Disclaimer: I do not own Fate Stay Night or Legend of MiYue. This is just a fan's work, nothing more. I make no profit out of this. This is just for my interest in writing, and for those out there who would like to read this, nothing more.
SPOILERS ALERT: If you are planning to watch Legend of MiYue, then I need to warn you that this story contains heavy spoilers for that drama.
Hi guys, another good morning to you all. Welcome back to another chapter here at Golden Dreams. I thank you all for the support so far. Love you all.
Ronin: Thank you for the support.
Arc 1 Chapter 7
She had never seen the king so furious. Not even after being married to him for so long. For as long as she could remember, the king had always had a good temper, and had never raised his voice against anyone. Now, for a mere concubine and her half-breed child, he was mad and raising his voice with her? Never in her entire life had she felt so inferior to another, so humiliated. She pressed down her own anger.
"My king, it wasn't my fault. That half-breed…" she started.
Tokiomi put out a hand to stop her, his eyes burning with rage. "Stop calling her a half-breed. She is my daughter, a princess. Her mother is my concubine, a woman I love and care for. A fellow sister in your harem. Rin? She's your daughter as much as she is mine and Aoi's, since you are the queen."
Miwako snorted. "I have no daughter as impudent as her. She has no manners, I tell you. Look at how she behaves around you? What would other people say?"
"I see no problem with it. That's how she is, and I love her for being who she is."
She couldn't understand. She didn't want to understand. How could that half-breed get his attention, his love, his everything, so quickly, in such a short time, leaving her to eat the dust? She couldn't understand why Tokiomi choose the impudent brat more than his other children, who actually acted like true royalties.
"Do you know what she had Sakura do today? She had my daughter to kneel down and pay respect to her. That, that half-breed. How dare she?! Sakura is the First Princess!"
He slapped her in the face, no longer holding back. She touched her burning cheek, hot tears stinging her eyes. She couldn't believe that her won husband raised his hand against her for such a matter, for a mere brat.
"I said to stop calling her a half-breed!" he roared in rage. "I still see no fault in that. Rin is Sakura's elder sister. First Princess or not, Sakura should respect her sister."
"But…"
He shook his head. "No buts. I'm disappointed in you, Miwako. For such a small matter, you would resort to hurting the child. If something were to happen to her, how are you going to repent? If she dies, can you give her back her life?"
"She has no importance…" Miwako tried to retort lamely.
"She matters to Aoi. She matters to me," he told her. "Go back to your palace. From today onwards, you are forbidden to leave the palace without my permission. Go back and think about what you've done. I have yet to decide what to do with you."
Miwako bowed. "Understood, my king," she said in a defeated voice. She turned to leave.
"Perhaps, you are not suitable to be queen," he said in a low voice.
But she heard him anyway. The words felt like a thousand blades stabbing into her heart. She didn't turn back. She didn't want him to see her tears. She didn't want him to know angry she was for him to choose them over her. She didn't want to see him angry at her anymore. She didn't want to see love that wasn't for her anyway.
As much as she wanted to deny things, she knew she had no position in the king's heart anymore.
~FSN~MY~FSN~MY~
Her eyelids felt heavy, as if she had not opened them for years. But she remembered waking up that morning, so she couldn't actually have slept for that long. But with how her body was reacting to the process of waking up, she dared to bet that she wasn't exactly in the best of conditions.
A hoarse groan escaped her parched lips, and she tried one more time to open her eyes. It still felt heavy, but she willed more force to them, and they opened into a small slit. Dim light entered her eyes, and she pressed them shut again. She reopened them slowly this time, giving herself time to get accustomed to the light.
A sharp pain lanced through her head, and she hissed in pain. She raised a hand to her forehead, feeling a strip of cloth wrapped around her head. It felt wet. When she pulled her hand away, she saw a red sticky substance clinging to her hand.
And after all I did, I'm not dead?
"Rin?" a voice called out. She felt someone sitting down beside her, running a hand through her hair. She felt comforted by them. The voice and touch was familiar, but her mind wS still clouded by the pain, and she didn't want to think too much right now.
"Is she awake?" another voice asked.
It was a voice that she knew as well. She opened her eyes once more, and tried to make out who they were. But her vision was still blurry, and everything she saw was just a mixture of shapes and colours. She closed her eyes, and bit back another moan of pain. She felt the air shift around her, then a pair of arms wrapped around her, pulling her head to rest in her lap.
"Take it easy," the voice told her. "You suffered a severe head injury. It won't do you any good to start pushing yourself so hard now."
She tried to nod, but her body refused to comply. She was sinking into the darkness again, but this time, she welcomed it to drown out the pain she was feeling.
