Chapter 72 - Red Riding Hood (Part 4)

"Your Majesty..... how exactly would the mandrake heal me of my illness?"

King Leron was surprised that he'd ask this instead of just drinking like he was told to. He sat on his bed only a few inches beside Sangfroid, leaning on one hand like he was stumped. "I'm not quite sure. I simply drank it like how my healer told me to, and I suddenly felt better."

"Did they not explain what specific healing properties it has? What exactly made you 'feel' better? Did you feel that the pain disappeared? Have you felt any numbness? Did your insides warm up?" Sangfroid asked, and the more questions he asked the more he became wary of the tea in his hand.

King Leron was flabbergasted by this barrage of questions. "Are you doubting the tea I have prepared for you, Sangfroid?"

"No.... I...." Sangfroid took a step back and realized how uncharacteristically rude and intrusive he sounds. "I'm sorry, Your Highness. I just... have many worries in my mind and I always have a cautious nature. If this medicine is untrustworthy, then even you would be affected and I cannot let that happen."

"Ah, I see how it is. You are skeptical on any service that I receive that is not from you." King Leron chuckled. "Sangfroid, I always thought that no one would match Veridia's possessiveness and paranoia about me... but who knew you could also be on par with her in that regard?"

Sangfroid immediately reddened and coughed. "That is.... not.... I do not mean to nag on you..... Apologies, Your Majesty."

"There you are again, apologizing whenever you say something out of turn against me. Be at peace, Sangfroid, I am not easy to anger."

King Leron leaned back and laid fully in his bed, and stretched. As he did so, his shirt lit up and his abdomen was revealed. Sangfroid look away and pretended like there was something floating in his cup.

There was, though. The sliced mandrake. It floated in the deep green like the legs of someone who was drowning.

He put the cup down on the desk.

"Are you really not going to try the mandrake?" King Leron rolled to face him and sighed. "I really want to help you sleep well and relieve your nausea. If it truly was lethal, I should have died a hundred times by now."

"You are immortal, Your Majesty." Sangfroid reminded him.

King Leron shook his head. "No, I've had this tea before I even took the Dark Gifts. Veridia gave it to me during our wedding night to free me from the headaches I've been having since you passed the throne to me." 

"I.... passed the throne to you?"

"The tea tastes unique, but it is good." King Leron glossed over his question. Maybe he didn't hear him. "Sometimes it's mint, but then it becomes a little tangy and caustic, but it becomes like honey eventually."

He reached out to take the cup and stare at it for a while. "Yes..... I do quite like the taste of this one. The bitter beginnings are then followed by a sweet end. If you would not have it, then...."

He lifted the cup to his lips. "I'll just take it myself."

"No!" Sangfroid immediately swiped the cup from him.

It caused some of it to spill on King Leron's white shirt. The king winced from the scalding hot liquid. "Oh my...."

"I'm sorry, Your Highness!" Sangfroid quickly wiped it away out of impulse and his hand went in contact with the wet stain that revealed the king's chest underneath.

He froze when he realized what he had just done.

"I'm sorry....." He took his hand away and looked down, and his mind became an overheated mess. Yet because of his inability to express how strongly his emotions really were, he just looked like he was brooding.

"It's alright, it's alright! Don't beat yourself too hard about it!" King Leron notice how upset he was anyway because of his good judgment of character. "I have thousands of clothes that I could change into, this is just a tiny setback."

"But I acted so rashly and I... I have wronged you so many times tonight, Your Majesty." Sangfroid covered his forehead. "So much so that I deserve punishment."

"If you're really asking for punishment..." The forever smiling king took both of Sangfroid's hands that were holding the cup and lifted it up closer to the Rider's pale, chapped lips. "Then I punish you to drink this 'dangerous' tea that I have procured for you."

The baffled king's vanguard look at his master and the sickly green tea back and forth. He can hear from King Leron's voice that he was being sarcastic he really believes there's no harm in drinking this tea. And even if he is unsure, his mind always follows a single law.

Trust no one except His Majesty, and leave the rest be.

So even if he does die from this, he wouldn't blame the King. He would never blame the King, only himself.

He silently drank the cup.

The thick green liquid flowed through him with the density of mud, and he was immediately stifled by it. He coughed vehemently like there was a fishbone stuck in his throat and set the cup down.

"Are you alright, Sangfroid?" The King patted his back worriedly. "It's not that strong, isn't it? I only used half the root after all."

"I'm fine, Your Majesty. I must have drunk too fast. Cough! Cough!" Sangfroid waved his hand yet he still felt suffocated from the tea that was now entering his system.

"Maybe you should lay down for a bit and wait for the mandrake to take effect. You'll feel much better, I promise." 

Sangfroid wasn't feeling much better. His lethargy became worse, and his vision was spinning into weird circles and swirls. He could only focus on King Leron's soft and gentle voice, and that voice have the same effect of a lullaby lulling him to sleep.

His king held him, and he let himself be laid down on the royally large and exquisite bed.

"Your Majesty....." Consciousness was slowly slipping away from Sangfroid's grasp, like a velvety cloth that was being pulled from him by an invisible force. He tried to tug at it but his grip is loosening from every word King Leron speaks.

"Yes, my Red Riding Hood?"

"I don't.... you should....tea..... anymore....."

"You're not making any sense, dear. There's gaps in your sentences."

This is because Sangfroid's breathing has become erratic, and some of his words slip out into the air. It felt like he was burning. The slimy, disgusting tea he ingested is now lighting up his stomach. It seems like blinding lights have entered the room all of a sudden, and he felt like he wanted to go run aimlessly in the woods or something even more ridiculous.

There is a loud gong in his chest being hit back on forth causing it to sway so hard, he fears it would collapse from the thin thread that's keeping it tethered to his body.

That loud gong was actually his heart, and the king's hand was placed upon it.

"Sangfroid, you would do anything for me, wouldn't you?"

He couldn't answer for a moment because the fire that started from his gut had reached his throat, and he would believe if smoke did come out of his dried mouth. His pupils filled his whole eyeball there was almost no purple iris left. He could see His Majesty, but not the bedroom in the cold twilight evening. It was just his Majesty and a halo of blinding lights.

He was right all along. His Majesty was an angel after all.

He zealously nodded from the question.

He would do anything for this divine being, He whose beauty is ethereal and unparalleled.

"I already know you would answer that. Sangfroid, you are my most obedient and most trusted servant. I know how much you love and yearn for me. For that, I am grateful."

His beautiful King roamed his fingers in his scalp, electrifying him. How could he be worthy of even His presence? How can he be graced by His generous hands and sweet voice? Sangfroid felt like he was not even deserving of being his trusted servant, he should be way below that.....

He should be the King's lowest slave, someone who is bound to follow his commands no matter how horribly he was treated or how horrid the deeds that were being asked of him.

He didn't even feel any movements when he realized that a knife was suddenly clutched by his right hand. Only whispers that put him in a trance, that sounded like the heavens singing. And with it was...

A kiss, as light as a dragonfly's touch over a dew in a leaf.

He barely felt it, yet it caused so much euphoria in him. He was met with deep, deep, deep blue eyes.... so deep that he fell... falling for eternity in them, yet being joyous of falling.

The King clasped his hands again that held the knife, and press it closer to the dazed Sangfroid's chest. "And so, if I ask you to kill yourself in front of me, would you?"

Sangfroid gave a brief nod, then didn't wait for another second to stab himself in the heart.