Sorry for the long wait. But I had to deal with some issues like bad health, final exam and then fearing not to pass, while looking for a new job and yeah I am also busy with a bunch of Hakuryuu One Shots. However I got a lot of inspiration and motivation, so this chapter more or less wrote itself.

Honestly I wanted to have Hakurin and the black king to interact, but this has to wait until the next chapter. (I love Hakurin and the black king's interaction and I hope you will love it too)

I hope you will like this chapter. Please leave a review after reading, your honest opinion is very much appreciated.

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The next morning started earlier than usual for everyone. Not because there was a lot to do, but because no one could sleep anymore. The night had not been restful for most. Hakutoku had barely slept and was lying wide awake in his bed next to his wife, who woke up over and over again just to cry herself into sleep again. There was nothing he could do besides holding her hand and tenderly stroking through her hair. It did not help much, but it was better than nothing, right? The only person that slept in was the newly arrived guest. No one minded this, because no one had the nerve to take care of the guest. Hakutoku wanted to stay in bed with his wife all day, but knew he had to get out soon to take care of his work – of course his work would not run away, but it also would not get fewer. The servants on the other hand were unsure what to do. All of them had their assigned duties and they did not want to neglect those duties. So who should serve the guest? Someone had to make a decision. On the other hand, with Hakuyuu's death no one thought much about the "black king" and therefore no one made a decision.

Differently than her parents Hakurin left her bed already. She felt horrible and she still made herself responsible for Hakuyuu's condition – which was beyond stupid, because there was absolutely nothing she had done wrong. Hakuyuu was an adult, if he had been annoyed by her, he could have said something, but he did not. And it had not been her, who caused Hakuyuu to get this strange illness. It was the illness that cause Hakuyuu's death, not her. Yet she refused to see this and thought it was her fault. Maybe because she often had been told that it was her fault when something bad had happened. Her father got late to a meeting? It was her fault, because she had bothered him with her questions. Her father was an important and busy man, so he had no time to play with her or listen to her childish stories. Hakuren or Hakuyuu got hurt on the battlefield? Her fault, because she had kept her brothers away from training with her constant begging to play with her until those two gave in. And it was also her fault when Gyokuen did not feel well, because she was such a troublesome child. If she listened to her mother, Gyokuen would not have so much trouble.
All of the above mentioned points were bullshit – it was a wonder that no one made her responsible for Hakuryuu being kidnapped –, but she was a child and believed what the adults said. Probably the saddest about this was the fact that no one spoke up against those ridiculous arguments. Hakutoku was too busy to care about his youngest daughter and therefore barely interacted with her. It was questionable whether he even knew about all this and how she felt. One the other hand, Gyokuen herself told her daughter that she was troublesome and was the reason for her mother to get sick. This however was something everyone knew and still no one told Hakurin otherwise. The servants stayed silent, because they had no right to speak up against the empress, however Hakutoku, Hakuyuu and Hakuren could say something, but did not. The latter two only told her that she was not at fault for them getting hurt, when she asked whether it was her fault and apologized. This was not enough, since it felt more like they only said it to make her feel better and not because it was the truth. Those who said those harmful words were nobles. They said it when Hakurin was on her own or when they thought no one could hear them, Hakurin hear them all and believed them. And now Hakuyuu was dead. He had stayed at home for so long, because he had been sick, and she had bothered him with her stories and her questions and always wanted him to play with her. If she hadn't bothered him, he might not have left the palace or would have healed faster. He could still be alive, if she hadn't bothered him. If she hadn't been so selfish! It was her fault! No doubt!
Since she had nothing to do, Hakurin decided to pay her dead brother a visited. Maybe his death was just a mistake and he was actually fine. Or all of this was just a terrible nightmare. With this hope in mind she left her bed and went into the bathroom to wash herself. After dressing up she left her room together with her plushy, which she hold very tight. The little something – no one could tell what this plushy was supposed to represent, Hakurin said it was a bunny, although it did not look like one at all – had always been at her side and it protected her from bad dreams. Unfortunately it also failed from time to time. Hakurin did not mind it, no one was perfect and she knew her little friend – she call the bunny "Uyu", which probably came from her younger years when she tried to call her big brother Hakuyuu, but ended up with calling him "U" at first, which turned into a "U-u" later on until she finally was able to say "Hakuyuu" – tried his best and would never let her get harmed on purpose. The fantasy of a little girl could be very heart warming.

