yami0204 | The King's Tailor

Title: The King's Tailor
Genre: Fairy Tale
Rating: G

Long ago in a far away kingdom, a simple tailor was visited by a well dressed man. The man looked like a merchant, and the tailor clothed many merchants in his time, but something was different about this merchant. The tailor had heard rumors of a strange merchant who visited shops these days and wondered if this odd merchant was the very same.

The merchant asked the tailor to take his measurements, and the tailor did as asked, noting every detail while the merchant stayed silent.

“What do you need these measurements for?” asked the tailor to the merchant.

“I require a special garment to be made,” said the merchant, “but I will tell not the details. I am told that you are the finest tailor in the kingdom and I want to see your work. Take my measurements and make for me something that will please me.”

The tailor opened his mouth to protest but shut it before a word was uttered. A tailor’s job was to make fine clothing, and that was what the merchant had asked.

“I can make anything if I have money to purchase cloth and thread,” said the tailor.

“I will return in a month’s time and pay you after I judge its quality,” said the merchant. “Use whatever materials you wish and I will pay for them afterward, but only if the quality is to my satisfaction.”

The wording troubled the tailor who asked, “And if the quality is poor?”

“If the quality is poor, then you will have other problems to worry about than just money.” With these far more troubling words the merchant left, leaving the tailor to ponder the merchant’s meaning. He had heard that the rumored strange merchant was one who made those he was unhappy with disappear. The tailor did not wish to disappear. If the merchant was indeed the mysterious and strange merchant of rumor, then the tailor was in grave trouble.

Days passed and the tailor worked diligently on the merchant’s attire until one day he was out in the market. At the baker’s stall was a brave knight whom the tailor knew well as a friend and the tailor greeted the knight cheerfully as he always did.
The knight greeted the tailor in kind and soon both were speaking lively to each other, catching up since last they spoke.

“The king has been restless these days,” said the knight as he ate his morning bread.

“You rarely talk of the king,” said the tailor. “It must be news if he makes you speak of him.”

“Yes, it worries me with how he acts lately,” said the knight. “He disappears for a day without word, locking himself in his fine bedroom and seeing no one. I fear he is melancholy.”

“How can the king be melancholy when he has so much wealth?” asked the tailor crossly.

“The obligation stifles him,” replied the knight. “There is a rumor among the knights that the king walks among the peasants disguised as a merchant. They even believe him to be the mysterious merchant who is rumored to make men disappear. How silly that is!”
The tailor did not find this so silly, and did not laugh as the knight laughed. The tailor and the knight parted ways and the tailor knew now what to make the merchant for his special garments. He readied the proper fabrics and thread and worked tirelessly.

In a month’s time, the merchant returned and greeted the tailor.

“I have returned as promised and I hope to see a fine garment for my needs,” said the merchant to the tailor.

The tailor nodded and bid the merchant to wait as the tailor fetched the merchant's garments. When he returned, he presented the merchant with plain and ordinary garments made of rough and simple fabrics without embellishment or bright colors. The merchant stared for a long time at the clothing before he burst into great laughter.

“This is what the finest tailor offers me!”

The tailor smiled and explained, “Yes, sir. I made simple clothing for you to wear out among the people. A merchant’s garb is far too showy for blending in with a crowd, but these garments are perfect for walking through town undetected. I know that you are not only the infamous merchant who makes men disappear, but that you are also the king in disguise.”

The merchant laughed and laughed until he could no longer laugh anymore. He set down before the tailor a bag filled with a large sum of gold and said, “You are a very smart man and truly the best in my kingdom to learn my true identity so easily.”

The tailor gave the money back to the merchant and shook his head. “This garment cost me very little,” said the tailor, “thus I cannot accept such a sum.”

The king smiled and said, “Then I will give you something else in thanks.”

“I need no payment, my king,” said the tailor as he bowed, “other than your kind words for my handiwork.”

“Dear tailor, you are far too humble,” laughed the king. "Come and work for me at the castle. I shall pay you handsomely and you may live in luxury.”

