Thank you, Aafje98, for your kind words. It makes me really happy to see that at least one person is enjoying my work. I will do my best, so you and my other readers can further enjoy this story.

And yes, this is another chapter in a short time. This chapter is longer than the usual ones, and I could have killed off Hakuyuu in this chapter, but I think there is enough going on in this one, so let as save the dying for the next one! (Yes, I keep you waiting with Hakuyuu's death.)
Well, I hope, this chapter is enjoyable for you.

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With some kind of childish excitement, Hakuyuu woke up the next day. Today was the day he would reach his destination. As far as he knew his younger cousin Kouen would be there as well. They haven't meet each other in a long while. Hakuyuu wondered, whether Kouen had changed since their last meeting.
After a good breakfast, the small group began to march towards the village, which would be their "home" for some time. Unfortunately, Hakuyuu was not allowed to feel good for long. The uneasiness reappeared together with the whispering and feeling of forgetting something important. On top of that his head started to hurt and the pain intensified over the course of time. He tried to hide his pain as good as he could, yet he did not miss the concerned look on his brother's face, who stayed silent about it. There was nothing he could do anyway. Today was hot day and Hakuyuu may have not drunk enough water. A headache could have many reasons! And when they arrived at the village Hakuyuu could take a short break. Maybe his big brother's excitement was also a reason for the headache. Many possibilities and he should just not overthink things or be overly worried. Hakuyuu was an adult!
While Hakuren worried about Hakuyuu and overthought things, Hakuyuu himself was too busy with not showing his pain. Neither the heat nor his own annoyance over being annoyed and in pain were helpful in improve his situation. Why must his head hurt at a time like this? And why did it has to get worse the closer they got to the village? The whispering got more as well, yet he still could not understand what the voices were saying.

Shortly after lunch time, they arrived in the village, where they were greeted by an old man with a long white beard. Ri Seiryuu was a general under Hakutoku and taught both princes a lot about fighting. Like their father, Seiryuu was a stern man that had fought many fights in his live – the scars all over his body were proof of that. Currently the general had Kouen under his wings to teach the young man, how to lead an army and be a great general and useful member of the army. Kouen had first been under Hakutoku's direct orders, however that had changed with Hakuyuu falling sick. In retrospect, it was more like Hakuren and Hakuyuu had taken care of their younger cousin and taught him. Hakutoku only spoke a few times with his nephew about his goals, besides that he only interacted with the boy in meetings – Hakutoku had more important matters to deal with, so teaching the new soldiers was the duty of others and Kouen would not get special treatment, something not even Hakuyuu and Hakuren had gotten. Well, they had some kind of special treatment, since Hakutoku was their father and therefore would still train with them, if they demanded. It was a father's duty to educate his children about war and fighting! How to be great men!

Hakuyuu's leg felt like pudding, when they reached the ground. He almost had fallen over, when he got down from his horse. Fortunately, he was able to hold on to his horse, so no one would find out. However, walking with shaking feet was a bit difficult, especially when no one should figure it out. Yet, everyone already knew that he wasn't fine, but decided to stay silent about it. Maybe the prince was fine the next day. They all were exhausted from the weather and the march.
The village itself was in a horrible state. People were sitting in the streets with torn and dirty clothes, houses were destroyed – the rebuilding of them was already in the making – and it seemed that there were a lot of injured people – maybe there still were some dead bodies under the destroyed houses. Given the fact that Hakuyuu left the palace after the village was conquered, it was strange to find it in such a miserable state. What were the soldiers, who were deployed here, doing the whole time? Or those this mean that the village had been in a much more horrible state after being conquered? Somehow this thought rubbed him the wrong way. How did the other conquered land looked like? Was it worse than this? Whatever, right now Hakuyuu was in charge of this village and he had to make sure that the people, who live here, got treated and were provided with all necessary. Also, in case there still were people under the ruins, they had to take care of that as well. How many people had died? Were they already buried? Somehow Hakuyuu hope that this had already been dealt with. Well, there was a lot to think of and to take care of. Thinking worked better with a head, which was not in constant pain, yet his headache got worse with every passing second and the whispering intensified as well. This time he could understand a few words and the whispering could actually not be called that anymore. It was more like people were screaming at him, but it was hold of by a wall, so their voices could not reach him in full volume. He should be happy that it was like this, just imaging how it would be, if those voices would really scream at him caused him to shiver. Or was this shivering real? No, it was so hot, how could he shiver? This was something that would only happen during the cold!
Ri Seiryuu was explaining something to Hakuren and Hakuyuu. However, Hakuyuu could not concentrated at all. His vision got blurry, the voices got louder, the pain got more and he followed the general with faltering steps. The shivering did not go away and he could feel hands grabbing him. Were those hands real or just his imagination?
Well, he could clearly hear Hakuren's voice, but not what was Hakuren saying or shouting.
"I am fine", was what he wanted to say to his younger brother, yet he was not even able to utter an understandable word.
In his mind, he told everyone, he was fine.
In his mind, he was still on his legs.
In his mind, he was fine.
On the outside he was all, but fine. Hakuren had caught Hakuyuu just before the latter could hit the ground. With the help of Jian he brought his brother into the tent, which was prepared for meetings until the village was built up again or at least had a building, which could be used. The soldiers were in an uproar. Seeing their crown prince suddenly going down like this was shocking and frightening. Seiryuu luckily had everything order control, more or less. He made sure that there was a bed for Hakuyuu and a physician was called immediately. Everyone was afraid that Hakuyuu may have gotten sick again, maybe that strange illness was worse than they had expected. What should they do? They had to inform the emperor and take the prince back to the palace. Or would everything be alright the next day? What should they do?

