𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐃𝐎𝐌

𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗼𝗻𝗲.

王国

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Merciless.

    Ruthless.

    Cold-blooded.

That was how King Duran Matheson of Ophnelia was described ever since he completely obliterated his entire family in a bloody massacre to take control over the throne and the kingdom. Using his vast amount of wealth and power, he scoured the land with his dreaded legion of knights and wiped away any and all resistance to his reign. He was a dreaded man, but a good king to his citizens. However, he did not hesitate to strike against those who took any of his mercy for granted, his very name sending chills down any type of perpetrators's spine due to his infamy throughout the land.

    He was not one to be made into an enemy.

    Unfortunately, the young nation of Ushien did not seem to understand, waging war against Ophnelia when Duran killed one of the visiting ministers who was rumored to have poisoned the young monarch's wine in hopes of removing him from the throne. Ushien wished to dispose of such a bloodthirsty tyrant and nip the problem in the bud, but Duran had been the victim of a many assassinations, and some measly poison was not enough to do him in.

    Ushien thought they stood a chance since they were a larger country and with a bigger army.

    But they vastly underestimated Duran.

    He launched a relentless, two day attack against Ushien's border forces and completely pushed them back to the capitol, forcing not just the army to its knees, but the king as well. Servants and officials ran around trying to do everything they could to stifle the fire and secure the castle, but it was to no avail of course, as Duran easily made his way inside. Gesturing at everything and everyone, yelling at them to get down while directing his knights to kill all those that defied him, he quickly found and gathered up the royal family.

    That was when he made them grovel.

The sniveling King pleaded for mercy, his Queen beside him with her head lowered, and their son, the Prince, staring up at Duran with utter hatred burning in his eyes.

    Duran despised each one of them.

    Beheading the royal family and then those that did not subject to his rule, those that weren't were then taken in as prisoners of war. A young maid by the name of (Y/N)(L/N) was one of those prisoners. Even with the castle of Ushien burning down all around her, she stayed calm. She did not cry nor make a fool of herself unlike the rest of the maids and servants. All she did was stare straight ahead with a blank expression that was unreadable.

    Currently, she and the others were forced into a wagon with bars that ensured none of them escaped, the horse being whipped into motion to carry them all the way back to Ophnelia where they were likely to spend the rest of their lives serving their new king.

    "This can't be..." one of the maids whispered, pulling her knees to her chest and rocking herself slowly. "This can't be..."

    She was quite pretty with brown hair that framed her face in bangs and fell over her shoulder in a ponytail. Her skin was a light olive shade that went well with her soft green eyes, the rims unfortunately quite red from how much she had been crying. She was shaking and looked quite fragile, as if the wind itself could blow her over, her face smudged with ash and her uniform dirty from being forced to the floor.

    (Y/N) felt pity for the woman.

    Scooting over to where she was, she wrapped a hand around her shoulder and brought her in close, an action that wasn't rejected.

    The woman—who's name was eventually learned to be Juliya Aslan—cried into (Y/N)'s shoulder for almost the entire journey, only ever stopping when she fell into an exhausted fit of sleep or was eating the measly bread and drinking the cup of water that was provided only twice a day.

    Eventually, they reached Ophnelia.

    If not for their situation, (Y/N) would have described the kingdom as quite breathtaking, the cobblestone roads leading into many variations of towns with their own unique flare. Finally, they were escorted through the wrought iron gates of the castle that stood tall and large with intimidating grey stone towers and walkways infested with guards. Within the servants' quarters, the men were led down one corridor while the women were led down another. The women arrived in a separate room where they were allowed to bathe, most nervous about stripping in front of others, but soon did so to feel the grime and blood and dirt from that day wash down the drain.

    After everyone was finished, a row of maids in obsidian uniforms presented them with fresh undergarments and nightgowns before being led to their designated rooms. (Y/N) and Juliya were assigned to a room with one other girl, she introducing herself as Mari Somoyagi and that she had worked under Duran for about a year then.

    Since the moon was already high in the sky and the head maid—a woman dressed in a midnight blue gown instead of black—already informed them that they were to be woken at five A.M. sharp, (Y/N) merely checked the contents of the trunk at the foot of her bed before going to sleep. She saw a toothbrush and toothpaste, a normal hairbrush, women products, a bar of soap, several pairs of undergarments, and a fresh uniform.

    Letting out a satisfied hum, she shut the lid and slid under the rather scratchy covers of her bed to sleep like she had promised herself.

    But it didn't come as fast as she wanted.

    With Juliya's constant tossing and turning and occasional sniffles, along with just her own thoughts, (Y/N) was kept awake for quite some time. She recalled the blazing inferno that had leapt around her, the blood spray from those that were cut down, and then the ferocity within Duran's piercing dark eyes when their gazes locked together.

    I wonder...

    As she started to drift, one final thought entered her mind before everything went black.

    ...will I be able to serve him?

⎡ 𝑻𝑶 𝑩𝑬 𝑪𝑶𝑵𝑻𝑰𝑵𝑼𝑬𝑫 ⎦