Chapter 2: Mourning
1519 Words
Chapter 2: Mourning
Third Person’s POV
The sunny skies of the whole Regin kingdom seem to serve as the mockery of the gods for the untimely death of their beloved King Nurim.
The crowd of the kingdom’s officials and nobles outside the royal chamber stood in a dumbfounded stupor as they heard the sorrow-filled cries of the crown princess from the other side of the door.
“D-Does this mean that the king is…”
A duke that is somewhat related to the royal family did not dare to continue his speculations.
The death of the ruler cannot be casually talked about by anyone even if it is true, or else they might be charged with treason and doom their whole family along with them.
“How could something like this happen?”
The eastern general mumbled in a daze.
He cannot accept the fact that the honest and upright king that he follows, will suddenly contract an unknown illness and die helplessly with no other choice to survive or to be cured.
The gods must be blind to let the only righteous king that ruled the Regin kingdom out of all the kings of the past to suffer like this and die in the prime of his existence.
There are many of the officials and aristocrats that are wearing despondent and gloomy expressions, but there are also a few that are hiding their bubbling glee and presence in the corners of the crowd.
Although it is true that the king is beloved by the commoners and aristocrats, there are also a collect few individuals that does not like his rule, especially the greedy nobles that like to squeeze every drop of resources and gold from the citizens.
The current tax of the commoners on their lands is too small for them to bite, chew and spit, and it is all because of the so-called sympathy of the king who decreed them to lessen the tax of their inhabitants.
It is the feeling of unwillingness when a mosquito wants to suck all the blood of every human that it sees, but there is a firm net that stands in its way and forbid it to eat its fill.
The feeling is maddening and painful for the desires in their hearts, but now that the net is on the verge of destruction, it really lifted up their spirits like the sudden descent of rain on a thirsty barren land.
The creaking sound of the royal chamber’s door collectively grabbed the attention of all the officials and aristocrats present on the scene.
A royal physician wearing a detailed white robe strode out of the room and sternly faces the crowd with a sunken and grim expression on his wrinkled oily face.
“Esteemed royal physician, what is the current condition of the king?”
The eastern general asked in trepidation as his knuckles turned white from gripping them in a deadly grip.
He is still not going to believe the suspicions that he have in his heart and he wants to hold on a tiny flicker of hope that the king will be saved.
The royal physician sighed deeply and shook his head slowly while the wrinkles on his face seem to deepen, and he looked like he grew older in that moment that even the hairs on his temples whitened.
The royal physician’s expression carried dark clouds of lightning that penetrated and destroyed the last and tiny hope of the crestfallen crowd.
The eastern general felt dizzy and his stout figure deflated in but a second.
He does not want to believe, but the truth is waving at him mockingly.
The loss of the king means that the whole kingdom will mourn and kneel in the direction of the royal palace for nine days and nine nights without rest.
Mourning the king is but a small matter to the repercussions that will arise with his death.
The crowning of a new ruler will be complicated, but the real problem is the presence of the vipers hidden in the dark, because they do not know when those vicious reptiles will decide to bite and corrode the peaceful kingdom with their poisonous hearts.
The sudden predicaments arouse the spirit of the eastern general.
He had promised the late king that he will protect the royal family if any unforeseen incident comes to light.
He would never have known that he will really need to fulfill that promise in this lifetime.
The eastern general is named Kiros, and he is an orphan that the king decided to shelter, educate and train for the reason that Kiros’ deceased parents are the servants that served the king when he was still a child, and that they unfortunately died as heroes who saved the 9 year old king Nurim of the past from assassination until the royal guards arrived at the scene.
It could be said that the royal family and Kiros’ family is related one way or another because of the mysterious lines of fate.
“The royal family will announce the king’s condition to the public on the capital square at noon tomorrow.”
The royal physician said aloud as he looks at the crowd of officials and aristocrats with a complex glint in his eyes.
He does not know the illness that took the king’s life, but he can guess that it is artificial and maybe the doings of any of the person in front of him.
The royal physician does not dare to recklessly spout his speculations.
His years of experience in the royal palace opened his eyes to the cruelty and complex relationships inside it.
Inside the royal palace, blood is just another type of liquid, especially for the descendants born by the royal consorts of the king.
The royal family only refers to the queen and her conceived children of the king, as it does not include the lowly consorts.
The children born from the royal consorts are given the title of prince and princess, but it is just empty authority with not land and they are only given their monthly stipend by the royal treasury.
The Regin Kingdom’s tradition is rock solid, and it only allows the first born of the king and queen to be the sole heir to the throne, without a care for gender.
It will bring a great calamity to the royal physician and his family, if the information that he knows falls into possession of the wrong hands, thus he decided to shut his lips tight and never breath a word about it.
He will just let everyone speculate the king’s illness as a curse or something other than risking everything he has.
The crowd left the royal palace with heavy steps. They could only wait for the announcement the next day, and speculate to themselves the consequences of the early change of the ruler of the throne.
The next day, the sky is overcast with dark gloomy clouds that seem to reflect the current mood of those who knew the death of the king.
Nem Asteria dazedly sat upon her bed filled with expensive animal fur to make her comfortable even in her sleep. Her deep scarlet hair hung loosely on her drooped shoulders messily, and her hands are now pale with the lack of blood flow, because of the unmoving grip she has on the fur underneath her.
Her current look cannot be associated with the pure, bright and stunning self as the crown princess. The death of her father is like a thorn that drilled its way in her insides while twisting it slowly with no way to stop.
Mourning her father is still not sinking on her hazy mind, but a couple of palace maids entered her room and dressed her up nicely in an embroidered simple black gown like a wooden doll without any reaction.
Nem did not know how she was able to safely arrive to the capital square without an accident in her disordered state of mind, but the voice of her mother woke her up and the thousands of citizens looking at them with confusion from the rock platform that they are standing gripped her heart in realization.
She forgot that she still needs to face the reality and responsibility of being the next ruler of the whole kingdom and the tens of thousands of its inhabitants.
“King Nurim, the eight king of the Regin kingdom has returned to his ancestors.”
This is the only sentence needed to plunge the thousands of citizens in cries of shock and misery, but they did not forget the presence of the royal family and they immediately muffled their cries.
“Nine days and nine nights, we will kneel facing the tomb of the kings and ancestors in the royal palace, and we will all dress in black to mourn our king.”
The queen’s firm voice that betrays her inner agony resounded in the whole square, and the mourning of the whole kingdom started with the first drop of the foreboding rain.
- Writer
