Chapter 650: The Fairy King's Past [Pt 1]
"Remember, son. Remember the building blocks of our society. Do not forget our legacy."
Those were the only words Beruel still remembered from his father.
They were the things he often heard since he was little. Those words filled his childhood, and his father never ceased uttering them every now and then.
One day, when he was old enough, he asked his father—the Fairy King at the time—what those words meant.
What were the building blocks of their society? What was their legacy? How could he forget what he did not remember?
"Son, look around. What do you see?"
It wasn't until his father took him to the very zenith of the Fairy Kingdom and showed him the world from above that the young Beruel understood.
He witnessed the lives of the commoners. He saw them go about their businesses. He watched the young, the elderly, the successful, the rejects—Beruel truly saw everyone and everything from his height.
"You are on top. You were born to be on top. You are a male. You are a Royal. You will be King."
Those words were pounded into his head by his father's loving whisper. Beruel's innocent eyes couldn't help but widen in understanding as he heard the tone of the most powerful man in their society.
His father was the wisest of all. He stood at the pinnacle and understood all things. The boy thought that perhaps the older, wiser, more powerful, being could answer to yet another one of his concerns.
"What about them?"
Beruel found himself pointing below—at everyone his eyes could see;
His mother, who was talking with his father's other wives.
His many sisters.
The palace guards.
The numerous Fairies that flew here and there.
Beruel didn't understand their place in this world. If he was meant to be on top, what could that mean for everyone else?
"They are whatever you want them to be. Remember this well, son. The subjects only exist to serve us. The males are superior, and the King is supreme. Do you understand?"
Beruel thought the explanation was simple enough to understand.
He reasoned with his father's point of view and found out how it resonated well with the Fairy society.
He could finally understand why his father and other males were allowed to have multiple spouses while the females couldn't.
He also understood how custom dictated that the women bowed to the men in greeting. Looking at how society was shaped, and how peaceful everything was... Beruel thought it was paradise.
'They're all happy. There's no conflict. This is utopia.'
Yes. His father was right. How could he not have noticed till now?
Everyone was smiling and functional because of their roles in society. How the Kingdom operated, was so it could provide the best means of living. Nothing had to change.
Thus, even when Beruel matured and became of age, this ideology of his solidified. A mindset was formed, and it became the very principle he abided by.
When he became King, he ruled in accordance to the building blocks of his Kingdom. He operated with respect to the legacy of his predecessors.
In all honesty... he was doing an extremely good job!
He created policies that ensured the occupational opportunities and academic curriculum of the male and female gender. He ensured a proper divide existed between the male and female careers.
Sure, there existed exceptions and outliers, but those were nigh impossible to scale through.
Beruel looked at this utopia he made every day and smiled. He wished his father was alive to see what he had made of this wonderful Kingdom, but he knew that his ancestors would be watching with smiles on their faces.
However...!
There was one bane to his existence—a being that always seemed to defy his policies and made the very system of the Fairy Kingdom seem like nothing but rubbish.
Her name was Jane Ursula—dubbed by many as the Mad Witch.
Jane was everything that was wrong with the Fairy Kingdom—at least, to Beruel. She was a rebel that always seemed to exceed the lot assigned to her by custom.
She outdid her male counterparts in Magic, technology, research, combat—just about every field imaginable.
She was a genius!
It almost seemed like the Fairy Kingdom could not contain her abilities, and the worst part of it all was that she was far older and more experienced than even Beruel.
Nothing he did seemed to work on her, and she seemed out of his control. The laws and protocols he made never seemed to faze her and she kept rising to the top.
Perhaps he could have taken more drastic steps to ensure that she submitted to his will, but there was a significant element that prevented Beruel from taking such an action.
He... was infatuated with the Fairy.
"You... Jane Ursula... you will be mine!" He often told himself several times.
Even though he had many women to comfort him, and he had a lot of subordinates at his beck and call, there was only one person he desired.
Unfortunately, she always seemed out of his reach.
Jane Ursula ignored all attempts he made to get her attention. The only time they both communicated was during disagreements and heated arguments.
Beruel didn't understand why, but those moments always made him excited. Even though it was extremely blasphemous for a female to defy a male, he found himself sinfully reveling in her rebellion.
He intentionally frustrated her efforts by creating hindrances, or by refusing to accord her promotion or recognition—knowing fully well that she would come to argue with him on his decision.
How he loved those moments.
Beruel knew it was wrong. He knew she had to be punished severely for insulting a male—not to mention the King.
Still, he humored her.
Perhaps that was the cause of his downfall. The ancestors must have had enough of his foolishness and he paid the price for abandoning the words of his father.
A coup occurred, and Beruel was shamefully driven out of his Kingdom. The very peace and stability that had existed for so long finally came crashing down.