diadia's Favorite

for those who haven’t read, you can check it out on ao3 this is the link you can read it for free

https://archiveofourown.org/works/5096105

Okay, so there it is. The king was born with congenital insensitivity to pain. It's funny how the author picked a real & rare genetic condition as the basis to create the character of the king. Not to be confused with the generalized loss of sense brought about by an illness like diabetes, people with this condition can feel everything (touch, temperature, etc.), except for pain, or extreme stimuli that cause pain. Lots of you have asked why the king is brutal. Well, turns out he never knew what pain was to begin with. To him, breaking an ankle, or stabbing/flogging someone is not a big deal, because for him, it's probably no different from feeling someone giving a tap or hard slap in the back. If you recall back when the king broke Heun's ankle, he said "Had I known you would be in so much pain, I wouldn't have done it". That line infuriated everyone, coz duh, why wouldn't you know something so obvious? Now we know, he really didn't know it. This is one of the root causes that makes him over the top heartless. But having witnessed the process of Heun breaking apart & dying of suicide 100 yrs ago, he started to learn to empathize. And he is still continuing to learn in this lifetime too. But as expected, change can't come overnight, it comes in stages. At least for now, I'll give him a bit of credit for his willingness to learn. And finally, this inability to feel pain is not something to be envious about. Being able to feel pain is essential to life. If you are robbed of that, you are basically being given a very severe handicap & you have to be extremely vigilant about the state of your well being at all times. And no, real people with the condition don't turn into a psycho like the king. They have their own portion of suffering too, although not in terms of physical pain. This is just fantasy story after all. ╮(￣▽￣)╭