Out Of The Castle (Soobin X Reader)

23

It had been a long while since Kai saw Soobin disappear behind those doors. He could not have thought of anything better to fix the health of the king.

Kai knew that Soobin regarded the queen as his one and only love so it stands to reason that he would fall ill with her, whether it was out of sympathy or grief. He had been friends with the King since they were children and never once had he seen Soobin so sickly and unmotivated.

Kai's worry was immeasurable. Whilst he found himself often annoyed with the King, he would do anything for him. Even if it meant standing in front of the group of angered knights that stood before him to try and explain why there was no war.

"You see, the prince of the West declared war with much haste. He thought not about the repercussions of his actions," Kai attempted to explain, only to be interrupted by the knights.

"What reason did he have to declare war? What reason demanded so much haste?"

"Well... you see..." Kai hesitated, formulating his answer. "When our Queen was first betrothed to his majesty-"

"So it was that wench's fault," one of the knights mumbled.

Kai felt his mind freeze in anger. His entire body tensed and he clenched his jaw. He was the messenger of the king after all. He had to deliver the will of the king. Kai was sure to keep that in mind when he gave his response. He was sure it was exactly what the king would have said if he had heard the foul words spoken towards his wife.

  "One more word like that and your head will be in a basket," he growled through gritted teeth.

  Kai was never able to take control of the knights even though he spent a great deal of his time training them. They always treated him as a child. Yet there they stood, like canines with their tails between their legs. Every mouth clamped shut, every muscle tensed under their metal armour.

  "Have you no respect for your queen? The woman who took a dagger to the back for peace? Even if you were blind to this action, her status alone demands your respect. Must you all be trained as pages once more to learn such basic concepts?" Taehyun asked from the sidelines, quirking his brow at the confused knights.

  Kai had met Taehyun before in the castle and after verifying his identity, the two spoke as Kai went about his work. Taehyun's presence demanded respect. He was very strong and lean. Taehyun told him that back in his kingdom, he trained with the knights, for his father had assigned him this duty to prepare him to become king, although that did not pan out well.

  "Might I ask who you are?" Sir Jeon asked, stepping forward.

  "He is Sir Taehyun of the North and from now on, he will be training you," Kai informed them, having to make a conscious effort to not call him 'Prince'.

  "The North was not our ally. Why would they send someone to aid our knights?" Sir Jeon questioned. He stepped towards Kai in a challenging manner. It did not seem very challenging to Kai as he watched Sir Jeon look up to him.

  "Sir Taehyun is someone who chose to leave the North after their allegiance was declared. You are to treat him with the respect of any citizen of the East," Kai told them. "Now, as I was saying... our queen was allegedly betrothed to Prince Beomgyu and her father assumed my lord's proposal to be from him. However, there was no proposal made for such affair to take place. Prince Beomgyu must have realized the repercussions of his actions, the lives that would have been lost, all for something that he never had any claim to in the beginning, and he turned back. Before leaving, he stabbed our Queen. Our King wishes to remain neutral, however he still bears ill will towards Prince Beomgyu. That being said, our King will never act on this ill will unless absolutely necessary. You are to remain active and train as best as you can. Another emergency may come and your time for action may come with it. That is all I have to say. Good evening."

  With that, Kai left the knights in the capable hands of Taehyun. He moved through the castle swiftly to the door of the apothecary's room, behind which sat the King and Queen.

Kai knocked gently and he received a whisper of a response. He opened the doors and was greeted with the King laying uncomfortably, sitting on a chair, his head and torso splayed over the feet of the Queen, fully asleep. He furrowed his brows in confusion, wondering who responded to him if not the king. His eyes drifted to to sickly pale face of the Queen, looking less sickly and less pale than when he was last able to see her. Most important of all, she was awake. Her eyes were fully open and she was certainly in pain, but anyone would be after taking a dagger to the stomach.

"My lady!" He gasped. Immediately he was shushed by the queen and her hush was quickly replaced with a hiss of pain.

"I do not have the heart to wake him," she whispered to Kai, gesturing to Soobin who slept soundly for the first time in a long while.

"Shall I call the apothecary for you?" Kai whispered lowly.

"No, you need not," she told him with a gentle smile. "I shall wait for him to awaken before I see an apothecary."

"I suppose I shall leave you two," Kai smiled back, relieved that she was awake.

The queen watched as he inched out of the room quietly, bowing before exiting and closing the door quietly.

The Queen allowed herself to melt into the bed again, her hand gently falling to Soobin's head, running her fingers through his hair.

The wound in her back pulsed and ached, yet as she laid their, unable to move or do much for herself at the moment, she was glad that she took that dagger and she knew she would do it again to stop a war.

The peace that she was experiencing in that moment made it all worth it. The quiet and the ability to lounge around in a room, gently running her hands through the hair of her living breathing husband was all worth it. It brought a gentle smile to her face. She could not wait for the day when she would not be confined to this room.

  She felt her legs grow tingly after a long while of sitting like this. As much as she tried to stay there and allow Soobin to sleep, the discomfort in her legs grew to be too much. She knew she must move them before they went completely numb. She started with wiggling her toes gently, then tensing her calves, then bending her knees.

  As soon as she tried to move her knees, the prince stirred and awoke slowly. He took a long deep breath before sitting up and stretching, first looking out the window, then looking to his wife, then looking out the window and quickly back to his wife.

  "You're awake!" His smile grew and relief spread throughout his chest. He wanted to shout in pure joy and dance around the room. He wanted to pull her into the tightest hug and pick her up and spin her around the room. He knew if he did that, he would risk hurting her, so instead, he pulled her into a gentle hug that eventually got more and more firm, avoiding her wound. When he let go, he grabbed her hand, holding as tightly as he could without hurting her. He could not even begin to explain how euphoric it felt to have her squeeze his hand back.

  To see her smile and to see the colour return to her face as she looked at him. He was lost for words. How could he explain the grief he was in after seeing her nearly die? How could he explain how horrible it felt to wait without knowing anything? How could he explain the way he'd let himself fall into ruin? It was simple. He couldn't. Instead, he simply brought her knuckles closer and placed a gentle kiss on them, treasuring this moment.

  "You seem gaunt," the Queen began. "You should call the apothecary. And perhaps we may have a meal together. I'm positively famished."

  "Of course, Def-Idelis," he hummed, standing. As he went to leave, he felt his hand tugging on hers. He truly didn't want to let go. He wished to sit here with her until the end of time.

  "You can let go Soobin," she told him. Her statement was met with a nervous and indifferent reaction. She responded with a gentle laugh. "I promise, Def-Idelis. I will be right here when you return, and I will be wide awake."