A slap in the face
It was late at night when Kouen woke up due to the entire ruckus inside and outside the palace. A scent of something burning alarmed his senses, as did the weird shifts of light that painted the walls of his chambers near the window in a red tone. He got up rather quickly and rushed towards the window to have a closer look. The man’s expression was uttermost shock, caused by the burning rage that devoured that one building he always proclaimed to be his private paradise. The library eaten up by flames and already falling apart. One could say that usually fire and flames were Kouen’s allies, but what happened down there was terrific for the dungeon-conqueror. Kouen’s fingers grabbed firmly around the windows frame in thought who could have done this and why until Koumei slammed open the door with a almost crying voice. “I already know it brother…” The redhead waved with his hand in a motion that signaled the other that he should calm down. It was already too late and even if they were able to put an end to this by using their djinns, the scrolls would still be unusable. “I appreciate your concern, but it’s not worth the effort. Just go back to sleep and let the servants handle it. They will watch over this disaster until the fire settles down and don’t worry about the palace. The building is far way from the main houses… It won’t jump over to the roof.”
Koumei was surprised, his words stuck in his throat for some seconds until he mumbled something to excuse himself as he closed the door and it wasn’t long until Kouen went to bed himself. It was not like he slept that night. Even if it was just parchment enrolled in those shelves, it meant a lot to him. There were so many scrolls unread, so many questions unsolved. Way to many things he could have learned by decrypting the secrets of Alma Toran if only that library had not burned down. The redhead mused some hours over names of people who could have been the culprit. It could have been a member of Al Tharmen of course and if so, it would not matter which henchman it was, it all lead back to his stepmother Gyokuen. A woman Kouen could not easily punish for such an action since she was the empress of this nation. It would be high treason to go against her and most likely he would not make it out alive, not to mention the threats that he would bring over his siblings. If he liked it or not, he could not do anything.
In the following days Kouen’s mood was horrible. He always enjoyed spending most of his time in that small badly lighted room with dozens of old and dusty documents, but now this entertainment was gone. Most of the people in the palace avoided the redhead on purpose. It even applied to his siblings and Hakuei. Usually the blue-haired princess was one of the people who were able to calm Kouen down, who talked sense into him and who was able to cheer him up even with small gestures and talking, but this time he just barked at the woman in a way he regretted later on.
Grumpy he leaned onto the palm of his hand on the backrest of the stone bench that once was sheltered by the red bricks of the library’s roof. The servants and workers had the ashes and bigger left over pieces removed by now and there was nothing more than black marks on the grass next to the prince. He was completely lost in his thoughts when he felt some weight on his shoulders all of a sudden. It was Judal leaning onto him with a smug grin. Kouen’s facial expression became even worse when he turned around “What do you want?” But all the general earned was a magi who laughed at him. “Oh my… Are you still sulking over that shitty old library? When did you become so pitiable? You had so much fire in you back when we were arguing that day I burned it down and now you are like a mourning widow. Pathetic…”
It took Kouen a moment until he realized the meaning of those words. He heard it correctly, but still, it was unbelievable that Judal really did this. It was true, both of them had a fight that day about the ravenette sneaking off to Sindria again for several days even though Kouen ordered Judal to stay in the Kou palace for discussions with him, his brothers and Gyokuen. It escalated quickly, words were spoken that should not leave the two males minds and soon enough the black-haired magi left angered. It was wondrous that none of them was harmed while they argued since this was another nasty habit of the two of them.
But to think that Judal would be angry enough to set fire on the library even though he knew how important it was for the older male was unbelievable. “You dirty little brat, you didn’t do that…” Kouen raised from the bench in a quick move and yelled at the other, his eyes staring down to the smaller one with an expression of sheer aggression.
The grin on Judal’s lips was blown away by the prince’s sudden movement, but it came back after a second. His hands stemmed into his hip proudly, he started to explain. Kouen was often lost in the world of Alma Toran scrolls for several hours or even a whole day. Way too long for the magi’s taste. Those documents drew all the attention away from him and even though he craved for it by bugging the prince, they were still there. A silent threat and waiting for the redhead once he came home to the palace…Whenever Judal stole himself away to visit Sindria Kouen became awfully jealous, something the ravenette highly appreciated, but it also caused trouble between them. So, burning this whole palace up was the best idea he could have had right? A little trouble this once and Kouen’s attention was all his.
Judal did not even make it to the end of his sentence when his flow of words was disrupted by a punch in his abdomen. Kouen had it over, all those sassy words were more than he could handle. Another slap with the back of his hand followed on the younger one’s cheek strong enough to send Judal to the ground. Coughing Judal tried to get up. “Are you insane you old geezer? I did this for you and me…” Bu it didn’t impress the man in front of him. “You’d better go and run now if you don’t want to feel how that fire feels like…” A metallic sound echoed in the air as Kouen pulled out his sword, ready to call Astaroth any moment. He would definitely teach that boy a lesson, even if he’d suffer some wounds from it himself, after all it was Judal and that black mage would definitely go against him.
