Esa Promesa

Click.

At the sound of the door opening, my head turned instinctively. The adjoining room to the king’s chamber was so well soundproofed that I couldn’t hear any movement or footsteps approaching, which made the sudden noise startle me. I quickly schooled my expression to remain neutral.

Of course, it was none other than Diver who entered Diver, whom I had spent the entire night mentally chewing out.

“So, you’ve come.” 

His expression changed the moment he saw my face. It was an unmistakable look of exasperation, as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. I met his gaze with defiance, glaring at him as I rose from the bed. With a half-hearted nod, I acknowledged him, and Diver let out a sigh that sounded more like an exasperated groan.

“Did you lose your mind overnight?”

“Did I lose my mind?”

The retort that you’re the one who’s crazy almost slipped out, but I managed to swallow it at the last second.

Let’s face it, if anyone here was insane, it was Diver. Only a madman would forcibly detain someone with a terminal illness who had been willing to leave of their own accord just to avoid a corpse littering the palace grounds.

I had no intention of showing courtesy to a lunatic. Without waiting for his permission, I perched on the edge of the bed and carefully chose my words before replying.

“Your Majesty, if I had truly lost my mind, do you think I’d be sitting here so calmly?”

“That’s true.”

His serious reply caught me off guard, and my hand reflexively moved toward the oversized gold ornament sitting beside the bed. It was large enough to be the size of an adult’s head, and it took all my self-control to stop myself from grabbing it and hurling it at Diver’s smug face.

Calm down. I took a deep breath inwardly, suppressing my growing frustration, and slid to the very edge of the bed. If I kept anything throwable within arm’s reach, I knew I wouldn’t be able to resist the temptation to lob it at him.

“Hah.”

The moment I shifted slightly on the bed, Diver immediately moved to block the door, standing there as if he were a human barricade. I let out a dry laugh.

“Is that what you’re going to do?”

It was painfully obvious that he was worried I might make a run for it. His overly cautious behavior was so absurd I had to ask, and in response, Diver gave me a smug, lopsided grin and tilted his head.

“I’m just standing here because I want to.”

“Oh, of course, Your Majesty. Is that so?”

We both knew that even if I shoved him aside and bolted out the door, the knights stationed outside would catch me before I got anywhere. Yet his paranoid watchfulness was so ridiculous it was hard to take seriously.

For what it was worth, I wasn’t even thinking about escaping at the moment. I had a different reason for getting up from the bed.

As I stood, Diver visibly stiffened, his gaze sharpening with suspicion. If an outsider had been watching, they might have mistaken me for the one holding Diver captive and tormenting him.

When I stepped closer, Diver who would normally brush off my movements without a second thought tensed even further, his posture rigid. He looked like a startled rabbit caught in a predator’s gaze. It was almost laughable, and yet it drew a weary sigh from me.

I reached out and grabbed the rumpled collar of his jacket.

“Your Majesty, didn’t I tell you to avoid staying up all night?”

As I smoothed out the wrinkles in his clothes and retied his cravat which he had nearly torn apart, likely out of frustration during his overnight work I observed his pale complexion. His white hair only made his pallor stand out more, and I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of concern.

“I didn’t.” 

“Of course, Your Majesty, Though you should know, most palace staff would consider falling asleep at their desk for an hour during the night to be pulling an all-nighter.”

“…How did you…”

“Do you think I don’t know you by now?”

One look at his disheveled cravat and the hurriedly fastened buttons on his jacket had told me everything.

As I worked to tidy his appearance, I suppressed another sigh. Diver, who used to obsess over even the slightest crease in his clothes, had made such a careless mistake, just like he had as a child. And I knew it was because of me. That knowledge left a heavy feeling in my chest.

I couldn’t bring myself to tease him with a snide remark like, ‘Your appearance is a disaster, Your Majesty, ha ha.’ Instead, I pointed out the likely reason behind his sloppiness. When Diver flinched at my words, I knew I had hit the mark.

“There was an urgent matter to deal with.” 

I recognized it as an excuse, but I chose not to press further. I let go of his jacket and stepped back slightly but instead of retreating completely, I met his gaze.

Fifteen years ago, Diver’s eyes were level with my chest. Now, his gaze was higher than the top of my head.

Seeing him up close like this brought back memories of the boy he had been, growing day by day into the king he had become. Those years suddenly felt achingly bittersweet.

For so long, I had believed that my repeated deaths and departures had numbed me to attachment. But I realized I had been wrong.

As I studied Diver’s face, a flood of emotions, something that could only be described as regret welled up within me.