The palace was a giant place and it was easy to get lost in it. Even people, who lived in here could get lost. Although Hakurin lived here for eight years – so all her live – and still did not knew all of the places in her home. She knew how to get to her family's bedrooms, to the infirmary, the trainings ground, the library, the main garden, the kitchen, the throne room and a few other important places, which she more or less often visited. Yet the palace had to offer even more rooms, like the chambers of the servants and the soldiers – not all soldiers lived in the palace, but those who had guard duty often spent the night there to rest up from their work or get ready for their shift. The night guards soon would switch with their comrades and go home or sleep in the rooms provided by the palace, because their way home was long and they were too tired, especially those soldiers that were from outside of the main city often stayed in the palace. The generals had their home near the palace, but also had their own private rooms inside. They should be able to do their work without much trouble and it was not seldom for the generals to stay overnight, due to all the war meetings. Hakurin was too young to understand all of this and she did not care much anyway. The adults should do whatever they thought was right. All that mattered to her was to know where she was allowed to go to and where not. Since she was a princess there were barely any places she was not allowed to go to. For example she was not allowed to go into the basement or the treasure room. Why she wasn't allowed to go to the basement? Because the storage rooms were there, besides food or old portrays, furniture, toys and other stuff no one need anymore, but were still too good to throw away, weapons were stored there as well. One could ask, why she was not allowed to get into the rooms with the food or the old stuff, but the question was, why should she gone there? If she wanted to eat something she could go into the kitchen or order a servant to bring her something to eat – the food stored in the basement needed to be cook anyway. And why should she care for old stuff? She did not need her old clothes from the time when she was two years old and she did not know the people on the portrays and she had all the furniture that she needed already. It was obvious why she was not allowed into a room filled with weapons.
In the end it was easier to forbid her to go to the basement in general instead of just a few rooms, since no one guarded the basement and therefore no one could control in which room she went. All of this was just for her own safety. There was another storage place for weapons, but it was near the soldier's rooms and therefore was guarded all day, hence she was not able to sneak into said room. Although she also was not interested to do so. A few years ago she had asked her brothers to take her into the weapon storage room and after she had been there, she decided to never get near it again. Weapons were scary! And a whole room filled with them was pure horror. Those things could easily kill her! Just one of them needed to fall down for whatever reason and she might lose a limb or even die! No, she did not want to die or lose a limb! She liked her live and her body! So she stayed away even without the prohibition.
For now she only needed to know where the infirmary was, since she wanted to visit her brother Hakuyuu there – in case he still was there.
Contrary to her decision to go there, her body got her to the trainings ground. Maybe a part of her hoped to find Hakuyuu and Hakuren there or at least Hakuren, so they could go to Hakuyuu together. It was better, if both were on the trainings ground, because this would mean that Hakuyuu was not dead, that he was fine and all had just been a nightmare. Of course, Hakuyuu was not there and neither was Hakuren. Not a single person was on the trainings ground. The soldiers probably were also still asleep or woke up recently. The only people that were awake and already at work were the servants, who were responsible for the breakfast and cleaning – so almost every servant –, and the guards.
Without paying attention to her surrounding she wanted to go to the infirmary for real this time. However, how could it else be, she took the wrong way and ended up somewhere unknown. She realized that she got lost, when she bumped into someone and after apologizing took a look around. The hallway she had ended up in did not look familiar to her, but the person in front of her was familiar. It was Jian. Those two had barley interacted until now, most of the time she only saw him with her brothers, but did not talk to him and the few times they interacted was basically him greeting her and she responding with a greeting. Sometimes he also ask how she was, but that's it. Just small talk. Jian was a nice person, at least she thought that he was. Like Hakuren he was a happy young man, who most of the time had a smile on his face and was kind and nice to the people around him. Also he was a good soldier, Hakurin had heard her brothers praising him a lot. He was definitely better than Kouen, her cousin. Kouen was a scary person, always so stern, almost like Hakuyuu. The difference was just that Hakuyuu looked kind and stern, while Kouen looked scary and stern. To be honest, she was a little bit afraid of her cousin. She knew that he was not a bad guy, but it was still hard for her to approach him or not to back away from him, when they met. Hakurin could not make a judgment reading their fighting skills, but both were praised by her brothers and her father. They were probably both quite skilled. She still liked Jian more.
"Princess? Are you alright? Are you hurt? I am sorry, I haven't paid attention", Jian apologized after he had turned around and saw Hakurin on the ground.
He bend down and offered her his hand to get up on her feet again. Hakurin took his offer and thanked him for his help. He really was a nice person.
"I am fine. What about you? Are you find as well? I am sorry for running into you", she said.
It really had been her fault this time. Jian had stood in the hallway with his back to the direction she was coming from and she had looked on the floor while walking, which was also the reason why she hadn't seen him.
"Yeah, I am fine as well. What are you doing here, princess Hakurin?"
Jian was a friend of her brothers, so she didn't mind it when he called her by her first name. Actually she felt more comfortable this way. Around her parents or guests he would call her by her title, just like he did with Hakuyuu and Hakuren, but right now they were alone.
"I was on my way to Hakuyuu. But now I'm lost. Do you know, how I get to Hakuyuu? And why are you already here?"
Hakurin knew Jian had worked until the late evening yesterday, so she thought he should still be at home and sleep or come to work later. On the other hand, Jian never missed a training session no matter how long he had stayed up the other day. This, of course, also caused problems from time to time. Once he still had been very tired and so he had almost fallen asleep doing training – if Hakuren hadn't watched out Jian might have lost a body part back then. Men were so reckless!
"I will bring you to him, if you want. I was on my way to Hakuren, so it's not a problem to make a little detour", Jian told her with a smile, "I am not already here, but still here. It got a bit late yesterday so I decided to stay overnight. I'll go home after my shift ends today."
Yesterday Jian had been on guarding duties when he heard of the arrival of the "black king". The word "happy" was not strong enough to describe what he had felt back then. Without hesitation he had informed the emperor and Hakuren about their guest, just to get his hopes crushed a few seconds later. When he had left the room, he had run into the physician, who was the lucky one to bring the message of Hakuyuu's death to Hakutoku. The physician had told him about Hakuyuu's death before entering the throne room. It was hard to maintain his composure, but he somehow had managed. Originally he had intended to go back to their guest and take care of him, until the emperor would arrive, but after receiving the sad news he felt so lost and empty. Instead of returning to his assigned guarding position he had sat down in the small garden near the throne room. He had heard how the massive door to the throne room was opened, he had heard footsteps and he had heard Hakutoku calling his son, but was ignored. Then everything had turned silent. His brain refused to accept the newly received information. Had all their work and hopes been for nothing? Was Hakuyuu really dead? But why should the physician lie? If it was a lie, the physician would probably be sentenced to death for this joke.

