Queen Of Monsters

Ru Naya donned on the rest of her clothings as she ran back to the royal palace. On the way the people stared at her like she was some kind of an anomaly. However, Ru Naya couldn't really blame them for thinking that way. The capital city was full of elites and for them to see a woman wearing something other than a proper dress who was also running through the streets was an absolute bizarre sight to behold.

She kept going till she saw the royal palace in the distance. Once its gates were towering over her, she slowed down before veering towards the shadows. Like she had done earlier in the day, she studied her surroundings to look for any underling present before she could join the crowd that had grown even bigger and had become more restless. Some women had resorted to shouting and threatening intimidation at the guards for not letting them in.

The same guard who had told Ru Naya off earlier was looking more agitated as he and his partner tried to stop the people from barging in. A lady threw herself at the man and he shoved her to the side.

Ru Naya knew that the situation was getting out of the hand quickly. If the crowd went wild then the chances of her entering would become harder. However, there was nothing she could do but wait for now.

So she waited and waited, herself growing agitated and anxious as she awaited for her opportunity. Her ears perked up to listen for her cue, and she ended up hearing some fragments of angry conversations floating from the crowd.

"I can't believe Chang Miriya! I've heard rumours that she had been rejected by the crown prince, yet she dared to ignore his refusal and is still trying to propose to him! does she really think that banning women from entering would sway the prince?"

"These guards need to go and die! I am going to hit any guard I see from now on!"

Ru Naya sighed at the various snippets of bitter discussions. It was obvious from those words that the imperial troops and Chang Miriya were becoming dangerously unpopular with the gathered crowd.

She was musing to herself when suddenly she saw a guard approaching the ones that were manning the gates. She heard the words she had been waiting for and she quickly walked forwards and blended in the crowd.

As she approached the gates, she saw the guards nod at some soldiers that had walked out from behind the royal gates to replace the previous ones. Ru Naya quickly rushed through the crowd till she was standing in front of the horde just as the guards started to rotate for the changing shifts.

Once she saw the guard that had turned her away earlier walk back inside the gates, she made her move and lunged forwards.

"Excuse me," One of the new guards stopped her as he spotted Ru Naya, "Soldier! what are you doing here?"

"I'm here to guard Chang Miriya!" She blurted out suddenly.

Ru Naya could feel her palms getting sweaty as the man's gaze lay heavily on her. Oh why had she said Chang Miriya's name? Since it had been the name she had been hearing since the morning, it had just popped up in her mind. She sincerely hoped that she hadn't said the wrong person's name.

"'Lady' Chang Miriya, soldier," The man intoned harshly, "She is the future princess of the court! you can't show even an ounce of respect for her, and yet you expect me to let you go in and guard her?"

Oh no, Ru Naya's heart sank. She had offended the guard who had accepted Chang Miriya as his future princess already. What was she supposed to do now?

"My ap-apologies," Ru Naya stammered purposely to show that her remorse was genuine, but the man still glared at her.

"I'm going to go and check your identification. State your name, soldier. "

Ru Naya felt her hope dwindle away but she kept her head high. She had to show confidence in her lies or else she would be turned right away and would never be allowed enter the royal palace for deceiving an imperial personnel.

So she racked up her brain for names that she could use, and in her panic she blabbed a random name out loud, "My name is Shi Wen."

"Alright Shi Wen," The suspicious man said apprehensively, "Please wait here while I go and confirm your identity."

She waited till the man left, and once he disappeared she took her chance and dashed through the gates. Since the rotation was still going on, the other guards had not noticed that Ru Naya had been asked to wait. All they saw was a woman wearing imperial troop uniform talking to the guard who had just left. If there had been some issue then wouldn't the guard have turned the woman away? Coupled with the fact that the guards were busy keeping the rowdy crowd from invading, it became easy for Ru Naya to slip through using the chaos. She followed the suspicious guard at a distance till she saw him go inside a building that probably housed the army lodgings and the mess hall. However, Ru Naya didn't dawdle as she had to disappear before the man found out that she was an imposter.

Ru Naya's footsteps quickened as she followed a path that led her away from the building. Her heart began to beat faster as she went further inside the outer courtyard. If she was caught now then she would surely be put to death. So she wanted to hurry and find prince Jun Liyun quickly before she was spotted by anyone. Unfortunately, the people on the roads were sparse and none of them were women so it made blending in nearly impossible.

She continued marching forwards, not quite running but neither quite walking as she followed the path. It was five full minutes before she saw a building at the distance and once she realized what it was, she gasped in awe.

It was the king's court. Though she was too far to properly make out the building, she still knew it was the grand palace by looking at its sheer size.

Oh how she wanted to go near and look at the building to marvel its beauty. However, she didn't have time, so reluctantly she turned around and followed the path that led away from the king's court. She was passing by a beautiful fountain when she saw some men approaching her way. She quickly hid behind it as she waited for them to leave.

Once they had left Ru Naya continued walking, the sun was now overhead in the clear sky, and after awhile she had started to feel thirsty. She wished another fountain would come by so that she could drink from it quickly.

However there were no more fountains, only beautiful benches, murals and rocks that decorated the pathway. She touched the smooth wood that made up a warm bench, and wished she could just sit for a few minutes. She promised herself that once she was done meeting prince Jun Liyun, she would sit on one of the benches and not get up for hours.

