Why?!
How could you let us die like that?
He suddenly felt his legs being pulled down.
He couldn’t see anything, just a chill of emptiness creeping up on him.
Why do you get to keep on living?
Next, something grabbed his arms, pulling on them too.
You don’t deserve to be alive!
A hand grabbed his throat, choking him even though he wasn’t breathing.
You should've died! You should’ve suffered more pain!
His eyes took form, and he could finally see them.
Overflowing hands of darkness grabbing his entire body and pulling on it.
Black and purple chains coming out of his body spun all around him, holding him in place.
Curse you!
He recognized those hands.
He felt his heart drop, he didn’t know what to say to them.
He was in no position to justify his actions.
Come! Die!
He couldn’t blame them.
They weren’t wrong, perhaps he shouldn’t have survived.
Let it go!
He felt the hand on his throat tighten its grip.
Despite the panic rising within him, he closed his eyes, welcoming it…
Embrace it!
Then a giant shadowy hand came down at him and engulfed his entire body in absolute darkness.
image [https://i.imgur.com/KxQ4kAS.jpeg]
And then he woke up, his consciousness pulled back into existence.
“...”
In a quick motion, he instinctively sat up, one hand clawing at his heart while the other on his neck.
He traced the butterfly imprint on his neck, the one he had recently received. He had more or less figured it was the case, but now he could confirm it.
He realized that the only reason he didn’t have his nightmares last time after waking up on the battlefield was because of {her}…
“Wahhh!”
Jun, who was treating his fever with a cold towel, suddenly jerked up, not having expected him to wake up so suddenly, especially not like that.
He had been sweating and turning around in his sleep for a while. She had stayed by his side to help however she could.
“?”
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She took a deep breath, noticing his heavy breathing and profuse sweating. It was like he didn’t even realize she was in the room at all.
“You’re finally awake! It’s been days!” She smiled, trying to lighten up the mood for him, “I’m so glad!”
“?!”
Breaking out of his daze, Lawkey first looked to the side and saw his chest box, the one he had thrown to the side while he was fighting against Kerberos’ shockwaves.
Next to it, he was glad to see his sword, Eclipsed Dawn, with the two tassels intact. For some reason, It was inside a sheath with a luminescent pattern on it. He didn’t know where it came from, but he quickly ignored that for the time being.
He looked down on his hands, still shaking from the nightmare he had just experienced.
No matter how many times I get them, I will never get used to those Nightmares, huh?
“...”
Keep smiling, little Law!
He remembered the last words of his mentor who gave her life for his, forcing a gentle smile on his face.
Then he finally turned to face Jun to his side.
If he had to guess, he was probably brought to the old man’s house. But he couldn’t understand why exactly.
Even so, in this kind of situation…
“What’s this? No beautiful nurse to take care of me?”
“Eh?”
Jun was too stunned to speak. That was the last thing she could have guessed to come out of his mouth first thing after waking up.
But he didn’t even give her time to respond.
“I’m not into that.” He quickly tucked himself again and turned his back to her.
For a second, Jun hesitated, but she felt her body temperature spike up. Blood veins began to bulge on her forehead.
“Grrrr!” She growled like the giant wolf who had attacked her, her mind snapping and ignoring all common sense.
She threw the entire bowl of freezing cold water at the ignorant injured boy.
“Agghhhh! That’s freezing! Are you trying to kill me?!” Lawkey screamed, and his pain returned all over his body.
“?!”
CLACK!
“What happened, Jun? What was that scream?!” Hearing the sudden shout, Munisai quickly rushed through some sliding doors and called out from the hallway leading to where the boy was sleeping.
“Nothing happened!” Jun shouted back as she left the room and passed her father, pouting the entire way.
“...”
Seeing her like that, both Lawkey and Munisai couldn’t help but make awkward eye contact as they stood there speechless.
**👑**
Back on the day that led to the Kerberos incident, another kind of battle had taken place somewhere in the Kage Clan.