Hakuren had brought him back to reality later, by touching his shoulder. The second prince had been send away by his father and ordered to bring their guest to his appointed room. It was already late and the "black king" was probably tired after his long journey. So Hakuren took Jian with him. He didn't want to be alone at that time, which was quite understandable. After they had taken their guest to his room, the two aimlessly walked around in the palace hallways until they reached Hakuren's bedroom. Jian had visited the two princes in their private room before, so it was nothing new or special. While Hakuren sat down on his bed, Jian occupied the sofa. Ever since they had met up at the garden, they had not spoken with each other. What should they talk about?
In the end it had been Hakuren, who had broken the silence between them by screaming in his pillow and afterwards complaining about how unfair all of this was. One could only agree with him. Jian had said nothing the whole time, from now and then he had nodded in agreement with Hakuren, but nothing else. Memories of the first night when they were on their way to the newly conquered little village run through his head. Maybe Hakuyuu's uneasiness had been a sign that something was wrong, but he had acted as if it was nothing, just a feeling without a special meaning. Now Hakuyuu was dead and maybe this could have been prevented, if he had taken his friend's feeling more serious. On the other hand, what could he have done? Tell Hakuyuu to go home? Would Hakuyuu have listened? Probably not. Tell Hakuren or another soldier about Hakuyuu's uneasiness? And then what? Hakuren would just worry more and maybe urge Hakuyuu to go home, but in the end Hakuyuu would not have listened as well. And another soldier wouldn't change the outcome too. Still the feeling of responsibility was nagging on him. A part of him knew he wasn't at fault, another part of him blamed himself for the death of his friend. Out of guilt he told Hakuren about said night. Maybe he hoped Hakuren would put the blame on him or at least scream at him. He wanted someone to blame him, to give his feeling of being at fault a reason to exist, to validate it. However, Hakuren did not scream and even less blame his friend and comrade. All he did was looking sad, while clinging to his pillow.
At some point Hakuren had fallen asleep, so Jian had left and wandered around the palace hallway on his own. His mind was occupied by the question, whether he could have done something to prevent Hakuyuu's death or not. Obviously he couldn't find an answer. Since it was already late Jian decided to take one of the provided bedrooms for the soldiers and slept there. His home was quite far away from the palace, because his parents owned a small farm. The area around the palace was not suited for farmers, so his family could not simply move closer to his working place – and his parents were no fans of the royal family.

