Author's Notes
Atemu meets...
The Pharaoh decides...
Chapter 20 - Rumor
Four months later, in the capital Men-nefer (Menphis) in Kemet, more precisely in the palace, night had fallen and Atemu was on the beautiful balcony of his luxurious room, looking at the sky as he remembered his father's happiness when he learned from his wife's pregnancy when he showed an immense happiness on her face, to later, the smile disappearing briefly over a violent attack of dry cough as he went back to bed.
After they talked other matters, with the smile never leaving his father's lips, he had left his room while confirming that the magic used around his father's room with Mahaado's help, to ensure that the rumors never reached the surface. Akhenamkhanen's ears, it was still active because they feared that the worry and doubt generated by this rumor could turn out to be a brutal blow to his weakened body by harming his happiness. Happiness that Atemu would personally guarantee.
While he was thoughtful, his cousin slept in another room beside him, which contained a connecting door that connected the two rooms. The monarch had made sure to use a spell in the form of an invisible wall on the connecting door to stop her from crawling into her room.
After all, he wished the young woman had a relaxed pregnancy and facing the wrath of a living God would never do a pregnant woman any good.
Even by virtue of this fact, Atemu maintained his iron determination not to lose the rest of his patience, while he could not allow the rumor that resonated throughout the palace to be proved by his actions in the face of a possible reaction.
After all, he needed to keep it limited to being just one of several rumors that had always been perpetuated among the court, and as long as he kept his actions indifferent to the rumors, of what would be expected from false allegations, no one could ever credit them as true.
The monarch sighs again, feeling that he has aged several years because it was not enough to have to take care of an empire and the lives of thousands of people. Now he had to manage a rumor whose background was true, managing it as false for the sake of an innocent. Or rather, for the sake of this innocent's future because he could not allow this future to be shattered by the deplorable acts of his mother.
Of course he wasn't a hypocrite.
However, he wished that if she was going to do this, she would do it after the child was born and in secret, giving him and the people certainty about the baby's ancestry in her womb.
"Atemu?"
Shimon and Mahaado appear, making Pharaoh nod as they approach, showing worried faces.
"Want me to call the person in charge of the massage?"
"Yes. Thank you, Shimon."
"You made the best decision, friend. We need to secure this child's future, regardless of whether he is your child or not."
"It doesn't matter what ancestry he is. I'll love him even if he doesn't have my blood. His mother's actions will have no bearing on my feelings for the child. as being false, no one will be able to say otherwise and his future will be preserved. I urgently need to guarantee the containment of the damages."
"I hope your wife knows how to be more discreet with her lovers. I can't believe she'll stop.
They turn to the source of the voice and spot Seto, who still looks a little out of place as he acts away from public formality, though he doesn't show it on his countenance.
After Atemu confronted Akhenaden and unleashed his fury, he owed nothing to a God by virtue of his act of concealing what involved the ritual and the necessary requirements such as the sacrifice of ninety-nine lives, which led to his parent's illness when he asked that the blame for the creation of the Sennen Aitemu fall on him and not on his beloved son, Atemu, Seto had discovered what the ritual consisted of and its cost by passing through the corridor at that moment, making him confront Akhenaden, passing the displaying the purest disgust and disgust on his face at proving as true the words of the monarch while discovering that he was his father, making him be appalled to discover his kinship with the current ruler. It was the same with Atemu, who had also shown surprise on her face.
After this event, with him vehemently disowning Akhenaden as his parent, he was surprised when Atemu began to wish they would treat each other like cousins, in private, just as others treated him as a friend, away from the public, making the Holy Guardian happy internally while not showing on his face the happiness that took him as a result of the feeling of having a family after he was orphaned as a child along with the later shocking discovery of the acts of the one he had held in high esteem until that time.
These two factors spurred him to embrace this newfound family in the figure of his cousin while maintaining his usual cool countenance, even in private, while gradually relaxing his features, away from the public.
Even so, the Hem-netjr (priest) was still trying to adjust to this situation and therefore showed some dislocation although he has drastically reduced in the last four months while moving away from Akhenaden, limiting himself to formal and polite conversations when he I asked them when I wanted to discuss some topic or situation.
"I also expect cousin. Besides, I won't be a hypocrite like many other men who have mistresses and who condemn their wife if she has any lover. But for her status and being pregnant, I should have been more careful. Or rather, she he should have avoided these relationships outside of marriage at least until the child was born so that there would be no doubt about his ancestry. After all, what this child needs least is a reasonable doubt in the hearts of the people about his legitimacy, ending for causing future problems if I don't manage this rumor the way it should be managed. Now, I need to manage this to avoid this doubt in the hearts of my people."
"It will be hard work. But I believe you can handle it, Atemu. You are managing the empire superbly. Soon, you will be able to handle this inconveniently true rumor." Shimon speaks displaying a confident face.
"Thank you. I hope. This child's future is at stake and I need to win. Losing is not and will never be an option biological father, I will love you just the same." Pharaoh speaks with determination on his face, making others smile.
"But she confirmed that the child was hers and even you used magic to get that confirmation, as well as looking into her eyes, finding the truth in her words. Therefore, there shouldn't be any doubt in your heart."
"I did it, Mahaado. But even so, there are still doubts in my heart."
