THE NORTHERN KING

IVO was liking this new life as much as he hated it, he had dismissed the servants and Melisa a couple of minutes ago, and he was alone in his room. He glazed at the large mirror which he had instructed Melisa to procure earlier in the day, it was as large as the wall it rested on with the reflective glass nested in Oakwood—the oakwood framing the mirror was a deep rich black, like the darkness of a forest at midnight, the grains twisted and turned, resembling the gnarled branches of an ancient tree. The wood seemed to absorb the surrounding light, giving it an almost velvety appearance.

But it wasn't the mirror that impressed him, he had been staring at his new body for a while, and he was amazed, he had read the seven kingdoms and how the author had described Ivo as beautiful and glorious, but seeing and being him was far different from reading it.

He couldn't help but wonder why such good looks was wasted on someone with little things or no wits at all and how he's death was nothing more than an amusement for the other characters to laugh off

His hand stroked through his black long hair that has the wide texture like the snowcrawlers in the north—just a bit of white dye, and he could be taken as one especially with his blue eyes that lit up like the sky and his pale skin perfect for the cold, he knew how his father the king has ventured up the north twenty years ago to inspect the wall fronts against the crawlers and frost giant only to return with a child—a bastard if you may call him that.

He looked just like his father, tall and glorious but the blues eyes and lack of wits much have been gifts from his mother or the gods ways of punishing the king for his uncontrollable lust.

The Queen had hated him ever since, there was already enough competition and adding a bastard born from lust—not just from anywhere but from the northern enemies that had probably slaughtered their kinsmen was like throwing dirt to their faces and Ivo knew how these women didn't like dirt especially to her faces.

So they hated him and generally wished him dead, the hatred got transferred to his siblings—their children to carry on, and they have been doing a good job at it, all four of them, but ivo wasn't going to complain, not now, not anymore.

They made him the enemy, and he was going to do a good job at it, the footsteps down the hallway drew his attention as he pulled his chair over waiting for who was going to walk through those doors when a familiar face poked through.

“I wanted to inform you that supper was ready and if you would like to have it here or in the royal dinning halls”? Melisa asked him, Ivo replied with a smile as he pushed his hair back.

“Guess I have to start annoying people” he said out loud as he signaled her to push his chair down to the hall, he couldn't help but whistle with the thoughts of what was going to happen today, he would probably get killed but wouldn't that be fun?

I demand justice Ivo thought to himself as he couldn't help but look around the hallway again, the book never did enough justice to describing it, only stating it was also used for indoor balls and parties.

Ivo gazed around the hall, awestruck. The ceiling seemed to vanish into the darkness, giving the illusion of being outdoor. Stained-glass windows stretched upwards, casting a kaleidoscopic pattern across the floor, intricate stone cravings with stories of past kings adorned the walls.

The air was thick with the scent of old stone, polished wood and incense. To his left, a majestic organ, its pipes gleaming like gold and silver spear, rose like a titan from the floor, its music whispering through the hall like a gentle breeze. Ahead the royal table, a shimmering expanse of Silverwood, seemed to glow with an otherworldly light, as if the wood itself was infused with the essence of the stars. Ivo was brought back to reality as Edric tapped his shoulder with a smile so fake that ivo thought someone had a gun behind his back, forcing him to do so.

“I didn't expect you will be dinning with us brother” he called out as he followed Ivo side by side toward the already laid table filled with food, but from the movements of the servants they weren't done filling it just yet.

“I think it is good that once in a while we eat together as a family,” Ivo replied, knowing full well that half of that family wanted to kill him and the other half wanted to torture him and then kill him.

“Yes, yes you are right brother I can't wait for the others to find you here” he replied.

Ivo knew how much he was hated by the other three—at least Edric was sensible enough to hide his hate and move in the shadows but his older siblings especially the twins didn't spare him the gesture of letting him know how much of a thorn he was in their flesh.

Speaking of the devil he thought as the heavy footsteps drew his attention to the large door being swung open, Thag and Thalia—the giant twins walked into the room hand in hand.

If Ivo could ever return to his old world he was going to make it a life mission to hunt down the author of the seven kingdoms and give him a beating that he wasn't going to forget in a hurry.

He should have known that the name giant twins wasn't just a name, the author had mentioned the king taking a wife from the Red Giants of the desert to ease the rift and had two children by her, which was also the cause of her death.

This didn't really help in mending the rift as the proposed dead wife was the princess and heir to the vast west lands, rumors of the king killing her for giant blood wasn't helping either but the twins were a testament of the fact that Giants weren't fun.

The towering twin giants, stood at an astonishing seven feet, their massive frame looming over the hall like living mountains. They were half giants as Ivo had heard of pure giants that could reach even twelve feet in height, He was so lost in thought that he didn't realize that Thalia was standing in front of him.

Her long hair seemed to crackle with inner fire, her eyes burned with inner intensity as she glared at her stepbrother with unrelenting hatred.

“Oh brother, look it is the blue-eyed bastard” she called out as she rested her hand on Ivo's shoulder and beckoned to her brother to draw close.

Ivo felt the weight of her hand drawing him down, he wasn't fully recovered either, but he wasn't having any plans of fighting a giant…not yet.