Vengeance of The Broken Lycan Prince [BL]-Chapter 464: Just A Little Longer In An Unfamiliar Hell

[TAMIKO]

The king was sane.

The prince was running around with a smile on his face.

The barbarians were calm, and the warriors were happy.

This was the perfect evening. At least for them.

And everyone was proud of Tamiko and how he had stood up and even waged a whole unforgiving war for Kosta. It was something that had them cheering on excitedly.

The warlords that the king had convened for the grand council were glad that at least something good was happening at the moment.

"Fuck," Tamiko whispered as he felt a sharp pain in his stomach. His hand automatically lingered there as the prince paused for the first time in what felt like endless minutes of running away from a crowd that was overly excited to see him.

Tamiko had contemplated going through a portal, away from all of this, to a place where he could just drown everything out. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

One that didn’t have so much chatter, but then he decided against it all for good reason. But that would be too suspicious. And he didn’t have the strength to make them all worry for him again.

This was a happy night, and Tamiko intended for it to remain so, regardless of what he had to deal with himself. Yet again, fate was just another piece of shit that kept dangling his doom before him.

"Keep it together, Tamiko... just another step... No one needs to see you like this," the crown prince of Kawai whispered to himself when he got a bit further from the crowd.

He was still in their line of sight, but at least this time he was far enough to be able to breathe, even if that was a hard task for him.

Maybe he was so used to sacrificing himself that he didn’t know how to hold on and fight for his fate, but Gods, did it hurt to be in his position right now.

His entire body ached even as he bent to the side, ready to release all that kept him unhinged.

He was not in the mood for any games his body wanted to play, because honestly, there was only so much pain he could hold back before it all overwhelmed him. And judging by the way he was faltering aimlessly, it was ruining him from the inside out.

It was burning him and destroying him while he was determined to keep up appearances and make sure the night was ending in the right tone.

But what use would that be when it was almost three o’clock in the morning, and he looked like he had been to a thousand hells and back then?

"Maybe I drank too much wine and beer... I really should control my drinking," Tamiko scolded himself before adding quietly, "I’m fine... I have to be fine."

It was then that the prince faltered openly, his breath coming out in short ragged beats. It was as if the universe was done with him. And that Tamiko had served his purpose here.

That was a dangerous assumption, yet even Tamiko himself was leaning towards it all. A united Kawai that didn’t need to have him. One that would be okay even without him; perhaps that was why the ultimatum lingered for so long, right?

"Shit, I shouldn’t have drunk so much," Tamiko grumbled, his mind getting hazy along with his sight as he tried to focus. But what was he to focus on when his pain was already driving him nuts, and he couldn’t even tell what he was feeling?

He had managed to lose Danny in the crowd, thankfully, because Danny would have freaked out on everyone, including the souls in the afterlife.

His best friend was always a bit dramatic, and that thought had Tamiko laughing humorlessly even as he fell to his knees, desperate to hold onto something.

He had spent the last few minutes limping around, but now he was done trying to steady himself. There was no use in playing the drunk prince role because the entire Kawai knew that the prince never got drunk anyway.

So that would do nothing to ease any tensions that had started brewing.

"Shit, I’m sleepy," Tamiko mumbled mindlessly as he noticed servants watching him. He knew it was just a matter of time before someone realized what he was doing or even feeling.

So, to keep them distracted, he focused on being dizzy, voicing it out as if to tell the revelers that this was nothing more than a prince who had had way too much to drink and needed to sleep it off because that night had been long for everyone.

Tamiko had even missed his father’s speech when the ball began, so there was no telling that he would be focusing on anything other than having fun and getting some rest on the cold grass.

"The prince looks wasted."

"He looks like something is wrong with him."

"Did they fight tonight?"

"The king is coming."

"I think the prince just had way too much to drink."

"Or he finally needs sleep."

"Perhaps he and the chief have been having a marathon of lovemaking."

There were endless assumptions among the council members, the warriors, and the common Kawai citizens. But Tamiko didn’t give them any heed.

He was already losing.

That much he was aware of.

He wondered if most would be happy without him. If his Kosta would finally get to breathe and live right as he deserved.

Tamiko wondered if his Erasthai would be free if he died.

And then he thought back to the hurt in Kosta’s face back at the battlefield. It was the most heartbreaking sight for Tamiko, and he hated that there was a chance he would be forcing Kosta to deal with grief.

If the barbarian chose to turn off his humanity after losing Tamiko, the prince wouldn’t blame him. It had been a long decade for them.

And it had been a lot, too.

They had not had the slightest bit of peace since they came back to Kawai, and so if this was where their story ended, Tamiko hoped that the midnight moon would give Kosta an Erasthai who would love him with everything just like Tamiko did.

"I love you, Kosta," Tamiko sighed defeatedly before he let himself fall completely to the grass, given his knees were too tired to hold him. He still felt like puking his guts out, but he was too tired to even force anything out of him.

Maybe this was the only thing he could afford to push out, right?

In the distance, Kosta saw it all.

He had been intending to give Tamiko space, but the moment he saw the love of his life go down, Kosta pushed it all away and rushed to his Erasthai like the world was just compromising the two of them.

The souls that have been kept apart because of a fuck-ass ultimatum.

"Tamiko!!" the barbarian shouted as he raced to his Erasthai.

His shouts earned the attention of everyone at the banquet, and the music that once filled the air, the laughter that brightened the Kawai palace, the smiles that made the banquet feel like a better and happier home...

All came to a standstill.