Every night, I would stay up late and wait for Ren to return. I would offer to bathe him as an excuse to spend even more ti together. As the days went by, I started to notice more injuries on Ren’s body. It started off with a few grazes on his knuckles and then so small cuts here and there, mostly on his arms. Ren never ntioned anything to , but I would use the excuse of bathing him to fully inspect his body.
“You should go to sleep first. There’s no need for you to wait up for ,” Ren said on one of the nights when he ca back to the tent.
“I wouldn’t do that. More like, I couldn’t sleep no matter how hard I tried. I want to see you, Ren,” I said before I offered him one of my sweetest smiles.
He smiled back at . Knowing that he didn’t want to approach him when he was unclean, I quickly offered to bathe for him. I wished it was just my imagination, but I knew well that it wasn’t so. Today Ren’s injuries had gotten worst.
“Ren, let patch you up...” I offered imdiately after he got out of the bath.
“It’s nothing but a few scratches here and there,” Ren replied.
“You had a lot of blood on you...” I said as I recalled the state that he was in when he first ca back.
“It’s not mine...” Ren replied flatly.
“Are you sure? Anyways, just let see, ok? I’ll apply so dicine so that your wounds don’t get infected,” I quickly offered.
“They’re just scratches, Rin,” Ren said and I knew that he didn’t want to worry.
“Please just let heal it. Please...for my sake...” I pleaded.
Ren gave in with a sigh and I led him to the bed and urged him to sit down before I went to fetch so dicine and bandages. I hated the sight of Ren coming back to the tent covered in the color and sll of blood even if the blood wasn’t his own. Quickly, I fetched the dical kit before returning to Ren’s side.
He was right, his injuries were insignificant. It probably didn’t hurt much if he didn’t move his hands and arm around, but I knew that he had to so this needed to be dealt with as soon as possible. Infections were no joke, and it could lead to fever and other conditions so I needed to prevent that as well. I felt Ren’s eyes on as I started applying dicine to his cuts.
Honesty, I wanted to take care of Ren. The main reason I studied and trained so hard was so that I could heal Ren when he got hurt. However, I hated patching Ren up simply because that ant that Ren had been hurt sohow. My brows furrowed together as I focused on making sure that I got every single scratch on his body.
“When I was a boy, I got these small injuries quite a lot from fighting and sword training with my masters,” Ren spoke up suddenly.
“Really? I didn’t think that they would let the crown prince get hurt...” I replied in surprise.
“Well, anything is fine for them as long as I don’t die,” Ren said with a laugh, although I didn’t think that that was funny.
“I see...” I mumbled as I continued to apply dicine to more of his cuts.
“Whenever I get injured, I would run to my mother at her palace after the training was over. I wanted her to tend to my wounds and heal instead of the royal doctors. Of course, I didn’t expect her to know how to tend to my wounds properly, but I still wanted her to take care of . However, she never did,” Ren said with a faraway look in his eyes as if he was recalling so old mories from the past.
“That’s...” I began saying and then quickly realized that I didn’t have anything to say.
“Harsh? My mother was always like that towards . She would always push away even if I was sick or injured, she wouldn’t take care of like a mother normally would...” Ren said emotionlessly.
I felt like Ren wanted to tell sothing, but it was hard for him to put it into words. Although he made it sound like it didn’t bother him, I was certain that it must have hurt him a lot when he was younger.
“She must have had her reasons...” I said, wondering what those reasons were. Her reasons, whatever they were, were probably what Ren wanted to tell through this story of his.
“She did. My mother was a political hostage that was sent to represent her town when my father conquered it. She was one of the many that were offered to my father as his concubine. She didn’t love my father at all but as fate would have it, she was the first woman to get pregnant with his child and gave birth to his son. Obviously that child was ,” Ren stated flatly.
I listened attentively as Ren told his story about his mother. The previous empress was a political hostage just like and the other concubines in the inner court. If I have Ren’s child, I’ll probably follow closely in her footsteps.
“For my mother, giving birth to was the worst thing that could have happened in her life. She was forced to beco the empress and lost all hopes of returning to her hotown. She hated everything and everyone. She hated my father and she hated as well. In the end, she beca a nun and soon passed away from illness,” Ren told his story in a detached way.
“I’m sorry to hear that...” I whispered sadly.
“It was an illness that ultimately ended her life, but it was like she took her own life. She wanted to die so badly...” Ren said, and for a mont, I felt like he was far away.
“It must have been very hard on you...” I said comfortingly.
“I never paid attention to won in my inner court. They all reminded of my mother. I’m not saying that I’m inexperienced with won. Just like any man, I’ve sought for comfort from many won during my travels from brothers and the like. However, I’ve never bedded a political hostage before in my life. You’re the first and will probably be the only one...” Ren said ending with a soft laugh.
--To be continued...
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