After coaxing herself successfully, she resumed walking till she saw the path diverge in another direction. After walking for what felt like eons, she finally came across another palace. The dwelling was not as big as the grand palace but it didn't take away from it's enormous size. The two storey structure had a slanting roof that extended over the building and it was supported by evenly spaced pillars. Between those pillars were concrete bal.u.s.trades that stood in stark contrast to the many wooden doors and the dark tinted windows that lined the walls. Furthermore, Ru Naya noticed that the walls were made up of precious stones and gold inlays. Even the capitals of the pillars were made up of pure gold.

The extravagance of the building was thoroughly suited for the crown prince of Bon Sicini and Ru Naya was convinced that she was at the right place. Even a chipped piece of one of the many stones engraved in the walls would have fetched her riches that no amount of hunting animals could have gotten her.

She stepped out of the courtyard and her feet touched the hard floor of the hall. She casted her eyes away from the beautiful courtyard as she studied her surroundings further. On the opposite sides of the hall stood two huge doors facing each other: the right door was closed while the left one stood open. Right behind the courtyard, opposite of the hall entrance stood a grand staircase that had railings with intricate swirling patterns forged in the wrought iron supporting it, and Ru Naya wondered if it had been the master craftmanship of the talented blacksmith that Yan Lin worked for. The stairs led to a second floor that she was unable to view from her position.

As much as she wanted to explore the place, she had to look for prince Jun Liyun first. To do that she decided to start with the wall that had the open door in it.

Her shoes clacked in the empty hall as she walked towards the open doorway. She peeked inside to make sure that it was safe for her to enter and her eyes widened as she realized what room it was.

She had found prince Jun Liyun's personal library.

She stepped inside the room and immediately her nose was invaded by the comforting smell of old and new books. The enormous library had rows and rows of bookshelves that were stacked up with all kinds of books. Except for one, the walls that enclosed the library also had massive bookshelves that spanned as high as the towering walls itself. The wall opposite to the library's entrance was empty except for the enormous window that almost extended from the floor to the ceiling. The huge window had colourful glass frames bordering it and the sunlight streamed through the glass which gave the room a bright buttery glow. Ru Naya looked around in awe as she slowly walked towards the giant window. On her way, she stopped by one of the many shelves and studied the titles of the hardcover books which were organized alphabetically as well as by their subject type. For Ru Naya, the shelf she had chosen had books detailing about the different types of soils found in Bon Sicini.

She walked away from shelf and went back to the main aisle. She was dazzled by the room as she ambled towards the big window. Finally, she stood under the glass and watched as the different colours bathed her entire body. She played around with her fingers as green, blue and, red colours dyed her soft skin.

Once she was done, she looked up to study the ornate window and realized that it wasn't made up of just random stained glass, but rather they had complex patterns that bordered the window. However, there was one pane of coloured glass that was different from the rest, as it did not have patterns, but instead had a couple holding their hands together as they stared deeply into each other's eyes. The pretty blond lady and the azure eyed handsome man looked very lifelike, and Ru Naya could even feel the wind on her skin that blew the blonde lady's hair in the window.

However, the feeling was far too realistic. For some inexplainable reason, she felt as if the scene carved in the glass pane had once been real, and that she had personally stood there looking into the eyes of the beautiful man. She could feel the loving gaze of the man on her skin, and it made Ru Naya frown. She didn't know blue eyed people, then why did she feel like this scene had happened in real life?

She shook her head, chalking up her behaviour on deliriousness that came from thirst. She turned around and started to walk back when she heard rapid footsteps from outside the door. Ru Naya quickly jumped towards one of the rows and hid herself behind the books. She peeked through the space between the books and watched as the guard from earlier run in frantically and he began looking through the bookshelves in panic. Ru Naya's heartbeat quickened as she crouched even lower to avoid the man's gaze. He was obviously looking for her after finding out that she was an imposter, and Ru Naya absolutely couldn't let him find her. So she sneaked inwards the row quietly as she tried to calm her heartbeat down to think up a solution. However, the man grew closer towards the row she was hiding in and thus, Ru Naya became even more frantic for she was close to being discovered. Suddenly, her eyes met something towards the end of the row and she saw piles and piles of envelopes and crumpled papers discard in the corner which formed such a stark contrast to the neat library. However, it was a great place to hide and Ru Naya dove forwards and hid herself in the tower of stationary. She stilled herself as the footsteps grew nearer and once they were right beside her, she held her breath and remained motionless.

She got out of the pile and sighed in relief. That was a close call for her, and thankfully the pile was here to protect her.

Now that she was safe she wondered what these heaps of paper were. Curious, she picked up a paper and saw a huge heart drawn on it, she read through quickly and realized that it was an amorous love letter addressed to the..prince?

Her cheeks reddened as she threw the letter away and picked another one up, it was similar to the previous letter and she didn't bother to complete reading it. She held up yet another one and it was remarkably alike. The repetitive love letters made it obvious that these were the hopeful ladies wanting to marry the crown prince. Since they were so ill maintained, it was clear that these had been discarded away. So many dreams of the marrying the prince lay crushed here in this place.

Ru Naya wondered why prince Jun Liyun hadn't found a suitable bride for himself despite so many prospective women wooing him.

"Is it because he is a fussy prince?," Ru Naya wondered out aloud as she kept the letters back.

"Very." An amused voice replied to her.