Rin the Rat: Tale of a Beloved MonsterCh1 - Book I: The Rat & The Little Lord

CW: Gore, explicit language.

Even for a man so used to war, the General will never become numb to the aftermath of battle. He stands unsteadily, feet slipping in the blood soaked mud as he pants through the inferno in his chest. There’s an incessant ringing in his ears, his hearing damaged from the constant clanging of metal on metal for the past several hours. Now, there is just the ringing and the clockwork cries of the wounded and dying. The sky is black with acrid smoke from the pyres scattered across the death drenched battlefield. There are too many bodies and not enough wood. cHvKsW

From where he stands, the General can see the bottom of the artificial mountain upon which the five rings of the palace sits. There, like a sprawl of restless stars, are thousands of people bowing their heads to the blue sands. They are eerily silent and uniform, bowing without any signs of stopping. The soldier’s heart thuds at the sight, too glorious and wretched at once.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

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The figure is small in stature and as slender as a bamboo tree, but their powerful aura reaches even the stars spread across the desert. Thousands press their head into the ground with a shiver, despite only being able to feel their dangerous presence. They shout and sing devotion to this new autocrat, voices and hearts full of both terror and awe. If they should emerge from this night with their lives intact, it would be a mercy indeed.

This is just noise to this figure, who calmly and gracefully walks down the three thousand steps with bare feet, slipping not once on the blood drenched marble. Long silken hair the colour of ash floats upon the midnight winds, giving them the appearance of drifting underwater. Their face is an illusion, a misleading honeytrap for the unsuspecting prey. lJKQmb

One could never guess at the depravity that sits behind such a beautiful mask, if not for a pair of ruthless eyes that entraps the souls of any who dares meet them.

Of course, the General knows this depravity well, having bore witness to it for many, many years. With his heart in his mouth and the cacophonous adulations beating against his back, this loyal servant drops to his knees and bows until his forehead hits the gory muck. Like the disharmonious splattering of the first spring raindrops, all around he hears knees hitting the mud as his soldiers pay respect to their new Emperor. A desperate heat surges in his chest. Pride, terror, relief. They consume his very soul.

When he lifts his head, he sees his Emperor standing on the bottom step, not ten metres away. The new monarch sways ever so gently, as if he were a cardinal flower caressed by a passing breeze. From this close, the General can see something in his Emperor’s right hand. A severed head. The facial features too familiar.

And as the General’s enraptured gaze lands upon the Emperor’s face, he sees there an eerie smile, in equal parts bitter and amused. With a lazy flick of his wrist, the head goes careening towards the second ring, bouncing and rolling like a child’s ball. And with that flippant action, he speaks for the first time as the Emperor of the Four Territories. The Mother. The Father. And their Immortal God.

-Waves-

This is my first BL novel. It’s going to be a long one too, spanning over three books and twelve years. I figure I must be a maso for even writing this monstrosity.

But there’s so much of Rin and Jun’s story that I want to tell and so much of this world I want to show you!

I do hope you enjoy! And of course, please leave a comment to say hi or share your thoughts. Much love x dvyHre