Dank and dreary caliginous night as the thunders cracked, popped like a bright red apple and the slick grey sheets of rain was fearfully incessant. Thenceforth, the metropolis was engraved with dismay and disquietude, as the perennial downpour witnessed the greatest downfall of a puissant empire.
The Kingdom of Alynthi, one of the four consequential empire around the world was in a chaotic predicament where an outbreak of war eventuated against the revolutionary mercenaries who rebuke the aristocrats for reigning in a patronizing manner.
In engagement of armed military conflict between the emperial knights and insurgent mercenaries which eventually led to a myriad of casualties and bloodshed.
The valorous warriors and knights were helplessly dying,
The impoverished nation's people were suffering,
The impotent and defenseless swain were howling,
The crest of the royal family was about to be ceased.
It was very dreadful where only the lurid and heavy cries of the people were resounding within a never ending darkness that engulfed the skies wholly.
It was the doomsday for the empire,
And It was also the birth of the First Imperial Princess.
"Ye' highness! Prithee, pardon my insolence! But the princess is about to be born!" The comadrona clamours in a swivet manner without levelling her eyes on the weakened autarch yet she pressed her hands down unto the empress' womb, aiding her high-lady to give birth to a prince.
The empress whined, groaned, and screamed as loud as she can. The profound pressure were writhing around her body, her fingers were clenching tightly on the tussore sheets on her slumber bed, the way her toeses curled tight due to excruciating laboring and her hollers were resounding through her boudoir, all the handmaids were soundlessly bowing to her grace while she labors.
She was so worn out. The silky night dress she was wearing was soaked in sweat and her skin was ghostly pale as white, her lips was dry and cracked. Her rosey eyes were swollen and puffed. The empress was ailing and debilitated.
____
A loud bawling of a hombre neonate echoed across the room and all of the servants rejoiced but hurriedly went back to their positions since the empress was not in a state to punish them, they thought that a little whoop would not hurt. The little infant was held by the comadrona as she placed the prince alongside with the empress while softly smiling.
"I present to you, the first emperial prince of Alynthi empire." She uttered while bowing her head with deep deference towards the bedridden empress as she announced the child's honour and all of the servant bowed their heads down before the princess.
The empress gazed her eyes on the charming child on her arms with great tears streaming down her cheeks as she smiled weakly, endearing her own child.
With her frail and feeble hands, she caressed the princess' forehead, down to her eyelids, to her nose, to her lips and held her hands. She kissed the forehead of the child, a soft motherly kiss. The princess stopped crying.
She glanced at the midwife while smiling proudly and caressing her baby's cheeks and weakly uttered
"Her n-name w-will be..."
Everything escalated so quickly in just a blink of an eye.
The servants were in a riot, howling chaotically and grappled when a bunch of burly figures covered in dark clothes with black masks invaded the empress' chamber.
"KNIGHTS! INVADERS! IT'S AN ASSASINATION!" A male clamoured on the top of his lungs while struggling to run away from the murderers but he was stabbed with a cruel swash of a sharp sword on his back.
And then a jarring shriek of a young female maid deafened everyone's hearing as they saw the empress covered with her own bloodstains with a broad head arrow pierced right through her heart with just single strike, She was gone.
"H-her highness?"
The knights in armor were rushing in the hall with heavy weapons, some of the invaders were captured, some escaped but they successfully completed their assasination. Since the country was in state of warfare, the battalion of knights were on the battlefield so the rest of the force were guarding outside the palace but some of the assasin sneaked in and there were no guards inside the castle.
The Empress was assasinated right after her laboring, what's more incongruous and ironic was she never got the chance to name her child before she passed away.
____
"Announcing his majesty, THE KING!" A retainer proclaimed as the king marches towards his throne with dignity and decency as if his overwhelming presence were shouting how noble he is while wearing a dour and sultry expression. Situated on a grand-high open veranda, suitable for public announcement, the people of Alynthi congregated infront of the palace's gates, they were summoned for the king would promulgate a rescript.
"HAIL TO THE KING FOR HE, WHO RECLAIMED OUR EMPIRE'S GLORY!"
