As child he had been a beautiful ray of sunshine. Almost all day he had smiled and laughed. He had been a happy child with a wonderful family. Judar had been envious of him. Yes, the priests gave him all the attention he wanted and he was allowed to do whatever he wanted, but in the end he still had felt lonely. No one wanted to play with him, because they thought of him as scary, and with him traveling a lot, he also barely had time to develop a friendship. Therefore he told himself that he did not need any friends and that he was better than the other kids. However, he could not fool anyone with it. It was painfully obvious that it bothered him, yet the priests did not care about it. Why should they? A friendless Magi was better for their goal. Heartless!
So whenever he had time, Judar tried to spend it with Hakuryuu, the youngest son of emperor Hakutoku. At first the two had a few problems with getting along, since Judar preferred rougher games, but Hakuryuu did not like to get hurt – well, no one liked to get hurt. But soon they had found many games they both enjoyed. Judar's envious grow only bigger during that time, because Hakuryuu often stopped playing with him, when Hakuyuu and Hakuren were around. They were more important than Judar and this was something he could not bear. Well, he also had problems with it, when Hakuyuu and Hakuren played with them. He liked the two princes, especially Hakuren was fun to play with, but it showed him that he was alone and had no one. The priests were pretty boring and never played much with him, because a Magi should not behave like a normal child, there were more important things he had to take care off. Things he did not care about at all. Training was boring!
Once Judar had asked Hakuryuu to give one of his siblings to Judar. Hakuryuu did not need three older siblings! He never could play with all of them at the same time! Friends shared with each other, right? So sharing siblings was fine. A flawed thinking, but it just showed how lonely Judar felt and actually was. Of course, Hakuryuu did not share his siblings, because he loved all of them very much. This caused the two boys to not speak with each other for a few days – Judar was angry and disappointed with his one and only friend. Hakuryuu, on the other hand, did not understand what Judar's problem was.
Thinking back about his behavior back then made Judar laugh. How childish he had been! At the same time it was also very amusing to think about how naïve and pure Hakuryuu had been as child. Not only had he thought that trading siblings was a thing, Hakuryuu had thought so too and had feared to lose any of them. If he had given one of them to Judar, wouldn't that mean he wasn't able to play with them anymore? Thinking about it rationally, it was obvious that it was not the case at all. However, back then they had thought that way, which had caused Hakuryuu to suggest to ask his mother Gyokuen, whether she had an idea how Judar could get his own siblings – Gyokuen could only laugh about the children's naivety. Obviously she hadn't had an idea and thus the two had searched for someone else for help. Unfortunately, they hadn't found anyone. Hakuren and Hakuyuu also had not been much of a help, although they tried to explain the two kids that it was not possible to trade siblings and that this was not necessary anyway, because there was no rule that forbid them to play with whoever they wanted. Consequently Judar did not need to be a sibling of any of the royal members to be allowed to play or interact with them. Moreover Hakuren and Hakuyuu spent a lot of their time with Judar and Hakuryuu, whenever they were home, and further they already saw Judar as a younger brother, because he often attended the family dinner, where he acted as if he was a part of the family – no one complained about it. Sadly Judar did not accept this reasoning and so he and his only friend searched further for a way for Judar to get a sibling. Since Judar was still an only child, it was clear that they had not found a way and gave up on it one day.
Judar wondered how many people would have kept up with him and his crazy ideas. For others this was not a question at all, because he still was on his own and Hakuryuu was still his only friend – one could count Kougyoku as friend as well, since she saw him as that, but he refused to call her one, so it was safe to say they were no friends, because the feeling of friendship was not mutual. Most were annoyed by Judar and were not ready to keep up with his harmful game suggestions and pranks. Hakuryuu endured it all and Judar took it for granted. Sometimes the young prince would complain about the other being too reckless and rough, but nothing more. Only once Judar had made such a grave mistake that Hakuryuu decided not to interact with him anymore. At first Judar hadn't realized it, because he was causally talking to Hakuryuu, who would not respond, while Hakuyuu and Hakuren were near – consequently Judar thought Hakuryuu was ignoring him because of the two older princes. Slowly he had understood that Hakuryuu was angry – of course, he would not think about himself as the reason – and tried to find out what was wrong or who had wronged his friend. Weeks had passed without any changes and in his despair Judar asked Hakuyuu and Hakuren, who he hated at this point, because he still thought they interrupted his friendship with Hakuryuu and both had refused to become his siblings, what had happened to their younger brother. Thanks to that he finally had understood that he himself had done something wrong and needed to apologize. Apologizing was something Judar only had done once in his life and this was, when Hakuryuu had started avoiding him. Fortunately the two kids could clear the matter.
