Chapter Text
Akito couldn’t stop pacing.
His heavy battle ready boots thunked against the marble floor, each thud sent a spike of anxiety up his spine. His cape swished behind him feeling unusually heavy over his back.
The General Tenma leaned forward over the big wooden table, he was trying to play it cool for the sake of his knights but he knew that things weren’t looking good either. The Black Knights were approaching at a speed never seen before. Every one of their countermeasures had been discovered and thwarted before they could properly fight back. The White Kingdom’s numbers were dwindling and a feeling of helplessness had overcome them all.
“Akito, stop pacing. You’re making Tenma nervous,” the knight with long pink hair, Mizuki, hissed.
“Well it’s not doing us any good to stand here staring at this map for hours on end,” Akito snapped back. “We have to get out there. The frontlines need us.”
The General pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers. “We can’t just go out there and you know it. We need a plan or they’ll turn the battle into a slaughter.”
“None of our plans before have been working,” Akito muttered. He felt like he was going crazy stuck in this strategy room. He glanced at his sword trapped in its sheath, hanging on the rack by the door.
“As of now, we have no reliable way to combat their dragon masters. As a result, their firepower is out of our league. Normally, we would have the advantage of numbers, but…”
The rest remained unspoken. Everyone in the room knew the death and carnage caused by the Black Knights. They had made a painful dent in the White Knights’ ranks.
Akito ground his teeth. Not having any dragon masters on their team to match the Black Knights was a shortcoming on his part. His family had strong ties to the pure white dragons of the skies, but loyalty could only take them so far. What Akito needed was the strength and mana to back it up, and as of now, he still hadn’t proven himself to be a worthy dragon master.
This could’ve been avoided if it wasn’t for me, Akito thought, curling his hands into fists.
With such a strong difference in firepower and numbers no longer being on their side, it might be time to raise the white flag. No one spoke a word, but they all appeared to be thinking the same thing.
Mizuki was the first to speak. “Maybe we should try negotiating one more time?”
Everyone knew what she was really suggesting. Retreat.
A moment of heavy silence passed before the General spoke. “Yes, that might be for the best,” he replied in a small voice.
Akito gritted his teeth. The retreat was shameful, but he knew it was their best option. They couldn’t afford to lose more soldiers.
General Tenma made a few sketch marks on the map, drawing out how to get to the meeting place with the Black Knights. Akito stared blankly ahead, unable to focus on anything but the guilt eating at him. He looked up at Tenma and thought it was admirable how he stayed calm and went through with the briefing even though the situation was so harsh. Still, he couldn’t ignore the disappointment and the heavy tones with which he spoke.
“Akiyama will hold the flag so it’s visible. We’ll send a message to the leader of the Black Knights, General Kamishiro.15 minutes later, Akito and I will go to the meeting place for negotiations in person,” Tsukasa summarized.
Akito was surprised to hear his own name mentioned, but assumed that the General had a good reason for choosing him. “Will it just be the two of us?” He asked.
“Yes. We don’t want to come off as a threat, so we’ll keep numbers small for the negotiations.”
Akito nodded in understanding but felt a feeling of foreboding wash over him. He could understand the logic, but it was still a risky decision. Although, no matter how many knights they had, they probably wouldn’t stand a chance against the Black Knights.
The knights set off with heavy spirits, driven by necessity.
They arrived at a hill not too far from the meeting place. Akito and Mizuki set up the white flag, their limbs were heavy with defeat.
“We did our best,” Mizuki said, but she couldn’t look at Akito in the eyes.
“Yeah,” he replied bitterly. That just made things worse, because their best wasn’t good enough.
“We have to cut our losses. I think Tenma made the right decision.” Mizuki finished hoisting up the flag and watched it billow in the mountain wind.
“Of course he made the right decision. He’s the General for a reason.”
