Two Kingdoms | Park Sunghoon

38

Despite time being minimal, the distraught teenager fought through the tangled thoughts to find a solution, still staring out the window watching as her army charged forward. She couldn't persuade herself to pay attention to the battle so she wouldn't have to witness her army being outnumbered and obliterated, yet another reason stayed buried deep in her heart: if Sunghoon was out there, anywhere, she didn't want to see him get hurt.

That's when she reminisced upon her words, coming to a sudden realisation of what she had to do. Psychotic. Possibly even sociopathic.

"I would do anything for my kingdom."

Those words were about to make a comeback, in the most unexpected way. A method not even Aeri herself would've thought upon.

Reaching for the flaming torch hung upon the wall, she took a deep inhale. Her heart thumping against her ribcage and her body once again shivering in discomfort.

The woman slowly descended the stairs of the minaret, entering the corridors once again. The castle was oddly silent, yet the chaos from outside the doors vibrated through the floors and walls. Slowly, she grazed her hands along the cold stone walls stopping once she reached the portrait.

The portrait that started it all. 'The family picture.' That's what it was called. Though it never did live up to its name. Aeri's definition of her family included her beloved mother who she believed communicated with her from the heavenly skies above. Yet to her father, only the living mattered no matter how precious that person was. Let alone a 'wife only made for breeding': his exact words. She hated the painting, but her father had it permanently stuck to the wall after Aeri's countless failed attempts to remove it.

She chuckled disapprovingly, dropping her head low.

"I never break my word. I'll do anything for my kingdom." She whispered, lowering the arm holding the torch to the painting.

A gust of hot air immediately radiating to her face. Like the unfurling petals of a flower, the flames engulfed the painting, and soon spread to the rest of the corridor. Running down the back exit, she felt light beaded and defeated. The once confident and egotistical ruler was gone and the defeated, cowardly persona had entered her body. Removing her sword from its case, she painfully threw it into the flames nearing her rapidly.

"If I am to be a coward, I am to do it right." She muttered before running down once more, exited the door and racing into the forest.

Breathless. Lost. Hopeless. she watched a the kingdom burned to an ash in front of her, Hot tears streamed down her numb cheeks. She had lost everything: her heritage, her castle, her people and her army. But none set her heart aflame as much as the loss of herself. Deprived of sensation, she wrapped herself in her dark, waist-length robe. She placed her hand onto the empty sheath still hung on her side, feeling the embroidered designs. The gold roses and vines. She chose that specific design as she thought it symbolised her. A rare, soft hearted flower who needed to be in the arms of a lover, yet having many vines and thorns on her outside.

"I would do anything for my kingdom even if I had to end it to save it." The Queen assured herself as she watched from the safety of the forest. Observing the amber and red embers sparking and sizzling in front of her, sparks flying up into the air, engulfing her beloved kingdom. She plastered a painful smile on her face, tears streaming down as she sobbed into her hands. Somehow, she hypothesised that the pain she experienced through this would be less than watching her kingdom die down at her command. Having to live through the guilt and slander due to be received seemed worse than her current feelings. Unfortunately, she came to realise only now that she was very wrong.

If only Aeri had stayed and used her military minded brain to formulate a strategy. If only she had gone to fight herself, giving the army the motivation to strive through the battle. If only she realised her mistake. If only she knew she was being toyed with.

Her head immediately shifted to Sunghoon, rage and revenge overflowing from every corner of her body. Her heart cried along with her eyes, not out of pain but of unsatisfactory anger. His damned, monstrous soul would never be forgiven, even if and when his body is six feet into the ground, disintegrating; just as he disintegrated her love.