Kintsugi // ATEEZ [Ishihara Sequel] ✔

16 Forgotten

San shouts out in pain as white drips out of his finger, dropping to the floor. Instinctively he brings his finger to his mouth, sucking on the cut as he hisses in pain. As soon as they arrived in Nyla, he didn't feel tired but instead locked himself up in the royal study, sorting through the paperwork. He cut his finger on a folded piece of paper, yellowed and aged. He watches as his white blood is absorbed by the paper, expanding until it almost makes the paper translucent.

Curious, he picks the paper up; it was tucked away among the other papers he was looking through, seemingly out of place. While the rest looked like official papers, this one looks informal, like a letter sent to the palace. He realizes that his blood has yet to stop dripping so he stands up to look for something to wipe it off before bandaging it. He leaves his study, leaving his table with papers strewn all over it.

The door clicks open as San pokes his head through the crack, looking left and right for anyone. His left thumb and forefinger are pressing on the wound, trying to stop the blood flow. He sees that the hallways are empty, so he can't ask anyone for help. He walks out of the study, still looking for anyone that can help him patch the wound up. The slightly cold air is making him shiver, and sending sharp pains to his open wound.

When he notices a maid coming out of a room after finishing cleaning it up, he calls her over to help him find a bandage. A few minutes later, a bandage is already wound around his finger and he's making his way back to his study to clean the mess up. He opens the door, but gets confused when he sees the wind blowing the curtains slowly.

He's pretty sure he had closed the windows, because the weather was slightly getting colder and he doesn't want to keep shivering while leafing through the official papers.

"That's weird," he mumbles to himself.

He walks over to the windows to close them, but the sudden sharp wind coming in causes the papers on his desk to settle to the floor. He sighs in frustration but pauses when he sees the folded paper that he had cut himself with has opened and landed near his foot. He closes the windows first before picking the paper up, more intrigued by its contents now that he has seen how the paper has an emblem at the middle top and there are writings across the paper.

He sits back down, ignoring all the other papers as he holds the paper with his smudged blood. He looks at the emblem first; taking some time to recognize which kingdom it belongs to, before he notices the small font of the name of the kingdom placed in the emblem.

"Ileara?" he says, more like a question at first, but then it becomes more definite. "Ileara."

The name of the kingdom gives no spark to him at first, but even his memories after seems to be very fleeting and blurry. Everyone knows how the kingdom doesn't exist anymore; it was said to be completely overturned some years ago, but for unclear reasons. No one bothered to find out, because the existence of the kingdom is none of their concern. It is said that all their people and rulers have been wiped out, leaving not even a trace nor history behind.

So why is he in possession of a letter from Ileara? A previous agreement between the rulers?

He hopes to find the answer in the writings, seeing that the paper is indeed a letter sent from the Kingdom of Ileara to their kingdom. It was addressed to his father; the previous king, Choi Jaebeom. He holds the paper open, his mind reeling to find the connection between their two kingdoms. So Nyla was acquainted with Ileara before things went south with the kingdom?

He reads the letter; it was very simple, brief- and brings much more confusion to him.

Jaebeom

I think I have found a way for us to stop it once and for all. We should meet when you're free, just send me a letter to state when you're available. We don't have much time left.