Only Because It's Coming From You

Rukelion was doing fine—or so he convinced himself—for weeks until he randomly received a summons to the main building in the middle of supervising a training session. Conrad took over for him so he could go.

He wasn't sure what he was expecting but it certainly was not the person he hated most in the world. The king of Mirea himself.

If he lived a thousand years, he would never be able to forget that face. The one that laughed in satisfaction after seeing all of the dead Katalyan royals on the ground. The one directly behind the monstrous plants that impaled his entire family.

With extreme difficulty, Rukelion bowed—he should NOT be bowing to his worst enemy!—so he didn't get in trouble. He shouldn't be bowing period. With the king and other successors to the throne dead, technically speaking, he was the king of Katalya. They were equal in rank.

But the king didn't know that. If he did, he would likely try to kill him on the spot.

Not that he would succeed…but it would cause a whole slew of problems he didn't want to deal with right now. Taking over the kingdom would be much harder if he was on the run for assassinating the king. His coup d'état had to be more thorough than that.

"So this is the famous Captain May you have spoken so highly of, General," the king said silkily.

General Pace nodded. "Yes, Your Majesty. Most of the returning soldiers from the Aveleenian War credit him almost entirely for their victory. Rather impressive for one so young."

"Indeed. How old are you, boy?"

Rukelion cringed internally being addressed by this piece of human scum, let alone in such a demeaning way, but miraculously kept his cool. "I recently turned sixteen, Your Majesty."

"Such dedication! We need a hundred more like you, Leo May," the king said in approval.

Goosebumps popped up all over him. Wrong. It felt so wrong hearing the name Leo come out of his mouth. That was the name Daisy used and she was one of the only ones who did since he had always been addressed as May here.

He hadn't liked the nickname at first but the way she said it was so full of affection that he didn't mind it anymore. But hearing it from his worst enemy was unacceptable! Don't call him that!

"You flatter me, Your Majesty," Rukelion said while trying his hardest not to grit his teeth.

The king looked to General Pace loftily. "I have seen what I wanted to see. We have business to discuss so we should get on with it."

"Of course, Your Majesty. May, you're dismissed."

"Yes, sir," he said with a bow and forced himself to walk away instead of run for his life before he did something stupid like blow up this building and every person inside.

Rukelion's heart pounded with rage. His true enemy had been right there and he hadn't been able to do a thing about it! He hadn't thought he would see the king again until he managed to make it into the palace. Instead, he had come here where Rukelion thought he was safe.

Nowhere was truly safe as long as he had to stay in hiding. Not even Daisy's farm, which was why he had to dye his hair, hide his eye, and change his name. He would proudly reclaim his identity once all of that bother was taken care of and hoped she would be able to get used to it. If she wasn't, he didn't mind her calling him Leo. She already knew what he looked like and even thought his hair color was pretty.

When he returned to the training grounds, no one noticed anything was off with him but Conrad, who frowned but said nothing until they were walking to dinner ahead of everybody. "Is something on your mind? You've been…off lately."

Curse him for being too observant for his own good! And Rukelion thought he had been hiding it so well.

Then again, Conrad did spend the most time with him and he was a very empathetic person. He always seemed to notice when there was something off about people. Why would Rukelion be an exception?

"Yes," he admitted reluctantly. There was no point denying it.

"Can you tell me about it? It is literally my job to help you with whatever you need done."

"No."

Conrad sighed. "May…Captain. I'm your lieutenant and if you can't trust me, you can't trust anyone. Please let me know what's going on so I can do something about it. It's distressing seeing you like this since you're normally so calm."

"I am perfectly calm," Rukelion pointed out. He hadn't shown his rage visibly even once because that could easily end everything he had worked for.

"On the surface, yes. But there's a lot more going on in that head of yours than you're willing to share and I want to do something about it. No one can do everything on their own. Let me help you."

"…I can't talk about it here."

"Alright, then where can you talk about it?" Conrad asked eagerly.

"I'll take you there on our next day off. In the meantime, drop it," Rukelion ordered. "No one else can know about this. Pretend we never had this conversation at all."

"Aye aye, Captain!"

That little talk exhausted him but seemed to put a new spring in Conrad's step. He would never understand people but he supposed it wasn't his job to. He had more important things to worry about, like coming up with a sneaky way to probe whether or not Conrad was willing to commit treason with him.

It took him days to come up with it. When their day off finally rolled around, they headed out right after breakfast and Rukelion took him to the abandoned stone building he had been using as a hideout. It was the only place in or near the capital where there was no chance of being overheard and this was one conversation no one else could ever know about.

"How did you even find this place?" Conrad asked curiously as he looked around the largely empty room.

"I went looking for it specifically," he replied flatly. "Is this relevant?"

"I suppose not. Are you going to tell me why you've been acting so fidgety the past few weeks? Actually, it seems like it's been longer than that. Ever since we got back from Aveleen. I would say you're suffering from war flashbacks if not for the fact that you were perfectly fine the entire trip back while the rest of us were having the hardest time then."

His observational skills may be on par with Rukelion's. At least from an emotional standpoint. He had hit right on the mark.

"What do you think of the king of Mirea?"

The sudden question made Conrad frown. "That's random. Who's being irrelevant now?"

"This isn't irrelevant, Conrad. It's actually very important to this conversation so answer as honestly as you can," Rukelion said seriously.

His frown deepened but he did as his captain said. "Oh. Alright then. Considering you brought me all the way out here, I doubt you're going to report me for treason so I'll be honest. I think he's worse than the last king.

"I joined the military to reap the financial benefits, as most of us did, rather than because I'm patriotic. My only family is a little sister who needs some very expensive medicine to stay alive and the widowed aunt who takes care of her. Most of my pay goes home to them.

"I think the king doesn't care about the common people enough, which is why the capital has fallen into disrepair. My aunt says it didn't used to be like that in the former king's time. Most of the tax money seems to go straight to the military.

"Ironic, isn't it? My aunt pays taxes and I get paid with them to send the money back to her. It's a vicious cycle but there isn't anything we can do about it. The king's power is absolute and always has been. All we can do is hope that Crown Prince Devan is better than him…but I really doubt it will happen. Why do you ask?"

Rukelion was relieved. If he already didn't think the king was doing a good job, that would help him out.

"I met the king the day you asked me if I was alright. That was the reason I wasn't," he confessed.

"Let me guess…the king wanted to meet the great war hero. But why would that make you so upset? Terrible king or not, isn't that supposed to be a great honor?" Conrad asked in confusion.

Rukelion looked up at him with anguished, furious eyes unable to say anything. His face went slack for a moment before he realized part of the truth. "You…really hate the king, don't you? But why? What did he ever do to you?"

"He's an evil excuse for a human being. Would you believe me if I told you that the war on the Aveleenians was unprovoked? That he turned on his allies after using them and throwing them away because he wanted to bury a terrible secret with them?"

Conrad looked at him seriously. "Only because it's coming from you. But how would you know that? Are you from Aveleen?"

"No."

"How would you know then? I didn't think we had an alliance with Aveleen and I've been in the military longer than you. I'm not doubting you; I just don't understand where this is coming from."

Rukelion sighed. The time may have come to out himself to yet another person. "Conrad, can I really trust you? Because how I know is absolutely top secret and anyone finding out about it would surely result in my death."

Alarm flashed across his face before it was replaced with indignation. "Didn't I already tell you I'd follow you anywhere? What part of that makes you think I'd tell anyone such an important secret?!"