1. Thank you, Miqila, for your review.
2. I don't know why, but I am so nervous because of the amount of OC in this story and it's not like they get less. And there are too many "he"s. I hope, it is not too confusing, who is meant.
3. As always your honest opinion is very much appreciated.
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Just the very moment he set foot onto Kou ground, it began to rain. What a great welcome. Of course, he had no umbrella with him. Fortunately, one of his servants had thought about taking one with them, when leaving their country. Well, it wasn't like the rain would have killed him or anything, but being wet, was not so pleasant, especially when one was about to meet the ruler of another country. The first impression was extremely important!
Since he had not informed anyone about his arrival or his intention of visiting – he had forgotten to do so – there was no welcoming committee. So much for leaving a good first impression. He was getting old or he was already old – probably the latter. Whatever it was, now he was in Kou and needed to meet the emperor – Ren Hakutoku, if he remembered correctly. Luckily a young soldier picked him up – the soldiers at the entrance of the palace must have informed the people of the palace of his arrival – and brought him into a waiting room. He did not mind waiting. A ruler always had meetings and could not be everywhere at the same time, he knew this very well. Further, he had no appointment, so he may also have to wait until tomorrow. In this case, he could use the free time to take a look around. It was his first time in Kou and until now he had only read or heard about it, consequently he never interacted with people of the country before. Which was not so surprising, since he and his kind preferred it to stay away from the rest of the world. His children had never set foot outside of the mainland their homeland was part of, which was maybe not the best for them, because it was important to have a wide horizon and such could only be gained by traveling the world – and the world was more than just their home country and the land around it. Maybe he should send them on an adventure on their own as soon as he was back home again? His son always wanted to leave home and see more of the world. On the other hand that guy was occupied with other matters right now. However, this was an issue he could think about later. Right now he should focus on the reason why he was here, despite him not knowing what exactly he should do about the country's problem. He had no solution for them, besides waiting and hoping that it turned out to their favor. The only reason he came, although he had no way to help, was to find a clue, why this was happening to an outsider. Not only that it was an outsider, there also seemed not to be any threat that justified such an action – what was he thinking? He felt somewhat betrayed. Thanks to that, they could not stay in hiding anymore – weren't they supposed to stay away from this part of the world and keep to themselves. Imposing his power upon this young man was meddling with this part of the world – what was the plan behind this? Well, if he was left out, then he could do what he thought was right and this meant to help the young boy – although there wasn't much he could do. All he could do, was to ensure that no one was interfering and manipulating the outcome.
Jian was overjoyed when he heard that the so called "black king" had arrived. After picking the king up and leading him into a waiting room – a servant was ordered to bring the king some refreshments –, he run to the throne room to inform the emperor about their guest. Due to his excitement, he also almost tripped over his on feet. In all honesty, he had never expected that this plan would work. An unknown country and a prince, who came back from the dead? Who would believe something like this? It was a nice story for children, but not something that happened in reality. Yet it did happened! And this meant that Hakuyuu would be fine now, right? The king knew a way to save Hakuyuu, didn't he?
Hakutoku was speaking with Hakuren, when Jian entered the throne room to report the arrival of their guest. Of course those two were happy as well and they would have dropped everything the very instant they received this news, if there had been anything to drop. Hearing the good news that their risk had born fruit, Hakutoku's worries over accepting the help of the priests lessened. Since Hakuyuu had barely ate anything, the chances of him starving to death before a cure could be found were very high, so he had asked the priests to do something about it. With their magic they ensured that Hakuyuu would not starve.
Hakutoku and his people were skeptical of the thing called "magic". For the people of Kou only physical power counted. Magic was some weird, strange and useless. No one researched the phenomenon "magic", because why should they waste time and money on something they did not believe in? On the contrary this also meant that they didn't know, what magic was capable of doing or how it worked. A few times Hakutoku had seen a magician using healing magic on the soldiers and it helped, so it seemed this things was not just all talk. But how far was it able to go in this regard? Was magic really able to save someone from starving to death? If it was, they should use this information for their war. But how trustworthy was magic or a magician? Could they control someone's mind with their power? Nevertheless, this wasn't the point here right now! His son had survived until now and someone, who might knew, how to cure the strange illness, had arrived, this was all that mattered for now. It took a load off his mind!
