"Woah," Tanaka's face brightened up as he entered the Yera Shiri royal home. A castle in its own right, not as grand as theirs, but still quite impressive. Tanaka walked barefoot, feeling the fuzzy comfort of the red carpet beneath. He was in a hallway painted white without a single smudge as far as the eye could see. It had a more welcoming charm than the sight they were met with when they first arrived. The butler stopped between two adjacent doors.
"The prince may use the one on the left, and normally," he looked at Gazi, his nose scrunched up and his mouth curved downwards in disgust,
"we'd have the less noble guests use the one outside, BUT" he punctuated with a posh, thick voice, "the chief's father insisted you use this one."
Gazi smiled at the man. "You could have just told me which one to use rather than explain how low you think of me."
The butler rubbed his hair back dismissively, although it was mostly bald in the middle.
"Yes, I could have."
He turned and inserted a key into each door, jamming it open. "The chief expects you to be ready in an hour and a half."
Tanaka looked at Gazi, puzzled, as the tall, almost gaunt man walked away. He placed his hand on the door knob, pushing it open.
"Oh..." Tanaka moaned as his face almost melted. "Ohohoho. This is soo going to be longer than an hour and a half."
Tanaka said as he laid his eyes on the white, small pool-sized tub inside, as a cloud of steam covered the room. The sound of fresh water running rang like music to Tanaka's ears.
"See ya," he said, shutting the door, leaving Gazi outside to discover his own bathtub.
2 glorious hours later.
Tanaka's face peered around the entrance to the dining room. He saw Gazi and the chief already seated and waiting for him and moved his head away from the door and their line of sight. He rubbed his hands on the dark grey, trousers that gathered at the ankles, which he was given as a change of clothes along with the grey, round collar shirt. He took a deep breath. With hands neatly folded behind him, he walked into the dining room, chin up, slight smile, semi-threatening eyes. Just like he used to. He tried to remember the face but it was a blurry haze. Rubbing on his forehead to ease the pain that came from the thought he gave up trying all together. All Tanaka could remember was the name, Hwasabi. The chief looked on intently, whilst Gazi simply raised an eyebrow when Tanaka strode into the room. He took a seat across the chief on the large, round table covered with a red and white flame-patterned cloth. Gazi sat between the two, facing the candle stand positioned on the table's center. The servants entered the room with a modest amount of food, hurriedly preparing and serving it.
"You have my apologies," the chief started, still keeping her unflinching smile. Tanaka looked at Gazi in confusion.
"I'm afraid I cannot offer you the lavish feasts you must be used to in your palace."
"Royal home," Gazi corrected, having sensed the hint of condescension in her voice.
"Oh, I'm sorry, your... royal home," her eyes landed on Gazi and stayed a moment longer than they should have.
Tanaka shifted awkwardly and fiddled around with his fingers, clearly not accustomed to the political setting.
"Speaking of which, I'd like to offer my deepest condolences to the young prince. To have such a tragedy befall one at such a fragile age is truly... unfortunate," her voice smooth as silk, dropped low as she conversed with the two.
"Yes. Quite," Gazi responded.
"I don't mean to be rude, but can the prince not speak for himself? You are his GUARD, are you not?" She pointed her wine glass at Gazi.
"I am."
"So, should you not be outside... guarding?"
A vein outlined appeared on Gazi's neck, though his voice did not rise above the normal conversational register. He simply smiled back at her.
"Given the circumstance, until he is of a more reasonable age, he will be my ward, so yes, he can speak for himself if he so desires, though he would rather have me speak for him in settings such as this."
Tanaka just sat there, silent and awkward.
These guys bicker like they used to date, Tanaka thought, as he dug into the food. His brain continued to wander off to the thought of them once dating. He chuckled softly as he imagined Gazi and Chief Onye staring at each other lovingly and getting married.
"Something amusing, your majesty?" the chief asked.
He snapped back to reality.
"Not at all. I just wanted to thank you for being a most gracious host under these most dire circumstances." Tanaka replied.
"Egh, what does that even mean?" he thought to himself, after he had quite literally recited the speech of a gracious guest that Gazi made him memorize back when he was just his teacher.
Simple days, he sighed in thought.
"Oh, you are quite welcome, young prince," she said.
"I would not want to reopen any wounds, especially ones so fresh, but I have to admit I am rather curious. Did you see him?"
"I'm sorry?" Tanaka asked, confused.
"Well, among the attackers, I heard King Naga himself led the assassination."
Gazi's spoon froze halfway to his mouth at the mention of the name.
"King Naga?" Tanaka asked. The name was familiar but insignificant to him, at least before the chief said it.
"Yes. He is one of the Three Kings, King of the Yera Shato tribe, the python totem tribe."
Gazi pondered. "I was hoping this was just an attack by one of the seven noble tribes, but..."
"If it's one of the three kings who attacked another, this would certainly mean war, and not a small one either," Chief Onye finished Gazi's sentence, while her lips curved further.
"War? But wouldn't they lose? I mean, since they started it, then by rules of the treaty, the three kings signed, the Yera Nzou would support us to depose the Yera Shato, right?"
Chief Onye sipped on her wine as she chuckled lightly at the remark.
"You Yera Shumba were always too prideful. So much so that you forget to look around every once in a while," Chief Onye commented.
"The Yera Nzou are pacifists; if you try to drag them into this war, they'd just join the side that will end it more quickly."
"And I'm guessing that is not our side?" Tanaka spoke finally, after a prolonged silence.
"Precisely. By approaching them, you would be sealing your own fates."
The table fell quiet for a while. The only sound filling the room was the clinking of cups on metal trays.
"Wait, I think I did see him," Tanaka pondered. "When we left the village, there was a person standing at the gates, staring at us. At the time, I thought I was just hallucinating because I saw him turn from a snake thingy into a man."
Tanaka broke the silence.
Chief Onye's eyes widened ever so slightly, but her face was too trained to show any emotion during diplomatic meetings that Gazi and Tanaka did not notice it.
"Yes, I'm definitely sure that was him. He is known among the commoner tribes as the Serpent King of Vengeance. He's unlocked his tribe's totem form, the giant python."
"How is that even possible?" Tanaka asked ignoring what the chief had said completely as he still thought about how the shifting serpent from the gates was real.
"When chipo overflows within a person's body, it becomes malleable; a person can shift into practically anything they want, but any form other than their totem is a weak form," Gazi explained to Tanaka.
"This is quite concerning, Chief Onye," he pointed out.
She elegantly sipped her wine, listening to Gazi, detecting a hint of panic in his voice.