When the King turned to look at Ruzen… he looked normal. Well as normal as a face could be in a crime scene, with glowing eyes and a flaring symbol on the forehead. And of course, a piece of black mass poked out from under his robes, also looking towards Ruzen.
“The one We hold is a 3rd world hybrid, Juer.” The King opened his palm and the finger sized tentacle reached towards it in delight. As if happy to shake hands with the King.
Still, Ruzen did not believe the ‘thing’ was even safe to be around, thankfully it did not seem to be part of the King, as the King stated it was a hybrid.
“It is a pet?”
“Yes.”
Feeling stared at, Ruzen shifted his eyes away from the King, “I thought you were in trouble.”
“We weren’t.”
“…oh.”
The silence was awkward, since the King was still looking at him, and Ruzen felt that even the pet was eyeing him. He felt guilty for subjecting his horror onto the King and getting creeped out by those tentacles, but he was still fearful, he did not think he had the guts to actually pet the tentacle even with the King being present.
“Come here.”
Ruzen did not move, because to his embarrassment, he was shaking and his knees felt stiff.
The King might have noticed it, but thankfully he did not point it out, “We warded this scene to avoid trespassers falling inside while We were capturing the traitor… We also lose track of what is going outside when we ward Ourself… Did something happen which we should know about?”
“…yes,” Ruzen shook his head to come back to his senses, “I was attacked by a bunch a humanoid forms just close by, then they were suddenly called by a whistle and when I followed, I saw a… ghost(?)… eating them after converting them to tentacles…? It was confusing.”
The Ghost King didn’t seem fazed though. He turned to look at the mess of writhing tentacle mass beneath his supressing shield and explained offhandedly, “The child ghost wasn’t simple, Ah’Hen he named himself, but he was originally a 3rd world creature that morphed into ghost, resulting into this hideous form. We concluded that he was forced to morph into this, someone in the background is trying to gain something they shouldn’t.”
“So, Ah’Hen-” Ruzen didn’t know what to say, “he was the traitor?” He felt odd, at the same time horrified that this creature actually had been so close to him and he did not know.
“We will turn him back to his actual form, it will take time but We can do it. His memories would remain but in his actual form he would be more stable, and might even comply with his duty as your protector. At first We thought he was a wandering ghost, We even set him free after erasing the contracts, but then he got unstable, unable to keep his ghost form, morphing into… this. We had exiled his ghost form when he was much younger, he had betrayed Us back then as well, but now, We have finally gained control over him, We need to get to the crux of this issue.”
Ruzen nodded, somewhat expectant, because he really did not want to see someone he trusted being killed in front of him. Even if Ah’Hen betrayed him, Ruzen still thought it was not too optimistic to cling to a better hope. “If your intervention can help him, I think you can try.”
“…good karma always gives rewards.”
Ruzen nodded again, wondering if the King would actually ever talk about the humanoid eating ghost he saw outside. If the King was so relaxed, maybe that ghost… had been an ally?
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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The more he rethought of it, the more shallow he felt. He even thought that he would pause his love quest because he couldn’t come to kiss something so… alien.
Wasn’t it what one would call, skin deep love?
The moment he felt the King was frightening he thought of escaping, that, wasn’t love. Was he this shallow? His fear and terror had gripped him and the King seemed to know about it, because he even went ahead and introduced his pet.
Maybe the King was right, love did not exist at all.
Because his true fear had been their promise breaking and his benefits crumbling. Like an instinctual response to survival.
Ruzen felt his depression eating him up, his stomach suddenly felt queasy and he needed to breathe deeply to avoid getting stress attacks.
On one hand his Ah’Hen was a traitor, then on the other hand he was one as well. How will he teach the King about love if he himself was so easily frightened away by one incidence? Love was known to cross boundaries and life itself, but here he was, getting frightened by tentacles… he was hopeless.
He had read stories where the protagonist’s care and love for a beast would turn the beasts into human, or where love was something which made even the robots come to life… it was all love, tales of beautiful feelings and emotions, something so human, it was ridiculous.
A touch to his neck startled him, as he jumped away in fright. Only to see the King behind him, watching him expressionlessly. “That ghost you saw earlier is part of Our battle force. He eats these malicious energies that shape like humans. He may have frightened you, but he is an ally.”
Ruzen gulped, nodding, trying not to shake away the fingers that came back to hold him still.
“Those energies generally don’t get inside. But due to weakened barrier, they got a chance to slip in. It is Our mistake, We were unable to maintain it in time, We were lacking in energy after dealing with a few… tasks.”
“Do-Do you need assistance your majesty?”
The King seemed to be considering, before, he took a look at Ruzen’s pale face and declined, “No, We will get better once We take rest.”
Ruzen also did not have the mind to press, he also needed rest it seems.
“You aren’t at fault for being frightened of strange things… you were not born here and instinctually fear facing different races. We do not want you to feel guilty about it.”
How sensible and mature… Ruzen felt deeply embarrassed. “Thankfully it was a pet, or I…” he couldn’t continue.
“We will let you stay with Our Juer whenever we have time, you need to adapt to it because such things are common in this world. If there are things which you consider beautiful, then there are also things which you might consider ugly.”
Ruzen nodded jerkily.
“What else are you thinking?”
Under the King’s inquisitive stare, Ruzen felt small. “I said I would teach you how to love, but considering my own response… I am questioning my ethics.”
“And?”
Ruzen licked his dry lips, “I feel bad for being so judgemental and spineless.”
There was silence as the King did not seem to know what to say, but in the end he ended up stroking Ruzen’s cheek and nudging his chin up. His eyes were unusually blue, “Try not to think so much, it is but a small matter, you need to adapt, and learn. When you are comfortable, this… love can be practiced then.”
