The vampires had ultimately decided to not intrude with human affairs this time around, given their pact with the neighbouring clan. It did not concern the king however, because he was not planning on leading the battlefront—not that he ever did anyway.

The first few troops were leaving the coming morning. Woohyun was going to be leading the first set of troops out into the battlefield, with Sungyeol following along shortly after, leading the troops that depart in four sunsets.

With news of Woohyun’s pending departure appeared Sungyeol’s mother, who had disappeared into the riches that the castle had to offer to the king’s mistresses without a trace. She had learned of the fortunate news of Queen Maeyoung’s death and with Maeyoung’s only son heading off to war came the possibility that he would die and leave Sungyeol as the sole heir to the throne—after all, King Jaehoon had only had two sons that he recognized as his children—the rest were daughters who would only be useful pawn pieces in creating diplomatic relationships with other kingdoms.

Moreover, Sungyeol, while he was heading out to battle, he would not be in the frontlines like Woohyun was. His chances of surviving were much greater than his half-brother.

She ought to hire someone to just make sure the thorn named Woohyun was gone. Her thoughts trailed off when she heard the door to the room open.

“What brings you to my chambers today?” King Jaehoon asked, a rather perplexed look on his face as he took in the beautiful woman in front of him that appeared to have been unchanged since the last time he had seen her. Although nearly two decades has passed, she had not aged one bit, like that of an unwilted rose that never expired. He, on the other hand, had been weathered by time like that of a rock that sat on the bank of a river.

“My, my, right to business?” she asked as she took a seat across from him at the table. She was not one for the formalities of the royalty and had never been. She was acting rather bold for someone that he had not seen for many years, and had it been anyone else that had done the same as her, they would’ve have been punished immediately for being disrespectful towards him.

She was not opinionated like Maeyoung and that made all the difference. He didn’t like hearing about ways he could have done better after a war was over or how he should be treating the civilians better. Jangmi, on the other hand, coddled him and agreed with everything he said.

But her blasé attitude was what attracted him to her in the first place and why she had always been one of his favourites, even now, when she didn’t entertain him anymore and many younger and fresh faces had replaced her. Her face had never been lost to him. He had even thought himself to be in love a long, long time ago, until he realized that she didn’t feel the same—never did and never will.

“Jangmi,” he harshly thundered, his eyes narrowing at her. “Out with it.”

She had been given the name Jangmi when she first entered the castle as a way of signaling that she no longer had agency over herself. It was her name now and she didn’t remember what her name was before either. That identity that she had was a distant memory that she didn’t want to revisit if she could help it—that person in the memories was long gone and dead—and she hoped it stayed that way.

“The queen has died.”

There was silence.

“I know,” King Jaehoon replied finally, a pointed look on his face. “Your point?”

He looked neither heartbroken nor weary. He looked like he had just been told that the weather was awfully nice today.

Jangmi rolled her eyes at him. “Must I spell everything out for you?”

He just sneered in response, prompting her to continue with her proposal.

“The throne beside you is empty,” she said without waiting for a beat. “I am definitely one of the best candidates for the throne beside yours, seeing as my son will be next-in-line, if Woohyun dies in war.”

Silence again.

“I believe that there are more pressing matters at hand,” King Jaehoon finally said, giving her a dismissive wave. “I will only entertain this talk after the war.”

She glared at him, looking not anything like her namesake, with much poison and resentment.

“Isn’t it better to do so now so the civilians won’t cause fuss? Everyone is on their toes with the war that a mistress being coronated as queen won’t even make anyone bat an eyelash.”

He gave an equally icy glare back, “The people will feel unrest from coronating a queen so soon—and especially when any healthy man above the age of 16 summers is being sent off to war. They will question my priorities as king.”

She just sneered in response, wanting to say a biting response to what he has said but thought otherwise. She did not want to push her luck too far, for he had an explosive temper that was incomparable to anyone else that she knew.

She gave him a small curtsey as she stood up, “See you soon, my dear.” She blew him a small air kiss.

Fixing the arrangement of her dress train, she walked out of the office chambers of the king, feigning an air of importance as she passed the guards.

Her lady-in-waiting was waiting for her at the entrance of the King’s quarters. She gestured at the young lady who immediately curtseyed and greeted her, shivering in fear as she did so. Her lips curled upwards in satisfaction. There was no point in fostering trust and loyalty with your subjects. Fear had always been a lot more suitable for getting things done on time.

“Find my son for me. It’s time he’s seen his mother after half a decade.”

She gave a careless flick of her wrist, making the servant shy away and whimper. She grinned at that. “Hurry, now.”

Jangmi sneered, “Before you regret being this slow.” Understanding the veiled threat, the servant’s eyes widened in fear and she scurried away like a mouse being hunted by its predator.

--

Sungyeol had never been hated as much by everyone in the kingdom as he was now, when he was younger. Had it been him years ago, he would have been deeply wounded. But he has grown up now and has seen how the world really was like—a dog-eat-dog world where there was no mercy for anyone. So, he didn’t care for what others thought of him anymore, and behaved just as bad as they thought he was. There was no point in trying to prove anyone wrong and he was sick of the world.

There was no such thing as second chances and people didn’t care for the truth for they reveled in false rumours that were compellingly interesting.

So, he decided that there was no point in being kind to anyone—and he decided to abuse his power like all the others before him. He summoned the Kim Clan often because he always found himself getting into trouble in the kingdom and obviously the people didn’t like him a lot and spoke badly of him.

Sunggyu, the creepy fire-wielding vampire, was his primary assistant who made sure that people were still scared of him. Sungyeol personally found the vampire horrifying and he would hate to have known what happened to the people that were ordered to be assassinated by his father.

Sungyeol didn’t quite dabble into the Kim Clan politics because it just wasn’t his business, but he garnered that Sunggyu was just like him and was not very well-liked in his clan. He’d overheard some of the vampires gossiping about his half-blood status. While it may not seem like so, Sungyeol liked Sunggyu more than he let on. He could even daresay he really respected the fire-wielding vampire. However, he wasn’t keen on letting it known to anyone. After all, he didn’t want anyone to know that he was playing favourites of any kind.

He’d noticed a change in Sunggyu recently and realized that it had something to do with Woohyun, his own half-brother, one night he’d been wandering in the kingdom, drunk out of his mind. Sungyeol seldom called on Sunggyu because of that. The vampire used to very much enjoy torturing people to fill up his time but Sungyeol garnered that he’d lost his interest in such. Sungyeol didn’t have friends; he had no need for such, but he liked Sunggyu more than he liked others.

He could only bitterly muse that it was Woohyun’s healing touch on everything and everyone he encountered in his life that caused the change in Sunggyu.

Sungyeol had no interest in making the vampire doing things that he didn’t want to do—after all, the last thing he really wanted to do was to cause tension between himself and the vampire that was there to serve him. Sungyeol had no idea how his father got away with yelling and cursing at the Kim Clan members all of the time and even kicking them, but he had no interest in being assassinated by anyone and especially Sunggyu.

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