In a landscape dominated by isekai and lighter fare, King’s Maker stands out for its unrelenting darkness. Not that it’s fully grim, but even when the plot is touching on lighter topics or having a moment of humor, there’s always an understanding that the underlying reality of its world is a seething morass. That’s certainly something that dual protagonists Soohyuk (not an isekai’d character despite his Korean name) and Wolfgang know personally. Wolfgang, despite being the fourth prince, grew up on the streets after his father the king had his mother killed, while Soohyuk is one of the king’s “Sovereign Darlings” – young boys he’s grooming to be his sexual partners.

This is, easily, the most disturbing piece of the story. While it primarily remains in the background of these volumes, Wolfgang only initially agrees to act like a prince in order to free Soohyuk from his father’s grasp. That Soohyuk is a Sovereign Darling in the first place is symbolic of the monarchy’s corruption under this leader: most Darlings are orphans, but Soohyuk’s father is the foreign minister. He was snatched both as a means of controlling the elder Shin, but also in a demonstration of the king’s absolute power. He wanted this boy, and so he simply took him, social status and parental position be damned. Equally horrible (or perhaps even worse) is the fact that the only reason the king spends times grooming the boys is that in the past he raped a young child who died. Rather than deciding that pedophilia wasn’t worth it, the king instead made a personal policy not to have sex with anyone younger than fifteen. The grooming is, in his worldview, just making the fulfilment of his desires easier.

Soohyuk, then, has several very good reasons to want Wolfgang to step up to the plate. Despite being the fourth child, Wolfgang has both the coloring (golden hair and eyes; his younger brother has green eyes, thus disqualifying him from inheriting) and the intelligence to be king. And more importantly, he has the care for others that his father and at least his third brother lack. After his mother’s murder, Wolfgang followed her admonition to take nothing that belongs to his father, falling in with a group of street orphans. He had every intention of remaining with them, taking care of them, before his father forced him out by threatening to kill all boys named Wolfgang. He didn’t emerge because he had any desire for luxury; he came out because he couldn’t let other boys die in his name. This told Soohyuk what he needed to know about the prince, and he’s not above letting Wolfgang declare that he’ll be king just to save Soohyuk from his father’s clutches.

At first, it looks like Wolfgang’s crush is one-sided, and in all fairness, this is BL in name only (or may feel like it) for most of these volumes. I do think that Soohyuk cares about Wolfgang as a person by volume two, though he’s also willing to let Wolfgang “mark” him when the king announces his intention to move Soohyuk from Darling to lover. He wants Wolfgang, yes, but the desperation in his act also comes from a place of fear. He doesn’t want his first (and possibly only) sexual experience to be with his rapist, and he’d rather be tortured by a cruel king than violated by him. The romance subplot reflects this, and it’s generally very subtle until the end of volume two, getting lost in Wolfgang’s work to become a worthy crown prince and Soohyuk’s political machinations and guidance behind the scenes.

But a large part of the draw here is in seeing Wolfgang and Soohyuk eventually overcome the corrupt system the current king has put in place. It’s imperative that they do, and not singly, but together. Soohyuk may be using Wolfgang to a degree, but it’s hard to argue with that given the situation he’s stuck in. Wolfgang’s earnestness remains largely untarnished by the horrors he’s witnessed and the difficulties he faces in the palace, and the two do feel like two halves of a whole. The writing supports this with small moments and statements rather than grand declarations, and that really works for this type of story. They have to be subtle, or neither boy will survive.

King’s Maker is a political thriller above all else. Carefully crafted, it does feel like it loses its way at times, but for the most part does a solid job of pulling readers in and keeping them interested. It comes with a very large content warning for sexual abuse of a minor, but if you like your fantasy on the darker side, BL or otherwise, definitely give this a try.