Grant Me Your Grace

Then the wooden box, which was being carried by a young servant whom Mindhu had brought with him, was handed into the hands of the courtier, and it was placed before the Emperor.

“Alas… look at this beautiful color.”

The box was opened to reveal a bluish powder. Khankundra gazed at the powder in ecstasy, as if he were looking at a giant diamond gemstone.

The powder, dried and crushed from blue water lilies, had recently become a favorite of the Emperor.

Khankundra was known for his fondness for shisha, and he was such an enthusiast that he would puff on a shisha even amid official duties.

This particular shisha powder from Mindhu was Khankundra’s favorite because of its unique aroma and taste, as well as its relaxing effect that quickly relieves tension in the body.

So much so, that he gave it the name ‘lapis lazuli.’

“Bring me the shisha. Quickly.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

At the emperor’s impatient gesture, the chamberlain handed him a shisha, a hookah. 

Khankundra stirred the lapis lazuli into the shisha’s stream. The lapis lazuli, smeared like paint in the water, dissolved quickly, revealing a mysterious blue color.

Rapidly, Khankundra inhaled shisha like a person breathing through bamboo underwater.

“Hmm, haa…”

Pushing the shisha smoke deep into his lungs, Khankundra exhaled a thick cloud of smoke. 

Then his eyes, which had been twitching nervously a moment ago, slowly dilated and relaxed, and his mouth, which had been set in a straight line, hung open in satisfaction.

It wasn’t long before Khankundra, who had been sucking on the shisha again and again, felt as if he were drunk. 

After a long day of hard labor, the only thing that kept him entertained was shisha’s blissful pleasure.

“Are you pleased with this lapis lazuli, Your Majesty?”

“I like them all. The lapis lazuli you bring is always of the finest quality, Mindhu, and I can’t find it for sale anywhere else, so I wait for you to bring it to me.”

Khankundra moved his arm lazily and took the shisha pipe to his mouth. With each slow rise and fall of his heaving chest, thick smoke billowed in all directions like a fog.

The corners of his mouth stretched in satisfaction, and Khankundra’s eyes widened.

“Bring in the women.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Beyond the wafting smoke, Mindhu smiled a wicked grin.

Soon the door opened, and three women stepped inside. Dressed in see-through robes like dragonfly wings, the women skillfully took their places around the emperor.

As smoothly as if they were playing a lute, they stripped the emperor of his clothes.

Naked in an instant, Khankundra reached out and grabbed the breast of the woman on his right. With his other hand, he began to tease the woman on his left.

As the emperor’s hands roamed over the two women’s bodies, the other woman spontaneously gridded her hips against his engorged shaft.

After a couple of thrusts up and down the fiery shaft, she pushed the taut, swollen column of flesh into the opening of her slit. 

The unprepared penetration pierced the taut flesh, causing the woman to gasp and moan. When she paused, unable to contain the shaft, the emperor clicked his tongue and roughly grabbed her by the waist.

Plop!

“Hmph…!”

Like a snake burrowing into the ground, the emperor’s hideous manhood pierced the woman’s body. The woman embracing the emperor’s body slowly began to sway her hips and let out obscene cries.

Khankundra, quickly warming up, grabbed the woman on top of him by the waist and began to pound up and down. 

The gurgling sounds quickly turned lewd.

“Haa, ahh, ugh!”

Khankundra thrashed her hips ferociously, teasing with his hand nonstop. 

Amongst the frenzied moans of the three women, Khankundra’s animalistic throaty cries sank low. It was impossible to tell which of the women’s bodies was making the rasping sounds.

Mindhu watched the scene of the ensuing ordeal in silent amusement. 

As he looked away, he saw that the lapis lazuli he hadn’t finished pouring into the shisha had fallen from the women’s bodies and scattered across the floor.

The powdered lapis lazuli, which Khankundra could not live without, was also mixed with a trace ingredient that produced a strong aphrodisiac effect. 

Whenever the emperor smoked shisha, he would engage in promiscuous affairs like that.

