Night Hunters

Chapter Seven: The Red King

Tamaki nodded. "Yes, I definitely think he's still alive," she responded. "You wouldn't want to kill your best asset." She pointed out. Out of everyone in the Royal Guard, she knew best how criminals and civilians think. It is her job as the head of Intelligence after all when she was still with the Royal Guard. "And I know Seiki. He wouldn't want to just kill his brother like that. He will want to torment him."

At this point, Tamaki looked worried. It is what the Crown Prince is currently going through that had her worried. With how twisted that the Red King is, she wouldn't put it past him to torture his own twin, just to get back at him for having what he should have but couldn't, due to reasons.

"He will want Sei to see just how his beloved kingdom go downhill, and his former loyal subjects become as twisted and corrupted as Seiki himself. And yet, Sei can do nothing at all. He's that twisted." Tamaki admitted. "And that is what worries me."

No one knew what to say for several moments.

"Wow." Shigehiro said at last. "But it still amazes me how you can tell the difference between the two princes. I mean, not even I know that there are actually two princes—twins, until you told me."

Tamaki shrugged. "It isn't something that is widely known. You can say that it is the royal family's dark secret," she admitted. "I don't agree with how the late king and queen have decided to 'deal' with...the problem, but whatever the case, what's done is done. And honestly, if I hadn't known Sei as well as I did, not even I would have realised that the one on the throne isn't him." She admitted. "And besides, I knew Seiki when we were children. Back then, he was confined in the unused wing of the palace. The only ones who had visited at that time have been just myself and Sei."

Takao was confused. He had been the only one apart from Shigehiro and Haizaki who knew that there have been royal twins, and that the Red King isn't the prince that they knew. Tamaki didn't want to let anyone else know, as it only puts the life and the safety of the real prince at risk if it ever got out. And even so, Tamaki rarely talks about the Red King that she'd known as a child.

"The king and queen never visited him?" Takao asked, confused. "I mean... They're his parents, aren't they?"

Tamaki didn't know what to say to that. "...Yes. Which is precisely the fact why they would rather treat him like he don't exist, and confined him as a prisoner, rather than admit to the kingdom that their first born—the legal Crown Prince is insane and a born psycho, even as a child," she said bitterly, some of the bitterness and contempt for the late king and queen with how they have treated this matter coming out. "And honestly, the fact that they didn't drown him as a child when they have realised that Seiki isn't fit to be the Crown Prince is already a miracle in itself. Though I think that maybe my father had something to do with it."

"The queen wouldn't do something like that!" Haizaki said immediately, jumping to the defence of the late royal couple. "Nor would the king!"

"Are you sure?" Shigehiro asked his best friend shrewdly. "We've been in the Royal Guard as long as Tamaki. We know what goes on behind the scenes better than anyone else, as part of the Intelligence Division. The citizens and the common soldiers see the faces that the king and queen use. But behind the scenes, we know that they're as human as the rest of us. Imagine the humiliation and the dishonour that it would bring Teiko should neighbouring nations and the lords learn that the true Crown Prince—the first born to the throne is unfit to rule. First borns get everything, Shogo. It had been an ancient law since the inception of Teiko."

None of them know what to say to that. It had been a law that lay unchanged throughout the years ever since Teiko's inception during the Dark Ages. It is true that it had always been the first borns of the family that get everything—no matter the gender. It is why Tamaki had been the heiress of her family, and later the head when her parents have passed away, and why she could control her life the way she did even as a child.