The King’s Courtier

Chapter 7 - A Kingdom’s Worth

    Aurelia woke up at 9:00am sharp as the alarms sounded. Of course the castles would have built in smart alarms. She walked towards the wardrobe and pressed the button, her outfit quickly being paired together and presented to her upon her push.

She wore the boots, top and leather pants and gathered her hair into a cute pony tail. She didn't need to touch up on her makeup to look as stunning as always.

As she exited the King's bedroom, a pathway to a room lit up. Yet another one of the innovations in the magical castle. She walked through the bright path leading to the room where she found Lucifer.

Lucifer merely nodded and pointed to the seat where she was to be stationed, not sparing a word. She sat there for two hours as Lucifer bruised up her arms.

She didn't know how high her pain tolerance was until Lucifer had to retreat his knife in fear of scarring. It was when the third cut went unnoticed by Aurelia that he finally spoke, "this will not prove anything if you refrain from announcing your pain."

"I'm not refraining from anything. It just doesn't feel insufferable... but please don't scar I doubt the king would be pleased by scarring." Lucifer simply frowned, contemplating how it's possible for her to lie in a castle that prevents lies. 

he then moved on to the numbed arm and made a small cut where no one would notice. The cut did not magically patch up, but the bleeding stopped relatively quickly. Aurelia felt as though Lucifer was somewhat glad that she didn't have magical healing skills considering all the other tricks up her sleeve.

After three full hours in Lucifer's company, Aurelia walked out the room to find another lit up path. She followed the path to where Melody was. 

She dreaded taking tests with Melody. Melantya didn't quite seem to like her, but nonetheless, she was one of the honorable matrons and Aurelia needed to learn to tolerate her.

Melody looked stunning despite the disgusted look she threw Aurelia. The only acknowledgement of her entrance. 

"These are the notes you are to sing." 

Aurelia wasted no time getting to it, not wanting to spend more time in Melantya's company than necessary. Towards the end of the vocal test, she found that her voice was rather average. It was not opera worthy, but nonetheless it didn't make glass break either. She was then instructed to play a number of instruments.

She played the Xiula tolerably. The Xiula was a new instrument that sounded similar to the ocean waves. It was rumored to be the King's favorite instrument. Next she played the guitar. She could play the song perfectly, but Aurelia was sure her sparring technique still surpassed her guitar playing skills. Lastly she played the piano. 

As she played the piano, Melody seemed almost in awe. For a mortal who had never played before, she seemed to be a quick learner who had a good sense of rhythm. Melody appeared impressed, but she would never let that show too much, and would never dare speak a word of it to Aurelia as it would only boost Aurelia's ego.

The music tests took another 3 hours, which is when she walked towards Amyra's testing room. Amyra's room held the power of omitting outside noise to maximize concentration and it lacked any decoration. All walls pitch black like the King's room. There was a single table in the middle and a huge light bulb directly above it. It was the perfect testing environment.

Amyra gave her 50 minutes to complete the first IQ test, and another hour for the science and math questions. Amyra decided against a language test seeing that Nik was likely to give her one in his turn. 

After finishing all the tests, Aurelia felt exhausted. It was almost 6:00pm already. She walked back towards the king's room and slept until night fall.

When she woke up, dinner was served in her room. No dining hall this time then.

When she lifted her arm to take the spoon, she realized that the cut had almost healed. She was glad to know she healed faster than most people, but was rather disappointed to know that although she was above average, she wasn't the best.

A note appeared to her showing her the next day's schedule. Tomorrow, she was to first do a six hour long art test with Alaya then a four hour long writing test with Nik. The remaining two tests were to be held the day after. 

She slept and woke up all the same as the day before. She walked and completed Alaya's art task, creating a beautiful sculpture that was flawed in some place, but impressive for a beginner regardless, and then she wrote and wrote for Nik. Although she felt her vocabulary was rather dim and she had slight grammar errors, she was good with words and could make any writing appear impressive. Nik didn't hesitate to let her know that he's rather impressed and Alaya didn't hesitate to hold her hand when she was upset about her flawed sculpture.

She felt as though she could be great friends with Alaya if Alaya wasn't an all powerful matron while Aurelia was a nobody. Not to mention Melody's temper and protectiveness. 

She had to shower for a long while to clean off all the paint and ink from her hands, but once she was done, she dressed nicely and put on some makeup to walk about the castle, or perhaps enjoy the view of the balcony.

As she walked the halls of the castle, she heard a female voice from one of the corridors, "Sulfur, when is Iris coming back! I miss him." Said the female voice.

"Soon Eyra. He's just off to another visit to the galaxies to ensure the other planets stay in check. There's a little mystery he was assigned to solve and well. It's been taking a long long time." 

Eyra. She recognized the name. 

