The King’s Chosen Bride

Chapter 4: Childhood Trauma

It’s been seven long and hectic years since Shawn Ivan Larson ascended the throne of Australia at the age of twenty-one following the untimely death of his father, the former king Larson, in a plane crash. Although he admits internally that he was a proud and arrogant man, who looked down on almost everyone he met, that still doesn’t justify the hate he was receiving as the king in Australia.

As if it wasn’t already bad enough, he was now being thrown in the same sentence with the likes of war-hungry leaders such as Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-Un as tyrants of the present generation.

Running both the country’s internal and external affairs has not been an easy task for him to handle alone at all. He was always moody and had a terrible frown on his face almost every second of the day, due to the extreme stress that comes with being the supreme ruler of one of the most successful and famous nations on the planet.

He had a lot on his plate and his days were filled with back-to-back meetings with ministers and officials. His nights were also usually spent catching up on paperwork and reading the latest reports. It was a tedious and lonely life, but he had grown accustomed to it.

He had always known that being a king came with its sacrifices, and he had willingly made them all for the sake of his country. But these days he even lacked the zeal and will to do anything productive, he was sick of this kingdom and hated everyone in it. Why can’t these people just let him be for f***s sake?

And now he is even being pressured and forced to get a wife. A wife? He didn’t feel like he was truly the tyrant they claimed him to be if he couldn’t even have a say on the topic of his own marriage.

For the past few months, there have been incessant riots across the nation demanding the stabilization of the ongoing political conflicts which have led to a lot of bloodshed. Apparently, some top nobles and kindreds have been calling for his impeachment and removal as king.

Not that it was even possible to impeach him, but still he was deeply bothered about the whole thing and looking for a permanent solution. And according to the people, the emergence of a queen would help to cool down the tension and also give the people a newfound hope in the aristocratic system which they believe is starting to fail. Most of the annoying protestants carried posters like ‘Australia needs her queen’, and so on.

On second thought, he would have hired someone to take over the duties of the queen and get that part of the workload off his shoulders. The truth is, he didn’t even intend to get married in this lifetime, not after what he went through. To him, love didn’t exist and marriage was just a sham. 8 years ago, his first love Aurora “Rory” Williams left his heart shattered when she dumped him to start dating his older half-illegitimate brother, Arthur Larson.

Arthur was the crowned prince and set to become the future king, he was spoilt to the core and could do anything he wanted, including stealing his brother’s love. Fortunately, his karma came quickly enough as less than one year later, he died in a terrible plane crash along with their father, Shawn being the second in line to ascend the throne, became king.

His childhood was a very painful and traumatic experience that he always longed to forget. Arthur who was less than a year older than Shawn always bullied him from when they were little kids even till their teenage years, knowing their father favored him more and there would be no repercussions for his torments.

His favorite hobby was to sit and watch Shawn being beaten blue and black by his friends while laying on the hard cold floor. Shawn and his mother, Queen Ariadne was also treated like trash by his father who favored his mistress and her son, Arthur instead of them, the real family.

His father took in a mistress almost immediately after getting married to his mother. The vicious woman, Elena Clark, was from the prominent Clark noble family of Australia and even rushed to conceive for the king before his mother did. Eventually, she gave birth to the late king’s first bastard child, Arthur and after almost a year, his mother also gave birth to him.

Despite the majority of the people calling for him to be made the crowned prince instead of his older illegitimate brother, his father insisted otherwise due to his love and obsession for Elena. Unfortunately, the whole thing died down as his mother was only just a girl with no big political backing.

She was from a powerless kindred family who got together with his father by chance thinking it was love at first sight, and a Cinderella type of story, only for him to break her into a million pieces by bringing in a mistress almost immediately after their glamorous royal wedding.

Even though his mother, Queen Ariadne held the crown, for years, she was like a marionette who didn’t have a say in anything and was bullied by both palace staff and nobles almost every day till her death from an unknown illness when he was 14 years old.

After her death, Shawn was extremely depressed and heartbroken but he soon found solace in reading books and practicing his sword fighting. But no matter how much he tried, he still could not shake off the feeling of emptiness that consumed him.

That was until he met Rory Williams one year later when he was 15 and she was 13 years old. She became his best friend and childhood sweetheart. Rory’s family ‘The Williams’ were a powerful kindred family who had strong connections and ties with the nobles so they often frequented the royal palace, attending events and balls. And they had met on one of such occasions.

Their friendship blossomed for three years before they eventually started dating. Back then, she was like his new shining light and the reason for his happiness. They were each other’s first love, first kiss, and first everything. All that new love and happiness Shawn felt was unparalleled but it didn’t last for long.

Two years later, it all came crashing down when his older illegitimate brother, Arthur developed an interest in Rory. As the crown prince, he had the upper hand and used the position to his advantage.

Shawn knew that Arthur didn’t actually like Rory, he just wanted to destroy the envious relationship they shared and this was unknown by the gullible girl. Sadly, Arthur was able to easily manipulate the then-18-year-old Rory and eventually stole her away from Shawn, leaving him more heartbroken. Since then, he became angry at the world and full of scorn.