Chapter Text
Once upon a time there lived a very young King, whose name was also”king” . As funny as it may seem it was sad, since his real parents named him it as their dying wish. His parents had been assassinated just when he was a baby.
The guards had failed to do their job by letting both of the assassins in. Luckily his dad was awake and managed to hide his son before the assassin could kill him too.
But then came in one of the servants named “Eda” and she swore on her life that she’d take care of this poor King until he was old enough to rule. Nobody went against her word so that’s exactly what she did. And since that day there were night guards that stayed in his room watching over him.
Now in the present time sat a fourteen year old soon to be King on his throne. Nothing but silence filled the ginormous room. He was used to it so he didn’t mind at all. Of course in the beginning when Eda would leave him to do her chores he’d get sad and throw a fit and demand her stay and play with him.
It only worked the first few times, after a while she didn’t fall for his charms anymore and left him in the care of her younger adopted daughter named “Luz”. She also found Luz when she was very young in front of the castle. A little girl about 5 years old just in front of the castle’s gates all alone.
So of course she had to take her in. And now she is 18 years old and a young adult. Really how time flies.
King who began to get bored got up from his throne and walked towards one of the giant windows.
Outside everyone was buzzing with life quite the opposite of what was happening inside the castle. It did make sense, it was coronation day so everyone was excited to see what type of King he’d be. To say the least he was kind of nervous.
He's never had a role model to look up to since his parents died before he could even speak. When Eda told him what happened to his parents he found that he didn’t feel all that sad, probably because he never met them, he just felt disappointed which is almost the same thing as feeling sad.
So now he had no idea on how he was going to manage this kingdom. All though he did hear some gossip one time from these two girls saying how bad the other King was and hoping that he’d be much better. And if that was true it only made him even more nervous. He didn’t want to disappoint his people like his father did.
Although he did wonder if that was the reason his parents were assassinated, and he was scared hoping that that wouldn’t happen to him. Even if one time he thought that they deserved it for giving him this stupid name, Eda gave him an earful for that. And now that he is older he regrets thinking like that.
Since he was little his magic has always been stronger than normal, everyone around him congratulated him for it, but that just made him wonder who was strong enough to kill off his parents. They even told him that he had potential to become the strongest, of course that boosted his ego to a thousand.
He also learned that he was from this species called titans, which is probably why his magic was strong. His father was a titan and his mother was an ordinary human, making him half half. That’s why he looked like a demon aka a human with horns.
Eda was also pretty strong and her sister Lilith too. He remembers watching them both fight for the first time he was cheering Eda on so hard that the guards heard and had to break them up. Of course if it kept on going Eda would have won. Which also made him wonder why Eda was one of the maids instead of a guard like Luz.
Even if Luz was a human she still fought pretty well. She was one of the only humans there too. That’s what made her so special, her courage of being able to live among monsters. It wasn’t very normal to see humans in this kingdom since they considered monsters and witches bad. Since humans could only do magic by using glyphs they must have felt threatened.
He couldn’t really blame them, he understood them to some extent. But it was still sad they couldn’t put aside their differences and just live all happy together. Or maybe that was too much to ask.
But as long as Luz felt welcomed that’s all that mattered.
Right now King needed some fresh air,he had a big day ahead of him.
He left the window and opened the two doors leading to the hallway. When he entered the guards at the doors immediately bowed down muttering a “good morning your highness”.
He walked all the way to the ballroom where the balcony was. He opened the windows exaggerating, as soon as he opened it his people began waving up at him. And being the good soon to be king he waved back down, putting in the best smile he could.
He then leaned on one of his hands and just watched as the witches and monsters coexisted together.
He kept on watching them until something caught his eye. It seemed to be a witch with white hair, He's never seen one with hair as white as that. But just as he saw it the mysterious figure suddenly vanished between the other witches.
King rubbed his eyes and blinked twice, his brain must be playing tricks on him. He had to admit that he didn’t sleep all that well due to the stress of today.
He heard the bells ring signaling that it was time for lunch time. He turned around and went back inside.
King sat on the chair all the way to the end of the table, while Luz and Eda sat one to his left and the other to his right. Normally the guards and the servants weren’t supposed to eat with the royals but King found that he was too lonely eating by himself, so he ordered that those two eat with him. And to be fair he considered them his family, already a while ago.
“So King, are you excited?” Eda asked with her mouth full of food.
“Not really.” King sipped his water. He was still nervous not as much as this morning but the feeling still lingered “I feel like this is all happening too fast.” He admitted.
Eda swallowed her food and chugged down a glass of water.“I get you Kid you’re still so young.”
“Yea I couldn’t imagine being a King at such a young age.” Luz chimed in.
