Euthanasia

Chapter Six- Kill the Roots to Kill the Flower

...The Blade...

I was already emperor when the Blood King came to power in our neighboring kingdom, Aerith, a week's worth of travel away from us. My father was a careful ruler, who was always thoughtful and rational, one who taught me about peace and forgiveness. Upon his death bed he instructed me to always be kind and to rule like a respectable monarch should. To do what I thought was right for the people and most importantly, to be honorable.

Though I didn't sovereign alone, like my enemy did, we both had one thing in common. We suffered through loss. We both stared death in the eyes as he pulled the life away from one person, we loved the most. The only difference was that I learned to control my emotions. That was where we differed. I was guided by sympathetic hands; the Blood King was not. He suffered, and so he shared his agony with his people. I had my mother to thank for the empire's wealth and overall peace, and the fact that I hadn't been crushed yet.

Therefore, when I heard of a kingdom so remarkably broken, so unusually withered, I felt angered. My mother kept my audacious actions situated at bay for as long as she could, but eventually something swayed my decisions. An offer I couldn't resist was brought upon me. That began my brutal onslaught on Aerith Kingdom, one which I thought I could effortlessly win, but because of multiple geological disadvantages, it was proving much more challenging than I originally thought. The river which divided our land was heavily protected by Aerith knights, making it more than difficult to cross.

This was the only reason we hadn't completely taken over the kingdom. But soon enough their defenses would break, and I would come out of the war victorious. I would destroy the people in the palace, everyone who worked with the king. Then I would destroy him too. Killing the king wasn't ever part of the offer, but I altered the rules for the prosperity of my own empire. The Blood King was too dangerous, too threatening to be kept alive. And if he was dangerous, then so was everyone else that lived in that palace.

Recently, I had heard that the king had a new second. The King seemed close to him, like it was a relationship kept confidential, something I thought would never happen to someone like him. Maybe he was a killer too, am executioner just like the king was. The only way I could imagine the Blood King keeping someone that close was if he was just as dangerous or worse. Or... maybe... just maybe, for once he didn't push everyone away, and he tragically discovered friendship or found someone who understood him in ways many people could not.

I decided to go with the fact that he was probably dangerous, though word had spread that he was compassionate and sympathetic, molding the king into something much more cordial than he was said to be. I couldn't believe those rumors though. I was already planning on killing them both. Knowing that the king's second could be making him into less of a killer would make it harder to force the blade into his heart when the time came. And even if he was convalescing into a better king, it wasn't any sort of valuable explanation for me not to execute him.

Everything else aside, I already had a plan. I agreed to a reunion on the Aerith border. I figured that they had some sort of plan to kill me there, but I created a counter. It was something they would never see coming. I only had to wait two more weeks until my plan could unfold.

But the days passed languidly; slow and somewhat quiet. I sat in the middle of the garden, alpine prickly cactuses sprouted from the sand and small succulents grew in large groups. But they were not what made the arid gardens so beautiful. It was the desert lily's, which gave the desert its name. Their delicate white petals dripped from the jade stems like liquid silver. It was a protected flower, one that represented the desert culture.

As I sat, in a silent stillness, I was grounded, in control. I spent a lot of time like this. It helped me keep harsh thoughts at bay, cleared my mind. It especially helped me when I tended to overthink every decision I made. I was always confident in myself when I was around people, but little did they know, I was unsure of every choice I made. It took me weeks to finally feel satisfied with the arrangement to kill the Blood King.