The King's Dancer

Chapter 1

Hi guys!
I just want to clarify again that this will be a revised version of The King's Dancer, but that does NOT mean everything will be vastly different. There will be some rather significant changes in some chapters, while there will only be some grammar corrections in others. The point of this revision is to improve readability, get rid of mistakes and attempt to change it into the version I've had in my head from the beginning but couldn't pull off at the time. So we'll see how that works out ^-^;

AN EVEN MORE IMPORTANT UPDATE:

I realised that maaayyyybe I miscalculated how long it's taking me to revise The King's Dancer so I'll re-publish the whole story and just keep you up to date in the summary with how many chapters have been revised out of the 31 so... yeah. My bad 😅

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the new scenes and overall revisions as much as I do :)

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Xie Lian dragged his feet in the sand, barely able to keep himself upright while walking. He could feel the events of the last few days catching up with him, and it left him beyond exhausted; physically as well as mentally.

Just last week his life had been fine, the only worry he had was the fact that he was an omega, and therefore couldn't inherit his father's throne. He never really minded, because he felt his calling was on the battlefield anyway. While it was true that omegas in the military weren't exactly common, it wasn't forbidden for them to join if they had the physical capabilities to keep up.

Xie Lian had trained with the sword since he could remember, and was a natural talent when it came to fighting, no matter if it was hand-to-hand combat, sword duels, or archery. He was the top fighter and earned himself the title of Senior General when he had been 17, just last year. It put him right at the top, with only his father outranking him. Some older alphas in the military weren't exactly happy about it, but eventually even they had come around and admitted to his genius, not only regarding fighting capabilities, but also when it came to strategy.

However, his physique as an omega was limited; he wasn't able to become as muscular and bulky as other top fighters in the army were.

When he was younger it had frustrated him to tears, though when he got older and earned more experience on the battlefield, he learned how to use it to his advantage. That was, once he had realised his opponents tended to underestimate him, simply because he was lithe and slim. Xie Lian was definitely not above using deception in a life-or-death battle, so with time, he'd actually become grateful for his deceiving appearance. Disregarding this advantage, his skills were highly developed, even to the point where he hadn't lost a single fight since he was thirteen. It was an achievement he had been exceedingly proud of.

But everything had changed last week.

Xian Le had been invaded by the neighbouring kingdom of Yong An. There had been no previous indications that war was on the horizon; no political demands, no warnings, no triggers. It was as if the king of Yong An had just suddenly decided he wanted to take over Xian Le, and had invaded on the same day. Xie Lian still didn't understand what the motive was, other than expanding one's own territory. Which was something that could have been discussed in a proper manner; his parents had always wanted to avoid violent confrontations whenever it was possible.

No matter how much Xie Lian enjoyed fighting, war was a whole different matter altogether. He never wanted any of the civilians to come to harm; the whole purpose of the army was to protect them after all, and nobody deserved the suffering that war always brought with it, least of all his people.

Yong An didn't have any of Xie Lian's scruples regarding war however, and caught Xian Le completely unprepared. Everyone in their military had done their best to fight back as quickly as possible, but the enemy had already been far into Xian Le's territory by the time the main forces in the capital had noticed the invasion, and thus they had been fighting a losing battle from the beginning.