Animal World/Kaiserschmarrn

## Hidden in Suspense

On the vaulted dome ceiling, a dim and branching chandelier hung with dream-like charm, embossing the lovely, flowery crevices of a golden relief sculpture with its serpentine shadow.

A gilded laurel tree clock hanging on the wall struck three times, and a row of dour-looking maidens filed in.

Jewel-laden silk curtains were jerked aside by a cane with a golden rose handle, and a young monarch enjoyed his morning face washing and hair combing with a hint of indolence.

The maidens kept breaths bated and eyes down, not daring to profane that gorgeous visage with so much as a sidelong glance, nor the... strange hump meandering under the velvet bedcovers.

Because the truth weaved into the soft silk fabric known as taboo kept everyone's eyes and mouths sealed shut.

The laurel tree wall clock struck again. On a merrily bouncing branch, several gilded robins bickered back and forth.

An urgent gasp rudely interrupted their harmonious chirping: the youngest maidservant was holding a precious, imported porcelain vessel, and the water spilling from it dampened the bedcovers—

—and revealing a scaly pattern underneath it that was only more conspicuous by virtue of being hidden.

The maidservant's face went purple with horror, and she knocked her head on the thick wool carpet with heavy thuds.

"Your Excellency, please! Please, forgive me!"

That pair of noble eyes like violets were as placid as a lake, rippling in seeming consolation.

"It's nothing. You may retire."

Upon hearing this, the group all made courtesy bows as if they'd just been granted amnesty. Then they took the limp young maidservant and quickly retreated from the bed chamber.

As the great door inlaid with precious stones slowly closed shut, the young maidservant muttered to herself mechanically:

"I saw..."

"Silence! Marianne, you saw nothing."

The austere head maid's eyes were as sharp as an eagle's. The group lowered their heads in silence, putting an end to all questioning like wrinkles getting instantly smoothed out of silk fabric.

No one remembered anymore that before the new monarch took the throne, he was once a chivalrous and passionate knight, both valiant and wild.

He loved galloping through the forest chasing after dangerous wolves and brown bears, chopping off the heads of thieves and bandits and saving blonde-haired damsels in distress while he was at it.

Until one day, he very proudly brought back a special spoil of war—a chameleon the size of a full grown man.

Meanwhile, the old monarch with this sole progeny would sigh in despair every day.

Because what a thriving and stable kingdom needed was not a bold and warlike leader, but a strategic and skillful monarch.

Then the old monarch with his worried heart suddenly passed away. When the new monarch fresh from the coronation ceremony showed himself again, he was like a new man.

With uncanny skill, he purged dissenters and wrested away authority, consolidating a large contingent of supporters.

It was just...

...this new monarch formerly adept at horse-riding and sword-fighting now lazed about in the palace every day, not even willing to leave his bed.

Even more odd was that his ministers and retinue all seemed to have forgotten—

That head of short and curly hair, ruddy brown just like the old king's, was now as enchanting as obsidian.

That pair of dark brown eyes brimming with enthusiasm had transformed into two elegant and noble amethysts.

That amber colored face sprinkled with freckles was now as glistening and splendid as white jade from the Orient.

That muscle-bound, scar-riddled body was now lithe and slender, and even... had some extra, strange parts.

However, what was important about all that—

—the taboo silk fabric covered eyes and mouths like a beautiful and glorious adornment, but also like a rope that could be drawn tight around the neck at any moment.

The incident at dawn was quickly put in the back of everyone's mind. The maids mechanically cleaned the palace, not even casting a curious glance at the minister who slipped into the bed chamber.

In the gloomy chamber, the minister removed his hat and bowed, looked up at the new monarch sitting upon the domed ceiling.

A thin metal cable hung in mid-air, and the dim chandelier radiated mesmerizing bluish-purple beams of light that fell on a long, writhing tail covered with a dense mesh of scales.

As he often did, the noble and elegant monarch toyed with that resplendent crown with his tail, as if he cared not a whit for this symbol of supreme authority.

"Your Great Majesty... a revolutionary army has appeared on the border, said to be led by a young knight. Shall we dispatch the army to quell them...?"

"No need."

The young monarch laughed knowingly, then placed the crown on the tip of his tail casually upon a set of armor next the throne.

The internal turmoil and struggling among the humans... was more frequent and more complicated than he imagined.

But it was precisely because of that that he was able to tear off the shackles lurking under the sickness. To pierce through that brocaded cloth hiding their impropriety...

Seeing the confusion and worry of the minister, those pale pools of purple in young monarch's eyes began to gently ripple, as if in consolation:

"Perhaps, a brand new nation is being born."