Dark Embrace [Hoseok FF] [SOF Prequel 0.2] ✔

Chapter 10

The Ministers hurried to attend the court. They were keeping their head down as they briskly walked towards the place when they felt the atmosphere and looked up. Everybody was standing still with their spine straight and their expression hidden except of the utmost respect.

For a moment fear seized the hearts of the two ministers as they thought for some reason may be the King had decided to attend the court way earlier than his scheduled time.

Nervously half sweating at the notion, they quickly glanced at the throne, to see it empty.

Puzzled, they followed the gazes of their other colleagues to find a regal man, elegantly attired in the finest of fabrics, standing in the front. His long black hair was completely tied back with a leather band, which was usually not how men in his stature went, but the expressionless face carried a hint of disdain for the rules and a mockery for people who judged.

The man stood quietly, waiting for the King to arrive, while a gentle smile occasionally lifted his lips.

Seeing him, the Ministers almost stumbled.

He was the most heroic and the most Ruthless man the entire Kingdom had ever seen, his presence and aura greater than that of the royal family.

The low whispers in the court carried with it only one astonishment. After being missing and assumed dead for 27 days, the General had calmly appeared with not even a single scratch on him, where as the best batch of Imperial Guards consisting of 32 men had disappeared.

Imperial guards were the finest trained assassins, capable of impenetrable being the defence of the King. And the best of them were still missing while their supposed lone target was pleasantly present before them.

A shudder of fear wracked the bodies of every person in the court. It was an openly hidden secret, the matter of envy and admiration the King held for the General.

The King, could not rise and remain in his position without any strife of conspiracy without the General, and he also could not live peacefully as long as the same person breathed.

The Ministers hurriedly joined the rest, "He is well. More than just that?"

Another minister nodded, "And he is smiling." His voice low he whispered, "Perhaps, today, Heads will roll."

Also established in the palace and the main channels of the upper echelons, was the attitude of Jung Hoseok. If he rigidly stood with his oppressive aura, it was considered normal, but his smile. . . .

The more dangerous he got, the colder he became was when he smiled the most.

The gentle quirk of his lips hid a savagely brutal nature, his insanity and viciousness writhing beneath the surface.

"Are you going to side with the King, if it comes down to it?" another minister made a hushed question which was met with dozens of surrounding scoffs.

No One, would ever go against Jung Hoseok. Even if it was the King on the other side.

Angering the King would only result in a swift death, crossing the General would be akin to the torture a soul would experience after death.

Never ending, cruel, violent and merciless.

Death, would be a luxury.

It was perhaps the untold truth of this era that the throne was occupied by the Royal who had the pure lineage but the uncrowned King who commanded loyalty and power was Jung Hoseok.

It was because the General did not aspire to sit on the Throne, that he was spared of conspiracies. His reach had a choke hold on people, they feared him more than respected him. But that fear, did its job to make them all faithful to the man.