Draconic Ascendance: The King Selection

To Challenge the Queen

"The commoner has arrived, My Queen," Icarai whispered at her while she was taking bites of her scrumptious breakfast, which consisted of a hearty set of sweetened glazed meat and a healthy turkey soup.

"Tell him to come join me," Queen Eurydice said while wiping the stain from her lips. "Has he eaten already?"

"I don't suggest inviting him to the dining room," Icarai told her. "He is quite untidy and reeks of sweat and soil. His clothes are also filled with blood."

Queen Eurydice played with her fork and jabbed a piece of meat left over from her plate. "I've seen limbs raining in war, Icarai. Why do you think such would disgust me?"

"I'll call him over then."

The Queen's loyal dogman went back to the courtroom and escorted the seeingly clueless Ares inside. The queen was eating and therefore, did not bother raising her head to look at the commoner. Though Ares intrigues her, the Queen does not care about his appearance and rather, regards him as somewhat 'average' even if she did not see him yet.

Eyes still fixated on her plate, she acknowledged him.

"Lovely to be joined by a fellow cultured man," she pointed out and lifted her gaze to look at him. "I heard you were-"

The Queen's words were cut off when she found Ares's golden orbs staring back at her. Never in her life had someone dared to stare into the Queen's terrifying irises. Yet he was there, staring so curiously and fervently.

It was rumored that the Queen was not human.

That by the time when her mother had conceived her, a wyvern flew by the sky and took her form, cursing her forever with its features. Despite the curse inlaid upon her as the myths of every common folk in town, Eurydice was born radiant and skillful, her appearance unique and unfestering, but the Queen's oddities made the people fear her more.

Her way of leading Fontana was very different of how other Kings do. She was a ruthless dictator, a War Lordess and a menace.

She was unlike them.

And day by day, the Queen's lunacy proved her, a monster.

"A wyvern," Ares mumbled under his lips. "Your eyes resemble them."

A wyvern is Fontana's greatest threat. A mythical being rumored to have seen the peak of the world and its end. Its presence brings impending doom and its death brings limitless fortunes to those who slay it. In other nations, this beast walks with four legs and they call it a dragon. In Fontana, legend has it that the dragon sold its two legs to the Heavens in exchange for speed and agility. T'was a smart creature, as dragons are usually slain for their lackadaisical speed. 

"You know what a wyvern looks like?"

Ares said nothing more and merely stared at her. His silence meant yes. What more intrigued her was how he survived in the event of meeting one.

With that, Eurydice knew that he was no ordinary man. She leaned against the table, her chin resting above the back of her gloved palms, and smiled slyly.

"Arthurius Ares Remilius the Second," she guessed his name. "Born on the sixteenth day of August, in the year XX06. With two counts of robbery and five counts of murder, four of the thugs and one of the General, all done in the past three days."

Ares flinched, uncomfortable that someone did a background check on him.

"You've been in the Palace Jail three times and escaped each time. You excel in martial arts, archery, and even the art of the lance and sword. Your nobility is yet to be known, but I am working on it."

The Queen pushed a plate of an entire turkey towards the male.

"Why don't you join the King Selection?" she bribed him. "This nation could use a man like you."

Ares stared at the turkey. The turkey's glaze shimmered at the dance of the candlelight. It has been days since he had a bountiful meal. The table he sat upon was filled with desserts and food that could feed the village's hungry mouths for about a month in cost. But the Queen consumes them ever so lightly.

"The General you killed was a bad man," Icarai explained. "The Queen is delighted to have a civilian in her country that acts without idling by. She sees you as a role model."

The Queen curled her hair with her fingers. Ares couldn't determine her motives due to the different meanings he could find in her expression.

Her eyes bore excitement and malice. The deeper you stare, the more you realize her godforsaken madness. Her eyebrows were angled, but he was uncertain if it was concern or sarcasm. Her lips were smiling, but he could not tell if it was a kind or a conceited one.

The Queen hides behind the layers of mask, which she fortified with her own.

"What do you want with me? I don't want anything to do with you and your nation."

"With these counts of insufferable acts and criminal records, you are bound to die by the law of Fontana," Queen Eurydice crowed. "But if you agree to my conditions you might be spared. That is of course, if you survive the King Selection and do not lose your body in the process." she leaned closer to him and caressed his rough cheek. "It would be a pity if we lose a selfless man of justice like you."

Ares held the Queen's hand, which seemed so silky and soft to the touch- and so white like alabaster; and lowered them, his eyes piercing daggers at her.

"I am not a fool."

"Oh?" She tapped her fingers against the table surface and sneered. "it seems that you know what's going on around here, do you?"