"Die!"
"It's all their fault!"
"Avenge us!"
"Help! Someone! Anyone, please help!"
"They won't forgive you!"
"No! Stop this! No, no, no!"
"Leave the children alone!"
"Run!"
"Why? What have we done?"
"Will you be able to forgive yourself?"
"Mommy! Mommy! Where are you? Mommy!"
"It hurts!"
"Stop! Please, please, please stop this madness! Please, stop!"
"Take responsibility for your action!"
"It's your fault! You are responsible!"
"Believe me, you won't be able to forgive yourself!"
"Will you run and hide?"
"Don't look away this time. It will be your last chance!"

Hakuyuu was squirming with pain. His head and chest was hot, his body freezing. The voices of his family or the worried doctors did not reach him, yet he could hear those unknown voices in his head clearly. He wanted to ask them, what they were talking about, what they wanted him to do. No words left his mouth, exceptionally those times when he cried out in pain.
On some days Hakuyuu did not move at all and only the constant up and down of his chest made it clear that he was still breathing. On others he was in so much pain that one may thought his head would explode. Gyokuen proverbially had worried herself sick. Every night she cried herself to sleep and as soon as she woke up again, she looked after her son, just to cry more at his side until her husband would led her back into their bedroom, so she could get some rest. Hakutoku had planned to stay in Go, yet when he heard about the condition of his oldest son, he decided that he had to go home. At the moment they were lucky that the fights had stopped. The two generals Ri Seiryuu and Shuu Kokuhyou were able to handle any upcoming matters regarding the war. It wasn't like Hakutoku had dropped everything as soon as words about his son had reached him, but when he heard that Hakuyuu's condition hadn't changed in weeks, there was no reason not to go back home. Hakutoku did not felt well with a sick crown prince and a panicked empress at Rakushou. What if they were attacked? Further, even when he did not want to think about it, what if Hakuyuu died? Or felt into a coma? An event like that could cause many problems and he as emperor had to first of all prevent any intrigues that may arise due to this and secondly prepare for the sad case that Hakuyuu would really pass away or fall into a coma. His people and his family would need his support as emperor and father or husband. And he needed his people and his family to deal with the loss of another child. Well, however, it wasn't the time to act as if everything was lost already. Things may look bad, but there was still a chance that his son would get better. Hakuyuu had won against this unknown disease once and he would win again! Hakutoku was sure of that.

During the time Hakuyuu was in the infirmary, Hakutoku ordered every available soldier, servant, magician and physician to look for a solution. What was wrong with the crown prince and how could he be healed? Whoever found the cure for Hakuyuu's disease, would be rewarded! And a reward from the emperor was something desirable! Money and power was always a good reward and humans sought it, yet it wasn't easily found. But probably easier than an answer to the emperor's question.
It had been Jian, who found a small clue, on how to help Hakuyuu. Unfortunately, the clue was so small that no one was sure, what to do. Apparently there was a country in which a prince once had died under mysterious circumstances, but came back from the dead. The problem was that no one had ever heard of the mentioned country and no one was sure as to whether his story was true or just a fairy tale. Strangely, one of the priests told Hakutoku that the story was indeed true and claimed to be the reasons, why the prince had come back to life. It was considered strange, because until now the priests had not said anything about Hakuyuu's sickness. If they really had played a role in the cure of the other prince, then why did they not say anything? They should have known what was wrong with Hakuyuu and how to heal him, yet they had stay silent until now. Therefore, Hakutoku decided to pay no attention to the priests. However, he ordered Jian to look more into the story and the country. Hakuyuu's condition got worse every day.

