『Schadenfreude』▷ jaesahi。

s u n

"Take me to see him."

"Pardon me, my lord, but I have not confir—"

"You shall take me to see him, or I shall have your head," Yoshinori's voice echoed bitingly cold. Even with knowledge that here were no swords to slit his neck, Haruto was curbed to a stone statue upon the pressure of solely the way to the other stood.

"Need I reiterate my words, or will you, lowly one, do as this royal says?"

A threat not, but a warn it was. Yoshinori's eyes were like umber-colored steel, commanding, demanding like none had ever been. Despite the dearth of blades in the place where they stood, Haruto was aware that his lord's words were not barren; perhaps have his head not, but pierce his heart rather.

He was but a quondam knight, a veteran of war who held not a withe to a royal vampire. He could not rival a man whose eyes were of the devil's, neither could he dare disrespect his sworn master. Prudently, he kneeled on one and placed his hand upon  his unfeeling heart, head lowered to the man once destined to be king.

"This lowly one dares beg the crown prince," he murmured, treading carefully. "This lowly one must first confirm, for the safety of his highness."

"You dare say I cannot keep myself from harm?"

"Dare not, your highness," he spoke again, and at once his face near touched his knee for he had bowed his head down far too low. "This lowly one simply does not desire for his highness to be troubled, so he wishes for his highness to give him morrow, just one day."

"Impudent," the other spat. "To utter our fatherland's language in front of this royal, outside the kingdom, must I say more of this crime that you are committing?"

With heart of no emotions, Haruto was not fazed.

"Your Highness is committing the same crime as we speak. This lowly one may receive naught of punishment when a royal one does also not."

The other halted completely, anger coiling back into the depths of his pupils and dissipating like a thin wisp of smoke; gone into the void where none was left. It was a bout of anger which caused him to respond unwittingly with their mother tongue, unable to notice that he too had perpetrated such things.

He paused, gazing onto Haruto's blank eyes— now he had up and raised his head, and Yoshinori's authority crumbled into what was truly him, reverting back into what was now his supposed native language.

"Wait a second," he all but hissed. "What did you just say?"

Haruto didn't dally. "Whatever could you mean?"

"You can't fool me," Yoshinori inched closer, eyes narrowing like a tiger that glared at its prey. "You said we, in mother tongue. Not wit?"

"I did no such thing."

"You even raised your head without asking for permission! This is disrespect to your master and the crown prince—"

"You must be tired, my lord," Haruto was quick to stand, and before the other could begin to gasp about how he again did not seek proper sanction to leave his locus, hasted to speak again. "You're clearly hallucinating. Please take a rest."

The emotionless knight placed two hands and pressed them against the crown prince's back, pushing the latter to where his quarters were located. Yoshinori protested, floundering around to escape his clutches but was hampered by the strength and swift of Haruto as he was thrust to his room with all the levels of irreverence that had his mouth ajar with flabbergast.

He remained staring at the door that had been shut close by his friend— and servant, mind the disrespect that he had been insufferably given— with eyes wide as the plates that Haruto was now off to clean.

We, not wit, he could barely consider the fact that he had been empurpled with fury and thence had flaunted his tyrannical aura, and yet Haruto simply spoke and acted so impolitely. He bore no grudges but was merely vexed, why was it that the other was not affected by his presence?

It must have been his curse that let him be free of fear that would have creeped into the hearts of all upon the attendance of such a venerated man. Impressive, it seemed. To be so strong of a curse so that even fear was not allowed.

Still!

"You think I'll just take it like that, Daemon!?" Yoshinori yelled. "Come back here! I'll drill it to you that when speaking to a royal you can't use an informal word!"

"I'm washing the dishes. Kindly shut up, my lord!"

Yoshinori froze.

Ah, the disrespect.

After six hundred and seventy years of living as a royalty, even twenty one years of being a normal human was not enough to draw out the etiquette that had been implanted in Yoshinori's soul. Maybe it was due to their being human that Haruto could now utter such words towards him, but still he could not bear it, feeling as though the world had crashed upon him.

Dolefully, Yoshinori could only slump on his bed and grudgingly slip into unconsciousness.

-----

A man with a name blessed by the heavens, disgrace to their blood and undeserving of praise.

But he shall stand above all one day; transcending he who claims worthy.

That is what it means to be the Man of the Sun.

– page 20, line 21:22:24
· Alkehla's Journal ·

-----

Short chapter, sorry.

*We and wit
— we is modern, wit (we two) is Old English. In the vampiric language there are two different ways to say we: one formal and the other informal. Since there's no such thing in English so I just used we and wit to differentiate.