Emperor's Bloom (Yandere!Emperor! x Female!Reader!)

01: The Palace of Iniquity

                  Warning: This story contains a yandere and themes of violence at times so please proceed at your own risk. Thank you very much and I hope you are pleased with my story.

Was this really the end for you? To think you would have to sustain such an untimely death was already upsetting enough. Or was there still some sort of hope for your survival? However, you believed that if there was such a thing as a way out of this situation then you would have still been drowning in pain.

The pain had melted away what seemed like an eternity ago, and yet you remained in this pit of darkness, so suffocatingly silent. At least before, the ruckus of the ambulance's sirens and the blurry blaring of their crimson-red and cerulean-blue lights were telling you that you were still alive.

If this lifetime of shadow was what awaited you in the future, you didn't want it. In fact, you would much rather just completely dissipate as though you had ever ceased to exist instead of keeping yourself company for the rest of time until the taciturn quietness drove you insane.

Just as these thoughts of doubt begun to plague your mind, it was as though a speck of life had dripped onto your left chest, riveting your body into movement. You took in a deep breath and felt consciousness rush through your veins like a flood of energy, overtaking your frame with vitality and soon enough, you bolted upwards, gaining enough strength to part your eyelids.

As your [E/C] eyes came to greet the world once again, the least expected thing was what greeted you. The rumbling beneath you, the sound of rocks scattering across wooden planks and stone, the distant chatter of foreign accents you had never quite heard before. All these things were already strange enough as it is, yet when your blurry vision became clear you were met with the most ridiculous sight furthest from expectation.

You came to view houses rushing by with each uncomfortable bump you endured, in a rectangular shape with chestnut veranda posts holding up a roof made of charcoal tiles that were as dark as lacquer, gilded at the edges with gold that seemed to hold the sunlight itself. The roof tiles met at the highest point of the roof where a large ridge extended in a scarlet rouge and ink-black colour that matched well with it. The walls were made of a material painted over with murals depicting different things depending on the house, yet they all seemed to follow the theme of nature. The houses also had latticed windows with matching sliding doors leading out to a coffee-coloured, wooden veranda.

It was difficult to see any finer details but the houses all seemed fairly similar, with mainly magnolia and bamboo trees decorating their front gardens, leading to the low-risen walls fencing off the estate's land. As you continued to take in your surroundings, you took note of the fact that you were on a horse, sat sideways yet held securely in place by fairly muscular arms on either side of your body as the owner stretched forwards to keep a tight grip on the reigns.

You nervously felt your heart skip a beat as you looked up to the stranger, who glanced down at you for a moment, their brown eyes like hues that held their memories, as light-hearted as a child's playtime yet steady and firm like an elder's final steps. Just from that glance, you yearned to look into their eyes once again, as they seemed to tell a story of their own, like a window straight into the young man's soul. You wanted to know more about this person immediately.

"It seems you have awoken. I would have expected you to be restless today, rather than fatigued. I must admit though, you look so peaceful when you're asleep that it feels like a sin to wake you up myself," The man confesses, his pink lips upturning into a smile. He had light brown skin, honeyed to perfection and tanned by days of tiring work in the cruel sunlight which matched well with his unruly, rich caramel strands of hair that cupped his face.