Cursed Without A Crown

03 | The Queer Prince of Oroden

IN THE KINGDOM OF ORODEN, WESTWARD OF DRAKENWELL

Judah Locke, eldest and first acknowledged bastard son of King Drokah Rhakys of Oroden and the first part-Shade to ever reside in the Royal Oroden Palace, stood half-naked in his bedchamber, staring at his reflection.

Lord, he was fat.

Not fat, but just...fat. He really hadn't realised how much of himself he had let go. Even though his tall height made up for most of it, he still looked and felt way heavier than usual.

How this had happened so quickly, Judah had absolutely no idea. He had only spent four months in the palace since he'd been taken in by his father. And now, the man standing before him was one he could hardly recognise.

Intense light brown eyes stared back at him. That same colour dominated his skin, but his hair contrasted with a black hue. He would've been the perfect image, the glorious image, if he didn't constantly struggle with the burden of holding in his stomach to avoid looking like a pregnant goblin.

But of course, there was no way he could've prevented it. It wasn't his fault. To have at your service a vast amount of servants—people who would run across hallways just to scrape your teeth or feed you every morning—it would be insane not to take advantage of that. He was just being normal, so it was their fault this had happened to him.

Shouldn't they have known from the first week that he was so weak when it came to food? Why didn't his valet warn him earlier? The bastard. He had wanted this to happen. Probably to get Judah back for calling him a skinny beetle.

Regardless, Judah knew that one day he was going to have to lose all that weight and get back in shape.

One day.

Or maybe just someday.

Probably when he'd mastered his magic, so that he'd just snap himself back into shape. That would surely save him the stress of doing it the hard way.

Still staring at his figure, Judah moulded his belly fat with his fingers and shook his head in disappointment, thinking about how easy it had been to destroy the poor thing.

But when he looked up to assess his facial features, his disappointment quickly evaporated and gave way to a proud demeanour.

"Nobody's going to dare separate you from me, darling," he murmured, turning side to side to see more of his body. "Sure, your friends have got a bit of extra flesh, but don't let them intimidate you. Look at me now, you are gorgeous."

He pointed at his reflection and pursed his lips, narrowing his eyes while he was at it. "You...are a Shade worthy of death. Wait, no. Death is worthy of—no, that's not right either."

He paused to think on it for a moment.

"You, handsome one, are to die for. Yes, that's it." He grinned, satisfied. "You are to die for."

Judah knew he might appear insane, but he felt that he had to reassure his body lest it didn't have the encouragement to move on in life. Sure he had gained a few, but he also knew that when he smiled, it managed to absorb all the negative parts of his face and accentuate the attractive. The bastard prince might have lost his original and completely to-die-for physique, but his manly looks hadn't forsaken him. And that was something he had always gratefully thanked the sweet Supreme for.

It had also gotten most of the witches and other females in the kingdom casting some really dirty eyes his way, which was something he didn't fully understand. Sure he was a natural tempter, but it didn't change the fact that he was still a Shade inside all that exterior.