*reader's discretion alert, contain bloody and disturbing scenes. And pink bubbles alerts.
13th September 2019, 10.30 am, Kingdom's HQ.
Chris is sitting on a sofa, sliding through his tablets with Rei.
"My Lord, do you still remember our very first Mid Autumn?" Rei asks. "You mean the encounter with Moon Fairy or when I'm so sick and don't even realize the existence of this festival?" said Chris, still focus on his tablets which shows a map from The New World. "No, My Lord... Uhm... That time when you conquer the previous Qing's Empire..." said Rei with her voice getting slightly faded at the end. Did not expect Rei would actually want him to talk about that 'amazing history', Chris looks at her with an excited look...
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Once upon a time, there's a King and a female official from two different countries, or rather more accurate, from two different worlds. After they went through the incidents in Valentine's story 2019, they finally being together... *cough * don't mind about the fourth wall.
That day was the beginning of autumn, Rei was making something in the Palace's kitchen, suddenly she felt a warm hug from behind. "What are you doing in the kitchen? I've been looking for you for half an hour just now. Hmm? Are you making some pies?" said the King. "No My Lord, these might look like pies but it's not. It's a type of Qing's Empire's delicacy known as moon cake." said Rei. "Ah, I've heard that from you before, you plan to celebrate Mid Autumn Festival here this year?" The King asked, but his eyes were focusing on the sweet and fruity ingredients on the preparation rack. "Mmm, we didn't get to celebrate it last year so... Hmm? Want to have some?" said so, Rei pick up a piece of honeyed peach with a pair of chopsticks to feed it into his mouth. "Ah... This taste nice." said the King with a rather happy look. "I was trying to innovate some 'dessert-like' moon cake, instead of the traditional flavors which might be quite plain for you, My Lord." said Rei. "No, it's not... That red bean paste looks so nice." said the King which caused Rei to laugh out a bit...
However, things weren't as smooth as they planned. Just three days before the Mid Autumn Festival, the emperor of Qing's Empire launched a sudden attack on them despite the war prohibition agreement they had a month ago at the Qing's Palace. The King's important servant who is also his friend, Satoshi was gravely injured by the Qing's warriors which greatly enraged the King. He decided to have a war with that untrustworthy Emperor, he swears that he will conquer the Empire of Qing that once hurt the girl he loves and now one of his important friends.
Usually when a God decided to declare a war with ordinary humans, it would be a totally single-sided massacre, but the King decided to go easy on them. Well no one would really want to go serious with the insect that you can kill with just a finger right? Unless the insect is poisonous.
On the battlefield, a weird phenomenon can be seen, the Emperor of Qing's Empire lead an army of ten thousand soldiers with full armors which at least one-fifth of them were ranked general and elite soldiers. They were facing a small troop with light or even without armor, behind of the small troops was a big sealed box that was guarded by some muscular warriors.
Ironically, no matter how the Emperor's army tries to attack the small troop, they could never deal damage on them due to the magic barrier placed by the King who was observing the whole thing on a white horse from a distance, but despite the advantages they have, they did not attack the Emperor's army, just defending.
Feeling getting insulted, the Qing's Emperor started to show anger and irritation on his face, for a glimpse, his eyes changed to red and black color...
"Hmm... So my instincts were correct after all." said the King...
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A year ago.
That night was a full moon night, a huge bloody red moon can be seen clearly on the night sky, a massacre happened in a village of Qing's Empire.
In a single night, all the children and women were killed. Women and ladies were getting their blood drained dry while children were bitten to broken pieces, however, the men were spared. The survivors said that they were attacked by a group of humanoid monsters with grey scaly skin. The officials in charge of investigating the incident did not believe that and insisted that the men who survived were the culprits but due to lack of evidence they were saved from the death sentence, and were forced to join the military. A female official found something weird about the case, so she advised the Emperor to investigate it again, but before anything could be done, she was exiled from the Empire with the reason of assassination attempt to the Emperor.
