Kayech Del Vinsenia stood up and stretched, cracking his knuckles with obnoxious carelessness and then moving to kneel next to the trained killer. "I really wanted them all alive and taken prisoner, miss." His arm snapped up in a roundabout motion that brought a curved knife into the woman's chest.
"It's really hard to get assassins that do exactly what you want, you know?" His statement to the world at large was nearly drowned out by the woman's shrill scream of agony as the blade buried itself near her sternum, before scraping down and out, ripping open the soft flesh and taut muscle as bones cracked under the sudden pressure. "And if you want anything done right, you have to do it yourself." The next scream was accompanied by a soft squish and the sound of rushing liquid as a burst of arterial blood squirted directly into the new king's face.
He flinched back, rubbing his sleeve over both his eyes to clear his vision before continuing his work. "Since you're actually helping me get over my immense sadness at your failure, and I barely ever get to tell this story, I have a present for you~."
He held a finger to his lips, an angelic grin dancing behind his eyes. "It's a secret between you and me~!"
"See, I was a bastard. I've been told that I get my good looks from my mother, because my father was certainly not easy on the eyes."
"Anyway~, I wasn't supposed to be born. You know the stories, right? Person of royal blood has an illegitimate child, that person gets dethroned by them?" A snort of perfectly cheery laughter, lapsing into a quieter cherubic chuckle. "Funny how even those old stories have some truth in them."
"Now, don't get me wrong, I didn't do all this because I was angry about not having a birthright or my mother being shunned or anything. That'd be silly." He lapsed into silence, contemplating the implications of his last statement, sawing handily at a particularly tough collection of muscle fibers. "The people who use that as motivation usually die, you know? Revenge begets revenge, and then its a mess that no one can clean up."
There was another pause as Kayech pulled out the blade entirely, tapping the bloodied metal on the side of his cheek as he disappeared into the realm of thought. "Kinda like....say, how blood stains rugs, or any sort of cloth, really. It's really hard to get out, and if you don't do it quick it just gets sticky and dirtier than when you started."
"....I probably shouldn't be doing this in nice clothes, huh?"
Shrugging, the man got back to work with a fresh slice, drawing another gasp of pain from the rapidly weakening woman. "Anyway, let's get back on topic, yeah? You silly goose, you shouldn't sidetrack me when I'm telling such a wonderful story~!"
"I did all this because... I could." The charming smile that radiated with almost childlike innocence clashed with the crimson liquid that dribbled down his cheeks.
"It was actually pretty simple. See, the old king had a weakness for two things. One, his women, and two, his entertainment. Sometimes at the same time."
"He was always looking for more of both, right? So I just applied to perform, and-" Kayech looked down, halting his current cut as the now quickly expiring assassin twitched, seemingly loosing even the ability to feel the pain that the newest king was so carefully carving into her body.
The slightest hint of a frown touched the usually happy face, perhaps because he was now unable to tell his secret in full.
"You want me to hurry up, huh? Kinda demanding for a woman on death's door. You really must have been insufferable in life." Despite his words, he continued on with a smile. "That's okay. I suppose I can make an exception, because you've been such a good listener so far!"
"After I took care of the king and his family, I was left with the prince's wife and kid, with the little one being a fat little turd that I couldn't be bothered to kill on the first run. Disgusting, right?"
"As I broke the old king's bones one by one, he told me that I'd never take the kingdom from him, being the bastard that I was. And since he was a frail old man, he'd barely finished the sentence before he died. Kinda a buzzkill, but it got me thinking."
His handsome face turned into one of exasperation. "So, then I'd got to find a good way to prove him wrong, and that meant that I had to make sure that I was the next of kin. You know, hereditary positions and all that."
"Then I realized that I could do something about that with the woman. First, however, I thought that I'd get some entertainment out of it. That's when it struck me! I'd just make her take on the aspects of all the royal family!"
"It wasn't easy, mind you. Getting someone to eat other people is hard even when you don't have your kingship riding on it, so I dragged her to the dining room and sit down to think."
"First things first, I had to keep her there, rather than running away. That's usually the hard part when you're trying to get off, even under good circumstances. So I had to nail the kid to the table with one of the handy pieces of cutlery."
Kayech's messy work took yet another turn, this time accompanied by the sharp smell of acid as he began to ram the blade into the now opened rib-cage. "So I then I have to make her eat each one of her family, and I'm nearly at a loss on how to do that, right?"
His nose wrinkled, the ramming halting as he re-positioned the gore-soaked blade, this time cutting downward toward the lower intestine as the flesh fell away with a warm ripping sound. "Then inspiration struck! The kid! She'd been complaining that I should let 'Let him go' and 'Only hurt me'-" The lord of the Vale dropped the blade to make air quotes with his fingers, seemingly now more interested in his story than the half-dissected woman that he'd been cutting up. "-so I make her a deal. She eats at least a part of everything, even if she throws it up, and then I let the kid go."
