The Cursed Love (3)

Year 4019 Snow Kingdom - Inn - Town

Murasaki Heisuke, age 21, belongs to one of the neutral territories not bound by a fixed leader. His encounter with the Mist Kingdom's King Kazuya lead to him leaving his hometown and joining a dangerous game that would lead to endangering his life. A deep sigh passed his lips, from the moment he met Kazuya, it has been trouble after trouble. Though he was the one who suggested gathering other team members, Heisuke wished they could have avoided the girl who sat across him.

"When will that woman leave?"

"Xia, be quiet. She's the Queen."

"Queen or whatever, she's taking too much of Kazuya's attention. He won't even look at me these days," Xia complained.

A deep sigh passed Heisuke's lips as the girl ranted on and on. Maybe Kazuya is right. It was useful having this girl on the team. But she's starting to get very annoying.

"Whatever you do, don't try to mess with her."

"She's just going to be dead weight, look how she fainted the moment she arrived. She's just a Queen in name, right? All her subjects do everything for--," Xia's sentence fell short when somebody raised their hand and hit her.

Heisuke isn't surprised to see Kazuya. A deep sigh passed his lips.

'Here we go, trouble,' thought Heisuke.

"Kazuya-san," Kazuya hits the girl again.

"Don't you dare say another word? If you do, then I'll kick you out before you return home."

"Kazuya-san I was just.."

"Enough," Kazuya snapped, "If you guys have a problem with Lyn, then you can leave the team. Did you know? I can handle this mission alone. But since you all have similar goals, I formed this team."

Sensing Kazuyas deadly tone, Heisuke knew he really would kick them to a curb. Unfortunately, the enemy has seen their faces already so even if they head back to their hometowns, the Snow Kingdom people would also be after them. Kazuya must understand that better than anyone. Before Heisuke could get a word out however, he spotted Queen Lyn peering through the doorway.

"Kazuya?"

Kazuya left Xia's side in a flash and brushed his hands against the woman's forehead, "Hey Lyn, I told you not to get up,"

"I'm sorry, I'm just a little hungry,"

"I'll get you something to eat. Lay back down."

"Okay."

Heisuke had to admit he couldn't be stubborn about this any longer. It's not like the Queen did anything wrong, and perhaps Kazuya will be less reckless if he has his wife around to look after, "Contact our So we can increase the rations,"

"Heisuke-san!" Xia exclaimed.

"We've only been eating like this to lie low. But there is no need to do that anymore considering the number of assassin attempts. Let's move to a better place starting tomorrow and live amongst the people. It's risky, but this place won't defend us from assassin attacks. The entire Snow Kingdom isn't completely under Queen DJ's control. We can move out into the neutral borderlines."

Kazuya was already carrying Queen Lyn in his arms.

..

After dealing with Xia, Heisuke stood watching over the two.

"Lyn, Lyn. You'll be alright."

"I'm sorry Kazuya, I just feel very weak."

"It's okay; it's alright."

Seeing Kazuya like this was a first for him. 'He's the type who gets tamed by his wife,' huh? But Heisuke was genuinely happy for his friend.

______

Kazuya placed his hand on Lyn's forehead. 'Still hot,' Kazuya thought. It's bizarre. She seemed just fine before they left; otherwise, he wouldn't have considered traveling by portal. Should they have stayed in that town any longer? But if they did, then the Witch would have gone after them. While he is capable of defeating her, he isn't sure he can stop Lyn from trying to fight too. He was troubled about what to do, while he wants her to stay with him and he's already brought her here. It's too late to turn things around.

His thoughts broke off when he felt Lyn's warm hand on his cheek, "I told you to sleep, dear wife."

Lyn laughed, "Ah-huh, but you looked so frantic and in pain. Kazuya can you answer my question? From earlier?"

From earlier...

When she was talking about them fighting alongside each other, that's right; it was like that before in the past, wasn't it?

"Yes."

"I'm glad. I know it's difficult and you don't want me to fight anymore. But I want us to fulfill the dream from that day, that dream," realizing her eyelids were dropping. He stopped feeding her the porridge and put it down on the bedside table.

He gently kissed her forehead, "Me too, rest now dearest wife."

….

Lyn, however, did not sleep; instead, she kept peering at him from the covers. "What is it?"

"Kazuya, what are you doing?"

"Just planning our next move, I guess," Kazuya paused when he saw where her curious gaze was. He chuckled and made his way over to the bed with the map in his hands. He sat down on the bed, and Lyn leaned forward.

"This is the map of the whole Snow Kingdom?"

"Yeah, it's smaller than the Mist. It surprised me."

Lyn nodded, "The Queen here focused more on developing the towns than expanding. Though there powers/influence expand beyond the territories most likely shown here."

"I have another map of the outer areas, could you show me where those places are?" his wife nodded, and Kazuya stood up to get the other map. When he returned to the bed, he saw that Lyn was already marking some things with red. Since it's her, she must be marking out the dangerous routes.

This is another reason why Kazuya wanted to bring Lyn. When Heisuke first said recruit good team members, the one thing he couldn't find was somebody who knew the terrain of the Snow Kingdom. With the Snow Kingdom being all the way out into the South and the Mist Kingdom in the North, the distance from the two was considerably large. The first one that came to mind was his wife. But of course this journey was for her sake, so it was stupid of him to have such a thought. However, Kazuya couldn't help but think about what it would be like to work with Lyn again.

Once again with his wife, like before..