"Why hold the king selection if you can kill all the men by yourself?" Ares slurred. "Are you looking for an excuse?"

Ares pushed the plate, refusing to take it. He hated to be bribed by a royalty.

"That's exactly what I'm doing," she giggled. "I have succeeded in getting rid of the useless men in our country for five years, this year's Selection becoming the sixth. I have won battles after deploying the rest of the mighty men who somehow won some of the trials in the selection, and succeeded in extinguishing marriage proposals from cowardly princes."

She stood up and dusted her dress. "So tell me, Why should I stop the selection when it has given me so many benefits?"

Icarai felt the tension between the two rising. Fearing the two complete strangers who excel in destroying, would somehow end up using the bread knife to stab one another, he decided to escalate the situation as fast as he could.

"I-Indeed! With the Selection, we are able to collect worthy members of the Knights to serve the country. The King Selection may not be favorable for some, but it has also become quite the name of Fontana. Either way, You are lucky to have been given the chance to skip the trials, Mister Remilius."

"I wouldn't say I am lucky," he grumbled, still not touching his plate. "If there's nothing else, I would want to go home."

Queen Eurydice played with her ribbons and closed her eyes. "Tell the poor foreigner what would happen if he bails out of the competition, will you, Icarai?"

Icarai cleared his throat. "Failure to participate in the Selection is considered unpatriotism. In these means, also enforces the thought of treason, punishable by death," Icarai regretfully sighed.

Ares flinched. "But don't you see me as a foreigner?"

"Everyone who steps inside my nation, unaffiliated, becomes mine," she waved her finger at him. "You, my dear, who lived a silent life and enjoyed worthwhile in my Kingdom, is now a part of my domain."

"Your kingdom is nice and all, but you lack the heart to sympathize, Queen Eurydice," Ares stared at his reflection on a golden plate. "I do not want to participate in this, And I have no ambitions to become your husband."

"The feeling is mutual, Mister Remilius. I do not need a boy." Queen Eurydice rolled her eyes. "This is just my petty way of killing people like you, for instance."

She studied the tips of her hair and smiled. "Unruly, and god knows what origin you have come from. You are a threat to Fontana, foreigner."

Ares chuckles lightly, sarcastically trying to imitate the Queen's solemn way of regulating her speech. "I am not a foreigner. Just an outcast."

"However, you seem special, and I hate show-offs that may someday steal my spotlight, so I want to get rid of you."

Ares challenged the Queen's smirk and shook his head in disbelief. Perhaps what the villagers have spoken about her is true- she is delirious and uncompassionate. She is tyrannical and thirsty for blood. She sees everyone, not as a comrade but either a sworn enemy or a useful asset to supply her crazy needs.

Eurydice flipped her hand and stood up from the dining hall. "You may finish the rest. I hope they're enough for you. If you need something, ask Icarai," She made her way towards the door. "Oh, and don't die, alright?"

However, before she could even exit the room, Ares caught a grasp of her arm. He did not like the Queen leaving him so early like that- not that he hadn't provoked her twice than she had done to him.

"Fine," he slammed the door behind her and pinned her small figure to the wall. Queen Eurydice's eyes widened as he pulled her into his arms. His rough hands kept her waist frozen. "All I have to do, is win, right?"

"Y-You!" She tried to snatch her arm away, but his grip was stronger. She did not even have the time to cast her magic. The Queen had no other choice but to endure Ares's humiliation.

"Let go of me, you peasant!"

"You should not have invited me here, Maximillia," he whispered against her ear. "Now I have to make sure I put up a great show for you to enjoy."

"Let go of me this instant!"

But Ares wouldn't. Instead, he wanted his strong grip to mark against the Queen's supple skin. He wanted everyone to see her struggle. To see that the woman they feared the most, can be defeated too.

"Hah. Insolent fool. How ambitious of you to think that you would win the Selection. You'd probably die before you reach five seconds into the First Game-"

"And what if I can prove you wrong?" he lifted the Queen's chin to level with his and smirked.

Eurydice could smell the blood in his clothes and the stench of sweat. She averted her gaze and Ares quickly lets go of her, thinking that he's had enough playtime today.

He'd like her to know that she is not going to be the boss of him.

Icarai was quick to pull Ares back while the Queen remained frozen, unable to find a suitable reaction to her predicament. She did not surmise the day would come of a commoner intimidating her. He had even called her 'Maximillia'!

Ares was more than keen on ruining the Queen's lunatic plans.

He will end the King Selection.

He will survive her games.

And lastly, he will become the king of the nation that once abandoned him.