According to him, it was all to relieve the fatigue of his courtiers, but who knows.

‘Slowly, you’ll grow to be unable to live without the lapis lazuli I give you.’

With a sneer, Mindhu turned and strode away. He was about to leave the bedroom and head out of the palace when he caught sight of a familiar face at the end of the hall.

Raising an eyebrow, Mindhu turned back into a gnarled, sharp-toothed tooth and leaned toward him.

“Your Highness, the Crown Prince.”

Crown Prince Saltar squints at Mindhu’s polite greeting. He knew the reason for Mindhu’s presence at this hour.

Beyond the closed door of the emperor’s bedchamber, the lustful sobs of women could be heard.

The sound of lewd ecstasy seeping through the tightly sealed door. He didn’t need to see it to know how filthy it must be in there.

Saltar scolded Mindhu with a frown.

“You shouldn’t serve my father so often with lapis lazuli.”

“How can I, as a servant, fail to give His Majesty what he seeks?”

“I am well aware that lapis lazuli restores the body’s vitality and expels toxins, but as with anything, too much of anything is poisonous, so you must be careful.”

“Indeed, Your Highness.”

The corners of Mindhu’s mouth turned up wickedly.

“It is the duty of this body to serve your majesty, so do not worry.”

As if a mere Crown Prince shouldn’t interfere.

Mindhu bowed deeply to Saltar and left the room. Saltar’s brow furrowed as he stared after Mindhu as he retreated.

“Snaky bastard. You think I don’t know you’re trying to manipulate my father with your strange herbs.”

Cursing and swearing did nothing to ease his frustration. 

As the next emperor, it was only natural for him to be furious that a mere chancellor would dare to place the throne in his palm.

Yet despite knowing all this, Saltar did nothing to restrain the old Mindhu.

The reason was simple.

“If it means I can get to the throne faster, I’ll overlook that snake-bastard’s intrusion.”

It was the throne he would soon inherit.

The Bahran nation was a far cry from what it had been in its heyday, and while it still looked like a great power on the surface, it was festering with corruption and decay from the inside out.

The emperor’s lapis lazuli was the first evidence, and the constant banditry on the fringes was the second.

The emperor was no longer strong enough to oversee the entire country as before. 

Ever since the empress had died untimely in a horseback riding accident three years earlier, the emperor had been drinking lapis lazuli and taking only young women.

The nobles have grown gluttonous, and think only of draining the blood of the people, and the poverty-stricken people have turned themselves into bandits.

A father who ruins his own country doesn’t look favorably on Saltar, the heir to the throne.

“I will ascend the throne and set things right.”

Saltar was an ambitious and passionate young man. He was driven and sometimes made mistakes, but his love for his country was great.

Or, more accurately, the throne.

Though I was not chosen by the goddess, and my divine powers never manifested, I hold the blood of a princess who did. 

My ascension to the throne was meant to be.

And now I am busy setting the iron bars in motion to rebuild the nation of Bahran.

“You’re too busy indulging in your pleasures to care about your country.”

It was only natural for Saltar to resent Khankundra for ruining the country he hoped would one day be his.

Well, the sooner that happens, the sooner my ‘plan’ takes place.

“Kalpani.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Send someone to the Empress’s palace.”

Then Kalpani, one of Saltar’s servants, asked anxiously.

“Are you sure you don’t mind, I haven’t yet received permission from the Emperor to visit the palace…”

“This has happened once or twice before. We’ll just get what we need and be out of here in a few minutes, and I doubt Father will even notice, since he never looks into the palace. Hurry, there is no time.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

The faithful servant soon slipped away into the darkness. Left alone, Saltar gazed out over the sprawling palace with a determined gaze.

“I will bring this nation back to prosperity by any means necessary. No one will dare to overstep, no one will dare to underestimate.”

To do so, he desperately needed Dahlia’s blood, for only it would solidify his path to the throne.

The windswept chant clung to his ears like a raggedy mantra. Saltar flicked his ears as if to wipe away the dirt, then returned to the imperial chamber.