Back then Hakuryuu had been so pure – a kind and beautiful soul, a ray of sunshine, so naïve and pure. Judar had liked and hated it at the same time. He was happy, when Hakuryuu was smiling, and angry, when Hakuryuu was sad. All he wanted was a happy friend. So whenever the other one was down, he tried his best to cheer Hakuryuu up and he started to hate all his duties as Magi even more, because those kept him away from the other one.
However everything changes after the fire incident. Hakuryuu's smile had disappeared, only when he was with his last remaining sibling Hakuei, he smiled from time to time. Judar hated it! Between now and then a lot had happened. The once so happy child had turned gloomy, more serious and had distanced himself from Judar as if the latter one was something disgusting. Nevertheless Judar wanted to maintain his friendship with Hakuryuu and acted as if nothing had changed between them – all his efforts had been in vain, had been rejected. But it did not really worked out the way he wanted and only years later he understood why. In those years Judar was more and more occupied with his duties and spent a huge amount of his time with the new crown prince. It was an order from the priests. Not that he disliked Kouen and his siblings, they were okay, but he preferred Hakuryuu and obviously Kouen was not Hakuryuu – not even their names sounded similar.
Whenever he had the chance Judar took a look at Hakuryuu. Maybe the youngest prince had changed his behavior towards Judar and maybe he also had gotten colder on the outside, but inside he was still the same. Even now, when they both were adults, Hakuryuu hadn't changed that much. Deep inside he was still the same, he was just very good at hiding it.
Now they were friends again. Judar had chosen Hakuryuu as his king and this would never change. Never again would Judar serve someone else. His power belonged to his king, belonged to Hakuryuu. As friend and Magi Judar knew Hakuryuu better than anyone and he had been with him in his worst hours. He had seen all of his king – the good and the bad. They were no longer children. Hakuryuu was no longer happily smiling all the time. Judar was no longer alone. Hakuryuu had been wronged in the past by his own family, his own people and had been betrayed by his friends – or better said those he had considered friends. Only Judar had stayed at his side, although he had pushed him away over and over again – well, tried to, but seemingly had failed.
Now they knew each other's feelings and thoughts. Judar had asked Hakuryuu, why he had rejected every effort from Judar. Because you were one of them, had been the answer. It hurt. To be honest this question had been on his mind ever since they were kids, but he had feared to ask. Somehow he had already guessed he wouldn't like the answer.
Now they spent most of their time together, be it out of private reasons or for work. Judar liked it pretty much. When they were alone Hakuryuu would relax. For Judar he was still a kind and beautiful soul – however he would never say it out loud – and a ray of sunshine. No matter how hard things had been and how many people had wronged him, Hakuryuu still was so kind to them. Had forgiven those, who had tried to murder him and had supported the murderer of his family. He had forgiven those corrupted bastards, who had known the truth and had kept silent. He had forgiven those, who had looked down on him. None of them deserved such kindness. If it had been Judar, he would have sentences all of them to death. But Hakuryuu wasn't Judar. Hakuryuu forgave, he even saw himself in the wrong instead of those who had committed so many crimes and horrible deeds.
After Judar had returned from the Dark Continent and had started his search for Hakuryuu, he had been disappointed by his king. Hakuryuu had won the war, but he did not rule the world. Even worse, Sinbad had taken over the lead. Judar had hated it, he had felt betrayed. Therefore he had searched for someone else to cause chaos with and found said person in Nerva, the son of the former emperor of Reim, who had lost his position because of the new order of the world. That guy, however, was not as much fun as Hakuryuu was and soon he gave up on that guy. Out of curiosity and boredom he had decided to visit his birth place. A little village near the mountains. There he had found out what had happened after he had been born and that "Judar" was not his real name – still he kept it, because this was the name he had grown up with and the name Hakuryuu was calling him. Without knowing why, Judar had given up on his plans to create war and instead helped the villager. Months later Hakuryuu had suddenly arrived to bring him back to the Kou Empire and Judar had followed – of course, not before he had shown Hakuryuu around. As kind as Hakuryuu was, he had used his djinn Zagan to help the villager with their field work and stayed a few days. Days they had used to talk about the time they had been apart from each other. It was a time in which Hakuryuu had smiled a lot.
Judar wanted to see Hakuryuu being himself more often, but he did not want to share the "ray of sunshine" Hakuryuu with anyone else, so he was fine when his king only was himself, when they were alone. No one else deserved to see his smile, receive his kindness or enjoy the mere presence of Judar's king. No one besides Judar – well, at least according to the Magi, who knew he had chosen the best kings. A king who was smart, kind, beautiful, strong and over all perfect – and no matter how much his king would taint and look down on himself, in the end he would always be the same beautiful soul inside.