rose from the long, cushioned bench he was previously sitting on.

"Taehyung," he said in a soft voice as he left the wine jar on the floor and walked quick steps towards the newcomer.

"I did not expect you to accept my invitation," he chuckled as he folded his hands behind his back and glanced at the other male with a gentle gaze.

"How could I not come," Taehyung began. "When you were the one who invited me, Second Clan Leader, Jeon Jungkook," Taehyung completed with a shy look creeping onto his face and his cheeks burning into a light shade of pink as a result of the other's loving glances.

"Congratulations on your victory over the Mei Clan," Taehyung said obtaining a little smile from the other.

Jungkook stepped closer to Taehyung and slid his hands around the older's waist. He brought his face close to the other's face and in an affectionate and caring manner, he spoke.

"Now I need to pass one last test to obtain my rightful position," he said in a low voice.

"Once I am the Clan Leader, no one will have the authority to keep me away from you," Jungkook continued as he lovingly tapped the older's nose.

"I promise, love," he whispered.

"I will make everything better."

Taehyung nodded in response to Jungkook's statement and nodded in agreement as he whispered a little 'I trust you' to his lover.

"But, what is this last step to our utopia?" Taehyung chimed in with his curious question.

Jungkook sighed heavily as he let go of his lover's waist and took a few steps back.

"Well," he began while rubbing his temples.

"I need to find the last leader of the Kim Clan of the Cursed Amulet," the young adult boldly stated.

"And?" Taehyung pressed him further.

"And cut off his head to offer at my father's feet," he stated.

"But," Taehyung mumbled with a tinge of hesitation in his voice.

"Hadn't the Kim Clan fallen in the Final War of the Dark Night Siege?" Taehyung inquired the other while putting on the mask of ignorance.

Jungkook shook his head while chuckling.

"I thought you knew, love," he muttered before he explained the details to the seemingly clueless male before him.

"Yes, it had, Tae. But, it seems that at the time Kim Haeun, the Mistress of the enemy Clan was pregnant. The very night of the Clan's downfall, she gave birth to the new heir and then suicided a few hours later. Her brother and son managed to escape," Jungkook finished.

"But you don't even know where he is!" Taehyung exclaimed in concern.

"He could be anywhere! How are you going to find him?" Taehyung expressed his worry before his lover which made Jungkook smile warmly.

"Taehyung, don't worry," Jungkook whispered as he stepped closer to his lover once more and placed his hands on the older's shoulders.

"I will complete this given task soon as possible, love. And after that..." Jungkook raised his hand to the other's face and caressed his ethereal countenance while also running his fingers through Taehyung's silky streaks of hair.

"I will become your consort," Jungkook completed with the shine of love twinkling in his dark irises.

"I know. Nothing is impossible for you," Taehyung nodded in agreement which made Jungkook burst into small laughter.

"Of course nothing is impossible for me!" he boldly stated as he gradually let go of Taehyung.

"I am called the Phoenix Lord for a reason!" he continued to boast as he slowly turned around and made his way towards the abandoned jar of wine he had been enjoying earlier.

Jungkook continued to mindlessly boast about his achievements and blabber about how it would be a piece of cake to find the son of the fallen Kim Daehyun while making humiliating jokes about the faceless child, while Taehyung's nervousness grew.

Taehyung continued to stand in the same spot with his head hung down and his eyes staring at the tiled floor under his feet. Jungkook's words were falling over his deaf ears as his anxiety bubbled within his heart. He squeezed the dagger he had been holding behind his back, hidden from his lover's sight and contemplated within his head whether or not what he was supposed to do was the right thing. He was aware of the fact that this was his golden opportunity to end the struggles of his family and avenge the unfair deaths of his parents, but his heart was not prepared to strike his lover to achieve the aim he had lived and waited for all these years. Taehyung's confusion and nervousness knew no bounds and he wished he never had to face such a difficult test. There was no way he could choose between his Clan and his lover. There was no way he could rebuild his Clan at the cost of his lover's life.

Amidst his mindless babbling, Jungkook realised that Taehyung had not said a single word. He turned around to notice Taehyung stand with his head hung down. His body language made Jungkook realise that Taehyung was probably nervous or worried about something. He approached his distinctly disturbed lover.

