Vengeance of The Broken Lycan Prince [BL]-Chapter 424: Sorry If I Look A Little Lost

[TAMIKO]

"You made me a father again, kid. Nothing can ever beat that. You gave me a reason to step out of the shadows, my little Kaito," the mad king said gently, even through his tears that threatened to fall again.

He was not just a broken man anymore.

This was a broken father who had found something to hold onto. A man who had suffered through so much that he didn’t even have the strength to fight whatever was coming at him.

He was a man who had struggled to make things right out and somehow managed to end up in the same place, only that this time, there was something good at the end of everything in his head.

His son was alive.

His little Kaito was here with him; he wasn’t just a figment of his brain anymore.

The king had a face to put to the name, and he would forever be a grateful father for that.

"Papa," Tamiko mumbled as he pushed himself up to hug his kneeling father.

"You’re here, my Kaito. That is all that matters now," the king whispered dedicatedly, and Tamiko felt his heart leap at his father’s voice.

It wasn’t just because of the king’s first stance, but it was because of the way that his father was with him, holding him, reassuring him that as long as he was there, nothing bad could ever happen.

And in that moment, Tamiko understood where his father was coming from. He understood the cruelty that had spanned over endless years and the rage that came with the loss of his mother and himself.

Tamiko finally understood the kind of anger that had forced a mad king into silence instead of endless rampage. Because that was the kind of rage that would flatten the realm, and gods, it was twenty-five years, a darn long time to rein terror on everyone.

"Thank you for holding on," the son voiced heartily as he pulled back, and the king smiled at him heartily. It was a smile that had Lord Sadako tearing up beside Danny, who was also in tears from the sight.

"I didn’t know my brother could cry like that," Lord Sadako said softly.

"And I never knew mine could be that soft," Lord Daniel added.

Ahead of the duo, the king and the prince stared at each other graciously, each with their own reason for gratuity, and it was a truly heart-warming moment, one that had everyone feeling some type of way.

And when the king turned to his chief, the barbarian, the man his son loved more than alive, the king’s first son-in-law, and the one reason he almost lost his son today, Igor Konstantin...

The world held its breath.

They knew and understood the kind of ruthlessness the mad king always showed when it came to defending those that he loved, and the fact that he almost went home a sonless father tonight was not something that many had thought past.

Hell, Kosta himself was scared to the core.

And he had every right to be.

Because this was not just the ad king staring at him anymore. This was a father who had mourned for twenty-five years. A father who had done everything in his power to make sure his son was happy.

A father who had overlooked every possible principle in the realm for Kosta because he was Tamiko’s chosen one. This was a father who had murdered Sanjiro because he was tired of seeing his son suffer without Kosta.

And Kosta understood so damn well that this moment could very well have been his last, and that every breath he took was a possible mercy for the man in front of him.

He was waiting with bated breath for his judgment, and the entire battlefield was waiting for it with him, too.

"You..." the king trailed off as he looked at Kosta, his face unreadable.

Tamiko held his breath like everyone else. He knew this was not the time for him to step up and start barking at his father about how important Kosta was to him. His father knew that.

His father had witnessed that on so many accounts since the moment that Tamiko had stepped back into Kawai in the company of Kosta.

The king was very aware of what that meant, and right now, Tamiko wasn’t sure what punishment lingered in his father’s head for his wrath.

Whatever it was, whatever the king was mad about, Tamiko could only hope that the king didn’t force them apart because that would truly be hell.

Not to mention Tamiko would forever be stuck between choosing his father, the man who suffered through years just to find him, and his happiness, his Kosta, the one man he was more than ready to lay down his life for.

It wouldn’t be alright at any point.

"I... I owe you more than I can ever repay, Konstantin," the king began, and the world that had been holding its breath seemed to freeze, even the bird in the sky paused its flight just to watch what the fuck was happening.

"Wh... what?" Igor asked carefully.

"You protected him when I wasn’t able to. You... where I shamefully faltered, your hands held fast. As his father, I should have been his shield. I should have been there, but you were where I couldn’t, even with a crown on my head.

"You bore the weight I should have... thank you," King Zaffuto said in earnest, his vulnerability shocking to everyone who had been there. No one. Absolutely no one had expected this.

It was as if there was nothing reasonable they could all say again, and frankly. They couldn’t be blamed for it. Even Kosta, who was being addressed, stared at the king, his jaw slack like this was not the kind of hat he ran into on a regular day.

"H... he protects me more than I ever protected him, my king. He always has," Kosta humbly said, his voice trembling from the shock of what he had just heard.

No one could blame him, though.

The king had openly acknowledged him.

Not just as another warrior on the battlefield, another blade he could point in the enemy’s direction.

Not as the Lycan chief who commanded the armies the king had entrusted to him, but as the one man who had protected his son.

The king had bowed to their love, and that was more than anyone in their right mind could ever think of, because it seemed so unrealistic.

Yet it was the truth that an entire battlefield of the dead, broken, dying, and the waiting-undead warriors was witness to.

"Then live, please. Both of you. Live... that is all I ask of you two. Just live," the king said gently, his smile faint yet proud of the two kids before him. It was almost like he was not seeing Kosta as the warrior anymore.

But as the kid, his sister had sworn to protect him throughout life. He saw the kid that Lord Sadako’s Erasthai, Sahina Konstantin, had them protect. The kid that Yilena had taken in as her own, and the kid that the king had grown so fond of over the years.

That was who he was seeing with his kid.

And it was heartwarming because there was the reminder that even in his insanity, the king was just another man.

"I never meant to make you mourn again, Papa; I swear it."