The Temptation
Rangkabhumi looks so confused by the king's words. He knows how the queen died, and there's nothing to do with the dagger the king is holding in his hands.
"No, dying during delivery is not a rare case. You can't say her death was because of that kris. How is that even possible?"
"I don't know! But recently, it keeps taunting me to sacrifice my son too."
"A sacrifice? What the? Is it the devil's temptation? If it's true, you can simply ignore it, can't you? You are The Great Jayantaka. A mere devil can't simply tempt you!"
"It's not that simple."
Prabu Jayantaka takes a deep breath, and then throws that mystical kris to the waterfall.
Soon after that, he looks so weary, and then rushes to find something to hold on. He looks just like someone who has just let go of the most precious thing in his life.
"There! You just threw the kris away! There's no need for you to abandon your child now," utters Rangkabhumi.
"There is no guarantee I will have the strength to fully let it go. That's how strong the devil's temptation is. I could just order everyone in the palace to look for that cursed dagger tomorrow. Who knows? This is the only way. Take the baby with you, away from me, away from this cursed palace."
Seeming to understand the complexity of the situation regarding that cursed kris, Rangkabhumi complies with the king's request.
The king promotes Rangkabhumi to become an army commander to occupy Talang Asri Fortress, the kingdom's outermost fortress in the south. It's just a way to take the kid away from the palace.
And so, Rangkabhumi and Arkadevi leave the palace in the middle of the night by taking the king's child, with one servant as the carriage hackman (a coachee who drives the horse-drawn carriage).
"Before we leave, don't you want to give the baby a name first?"
"Uh? Yes! It's Adanu Raksa. That's the name his mother prepared for him," replies the king. "Never tell him he was the son of the king of Chakradwipa. I'm afraid this kingdom has been cursed. And I don't want him to be cursed along with me."
***
That same night, they leave the royal palace secretly. Bramasti, the hackman, suggests them to take a rest, considering the long journey they are about to take.
But Rangkabhumi is the only one who can truly rest in peace. Arkadewi has to breastfeed Adanu Raksa to stop his crying.
"So, the King assigned you to be his mother from now on?" Bramasti asks.
"You'd better stop talking as if this baby is the king's child. Prabu Jayantaka's decree is very clear, no one must know about this child's true identity," replies Arkadewi coldly, talking without even looking at the hackman.
Bramasti feels so offended, finding that Arkadewi's way of responding to him is a form of arrogance. In his eyes, Arkadewi is only a servant in the palace, not a noble.
Despite that, he can't stop admiring Arkadewi's beautiful face which is hit by the dim light of the resin lamp. He keeps secretly glancing back at her, even moving his sight to the beautiful arc in her breast.
This hackman is actually quite close with Rangkabhumi, but he never knows that Arkadewi's status is already Rangkabhumi's wife at the moment. So he keeps admiring her like there's nothing wrong with it.
At least this situation lasts until the next morning, before he needs to stop to give his two horses some water. Before going to the river, he finds Rangkabhumi chatting while teasing Adanu Raksa in Arkadewi's lap. There his jealousy begins to grow.
"That damn Rangkabhumi! With his status, he could just marry any noble woman in the palace. Can't he just leave that maid alone?" he whines.
When he is fetching water from the river, he accidentally finds a kris at the bottom of the shallow river.
He approaches, and to his surprise, the kris is none other than Prabu Jayantaka's royal dagger.
"No way. It's really Prabu Jayantaka's royal dagger," he mumbles with a disbelieving face.
He rushes intending to inform Rangkabhumi. But then, after he finds Rangkabhumi being so close with Arkadewi, that intention suddenly vanishes.
All in his mind and heart is full with jealousy, starting to be busy thinking of a way to get Arkadewi from Rangkabhumi.
<< You want her, don't you? Admit it, you want that woman? >>
Bramasti is a bit shocked to hear that voice, a voice from someone else, but it is so similar to his own voice talking directly in his mind. He looks around, but there's no one nearby.
"What was that?"
He begins to doubt his sanity, until he slowly averts his attention to that cursed kris. Whatever comes into his mind, he cancels his intention to inform Rangkabhumi regarding the King's royal dagger, and keeps it to himself.
Since then, he keeps it a secret, both about the kris, and also about his desire and love toward Arkadewi. It lasts quite long for years, even after he becomes Rangkabhumi's confidant at the border fortress.
Even after knowing so well that Rangkabhumi has been living together with Arkadewi at Talang Asri village, he still keeps his longing for that woman. It's not rare that he pays her a visit while Rangkabhumi is busy with his duty at the fortress.
Meanwhile, Adanu Raksa has reached 5 years old, growing normally like any peasant's child, with Bramasti acting like a master trying to teach the kid sword fighting.
"Hohoo, good going Adanu Raksa. You really have what it takes to be a great warrior just like your father," he compliments.
"Yeah! One day, I want to be just like my father, the hero and the great general of Talang Asri," replies Adanu Raksa naively.
Bramasti turns silent for a moment, realizing that Adanu Raksa is actually the son of Prabu Jayantaka.
Somehow, he begins to think about securing the good side of this kid. Who knows it will benefit him later, when the kid reclaims his right as the future king.
"Hey, you know what…" Bramasti approaches him, intending to reveal the secret.
But then, Arkadewi comes out of her house, taking some piles of clothes that she needs to wash. Immediately, her appearance draws Bramasti's interest, and ignores the kid.
"Well, why don't you continue your training," says that man as he takes his leave.
And then, as he stalks Arkadewi being so wet at the river while washing the clothes, he begins fantasizing wildly, imagining the two of them doing dirty stuff there.
Somehow, whatever black magic that has been done to this man, he is suddenly trapped inside an illusion world, but looks so real to him, where he and Arkadewi intimating together like lovers.
The fantasy is so vivid and so real, that the man even reaches his climax and orgasm. Without him knowing, it's the work of the cursed kris in drawing out his deepest desire toward Arkadewi.
"Ouw shit!" Bramasti is so shocked to realize that he has spurted some semen inside his pants. "How the hell?"
<< What are you waiting for? Isn't that what you want? >>