Kingdoms Divided

Chapter 10

Jiban wakes up to a splitting headache, feeling like he is definitely going to vomit. He takes off his shirt which reeks of alcohol. He tries to open his eyes more, but even the slightest light coming in from the curtains is painful enough. He is trying to get up, kicking his way out of the covers, but ends up just laying back down.

    "Rough night?" Lennox asks from across the room, changing his clothes into something that Jiban has in his drawers. "Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you." He comes back over to him and points to his nightstand "There's some water and Hylisil petals for you on the nightstand. Have them."

    Jiban takes no hesitation for him to eat the healing petals and start to sip on the water. It takes a moment for him to come to realize, "Did you stay here last night?" Lennox nods and Jiban quickly checks the sheets.

    "What are you? Oh my stars! No- no- we didn't. Yeah- no.." Lennox feels embarrassed, wondering if Jiban remembers their conversation from the night before. "How much of last night do you remember?"

    "Well, someone bought me a beer, Holland showed up and we had a few shots. After that- complete blur. I remember singing, arm wrestling, and really wanting to go to the river." Jiban jokes as he gathers what he can remember from the night prior.

    "So you don't remember begging me to stay?" Lennox teases.

    "I did not!" Jiban says defensively.

    "Are you sure? Oh Lennox please? I really want to snuggle. Don't leave me here alone. I want cuddles, please oh great King of the Kingdom of Lun please stay with me!" Lennox over exaggerates and Jiban throws a pillow at him, "I might have been drunk, but I know I did not do that!"

    "You didn't." Lennox admits. "Get dressed when you can, you have a big day today." He walks to the door. Jiban throws the comfortorter over his head, "Can't I just have a day off?"

    "If you did that you would miss your inauguration to become a soldier." Lennox says, opening the door and Jiban gets out from under the covers, looking at him with confusion, he did not know what that is. "Oh, and I don't think I've said it yet, but- congrats soldier." Lennox starts to walk out, but turns back. "Oh, and I'll have someone bring up the uniform for you to wear." With those words, Lennox leaves and Jiban begins to contemplate what an inauguration day is, throwing himself back under the cover to hide from the light a little longer.

    Later that evening, Jiban stands in his room. He is all cleaned up and starring at the uniform. He is an official citizen, no longer the eldest Prince of the Northern Kingdom, heir to the throne, but an official soldier for the Kingdom of Lun. He doesn't think this doesn't officially renounce his royal status, but he also does not think there is a rule in place for this as it has never been done before. He tries not to think too much of it, but something still inside him is kicking him as he had been trying to put the uniform on for hours. He goes over to the mirror and looks at himself, remembering moments where he rebelled against his father. One time partying till late and coming into the castle so drunk that the whole kingdom spoke about it for weeks. He was only yelled at. Another time he almost burnt the castle down by trying to impress one of his friends he liked when he was fourteen. He only got the privilege of hanging out with his friends taken away for a few days, which he had to train anyway as his first battle was approaching at that time. He even 'accidentally' shot one of their own knites once in battle because he said something crude about his wife at home, how he loved going away to battle to be away from her and sleep with as many women as he could. Jiban was simply given more training with a bow and told to apologize to the knite.

    Jiban's old kingdom never saw as a good knite, or even a good person at that, let alone a king. The Kingdom of Lun though, they like him. They see how amazing of a soldier he truly is. He walks back over to the uniform where he finally takes it, putting it on, looking at himself in the mirror again. 'Maybe white and silver look better on me then black and gold.' He thinks to himself and fixes every little thing he finds wrong with it. He then fixes his hair like he always does when trying to impress someone or a group, but this time it was for him. "I'm going to throw up." He says, but this wasn't from the alcohol from the night before. He feels anxious, but more than normal. Only feeling worse than this a few other times in his life.