"Some lessons are learned the hard way."
I am sure King Lucifer learned that today.
Isaiah barely sleeps. Although he is a bit crazy about me, he still makes sure that his citizens are safe and happy, even at the cost of his own sleep. In that aspect, he is an excellent Crown Prince.
Yet even the two or three hours of sleep he deserves are always stolen by Lucifer.
His continuous assassination attempts have become a daily routine for Isaiah, and I absolutely don't appreciate that.
Lucifer had become the bug in my way. A bug that I would kill the moment I got the opportunity.
And that golden opportunity presented itself today.
My plan was simple. Kill Lucifer and stage it as an accident. I was just about to successfully execute that plan when fate decided to mess with me again.
Isaiah came through the door just as I took out my blade.
I didn't mind killing Lucifer in front of Isaiah. Isaiah might even like it, to be honest. But the thing that stopped me from doing anything was Isaiah himself.
The way he looked at me.
It was as if he knew. He knew that I was nothing more than a grieving bastard.
His eyes looked as though they had aged a hundred years, even though it had only been four years.
His gaze longed for me, yet it still hated the way I looked at him.
Well, I must have been the real fool here.
For the past four years, I had been thinking that someone like Isaiah would be satisfied with playing the role of a body that had died long ago.
My jaw clenched as I finally moved my hand.
With one swift yet silent motion, Lucifer was on the floor.
My heart dropped at that moment.
My mind flooded with all those forgotten memories it had preserved without me even knowing.
I ran before my eyes could lose their tears.
Indeed, I am the real fool here.
*ISAIAH'S POV*
Golden Eyes.
I didn't expect King Lucifer to carry it everywhere he went. But it still made some sense as to why he did. I ordered the guards to throw the body somewhere near the borders.
I looked at Golden Eyes, expecting to collapse, but instead it gave me a headache. A headache so severe that I somehow remembered moments that were never mine to begin with.
Red Moon would never smile at me like that.
Red Moon would never speak to me that gently.
Red Moon would never sing songs to me every night.
The memories were happy, yet painful to witness. It seemed as if Red Moon was doing all that for me. But in truth, it could never be me.
I rubbed my temples only to hear my mother speak.
"Isaiah... Why can't you just... just forget him?"
I sighed.
There is no way I would let something so precious be lost.
Love can never truly exist between me and Red Moon, no matter how much I wish it would.
He is taken.
Taken and left behind by someone he still loves.
And that love can never be replicated for me, no matter what shape or form I take. My hopes and expectations had fallen lower than I had ever anticipated.
I slid Golden Eyes into my pocket as I walked past my mother.
Her eyes looked as though they would close forever at any moment.
My health may decline to the point of no return if they do.
Having my father avoid me like a plague was already enough of a punishment. I don't want any more.
My legs automatically carried me toward my study.
Tons and tons and tons of papers again.
I don't want my people to experience any of the horrors that I have faced, nor do I want them to become one of those horrors.
But over the past few years, I have begun to feel as if I am lying. Even though I have revealed everything about myself to them.
"Impossible," I thought as I sat down.
I have done everything in my power to give every single one of them a place to call home. I have spent more time outside the palace than I can ever remember spending inside it.
I had nothing to hide. Not even the fact that my interest lies only with Red Moon and no one else.
"Your Highness, Head Priest Hadeon is injured," Alysaa said with a bow.
"It must be some wild beast again," I shrugged as I continued reading the document.
She looked at me and slowly shook her head.
Well... That is a bad sign.
Alysaa had been my assistant for years. Not just my assistant, but also my closest friend and ally. Yet she always kept things professional between us. She rarely showed emotion. Even if I told her the empire would be destroyed tomorrow, she would just sigh and would start offering solutions.
So, seeing Alysaa look particularly worried and nervous never crossed my mind.
"What... what was it?" I asked, already expecting bad news.
She cleared her throat while avoiding my gaze.
"He claimed that it was the Red Moon who injured him."
BONUS
*ALYSAA'S POV*
When you have faced everything, you eventually stop feeling anything.
The same happened to me.
Even though my life wasn't nearly as sad as His Highness's, there were moments when I thought I wanted to die.
Seeing my drunken father cheat on my mother didn't make me angry. Instead, I visited the mistress he had been supporting and offered her better solutions to her financial problems.
Well, she thanked me.
My mother didn't.
She kept yelling that I should have felt something. Something like disgust, anger, or sadness. Her yelling only stopped once it began filling my dreams and turning them into nightmares.
My mother didn't want an emotionless daughter like me or a cheating husband. So she went out of her way to find herself a new family.
The real shock, however, was my father.
He changed.
He truly changed.
His youth seemed to return, and he somehow learned how to raise a child.
But unfortunately for him, a daughter like me would choose survival, even if it meant abandoning her own father.
When I heard that the position of Crown Prince's assistant was available, I didn't even hesitate.
My ability to handle everything without emotion seemed convenient to the Great Empress.
And that was how I met His Highness.
He seemed gentle and rough at the same time.
Barbaric and refined at the same time.
His talent for making people feel two completely opposite emotions at once was unique.
But for someone like who hated even the looks of uniqueness, I grew to dislike and be accustomed at the same time.
Year after year, His Highness never changed.
His trust in me, however, did.
Eventually, he trusted me with the most wanted scroll, the Chand scroll.
Even though I hid it well, it was not the case for His Highness. He lost it to someone.
And that someone was His Highness's eternal obsession.
I can't quite define what exists between His Highness and Red Moon.
But I am certain of one thing.
Their story will never have a happy ending.
Well...
I have talked about His Highness quite a bit, haven't I?
It is time to sleep now.