White Dragon Stories

Role Switch

"What?", Judar asked angrily after not getting an explanation, although he had kindly waited for one.
Hakuryuu sighed before he said: "First, get out of my bed. Second, get out of my room. And third, your majesty ordered me to guide you through the dungeon, which was summoned for you. So please stop being a spoiled brat and come with me."
It should be obvious that Judar did not listen. Well, he did listen to Hakuryuu words, but couldn't care less about the content. He left the bed and the room, but as much of a brat as he was he still refused to conquer the dungeon. Hakuryuu hadn't expected that Judar would actually leave the bed and room without making a fuss, but he wasn't surprised that Judar still refused to cooperate. If he had been a little bit nicer, maybe Judar had agreed to go into the dungeon. But it was too late now. Judar had left and Hakuryuu had to start searching again. Honestly, Hakuryuu thought of himself as a smart person, however at the moment he could only call himself a giant idiot! And idiocy had to be punished! Hopefully his legs forgave him one day, it was them who had to carry him around all day and when he had the chance to take a break he destroyed it by being pissed off. However, before re-starting his search for the youngest Kou prince, Hakuryuu decided to take a break anyway. He hadn't eaten since the early morning and his body needed some food and water. While taking a break he also could think about a strategy to find and convince Judar to finally conquer the dungeon. Or he thought about a way to convince the emperor that Judar did not need a djinn or that there was a more suitable candidate for the djinn – for that he needed someone, who indeed was more suitable. Kou had a lot of soldiers who were ready to get a djinn and serve the empire, unfortunately djinns were very selective of their owner and always wanted the best, so it was not only important to have a physical strong person – Judar was not physically strong, but a prince –, but the potential future metal vessel user had to have good magoi resources – something Judar actually had – as well. Of course this was just what the djinns wanted and what would be the best, therefore there also were dungeon conqueror, who either lacked physical strength or magoi. In case it was mere strength that was amiss, one could try to overcome the monsters of the dungeon with an army – lacking magoi wasn't much of a problem when fighting for one's life as long as one wasn't a magician, but those couldn't get a djinn anyway. When taking an army into a dungeon there was always the possibility that the djinn chose one of the soldiers as "king" instead of the prince – or whoever had been chosen by the people. Until now and as far as Hakuryuu knew something like this had never happened before, but this didn't mean that it couldn't happen at all, especially with someone like Judar. What kind of djinn would chose such a lazy ass? Probably none.

Maybe the reason, why Hakuryuu didn't put his all into finding and convincing Judar, despite his life being on the line, was that Hakuryuu himself didn't want Judar to go into a dungeon. He didn't want the other one to get harmed or worse get killed. It was clear that the emperor didn't care much about Judar, since he wasn't a child of the emperor, but only of the empress. Yes, the empress had given birth to a child of another man. Out of his bottomless kindness the emperor had accepted the child as his own, yet it was obvious that this was nothing but an act. Hakuryuu hadn't even started to count the times an assassin had tried to kill Judar. It was nothing unusual for a prince to be attacked by assassins of other countries or rebels, so it was easy for the emperor to send his own people to do the deed. Fortunately until now all assassination attempts had failed. The dungeon was just another try to get rid of the unwanted child and in case this plan should fail as well... Well, then the emperor at least had another metal vessel user, who could lead the army of Kou to victory. The emperor had nothing to lose, while Judar could lose his life. Not a pleasant thought or situation. Hakuryuu didn't want Judar to die or get harmed, but there was nothing he could do. If he did not fulfill the emperor's wish, it was him who got killed and if he followed the order either Judar died or became a tool of war. None of this things sounded nice.