The Kingmaker

The Fraud Prince

 With knives I lament

Humanity's dark descent

Red hues, world's torment  

"If you do care, you will close Kawa for good once you've become the king."

Taiga nods at Akemi before returning his attention to the map sprawled on the rickety table. His eye flits from point to point, scanning every potential area, attempting to determine the most likely path to take for their mission. It's not much of a map, to begin with—a few crude scribbles and scratches on the side but still...

Four days. It has been four days and three nights since they started hunting for those bandits. For those criminals who have murdered their people. Days of searching, following their tracks, and discovering their bodies scattered across the forest floor.

So far, they have only had one, but it doesn't count since the man immediately bit his tongue off and died in the process. Whoever their ringleader is, he sure has planted in their minds that it is better to die than to be caught.

 "Are you even listening to me?" Akemi stands before him, silhouetted against the merciless sun. Her usually perfect eyebrows are now slick with sweat, droplets dripping down her face. She blinks furiously, trying to clear her vision, but the relentless heat persists. With a huff of frustration, Akemi wipes her face with her long sleeves, heedless of the priceless fabric. Her raven hair, normally bound in intricate coils, now hangs in wild disarray, framing a face etched with worry as her eyes dart about, scanning for possible threats.

Taiga heaves a sigh, rolling the map and then handing it to a servant. "Yes. I can do multiple things at once." The corners of his lips tug upward, and yet there is no amusement in his eye. He knows. He doesn't have to see his reflection. He's not a gloomy person, unlike his sworn brother, Tatsuya, but he is, as they say, graceless. Even the cursed prince had been charismatic, is what they say behind him. It irritates him deeply because they have never met his cousin.

Ironic, if he thinks of it. When Daiki was in the Palace, nobody dared to look him in the eye. Now that he is no longer here, those who have never seen him think he could be better.

 If only Taiga knew how to smile. Oh, he can form the shape with his lips, but every time he does, the burnt part of his face—the gaunt, twisted flesh—seems to mock him with its deep fissures. It seems everyone looks their best when they smile, even the toothless crones who do nothing but laugh. Everyone but him. It is why he now hides half of his face behind a mask, a barrier between his disfigurement and the world's judgement.

Akemi opens her mouth. She closes it again and then shakes her head. "I don't even know why I am here."

"You should take a rest," he agrees, not because he does not want her to be here. In fact, her presence can be comforting. These days, however, she is becoming harder to read, and harder to predict. It's all right. It is what happens to every woman, as they say.

"You don't have to worry," he says, trying to be as gentle as he can. "We will discuss Kawa...after I am done with the bandits. I can only handle one thing at a time."

"And yet you said you could do multiple things at once."

"I...yes, I did say that. But I'd like to believe that you do know exactly what I meant."

Thousands of protests spiral in her eyes. She does not say them. She also does not hide them as she lifts her chin and turns her back, leaving him with his duty.

Smiling to himself, Taiga gestures to the servant, asking for the map again. Deep inside, he is worried that they might be lost, and he is leading them all to nothing. He wishes the god who had once visited his dream were here to comfort him. For some reason, that was the only time he had felt sure about himself.