꧁꧂

Antares, a significantly mighty and enriched reign of the northern continent, was then being ruled by William Arthur, a 26-year-old young narcissistic, snobbish and extremely proud despot.

Thinking for the welfare of his subjects was certainly his least favourite matter. In the last 2 years, he hadn't stepped even for once in the remote villages nor had visited the provinces and that used to become the burning among the villagers whenever the topics for gossip were scarce.

A worthy ruler or not, His majesty Arthur was a quite relished and ambitious man who had the tendency of treating people like things.
Unequivocally, he never hesitated to go to any lengths to get whatever he fancied.

Expensive merchandise, monthly masquerade balls, feasts for Royal guests were part of his regular activities. Also, having a new woman every night into his intimate room was a daily round.

He was a king after all– a mighty and handsome one. Ladies of tons flirted with him relentlessly, either in an effort to marry him or at least to make their way to his bed. And the best-looking ones were simply prioritized- for the second one.

Every single man, from a king to a nobleman to a commoner– with or without the possession of wealth desired for wife and so did William Arthur.

On one of the royal balls held by king Francis himself, Arthur had laid his eyes on the divinity of the age and that had led him to send a betrothal proposal to the despot of Cressida.
And there had been no doubt that the Cressida king would never deny this proposal, at least Arthur had been certain about that.

However, the fruit of his waitings arrived one evening.

Sir Arthur was on an assembly with the royal officiary when the most awaited news arrived.

"Long live the king. The royalty of Cressida has sent a response to your letter, your Majesty," the royal envoy bowed and said.

Arthur's eyes sparkled and he eagerly got up from his seat and took the letter from the messenger's hand which he usually never used to do.

He instantly unrolled to parchment unsealing it and ran his eyes over the letter. A gleeful smile formed in the corner of his lips reading it.

He rolled up the parchment not dropping the smile and loftily said," You've bought the most pleasant news till to date, messenger. You shall certainly get rewarded for this."

"Guard! He should get 100 gold coins by tomorrow from the reservoir," he ordered the guard nearby.

The messenger overwhelmingly bowed so low that his nose was just inches away from the marble floor.

"Thank you...kind sire... thank you. Long live the king," he repeatedly jabbered and eventually took his leave after Arthur had succeeded in making him stop conveying his gratitude.

"Announce the news of my and the Cressida princess's betrothal in the entire reign. Adorn the entire castle like no one has ever witnessed. Everyone in this continent should be admitting that they have never seen a castle this elegant before. Also, begin making arrangements. We shall be leaving for Cressida in 3 days. Summon all the courtiers to the court in an instant," Arthur bade bulging his chest.

"As you command, your majesty." The royal butler bowed and went out to carry out the King's order.

Arthur dismissed the assembly and went to his chamber with a grin of satisfaction.

"Yn Windsor, as much as I've heard of your glorious tales, Let us see for how long you'll be able to hold this glory of yours...I know just how to tame the arrogant self of yours. After all, you're just a woman with beauty."

An evil smirk crept upon his devilishly handsome face.

༺༻

He was walking down the avenue which was going through an extreme hustle and bustle compared to other days.

Usually, it's always chaotic from the evening till nighttime but today, it looked busier and more crowded than usual.The announcement of their despot's betrothal certainly got the interest of the subjects.

Happy or not, the loud whispers and jabbering among the people showed how eager they were about this wedlock. But he was still unaware of the news and the blithering going around him didn't seem to bother him at all.

"Is that true?"

"Well, I heard so-"

"But I've heard the Cressida princess is a-a 'You-Know-What'. How could she possibly-"

The murmurs were increasing by every moment when–

"Hey! Kim! Join us in the inn, will you?" a brunet man around his age called out.

His eyes wandered in search for the owner of the voice and came at a pause when he found him.

"Not tonight Jimin. Urgent order to appear from the king." He flashed a smile.

"Oh! Isn't it supposed to be your day off? Working for the king can be inconvenient sometimes," the man named Jimin exclaimed with hopelessness in his voice.

He just chuckled and replied," Well, nothing to do about it. We are bound to obey him, aren't we? I'll see you later."

