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⊰ chapter twenty three ⊱
[ this chapter contains mention of self harm, r*pe and violence ]
It's been five days.
Five days with Dara with a ring that belonged to no one. The country was talking again. But this time, it was about Jungkook. Having seen Jungkook ride away alive and healthy, rumors of Jungkook running away from responsibilities had spread past the Kingdom walls and the barrier created across the Eastern Realm.
Her chamber looked empty again and her study was busy with herself hovering over it day and night, trying to keep herself distracted from how the people spoke of her outside her door-from maids to guards, Dara was being spoken of. Some said she had tortured Jungkook so much that he cried his manly self during the wedding and how forced he was whilst the locals pitied Dara. Especially the women and the fathers with daughters working labor outside the house-that's what Dara felt through the metal against her tongue.
She had tried to calculate her changes-how her body felt, and how strong sometimes it got that her veins could burst. It felt rather sinful sometimes, to be swayed by such power. And the compass was a plate of curse, gifts, and power itself. Dara couldn't help but feel the greed.
"You should rest your back," Ann suggested, fixing the parchments of agreements that Dara had just signed, "You haven't eaten anything, should I serve for dinner?"
"No," Dara replied shortly before leaving her seat. She took off her clothes and slid her body under the blanket. Ann walked around the chamber to light the candles. Dara stared at the ceiling, the curtains across her bed pulled over. Her whisper was painful, "I wronged him, didn't I?"
Ann couldn't agree more but her voice broke, "No. You did what you had to secure your position. You are Queen, today or tomorrow or whenever this miracle happens and only you can change that for yourself. Jungkook is just like me or any other advisor. We are all subjects, it's your rule, Dara."
"He shouldn't have left," Dara agonized, "They are talking about us. How easily he let go of the people he was responsible for-he just abandoned it."
Dara knew he meant nothing to her, and she meant nothing to him. But the aspect called responsibility existed and Jeon Jungkook just can't be a disappointment at that. Leaving Dara's wedding bed was not his crime. His crime was leaving his dignity and his duties behind. He had been a coward.
"I am Queen," Dara whispered, and she felt her eyes open from the darkened sorrow to a powerful gold before it quickly disappeared, "I should kill Jungkook-,"
"You are tired," Ann cut Dara, fixing her pillows beneath her head before sitting by her, "Let's go and see the people for a while after we are done with your nap. It's going to dawn soon, you will need a cup of tea."