"The Almighty King Henry Ainsworth!"
The retainer once again exclaimed which made the crowd rejoiced, cheering with glee and riotous applause but the king silenced them with just raising a hand, that's how immense his capability and power is. When the empire is in the verge of termination, the king formed alliance into different countries and battles enemies in any continent that tries to invade his domain without any rest for 10 years, he succeeded unto making the country abundant and flourished but his system changed, he became strict and ruthless. Whoever defies his word, he would throw them in penitentiary or worse public
execution.
He was once a tolerant and benevolent king, he would show the kingdom how eager he was to serve his country by greeting them with a smile and warmly assuring them with cogent statement that the economy was sustainable and proliferating. He was once a loving king not until a rebellious force decided to murder his own wife, the queen while laboring his very first child.
He was away when all that tragedy happened, he was fighting at the battlefield in the sanguinary river with bloodstains smeared all over his weapons and armors. He shouldn't be on that place, but if he doesn't fight, who will? He is the king, since he was a sympathetic king, he didn't let his empire to fall. He was once a great warrior before being a king, He fought for victory that made his life torment in misery. He served his country excellently as a king but was a failure serving his family as the father, he was utterly shattered and miserable when the news was divulged to him that his beloved wife was assasinated. If he just stayed in his fortress, none of that would happen. He was drowning in a bottomless ocean of regrets and sorrow.
"Raphael. Take that child into my hidden chamber at the underground. No one must see you with that child or ye shall suffer a grave punishment." After lamenting his wife's death, he was quick to take action but a vortex of anger swirled inside him, it never plummet. Months, years, and decades, he will be carrying the resentment and rage that welled up in his chest. Raphael was his trusted retainer and also his comrade when he was just a warrior, Raphael also came from nobility. He was the second son of a Marquess, He knelt before his king and uttered his loyalty.
"Thou art my lord, I am your servant. I shall comply with your commands by all means." Raphael was a loyal retainer, he never tried to defy or be a judas to Henry. Raphael was just the nugatory second son and all of the noble titles will be granted to the first son, he was shunned by his own kin and casted out by the people he calls family. When he was so lost in the darkness, Henry became his only light that
guides him into the right path. He was now a marquess, same title with his father. He never wanted a noble title but it was given by his altruistic savior so he's keeping his responsibilities as the king's retainer genuinely.
Raphael carefully manhandling the prince with great tender and prudence, the infant was swathed in rich soft samite silk with the crest of the royal family embroidered at the cloth. He was heedful and made sure that no one will perceive him in any way, he walked through a secret door and made his way down the undercoft where the erstwhile great kings resides, it was a catacomb and a hidden basement for the king. Raphael fulfilled his orders, he left the princess inside the bed chamber.
On forward point, The king went down to meet his newborn daughter. The child was soundlessly sleeping, Henry softly gazed upon his daughter before glancing his eyes on its opened palm. He placed his index finger on the top of the infant's palm and at lief the little one clasps her tiny hand unto her father's finger. Henry shed a tear with a fatherly smile on his face, besides of the burden and pressure of being a single parent, he was anxious about the child's safety. With just inheriting his name, the child will surely suffer and will be targeted by hundreds of assasins, he can't bear to lose his only family this time and that's how he decided to conceal and hide his child's true identity.
"You will be named Dauphine Ivette de Ruegel Ainsworth.
You shall inherit my honour and throne someday,
Until you're ready to fight for your people,
till then you're just a nobody in my eyes,
Prove me your worth, my child."
And with that momentous and enigmatic premise, King Henry never once saw the face of his very own daughter.
There was no rule that a princess cannot rule an empire, she is the first princess and has the royal blood to rule the nation.
Yet no one expected that the king would meet his tragic demise immediately.
The royal bloodline of the Ainsworth were buried along the late emperor.
VIERNADO, the queen's bloodline was the next in line to the royal blood. Since the empress and emperor have passed away, the emperor's companion or the queen would be the initiator of the kingdom but she can't be a ruler.
The queen is a very wicked woman, once she bears a child and is a son. He will be the next emperor regardless of the bloodline.
What will happen to the empire of Alynthi?