~FSN~MY~FSN~MY~
Kazuha looked down at the sleeping girl in her lap, and smiled a bit. She continued to stroke the girl's head, hoping that it would comfort her a bit in her sleep. She watched Rin's face as she slept, and wondered why the queen would still wish for the child's death, even after all these years. She thought that the queen had long forgotten about the trash talk about the Supreme Star. But what happened today, convinced her otherwise.
Or, there was a reason she had yet to find out.
Knowing the queen's personality and behaviour well, she was sure that Rin had managed to piss the woman off a lot of times in the past few months. Perhaps the woman finally snapped, and decided to carry out some sort of punishment, and went too far with it.
She frowned. Something wasn't right. Her deduction didn't feel right. She knew the queen hated them, but she would never resort to such matters as well. Maybe a punishment or public humiliation, but never to the extend of drawing blood. No matter what, Rin was a princess too.
"My lady, what are you thinking about?"
She turned to Yuuka. "Just about what happened…"
"They say the queen has a hand in it, do you believe them?"
She shook her head slightly. "Not at all… this is the queen we are talking about. If she really wants to kill Rin, she would've done it in the dark. She wouldn't have asked Yumi to do it as well. Furthermore, Yumi wouldn't have showed her face in the first place. Is someone trying to frame her, or is this an accident?"
Yuuka looked confused. "What do you mean, my lady?"
She sighed, and closed her eyes. Too much had happened in one day, and it was overwhelming her. There was no way she could just accept things like that without making heads or tails about the matter.
Aoi was her sister, and had been by her side for so long, for every moment when she was alone, far away from home. She had always wanted to do something for the younger woman, but now, it seemed that her so called help of getting the king's affection only placed her in deeper waters.
The news of her child injured sent her into shock, and she lost her child. Even the doctors had said that she might be unable to recover from her shock, and she might never be able to carry children. But those where only assumptions. She knew Aoi was strong. This time, she would be the one to comfort her, to stay with her. She would be Aoi's pillar, and get to the bottom of the incident as well.
"Yuuka, do me a favour. Can you ask around the palace? Especially those who were in the garden at that time. Perhaps they had seen something, but didn't dare to say it."
The servant nodded, bowed and left the room.
Shinji stomped back to his room, and slammed the door shut with a loud bang. He sat down beside his table, and with a swipe of his hand, pushed everything off his table. Scrolls and stationaries littered the floor, and the undried ink spilled all over the carpet. He paid no heed to them. The pain of being humiliated were still fresh to him, and being a man with a high ego, he couldn't just let things go like that.
"That fucking old man!" he cursed, and picked up a scroll, throwing it towards the window. "Acting all high and mighty. For what?! When you piece of shit dies, your throne belongs to me! The kingdom belongs to me! Everything that you once had, would be mine as well!"
He stood up, and tore a curtain down, which caught onto the corners of his bookshelf, and more scrolls dropped to the ground. One landed on his foot, and he roared in rage, kicking the scroll away.
"I am the best! The smartest, the most handsome man ever to be born! Why won't he just see that?! Threatening to take away something that's already mine?! In your dreams, old man. I will prove it to you, that I'm better than you!"
"Stop it this instant, Shinji!" his mother scolded, carefully stepping over a scroll, her face a portrait of disapproval. Shinji whirled around, surprised. He had not expected her to come tonight. "Your father is still angry with you, stop making ore trouble for me."
He balled his fists. "How can any of this be my fault? If that old geezer actually opens his eyes to see things, he would've seen just how good a king I would be in the future. There's no need to wait until he dies. I am more than capable of ruling the country now!"
She slapped him across the face. Her son glared at her, holding his cheek, hatred burning in his eyes. She shook her head. It pained her to raise her hand to him, but she had to.
"Are those words that should be coming out of your mouth? All your so-called skills, wisdom, leadership and all that, you read them from books. Have you ever practiced what you've learnt? Yes, you have studied under Minister Kotomine for almost a two decades. But your father has never let you make a decision for the country, not even a small one. Besides, you've never lead a troop before, unlike your other siblings. They could easily overthrow you just with their contributions in the military."
"So what?" he spat.
"You can't even see the picture yet? You want me to put it in blunt words for you? Fine. You are the most useless prince the king has. Do you seriously think you are still the Crown Prince if it wasn't for the words I put in for you every goddamn day? Wake up from your stupid dream, Shinji, and start behaving like a prince."
"Prince is an identity. I am born a prince," he said arrogantly, forgetting the pain in his cheek. "Look at those peasants. No matter how hard they try, they remain as useless half-breeds for their entire life."