He waved and strode forward and dissolved into the crowd.

Even in the crowd of hundreds of people, his charismatic figure could hardly be unnoticed by anyone.

༺༻

Every person in the reign would confidently stake all of their wealth about that there was not a soul like him in the entire reign or even in the continent.

His luminous gentle blonde hair cascaded his forehead, fringes clandestined the cosmos of his twinkling eyes as though the tumbling locks were safeguard to his naive, buoyant soul.

His illuminating bright blue eyes, mysterious, kind and thoughtful as though the entire universe's riddles were hidden in those doe eyes.

His heart-shaped lips with his singular rectangle smile was like a swift beam of sunlight illuminating the darkest corners of the chamber.

Kim Taehyung, a 24-year-old royal armourer and courtier of the Antares region was possibly the most arcane person according to the mass.

They could not deny that he indeed was the most ethereal man, not only his outward appearance but also his thoughtful and kind self.

But they say, no matter how consummate a person is, there's always a group of people that loves to find flaws in everyone, no matter who it is. For Kim Taehyung, he too was no different. He had one flaw... He used to think differently.

Taehyung had been keen on the evolvement of women in every sphere from the very beginning, for which he had been either loved or loathed but most people had known to be a disgraceful thought.

Some reckoned that he was just a crank, who fancied to have absurd thoughts, live in his own world because he was not able to digest the reality. Some used to find him really winsome because of his personality. And some were pitiful to him as he had grown up without a father. They convinced themselves thinking probably the lack of father's affection had made him like this.

The king had become aware of the gossips about him being a wack after appointing Taehyung which definitely hadn't been pleasing to him. He too was never really fond of Taehyung. But he certainly was not thick enough to lose a trustworthy and apt man because of that.

Taehyung never had had many allies since his childhood because the parents had been afraid to let their children mix with a bizarre boy like him. The only bosom companions he had been growing up with were his mother and a close ally named Jimin.

༺༻

Taehyung reached the castle and entered the royal court where more or less all courtiers were present.

He greeted all of them and took his seat.

The courtiers were sparing him glances as if he had been a peculiar creature. Taehyung was well aware of it but he just chose to ignore it. He was used to such kind of treatment.

No one in that time ever dreamed of letting women pursue education or let them work outside the home, let alone having a discussion about it. For them, nothing could be as shameful as carrying orders from a woman.

What no one had ever dreamed of, Taehyung had been the first man ever to bring up the matter.

He had appealed to the king to give consent for female children to pursue education several times but it had gone in vain. The entire court had been against this single appeal of him. The whole matter just had been neglected like a mockery.

Some of them just had sympathized with him and some had told him to rid himself of those bizarre thoughts.

Since then everyone had started looking at him in a quite different prospect.

Taehyung was observing the courtroom when the king entered.

They all got up and bowed mouthing,
"Long live the king."

They settled down as King Arthur perched on his throne and spoke, "Well- you might have heard the pleasant news of my and the princess of Cressida's betrothment?"

They all gleefully responded as a 'yes' except Taehyung who seemed quite astonished with the news.

"So, I summoned you all here to let you know that we shall be leaving for Cressida for the holy ceremony in 3 days. Now, is there anyone who has any trouble attending it?" He glanced at all the courtiers.

As they all confirmed that they didn't have any, Arthur had a lazy discussion with all of them about random matters.

"Excellent then! Off you all go now." He broke off the assembly.

Taehyung came out of the castle and kept wandering aimlessly. He still had time to join Jimin and others in the inn but he did not feel to go there anymore.

He reached a very quiet meadow which was a little far from the central. He often went there whenever he felt to get rid of the bustle. No one usually went there and that's why it was considerably peaceful and also his beloved place.

He laid down on the soft earth that was covered with a tender carpet of green grasses.

Taehyung looked up at the inky sky draped with stars. To him, the sky looked like an endless black granite floor, as if someone had tossed diamond dust on the black sleek granite floor and it scattered here and there illuminating the dark floor.

He smiled to himself and a sudden thought peeped into his heart.

"Will I be meeting her at last?"

꧁-꧂

(This is how I have visualized Tae here)

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-pride