Again, the tailor refused. “As tempting as your offer is, my work is here among the commoners.”

“I see,” said the king, “then you will still be my personal tailor and I will pay you fairly for everything you make for me and you can still live here in town.”

The tailor agreed to this, “That is all I wish, my king. I don’t need gold or a fancy home or fine jewels. My happiness comes from my craft and seeing the smiles of those who enjoy my work.”

The king nodded at this and took his leave with his new commoner’s garb, glad to know of the amazing tailor who lived among his citizens. The garb crafted by the tailor was worn eagerly by the king quite often when he strolled among the peasants of the kingdom. Whenever the king visited the tailor, he greeted him merrily and asked for different clothes for different occasions. Sometimes he would ask for fine garments made of silk and golden thread; other times he would ask for simple garments made of stiff wool. The king adored the garments made by his new personal tailor, and was always excited to visit the tailor in his shop. The knights took note that the king’s mood was improving despite how the king still disappeared now and then.

One day the tailor’s knight friend spoke to the king freely and asked, “You seem in high spirits these days. Has something good happened?”

The king laughed joyously and replied, “Something very good has happened and I fear to name it, but it gives me joy despite!”

The knight did not ask any more of this, knowing it was not his place to ask further, and when he went to the market the next day, he refrained from mentioning the exchange with the king. Instead, the knight took note of his friend’s improved mood.

“You seem happier these days,” said the knight to the tailor. “Did something good happen for you?”

“Yes,” laughed the tailor, “I have a new regular customer who pays me quite handsomely.”

“The way you smile makes it seem like you’ve found love,” said the knight. “The king smiles the same, though I daren’t tell him this. How nice to find love!”

“Love?” asked the tailor. “Is that what this happiness is? It’s not the money or the kind words paid for my talent, but instead it’s love?”

“Aye,” said the knight. “I wonder if the king knows he’s in love, too. I fear he doesn’t, but I shan’t say anything.”

The knight finished his morning meal and left the tailor to ponder his words. The tailor had not thought of his happiness as love, and now he worried that he was in love with the king. The kingdom would laugh at him if he were to utter such nonsense aloud to anyone, even to himself.

The next day the tailor was visited by the king in disguise in his merchant garb, and he requested a fine garment made for a ball at the castle. As the tailor took the order, he found himself staring at the king’s smile. The knight said that the king wore the same smile as the tailor and he wished to know it.

“Why do you look at me so queerly?” asked the king to the tailor.

“A knight told me today that my smile mirrored your own these days,” replied the tailor, “and I wished to see what it looked like. That is all. I meant not to be rude.”

“You are not rude,” said the king. “Seeing you makes me happy. Knowing that you are happy, too, makes me even happier.”

“The knight,” said the tailor slowly, “said my smile was that of love, but I don’t believe his words. I have never known love before.”

The king laughed and laughed, “That knight is far smarter than I give him credit for! If he has said it, then it must be true. If he says I am in love, then I am in love, and the one I love is you.”

The tailor stood dumbfounded at the king, those words making the tailor’s heart flutter like leaves in a storm. No one had ever confessed their love to Kevin, and now that he heard such words from the king’s mouth, the tailor knew them to be truth.

“My king,” said the tailor, “I love you as well, but I am only a tailor. I’m not a prince or a noble. Surely you would marry a princess and not a simple tailor!”

“You are more than a simple tailor,” said the king. "You are my personal tailor and that is enough to make you worthy. I love you and I wish to marry you. Will you marry me, my tailor?”

The tailor embraced the king, and the king kissed the tailor on the mouth.

“Yes,” said the tailor as they embraced, “I’ll marry you, my king.”

They kissed many times that day and by the end of the week they were wed. The entire kingdom was atwitter at the news of the king marrying a simple tailor, calling it scandalous and foolish, but the couple paid them no mind. From the moment Norton had entered Kevin’s shop, both men were hopelessly in love with each other.