In the Kingdom's Service

Faceless Jaune Arc in VSS Formalwear by KegiSpringfield

***In the Kingdom's Service* (IKS)** is the 13th literary work published by Coeur Al'Aran syndicated from July 16, 2017 to September 9, 2018. The work is the second of the three "Goldilocks" works published, with the first being *Professor Arc* and the third being *Service with a Smile,* in which Jaune delivers transcripts that are "just right", but draw suspicion and force him to work for the Valean Secret Service.

## Background

On December 16, 2014, Coeur came up with the idea for *Professor Arc* in a dream and began writing the prompt immediately after to publish on FanFiction two days later on December 18. A short time later, he came up with other works whose point of divergence lay in how Jaune Arc's transcripts were interpolated and responded to, likely he came up with the general prompts for *Service with a Smile* and *In the Kingdom's Service* around late December 2014.

For *The Writer Games* on November 1, 2015, one of Coeur's prompts for College Fool was about Jaune's role as a personal investigator and freelance detective for the Vale, with the key twist being that "every day in Vale is one filled with monsters." Coeur was not terribly fond of College Fool's response to the prompt, labelling it as "character massacre" lacking real developments, stating that it felt more like CF was "punishing the characters for something [they] had done to him. College Fool responded in a later Author Note that if there had been less emphasis on "monsters everywhere", he would have written something more optimistic about Ruby as a Huntress meeting Jaune as a detective.

## Prelude

As *Professor Arc* was coming to a close in mid-2017, Coeur made plans for another work to replace it. It's not known when exactly the story summary was made public on his biography due to a lack of historical archives, but based on details from the Professor Arc Forum, it may be estimated that Coeur made the information on the story available between the end of March and the middle of June 2017.

On July 1, 2017, blaiseingfire made a new forum thread for broader discussion, thoughts, and theories. As readers speculate on the romantic pairing, Le MAO XXV and The Immortal Doctor Reid discuss the veracity of Ilia Amitola as a romantic partner on July 3, but the idea was shot down after Coeur inquired who the character was.

> "*I'll say now that Blake won't be in on the VSS, lol. That would definitely be an interesting idea for a Blake x Jaune, but I'm specifically keeping the pairing under wrapped for numerous reasons, most of which involve my fucking sanity.*"
> ― Coeur Al'Aran, July 1, 2017[[source]]
>
>

On July 2, 2017, Coeur publishd the final chapter of *Professor Arc.* In the lower Author Note, Coeur makes a direct mention of *In the Kingdom's Service* for general readers*,* stating it would be released in two weeks on Sunday to give him time to plan on it. At the time, Coeur did not forsee the work lasting for more than 52 chapters, and speculated the total timespan would be less than one year.

## Publication

*In the Kingdom's Service* would be published July 16, 2017

## References

1. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20200503074159/https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10898868/1/Professor-Arc
2. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20200415225645/https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12574905/1/In-the-Kingdom-s-Service
3. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20200701225951/https://www.fanfiction.net/r/11527150/31/1/
4. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20200701225625/https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11527150/31/The-Writer-Games
5. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20170324153120/https://www.fanfiction.net/u/6272865/Coeur-Al-Aran
6. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20200125113444/https://www.fanfiction.net/topic/189701/163655710/1/Coeur-Future-Fics
7. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20200622053836/https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10898868/64/Professor-Arc