The Boy of The River; K.TH & J.JK .:Completed:.

Chapter 52: Blink And You'll Miss It.

Everyone watched carefully as they saw the knight's swords swing and hit against each other. You'd think that the knight Ji-hun was dealing against would be as good as him; clearly not. Ji-hun had been quick, he'd been smart with his defence and attacks, shocking the audience. He held out for a good long while defending and pushing the other knight back. The other knight though you'd think has the same amount of experience as Ji-hun. But based on his own attacks and defense, he didn't seem as smart or confident in his own head.

Taehyung watched the two males fight and noticed the errors in the knight Ji-hun was fighting against. They all trained the same amount so they should have the same experience. Surely. But there was always something off. The wrong step, the wrong lunge, wrong defence move. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. It went through his mind again and again and again. He wanted to do something to stop the duel, but he knew he couldn't.

He wanted nothing more than to stop the duel but he couldn't. It would be against the rules and he couldn't go breaking them. His hand shook against the arm of his wooden throne as he watched the duel continue.

"Tae.."

Taehyung felt the younger male's hand touch his own and felt as he rubbed his thumb against the back of it. The prince looked at the warlock and noticed how close he was, as he was squatting down beside him. Taehyung raised an eyebrow as he wanted the younger to continue.

"Calm down, Ji-hun can take care of himself, we both know this" Jeongguk reassured the prince. "Especially you" He looked into the elders eyes.

"You're.. " Taehyung sighed. He knew. "You're right, yes, perfectly right…" He nodded as he took the warlock's hand in his own softly.

"You need to have more faith in me, hyungie," Jeongguk whispered to the other with a small giggle.

"I do, I do… I really do, I'm just worried but I shouldn't be because Ji-hun will win this round but…" Taehyung stopped with a heavy breath and looked around at the duel and knights waiting. "It's just I don't trust Bae Joon, he'll cheat, Ji-hun knows yes, but I just can't help but he worried"

"I understand hyung" Jeongguk nodded whilst thinking about everything from Taehyung's perspective. He couldn't lie, he was worried too. Worried about Ji-hun, worried about the stake of the kingdom. Everything. He had to be, as he was the one protecting Taehyung still. Though now it went both ways.

"Ah! A winner!" The two males looked up from each other from the sound of the king's voice and saw that Ji-hun won his duel.

"We'll get to the next duel done and out of the way soon after we clean up the body" The king smiled. "And to make it easier, Bae Joon and Ji-hun will duel after the clean up, that way Ji-hun doesn't have to walk out of the arena"

"What…" Taehyung looked at his father. "We've never done that father, we normally continue through the first rounds of each level"

The king looked at his son, eyes glistening from the spell placed over them. "This year I decided to change it up abit"

"Oh no.." He muttered feeling dread fill his body.

"What's wrong?" Jeongguk asked, wanting to know what was wrong.

"He's changed it, he's made it so the next duel will be between Bae Joon and Ji-hun" Taehyung explained to the warlock.

"Hopefully, Ji-hun will win, he's a lot more skilled than Bae Joon…right?" Jeongguk questioned his own statement near the end.

"Maybe… I want to believe so, but he has dirty moves and even…" Taehyung trailed off as he remembered and leant closer to the warlock."...magic, so there is no telling what will happen"