ALLIANCE

XVI: Nascent

Lilith was roaming around the kingdom when she heard a beautiful melody playing from somewhere. She followed the sound of the music and she ended up walking in a long hallway, where a big door was located in the rear end. She observed that the sound was becoming eminent so she was sure that she was in the right place.

She peaked inside the room and she was immediately astonished at the interiors of the room. It was a gigantic theatre. She noticed a big grand piano in the middle of the room on top of a big platform that serves as the stage, as per her assumption.

A man was playing, but she couldn't distinguish who it was because the man was behind the musical instrument and it was blocking her view. Her curiosity was mixed with an allure so she started walking towards the stage while looking around the place. It made her feel at peace.

She observed that there was a big painting of the Realm's symbol that was on the big ceiling of the room, and there were no seats surrounding the center. There were only balconies and galleries for the audience to be in.

When she was almost near the stage, the music stopped. It was the only time she noticed that she was observing her surroundings too much. The man playing the piano now recognized her appearance. 

It was a grinning man, looking down at her. It was the king. "Lilith." The man said, as soon as they locked their gaze.

The lady gave him a shy smile, embarrassed for interrupting the man. "I'm sorry, I didn't know it was you. I shouldn't have entered." She said, before turning around to leave. The king stood up in an instant.

"No. Stay." He said, making the woman look back in his direction once again. Sven motioned towards the piano bench with his hand, asking the woman to sit beside her. Lilith nodded, smiling, before walking up the stage.

"This place is amazing." She commented before both of them sat down in front of the piano.

"Thank you. This is my favorite place in the Kingdom." He said, still grinning at the lady.

"Please continue playing. Pretend I'm not here." The woman said.

The king gave her an amused look. "I can't do the latter, beautiful, but I will continue playing as you requested." He tells her, before placing his long slender fingers on the keyboard.

The melodic sound of the music was suddenly heard throughout the room. The tempo of the piece being played started a bit slow before it gradually turned into an upbeat one.

The lady just stared at the pretty man beside her, casually watching his eyes open and then close as he fall deeper into the melody he was making, then back to his graceful fingers tapping on every key.

It made her feel more serene and safe. The emotion and rush she was feeling were the same as when she was on an edge of a building, and it's ironic because it's contrary to what the surrounding would usually look but for some reason, she was sensing the same thing.

"When did you start playing the piano?" Lilith asked, distracting herself from getting lost while looking at the man's appeal.

The king, who was still playing, glanced at her. "I started learning when I was five." He answered, not missing a beat that might make mistakes to interrupt his music.

"Sven, why were you in Coterie City the first time we met?" She asked, making the man glance at her longer, before chuckling.

"Are you getting suspicious of me now, my queen?" He teased, slowly pressing the final chords on the piano.

When the song completely ended, he shifted a bit to face the woman. Lilith just stayed quiet, waiting for his response. "That was the first time that I visited your world, Lilith. I wasn't allowed to cross the borders uninvited but I need to look for my brother." He explained.

Lilith just nodded. "Well, for as long as you didn't cause any commotion then we'll forgive you." She told him. "Why was your brother in the Mafia world anyway?" She continued.

"My brother never liked being a Prince, Lilith. He wanted to be a normal citizen just like anybody else, but us. He wanted to pursue Art since he loved to draw and paint ever since he was a kid." He explained, his expression turning a little serious. "But, the problem with the Mugunghwa village worsen so we needed to fix it in an instant. I just gave him the freedom he wanted for a short time before he gets to marry Adelaide." He continued.

Lilith slowly took in the information she heard. For a quick second, he felt bad for being rude to the Prince without realizing that he just wanted to be free. She thought everything was all a scheme. From the moment he first met the King, and then until she met the two princes in the mafia land, she thought this alliance was planned from the start because it is being fixed so smoothly but it turned out that the king was just that competent.

"Can I ask you a personal question?" The curious woman asked. This time the king was the one who just nodded.

"Why do you have a different hair color than the young prince?" She continued, not caring if it would sound so pushy. The man was a bit surprised by the woman's question. He looked away from her for a bit, feeling a little nervous.

The woman asked for an ally important information about about identity, and he was contemplating if he should be fully honest towards her, but ever since he first met the woman, he was drawn to her so much, with the reason being unknown. It was too much, that in fact, he felt the happiest when he heard that she was going to be his first queen, even though it was just temporary.

"I'm a half-blooded royalty, Lilith. My mother was a commoner." He finally answered her, giving the woman a shy smile. "Jaxon's mother was the recent queen." He continued.

Lilith gave her a confused look. "But you are the King." She reminded, not fully understanding. The man chuckled a bit.

"My mother was our father's first queen but she was a commoner. According to our Royal scripts, that can't happen but my father fought for my mother because she was his first love. He broke the rules for her. When they found out that she was pregnant, it was a chaotic moment in the kingdom because everyone was against their relationship, especially our grandparents, but when she bore the child, and they found out that it was a boy, my grandparents reconsidered it so she officially became the queen." He continued, diverting his eyes towards a big painting beside the wide-opened door. "But her reign didn't last long. When she gave birth to me, she died after a week because of health complications. The kingdom isn't required to miss the presence of a queen for the longest time so our father needed to be married again. My grandparents made sure that it was pure blood, and that's when my little brother was born." His eyes looked a bit sad slightly lit up with the mention of his sibling. So the woman who was watching his every expression, assumed that he must love his brother so much.

