The Beginning of the Hellish Life

A month already passed since the grand banquet was held at the grandest venue in the whole empire. However, Aaron is agitated because he never saw Lorelei again. The King and Queen tried to appease him, but to no avail since he really felt down, and sometimes, he refused to eat. The only thing that made him momentarily distracted was when the news of the Queen being weak was announced, prompting him to stay by her side and watch her.

The queen was on her bed, looking so pale and stressed when a doctor, an old man who wore a white flowy robe, and his assistant entered the room. The doctor's hair was already tinted with gray, and his skin was wrinkled. The assistant, wearing the same clothes, stood behind him. She was fairly young with a blank expression on her face. Her hair was a short black bob, her spectacles were big, and she was fairly tall.

The King and Aaron were also present in the room, nervous and fidgeting as the doctor examined her, who lost her consciousness because of the pain. Aaron was holding his blue handkerchief tightly as it seemed to calm him down, but still, he felt as if his whole body is wrapped up in an endless stream of fright. The King noticed it and touched Aaron's head.

"Your Majesty, was the Queen exposed to a yin flower?" the doctor worriedly said as he searched something in his bag hurriedly. "The queen is pregnant and the child inside her is dying. We have to find a yang flower soon or else the both of them will die!"

The King couldn't believe what he was hearing. His legs grew weak, and just imagining living his life without his Queen was in itself, deadly for him. The King stood there, frozen, his face also lost its color as he held on to the nearest strong thing that would help him keep his balance. He might be a good, strong leader, but he was dependent on her. He thought hard, but everything didn't make any sense. He was always with her, never letting her out of his sight, so why is she the only one who got exposed in the flower?

And worst of all, she was pregnant with their second child.

The King was overwhelmed with so much anger that he couldn't contain it. He punched the stronghold he held onto for his balance to release his frustrations.

"Your Majesty! Please stop! The prince's shoulder!" The assistant cried.

Cold sweat enveloped him.

The King forgot his son was beside him, and he thought that his son's right shoulder was a table and he punched it.

The three-year old's shoulder seemed broken. He was crying as he touched his injured shoulder, and the assistant used a healing magic to put it back in place. However, magic is scarce in the world, and the assistant was not a good magician, so she could only put it back in place, but not completely heal it. She put a bandage over his shoulder as the King watched in horror.

Aaron knew very well how dependent his father is to her mother. He was the type of person who would stalk the queen's movements and would even search for her when he wakes up without her by his side. He couldn't eat without her, much less breathe without her.

The young boy touched his father's trembling hands in an attempt to console him.

"It's alright, it's going to be alright," he told him as he held his tears from falling, and the King felt that as if it was a slap across the face that woke him up.

The King approached the Queen, who was still unconscious and pale, held her hand, and kissed it.

He hurriedly left the room, gathering all of his remaining strength to command his army. Aaron struggled so he could come with him, but the assistant prevented him to move.

The King stopped on his tracks. He remembered the flower given to them by his brother. It didn't bother him before, but it was suspicious that he gave it to the Queen when it was his son's birthday. The queen, who loved flowers, planted it on the garden in hopes that it would grow and multiply. She frequented that garden, would read there, have coffee, or just stay there and sun bath.

Two knights were waiting for him, and when they saw him, they were alarmed, but they didn't say anything.

"Follow me to the damn garden," the King, who was always gentle, and kind said so, scaring the knights.

As far as he knew the yin flower starts to cover itself with pollen once it is a month old to imitate the yang, and that it thrives easily.

When he stepped into garden, he used his cape to cover his mouth and nose. The knights did the same, and what welcomed them in the middle of the garden was a half-black half-white yin flower, expelling pollens everywhere. The King was enraged, and he drew his sword to destroy the plant. However, the knight held his shoulder, preventing him from doing so.

"I know I can't touch you without your permission, but my King, if you cut that down, it will expel pollens which can be inhaled by more people! The only way you can kill it is through fire," the knight said.

The king immediately put his sword back to its sheathe and turned his back from the flower.

"Burn that thing down," he commanded and faced the other knight. "Search the entire continent for the yang flower."

The knights bowed down and went to do their jobs while the King ordered another set of the Knights to go arrest his younger brother, Sir Helsin Hurrman.

However, when his brother was surrendered in front of him, he looked prouder than apologetic.

"You fool," The King said. "How dare you endanger your Queen!"

"I refuse to accept a dark-skinned Queen!" Helsin screamed back. "Your son was lucky enough to have your features. Are you going to risk passing it to your daughter?"

"How dare you say that!" the King screamed, remembering that his wife is pregnant. The atrocity of his words was unbelievable. "You know how much I need her!"

"I do not care!" Helsin declared. "She is not something you should include in our family! She is dirty and is meant to be a slave!"

"Silence! I refuse to hear another word from your dirty racist mouth."

"Kill me then," he challenged. "I dare you to kill me, your majesty, brother. For I will never stop as long as I am breathing."

Everyone knew that the King was kind and gentle, however, no one encountered him when he was mad, because he never was. The presence of his Queen soothed him, and now, the entire throne room was filled with her absence it filled his smell, his sight, all of his senses.

"I will forgive you if you tell me where I can find a yang flower," the King said.

"Why would I?" Helsin asked. "I do not care about her."

The King was ready to plead him, but then, a servant ran as fast she he could, alarming him because she was bleeding.

"Y-your Majesty! The Queen! The Queen! The Assistant is-" she screamed in horror and fell on her knees, revealing a knife struck on her back.

The King was livid- he ran so fast that he didn't seem to care about anyone at that moment except for his queen.

The moment he arrived at her door; he saw the doctor bleeding as he protected the prince who was unconscious but is also bleeding on his head.

But the thing that sent shivers to his spine, was the Queen, lying in bed peacefully with a lot of blood on her nose and her mouth, and her belly slashed open.

The King fell onto his knees, all of his strength on his legs was gone, but he still managed to crawl beside the queen and hug her desperately. He tried to wipe the blood away from her face, only to be replaced by blood, again and again. He tried to apply compress on her stomach, but blood kept on flowing.

Tears never streamed his face. He refused to believe that the Queen he loved so much was gone. He tried to sway her body as he hugged her, and he stayed like that for a whole day, until her body started to show signs of decomposing. Afraid of tainting her beauty, he asked his staff to search for someone to preserve her body.

The Queen was placed in the most intricately beautiful glass casket that was air-tight, and there, she would remain peaceful as her King grew old with age.