PENUMBRA // Tamaki Amajiki x Reader Royal AU

Chapter 29

"Now we really need to be getting you back to your room." I grabbed Tamaki's shoulder and suddenly we were in the tower.

"Don't you want us to run away together and end the war?"

"This is not the time for jokes, we both know that could not really happen, I will be back for you in the morning."

"Where are you going?"

"I guess you could say I have found my purpose. I am going to scope out the damage, help anyone I can, if they care about who I am so much even in the face of death then... I guess that is their own fault."

"B-but it's dangerous..." he seemed to regret his obvious words and rethought his next sentence, "be careful."

"I will." We nodded to each other and I left, teleporting to whereabouts the explosion seemed to be.

It must have been a warning shot because I appeared to be in the middle of nowhere. The explosion had created a small opening but beyond that the forest stretched for miles, I was not sure where the explosion came from. I could not sense any life forms in the vicinity at all.

Fire spread up a couple of trees but it did not seem too dangerous, most definitely it would put itself out but I gave it a little help dwindling down anyways. Since I had found a spot to teleport to, isolated from civilisation, I decided it best to camp out there for the night, my brain would be able to focus better on solutions with a full night's sleep anyway and it did not look like any more shots were coming.

Sending a warning shot at night was a good call because it meant everyone in the kingdom would see it, and surely there would be people in the next kingdom over too who would see it. I magicked my bed from the sleeping quarters I stayed in when I went back home, assuming nobody would have been using them.

Laying down, I cast my thoughts back to the conversation I overheard the monks having, about if the Helios kingdom would side with us. That was almost definitely about the war, which made me wonder if the king's visit to the Helios kingdom a while back was about this very war. I wondered if the king of Helios was going to ally with king Amijiki, or at least aid him in the coming weeks. The last word made me sigh when I could only assume it would be a few weeks, there was only so much input I could provide with my current predicament and from what the history books told me, wars took years.

For a minute my mind wandered back to the rebel meeting I witnessed; their plan was to blow the king up with dynamite, what if they were the ones behind this explosion, but that thought quickly perished as they were only a band of rebels, this attack would have used up most of the dynamite I saw in that cave as well as with their goal there was no reason to make a move like this one - no this was definitely the actions of some kind of army.

Then I thought about what Tamaki said, about the king using the war as an opportunity to 'dispose of him'. There was no doubt that king Amijiki would do such a thing, it was only a matter of time. I trusted him not to murder him straight away but Tamaki could have been in serious danger and I needed to plan an escape or hope that I could end the war before things went that far.

Trying to dispel any worry so I could get some adequate rest, I slept with one eye open that night.

-

"How long do you think it will be before they decide to actually attack?" Tamaki and I were sat on his bed after I filled him in on what happened, he told me how a servant visited him at one point in the night, checking under the bed and then leaving without saying a word.

"I am not sure, though I doubt it will be long now," I kept glancing at the door, "Tamaki, we need to talk about what to do if the king comes for you, I will not always be here so setting some sort of escape plan in place is ideal."

"If he kills me then it will be by his bidding, I will not go against that. The king is right... I deserve to die."

I feared he would be like this, it was not the end of everything but it meant I had to work harder to keep the prince alive by watching over him more and putting more precautions in place, "I'm not letting you die! If by chance you change your mind, I am leaving a rope outside your window for now. I do have a more solid escape route in mind but it might take time to execute so this will have to do."

"So what do we do now... I mean do we just pretend like we aren't on the brink of war, practice fighting again?" Tamaki was still keeping the distance between us but his body language was less guarded.

"I wish we could but we cannot risk it anymore, not when someone could walk in any minute now. When it was only once every two weeks it was fine but now you will probably be visited more spontaneously for whatever reason."

"Will we get to keep seeing each other?"

Resting my head on the bed post, I gazed at the prince in front of me. Maybe we were in another world and we were different people, I would jump across the bed and encapsulate Tamaki in a giant hug, maybe even going as far as to kiss him on the cheek after showering him with praise a reassurance. But this was not another world and we were not different people so the best I could do was muster up a, "we will see."

Not long after, I left the tower heading to the outskirts of each district to see if I could eavesdrop on any conversation which gave away information on the war, it would have been useful to know how much the people were caught up on or what the rumours were that were circulating around.

The best I could do was cast a silencing spell over me since sneaking around had never really been my forte, no one spotted me, though if they did I supposed it would not have made much of a difference since they already knew about me.

All I heard in district one was talk about the explosion, they were the highest district on the mountain so they got the same view of it as Tamaki and I. Some wondered what it meant, some wondered if it was a fight between other kingdoms and some wondered if it meant a war was brewing.

Everyone kept their heads down and were being eerily quiet in district two.

In district three there was speculation about the explosion, with few people having actually witnessed it, most just spreading the information given to them by word of mouth. About half of them did not believe there was an explosion, a couple of them who did spoke about there being a war. There was also talk of the magic user who was spotted again in district two. They said the idea was terrifying and children should be kept indoors.

It seemed no one in four knew about the explosion and all talk was on me, I was extremely grateful to not have seen mrs Toyomitsu, I did not know if I could have dealt with that.

After deciding that this would have to be a daily routine for the next couple of weeks at least, I headed back to the tower to update Tamaki.

"It won't be long before word gets to district four."

"No I suppose not," I excluded the talk I heard about myself, "do you know if the Helios kingdom would side with the Amijiki kingdom in the war?"

"I don't think so, if the king was the oldest maybe his brother would help him but he's not."

"Right, well do you think he would aid his brother in anyway?"

"I'm not sure."

"Okay then, remember when we pulled a prank on your cousins? I will use that same magic again to see if the Helios king says anything that could be useful to us." I slowly reached out a hand, "I need to touch you again so I can reach him, the whole same DNA thing, you know how it goes."

He believed my lie and let me place a hand on his shoulder. Drawing a circle in the air, suddenly the king of the Helios kingdom was before us walking down a corridor.

"I wonder if he is going to a war meeting..."

Before Tamaki had time to reply, the king entered his bedchambers where a woman without much clothing on was waiting for him. I cut off the connection immediately.

"Umm..."

"I forgot why I rarely ever use that spell."