Those two weren’t helping at all with his anxiety, in fact they were making it worse again. They must have noticed because Luz got up and hugged him, “it’s going to be alright little guy.” She said and ruffled his hair, careful not to touch his horns.
Eda also got up to hug him, muttering the same words.
The coronation was in two hours from now so he still had some free time before becoming the official King of the Kingdom.
When he was younger he couldn’t wait until he became King. The idea of being able to rule everyone excited him, but now it felt more like a burden than anything else. He wished he could keep on doing nothing and just keep on training with Luz for the rest of his life. That would be a dream.
But you can’t get everything you want in life.
He sighed.
“Hey, since there is still some time left, why don’t we go for a quick walk.” Luz suggested. Since she was his personal guard she had the duty to follow him almost everywhere.
“Sure I guess.” He had nothing else to do so why not.
They both got up from their seats and headed on outside. The fresh spring breeze greeted them like a warm welcome.
Luz grabbed his hand, “let’s get some fresh pastries.” King was familiar with the streets from this kingdom but he still let Luz lead the way.
“Good afternoon, your highness.” The girl with twin pigtails bowed down.
“No good afternoon for me Willow? Im hurt.” Luz teased her friend. King already knew that they were good friends. After all it was Luz who showed him the best pastries in this Kingdom.
“Well the King has priority unlike peasants like you.” Willow teased back making Luz let out a loud and exaggerated gasp.
“So your highness, what would you like today? The usual doughnuts?” Funny how Willow already knew what he wanted. He’s tried all of her pastries but the best one is definitely her chocolate doughnuts.
“You know it.”
“And give me one too.” Luz reminded her friend.
“Sure, that will be twenty snails.” Willow smiled
“What, are you crazy charging that much to his royal highness?” Luz gasped again
“Oh I'm not charging him, I'm charging you.” Willow pointed at Luz with a laugh escaping from her.
While Luz and Willow were “bickering” he sat down a bag of snails, took his doughnut and quietly escaped from Luz's vision.
He stuffed the pastry in his mouth and began walking to see what the other vendors had stored.
A lot of them offered him stuff for free but he ultimately refused. He had a lot of money for a reason, he wasn’t going to be that greedy. Although he guessed that his father must have taken a lot of stuff for free by the way, they all immediately put on a shocked face when he refused their kind gesture.
When he died he didn’t want his people but remember him as a greedy tyrant but as a nice and loving King who gave his people exactly what they needed.
But the idea of dying kind of scared him. He often thought about how it was to die. Would he just see nothing when the fateful day came or would he go to hell or heaven, well he still had a long way ahead of him so needn't think about that right now.
What he needed to do right now was follow that mysterious guy with white hair? Oh there he was again. King began pushing through the crowd to attempt to reach that mysterious witch. He doesn’t know why but he felt like he really needed to reach out to him.
He kept following the mysterious witch all the way until there was nobody else in the alleyway that he was led to.
“Hello?” King said confused on where the other could have gone. He spun around but the other was nowhere to be found.
He suddenly got a really bad chill. Why would he follow some stranger to where there was nobody else, what if he met the same fate as his parents.
King suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder, he turned around and was ready to attack until he saw who it was.
“King don’t ever run off like that again you hear me!” Luz said that louder than they both expected.
“Sorry it’s just I saw-“
“Listen I don’t care what you saw, it’s too dangerous for you to be running off like that.” He could understand why Luz was being a little mean, what he did was wrong. As a royalty he should be more careful.
“Sorry.” He mumbled sadly
Luz sighed and tapped his shoulder “it’s okay just don't do that okay.”
“Don’t tell Eda please?”
“Alright I won’t, but we need to head back now your coronation is soon.”
Right, how could he forget arguably the most important day of his life. He took her hand again and they both began walking back to the castle.
The coronation was going to be in his throne room. He felt like it would be more meaningful if it was outside but that was just his opinion, although he was soon to be king he had no say in this decision.
King got put into his King suit, matching pants, matching top even matching cape that was too big for him, it even dragged on the floor.
The dawn of what was coming was slowly creeping into his brain, making his anxiety sky rocket.
He walked down the hall and all the way to the doors of the throne room where his fate awaited. The doors slowly creeped open with a noise louder than this morning. This was really happening.
He took one step.
If only this could have been delayed a few more years, maybe he wouldn’t be so anxious right now.
He took another step.
He looked up and saw Eda and Luz put a thumbs up towards him. King looked upfront now to where his destiny lay, he had to be strong for Eda, for Luz and for his people.
Another step was taken.
Why was this necessary, couldn’t everyone just live happily ever after without needing a ruler?
