Queen Of Monsters

Jun Liyun returned to the royal palace late night but instead of taking rest like the other weary imperial troops that had accompanied him back to Bon Sicini, he got right back to his princely duties. He had a pile of workload to finish and usually he would be annoyed by the impending work, but at that moment he was glad to see the mountain of paperwork waiting for him. After all, the work kept his mind off of what had happened in the forest earlier today.

Unfortunately, by next morning all of his work had been completed as he had read the reports, and had attended all the meetings that had required his presence. He had also rejected the proposals from the ladies and thus he had nothing else to do. Once his daily court had been adjourned and the ministers had left, Jun Liyun sat alone in the grand hall and massaged his temples.

He really wished that he could have prolonged his work, but regrettably he had learned to be extremely efficient. He had been born a royalty and dealing with issues pertaining to the courts, politics and war ran in his blood. However, his work ethic had recently suffered because of the massive marriage proposals he had gotten, but today he had rejected all of them in a record time. Now that he was done dismissing all the ladies, there was nothing to keep him distracted from thinking about a certain pair beautiful brown eyes.

Jun Liyun sighed as his eyes roved over to a pile of discarded envelopes beside his throne. He picked up one and took out the folded piece of paper tucked inside. He toyed with the love letter and then he tore up the pretty scented paper into tiny pieces and watched the bits and pieces of the parchment gently float to the ground. Since he had been trying to prolong his work, he had actually read all the letters that had been addressed to him rather than throwing them in the trash right away. The cursive writing on the unfortunate letter had belonged to a young lady from the north who was well versed in the art of politics, and had dreams of becoming a successful politician. She had, by all accounts, makings of a good queen yet it was too bad for her that Jun Liyun didn't care about it.

No, for some reason he only cared about a disheveled girl who loved to go hunting in the forest. Free spirited, passionate and with a wild fire raging within those fierce eyes, she was an unrestrained bird soaring high in the sky, unfettered by the royalty or politics that tried to bind her to the ground.

He didn't like how he wasn't in control of his emotions and had become preoccupied by the girl in such a short period time. The words they had spoken with each other were few, yet it was all that had taken for him to become lost in his thoughts that seemed to only revolve around her. When had he gone from being glad by the riverside when she had convinced him that she was taken and therefore, wasn't one of the girls trying to propose to him, to becoming jealous when she had mentioned that she already had someone in her life later on while they were hunting?

From the time when he had started to first express himself, he had been tutored extensively on the art of controlling his emotions. The courts and its people were shrewd, and a small drop of emotion could make life a thousand fold difficult for him. Thus, he had played the part of a cold uncaring prince to keep the serpents from trying to take advantage of him. Yet what those cunning people couldn't do, Ru Naya had done it unknowingly. She had made him lose control of his feelings and made him feel an emotion that he had never known he could have ever experienced. To make the matters worse, he hadn't wanted her to know that he was envious and thus, had acted coldly to keep her distant from him, which ultimately created a misunderstanding.

However, even if he did create a misconception then why did it bother him so much? He had never felt the need to justify his actions or behaviour to anyone, since he didn't care what others thought of him. Yet seeing Ru Naya unhappy and sad had made him want to comfort the girl and beg for her forgiveness. As if these new developments weren't worrying enough, there was also the way he had felt in her presence yesterday.

He remembered about how worried he had been back when he had first rescued Ru Naya from the witch. At that point he could have simply left the bleeding girl in the camp nearby and let the other hunters take care of her. Yet he couldn't make himself leave her undefended and wounded like that and so he had carried her all the way back to the imperial campground. He didn't understand his actions then, as had it been anyone else then he would have just scoffed and left the person dying. This was not all that he did that was so uncharacteristic for him, since he had later on insisted on owing her a favour after they had first spoken to each other. He hated giving anyone an advantage over him that way because a favour owed by the crown prince was a powerful thing as the other party could ask for things that no one else could grant them. Yet he had given her the favour freely. However, before he could have even started to imagine whether she was going to ask for endless riches or power like an average person, she had used it on making him go hunting with her much to his shock. At first he had wondered why she would ask for such a simple request, yet his whole world had turned upside down during that short fateful trip. He remembered how Ru Naya had gone from a petrified girl to someone who wanted to be friends with him even though he had been nothing but cold to her. He had also found himself being honest with her about things that he couldn't talk about with anyone else as they would just use it against him. Yet he had been vulnerable despite knowing how dangerous it was, and it alarmed him.

He had met countless women and no one had made him feel the way Ru Naya did, yet the familiar pattern of feeling disarmed and comfortable so quickly was something he was privy to.

Because he knew whenever he had felt these kind of emotions for a woman. She had always turned out to be Sha Ri.

He didn't remember anything from his past lives after reincarnation, so he had been informed by the elders that Sha Ri usually reincarnated a few years after him, and they would often meet early on in their lives. Had he been in Rosa Idyllwood feeling this way about a monster, he would have been convinced that it was Sha Ri, but it didn't make sense that he was feeling this way about a human. Sha Ri was the queen of monsters, then how could even think that way for a mere human?

It wasn't like he hadn't been to Rosa Idyllwood before to look for his soulmate. Yet he hadn't found her there, no matter how much he searched. Could it be possible for Sha Ri to be not present in Rosa Idyllwood because she was here in Bon Sicini?

