Poison

Chapter 3: I'm Counting On You

tw // death

*****

The brothers were back to reality with Ruggie's scream.

They both chuckled, most likely for different reasons, and stepped closer to their enemy. "Ruggie!" Leona called. "Protect Cheka in any way you can, we'll handle the old bitch!" Ruggie laughed and pulled Cheka into his arms, smiling at Frena as a reassurance. Frena smiled back. "Leona! Language!"

No matter how you looked at it, that was a moment of hope. The brothers bonding after those many years and protecting their home and their people and, of course, avenging their loved ones. They were the two most powerful people Ruggie had ever met. That's why he never imagined things ending up like this.

Frena was dead. He died receiving the attack meant fr Ruggie and Cheka. His bad habits of not thinking when it came to his loved ones finally got the best of him, he didn't notice that Ruggie had already dodged the attack. His body moving on its own. Even Lilian looked shocked at whatever had just happened. She just stood there and watched as Leona rushed to embrace his brother, forgetting to even attack.

Frena smiled at Leona. "I guess you were right, I'm wasn't fit to be the king, huh?" Blood was running down his face and his stomach. Leona didn't even need to look for long to realize most of his lower half was damaged and he wouldn't live no matter what. He looked up at Ruggie who had a familiar look on his face. The face he had when he saw a dying animal or plant; as if he could smell death coming for it. Cold and just sad.

"Take good care of these two and everyone else. Okay?" Frena tried to mess with Leona's hair like when they were children, but he couldn't keep his arms up in the air for long enough. "I'm sorry..." was his last sentence as his arm fell and his soul left his body.

There was no time for mourning or self-pity. There was no time to think. Leona just snapped. He had one objective: KILL. The woman had already died the most painful deaths countless times in his head, he only needed to bring one of them into reality. How dared she mess up everything he had worked hard to obtain? He thought of the places he wanted to visit with Ruggie as he hunted her down in the hallways; he thought of the gifts he wanted to buy Cheka as he grabbed her by her hair; rethought of all the games he wanted to play with Frena as he sliced her throat. He thought of his family, of all the times he didn't say sorry, of all the times he didn't say how much he loved them.

That's why he decided to kill her quickly; because he still had people to protect. Because he didn't want to scare the people who would come to clean the palace, because he wanted to go back to Ruggie as clean as possible and hug him tightly for hours. He didn't need to cry. Or maybe he did. How do you tell? Is it by the way your throat itches and your body feels numb? Or maybe the way you can't see clearly, the way your heart hurts and your chest feels heavy.

The ex princess was dead. The old men's ignorance had led to way too many unnecessary sacrifices, but the people were safe and secure, a true coup d'etat wouldn't be over so easily. Why didn't they realize this? Why was this the first solution when Frena was putting all his efforts into improving the lives of the citizens and do the right thing? What did he have to go? 'This shouldn't have had happened...'

Leona went back to find Ruggie holding a sleeping Cheka in his arms, far away from Frena's corpse. Ruggie noticed Leona approaching and smiled in relief. His smile was all Leona needed to collect his mind. Ruggie's worried and forced smile, Leona had to fix it. He embraced both of them and started breathing into Ruggie's neck, calming himself. He heard the guards getting closer to them. He heard them talking to Ruggie but he couldn't sort out their words. Why couldn't he think? Why Frena and his father's faces wouldn't leave his sight?

"Leona-san, it's okay," Ruggie whispered into his ears like a lullaby. Was he casting a spell on him? Did he do the same thing to Cheka to put him to sleep? Surprisingly, he was okay with that. "Rest for a while. You can become responsible tomorrow."

And those were the last thing Leona heard before falling into absolute darkness.

**********

The guards brought Cheka and Leona into a safe place as Ruggie stayed to make sure everything was okay. First thing, he went to talk to Jack, Jamil, and Silver who had come to see the situation. A literal coup d'etat isn't something you can hide from the public, but those three were the only ones Ruggie could trust to let into the palace. "Sorry to keep you waiting! How's-"

"Ruggie-senpai! What happened?! I came as soon as I could but they didn't let me in!" Jack shouted. Ah, that's right. They told him Jack had been there since before the king's death, but they didn't let him in because he was suspicious. How ridiculous, if Jack was there maybe things would turn out differently. "Calm down. I have to explain it to all of you. Though, Silver-kun, I'm surprised to see you here." He wore a mask of friendliness and pretended this meeting wasn't mostly political. The Asim family and Malleus wanted to know where they stood. Worrying about their friends came second in line.

"Lilia-sama sent me as soon as he sensed some disturbances. Please tell us what happened, I need to get back as soon as possible." Silver said, following it with a yawn. Was he cursed or something?

"It's nothing, really. It was an unsuccessful coup d'etat, more or less. I'm not sure how much I'm allowed to say but I will tell you the most important part. The king, Frena Kingscholar, is dead. We're waiting for Leona-san to regain his energy and decide on what to do. Whatever else you wanna know needs to wait. I'm not really allowed to make decisions and it just happens that I was the only person here who knew what to do and didn't go completely crazy from seeing some dead people. Oh yeah, a lot of those rich bastards are dead too. They attacked everyone's home, including us. But yeah that's mostly it. If you want anything more wait for Leona-san." With that, Ruggie shut his mouth and stared at their shocked faces. Were they surprised because Ruggie said all of that so casually, or because he had handled everything so well despite knowing close to nothing about politics?

Either way, he wished he could take a picture.

"Jack-kun, you can come with me and look after prince Cheka. It's still dangerous." They said goodbye the Jamil and Silver and Ruggie showed Jack where Cheka was. It was almost 3 pm, about the time for Leona to wake up as well.