As soon as Arashi left, I heard a cough from the emperor and I knew he did it to get my attention. My face heated. He just witnessed a shameless thing his grandson and I did. 

I wanted to dig the ground and hide myself. 

"Young generation these days..." He muttered and I glared at him. 

"Then you should have at least sat up and said something to your grandson..." I muttered angrily. 

It was Arashi who was doing that shameless move on me. But he was my husband and more than that he didn't know his grandfather was conscious. If he had any inkling of that he would never do that since he was more reserved. 

"Careful young lady, I am an emperor. You can get annihilated if your behavior is like this." He said but his voice didn't sound threatening at all.

"And who would tell them the news of my behavior?" I smirked, "You certainly don't think I will do that."

I heard him doing a 'hmph'.

"It seems Rian needs to be careful of this lady or is it him that you are flying this high?" He asked.

I smiled. It was him. He was the reason my reserved and low esteemed self was gone. He broke those long walls which I had made for myself. He had made me who I am today and I wasn't regretting a thing. 

"So... Things have gotten this far..." He said, his voice was still hoarse. 

"Err... What do you mean?"

"So the empress doesn't want you to marry him..." 

"I am doing my training to get her approval but I am already married to him..." I said as I started to make his meal. 

"Where did you meet him?" He asked.

"At my father's abode." 

"How did you get married?" 

"He came to treat my father but my father set it up without me knowing it." I said. 

"He agreed?" 

"I don't know... But he took me with him so I think he agreed..."

"So, you aren't married...yet."

"I lived with him for five months. How am I not married?"

"So you are from Kosaki?" He said and my breath caught in my throat. How'd he guess!

"Err... What?" 

"Only the Kosakis have this kind of marriage, especially the common people." He said, his eyes still closed, "Wansai and Yokoto's marriage rituals are different. We cloak our woman in front of our God. Yokotos take vows and do ring exchanges in front of their Gods. So, with that only Kosaki remains."

He looked at me. "Tell me, are you from Kosaki?"

My breathing had increased in pace as Arashi told me never to tell anyone if I was from Kosaki or not. The Wansais didn't like them and if they found out I was going to marry their prince, they would try to assassinate me or both of us.

"I... What? It is time for your meal..." I avoided the question and sat beside him. 

"So, you are from Kosaki. Aren't you?"

"So what if I am from Kosaki? Would you try to assassinate me?" I asked but I didn't feel angry. There was a gloomy atmosphere around the emperor as if he was hurt or maybe he was tired of everything all together. I knew he wasn't going to harm me. Not because he was bedridden but he didn't feel like an evil emperor. 

Both the emperor and the empress were strict and their beliefs may differ but they never gave off a bad vibe. 

"I wouldn't do such a thing. I am not fond of killing the lover of my grandson." He sighed, "When I know he will be broken again..."

I looked at him with a gap in my face. There was pain and guilt in his small eyes that had been surrounded by wrinkles. Old age had gotten that once beautiful face of his but I could tell he was a strong person like Arashi. 

"He is very kind..." I said. 

"I know. Which is why I wanted to protect him at all cost." He said. 

"From Yukina?" I asked.

"Yukina wasn't a bad girl but from where she had come from could make matters worse. Arashi was young and naive and more than that he was kind. He had always been kind like his father, my son." He said.

His eyes fell on the wall, on a tapestry and absent-mindedly he said, "I don't have much time and how things are going. We need a suitable emperor who can look after this kingdom."

"Why are you telling me this, Emperor Seiji?" I asked, "I am no one and more than that I am from your enemy kingdom."

"I know. But you are his heart and he needs to take over the throne." He said and I shot my head at him. Goosebumps flooded all over my skin and I didn't like where it was going.

"Politics is a bad thing, young lady and I know you want to marry him as much as he does but it will only get the two of you into more trouble." He said. "By trouble I don't mean only assassination."

"Enemies will come and you might never know who is your foe or who is your friend." He continued, "Your own blood can become your death reaper."

"So you do know who has tried to kill you?" I asked because I had a hunch if Arashi could guess, he could too.

"I do know but I won't tell you."

"Why?"

"Because it would break this whole kingdom and I don't want that. If words go out, I am afraid it will be the end of Wansai." He said, his words were grave. 

"Right now Arashi needs to be the next emperor and to get as much power as he wants, he needs to marry Akio." He said and my heart thumped loudly.

I couldn't say a thing. But I now knew why he was telling me this. He wanted me to know that Arashi might get assassinated if he married me. So the best choice was to get him married to Akio. To save him. 

My lips quivered but I bit it hard. 

"Why must it be Akio?" I asked, my voice breaking at the thought.

"Because she is the daughter of the king of the west, King Otanoshi. The king has died and the kingdom is currently ruled by his cruel brother. As of now, because of his cruelty, the netizens are angry. We should hammer the iron when it is still hot." 