Tragically, just a second after hearing that the black king had arrived, a physician entered the room with a gloomy face. Crown prince Hakuyuu had passed away. The cause of death was unknown. While Hakutoku was lucky enough to sit on this throne upon hearing that, Hakuren was standing next to him. In retrospect Hakuren was not so sure anymore, how he was able to not fall down on his knees, he somehow managed to stand upright. Maybe because his mind rejected the newly received information? This was a lie, nothing but a big, fat, horrible and stupid lie! It couldn't be true! But it was true, right? Why should the physician lie? "Why" was all he could ask over and over again. He had to confirm the death of Hakuyuu for his own. Maybe it was just an extremely sick joke from his brother? A stupid thought. Hakuyuu himself didn't like jokes – Hakuren assumed it was because his big brother was bad at understanding jokes and took everything a little bit too serious. Such a man would never try to make a joke all of sudden, especially not about a sensitive topic like death, right? Forgotten were the things he had discussed with his father, forgotten was the guest, who had arrived a few minutes ago, forgotten was the happiness he just had felt a moment ago.
When Hakuren reached Hakuyuu's room, he needed a second to catch his breath. The nurses and doctors in the room looked all gloomy, looked like someone had died. Well, probably because someone had died! It was just Hakuren, who still was in denial. Hakuyuu wasn't dead! There was absolutely no way that his brother was dead! The king, who had a cure for his brother, had arrived and would fix everything, so dying now was not an option. With unsteady steps Hakuren approached the bed in which his brother slept – he was sleeping, nothing more than sleeping.
However, it was hard to deny the truth when looking right into its face. Hakuren had seen many dead people, so he knew, how it looked like, when someone was dead. But this did not mean that he accepted it.
Hakutoku had followed his son together with the physician, who had brought the sad news to the emperor. One could see that Hakutoku was greatly affected by the death of his son, but no one said anything and Hakutoku tried his best to not give in to the urge to fall on his knees and cry. Today he lost his second son. How could he face his wife, his people or himself? How could he see himself as good emperor, when he failed protecting his family? People were certainly already talking behind his back. Life in the palace was hard and it was common knowledge that there were people, who only cared for power and were already making their schemes against him. A dead crown prince and an "incapable" replacement – Hakuren was seen as a "replacement" by some people – were good fodder for those power-hungry pretenders and intriguers. It was hard to get rid of them, because some of them indeed hold an important position in the Empire and acting against them could cause an uproar and might even led to a civil war. One shouldn't play with fire, if one was not ready to accept the consequences. Hakutoku was ready to live with the consequences as long as it meant peace – a civil war was not peace, therefore Hakutoku accepted the pretenders and intriguers and the consequences that came with that decision.
"Hakuren, please take care of our guest in my stead", Hakutoku ordered his only remaining son, who followed the words of his father without asking any question, because he knew that his father needed some time for himself. The nurses and doctors left as well.
Although he was alone, Hakutoku did not allow himself to give in to his feelings. It hurt so much to look at one's dead child. No matter how hard he tried to deny it, Hakuyuu always had been his favorite and the one he had the deepest connection with. Not only because Hakuyuu was the oldest of his children, but also because Hakuyuu pretty soon showed interest in the business of his father and thus always asked his father for advice, private lessons in regards to fighting and political matters and was the perfect example of how a crown prince should be. Hakutoku was proud of his oldest son, who could have made it far. The death of Hakuyuu was a tragedy. He remembered, how Hakuyuu as a child was running after him, when he was on his way to his meeting. He remembered, how he had felt, when his first son had been born and when he hold the baby in his arms for the first time. He remembered, how excited Gyokuen had been, when their son said his first word. He remembered how excited he had been, when Hakuyuu called him father for the first time. He remembered Hakuyuu's smile, whether he praised the little boy. And he remembered Hakuyuu's first training session, first day in the army, first attendance in political meetings. Hakutoku was aware that he appeared as someone, who did not care about his children and was cold hearted, which was true to a certain extent, because as emperor one had to be cold hearted at times, but he remembered many moments of his children's lives. Tenderly he stroked through his son's hair. When the young man in front of him had been a child, he had done so often. Shortly before he went to bed himself, he always had looked after his children and reassured himself that they were fine – still breathing and properly covered. Nobody knew about this habit of his besides his wife, who sometimes teased him with it, just because she was able to do so – no he was not ashamed of this habit, yet it was one he didn't want to share with others not even with his children.
Hakutoku took a deep breath. Silent tears made their way down his face. Why was this happening? Hakuyuu had survived for so long, had fought for so long and just the very second help had arrived he died. How cruel, unreasonable and absurd. Everything had been in vain.