Another step.
No he needed to man up, he was born exactly for this moment but how could he man up at such a young age. Did nobody else think he was too young to be King. Well it was in his name so maybe he was just overthinking.
Another step.
Yea he was definitely just overthinking this. Eda one e told him that he was going to be a great King, and that’s exactly he was going to be.
Another step.
He wondered what his father would think of him; he knew all these thoughts that he was having.
One last step.
He didn’t want this at all.
As the chancellor began to speak he couldn’t help but feel dread creep up on him. He kneeled down when the chancellor stopped speaking. He lifted up the crown and placed it on top of King's head.
Making him the official King of the Kingdom. The bell rang loudly, enough for everyone from the land to hear.
The crowd roared in approval but King didn’t feel all that happy. Nonetheless he still waved and put on the fakest smile possible.
He waved and waved until the window to his left cracked and an arrow shot right into his left leg. King yelled out in pain, falling to the floor.
The guards all scattered around the King and started to yell. King looked to his left and saw a cloaked figure neither fully hidden nor fully revealed. Shadows gather beneath the hood, swallowing any hint of a face.
The figure ran away when they noticed guards going their way.
“Get them!” Luz yelled at the others but not before rushing to Kings side.
“Luz go after them too!” Eda rushed over to their side,”I’ll take care of him, you go.”
Luz nodded and rushed out of the castle through the broken window. She ran as fast as she could. She turned a right then a left, hearing where the footsteps were coming from.
But then she stopped.
There were guards standing and in front of them was a white haired boy no older than fifteen standing with a hand on the cloaked figure.
Luz pushed away the other guards to take in the scene.
The cloaked figure had vines wrapped around her that were frozen at the tip.
“It wasn’t me I swear!” The cloaked figure yelled, it seemed like it was a woman underneath the hood.
“Arrest her!” Luz yelled at the other guards.
“Wait I swear it wasn’t me you have to believe me!” The woman attempted to convince them but they all ignored her and dragged her along.
Luz stared at the white haired boy and that’s when she noticed the blood red eyes that he had. She’s never seen a witch with this combo before.
“Thank you for stopping her.” The guard reached out “Im Luz.”
“Im Kevin.” He shook her hand
“So Kevin, what are you doing here and how did you stop her?” Good question: why was he here in the first place?
——-
The collector woke up not feeling too great, it was currently seven in the morning so he woke up earlier than usual. His adopted father,Belos, was already up per usual. Doing random experiments to upgrade his magic skills. Even if the collector already taught him a few things, but he was just a kid back then so he wasn’t a very reliable teacher.
The collector got up and headed towards the kitchen to make himself some coffee, he needed the energy for the very productive day ahead of him. Since he was more powerful than Belos, Belos would often send him off to do his chores aka killing the people that he didn’t like.
A week ago Belos had a new chore for the collector, he had told him that in exactly a week there was going to be a coronation for the new King. He said that the last King was bad so he got rid of him but since he didn’t have time to get his son he was going to become the new King.
So the collector's task was to kill the new King on his fateful day, it was a pretty simple task, and the collector could do anything that he set his mind to. But the problem was that he had to be swift and quick since there was most likely going to be a lot of guards there.
He brushed his teeth, combed his hair and then went to drink his coffee. He realized that he’d need to use his illusion magic to take away the half blue moon plastered on his face. He sighed, whatever. He just wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible.
“Are you ready collector?” Belos appeared in the kitchen right behind the other.
“Yea yea I know what to do.” The collector waved his hand back and forth.
“Good, try not to get caught, I’ll be expecting you before sundown.” Belos said and left the kitchen.
How nice of him to offer some good luck.
The collector left about two hours later, he walked and headed the way towards the Kingdom.
He walked straight towards the castle where his prey awaited and there he saw him. The titan, the soon to be King leaning on one of his hands just staring off into nothing.
He had to admit the titan was pretty cute, his white horns really complimented his darker skin color. The collector found himself smiling at the site.
No,what was wrong with him, he was supposed to kill him, not like him. Although he could kill him and still find him cute, that didn’t mean anything. He needed to leave before the titan saw him. He turned to his side, walked more into the crowd and then disappeared.
For some reason his heart was still racing, he gripped his chest and leaned forward what was this he was feeling. It was so weird, he didn’t feel like this with Belos or with anyone else that he's laid his eyes on for a matter of fact.
He needed to lock in and get this over with.
He went back but noticed the titan wasn’t there anymore. He was probably eating lunch.
The collector wandered around a while before spotting the soon to be King again at a pastry shop, talking to the baker girl along with one of his guards by his side.
He watched the titan leave the shop with a doughnut stuffed in his mouth. He found that oddly cute, he felt a smile creep up on his face again.
