I held my gasp that was about to leave from my mouth. The men stood as a protective barrier around us. Some even stood beside Arashi but everyone's eyes were on the Yamaguchi clan members but my eyes moved back and forth to Arashi and to the clan members. My mind strangely wasn't coping with the situation.

And it seemed all the clan members' jaws dropped on the ground together as they looked at Arashi with big gaps in their mouths and they weren't the only ones. I was included as well.

The first question that came to me was...

"W-who are you?" Hayato asked the question which I wanted to know the answer to as well.

"Who knows?" Arashi answered and I shot my eyes at him from behind although he wasn't aware.

The men didn't appear as samurais at all yet they seemed to be following his orders. Who was he? Why would they follow him if he wasn't someone with a good status? Clearly they wouldn't follow a normal physician, would they?

"Hayato..." A man beside Hayato said with a pair of wide eyes, "These soldiers seem familiar."

It seemed like they had a hunch who they were but Hayato clearly didn't know as he asked, "Who are they?"

"Look at their clothes! The emblems they have..."

Hayato as well as I looked at the men's emblems which were carved on the sleeves of their left arms. It was written '黒'(Kuro).

What did it mean? What did it have to do with 'black'?

But it seemed Hayato got the clue and now his eyes bulged out from their sockets. He stammered, "Bu-but the Kuro soldiers belong to-"

Color drained from all the members of the Yamaguchi clan as Hayato asked, "They belong to-"

"Me." Arashi said, holding his chin high in the air as the ground beneath their feet perished.

"B-but, y-you are..." Hayato looked like he was going to faint as realization hit him although I still didn't get it. I had never heard of Kuro soldiers... Was Arashi a leader of an illegal organization? My heart sank. No! He was a good man and my heart wouldn't believe that yet my mind was telling me otherwise.

"Now that we know, all of the things you have been doing are not under your emperor's or your prince's commands, it is time you all will be sustained from your positions and the Yamaguchi clan will face the punishment," the man beside Arashi said in a deep voice.

At that Hayato and his companions' faces turned pale and they immediately bowed down on the ground. "Please, spare us, Prince Rian. We didn't know it was you."

I blinked. Prince Rian?

"So if it wasn't me, you'd do the same..." Arashi said and my mind wasn't following any of their conversation.

"No, no! Your highness, we would never do this again. Please spare us."

"That would be decided by the emperor, not me." Arashi said and ordered his men, "Take them to the father emperor."

"But taking Godoyama is the best option if we ever face our enemies again." Hayato said.

"Godoyama is a free village and they never wanted to be under any of the kingdoms."

"But we can provide them with everything..."

"And turn their village into a battle ground?" Arashi asked as Hayato didn't say a word further. He should know that all three kingdoms will fight if any of them tries to take the village along with the mountains.

Arashi said, "Leave them as they are. The peace treaty for the village has been formed and I don't want anyone to fight over the mountains."

The men immediately captured all of them and dragged them away as they howled in fear and cried to spare them.

I thought we were about to die here yet it took another turn and I came to know of some facts I had no clue.

Arashi turned around and our eyes met. The tension came back on his shoulders as he averted his eyes away from. He had never told me that he was a prince. Why didn't he tell me? And I knew he felt a little guilty as he averted his eyes from me.

Sadness etched in my heart that he didn't trust me enough to say that he was in fact a prince. I was his wife but now that I think about it, I didn't have any status to marry a prince. Maybe he never thought of me as his wife or, maybe he already had a first official wife.

I felt my chest tightening at the thought and my shoulders slumped down.

He ordered one of his men, "Prepare to go back to Godoyama."

The man who had been standing beside him all this time knelt down before him and said, "If His Highness permits, I shall convey an important message to him."

Arashi said, "Speak."

"I came back from the capital and father emperor is on his deathbed." He said as Arashi's eyes turned wide and he went still.

The man said, "The emperor wishes to see you one last time. If his highness permits, we shall prepare to go to the kingdom."

For a while Arashi didn't say a thing but I felt he was in pain. The emperor might be his father or someone close to him and hearing that would be painful. My heart clenched for him.

He didn't let the news break him as he nodded curtly and said with a hard voice, "Prepare to go back to Wansai."

And my body froze.

Wansai?

Arashi looked at me but I didn't ask anything as now everything was becoming clear. The dots were joining and I could only assume who he was.

Why was the Yamaguchi clan afraid when they found out who Arashi was? They didn't care about Prince Sen even though he was from another kingdom and had a quite large power behind him.

It all made sense now why he said that he saved Prince Takashi from himself.

I instantly realized who the Kuro soldiers were.

Why he never told any of my family or me who he was.

The ground beneath me perished as I looked at him, my eyes becoming puffy. The bile that formed in my throat became hard and my eyes stayed on him. This time he didn't avert his eyes but looked at me with hard eyes.

Tears appeared around the corners of my eyes as the tightness in my chest felt heavy. He came closer with a strong face and long strides because he knew I realized everything before he said anything.

I looked up at him as the first tear drop left from my eyes. With a breathy voice, I asked as a sniffle left, "You..."

"Yes. I am the Prince of Wansai."

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20th June, 22
1148
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|Author's Note|

With this, the vol 2 has ended. I will be taking a short break so I uploaded the last three chapters of Vol 2. While I was away, enjoy it. XD

From Vol 3, things will be different and let's see if Bianka can cope with everything or not. ;)

By the way,

It is still a chibi art and I am yet to learn the manga art. I know it is not that good but I tried. I am still practicing manga art so it might take a while to draw them. The images I have in my mind is hard to display on the paper. >_<

If anyone wants to see how I have done the arts, you can see it on my instagram.

And don't forget to comment, like and add this book. XD