Kayech reached down into a pocket of one of his robes, retrieving a knife that was extraordinarily similar to the curved blade that was currently stuck in the corpse's navel, this time only jabbing in the blade when he was making a point in his speech. "Best deal I've ever made, you know. I've never seen anyone-"*stab*"force down a bit of finger after they throw it up twice."*stab*
"And so it went. I made a point-"*stab*"-of showing her every head. At first she cried, nearly drowning out the kid. She threw up a couple more times when I poked out her hubby's eyes out. Then, after the sixth head, she got really, really-"*stabstab*"-quiet."
The musing halted the young king's grim playing, chilling the musky, thickly scented air. "So I had to get back that fear, you know? Because she'd win. I've never liked fair fights, and all of a sudden this broad decides to wuss out and do some denial crap!"
The cherubic expression faded, leaving only one of annoyance and anger as Kayech ground his teeth at the memory. He restarted his stabbings, this time mashing the blade into any exposed part with a grunt and barely contained giggle whenever the blade slid into the exposed flesh. "And so I came up with an even better-"*stabstabstabstab*"-idea! I let the kid go!"*stabstabstabstabstab*"I! Let! Him! Go!"*stabstabstabstabstabstABSTAB*
The silence that followed his bellowing declaration lasted a long, long time, before the now expressionless young king spoke his next words with careful precision, measuring out each syllable in a perfectly paced, disturbingly quiet voice. "....When he was dragged out of the room, screaming and crying for his 'mommy' to save him, I told the poor princy's widow that I had one last surprise for her. I think she already knew, as she began to cry and sob." The corners of his mouth twitched upwards, overly white teeth flashing in the shadows that veiled the king's face. His voice trembled as he tried to make the next part as expressionless as the former, failing miserably. "I let him get to the entrance before I killed him. He burned like a torch, all that fat igniting in a single second." Kayech's breath now came fast and shallow, almost gasping in his attempts to hold back his mirth. "So I-haha-cut off his fat little head, and bring it back to the dining room, right? And so, she's just sitting there, waiting, and then sees what I brought!"
The young man's face twisted, baring his teeth in a sadistic grin that brought a nearly demonic light to his features. His eyes rolled upwards, nearly vanishing into his skull in an expression of almost orgasmic pleasure as the new king savored the next words, letting them roll off his tongue in carefully measured syllables filled with to the brim with mirth. "And the best fucking part? When I showed her the head, she shat herself!" He broke down into helpless giggles, dropping the blade into the gory mess. "Oh you should have seen the look on her face~! She didn't even scream when I killed her! Hehe-She fucking broke! How awesome is that!? HAha! And something that's even better than the best?"
Gasping for breath as tears of mirth streaked down his face, the blood-soaked figure reached over to blade of the royal family, using it as a crutch to heave himself upright again, letting the corpse roll off him and down the stairs of the throne. His blue-green eyes snapped into focus, glaring directly down at the ruined form of the assassin who had failed his direct orders. "It worked!"
Long ago, the Vale(A group of mountains, forming an almost circle around a set of smaller peaks and valleys) was settled by travelers who carried the ancient weapons of heroes, the families who carried Del in their names. Each brought a legendary artifact that was rumored to hold great power, and each chose their own land according to the doctrines that they lived their life for. Del Vinensia, to the west, claimed the rugged slopes and valleys high in the mountains and began to mine, churning out silver and iron to arm their heavily protected guardians. Del Caldegia, to the north, chose the rugged slopes and slanting cliffs to raise their flying mounts and bring about seclusion for the mages of the Vale. Del Monray, in the center, chose to take up a wide tract of densely wooded land in the hopes of allowing their own infantry and economy to flourish. Del Belinni, to the south, took the rolling hills as a great pasture for their crops and horses, growing quickly rich by the vast amount of trade routes that it controlled.
Years past, and all but Del Monray dropped the 'Del' of nobility, instead choosing to let the country be known by simpler names as their ambition and drive waned. Belinni grew bloated with riches, with the nobility living in luxury even as the poor starved. Vinsenia gave up any semblance of self-sufficiency, growing compliant and reliant on the crops that fed through others' land. Del Monray split in a brutal civil war as the citizen's unrest grew, some convinced that the royalty was not worthy of wielding their legendary item. Caldegia's supposed seclusion developed into full-blown isolationism, not allowing any of the mages to leave the lands of their study due to the lower world being 'impure'.
It was then that a new king took the thrown in Vinsenia, and took back the power of his forefathers by wielding the mythic Blade of Kings, riding forth in conquest. It took him less than a month to annex the neighboring city-state of Caldegia, drafting the flying prowess of the army and the magic of the mages to his forces. Next, he set his sights on both halves of Del Monray, taking the royal family a full two weeks before the Free State fell to his generals.
Upon the dawning of the third month since the newest King Del Vinensia took the throne, a group of mercenaries were hired by the relatively rich border town of Charten, Belinni, which stands guard to the trade routes into the Vale Proper. The Conquest of the Free State of Del Monray has brought turmoil to the region, and many fleeing bandits have been reported to ransack and loot villages as they run from the approaching Vinsenian army. However, Charten hasn't received shipments of supplies for weeks now, causing a feeling of impending dread to fall over the town, as if the some inevitable doom is slowly raising the guillotine's blade.