Ruzen suddenly felt a little emotional, how many times would this King tolerate him…. He felt immature in front of the King’s rational judgements and care. Maybe he needed to give himself some time, the King was right, he needed to adapt and learn. And when he became comfortable enough, he could approach this theory of love.
Yeah. He could do that.
There was no rush. The King wasn’t forcing him into anything, and he was sure he himself could get over his instinctual fright response given some time.
If one thought about it, it was natural to fear something they did not know about, so it was okay, to forgive himself over these little worries. Of course, even falling in love was a long process, so it was okay. Right.
Sighing, Ruzen smiled a little, “Your majesty is incredible, I feel better now.”
The King nodded, bending over to kiss Ruzen’s lips, gauging the other’s reaction to see if he should continue.
Ruzen was at first a bit startled, feeling a sliver of King’s enersym wrapping around his body like a safe cocoon. But after a blink or two, he kissed back, enjoying the taste of soft lips against his own, fingers quivering to hold onto something but he dared not… for the ‘pet’ was still hanging around the King… somewhere underneath those robes.
It was distracting but the King’s gentle hands caressing his waist and hips were even more distracting.
“Open your mouth.”
Ruzen did.
And then tasted the tongue which gushed inside, licking his warm cave, tangling with his tongue as Ruzen closed is eyes to enjoy the feeling of being kissed. It was a wet and heated stroke, filled with passion he himself craved. The King was… a really good kisser.
“Oh… um.” Ruzen wanted to say something, recalling that they were in the middle of a street, but with King’s tongue still inside his mouth, it was impossible to not just… give in.
After who knows how long, until his lips were red, and eyes hazy, he was finally let go. His breathing erratic and his heart beating loudly in his ear.
Pet forgotten, Ruzen clung to the King’s robes, gently pressing forward to stabilize himself.
“Go back, We have work to do here.”
Ruzen did not have much opinion on that, he felt he did need a little respite from all this chaos. But when he turned, he flinched, seeing the same pupil-less eyes looking in their direction, the long black hair tied up and the robes closed up, not a sign of teeth and tentacles anywhere.
“Lord Ji’An, did you finish the task.”
‘Lord Ji’An’ bowed, cupping his hands together, “Yes your majesty, residuals might be left, I will take rounds to take a closer look, your majesty needn’t worry.”
“Cooperate with others, and keep what you saw to yourself, understood?”
Listening to the cold tone, the ghost lord understood and left gracefully, not at all horrifying as what Ruzen recalled.
“Every Ghost has an attribute that they are known for. Lord Ji’An is known for his hunger for malicious energies that have already taken humanoid form.”
“But ghosts are susceptible to dark energy, how is it possible for ghosts to eat malicious energies?”
“It is about energy’s form. When they take humanoid shape, they are closer to condensed energy which can be digested by us, but those energies which are not yet humanoid or solid, they are dangerous to consume.”
“I understand,” even though he didn’t, Ruzen wasn’t about to converse about such lengthy topics, he thought it was better to ignore it for the time being. “I will go back then.”
~
When Ruzen came back, his ‘scout’, he saw, was lying on the curve of a path, dead.
A bit startled Ruzen looked around, but what could he do? He quickly touched over the body, but the grey of the dead was really cold and brittle, almost crumbling. It was obvious that there was no life or soul still inside.
There was no way he could revive it, so as a last resort, he thought about carrying it with him.
He felt guilty again, thinking how it could all be traced back to him. If he hadn’t left… maybe his scout wouldn’t be dead and he wouldn’t have to see such horrifying things so early. But he didn’t know this would happen, and blaming himself for it wasn’t the correct way of coping.
Although the cat like scout had been silent and they did not have any kind of bond in between, it still made Ruzen sad. If he had been a bit more aware, then maybe….
“You! What are you doing?!”
What noooo! What a terrible cliffie 🥺🥺🥺 now I’ll spend the entire week wondering what’s gonna happen 😭
Hahaha! Agreed!
+1😣
Cliff hangers… I hate them too…
💙💙💙💙
Thanks for the chapter!! <3
Thank you for reading!
Such a relief! The tentacle is a pet. I can live with that. 😌 Snakes and stuff similar to it are ok in my eyes as long as they are not creepily attached to a human body. The King catches on so quickly once Ruzens mood changes and comforting him with a kiss … that’s the way to go bro. 👍😊
Thanks for the comment!
Loved this chapter!!!! The King is really very interesting, never what you’d expect.
I am glad to know, writing the King is difficult somewhat.
Thank you for the chapter ❤
Love you!
What a cliffhanger!
Thanks for the chapter!
You are welcome! Cliffhangers are something that is necessary… I think.
Also totally unrelated, you know how every discipline kind of stains the thinking process? And thus the writing style, it’s pretty awesome to read an Architect. I always have complains because, no, you can NOT describe a room (or an open sapce) like that, or, that has no f* sense, there is no way it actually works like that, man, you are terrible at shape description, or things alike, and i’ve always thought, an architect wouldn’t make those mistakes, and I was right. It is awesome, thanks.
Also totally unrelated again, my tutor said to me yesterday that good writers are good thinkers, and good thinkers are worthy people. Isn’t that a good thing to share?
Thanks for the comment! I like it when you share your thoughts with me.
Thank you for the chapter ❤❤😍
the king is so patient with Ruzen, i love him
thanks for the chapter <3
Wow, that cliff! OMG You really had to write it like that eh author-san? exasperated sigh Anyway thank you for the chapter 😊