The collector slapped both of his hands on his face, seriously what was going on with him.
He turned around and began walking away, now wasn’t the time to kill him, there were too many people.
Suddenly the collector felt somebody follow him; he didn't need to turn behind him to know who it was. It was the titan.
He sped up his walk, the titan was still on him, wait.
Now was his chance to lead him somewhere and finish the job.
The collector walked until he found an alley deserted of people.
He then disappeared from the others site.
“Hello?” He heard the titan call out. He wondered why the titan would follow him all the way out here, a complete stranger.
The collector summoned an arrow from far away aiming it right at the King. But his guard got in the way preventing him from completing his mission.
“Shit.” He muttered and quickly left the scene. He needed to get his head in the game, no this one wasn’t his fault, he’ll get him next time.
The collector waited for the coronation to commence instead. He watched as the King slowly walked towards his throne. He could tell by how slow he was walking that the King didn’t want that at all.
He honestly felt bad, having something imposed on you just felt wrong.
He watched as the man upfront laid the crown on top of the King's head.
He watched as everyone began to clap and burst into joyful applause.
He watched as the King got up and waved towards his people.
That was the collector's sign to summon his arrow once more and point it at the King. He had the arrow pointed straight at the other's head. But in that moment he was frozen, the way the King moved his hands and the way he was smiling at his people did something to the collector.
The collector being distracted by this pointed his arrow lower and accidentally let go. The next thing he knew, everyone was panicking and the guards were rushing his way.
“Fuck.” The collector mumbled and ran away. He couldn’t teleport away because no other witches could teleport without making symbols, so he decided to run
And that’s when he found a random lady in one of the corners that he turned. He quickly took off his cloak and draped it around the random lady, the collector then wrapped vines around her and made her kneel on the floor.
He could hear the guards approaching so he yelled “I caught you criminal!”.
“What are you talking about? I didn't do anything.” The lady said with confusion.
———
Which finally brings us to present time, that was why he was here because he was useless and failed at his mission.
“Oh I just saw the guards running after her, so I thought they could use some help in catching the criminal.” He lied
“Well Kevin, I'm glad you stepped in.”Luz shook his hand. “Why don’t you come back with me, I think the King would be pretty charmed to find out who his knight in shining armor was.”
Wait, this would be the perfect chance to filter in.
“Lead the way.”
Luz nodded and began walking back. The collector wished they could have walked back in silence but it seemed Luz had a different idea.
“So Kevin, how old are you?”
“Fifteen.” This was probably the first and only truth that he was going to say.
“Wow, so young, only one year older than the King.” So the King was around his age.
“So what do your parents do?” The collector never knew his real parents. He only ever knew nothing and then Belos. But he couldn’t tell Luz this.
“I don’t have parents, I live by myself.” He opted for this lie.
He could tell Luz felt bad for him by the way she frowned and muttered a small “oh”. Thankfully that ended the conversation between them, so now they walked in silence.
They made it to the castle relatively fast. Luz led the collector up the stairs and all the way to King's room where she guessed he was being treated.
She knocked twice before twisting the door knob and entering.
The collector followed suitily behind her. He saw the king sitting down on the edge of his bed while the witch doctor healed his leg, he was making a pretty and sad face. The collector felt like he liked the face the other was making because the next thing he knew his heart was racing again.
Luz walked towards her brother and kneeled down “how are you little bro?” The collector would have never guessed that his loyal guard was also his sister.
“I almost got assassinated one minute after becoming King, what do you think.”
“Right sorry.”
King finally looked up and at the collector, they both stopped and stared at each other, King was looking at him with wide eyes.
King had never seen a witch with crimson eyes like those.
“Oh right, King this is Kevin, the guy who stopped the criminal that tried to kill you.” Luz pointed towards the collector. “And Kevin this is the King, King.”
“I know he is the new King but what is his real name?” The collector asked confused.
“I just told you it’s King.”
“Oh…”
They both continued to stare at each other, Luz and the doctor both side eyed each other.
“Would you like to become one of my royal guards?” King suddenly asked. He surprised everyone including himself by what he said, he even covered his mouth with one of his hands.
But this would be the perfect opportunity for the collector to finally finish the mission that Belos tasked him with.
“Sure.” The collector said, startling the others too.
“You can start tomorrow then, Luz will show you around in the meantime.” Well that was fast.
“You guys can uh… go now.” King shooed them away, but not before locking eye contact one more time with the collector. King looked away with a small blush on his face.
He must have never seen anyone with White hair, the collector thought.
What he didn’t know was how he was going to explain this to Belos.
He was definitely screwed now.