I couldn't believe him. He was in his deathbed a few weeks ago but his mind was still forming battle plans…

He continued, "As Akio still has their blood which means..."

"Which means if Arashi married her, he can also claim their throne." I finished and he nodded.

"So, that is the reason Akio has been your favorable grandchild for all these years..." I hissed as I looked at him with disgust filled eyes. He was only using them and Akio too was a pawn yet she didn't know it. 

"Don't look at me with those eyes, young Lady. You don't know how dirty politics is." He said.

"So, you were pretending to be still unconscious so you could have a chat with me." I said and my heart broke for Arashi.

"Yes and no." 

I didn't say a word as he said, "I do want to chat with you alone because I know Arashi is a stubborn child. He wouldn't marry anyone other than you and I am not against it myself but right now, both him and you aren't safe here." 

"I made him go to Godoyama because I knew they would be assassinating him next after my son because he is worthy of the throne." He said weakly. "But there is another reason that I can't look into his eyes…"

"What is it?" I asked.

"Yukina was also killed…" he said and I gasped. I thought she killed herself!

"You assassinate her?" 

"No. No. I would never do that and that was why I was trying to get her married to another prince as soon as possible." He said as his face showed the pain and I was biased about whether I should trust his words or not. And why was he even telling me? What was his purpose?

"Why are you confessing to me all of these?" I asked, my voice shaking.

"I don't know…" he said. "I had buried all of these in me all these years and it is hard to bear anymore…"

I noticed moisture in his eyes. He certainly looked weak and helpless even when he should be the one with power. He was the emperor after all!

He gave a dry laugh. "I think, at some point I was glad that I was poisoned. Maybe I wanted to die too."

I didn't know what to say as I only watched the old man who had been burdened with everything all these years. He certainly wanted to retire but couldn't leave the empire in bad hands.

"So his father was assassinated?" I asked. 

"Arashi doesn't know any of this. He knows his father was killed in the battle but he was killed by our own people." He said and looked at me as if pleading to hear him, "I don't want him to meet the same fate as my son. They both are the same. Kind and naive."

"So, you want me to tell Arashi that I didn't want to marry him?" I asked as my heart ached painfully.

"You can be his concubine." He said.

And from tip to toe, I felt burnt. I refused to be his concubine. I loved him and I had vowed to be by his side for support, for protection and for everything. And I wasn't going to do that from the shadows. I refused to lower myself even though I had no position. And he certainly didn't trust his own grandson. He was underestimating him too much and I felt anger boiling inside of my belly.

My eyes burnt and I said, "You have no rights to call yourself his grandfather. He loves you and believes in you yet you have no trust in your own grandson. Arashi is not naive. He may be kind but not naive."

He didn't see him like I had seen him. He was protecting Godoyama and did the peace treaty all by himself. If he was naive and stupid why 900 thousand men were following him? Did he even know that his grandson was the most powerful Prince in the whole three nations? I bet he didn't and that was why he was saying this.

He didn't even know Arashi's men were everywhere. He got every shred of information and news from everywhere. He didn't need to be notified for his enemies. He knew his enemies and that was he was here to watch over them closely.

"And I am not afraid of your enemies. You may be a coward for pretending to be still unconscious but I won't cower back from facing them. I don't know what and why exactly you didn't let Yukina marry him but I won't let that repeat again and make him broken beyond repair. Arashi and I, we both will protect each other. "

My heart pumped in my ears not out of fear, but for I wasn't afraid anymore. I knew there were so many enemies here and no one could be trusted. And maybe I was stupid but I felt we could do anything if we stayed together. "No matter what happens, I will never leave his side. I will stay with him like a leech even if I get a thousand enemies or the whole two nations go against us. You want to insult me, insult me. You want to destroy me, destroy me. You don't want to give me any status, I don't need any status. Because I am his wife, Bianka Yuan. And that alone is enough for me."

____

A/n: The plot is moving forward and it might not be a good one. Who is a friend and who is even a foe? It is hard to decide for Bianka and Arashi.

What will happen if Arashi comes to know the dark secret of Yukina? He has just started to move on from his past...

Why was she even get killed?

Well, now that Bianka has gotten into Arashi's dark world, she has to walk carefully on the eggshells. While their love is still blooming the enemies may surround them.

Will the love they have for each other finally meet its happy ending or they would just become a pawn of their own fates and everything will be finished in this dirty world that surrounded them?

With this the volumn 3 has ended.

Tell me how do you like this? Is there more questions left unanswered?

Well, I certainly had left many. Let's see if you guys have spotted them out or not.

Let me know in the comments!

I will start uploading Vol. 4 in this book after a few days later. Until then Sayonara ~

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16th Aug, 22
(2019 words)