Red Royal Flush

I. Royal bastard

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"Your Highness, the Emperor demands you."

Zenitsu sighed. If there really was one thing he hated, it was being interrupted in the middle of his biology studies. 

"I'm in the middle of something, can't you tell? The Emperor shall wait."

The blond's voice was distant, even haughty. He knew he could do that. The pros and cons of being a prince.

But there were much more relevant things than the Emperor, or whatever concerned nobility in general. The drawings in front of him, scribbled by foreign ancestors on yellowing pages, were a proof of that. 

However, the guard didn't budge.

"You're not going to leave, are you?" he asked.

"Not until you follow me, your Imperial Highness." As if to prove his authority, the guard flashed a letter at him. The blond glanced at it. There was no doubt, it was the Emperor's crisp writing. 

"It's a case of absolute emergency!"

"Absolute emergency my ass..." the blond groaned, stretching his arms out. The guard gave him a reproving glance. Zenitsu liked to think that he probably wanted to object, to disagree with such behavior. But he was a guard, merely a tool. It spared the blond some useless remarks. "Well, what are you waiting for? Let's go." 

And so they went, walking through the endless corridors near the library, rediscovering for the tenth thousand times the cypress aligned outside the imperial quarters, coming across a dozen servants rushing past them after having respectfully bowed down in Zenitsu's honor. Zenitsu hated it. It made him uncomfortable. 

At last, they arrived in front of a large, imposing door, designed just to do that: impress visitors. The blond felt physically repulsed by it. If the Emperor was really so mighty, why would he need to prove it by building a fucking twenty feet tall door? 

"Your Highness," declared the guard, "I'll be leaving you here. I can't go further. But I trust... 

"Yeah..." sighed Zenitsu. "I promise I won't be running away at the speed of light... I've done it enough times to know it doesn't work."

The guard nodded, bowing down before taking his leave. This is why I never come near them, thought the blond irritatedly. They always act like they don't know... 

He sighed again, as if less oxygen inside his lungs would help. Well, no oxygen would certainly help... Let's get this over with and go back to my books. 

As he pushed the handle, the door opened in front of him, revealing the glistening chandelier and the red embroidered silk carpet leading up to the throne. Gold and marble pillars, bathing in sunlight filtered by glorious arched windows, reflected the height of the Emperor's power. Everything was gargantuan. Sickening. Distasteful.

"It took you long enough."

The Emperor's tone sent shivers down Zenitsu's spine. He was sitting on his throne, towering over the room with all of his power. But the blond wasn't going to give him the honor of being intimidated. He acted unfazed, making his way through the room. Imperial guards were aligned on each side of the carpet, tall and immobile.

"You know your guards look like the cypress outside?" Zenitsu joked.

"I find this hardly amusing considering your uselessness in my court."

"I'm not the one who adopted myself, as far as I can remember."

Zenitsu stood a few feet away from the Emperor and his throne. A reasonable distance to keep, even for the 'prince'. On paper, it was a sign of respect. Truthfully, Zenitsu kept this distance to avoid the repulsive scent of his adoptive father: Emperor Masahi.