She looked at the painting where the man was focused on. The gigantic picture looked like a family portrait. The late king, the recent king, and the young prince were in it. There were two women on either side of the king. One woman had silver hair, that has the same color as Jaxon's and the other woman has a black one, so he assumed that maybe it was Sven's birth mother, since the King's hair was black.

"Was that her?" She asked, to confirm her conclusion.

The king nodded. "Jaxon painted that family portrait for me." He said, smiling. His expressions expose how proud he was.

"Did you have a good relationship with the recent queen?" The curious woman continued untangling the knots in her inquisitive mind.

The man glanced away from the portrait, his eyes falling from somewhere that the woman couldn't point to. "She was a strict queen, and she would make sure that we were brought up by the proper standard of royalty. I would not say that she didn't like me, all I could say was she wasn't fond of me, but she was the reason why I'm here now. She built me into becoming a King." He said, his smile quite fazed and his eyes a bit sorrowful, in contrast to his last sentence.

Lilith didn't think of the reason why she suddenly wanted to comfort the man because she unconsciously placed her hand over his, gripping it gently. "That is true and I think she made you into the calmest and the kindest man I've ever met, Sven." She said, in a gentle tone, smiling.

The man was shocked by the sudden gesture, but his face broke into another one of his gummy smiles, his sad expression had finally been erased. He looked at the woman's hand as his body suddenly felt home from the warmth, before looking back up at her. "And you're the nicest woman to tell me that." He tells her.

The woman suddenly realized what she did, so she removed her hand away from him. Sven felt the warmth on his hand slowly fade away, but his smile was still prominent because of how startled the woman reacted to her own doing. Lilith just stayed quiet, not knowing how to respond.

She was looking anywhere but for the man beside him, when her phone vibrated from her pocket. She didn't look at the caller ID and just answered it right away. "Lilith, can you please grab some more acrylic paints from the atelier?" Julian was the one who called her.

She stood up from her seat to move not too far from Sven. "JK, do I look like your servant? Get it your own." The woman retorted over the phone.

"Nuna refrained me from talking to servers and you're the only one who knows what acrylic paint is." The man explained.

"Then why are you not painting in the atelier, so you could easily get more materials?" Lilith retorted once again.

"I'm injured!" The young man over the phone retorted, this time.

"Says the man who was too confident to go shopping not wearing his arm sling yesterday. I thought you feel better?" This time, Lilith mocked him, sounding almost like a whispered shout. She glanced at Sven for a bit, to give him an apologetic look.

"Hey, I supported your alcoholic tendencies yesterday. You should do this for me in return, or I'll tell Huxley-Hyung you drank Irish coffee last night, and then you drank another one when we got back." The man said, and with that, Lilith just sighed.

"You're a spoiled brat Julian. I wish Carina can un-adopt you." She said her final remarks before finally dropping the call. She rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"Are you alright, Lilith?" Sven who observed her expression asked, standing up from the piano bench.

Lilith just nodded, pouting. "I'm sorry. I need to leave now. Thank you." She said in one breath before bowing towards the man. She turned around to leave, not letting the man respond to her.

When she was already outside of the hallway where she came wandering earlier, she exhaled a deep breath. She wasn't sure why she acted as if she wanted to hide from the King after unconsciously holding his hand, but she was sure that her cheeks heat up from realizing what she did. She felt embarrassed so she wanted to exit the room in an instant. She was silently thankful that Julian called her just in time.

She entered the art studio still sulking but her expression worsen when she saw another reason for her disappointment. She wishes the start of her day could've been better but, it's too late now.

The young prince was looking away from her direction. It seemed like he just got inside the room because his canvas was still empty and he was busy mixing colors in his palette. The woman also observed how he wasn't wearing his usual clothing in the Kingdom. He was wearing a white loose-knitted sweater and ripped black jeans. He was also not wearing his usual dress shoes instead, he was wearing some plain black boots.

Lilith felt nostalgic watching him because that was how he looked like in Coterie City and it bothered her with how comfortable she felt seeing him in that state.

She started to walk inside the room to look for the materials Julian needed. She saw the man's eyes watch her from her peripheral view as he acknowledged her presence but she also saw him look away in an instant. She felt complacent with that, so she proceeded into searching the cabinets further.

The lesser interaction the two of them would make, the easier for her sanity to calm down.

After a few minutes of looking around, she couldn't find the kind of acrylic paints that Julian would always use. When she went back to the corner she entered from, she met two pairs of curious eyes, both hands in his pocket.

"Are you looking for something?" The man asked, in a casual tone.

Lilith's chest jumped a bit, because of his sudden appearance but she fixed her composure quickly.