This lifetime, was it a human who was destined to be his lover and the next queen of monsters?

He was daydreaming when he heard a sudden clack of footsteps approaching towards his direction, and it made him snap back to the present. He looked up to see who had come to visit him.

"My king," Liu Lian Kai greeted him with a bow, and Jun Liyun nodded at the man who was clutching a nondescript file in his hand. Liu Lian Kai got up and Jun Liyun noticed that his right hand man had an unhappy expression on his face as he walked towards him to offer the folder.

He took the papers from Liu Lian Kai and glanced over them. These had been the reports he had ordered the elder to get him on their way back from the forest. The folder contained variety of data pertaining to the Ru family.

He studied the papers while Liu Lian Kai stared at his king. He had a bad feeling about the papers and Ru family in general.

Liu Lian Kai had had the same kind of bad feeling right before Jun Liyun had announced to all the elders that he wanted to become the prince of the human court. Jun Liyun wasn't the kind of king to do something like this, and that is why Liu Lian Kai had thought that his king had been joking, cause afterall, how ridiculous was the idea for the king of the monsters to become a mere prince to the weak humans? The thing was absurd yet the king's face had remained serious throughout his proposition. Realizing that the king was sincere, Liu Lian Kai had begged Jun Liyun to reconsider as his own people needed his guidance. Regardless, Jun Liyun was adamant because the humans had saved his life and he wanted to repay the favour. At this no elder could argue because all of them had failed their sacred duty of keeping their revered king safe.

Just when he had almost gotten used to the odd life, the human king Da Yu and his queen Yi Guanyu started to pressure their adopted son to get married. He had nearly murdered them for their insolence after hearing the news. How dare the puny humans try to have the great king of the strongest race betrothed to a paltry human?

How did they have the audacity to force him court anyone other than the queen of the monsters, Sha Ri?

Liu Lian Kai had served his revered queen and had guarded her through all of her reincarnations. Each time she came back she was fiercer and stronger than before. She was the perfect queen as she was both a battle genius and a political prodigy. If anyone could compete with their king then it was her.

He had been worried as queen Sha Ri hadn't been located in Rosa Idyllwood yet, and if his king did end up marrying a human, regardless if lady Sha Ri arrived at his doorsteps, he wouldn't take another wife since the king only ever took one partner every lifetime. Therefore he had to stop his king from ever marrying a human being.

However, his king had rejected every woman that had proposed to him. So he had relaxed his search for lady Sha Ri as he had almost become certain that the king wouldn't marry a human.

That was until yesterday.

Liu Lian Kai had been in the imperial campground when she had been carried in by the king. It was already odd to see king Jun Liyun carrying someone, let alone a human. He should have known at that moment that something was amiss, and that he should have killed her there and then.

King Jun Liyun had asked to meet with him after some soldiers had come and carried her to the infirmary, and he had told Liu Lian Kai about the witch he had killed. The elder had then left to examine the witch to find any clues about why the other stray witches had suddenly stopped attacking the humans.

He hadn't found anything and threw the oozing body in the lake for it to become fish food. When he had come back he had noticed that the king had disappeared somewhere. He had almost left in search for king Jun Liyun when he noticed the king coming back with the girl from earlier on trailing behind.

He couldn't even imagine king Jun Liyun liking a human girl and treating her the same way he would treat lady Sha Ri.

After they both had come back to the palace, king Jun Liyun had ordered to give him a report about the Ru family, and Liu Lian Kai, the respected elder of the monster court and the right hand man of the king himself, had been stuck with collecting data about a mere human family.

It was insulting to him, however he could only acquiesce with a bow.

Now he stood there watching his king read about a stupid human clan while worrying about the girl Ru Naya. Though, to his surprise when he had been researching about her, he found out that she had a stable boyfriend of many years. She hadn't ever been seen talking about king Jun Liyun and certainly did not look interested in becoming a princess like her elder sister was.

Regardless whether the girl was interested or not, the king was definitely interested. If Jun Liyun decided to court the girl, then how could a measly human boy stand in his way?

No, Liu Lian Kai had to stop this before it got too late!

"Your highness, I maybe be out of the line to comment on this but," He hesitated when the king's piercing eyes met his own, "I don't know what is so special about the girl you saw yesterday."

"I am rather intrigued by her." He responded softly.

"Huh?" Liu Lian Kai was confused, "Why would the great king of the monsters be captivated by a paltry girl?"

"Kai, tell me honestly. Did Ru Naya not remind you of.. her?"

The sentence made Liu Lian Kai's blood run cold.

"My lord what are you saying?" He cried out loud, "How could a human even compare to the brilliant queen Sha Ri?"

Jun Liyun stared at the elder is dismay. He knew that Liu Lian Kai hated humans and so he would deny ever seeing any inkling of semblance between Ru Naya and Sha Ri.

Though his right hand man was right cause how could a human and a monster be similar? However, Jun Liyun knew better than to not trust his intuition. Eons and eons of experience had sharpened his senses and he knew if he felt that there was something amiss about Ru Naya then there had to be something going on.

Ru Naya, he wondered, Who are you exactly?