Pinkman would always remember the day he was enthroned.
When he opened his eyes, he saw many people surrounding him, each one of those people smiling kindly and enviously at him, taking off their hats and saluting him, praising him as a gift from the gods and the pride of the heavens.
Pinkman was recognised as the next king.
Because of his noble pink bloodline, he was a rare Chosen One in the Rose Kingdom for centuries. He inherited the exclusive name of the pink bloodline and was called Pinkman III.
In the Rose Kingdom, the King and Queen must be a human and a Rose Envoy, both of which work together to keep the entire kingdom running and in order.
The current king is Reed XV, who then has a human wife as his queen. Under their joint rule, the roses flourished and thrived, and the people lived in peace. The kingdom’s territory occupied almost half of the entire continent, a feat never before achieved by a king.
The people looked forward to the day when, under the leadership of Pinkman III, the Kingdom of Roses would reach a level of splendour never seen before, and the entire land would be covered in roses. On that day, no matter whether it was witches or monsters in the wild, they would all need to abide by the laws of the kingdom.
Just the thought of such a grandeur was enough to get people excited.
Every time they saw this crown prince, the people were very enthusiastic about him.
Pinkman, however, was sad.
He knew that he was not good at, nor did he like, ruling the country; he didn’t like disciplining people and hated to punish them. He just wanted to be left alone to grow roses in peace and quiet.
Pinkman had a very clever big dog called Bark Bark, and Bark Bark always found some sick roses, or an invasion of bugs, and promptly alerted them by growling.
Every day, he took the dog out for a walk, tended the roses in the garden, blew the wind from the forest, crossed the brook, and lay down in the grass to soak up the sun, and then the day slowly passed.
The leisurely life did not last long.
At the age of twenty-five, Pinkman was told that the old king had decided to step aside and let him rule the country. It wasn’t that the king was getting old, but he thought that Pinkman would bring a different future to the kingdom.
The old king said, “When I was your age, I was dueling with my father, Red XIV, and do you know why?”
Pinkman said no.
“For a witch.”
“She was both beautiful and wise, with an irresistible charm.”
The old king stroked his red hair, a look of remembrance on his face, “I was too young to realise that the more perfect a being is, the more appropriate it is to view it from afar, rather than take it for yourself.”
Pinkman suddenly thought of the scandalous rumours of the court and said, “The witch you speak of, is it Lady Isabel Ceroli?”
He had seen portraits on the walls of the court, and this witch statue was displayed in the section of court witches, and the person in the painting was elegant and serene, indeed a beauty. But she had left the court for hundreds of years without a word.
“Yes, Miss Cerulean …….”
A hint of melancholy appeared on the old king’s face.
“At that time, not only I, but also my father, my mother, all of them were very admiring of Miss Cerulean, of course it is not a problem. It is human nature to love beauty, and everyone plays fair.”
Pinkman saw nothing wrong with it either.
To the Rose Envoy, love was meant to be a vast and open emotion. It was natural to love a person, to love a flower.
The only shackle was that Rose Envoys could not intermarry with each other.
Once the Rose Ambassadors bonded with each other, there was a high probability that the most troublesome black bloodline would arise.
Black Rose Envoys were born with a desire for destruction, they had crazy and vicious personalities, and once they were born, they would use other Rose Envoys as hunting objects.
This was both for the continuation of the entire race and for the peace of the world.
Therefore, the next generation of Rose Ambassadors are either born naturally from roses or are a combination of Rose Ambassadors and humans.
Pinkman was born naturally from roses, and as an extremely rare and noble pink bloodline, it was even recognised as the grace of the gods.
After becoming king, Pinkman could no longer travel at will.
The court wizards feared for his safety and always stayed close by.
The only place Pinkman could stay alone was his own rose garden.
Following the process of every king, Pinkman fulfilled his duties and took a human mate.
The queen had very soulful eyes and she would laugh at the jokes he told.
Pinkman loved her very much.
Soon after, they had two children.
A little human boy and a little rose making girl.
The little boy loved dogs as much as Pinkman did, and the little girl, though only of common red blood, was as smiley and lively as her mother.
It was only then that Pinkman slowly realised that it would be good to be a king.
The ministers would take care of the day-to-day business, and only the most important matters would be presented to the king and queen for decision.
One afternoon, it suddenly got dark.
Pinkman thought it was just the eve of an unusual rainstorm.
What he didn’t realise was that it was the beginning of an endless nightmare.
