Crafting The Lust

✨30✨

The administrative quarter of the palace was already alive when Hyunjin arrived.

Tall arched windows let the morning light spill over long marble tables crowded with scrolls, ledgers, and sealed documents bearing the crests of distant provinces. Ministers stood in quiet clusters, voices low but urgent, the air thick with ink, parchment, and responsibility.

Hyunjin took his seat at the head of the chamber.

The room stilled instantly.

"Begin," the King ordered, voice calm, commanding...no trace of the night lingering in his tone.

A senior minister stepped forward, unfurling a scroll. "Your Majesty, the eastern ports report an increase in foreign merchants. Silk and spice trade has risen, but so has smuggling along the river routes."

Hyunjin's fingers tapped once against the armrest. "Increase tariffs on unregistered vessels," he said without hesitation. "And assign inspectors loyal to the crown—not local officials. Smugglers thrive on familiarity."

The minister bowed. "As you command."

Another voice followed. "Taxes from the northern farmlands have fallen this quarter. Poor harvests due to flooding."

Hyunjin leaned back slightly, gaze sharpening. "Suspend tax collection there for one season," he said. A murmur rippled through the chamber. "Redirect grain from the royal reserves. A starving province breeds unrest faster than rebellion."

The scribes hurried to record his words.

Scroll after scroll was presented—border patrols, artisan guild disputes, coin minting, temple funding. Hyunjin listened to each carefully, correcting figures, questioning inconsistencies, his mind razor-sharp. This was the side of him few ever dared underestimate—the King who ruled not just by power, but by precision.

Yet, between discussions...

His thoughts betrayed him.

A flash of pale skin against dark sheets.
A breath caught too softly.
The way the painter had gone quiet beneath his hands.

Hyunjin's jaw tightened imperceptibly. As if the painter's lingering images in his head seducing him, despite the painter's absence.

"Your Majesty?" a minister prompted cautiously.

Hyunjin refocused at once. "Continue."

By the time the council neared its end, one final matter was raised.

"There is also the matter of the visitor," a councilor said carefully. "The man escorted by the Queen"

Hyunjin's gaze lifted slowly.

"He remains under royal permission," the King replied coolly. "He is not to be questioned, followed, or provoked. Any interference will be treated as defiance of the crown."

No one dared challenge that.

As the council dismissed, ministers bowing deeply before retreating, Hyunjin remained seated alone. The chamber that had buzzed with governance now echoed with silence.

A King, burdened with trade routes and taxes.

And haunted....

By a painter who had no idea how deeply he had unsettled the balance of a kingdom.

﹏

The day passed quietly for Felix. He did little more than retouch the outlines of the queen's portrait.....still nowhere near completion. The previous one had been torn apart, dismissed as the careless work of an incompetent painter, even though that had never been the truth.