Queen Of Monsters

There were three races in this world.

The Witches' court, Karasi, was deep in the forest, the monsters' court, Rosa Idyllwood, was near the mountains, and the humans' court, Bon Sicini, was right in the middle of the land. Bon Sicini was the largest court amongst them all as the human population far outweighed the other races. There were countless hamlets and cities sprawled around and on the border was the imperial city where the royal court had been established eons ago. The city was always bustling because of the important people living there, but ever since the prince announced that he was open to marriage, the city and the court had been flooded with families and their daughters who were hoping to meet the prince and to propose to him. The congestion was only getting worse because the royal court didn't limit themselves to the daughters of higher up lords and ladies so everyone was trying their luck.

The prince gazed at the towers of invitations stacked up in front of him. He had spent hours reading the letters yet the pile just seemed to be growing even more. He sighed and he picked up yet another one from the mountain and read it. It was from a lady who was from a political family that were distantly related to the minister of war. He read the flowery words that went on about how he was the only man she had ever dreamt of; the sugary paragraphs made him frown for the umpteenth time and he crumbled the paper up and threw it in a pile of discarded proposals that was far bigger than the stack of unread ones in front of him. Though many went on about how they would be a perfect match for him, some of the other letters went into detail about how capable they would be as the future princess and the queen. He could discern from them that they truly were capable, and he knew that he was being unfair with his expectations, but none of them caught his eyes. They all were missing something.

Unfortunately, there was only one girl that could meet his requirements and so far she hadn't sent him a letter.

He had turned twenty four a few months ago and soon after the king and the queen had amped up the pressure on him to get married. Their argument was that they were getting old and they needed an heir from him to continue the royal line. Though their son was extremely talented and despite being adopted, had more of a royal aura than the rulers of Bon Sicini themselves, their rule would come to an end if they didn't have an heir to inherit the throne. It wasn't just that, the prince had always been disinterested in love and never had any lovers. One time that he had finally commented on a girl's beauty was the time he had been staring at a portrait of a monster. This had them worrying that he would end up marrying a non-human.

They finally wore him down and he gave in to his parents because he was tired of all the nagging they did. He had thought that it would put an end to his misery, but who knew it was only the beginning. The day the royal announcement went out, many ladies from all over Bon Sicini had already started to flock to the court to propose to the prince. Even the concubines of the king tried to push him to marry the young daughters of their families.

Ever since then not only he had to deal with his duties as a crown prince, but also read the amorous letters and hear women's proposals. He was getting seriously pissed off because of this, and he almost wanted to pick out a random girl and marry her just to ward off all the solicitations.

Too bad that he already had a certain someone in his heart.

He threw away the remaining proposals as well, not interested in reading any more letters from women who were going to be ultimately rejected. He ordered the servants to throw the letters away, before leaving his library to retire for the day.

---

"Wow, there are a lot of girls," Liu Lian Kai commented as he eyed the two girls giggling in the hallway. He had been in the royal palace for over a week now and he had witnessed hundreds of ladies visiting the place.

He also watched all of them being cruelly rejected by the prince.

Though he had been present beside the prince the whole time, no one had noticed him. His stealth was one of the reasons the prince had let him stay beside him and not force him to go back home.

The other reason was that he was the prince's righthand man.

The prince glanced at him coldly and walked away from the ladies before they could spot him.

"I don't like any of them." The man griped.

Of course you don't, Liu Lian Kai thought, none of them were her after all.

Liu Lian Kai stared at the girls with contempt, before turning around to follow his king. He couldn't understand how they even had the confidence to approach the crown prince of the human court. Did these fools not realize that they were mere ants in front of him? He wondered as he walked behind the man. Many eunuchs, guards and maids stopped as they passed them by and they bowed to their prince respectfully. Some of them eyed Liu Lian Kai with confusion but he ignored it. They would come up with some justification of their own, and probably think of him as a new advisor to the prince. He laughed inwardly, if only they knew what a powerful position he actually held.

"Kai, what is the situation in the forest?" The prince questioned Liu Lian Kai. He dutifully reported to the prince: "There is no current movement by the witches and that is slightly suspicious. In the past there would be one or two witches that would stray near the human border but now there is nothing. I wonder if they are up to something."

The prince sighed as he heard the news, the witches not trying to attack Bon Sicini was worrying, because it could very well mean that they were gearing up for one big attack. In that case he would have to start readying the troops as well.

He sent Liu Lian Kai to find out about the funding delegated to the human army before going back to his palace. He climbed up the grand staircase to enter his office, however, before he could go through the solid oak doors, he stopped when he heard someone breathing inside.

He glowered and his aura darkened.

The royal establishment was made up of five palaces that was surrounded by the huge imperial garden. The imperial garden was peppered with flowers, trees, small streams and lakes. It also contained many structures like the greenhouse, aviary, the gazebo that had its own secluded little garden and lake. Bordering the imperial garden was the humungous fighting grounds which was used for daily practice by the generals and the prince. The barracks where all sorts of weaponry and equipment was stored, and stables where the horses lived were also present there. Behind the fighting grounds was the huge servant quarters. This is where most of the people serving the royal family lived.

On the other hand, the palace closest to the imperial garden was the inner court where the king resided and held his court: this was the biggest and the grandest palace of them all. The second palace was the queen's private dwelling. It had been built by king Da Yu for the queen Yi Guanyu to hold her imperial parties and gatherings. The third palace was where the king's concubines and their children resided. The fourth palace was reserved for special guests and important people. Finally, the last palace was the crown prince's residence.

The residence was divided into two floors: the ground floor housed his private library, kitchen, some storage rooms, an indoor fighting space as well as a grand hall where he held daily court with the ministers and other lords. The ground floor was where anyone who served or wanted to report to him was allowed to enter. The top floor consisted of his office and bedroom. His private sanctuary was one that not even the king was allowed to enter.

This was known by everyone that under no circ.u.mstance was anyone allowed to enter the top floor, so the fact that a chamber maid had managed to sneak in had him seeing red. Nothing angered him more than knowing that his sanctuary had been breached.

He walked in and saw a n.a.k.e.d girl splayed on the table.

"My darling prince," the girl batted her eyes suggestively at him, "please consider me-"

Before she could have even completed her sentence, the prince moved abruptly. He was in front of her in a flash and wrapped his icy fingers around her delicate neck. She began panicking as she struggled to release herself from his strong grasp but he didn't relent. She tried to gurgle out something but he snapped her neck before she could even make a sound.

"Filthy," he muttered as he walked down the grand stairs to the ground floor. There weren't many people present in the building, and the prince thought that they were lucky to have successfully avoided his bad mood.

"Kai," he snapped, and the man appeared in front of him, dark eyes glancing at the corpse in his king's hand. The prince threw the body at the man and barked at him, "throw the body away and gather some people for me. We're leaving."

The prince had had enough, he needed to get away or else the entire court would suffer his wrath.

"Where are we going my lord?" Liu Lian Kai asked respectfully.

"To the forest. To hunt."