"Taehyung-ah," he said in a soft, low voice as he rubbed Taehyung's arm.

Jungkook's concerned voice and affectionate approach snagged Taehyung back into reality and he slowly looked up the younger.

"Love, is something wrong?" Jungkook asked.

"Is there something worrying you? You look disturbed and distracted," Jungkook explained the reasons for his concern.

"You have been looking nervous and stiff ever since you came in, dear. If something is bothering you, just tell me, my love."

With hesitation tingling in his uncertain voice, he expressed his confused phrases.

"Jungkook," he began.

"There is something I have been intending to tell you."

Jungkook titled his head a little with questions of confusion as well as curiosity whirling in his mind on hearing the older's words expressed in a small voice.

"What is it, dear?" he responded.

"Jungkook..." Taehyung paused for at least fifteen seconds before he gathered up his courage to spit out the words that had been stuck in his throat for so long.

"I am the son of Kim Daehyun. I am the rightful heir of the Kim Clan of the Cursed Amulet."

A few moments of silence passed between the pair. Jungook could only gaze at his life's one desire with his tender heart beating with the pain he had received from the word's spoken by his lover's mouth.

"I am the one, Jungkook. Whose head you have to offer at the feet of your father," Taehyung muttered in continuation after a while as he quietly unsheathed the dagger he had clenched in his soft hands behind his back.

"I am sorry," Taehyung continued without a single reaction from the shocked and dumbfounded younger.

"I have no other option than to do this," the muttering older finished as he pulled out the sharp blade from its metal cover, brought it before himself and without a second's hesitation, thrust it into Jungook's chest, aiming for the younger's heart.

With the blade stabbed into his aching heart, his eyes wide in shock from the events that had just unfolded before his eyes and his mouth sealed, not knowing what to say, Jungkook dropped to his knees.

Taehyung stumbled a few steps backwards in disbelief. He covered his mouth with his trembling hands as he stood watching his attack on his lover slowly pave the way for his final breath. Large tears trickled down his cheeks and his body shivered in dismay, grief, disbelief and guilt.

"Jungkook!" he sobbed out as he rushed to his wounded lover's side and gaped at the weapon pierced into the other's chest.

"Jungkook," Taehyung mumbled with his sobs choking down his voice.

"Love, I am sorry!" he sobbed out ad cupped Jungkook's face. The younger was still astounded, however, his eyes had begun glistening with the pool of tear swelling up in his eyes with the pain of betrayal more than the physical pain of death he was experiencing. He gave no reaction to the older who mourned and cried at the result of his own action while choking out apologies here and there. Slowly, his body began to give up and with his chest heaving up and down, portraying his obvious attempts at breathing and bearing with the intense pain that rose in his stabbed chest, he dropped into his lover's arms who caressed him and snuggled his dizzy head in his lap.

"Jungkook, I am sorry. I do love you! But your father was the cause of my parent's death! He destroyed my family, my clan, everything even before I was born! I could not let it go! I had no other option other than this! Sorry!" Taehyung sobbed out the explanations to his action as he cradled Jungkook's head in his lap and intertwined their fingers.

Jungkook's body felt more and more numb as the seconds passed by and he felt as if he was close to the end. In his mind, he had so many questions, words and assurances for his weeping lover, however, there was no way he could find to express his choked emotions that he realised would remain blocked in his mind forever. He glanced at Taehyung with a blurry vision that got more and more smudged as his tears pooled up before his irises and his mind concluded with his depleting condition, that there was now no way he would express his thoughts as words. He slowly shut his eyes and struggled to take his last breaths as his ears rang with the loud morning of his worried and desperate lover who shook him lightly in his arms.

Jungkook's fingers that had been squeezing the other's with his loving warmth for these last few seconds slowly gave up and they loosened the grip as Jungkook's soul gradually let go of his body.

Jeon Jungkook, also known as The Pheonix Lord or The Second Lord of The Jeon Clan of the Red Moon passed away and with his demise, The Jeon Clan also fell to ruins at the feet of Kim Taehyung, the New Dark Lord of The Kim Clan of the Cursed Amulet.

~~~~~

To be continued...