"For a mind immersed in the depths of doubt, even having these confirmations, it will still linger in the back of his mind. Until the child is born, the doubt will not be appeased." Seto comments looking at Mahaado. "So it's understandable."
"Indeed, it's understandable. I just hope this child has Atemu traits to silence the doubts in his mind once and for all, Seto. We'll be in serious trouble if the child inherits too much of his mother's side. There's always that chance."
The others sigh.
"I hope he has my features, Mahaado, because my cousin is right. I need to have that confirmation, even though her gaze and my magic have confirmed this child's ancestry. Even if they showed they didn't have the my blood, I would love you in the same way and ardently defend your future, without any hesitation in my heart." The monarch speaks with iron and sincere conviction as he gazes up at the majestic moon in the starry sky, making the men smile.
After a few minutes, Shimon says "I'll call the massage manager so you can relax. You're very tense and rightly so."
"I need to see if Mana has finished studying the magical technique I'm teaching, although I believe it's hidden in some vase in the palace. I swear I want to understand her obsession with vases." The Court Superintendent of Atemu mages sighs as he massages his temples.
"Have you tried asking her?" Seto asks with a frown.
"She said she doesn't know. She just likes doing it and feels great inside a vase. Especially the ones in the west wing."
"Well, she has things that are inexplicable and apparently this is one of them... I'm leaving, cousin. I need to review some scrolls before bed."
The monarch says goodbye to them and after the double doors are closed behind him, Atemu sighs as he recalls that morning's conversation with Jounouchi, Honda, Ryo and Mariku, with all of them saying the same thing that Shimon, Seto and Mahaado said, doing look like he had Déjà vu.
The monarch felt that everyone's support was essential to help him in this critical moment while he assured his wife that nothing would happen to her, aiming for her cousin to have a peaceful pregnancy.
A week later, tens of kilometers away from Kemet, with Yuugi being seventeen, he found himself again in slave status while Yukiko huffed inside him at having been enslaved again while the young man was embarrassed for having been captured, again.
The albino had snorted for the hundredth time as she tapped one of her sharp diamond-like claws at the spot she was in while she thought with annoyance at the many times her friend had become a slave and her having to free him by taking over the control of her body, with her trying to keep her promise not to kill his master or those who captured him.
The fact that it left them unable to survive on their own as they couldn't move anything from the neck down while being attacked alive by beasts didn't break her promise because she didn't kill them. It was the beasts or any other hungry animal that tore them ripped alive, tearing their flesh and breaking their bones over their scream of terror, as she delighted to hear these sounds, with the half dragon confessing that it was wonderful music for the her ears, with Yukiko being fully aware that she was a sadist and therefore, she tried to hide that side she had so as not to frighten her friend.
While she was immersed in her annoyance, Yuugi was bought and the reason she didn't kill his captors was because they were close to a city and didn't want to make a fuss.
After all, there were plenty of them, plus heavily armed soldiers, and she didn't intend to test her ability to attack them all, other than the fact that she didn't want to risk her friend's body.
Therefore, she decided to wait for the right moment to act as she slipped into the young man's mind to analyze the man who had bought him and if he tried to touch him sexually, he would die a horrible death, and then she could flee the place with him, regardless. how many soldiers there were around. As long as he didn't do anything obscene, the dragon would wait patiently for the opportune moment to free her friend while she wondered how long he would be captured, again.
Yukiko is thoughtful, trying to figure out why Yuugi is so targeted and as she listened to the comments of the captors and owners through the young man, she had always heard about the fact that he was exotic, both in terms of skin, hair and eyes, with these being expressive along with her delicate appearance which was aggravated by her short stature.
In fact, in places where there were people with dark skin, someone with the color of ivory skin, tricolor hair, large and expressive amethyst eyes, in addition to a delicate constitution became too tempting, making him a target of greed, thus explaining the why he is captured all the time. If perhaps, he was dark or had the same characteristics as the people of this place, he would have less chance of being captured, even if they captured people with the same ethnicity as them.
At least that's what she thought as she sighed wearily at that thought because her friend's appearance couldn't be altered, however pivotal for him to be enslaved.
The albino brandishes its shaggy, long, muscular tail on the ground that had a powerful club at the end, making it crash into the snowy ground as she sighed in exasperation at the seemingly endless cycle. She released him and he was captured. She released him and was captured and so on. In fact, Yuugi needed to have a second protection from the outside because inside, his actions were too limited in the half dragon's vision.
At least she managed to subdue his conscience, trapping him in a world of dreams as she took her place in the punishments and beatings, putting up with them stoically while being relieved to spare him, realizing that his exotic nature had him spared from being raped by his captors because they wanted to maintain his purity, according to what he heard from them.
Therefore, they limited to occasional beatings and always trying not to mark his body, too much, with her healing him afterwards. Only after healing the wounds, the half dragon retreated into him, returning control of his mind when his body was without pain and the beating that Yukiko endured only made his sadism and fury grow more and more because his desire to give to them a horrible death was amplified in her being, with her trying to keep such thoughts to herself for knowing her friend's crystalline, gentle and kind heart.
When she realized it was safe to act, the albino acted, indirectly killing the captors or owners by immobilizing them, leaving them to the beasts to feast on them alive while freeing the other slaves when they took control of Yuugi's body, to then walk away with him because he knew it would be a matter of time before he was captured again, with the dragon sighing bitterly at this thought.