The pink haired girl laughed, finally smiling after hours. “That’s the spirit! Things will look up from here, I’m sure. Queen Kohane will figure something out. She’s approved of the negotiations, so I’m sure she has a plan in mind.”
Akito nodded, wishing he could be as optimistic as Mizuki. Her silliness usually got on his nerves, but he hated to admit that he needed it right now.
The General Tenma walked over to the two knights. “I’ve sent a messenger with a note of ceasefire,” he said. “Akito, prepare to leave soon.”
“Yes sir.”
The older knight walked off, resuming his preparations with the others.
Akito looked back up at the flag. Pure white, for defeat. For innocence.
For loss.
General Tenma looked strong for the other knights, to keep their morale up, but he knew that he must feel the heaviest weight on his shoulders. The deaths of his cavalry would stay with him for a long time, just like they would stay with Akito for years to come.
Again, Akito felt that surge of self loathing. If he had only been stronger, if he had only continued his family’s alliance with the pure white dragons, if only he could give more firepower, if only for General Tenma’s sake. If only, if only, if only…
“Akito! Let’s head out.” Tsukasa’s voice cuts through his thoughts like a knife.
“Yes sir!”
“Good luck, Shinonome!” Mizuki calls after him. Akito only waves back at her.
Akito huddles his cape tighter around his shoulders. The mountainous region on the outskirts of the Black Kingdom is freezing and a light layer of snow covers the rocky ground. He curses under his breath as he walks to where General Tenma is waiting for him.
They begin walking towards the meeting place in silence. It’s been a long time since it was just Akito and Tsukasa alone. In moments like these, it’s more difficult for Akito to pretend that his feelings towards the General are just professional admiration. He had noticed that he had romantic feelings for the General years ago, but duty had prevented him from acting on it.
Sometimes he had entertained the thought of confessing his feelings, though he knew he shouldn’t do it, it was fun to think about anyway. More than once, he had even told his ideas to his prince—
His prince.
Don’tthinkabouthimdon’tthinkabouthimdon’tthink—
Akito takes a deep breath and the freezing air stings his nose. The pain temporarily snaps him back to reality.
Your prince is gone. He’s never coming back.
“When we get there, we’ll address reparations for our damaged civilian property first and foremost,” Tsukasa says.
“Straight to business with you as always,” Akito replies.
“There’s no point in niceties. The Black Knights are ruthless, and I’d rather not stay there a second longer than we have to.”
“Understood.”
Tsukasa goes on for a little while, reminding Akito of their agenda and what to address. There’s no doubt the Black Knights will make their own demands, but those are to be forwarded to the Queen for her to make a decision with her advisors.
After a few minutes of silence, Tsukasa changes the subject again. “Things really went downhill once Prince Aoyagi left us, didn’t they?”
Akito feels his eye twitch. “There’s nothing we can do about that. It’s not worth bringing up,” he says coldly.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to reopen an old wound.”
Before Akito began working under General Tenma, he had served as Prince Aoyagi’s personal guard. He had trained with Tsukasa, Mizuki, and the others, but his loyalty was to Touya first and foremost. As time went on, they began to trust each other a great deal, and instead of knight and prince, their relationship was more like friends.
Even now, Akito felt a certain degree of loyalty to his prince. It was easy to coldly reject his name, but it was difficult to unlearn the years of loyalty and friendship.
“No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have responded rudely,” Akito says, sighing deeply.
He had plenty of regrets about the past. Prince Aoyagi had been arranged to marry Queen Kohane, a union that was supposed to be joyous and prosperous for the whole kingdom. But Touya, for unknown reasons, hadn’t wanted the marriage. Amidst pressures from the royal court and Akito’s own disappointment in Touya’s decision, Touya had decided to leave the country, disgraced and disliked as he now was.
Maybe if Akito hadn’t been so vocal about his disappointment, Touya would still be here. The White Kingdom could still be happy even without the marriage of royals. If only—
Don’t think about him, Akito reminds himself, he digs his nails into his palms for the pain to ground himself. The past politics were more complicated than Akito could care to understand, and he couldn’t afford to think about it while he was on a mission.