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The King slowly observe the changes at the other side, he noticed along with the Emperor, the generals, and elite soldiers were also showing the sign of Kirin's blood mutation symptoms but they managed to hold it in. "Hmm... That wasn't enough huh? Byako, bring that out." said the King to the man with black and white hair next to him. Then Byako makes a hand signal to the troops, they opened the big sealed box and throw the contents of it in front of the one hundred thousand armies. It's a dead buffalo that was covered with blood...
The moment the Emperor saw the buffalo, his expression changed from angry to anxious... Or rather the expression that people with drug abuse would have when they trying to hold back their craving and desire. Not only the Emperor, his general and elite soldiers show the same symptoms as well. While the King was... Uh... Covering his mouth and nose with his hand, disgusted by the sight. "Just whose weird idea is this?" the King asked. "Uh... It's your idea, My Lord." said Byako. "Oh... Okay."
Suddenly, an elite soldier ran to the dead body and start feasting on it maniacally like a vulture that had been starved for days, seeing this sight, the generals and other elite soldiers finally loss hold of themselves and joined him, some even started to fight over the dead body. Then their body showed some changes, their eyes turn red and black, skin turned grey and scaly, hair turned white, sharp fangs emerged from their mouth...
Seeing these awful sights, the other soldiers were both scared and astonished, some even started to show anger and swaying of heart, those 'creatures' were exactly like those who destroyed their villages...
The King stared at the Emperor who was still holding firmly to his own sanity. "Ah... What a stubborn old man... Tsk, seriously, I really don't want to take any more moves but..." said so, the King took out a bow and arrow with the arrowhead replaced by a small sac. He aimed to the Emperor and released it. The Emperor slashed the arrow into halves with his sword before it reaches him but as his sword touched the arrow, the sac burst, and some red liquid splashed on his face... it's blood. The blood slowly dripped into his mouth, then his eyes turned red and black like the others. The King looks at him with a satisfied yet evil smile...
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The soldiers were standing on the battlefield in a wavering and confused state after seeing one of their comrade getting cruelly seized by their own Emperor after an attempt to run away from the field out of fear and their opponents protected them from their own superiors and elites who had totally lost sanity.
"Soldiers, is this the ruler that you want to serve with your life?" said the King with his telepathy power. "This person, the one that drinks your daughter's and wife's blood to grow, feed on your mother's and sister's flesh to gain strength? Is this the ruler you want? Is this person really worth your loyalty? Is this person really worth it for you to serve with your freedom and life? If yes, then you can continue with what you are doing right now and die with the sin and guilt towards your families in this battlefield, if not, point your weapon to your wicked ruler here, revenge for your families and friends, give yourself a new life!" said the King.
Then, slowly the soldiers pointed their weapons to the Emperor who was confronting with the King with a severed head of a soldier in his hand. The King smiled and snapped his fingertips, all the 'deformed' elite soldiers and generals stumbled onto the ground, the King looked at the Emperor with a gentle yet evil smile. "Now you are all alone, what do you plan to do? Ever regret on what you did to Rei and Satoshi?" That was the last sentence the Emperor heard before his head falls...
That night was a full moon night, a bloody red full moon shined in the glorious night. The dead body of the mutated generals and soldiers were shaking vigorously, some vine-like things burst out from their body and grow into big buds which later blooms into some magnificent golden glowing flowers that shine with the bloody moon.
The King was watching this gore yet beautiful scene from a distance with Rei in his cuddle...
The next day, the King led his own troop, and the ten thousand armies, marched into the capital of Qing's Empire... This will be the beginning of another story...
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Back to the present.
"Ah... So it really was the corpse flowers..." said Rei with an almost whisper voice. Realizing that stupid thing he did that time, he somewhat felt guilty. "Uh... I'm sorry, I was too excited at that time and a bit upset about that... Uhm... So..." Chris tried hard to explain but can't find a correct sentence for it, then Rei placed her finger on his lips, indicating that she doesn't mind about it, then she stood up. "Your Majesty, I've prepared something for you. I'll be back in a minute. Rei left the room and come back with a small tray in her hands, in the tray are two pieces of delicate-looking dessert, a translucent peach mochi in a shape of a full moon, and a golden puffy red bean pastry with melted butter in the center. Chris looks at Rei with rather childish but happy eyes...