[YUZUKI]
"I am set now. So where is the meeting?" Yuzuki asked once she was confident with her choice of dressing. The pants she wore made her feel comfortable and what he had also raised was that they made her look like a servant of Kurayami.
This was what she had been used to wearing as an alpha in Fukada of course on days when her mother managed to persuade her to attend council meetings. It was like Yuzuki was back home, even though Kurayami was never going to be home for her.
She had a home, once, and it had all been flattened by a certain madman she was bound to target. But they want the time for her son's stories anyway. So, this was something she had to deal with, and soon.
"And Rinko, you're coming with me ever from now henceforth. Everywhere, you understand?" Yuzuki said and the poor woman nodded timidly. She was probably scared out of her wits but Yuzuki didn't still give a shit even then.
This wasn't the life she had hoped for too, so they both would just have to make do with their awful peasant life another way, right? Maybe along the way, they both would find a balance and even find a way to love the chaos that came with them either way, right?
"Yes, Your Majesty," Rinko said while the servants watched in silence as their queen looked at her new form in the mirror.
She was always a strange woman, but right now, the queen Kuramitsu they were seeing was so different from the one they had known, perhaps death did make people have epiphanies, or perspectives; which in their queen Kuramitsu's case, was a potential near-death situation.
"You can all leave now. I'll join you for dinner at the servants' quarters. Make sure to repair some good food. And don't stress about me chopping your heads off. I am trying to be a nice person for the next three days.
"Hopefully, the damn council doesn't piss me off, because we all have a chance to be nicer," Yuzuki said and stared at her confusion. Hell, even she herself stared at herself in confusion. What the fuck was she even on about?
Dining with servants? Well, she wasn't against the idea, but she definitely didn't think that Queen Kuramitsu ever looked at her servants. Oh, but this was going to be a long ride for Yuzuki.
But then she would find a way, after all, she was Yuzuki Fukada, or in this moment, Yuzuki Kuramitsu.
"As you wish, Your Majesty," they all nodded before leaving Rinko and the queen in the royal chambers. The poor maidservant didn't know what the future would look like for her, but one thing she was sure of was the fact that this queen was a piece of work.
They were never going to be able to understand what it was that she wanted with ease and yet at the same time, an abstract of Rinko wonders of the experience the queen had had had changed her that much.
Perhaps this was the only chance she had to see and figure it out for their sakes, right?
"Shall we?" Yuzuki said as she pulled her hair into a bun, uncouth all the shit that the servants had done to her hair. It was almost like she hated having that length of hair but couldn't do shit about it.
Usually, the werewolves had been used to seeing the queen in shoulder-length hair, but now Yuzuki was making a bun out of it and it was so massive it had Rinko chuckling.
"Of course," Rinko just sighed softly before they walked out.
But Yuzuki didn't miss the chuckle.
There was hope?
*****
The familiarity of the hallways haunted Yuzuki as she slowly settled into her own reality, one that painfully reminded her of the objective at hand. Maybe it was a rough setting, but then it was what life could best offer her at the moment.
She felt like she had asked them over and over. Like she had been here more than she ever needed to be. Then again, queen Kuramitsu had been born into Kurayami and had been the former king's daughter or a man who had died ages ago.
The former Kurayami king had left his daughter to keep his legacy and Kuramitsu had done more than just that. She had transformed Kurayami into a kingdom that no one ever wanted to mess with.
She had made the place a fortress without even having to put up high walls and more barriers around them.
Everyone knew it was suicide to go into Kurayami without an invite from the royals and up to this day, Kuramitsu was the only royal. And that in itself was the crazed beauty of what Kurayami had been turned into.
"How are you feeling today, Rinko? Be honest, because I can read minds," Yuzuki said as they got closer to the end of the hallways, where the door to the throne room stared at them.
She knew that she was asking for so much from a woman she had just met and a woman who was scared of her, but she had to do something.
"I…" Rinko began as she looked up at Yuzuki, making sure to keep her eyes from meeting the wild queen's intense gaze. She didn't want her head rolling off the floor for something her queen assumed was a challenge either way.
"Come on, we are about to reach the end of the hallways," Yuzuki insisted.
"Worried a bit. I was on duty when you hit your head in the borehole. The councilmen have been wanting my head for days and the only thing stopping them was the fact that you didn't give your order.
"I am worried that you might finally dispose of me and my mother wouldn't have a daughter to look forward to. Maybe I am crazy for speaking like this when I should be begging for your mercy, but what else is there for me to lose other than my life?
"I am just worried that Mother might bear the brunt of my mistake of not making sure the borehole was secure enough to see that you could have tripped. I am sorry about that, but it is how I feel," Rinko let out in one breath and Yuzuki sighed.