Hearing his friend's long-winded remark, Drayce ignored him as usual.
The young king walked towards where his sword was placed, and without hesitation, he drew a wound on his arm. Blood immediately spilled out.
"Dray!" However, Arlan's yell came too late as Drayce had already taken a pill.
The two watched with bated breaths as the long wound healed at a rate visible to the naked eyes. After a minute, the sword cut had become a faint scar several years old. Drayce returned his attention to? Dusk and approached the bird to caress his head. "You did well. This healing pill has no negative effects on the body. I will give it to her."
Dusk rubbed his head back as if he was happy with what his master said.
"How?" Arlan interrupted the show of affection between the master and his pet. "You forget, she is of royal blood. I doubt if her family or the royal physician here will believe you blindly and permit you to give it to her. They will have to verify its effects and even despite that, they may not agree."
"Who needs their permission?" Drayce said as he pulled the silk threads of the pouch's opening to close it.
"Besides, how are you going to give it to a lady who is still unconscious?" Arlan asked. "And we do not even know if it can help. Unlike Slayer, the Third Princess is not physically injured."
Drayce glared at him.
Seeing that glare, Arlan could only sigh. "Well, you did say it has no negative effects so it will not harm her even if it does not help her wake up. But, if by some miracle that pill does wake her up, try not to startle the Third Princess too much. She is a lady who has not seen the outside world, and you are but a stranger. Sorry to say, you look scary especially with your glare. I do not wish to personally experience her scream that has the power to shatter this palace, and I bet the palace people would appreciate that too."
"Are you done nagging?" Drayce asked with a dark expression.
Arlan diverted the question with another question. "Will you sneak in again?"
"Have no other way," Drayce replied as he continued caressing Dusk's head, which the bird obviously liked a lot. It was his reward for bringing this medicine to his master.
Arlan watched the two's interaction with amusement. Drayce was someone who rarely showed concern or affection for others, but lately, Arlan noticed that his friend had less control over his emotions than usual. "Why do you care for the Third Princess too much?"
"Not sure," Drayce answered as he looked deep in thought.
"Is it because her condition reminds you of the bad days of your childhood?" Arlan asked as the air around them suddenly turned serious.
"Might be," Drayce replied.
"That means there is more," Arlan concluded, not getting the definite answer from his friend.
There was no reply from Drayce as he kept caressing Dusk's head, but it was clear that his mind was lost somewhere.
Arlan sighed, "You won't tell me."
"I will once I am sure of it," Drayce finally spoke up.
Arlan understood there was something that troubled Drayce.
"How are you planning to give it to her?" Arlan asked.
"During the next turn for her to take medicines from the physician," Drayce replied.
"And how will you know it?" Arlan asked, and Drayce gave him a strange look for asking such an obvious question.
"Understood—" Arlan said, only to hear Drayse cut him off, "We have a guest here."
It didn't take much time for Arlan to understand what Drayce meant, and he looked at the door of the bedchamber.
They heard a knock and one of Drayce's knights entered his chamber to inform the young king. "Your Majesty, the King of Abetha and the? Crown Prince of Abetha wish to speak privately with you. Shall I let them in?"
Drayce nodded lightly, approving him to let King Armen and Prince Cian enter his bedchamber.
When the royals of Abetha entered, Arlan paid his respects to the older king while Drayce nodded lightly to welcome them. Cian stood quietly beside his father, carrying the same indifferent expression from the previous night when he came across Drayce.
"I hope King Drayce and Prince Arlan are comfortable with our arrangements," King Armen said as he stood facing Drayce and Arlan. "Do inform the servants if there is anything you find lacking."
Drayce simply nodded lightly while Arlan spoke politely, "We are grateful for Abetha's hospitality, Your Majesty."
"Previously, I couldn't properly thank King Drayce for getting the Third Princess out of that tower. Thanks to you, we were able to reach my daughter when we otherwise were powerless to help her on our own. I feel like no matter how I show my gratitude, it will never be enough. Though it does not mean much, I would like to invite King Drayce to dine with me," he spoke in a civil manner before? looking at Arlan, "And of course, Prince Arlan as well for his great contribution to Prince Cian's rescue mission."
"We will be there," Drayce agreed.
After exchanging a few more casual words, King Armen and Cian left.
"Seems like Prince Cian is not that fond of you," Arlan commented.
"You can keep his fondness for yourself," Drayce replied nonchalantly.
After nagging his friend for a while, Arlan also left to deal with his own unfinished business. After all, even though he was away from Griven, that did not mean its crown prince had no work to do and was free to play around.
With Arlan leaving him to his own devices, Drayce finally had the chance to do some work related to his kingdom as well. In fact, as the king and main decision maker of a kingdom that was about twice the size of Griven, he was much busier than his nosy friend.
In the middle of working, he heard something from the chamber next door, and he put down the missive scroll that he was supposed to read next.
The next moment, there was a loud flutter of curtains, and Drayce was nowhere to be seen. The same way, the curtains inside Seren's room fluttered just like the previous night, but the two busy nurses ignored again, thinking it's just a strong gust of wind.
A strange power enveloped the room.
The atmosphere inside the room turned still, as if time had stopped. The nurses who were preparing medicines for the princess looked like perfectly-sculpted statues. Even the fluttering curtains stopped moving mid-air, akin to a scene caught in a painting.
Everything was frozen, aside from Drayce who pulled out a violet silk pouch and picked up one tiny blue medicine pill from it. He went to where those nurses were mixing the medicinal herbs into one tiny container and dropped that pill in the mix.In no time, the blue medicine pill got absorbed into the liquid, melting into nothingness.
Drayce then went to approach Seren's bed. Standing by her bed while shifting the netted curtains to one side to look at her, Drayce observed her sleeping face carefully. Though her face was half-covered, he could still see that she looked better than the previous night.
Everything inside the bedchamber was frozen due to his power, but Drayce could see that his power had no effect on Seren. He could observe the small movement of her chest as she breathed.
'Of course, you are not an ordinary human.'
Drayce sat at the edge of the bed and reached out to touch that red mark on Seren's forehead. He could see the light emitting from that red mark once his fingertips touched it. "Seems like this one is to protect you."
His hand moved to the veil on her face. It wasn't that he wished to remove it, but he wanted to confirm the strange energy coming from it. His red eyes could see some energy lingering around it, and it was a power that did not belong to a human.
"Seems like there are a lot of things that are protecting you," Drayce said as he murmured, "Even I can't stop myself from wanting to protect you. When I have decided to live more like a human, you make me use my powers all the time. It seems like you will be the reason I might break my promise, and I will go back on my words for the first time."
Drayce stood up as he said his final words, "I hope that when I come in front of you next time, you won't forget to thank me properly."
With a small smile lingering on his lips, there was again another strong flutter of curtains, and then everything inside the room returned to normal.
The two nurses returned to their senses and looked at each other, feeling puzzled as if they felt something strange but didn't know what it was. The two thought it was their imagination and ignored it as they resumed their work.
After a while, they had finished preparing the bowl of medicine for the Third Princess. One of them reached out towards the face of the unconscious patient, ready to feed her the newly-made medicine.
Though the entire world was scared of Seren, calling her a witch, the Head Royal Physician was aware that Seren was harmless and had taught the same to his two female subordinates, therefore they were not afraid of touching her.
They knew that the veil was enchanted. Its main purpose was to block the people's vision from seeing Seren's entire face, allowing no one to take it off from her as if it had its own life and mind which could understand what was going around.
When the nurses touched the veil for the first time, it allowed them to touch it and let them move it up a little so they could feed medicine to Seren. By now, the nurses already got used to it, and they knew what to do.