The Infernal King | 1 ✓

CHAPTER XXXVI | BLEEDING HEARTS OF THE LIVING

       DUSK CAME AND went, and a new dawn emerged. The sun ascended over the horizon and took its rightful place in the sky, embedded in blue among the clouds. The stars faded and then vanished altogether as the sun cast its radiance across the sky. The moon struggled to remain afloat, drowning slowly until it was finally swallowed by Heaven's ocean.

Sunlight stained with shades of pink and orange trickled in through windows and the cracks beneath doors. Wind rustled leaves and created ripples on the surface of water.

       Human beings were living and breathing and dying. Some bled out through their skin and pores, and some bled from their hearts—for living is bleeding, and bleeding is dying. Somewhere, escaping mouths were screams of anguish and pain. Somewhere else, people were laughing their precious little sanities away. Pride and greed and wrath stole into battlefields like deadly plagues, drawing in victims and perpetrators with nothing left to distinguish between the two. Feverish sickness crept into households and left with dozens of helpless souls.

Everything was exactly as it had been before. Exactly as it should be.

       Flowers blossomed and withered.

       Hearts broke and mended.

       Stars exploded.

       But it could not be denied that something had changed between the king and his prisoner.

That was why, when Maarit joined the king for breakfast in the dining hall and found him staring intently and ferociously at a scroll, eyebrows pulled together tightly, she was not filled with hatred. In fact, she felt something akin to endearment upon seeing the confusion at whatever he was reading swirling in his eyes. She had even grown accustomed to the guardsmen that were always at his side. She didn't see them at all. She saw only the king with a nearly comical expression gracing his countenance.

She sometimes wished to return to the ordinary world. The same world that was filled with poverty, sin and hunger also happened to possessed love, happiness and the scarce, ephemeral little moments in which one closed one's eyes and thought, Yes, this is it. This is what I have endured my suffering for. And if I am to die right now, at this very moment, it would not feel quite so tragic. Sometimes, she wondered if she'd ever feel that again.

But her desire to leave the castle and part ways with the king was not quite as strong as it had once been.

       She had next to nothing to return to. She hadn't had a home in a long while.

       "What is that?" she asked curiously, referring to the scroll he held, forgetting to greet him. Though Maarit enjoyed sitting at the end of the table due to the fact that it made her feel like she herself was a monarch, she slid into the seat at his side instead.

       "Good morning to you too, darling," he scoffed playfully. "Don't I get a polite greeting?"

       "We've been over this. I don't greet anyone politely, and I only say 'Your Majesty' ironically," Maarit told him with a small smirk. "Come on, what are you reading? You seem quite confused by it. If the words are too complex for you, I'd be happy to explain it to you very slowly."

       Theodoracius's gaze trailed over her. His eyes softened for only an instant before he sighed deeply and said, with evident annoyance, "One of my advisors has compiled a list of things that would put me in better graces with the population. To win their favour, in a way. He seems to have quite the sense of humour. Meet with rulers of other kingdoms to maintain good relations. Win the hand in marriage of a princess. Find the cure of a plague. They all surpass the line of possibility. I don't exactly have natural charm that would make other monarchs enjoy my presence, I have no interest in princesses, and curing a plague is simply... I do not even know what he meant by that. My advisor was clearly intoxicated when he wrote this list. I'll have to kill him later."