PENUMBRA // Tamaki Amajiki x Reader Royal AU

Chapter 6

TW: Depictions of self harm & suicidal behaviour

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"The prince and his curse is the bane of my existence." The king began pacing up and down the room crowded with books, "He cannot be fed because every time he eats, the food manifests on his body but on a huge scale, and he uses it as a weapon. Every single time we provided food for him as a child, one of my men had to die. So we locked him in the tower and leave the food outside his door now."

I do not think the king meant for me to hear when he muttered under his breath, "It really is a pity we have to keep him alive."

"So... It is a curse to do with food?" I had to be honest, I had never heard of anything like this and did not completely understand what the king was saying, although I had very little experience in this field I should have thought I would understand something about this. "The food is not the problem, it is the prince that is the problem." as someone who learns best through practice, I realized listening to the king would not be much help, "May I ask some more questions, your majesty?"

"You may, but make haste, I have royal duties to attend to." I did not think he would be able to answer all my questions which would just leave me with more confusion, "Have you spent any time studying his curse?"

"Studying? Heavens no, we would not get any good out of that."

I gritted my teeth. That just made my job a whole lot harder than it had to be, "Have you noticed at all how long it takes for the food to... 'manifest' on him?"

"It is instantaneous. Now I hope that is all because I need to be leaving," He headed over to the door, "The maid outside will take you back to your bedchambers." in a confused state, I interjected, "Bedchambers? I was under the assumption that I would be escorted straight back to the prince's quarters so I can continue with my attempts at fixing him?" The King scoffed at my assumption, "No, you are permitted to see him once per day and since you have already visited him today, you will have to wait tomorrow until you can see him. I will take no interjections to that and there is not getting around it."

"Yes, your majesty. Goodbye, your majesty." We both left the quaint library and headed in opposite directions: him in the direction of his royal court most likely, and me being escorted by a maid that failed to look me in the eyes, to my bedchambers.

This was going to take longer than I thought.

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"Please go away." the prince was in the same sorrowful state as I left him yesterday, and still refusing to accept my help. "I know more about your curse now, no thanks to you. The king was kind enough to describe your curse to me briefly, and I now need to study you to further understand it - only then could I ever have hope of fixing you." I tried using a softer tone today, one that would hopefully lull the prince into a sense of trust and he would be more prone to indulging me.

"Here." I held out a small loaf in my hand that I just made appear, "have some bread." He did not move, he did not even shift, "I implore you to eat something, it would greatly help the both of us." This prompted him to start shaking again. "I'll hurt someone." He grabbed his arm again.

I rolled my eyes and began pacing the room, "I simply cannot believe you have so little faith in me as one of, if not the strongest sorcerers in the world," embarrassingly, I had to stop for a breath, "I do not care how scary you think your little curse is, I assure you, I cannot be injured so easily." I marched over to him, "Do not toy with me, I can force you to eat this. I am fixing you, whether you like it or not! I..."

As I edged closer, I realised what he was doing and my blood ran cold. He was dragging his nails into his flesh, hot red liquid oozed from his skin and painted ivory a sickening crimson. "Please, just get it over with. End it already."