While his father ordered others to find a cure for his brother's condition, Hakuren tried to not freak out. Throughout his life he had found multiple ways to cope with stressful situations. During war he used training to cope. When at home and stressed because of all the meetings, he ate and slept a lot – well and trained a lot too. But in this situation he had no way to relieve his stress. His training was a complete mess, since he put so much power into his attacks, yet he was not focused and barely got a hit on his training partner. He was wasting energy, what wasn't so bad, still it did not help him to calm down at all. Sleeping and eating wouldn't do a thing as well, since he was too restless. Walking up and down in his room became a daily thing. Jian was busy with finding clues on the unknown country and Hakuren also tried to help, but his mind got easily distracted. Also he was worried about his little sisters. Hakuei seemed to have found someone to go to, in case she needed someone to talk to. Further, there were her studies, which kept her distracted a bit. However, Hakurin was different. The young girl wandered around the palace, searching for someone to play with. She avoided the infirmary. Probably because she was too afraid about what might await her there. Differently than everyone else she didn't knew how to cope with this situation. What should she do? How should she feel? What was even going on? One of her big brothers was in pain, her mother was sick as well, her father was on the edge and busy, her sister was easily annoyed and spent more time with other things and her other big brother seemed to be bothered enough without her being around. She was alone and lost. So lost. The hectic and panic of the grown-ups around her, made it even worse.
Hakuren tried to spend some time with her, but she often run away. It confused and irritated him at first, but then he thought that this behavior may be due to her thinking she was just a burden and maybe she thought she would get yelled at for being useless or in the way. Poor girl!
It took him some tries until he finally caught her, but when he did she got snuggled until she was smiling. Playing with her distracted both of them and it was a lot of fun. He should have done so sooner. While the past couldn't be change, he could change the future. From now on he would definitely spent more time with her, whenever he was at home!
It took Hakurin a lot of courage to ask Hakuren about their older brother. She looked so sad, scared and unsettled. She could sometimes hear Hakuyuu's screaming because of all the pain he was in. It scared her so much, yet she wanted to see him so badly! Tell him that she cared about him and that she loved him and that he should get better soon! However, with all the adults running around, she felt like it would be better to stay away from there, so she would not be in their way, because differently than her, they tried to help her brother. She was a bother and could do nothing for Hakuyuu.
Hakuren took her to Hakuyuu in the end. Fortunately, it was on a day on which Hakuyuu was silent. Hakurin left one of her dolls with her brother, so he wasn't on his own all the time. A cute gesture.

Week after week Hakuyuu's condition got worse. Since he barely ate anything he also got skinnier and skinnier. Horrible to look at. Hakutoku got more and more restless. The thought of losing his oldest son was nagging on him. Was there really nothing he could do? And why were the physicians so incompetent? Further, those shady priests were frequenting him more often.
Thankfully, Jian found some information regarding the country, which prince came back from the dead. It wasn't much and Hakutoku was unsure, whether he should believe what he had heard, but what could he lose? If this country existed indeed, then why had he never heard of it before? On the other hand, there were a lot of thing he had never heard of before. Independently, in case this country existed, why should they help another country in such a crisis? They would not gain anything from helping and it would make the Kou Empire vulnerable. Until now the emperor had done his best to keep Hakuyuu's condition a secret from everyone outside the palace. No one was even allowed to talk about it! Enemies would take the current happenings as chance to attack or corner them. Something like this must be avoided at all costs!

