The World We Live In

Ch 40: The King

The young brothers excused themselves after the short notice. The king and queen of Burningshield looked deep in thought. Well, I guessed that it was a lot to process today. Only Mamoru and Jin knew everything that happened today at this place until the kingdom was burnt.

The king took a deep as well breath.

"Okay... I need to talk to all of you, if you may."

We stopped eating and listened to the king for a second.

"First, I and my wife weren't that shocked upon hearing about your time-travel..."

"Why, King?" Elise asked casually.

"It's because we know our boys in and out. Well, we might not understand what they are thinking but we do believe that if they are up to something, they are unbeatable..." the king explained. "Including the unbelievable time travel, yet we believe that Mamoru could make it."

I pulled my side eyes to stop my tears. I couldn't believe that my heart was touched by the king's talking. The faith, trust, and support these parents offered were uncountable and it made me suddenly miss my mamas.

"Secondly, our annihilation might be a shock for us but actually we had talked about this even further and accepted it..." the queen took turns explaining. "So we have decided to move our events ahead."

"Events..." Kyo mumbled to himself but was rather hearable.

"Yes..." the queen smiled. "There will be the cooking contest and... Jin's ballroom that is just decided because of the thing you saw just now."

"Do we need to throw more events, Love?" the king asked his partner.

"Hmmm... For now, no, Love. But, do you think it's possible to have more sudden events later on?" the queen replied with a question.

"It sounds interesting. Okay, I'll take it," the king agreed as he looked happy with the small discussion.

I didn't know which one excited me more, the cooking contest or Jin's ballroom. The truth was everybody looked excited. The cooking contest was a contest and Jin's ballroom was a ballroom. Both of them hyped me on their own.

"So the thing about imperfect ruler and kingdom..."

We continued on listening to the king who surprisingly wasn't big and fat.

"The opposite would try to fight us with the mistake we make. Since we don't have any mistakes just yet, we think that they will aim at you guys here."

"What do you mean, Sir?" Kaoru expressed her curiosity.

"Something along this line 'ooohh, the kingdom took some people in, with strange clothes and habits, they must be warriors for the war'... like that."

Olivier threw an impossible expression at the king while Yummi and Aura laughed for different reasons.

"Nevertheless, I need you guys to attend the kingdom's course every day until your... I mean, our departure. We are going to hide your identity as the scholars from another island."

"Finally I didn't need to study at Cowie and now I need to study..." Elise whispered to Kaoru, who nodded fastly and unstoppably.

"It might sound a lot to you guys but it means the world to us. We want to have our last moment to be uneventful..." the queen smiled again.

The dinner wasn't as cheerful as the early time, for me at least. Time travel seemed impossible because it could change the future, but now I was here, I could believe it. The saddest thing that I might experience because of this is that I am unable to help these kind souls. Of course, I totally admitted that the king and queen were stronger and powerful, more powerful than us modern humans. Still, if it was vampires they were facing, nothing could be done.

Nothing I could do to help them.

The lively dinner soon finished. The king and queen decided to walk around the palace to burn the carbs they ate. On the other hand, the cowies were still sitting on their own chairs with some of them in different spots.

"You have an ex-wife, Jin?" Ludwig innocently asked while cleaning the dining table with a cloth he borrowed. "Why don't you tell us?"

"What a nasty conclusion, Ludwig..." Jin sighed. "I would die if I had a wife."

"Why did you die? Did you get married to someone that's not really your type?"

The gang froze again. Olivier asked about Jin's personal life? Whoa, this summer would be a blizzard.

"If I got married, I wouldn't leave the palace. If I didn't leave the palace, I surely die right now, Olivier..." Jin explained patiently.

"But you are alive... so you left your wife..."

"No...no! that's not what I meant, Olivier..."

Jin took his chair again and explained to the girl who sat across his table. An indeed interesting interaction. I kinda hoped that Olivier was going to realize that this tiny bickering she did with Jin actually looked sweet to us, the audience. Not only me! The others tried to move quietly or just froze their shit so Jin and Olivier could somehow finalize a good discussion.

"Jin... leaving your wife isn't good, you have to know that..." Olivier talked slowly as if she was offering feedback to someone younger. "Well, I didn't mean that I want you to get killed but staying with your wife is a must..."

Thanks to Cole for covering Mamoru's mouth or he would laugh until he died again.

"No... no... that's not it..." Jin shook his head.

"Then what?" Olivier added.

"... Did I ever leave you, Olivier? I never did!" Jin tried to answer in a way that Olivier could understand. "Please think and feel very carefully. Have I ever left you? After all this time?"

Olivier tilted her head.

"Dude, I didn't even stay on this island. How come you leave me?"

The room was filled with uncontrollable laughter while Jin banged his head on the table. Olivier was speechless and clueless on seeing the other's reaction and decided to hug a good night.