Dusk And Dawn ✔️

Part 2 :- 'Better' or 'Worse'

Past

Almost two years had passed since the time the boys had started living their lives away from each other. YiJun had become braver and had started venturing out alone more often.

The king had gotten increasingly worried. 'He doesn't seem to want to live anymore. Why does he keep putting himself in danger? What is wrong with him?'

His worries had started eating him up from the inside. He didn't want his son to suffer the same fate as that of his mother. The royal physician had become busier, for the king's health had worsened.

So, instead of Xian's father, who was busy elsewhere, Xian was sent to help the aging physician.

Xian was a good student. His knowledge and skill both had improved by leaps and bounds under the royal physician's guidance over the years. Thus, the physician had requested Xian to assist him during night time as well. And Xian had started spending his nights at the palace once again. Despite this, however, the boys rarely saw each other.

On one such day, having spent the night assisting the physician, Xian had woken up feeling restless. Not only that, during the day, he had zoned out more than once and had made several mistakes while performing his duties as well. So much so that the physician had gotten worried and given Xian the rest of the day off.

As soon as he relieved of his duties, Xian had gone looking for YiJun. For YiJun's presence had always calmed the apprentice down. But when he had gone looking for the prince, he had not found YiJun in his chamber. Disappointed, Xian had retired to bed, thinking that he must be coming down with something.

A couple of hours before dawn, Xian's chest had begun to hurt. He had run towards the King's chamber. No one had stopped him. Everyone knew that the king had a soft spot for him. The apprentice had barged into the King's quarters, and woken him up, despite protests from the royal physician, and blurted out, "Your Majesty, I think something is wrong with Jun!"

The king knew better than to ignore the young boy's words. He had long since know that Xian had a sixth sense when it came to YiJun. He had at once ordered his brother and the royal guards to accompany Xian.

Xian had confidently guided them towards the boundaries of the kingdom, where they had found YiJun single-handedly defend himself against six or seven masked men.

Everyone had run to assist the prince.

Looking at the multiple small cuts all over YiJun's upper body had made Xian feel terrible. 'I should have gotten here sooner.'

Xian was young and unskilled; he knew he could not help. Thus he stood at the sidelines and watched the fight unfold. He wanted to help Jun, but he knew he was useless against swords. So he kept looking around to assess the situation. That is when his eyes had landed on another injured masked man; the man, standing up on shaky legs, had taken out a knife and thrown it at YiJun.

YiJun was busy defending himself against other masked men and had missed the dagger heading straight towards his back. Without any delay or hesitation, Xian had screamed, "Nooooooooooo!" and thrown himself between the oncoming knife and Jun's back, shielding the Prince with his body.

Present

*Lan Mansion*

Shen was pacing around the drawing-room with a confused yet amused look on his face, "Are you serious, YiJun?"