The Royal Castle of the Kage Clan stood towering over all the other buildings beneath it.
While the glowing luminescent rocks on the sides of the ravine did add to the beauty of the castle, the structure and design of it were already mesmerizing to the eye on their own. Having stood for centuries, the castle itself had gone through multiple remodeling over its time.
It may have looked beautiful and elegant in today’s time, but It was said that when it was first built, it was a sight of horror, instilling fear and nightmares into anyone who saw it.
image [https://i.imgur.com/VDBGy4O.jpeg]
Inside that castle lived the current monarch of this village, the twenty second Shadow Queen of the Kage Clan, Taiga Kage.
While she rarely ever left the Royal Castle, she made it a habit to look over the balconies every day to see the sights, watching her clan and people go about their peaceful day.
It is at this time where she can make most of her pondering and decisions in peace.
Today, while overlooking the clan as she always did, she had suddenly felt an ominous presence from the sealed up room inside the castle. A room in which its existence was carefully passed down through the Royal lineage. That was why only a handful of individuals knew about it.
The Shadow Queen had quickly abandoned her usual spot and ran toward that room, spending hours examining every detail of the dangerous object within, studying the shadows and trying to figure out what had happened to make her feel the ominous pressure.
But to no avail, she kept feeling the same pressure around the room and the concealed object within.
Ultimately, she had locked herself in, and braced herself for whatever may be coming. She didn’t call for her guards, nor the Commander of the Royal Guards to help her.
As the Shadow Queen of the Kage Clan, a descendent of the first Kings and Queens, this was her responsibility alone.
She had resolved herself to shoulder that burden alone.
But nothing had happened, no matter how long she waited.
After a few hours had passed, the ominous feeling and dark atmosphere had completely vanished all of a sudden, and everything had returned to normal.
She couldn’t understand why, but she knew one thing, the shadows within the sealed room had oddly weakened significantly.
What does this mean? What could have happened? What about this curse…?
As a few hours passed and she found herself wondering and questioning things, the Commander of the Royal Guards, Hachi, suddenly broke her long silence from behind the sliding door that led to the sealed room.
“Your majesty, if I may?”
She felt his presence, and was thankful for it.
The tension in her body slightly dropped as she sighed.
She would’ve stayed waiting in the room for days had he not come for her.
“Speak freely, Hachi.”
The door slid open.
“I apologize in advance, but I carry some bad news. Something terrible has happened in the clan, your majesty.” Hachi took a knee and bowed his head deeply, his voice carrying a sense of guilt.
“I see, so something did happen after all. Explain everything to me in detail, don’t leave anything out!” Taiga ordered her commander after turning to face him with a flourish of her Kimono and hair. She quickly crossed her arms under her well-endowed chest and waited for the report with anxious nerves.
“Well, it does concern the Sword Saint, Munisai… He was involved.” Hachi said hesitantly.
“...” Taiga’s heart skipped a beat, her pupils suddenly constricted in shock. “Where is he!? Take me to him! Now!”
She ordered without a second thought.
“Y-your majesty… he is getting his wounds treated, he will be fine. I invited him to an audience as soon as possible. There are other crucial matters I have to tell you about…” Hachi, despite having prepared himself for the situation, still didn’t know how to best handle it.
As the Commander of the Royal Guards who had served for years, he knew the Shadow Queen very well by now, he knew she would act like this.
“That Idiot!!!”
After all…
“I told him! Had he just married me already, this wouldn’t have happened!” She shouted, pacing around the sealed room, huffing and puffing next to the sealed dangerous object within.
“...”
The Shadow Queen was just too hung up on that guy.
She refused to consider any other man as her groom but the Sword Saint.
As it has always been, when it came to Munisai, she simply ignored everything else.
Hachi just knew the upcoming audience is going to be a major headache for him.
It’s going to be a long week again…
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image [https://i.imgur.com/KQmIY8F.png]