Send a ✗ and my muse will react to being called a monster.
Monster -- it is a word, a label, mere characters on a page. Yet it burns, it burns & it burns until his blood is at a boil. Crimson eyes narrow into slits as a scowl marrs his face with its darkness -- a word, yet not a word he is prepared to hear from Kougyoku. Just what has he done to earn her scorn? Not a single moment comes to mind -- he's been minding himself, steering away from the title 'old hag' as of late, & he's been somewhat behaved.
...Is it, perhaps, his intentions to go to war against the Empire, to fight Kouen alongside Hakuryuu? Is the princess's reason jealously, maybe -- jealous that he chose Hakuryuu to be King over her? No, that doesn't seem like Kougyoku he tells himself.
❝ A monster am I, Old Hag? ❞
His is reply is short, his tone harsh, & overall he is not impressed. No, he had expected better of her, his Candidate. It is through him that she has power, respect, & dignity. It is because of his magic that she is a soldier, capable of turning an entire battlefield upside-down. Monster...
He scoffs, rolls his eyes, & pushes it off -- or tries. But it hurts, he knows this, because deep down he knows she's right. He is a monster. He strives for war, kills anyone in his path, while all the he laughs in the faces of the innocent. The pain of others brings him joy -- oh, twisted & cruel magi, surely that is the definition of monster?
It is with a click of the tongue that he turns heel, leaving the princess with less than a word. He has no time for this -- such a meeting should've have been deemed pointless. He has a war that he must prepare for. A wonderfully terrible war.