Miwako shook her head, sadness bottling up inside of her. "I'm disappointed in you. No matter what I say, you still maintain that kind of mindset. It's up to you. Keep this up, and you might lose the throne due to your own stupidity, and get only a small federal territory with no real power. Or, your siblings who actually become the king would have your head hanging outside the palace walls. Choose your own future, Shinji."
~FSN~MY~FSN~MY~
A blind man sat on the grassy meadows, his head towards the skies. Even though he lost his sight, he could still see the stars clearly in his mind. He had observed the stars for decades before he lost his sight after all. He smiled, reaching his hand out to try and pinpoint the stars he saw in his mind.
But, he knew the stars had not shown anything for quite a few years. Not since the birth of the Supreme Star all those years ago. Even news from within the palace were scarce, with only three in the past four years. He put down his hand, and laid down, his back feeling the cold seeping through his thin clothes.
He let himself smile. Soon, the stars would show themselves again. The Supreme Star will shine without fail. That is her life. A burning soul capable of changing the world. A mind the world has never seen before. A godly presence in their palace, and yet they have no idea about it. Calling what I said all those years ago heresy just because the baby born was a girl? Stupidity. The gods will grace and bless whomever they want, regardless of the gender. Hopefully, I may be able to live to the day when she achieves something in this world.
A voice broke him out of his train of thoughts. "Sensei, what are you doing out here? It's cold."
A small figure came closer to him, with a cape in his hands. He helped Kousuke to sit up, and wrapped the thick clothing around his body. In his other hand was a candle, the flame dancing and shaking in the cold, threatening to go out any minute. With the dim light of the candle, one could see that he had a head of orange red hair and golden eyes.
"Shirou, I should be asking you that question," Kousuke said with a smile, reaching out a hand to pat his student's head, but found only Shirou's shoulder. "It's late. You should be resting for your journey to the capital tomorrow."
He sighed. "I know. But whenever the thought of never seeing you again crosses my mind, I just can't…"
Kousuke laughed. "A seven year old shouldn't be worrying about things like this. Have you forgotten what I told you? If Shao Si Ming has the mind for it, your path and mine will converge again at some point. But if not, it's fate too."
"You've been telling me too much philosophy for me to act like a regular kid," he retorted half-heartedly. "But you're right. It depends on the gods. We just have to do our best, right?"
He nodded, and smiled. "That's y pupil. Now, don't go and embarrass me when you reach the capital. Minister Kotomine is eccentric at times, but he is a good man at heart. Keep away from Minister Kayneth though. That man is as cunning a snake. He would go to wherever the profit is at."
"I know, I know, sensei. You've been telling me all these for a thousand times now," Shirou grumbled, rolling his eyes.
"I hope you have a bright future in the capital. It'd be a waste for you to stay here," he said, chuckling. "But note this, Shirou. Trials await you at the capital. But I believe in you. You should too. Follow your heart, and you can never be wrong."
Shirou stood up, and bowed, even if Kousuke was unable to see it. But he knew that his sensei could feel it. "Thank you for everything, sensei. I will not let you down."
He nodded, satisfied.
~FSN~MY~FSN~MY~
He lifted the goblet once more, putting the cold metal to his lips, feeling the drink scorching his throat, waking him up, wanting him not to feel so numb. The goblet fell from his hands, the remaining wine spilling onto his kimono and the ground, but he paid no heed to them.
"Aoi…" he mumbled. "Rin… I'm sorry…"
A eunuch came into the room, worry on his face. "My king, you are drinking too much," he said, putting down the cup of tea he was holding. "Please have some tea."
He pointed a finger at the servant. "Who are you? Who gave you permission to come in here?!"
"I… I am the Lead Eunuch's disciple…" the servant stammered, lowering his gaze.
Tokiomi stood up. "Oh? Disciple? I never knew he had a disciple. What's your name?"
"Kuga, my king,"
He thought about it, then picked up his goblet and threw it at the servant. It hit him right in the head. But the servant didn't even let out a sound. He merely sank to his knees, pressing his head to the ground.
"You dare?! I have never heard of that name before. Who sent you here with that poisoned tea?!"
"I… I… I don't know. The person covered his face, and muffled his voice," he said to the king, his voice shaking. "Please, my king. Let me go. My family is being held hostage. I had no choice but to follow his orders."
He sat down once more. "Report yourself to Minister Kotomine. He will see to the problem. Now leave my sight."
The servant scrambled out of the room.
"Shinji, you dare?"
To be continued~
~FSN~MY~FSN~MY~
And that's it for now. I'll see you guys again next week.
