Karmagisa: Our Fate Upon The Crown

98 | S2: Flames of Hate

<Karma>
Running down the large halls of the palace, we passed numerous bodies of familiar faces Manami knew. Every now and then, she would stop to see who they were and then gave them a short prayer.

For her, I wonder how she feels when everyone seems to be faced against her, like she is the enemy of her kingdom. Then again, Nagisa would know the feeling all too well.

Without time to waste, we had to decide quickly on the safest way to get out of the palace. Though, I think by now, it would be wise not to take her through the escape route set in for situations like this.

"Only the royal family and Queen's Guard know about it." She explained, "it would be a trap to head over there."

"Is there another way? One that only your family knows about?" I wondered, "not even the Queen's Guard?"

She nodded her head, "yes, in my chamber room."

"Well, let's head there first-."

"They're over here!"

We turned our heads to see three officials running down the hall after us. They had the same uniforms as Okajima and Hazama.

"What is this disloyalty I see?" I patted Manami to head on first, then I unsheathed my sword. "You guys are always surprising me."

"Hand her over." A woman with short brown hair and misty purple eyes demanded.

"Okano, what's the meaning of this?" Okuda shouted, "why are you guys wreaking havoc? Are you the ones who killed-."

"My Queen, please don't take it personally." She cut her off, "the late King would of wanted it this way." She pointed her sword at her from the distance.

"Kimura...Kurahashi. I believed in you guys not as guards but as my friends too!" Manami was losing face and the growing sting of betrayal became a wound.

"We apologize but it must be done." The lady with short wavy orange hair and olive green eyes had two daggers in both hands. "Thank you for treating us kindly up until now."

"And yet you still point your weapons at her? Does mercy not exist amongst you people?" I sighed and lowered my sword.

"Outsiders like yourself wouldn't understand." He man with spiky black hair spoke, "unfortunately for you, you had to be caught up in all of us. The Queen is to blame for your death."

"I-I.." Manami shook her head and felt alarmed by his words.

"Manami, don't worry. Have faith in yourself, Nagisa and I don't think differently of you because your men has decided to turn against you." I assured.

I stepped forward and lifted my sword back up.
With a deep breath and exhale, I closed my eyes.
When I opened them, the three of them surrounded me and I lightly chuckled.

"One thing for sure, a few of us will have our graves dug here and that surely will not be me. Come, show me what you're capable of."
•••••
<Nagisa>
"Ah, I need to catch up with those two." I said to myself as I stuck closely to the walls without rubbing my blood against it.

All of a sudden, I heard a few people chattering at the turn of the corner. I quietly listened and reached for an arrow, peeking over.

There was two officials talking amongst themselves, their weapons concealed.

"They shouldn't be far, we have men at the escape route if they head down there. In any case, all the possible exits are closed off."

"We'll find her eventually, we have to or he'll have our heads." The other one spoke with a more frightened tone.

I ready my aim and fired.

SWOOSH

In the moment of panic, the other one started to dash of and I revealed myself around the corner and fired the second one.

THOCK

Scanning the open area, I made sure that I didn't make a commotion. After that, I dragged their bodies away from the open and leaned them against the wall. I yanked on the arrows and cleaned them off to put them back with my collection.

Out of no where, I started to smell something burning. They couldn't possibly set this palace ablaze would they?!

Immediately, I followed the smell and soon enough, I could hear the crackling of fire coming from a private room. I hesitated at the door and checked both directions, left and right before opening.

"Ouch, hot."

I turned the knob and a gust of flames roared outwards then settled within the room. I raised my arm and covered my nose and mouth entering the room, looking around. There can only be one reason to set a certain room on fire and not the others and that's to hide something.

To my discovery, I found a body melting away in the intense heat. With the flaming red light making a bit difficult to see, I was able to figure out that it was the Manami's mother on the ground by her dress she was wearing during the coronation.

I rushed over and jumped over small fires, once I made it over, I rolled her on her back and saw the slit on her throat.

"It's too late..."

I heard another voice off to the side and saw Hazama beaten up and injured, leaning on the leg of a chair.

"She's dead." She coughed up blood and groaned. "I couldn't protect her, they all attacked at once-." She cut short and shooed me away, "leave."

"What are you talking about? We have to get you out of here." I said when I got to her, kneeling by her side.

By the looks of it, Hazama doesn't seem to be like the others who've betrayed Manami in a blink of an eye. All I have to do now is trust that she is still loyal, even if I had different opinions of her in the past.

"The biggest shame for someone like me, under direct orders of the royal family is to have them die before you." She painfully chuckled and pushed me back, "I will die here too."

"No you're not." I said taking her arm and wrapping it around my shoulder, lifting her up from the ground. "Not when Manami's alive, she needs you."

"What? The Queen is alive? I thought that they were going to kill her after us-." Hazama fell into laughter as we started to walk out of room, "thank goodness."

Once we made it out of the room, she started to cough up more blood and gasp for clean air. I checked her noticed a small wound on her torso that she was placing pressure on.

"Damn, I didn't think this of all things would happen abruptly. Are you telling the truth? Queen Manami is okay?" She glanced up.

"Yes, Karma is with her right now." I stated.

"How can you be so sure that they didn't die already? The Queen's Guard are specially trained, better than a mere knight." Her stare was cold but I knew that she didn't want me to give her any means of hope and expectations.

"Well, Okajima was fairly easy." I grinned, "did get a scratch but nothing life threatening." I pointed out while we walked.

"Well, Okajima is a different case. He's more words than simple swords. The others I would say are as formidable as I am and I'm not one to flaunt about my strength." She continued to cough.

I smiled and looked over at her and she flinched.

"Even so, one thing for sure is that Karma is stronger than me."