"What mystery?" Eyra asked.

"We've been trying to figure out if it's possible for another galaxy's Matron to be misplaced. Iris has been working on it for more than 10 years now, which is why his visits are always so short. But he'll be back to stay soon enough." The king responded sweetly.

Leaning forward slightly, Aurelia could see the girl named Eyra leaning into the King's shoulder. A girlfriend perhaps.

She knew of Eyra. Eyra was Elexia's greatest assassin. She had consistently been number one in the warrior battles of the strength category, and it grew so discouraging for the other participants that she was eventually moved to the kingdom and taken off the list. Eyra didn't stay in the castle, she often moved around continents, but her memory of the matrons seemed intact. 

From this, Aurelia gathered that once someone returns to the castle for a second time, their memories return. Eyra appeared to be the 'guest' that the king was speaking of. The girlfriend of course.

Iris. The 8th matron was called Iris. 

She immediately made it a mission to ask around about Iris. Traveling through galaxies was a task greater than the other matron's, so he had to be special. She then realized that all the other categories had a designated matron, so perhaps Iris was not confined to a category but instead the outside Elexia Galaxy. It was possible he instead over saw the galaxy beyond since there were no more categories to oversee. 

When she was first introduced to matrons, the King mentioned that if one learns about matrons they can use it against them, so perhaps Matrons were not just a gift of Elexia. Every planet appeared to have Matrons of their own, presumably a limited amount the way Elexia has. 

Aurelia had never visited the other planets, but she knew that vacations to the galaxies were common for the tops of each category. Saturn was usually most favored due to it's beauty. Some however preferred Jupiter for a month long trip. The population in the other planets wasn't even remotely similar to Elexia's. 

In the other planets, there were no categories or continents since nowhere was separated by water. They all followed a communist regime. It's known that each planet has an immortal king, the creatures differing in shape, form and language. Apparently, each king also has matrons to help rule. 

Eyra's footsteps neared and Aurelia immediately pranced the other way, disappearing into another hall before they could notice her intrusion. 

Perhaps some of the tales she had heard about the king was wrong. How could he have a girlfriend when he bore of every girl he set eyes on? And why would he need all these escorts if he already had a beautiful and strong girlfriend. Eyra was pretty. She wasn't extraordinary in terms of looks, but she truly was extraordinary in terms of skills. She had a slim body, evidence of all her working out and training. She seemed kind despite the work she does: assassination. 

Perhaps an assassin is the perfect fit for the cruel king. Aurelia cursed herself for the slight jealousy she felt. It wasn't that she fancied the king, but she was sent here and spent her whole life learning to please him when all along, he already has a girlfriend. He would never see her as perfect if he's already in love with another girl. 

Aurelia strived on being perfect, so this realization send her into a slum as she walked back into the room and sulked all night.

She wished she was the best in his eyes. She couldn't tolerate it any other way. She was used to being priority - Iliyus's priority aswell. Perhaps she was rather spoilt despite living in oppression, but it had only made her more willful and eager to succeed. She thought about all the men who had drooled upon her entrance.

Somehow, Kaiyus and King Sulfur never seemed to drool over her. She hated to admit it, but it bugged her severely. Kaiyus was an absolute prick. A sadist even. Maybe he was completely into men because how else would it be possible for him to not find her intriguing? She would be sure to ask around about his preferences. Not that she was interested in him, more so because she wished he was interested in her.

Aurelia slowly dozed off to sleep in the huge but empty bed. 

"Aurelia." a silky voice called out. I turned around and looked at the man at my door. God he was gorgeous. He stomped towards me and held my face in both his arms leaning closer and closer to my lips as he smirked against my mouth. "Kiss me." He said. She obliged. 

As they were kissing, sounds of laughter erupted from all around her. "Pathetic." the gorgeous man in her arms too started laughing, "How could you ever think I could love you?" He laughed and laughed as he slid his hands down to her waste, pulling her closer. "You are just a game to me, Aurelia. My favorite toy." The voice said and snapped. He snapped his fingers as he had the first day they had met. With his powerful snap, all the laughing halted and it was once again just the two of them in the room. "You like being my toy, don't you?" Kaiyus once again smirked against her lips before intertwining their mouths, his soft lips moving perfectly against hers.

Just as his hands slid lower down her waist grabbing at the strings that were attached to her like those of a puppet, she was woken up panting. 

Just a dream, she had mumbled to herself. It was just a bad dream. 

She couldn't sleep again after that, so instead she spent the night overthinking and wondering why she would have such a weird dream when she had absolutely no interest towards Kaiyus. She dreaded having to face him for the tests tomorrow. She didn't even wanna look at that sly, arrogant, mocking, beautiful face.

She desperately tried to shut all the thoughts out and sleep again. She needed her strength for tomorrow.