“Tei.”

Diver’s voice, calling me by my nickname, wavered slightly, as though he felt awkward. Seeing him watching me so hesitantly, as if gauging my reaction, was almost pitiful. I didn’t respond on purpose, curious to see what he would do. Sure enough, he fidgeted before rummaging in his coat and pulling out a crystal vial.

“What’s that?”

“Medicine.”

“Medicine? For me? I don’t….”

“You’ll take one pill every day. No exceptions.”

“…Your Majesty, I handed in my resignation yesterday. Are you telling me you’re going to force medicine on me just so you can keep working me to death?”

I already knew Diver was a cold, inconsiderate man who never cared about others’ circumstances, but this was a new level of cruelty.

How could someone be so unrelentingly heartless?

I wanted to slap the vial out of his hand and call him a demon in human skin, but I couldn’t.

The way he gripped the vial tightly, as though he was afraid of dropping it, made it clear that this medicine wasn’t ordinary. It was probably worth more than my monthly salary or even my yearly income.

That realization made me hesitant. I cautiously pushed his hand away.

“You seem to forget that I never accepted your resignation.” 

“Do you want to end up with a corpse in your palace?”

“Must you phrase it like that?”

When I still refused to take the vial, Diver eventually sighed and placed it on a table at the side of the room. Then, to my surprise, he stepped closer. Even though he looked as calm as ever, the proximity made me instinctively take a step back. But my retreat was pointless. He immediately closed the gap again and raised his hand.

He placed it on my forehead, and I couldn’t help but let out a dry laugh.

“My illness has nothing to do with a fever, Your Majesty.”

“I know.”

His hand slid from my forehead to my cheek.

Diver almost never touched me of his own accord, so the gesture felt so unfamiliar and awkward that I nearly wished I could disappear on the spot.

In our dynamic, it was always me who initiated physical contact. Especially when he was younger Diver’s insufferable arrogance back then had led to countless moments where I would grab his cheeks and hold them firmly.

Not to hit him, of course. No decent person would raise their hand against a child, even one as exasperating as young Diver. Instead, I would hold his cheeks like a parent would, brimming with affection, and gently scold him about how unkingly no, downright pitiful his behavior was.

But ever since he became an adult, I couldn’t do that anymore. My scolding shifted to verbal lectures instead, which he often brushed off with an infuriating smirk.This unfamiliar touch now felt entirely out of place. It was unsettling in its rarity, and for the first time, I found myself unsure of how to react.

“Tei, from now on, don’t work. Just stay here.”

“I thought tearing up the physician’s report meant you believed I was lying. Guess I was wrong?”

“…I already confirmed it with the palace physician.”

Finally, the answer I’d been waiting for.

“Well, that’s even better. Since you’ve confirmed it, I trust you understand how cruel it would be to keep me here any longer. I’m confident Your Majesty, as a virtuous king, will do the right thing and let me go.”

“That’s not happening.”

“And why not?”

“I won’t let you go.”

“So you intend to work me to death? Got it.”

I laced my words with sarcasm, and Diver’s brow furrowed in response. For a moment, I wondered if I’d overstepped, but the thought quickly passed. If he decided to charge me with lèse-majesté, at least my body would end up outside the palace, which was where I needed to be anyway.

Yet Diver’s reaction was odd.

Instead of the anger I expected, he pressed his lips together and frowned deeply. It was an old habit of his one I had often seen when he was younger. He would do it whenever he faced an unwelcome situation or was irritated.

The sight suddenly worried me. Once I left, there would be no one to correct him, no one to notice these small habits that could give others leverage.

In a world where a king had to be flawless, especially a young one like Diver, even a seemingly minor quirk could expose a mountain of vulnerabilities. Diver had many enemies, and he couldn’t afford to give them an opening.

“Your Majesty, haven’t I told you countless times to stop biting your lips? How many times must I say that habit will only cause trouble for you?”

“It doesn’t matter when I’m with you. Let’s leave it at that. Now, take this medicine.”

“And why would I do that? You’ve seen my diagnosis. Medicine won’t help.”

“Take it.”

“Your Majesty, I am a dying man. Please, just let me go. I’ve already handed over all my duties to Gehin. There are plenty of others who can take my place. What are you, hey, what are you doing?”

“If you won’t take it willingly, I’ll just have to make you.”

True to his word, Diver pulled a pill from the vial and poured water into a glass, his expression one of grim determination. As he approached, I darted to the other side of the bed, putting the furniture between us.