OBTICEŌ | TK

Chapter Fourteen

The moment we've all been waiting for

Enjoy and sorry for any typos

Also, just an announcement, but I made a ko fi so if anyone wants to support my writing or art, you can find a link in my bio! Thank you, love you all

***

The night was silent.

Taehyung was sleeping peacefully on his bed, hugging his blanket as his hair fell around his face and Jeongguk couldn't take his eyes off him, not even for a second, too afraid of what could happen in such a short amount of time.

The night was still but not only for him. The whole castle was silent and Jeongguk knew that it wasn't a good sign. Silence was never a good thing and both him and Jimin, who was just next door, with Taehyung's cousin, knew that. Jeongguk was prepared and he was aware that Jimin was just the same. He had his hand already tightened around the handle of a dagger and his whole body was tense with fear, fear for Taehyung's life, not for his own useless one.

He's dealt with assassins in the past, so many times that he couldn't count them all, but he's seen only one from the North, when him and Taehyung were still young. It was right after his father's death, only a few years apart, and the day the assassin from the North came to hunt Taehyung was still stuck in Jeongguk's mind. His hand have already been stained by blood by then but the remembrance of that man's face, of the tattoos on his face, so similar to his, that image was still stuck in his head. Jeongguk got rid of the man and that achievement, the fact that he's dealt with a Northern assassin brought him the title of Shadow Ruler at such a young age. He never thought he deserved the title but, deep inside him, he was aware that it was well deserved. The man he had faced that day was strong, maybe stronger than Jeongguk was at that time, but he's always been more intelligent than his opponents. Bodies could always be physically trained but training someone's mind was more difficult and not everyone was made for it, not everyone could get through mental training and finish it successfully.

However, he couldn't be sure that everything was going to well now. Of course, he'd rather die than let Taehyung face any kind of harm, but he hoped that he wouldn't be forced to go to that extent. He was stronger now, stronger than anyone in that castle, maybe even stronger than Jimin, so the chills of fear that slowly crept in his body started to disappear, one by one, until all that was left was a lethal calmness, the calm before the storm.

Jeongguk stood still, silent, next to Taehyung's bed for almost three hours, listening, watching, and he was starting to think that maybe Jimin was wrong, that maybe there wasn't such danger in the castle at all. However, when the slightest sound was heard outside the room, Jeongguk realized that the man was, in fact, right. He knew that it wasn't Jimin hovering around the door because Jimin was a Shadow, he was as silent as he was and made almost no sounds as he walked. Jeongguk's whole body tensed, his fingers tightening on the dagger even more as he stepped closer to the door.

Before he could move further, the window behind him opened and Jeongguk almost, almost, threw the dagger in his hand in Jimin's chest. The other stared at him, his arms sustaining his body as he leaned on the edge of the window. When he finally stepped inside, Jeongguk furrowed his brows but immediately understood what was happening when Jimin signed for him to lock the door.

He was going to take care of the assassin himself so that Jeongguk didn't have to leave Taehyung's side.

Feeling grateful for the other's gesture, Jeongguk bowed his head slightly then watched as Jimin jumped out of the window, locking it from outside before doing so. Only a few seconds later, maybe a minute, Jeongguk heard commotion outside the room followed by someone's grunt. Jeongguk frowned, then pressed his ear closer to the door in an attempt to hear what was happening. The grunts and pained whimpers didn't sound like they belonged to a stranger, which made worry fill his chest. If Jimin was hurt, he had to step out because he couldn't let a Northern assassin kill the Shadow King and retrieve that title for himself.