One year later, this land has not recovered from the parade of wild animals. These lands are still soaked in their poisonous blood, and the result is a shortage of food. My love still hasn't forgotten what happened the previous year, but after a while, a smile appeared on her face. This is a beautiful smile, the kind of smile men will fight for, but it also hides the sadness she constantly feels. When she was outside her room or not accompanied by my younger siblings, she gave a beautiful smile, but she gave a loyal, royal smile when talking to aristocrats or soldiers in the castle. There is another place that keeps her eyes brightened and brings out that beautiful smile, and that place is her late mother's garden.
My love considers that garden as her most precious thing. The garden is an impressive sight. Although it is only a few meters in size, it has such amazing flowers. Some of them come from far away from the earth, while others can be found in our own backyard. I often come here to find the guard before, because of their missing princess panic, I always find her squatting in the mother's garden. In those moments, she was so calm that I didn't dare to disturb her, because this was the only time she could get a little respite from her constant work and lessons. Thankfully, she didn't seem to mind me going in with her, although if someone tried to open the door, they risked messing up the princess' emotions.
I quickly became the closest person to the princess. Many soldiers and nobles who frequented this castle were jealous and despised of me. They have known the princess for most of their lives, so for a hillbilly like me, being so close to her is simply unthinkable for them. Many soldiers hope to become her personal guard one day, and the nobles always march in front of her, trying to impress her enough, until one day is considered for marriage. Once again, when I appeared and suddenly became the princess's favorite, they were not happy at all. But I don't care, as long as they don't make any smiles that hurt my lover or hurt my brothers and sisters in any other way. I can deal with those insults and treatments; their attitudes and opinions are meaningless to me.
The children we spent in the garden may be the best time in my life. I will never know that kind of happiness anymore, and now what I feel is the anticipation and comfort I felt when my lover Catherine came out of the cursed crystal for only one day.
Those happy and happy rìzi suddenly ended on the night of an attempted assassination. It was the same night as other nights, and that shadow appeared in the princess's life. That memory was as clear as daylight to me, just because it almost ruined me. That night, the assassin was waiting for us in the princess's bedroom, holding a short sword in his hand to stab her to death. If I were not the first person to come in, many things would be different, but I cannot allow any harm to happen to her, no matter who it is. This is my determination. As long as one day she can lead her people to a brighter future, my determination is to use my life to protect the princess when necessary. But after a minute of quarreling, I finally understood the identity of the mysterious attacker, and my heart was broken.
He stood in front of me, his angry face gleaming in the moonlight, scattered throughout the room, pointing his sword at me in an attempt to kill. My Jǐng guard slipped and fell, because I destroyed the enlightenment of xìng, he used this opportunity to slip past me and aimed at the princess. I stopped him weakly, but his anger only increased.
"Why?" I asked him desperately when we were locked together. "We thought you were dead!" Where did you go?"
He didn't answer me, he was preoccupied with knocking me down. He slammed a few more punches at me, everyone aimed at one of my important gangsters, and then murmured terribly.
"How can you do this, you traitor. Do you know what she is? She is the reason everyone died that night!"
"You are wrong!" I pleaded. "She tried to send soldiers! It was her father that didn't allow it!"
"Ha!" He laughed in disbelief, then stepped back and turned his eyes to the princess. "You mean you haven't told him yet?"
The princess grabbed the back of my clothes in fear, but I refused to turn around.
"Okay, let me tell you the truth. Where do you think those beasts are going that night? Why do you think they got together in such a large number in the first place?"
"Please," the princess could hardly hear.
"It's all because of her, traitor. The girl you've been protecting is the target of the Beast Parade."
""what? This is ridiculous! Why do they only get together for one person?"
"Don't you really know? She really didn't tell you anything, did she? I wonder if you would still protect her if you knew it?" He laughed disgustingly. "Every three hundred years or so, a unique person is born with a gift. Despite everything that follows, I would call it a curse more accurately. This curse makes this land fertile and harvests abundant. The water source is clean, but it exudes a strong smell of magic. This smell attracts every beast in this land and elsewhere. The parade of beasts happens because the girl asked them to come in."
"This is ridiculous!" I shouted, but the trembling hand that grabbed me from behind made me think otherwise.
""no no. All this is true, isn't it, princess. "
My love slumped to the ground in the cry of apology, and I was frozen. He tried to slip past me for the last time, but my reaction was to pierce him with my sister's spear and stop him there.
"You are not my brother... "This is the last word my brother uttered before leaving this world.
"Brother?" the princess asked in a teary voice suddenly.
"Yes, my brother." I told her in a shaky voice.
My brother, the one who died in the Beast Parade.
My hands trembled constantly, because I was kneeling on the ground, and the princess could only stare at me with tears. Knowing her, her shock and tears are not because her secrets are already known. That's because my brother came back from the grave, just to let me put him back. We all blame ourselves for this, but we never blame each other, although for a while I questioned why she didn't tell me her gift. I have never hated her for keeping this secret; everyone has a secret they don't want to reveal.
It took me a long time to recover from that incident. I continued to perform my duties to take care of my younger siblings, but I was completely filled with disconnection and self-loathing. My lover tried his best to help me through the difficulties, even though guilt had hurt her soul. It took me a year to face what I did, but the pain I felt never disappeared until the torture overwhelmed my pain years later. Sometimes, I can still feel the sensation of piercing my brother with that spear, and I suffer from illness because of this. I can't tell the truth to my younger siblings, so they always remember that he used to be an amiable brother. I don't want them to know that he will become a crazy killer, or at least that is my excuse. Deep down, I know I can’t tell them the real reason. I don't want them to know that I killed him.
One year, I was overwhelmed by the guilt and sadness that my actions brought, but in the end I climbed out of the bottomless pit because my love didn't play a role. She spent all this with me and experienced the anger and violence that I showed. I have never opposed her, but my anger was taken to furniture or decorations, or anything I could get. This performance seems to make the nobles very happy, because it shows the true face of this wild child from this country. Nevertheless, I ignored them. They are all greedy pigs, always shouting to the king, hoping to marry his beautiful daughter. Nonetheless, their tiresome whispers pierced the king's ears, poisoned his thoughts and made him oppose me, not that I was good for him in the first place. But he can do whatever he wants. If he wants, he can lock me in the dungeon for no reason. I started to raise my awareness of what happened in the court, because I will not be separated from the princess, not after I sacrificed those things. No, that's not right. I will not be separated from her because of my feelings. She accompanied me through my darkest time. This is something I can never repay.
As the years go by, the little guys are no longer so insignificant, my feelings for Catherine are just getting stronger and stronger. I love her more than anyone before. Unlike the king and his puppy, I don't care about her gifts, only the kindness and love she has always given me. We spend more and more time together, and we get closer and closer. That is the happy child, and I walked side by side with her, dreaming of having the courage to reach out and grab her hand. But when our little world fell around us because of the appearance of a dirty little beast, saving the pain.
For so many years, I have been trying to overcome the pain of losing my brother, a dark, cruel man has gradually escalated in the court. When I saw him, I was rejected, but I didn't understand why. It was as if the air around him was poisonous enough to make me sick almost immediately, but obviously I was the only person affected. Although his past does not exist at all, his evil smile is perfectly integrated into the greedy pig herd, even though his past does not exist at all. This person was in these teams as fast as a person under the radar, until one day he stood next to the king as his personal advisor. The previous consultant, a kind old man, apparently suffered from an incurable disease, which in itself is a rare disease. The princess's abilities did not allow things like disease to penetrate her land, so I immediately realized that this is not something in nature. However, without evidence, I can't do anything. (To be continued) (End of this chapter)