"Ah, yeah. I need some acrylic paints, but I couldn't find the specific ones that I am looking for." She said, not retaining her gaze from the man.

Jaxon pointed to a certain cabinet that was a bit bigger than the others. "There's a lot more on that upper shelf. Would you like me to help you?" He asked, knowing that the woman might not reach it.

Lilith eyed the shelf and then the white ladder beside it, before waving both of her hands toward the man. "Oh, no. I can get it myself. Go back to what you were doing Thanks." She said, turning away from him.

She walked towards the ladder right away and moved it adjacent to the said shelf. She climbed it carefully. When she reached the level of the storage, she started rummaging through the multiple containers of hues, before finally finding what she wanted.

She took five pieces of those in random colors since Julian didn't ask for any color in particular, or because she just didn't listen to the man's request any further since she dropped the call right away, before even letting him continue to talk.

She placed the acrylic paints over her chest, her right arm hugging it in place before using her left hand to support herself from climbing the ladder back down. She successfully set her feet on the flat surface without the paint falling.

She turned around to start leaving the room but then she realized that Jaxon was still standing in the same position he was in earlier. Lilith just gave him a small bow before walking past him.

"Lilith.." The man called out, causing the woman to close her eyes because her complacency was finally over. She thought she could casually getaway, without another awkward conversation of the past, just like the last time, but she was wrong. After opening her eyes, she looked back at him with a questioning look.

The man started walking towards her. He stopped just a little bit forward from where she was standing, looking down, thinking. It took him seconds to finally look back up at her.

"Do you like my brother?" He asked, after mustering all the courage he has to speak.

Lilith exhaled another sigh. Her reaction showed that he was expecting another peculiar question from him. "Prince Jaxon, can we please stop talking about these things? It's getting exhausting. I told you the last time-"

"Lilith, I am trying." The man cut her off, before frustratingly brushing the few strands of hair away from his face, in a backward motion with his right hand. "I am trying, okay?" He continued, moving closer to her. "I'm resisting and refraining to interact with you because you always feel uncomfortable with my presence, but it's so f*****g difficult because I always see you in the most random places here in the Palace." He added, his voice sounding a bit hoarsely.

He started moving even closer to her when the woman sighed again, placing the acrylic paints down on the open cabinet behind her. "Jaxon. What are you doing? This is the reason why I don't like talking to you. Every damn word you say makes me f*****g conf-"

The woman was once again cut off when the young prince held her nape as he placed his lips on her. Lilith was stopped dead in her tracks. She suddenly felt as if all her power was drained away from her. She didn't have the strength nor the proper thought to stop the man from what he was doing.

Jaxon pulled away, maintaining a few inches of space from their faces. "I like you, Lilith. I liked you ever since the first time I laid my eyes on you. Will that be enough reason why?" He whispered, bending his head a bit lower as he placed his forehead over hers, before closing his eyes. "And I promised myself to treat you so gently because you are so precious and so innocent, but every time I see you next to my brother, I want to do a lot of bad things to you.." He tells her, his voice cracking a bit before kissing her again but this time it was requiring more movements and urgency.

He held her back to press his body on the woman, lifting her head with his other hand in an upward motion to completely devour the woman's sensitive flesh.

Lilith wasn't moving and she was still frozen in her place but when she felt the Prince's hand travel inside her shirt, his palm gently grabbing on her bare hip, it caused her to give out a small moan and it finally allowed the man to dominate her now opened mouth.

Lilith wasn't sure why she gradually responded to the kiss. All that she was aware of was she liked the way he was touching her even though her mind tells the opposite. His touches were alien, something she didn't feel before and it was a little bit addicting that she didn't know how to stop it.

"Lilith?" Julian's voice echoed in the room so the woman quickly placed her hands over the man's chest, pushing him away, but the man pulled her closer not letting go. She wanted to pull away from his lips but the man's other hand was still on her nape.

She was nervous to be seen by anyone in that position and with the young Prince, so she did the only thing she could think of.

She bit the man's lower lip with the left strength she had, causing the man to finally let go of her, a small groan of pain escaped from his lips. Jaxon's tongue unconsciously licked the part of his lips where the woman bit hard and he immediately tasted the drop of blood that dripped out from his swollen lips.

She picked up the acrylic paints behind her after fixing her blouse. When she started to move, Julian appeared on the corner they were on.

"I found it." Lilith lifted the materials in her hands to show them to the young man, hoping that he wouldn't notice how shaky her hands were.

Julian looked at her, before noticing Jaxon behind the woman who started walking past him. He observed the man's lips, but he didn't say anything and just bowed at him before following behind Lilith.

"Dumb a*s, did you smack the young Prince?" Julian asked Lilith on their way out of the studio.

"Shut up." Was the only response she could mutter, trying her best to ignore the lingering aftereffects on the parts of her where the young prince had touched.

The young Prince, on the other hand, brushed his face in frustration with his hands, as he realized what he had done. He figured that because of what happened, the woman she adores will be more aloof and will further be drawn away from him.

He sighed, closing his eyes in vexation.