Like everyone else Jian had a restless sleep and woke up early and just like Hakurin he did not want to stay in bed. So he wanted to pay Hakuren a visit and talk to him. Maybe they could find a way to help Hakuyuu? Alright, this was not only a naïve, but also stupid thought. Who would be able to bring back a dead person? No human! If there was a magic to do so, wouldn't have the priest already told them about it? Well, probably not. Those guy had not even told them that they could use a magic to prevent Hakuyuu from starving to death and they had not said anything about Hakuyuu's sickness, although they claimed to have helped the prince of the story to get better. It was only because Jian had mentioned the possibility of Hakuyuu starving and suggested to ask the priest for help, that they told them that there was a way to prevent this from happening. Those asshole did not care about any of the royal family members and still Koutoku hold them in high regards. Jian did not like the priests and he was not alone with that. Koutoku was seemingly the only one, who liked those creepy people.
"If you go to Hakuren, we can go to him together and then the three of us can visit Hakuyuu. I am sure Hakuyuu would love to have the three of us around. It's more fun!", Hakurin suggested.
"Sure. Let's go."
Hakurin took Jian's hand and together they made their way towards Hakuren's bedroom. To make the way a bit more comfortable, Jian asked Hakurin a few question. Just walking at each other's side in silence was not comfortable. During their conversation Jian also looked around. Somehow he had the feeling someone was following them and he actually sometimes saw one of the priests nearby. It was hard to tell whether it was the same person every time, because one could not see their face. Another reason why he disliked those creeps. Jian preferred it to know who he was interacting with and for that he also needed a face. But those priest neither had a name nor a face. Why was emperor Hakutoku allowing those people to stay inside the palace? Yes, they helped Koutoku to get better, whenever he was sick again, but the doctors of the palace could do that too. Maybe not as fast as the priest, but this was irrelevant, right? As long as Koutoku got well again, it did not matter how long it took? Or better said should not matter. Obviously he disliked the emperor's younger brother as well, which was not surprising, since barely anyone like Koutoku – not even his own children liked him. Birds of a feather flock together, or so they said.