Lightning thundered in the sky, the power of the gods resounded through the heavens and earth, miracles continued to appear, the land was torn apart, and the sun never rose again.
Pinkman prayed solemnly and reverently to the gods.
The great [dike-builder] did not answer.
Boundless darkness encroached on every corner of the world, dragging one individual into it as if it possessed life, and the flames were unable to dispel them completely. Monsters burrowed out of the darkness, wantonly preying on every living thing that was alive.
The Rose Ambassadors joined the battle as best they could to defend the kingdom.
They could clearly sense that the Dike Builders were getting weaker and weaker, and the name of the God of Darkness was widely spread throughout the world. This powerful god from a foreign land had descended here, and the conquest of the entire world was irrevocable.
Only a god can fight a god.
The ministers consulted with the court sorcerer on a plan and decided to create the Immortal Coffin. So that the mighty Rose Envoy and a part of the people could escape this calamity and survive the long years until the new era came.
Pinkman, as king, was the first and foremost bloodline of the kingdom to be preserved.
Whether it was the exalted status of being a king or the hope and unlimited potential carried by his pink bloodline, it was the key to the future revival of the Rose Kingdom.
“Your Majesty the King, your safety is of utmost importance, please enter the coffin first and fall asleep. The Queen and the Princes and Daughters, we will also immediately help them sleep in their coffins and wait for the future with you.”
“Please bear with the hope of all, for the time being.”
“As long as you are alive, the rose will bloom again.”
The Queen hugged her children and smiled at him.
The coffin door slowly closed.
In that instant, Pinkman felt something was wrong, but he couldn’t tell.
The Immortal Coffin sent him quickly into a long sleep.
The destruction of the world seemed to turn into a long dream that was forgotten and faded.
……
Pinkman knew that he was not decisive enough and lacked courage, and was by no means a wise monarch.
The old King Reed XV had said that there was no need to worry, and that just by doing nothing you were already more competent than quite a few kings of the past.
In times of peace, that was indeed true.
Throughout the history of the Rose Kingdom, there have been a number of ambitious kings and queens who have made all sorts of crazy moves: letting people feed roses with blood, making rose ambassadors intermarry with monsters, and even cultivating specialised black rose ambassadors to be used for foreign expansion ……
Most of these policies threw the country into violent turmoil and civil unrest, and the kingdom nearly fell apart several times.
Pinkman had surpassed half of the old kings without doing anything.
But as the world went through unprecedented and drastic changes, and the gods were about to fall, he became terrified, unsure of what to do, his mind clouded, pushed along by his ministers and wizards.
When he opened his eyes again, it was a different, new world outside.
The darkness had dissipated, and the long-lost sunlight shone on the body again, making Pinkman breathe easier.
The mysterious wizard who had disappeared for years, Lady Isabel Cerulean, rode a wand and hovered in front of his eyes, like another dream that was hard to distinguish from the real one.
“The Kingdom of Roses has perished ……”
She recounted how the world had changed.
Pinkman’s jumbled thoughts were finally sorted out.
It finally occurred to him that what was wrong in the first place came from the Queen’s hand holding the child tightly, and the smiles of the ministers and court wizards.
Because of [Eternal Love], he had a sense with the Queen and the children, but now his heart was empty, they had completely disappeared.
With the world in turmoil and the dark creatures raging, there was no material or time to make extra immortality coffins.
They only wanted to keep the king.
As the last of the Rose Kingdom’s bloodline, and the only remnant of fire stepped into the depths of the underground.
It was everyone’s hope in the darkness, and the last dignity and decency of the Rose Kingdom.
……
Before he closed his eyes, the kingdom was about to be destroyed, everyone was trembling and despairing under the divine might of the Dark God, and everyone was struggling at the edge of death.
After he opened his eyes, the earth welcomed new life, the Yao God restored the world, the sky and the sea came back to life, but everything in the kingdom had gone up in smoke.
A strange god, a strange world, a strange land.
Lovers and friends had all gone with the wind.
All that was left was himself, the lone fallen king, like a child who had gone through the wrong door, but behind him there was no longer a way home.
Pinkman wished beyond hope that this was another long dream.
When he woke up, the queen was brushing her long hair at the dressing table, the children were chattering at the door, the big dog was barking and wagging his tail, waiting for his master to take him out, and outside the window there was a rose garden, still dainty in the sun.
How wonderful it would be to be like that.
……
Pinkman could no longer find the meaning of his existence.
He raised his head and looked up at the sky with confused eyes, praying to the gods for answers.