Gyokuen's condition got worse as well and Koutoku, Hakutoku's younger brother, started to lecture him on what to do. Koutoku had many women and many children, who he did not care about. Kouen and his younger brother Koumei were raised by maids and they saw Hakutoku more as a father figure than their own one. Now it was Koutoku, who tried to tell Hakutoku that he cared too less about his oldest son, while at the same time seem to care about him the most. Hakutoku hasn't done much to find his lost son Hakuryuu and even wanted to replace him with another child – something Hakutoku denied. Then why wasn't he searching for his youngest son, why had he not sent out troops to gather information? Because of the war, of course! The lives of his people were more important than the life of a single child, even when this child was his own. Koutoku had just laughed at this reasoning. Then what was about Hakuyuu? Why was he more important than war? Why did Hakutoku waste so much time with finding a clue about Hakuyuu's sickness? Strangely, why did Hakutoku not take the help of the priests, who knew what was wrong and how to help? It was obvious that Hakuyuu was more important than any other child, since he was the oldest and the most capable for the position as emperor and they all knew this. Even when Gyokuen would give birth to another child, it would be too young and it would still be Hakuren, who had the highest claim to the throne, since he was born before. Hakuyuu was important to Hakutoku, simply because of his assigned position as future emperor – Hakuyuu was nothing, but a mere tool to his father, just like everyone else. Hakutoku had no arguments against his brother's imputation. How should he prove his feelings? He deeply care about all of his children, however he also was the emperor of a country during times of war. Many people had sacrificed everything for him, so he had to make sacrifices as well. Since he had been a child, he was told to bottle up his feelings and not let them get the best of him. This may let him appear cold, but it was for the best, right?
Those priests were from an unknown place with an unknown goal. They haven't done anything wrong or suspicious, yet Hakutoku could not bring himself to trust them. This was probably due to them hiding their faces and that they never said all there was to be said. He always had the feeling that there more to them and their words than they gave of.
In the end, he may have to ask for their help anyway, because there was no other option available and Hakutoku had no intention of letting his son die without trying everything to save him. Before that he wanted to try his luck with that unknown country, which was contradiction to his reasoning and his doing until now. Kou may not be in war with this country, yet it was not a smart move to inform another kingdom about one's struggle, especially when it was true that the priests where involved with it. What would that other country gain from helping them? Nothing! So, why should they help? And what if they were allied with enemies of the Kou Empire? They could give this highly sensitive information away. It was so unbelievable risky, yet he was willing to take that risk to save his son, while he was not ready to take the help offered by priests – at least not yet.

Writing to the ruler of an unknown country, without knowing nothing about said person or how to get the letter to them, was the strangest thing Hakutoku had ever done in his life. But what should he do? His son was in pain. At night Hakutoku could not sleep and when he was able to do, it was just for a short while – dreaming about his son dying. His crying wife was no help. Seeing her in pain, seeing her suffering hurt so much. He could also see his children suffer, but there was nothing he could do about it. This whole situation was too much for everyone!
It had been years since Hakutoku had cried the last time, but it was impossible to not shed a tear at all of this. He did it, when no one was looking, when he was alone. Nothing was lost yet, so he would do all he could do. Only the priests were not an option for him, at least not as long as there were other options available.
His writing was a bit unfirmed, but he did his best. Tried to explain who he was and what situation he was in, while explaining what happened to his son – which was the hardest part, since he was unsure, what exactly had happened to Hakuyuu – and state his request. Jian was the one, who was responsible to deliver the letter, despite the location of the country was "surprisingly" unknown as well. However, Jian discovered that there was a tribe at the other side of the world that is said to be allied with said country and acted as go-between between them and the rest of the world. It was risky and Hakutoku knew. Because of that he also talked with Hakuren about it, who agreed on sending the letter. Despite it just being a feeling, both were sure that the country had no tries with any other country or the priests – maybe it was just their emotions getting the best of Hakuren and Hakutoku. If they had, they would not be so unknown. They probably wanted to be for themselves and avoid any contact with outsiders. This was also a good way to prevent war. If no one knew about one, then no one would start a war! However, it raises the question, why they should help out another country with their internal, family problems.

It was quite odd for a man like Ren Hakutoku to undertake such a huge risk, yet no one said anything about it. He was the emperor after all and knew what was best for them all. Behind the emperor's back, however, people were talking about how foolish his acting were and some speculated that he even may have lost his mind. A new emperor was needed, but who should that be? Hakuyuu seemed to be done for and Hakuren was not good enough – at least that was the opinion of most of the higher-ups. They saw the second prince more as a child than a young adult, just because he was not as stern and uptight as his older brother or father. Ignoring all of Hakuren's achievements was easy for them, some even dared to give credit to others for what he had done. The political world was a cruel one and it was sad that a country, which wanted to unify the world under one ruler and end all wars therewith, was so split and twisted and did not even stood behind their leader wholeheartedly.
Independently from what other thought, it was a fact that Hakutoku's action was odd and could barely be explained by logic.
Ren Hakuyuu suddenly disappearing, reappearing barely alive, the change of his skin color, the headache, the whispering and his sudden break down were all happenings that could barely be explained by mere logic alone either.
Hakutoku taking a huge risk for saving his son, while refusing the help of those around him, could be, however, explained by emotions and maybe with logic as well to a certain extent.

"This is all I can do for you. Win or lose is now up to you. Do not fail me. Do not fail your people."
"C'mon. Die already and stay dead. You're such a bother. All of your kind are so bothersome."
"Don't lose! Help is on its way. Just don't let this help be in vain!"