Within 10 more minutes, the two knights arrived at the meeting place. The General Tenma puts his hand on Akito’s shoulder as though to comfort him before pushing open the large wooden door.
Before them is a room with a tall ceiling and a single round table in the middle. At the head of the table is General Kamishiro from the Black Kingdom, he has a smirk on his face as he stares at them with golden eyes and his round monocle. Next to him on one side is the blue haired advisor, Kaito. The remaining chair on his side is empty.
“Please, have a seat,” Rui says, waving his arm over the table. Two chairs appear across from him for Akito and Tsukasa, their backs to the entrance. “We’ve been expecting you.”
Akito gulps nervously, taking in the tension in the room. Somehow it seems colder than outside even though there are torches with purple fire on the walls.
He follows Tsukasa to the table and they both sit down.
As Tsukasa and Rui begin the negotiations, Akito tries to focus on any possible threats. The empty seat beside Rui is strangely ominous. Akito gets a feeling that someone is watching them and slowly tilts his head up. There’s a balcony on the inside of the room, halfway up to the ceiling, it looks empty but Akito swears he sees a flash of bluish silver.
“Regrettably, our lead dragon master could not be here today, but he wishes to make a request of the White Kingdom.”
Akito perks up when he hears the dragon master being mentioned. He was arguably the strongest soldier the Black Kingdom had, second only to General Kamishiro himself. This was the soldier who had caused so much grief and death among the ranks of the White Knights. Akito had pledged long ago to never forgive him.
With the power he had, the dragon master could take whatever he wanted and no one would stop him. What could he possibly want more?
“What is this request?” Tsukasa asks. It’s invisible to everyone else, but Akito can tell that he’s nervous.
To Akito’s surprise, Rui turns his attention towards him. “He would like Sir Akito.”
“ME?!?!”
Tsukasa looks between Akito and Rui in shock. “He wants Sir Akito? For what purpose?”
“As a war prize, or a personal guard, he wouldn’t say.” That devious smirk is still on Rui’s face and Akito wants to slash it off of him.
“A war prize,” Akito repeats in shock. He hated to feel disrespected like this, he felt like he was being mocked. “I won’t have my pride nor my honor as a knight insulted like this.”
Rui shrugs. “Very well.”
Tsukasa and Akito look to each other again, then back to Rui.
“You will not demand him to go?” Tsukasa asks.
“Not right now. Sir Akito seems against it, in any case.”
Akito sighs with relief. At least they had bought some time. Still, his pride was wounded knowing that he was wanted not just as a prisoner of war, but as a war prize, to be paraded around by the winning kingdom. The insult made him feel worse than ever.
He stewed in his anger and negative feelings until the meeting was over. The White Kingdom would be hit hard with their side of the bargain, but luckily they weren’t crippled. Everything considered, Rui’s demands had been fair of them, except for Akito of course.
Tsukasa tucked a paper away with him, it had a report of the negotiations that were made for the Queen to review and approve, though there wasn’t anything she could do to refuse anyway. Tsukasa and Akito began to walk back to their camp, but Tsukasa wanted to take a different route to look over the battleground.
Bodies littered the ground and blood had stained the snow pink and red. The two knights knelt nearby to pay their respects to the fallen knights.
“At least this is all over now. No more blood needs to be spilled between our kingdoms,” Tsukasa says after a minute.
“They died because of me,” Akito whispers.
If only I was stronger, if only…
“That’s not true and you know it,” Tsukasa says, wrapping his arms around Akito’s shoulders. “We all had shortcomings. This battle wasn’t just yours to lose.”
For the first time that day, Akito feels some warmth return to his freezing body. They’re kneeling in the snow, but Tsukasa’s hold is so warm, he could stay here forever.
“You’re right. At least it’s over.”