The Guarded Princess

XCI

Kouen sat on his chair in his chambers, his head laid upon the cushion as the imperial physician came to do his routine check-up. He was aware of the situation that his Emperor was in and to say in the least, his heart grieved over it. Feeling his pulse, he closed his eyes and stepped back, lowering his head.

"Your Majesty, this loyal and humble servant has tried his best but," he knitted his eyebrows together. "Your organs have already corroded to the point where it can no longer be repaired. Such a poison...there is nothing that I can do to stop it."

"Stand up," Kouen said without even batting an eye at him. "I already know that I don't have much longer to live."

"Your Majesty..."

Lucy slowly stepped in as she stood outside watching the scene, her lips quivering as she heard the conversation between the two.

"Your Majesty," the imperial physician spoke up. "If I may be granted the honor to speak my thoughts which might get me killed, this lowly servant believes that if you hadn't paid the price for the Empress of the Celestial Empire, our great Kou Empire would have continued prospering under your rule. Without Y-"

"Stop," Kouen said as he gave a cough, his eyes filled with sincere devotion. "Without the Empress, the well-being of the Kou Empire or this seat of the Emperor amounts to nothing. Without her, everything is meaningless to me."

The imperial physician looked at him and lowered his head.

"Given only a year to live since that battle, I've lived the best of it with her. No price can be given to the time I spend with her and no price can ever be made," he said with tender affection in his eyes but the silence was soon interrupted with his aggressive coughs to which Lucy's heart ached with grief upon hearing those violent thunderings. "Imperial physician," Kouen said with a tremble in his voice. "Make sure this doesn't reach the Empress."

"Yes," he lowered his head and bowed. "Then this humble servant will take his leave."

As he left, Lucy stepped further out as tears streamed down her face, his coughs acting up again. His face was pale and his fingers had turned a slight dull purple and seeing the once, great Flame Emperor of the Kou Empire that she used to know reduced to such a weakened state because of her, her heart felt as if it was being torn to pieces.

Kouen laid there, his body shaking as a smile was plastered upon his lips.

"Lucy," he murmured, her name escaping his lips as if it was the most natural thing and how full of endearment it was as he called out to her but he knew that she wouldn't be here. But even so, he continued to talk to himself in the hopes that she would hear but at the same time, not hear. "Do you know the true meaning of being immortal?"

Lucy stood there and stared at him through the holes in the divider, tears rolling down her face as she listened to him in silence.

"It isn't about physical immortality but rather, the immortality of the soul. Even if I were to die in this body, I would always be reborn in a new one with the same memories attached and through that, I've lived through countless lives and worlds already. And do you know how many lives and worlds I've gone through with you?" he asked as a tear rolled down his face. "Every single one."

Lucy widened her eyes.

"Yet no matter how hard I tried, in each and every one, you would always enter the embrace of someone else and how hard I tried to wish you happiness each time even though it tore at my heart each time," he said. "Honestly, I think this is the closest I've gotten to you. But, in the end, you still fell in love with another."