After visiting his dead son, Hakutoku decided to tell his wife the horrible news. The physician, who had informed him about Hakuyuu's death, offered to also tell the empress, however Hakutoku wanted to do this himself. Gyokuen was his wife and they had already lost one child. He wanted to be at her side, when she heard about the horrible news. Wanted to provide her the love and comfort she needed in such a situation. Whether he was able to fulfill this task was a different question, especially ever since the kidnapping of Hakuryuu and how he, according to Gyokuen, reacted – he wanted to replace his lost child with another one, ignoring his wife's feeling or showing any love for his youngest son, because he only viewed his family as tools, according to his wife – she was very distanced towards him and they easily got into arguments. How should he prove that he cared and loved his youngest son? He had searched for the boy, but couldn't find any clues about who the kidnapper were or where they had taken his son. There also had never been a ransom demand. Those arguments were just excuses to his wife and Hakutoku had given up on trying to prove anything, because it was useless. Still he loved her and all of their children and he was sure that it was the same for her.
Gyokuen was making paper cranes together with Hakurin. The little girl had heard that if someone made one thousand paper cranes, a wish would be granted. She wished that her big brother would be well again soon. Unfortunately, those cranes were not able to bring back the dead – it was questionable whether they could fulfill wishes anyway, but one should not take a dream away from a small child. It never had been his intention to interfere with the dreams of his children, but now he had to destroy his youngest daughter's dream of helping her big brother getting better. Telling one's wife and child that a family member had died was hard. It would have been easier, if it were just an uncle, aunt or grandparent. Delivering the message of the death of a child or sibling was way harder. Gyokuen barely showed any reaction. Her tears were the only evidence that she had hear him. Hakurin on the other hand was not crying, but looked so lost and confused. Maybe her mind tried to deny the newly received information. She was young, but not dump. So she knew very well, what death meant. Further, it must be quiet shocking to see her mother crying and her father standing in the middle of the room, not saying anything and looking sad. She must feel lost and was probably waiting for her parents to comfort her. Or someone to reveal that her father just had made a bad joke. Unfortunately, Hakutoku was not capable of doing this for her – not because he didn't want to, but because he was incapable of showing his emotions or handling other people's emotions. No one had taught him how to comfort a child – he had even failed to comfort his wife, when she needed him the most, so why should he suddenly be able to comfort her or his daughter?
Moreover he also had to deal with the "black king". Hakuren was taking care of their guest, yet Hakutoku did not like the thought of not showing up, when it had been him, who had requested the visit of the other king. What kind of impression would he leave behind, if he let his emotion over his dead son get the best of him? An emperor had to stay levelheaded at all times! Before he faced his guest, he needed to get rid of his tears.
The rain had gotten heavier and turned into a storm. The wind was wailing through the trees. Hakurin was sure that not only her family was mourning her big brother death, but also the gods were crying. She may not have an explanation, why the gods had taken away Hakuyuu from them and then cried, but she was sure that the gods were sad. Hakuyuu had been a great person, a great big brother and now he was gone. Gone way too soon.
Her mother hadn't stopped crying and for the first time she had seen her father shedding tears. For her parents she had acted tough. Or maybe she was just too shocked to cry or freak out. Inside of her was a storm. She wanted to cry, scream and destroy something. She was a mess and she had no words to describe, what she felt or thought. Maybe she thought nothing? Was that even possible? What an irrelevant question, but one which could distract her from thinking about Hakuyuu's death. Did Hakuei already knew about their oldest brother? Was she alone right now, just like Hakurin? No, Hakuren was probably with her. Hakuei always had someone at her side, was never alone. Only she, Hakurin, was alone all the time. No one wanted her. Hakuyuu had surely seen her as a burden as well. And she had forced herself onto him, when he was sick. What a horrible sister she had been! Now everything was too late. She could not apologize for her misbehavior. It was her fault that her mother was so sad now. If she hadn't bothered Hakuyuu so much, he had recovered faster and hadn't left the palace – yes, he only left the palace without being fine again, because he wanted to get away from her. It was all her fault! Hakurin hugged her rag doll tighter.
The day Ren Hakuyuu died, was the day the whole palace fell silent.
The day Ren Hakuyuu died, was the day the emperor cried himself to sleep.
The day Ren Hakuyuu died, was day the black king had arrived at the palace.