The moment Elena's eyes landed on Hanjun's bloodied face and Jayhon's bruised, trembling frame, her expression melted into pure, instinctual maternal anguish.
She didn't ask who they were.
She didn't ask why they were covered in sand and blood.
"Oh, my goodness... you poor, sweet things,"
Elena gasped, her voice like soft velvet.
She flew across the room, instantly dropping to her knees in front of the bench.
Without a shred of hesitation, she wrapped her arms around both Hanjun and Jayhon at the same time, pulling them tightly against her chest into a warm, crushing embrace. She had always desperately wanted a child of her own, and seeing these two starved, battered boys stirred something fierce inside her heart.
Jayhon stiffened for a fraction of a second before the sheer warmth of her embrace hit him.
His eyes welled with fresh tears, his face burying into her shoulder as he finally let out a quiet, shaking sob.
Hanjun, however, remained a perfect, rigid statue inside her arms, his chin resting flatly against her shoulder blade.
"Your body feels warm,"
Hanjun noted flatly into her hair.
"However, you seem very excited this is,strange. Are you trying to take our oxygen from us by hugging so tight untill we die?"
Elena pulled back slightly, a soft, tearful laugh escaping her lips as she gently cupped Hanjun's bruised cheek, completely unbothered by his words.
"No, sweetheart. I'm just holding you.
You're safe now." She quickly stood up, turning to Barn with a fierce, authoritative glare that made the giant guard instantly straighten his back.
"Barn, fetch the hot water and the healing salves immediately! Look at their hands... that awful sand magic has torn their skin apart!"
"On it, boss,"
Barn mumbled, quickly shuffling off toward the back room.
For the next hour, Elena took absolute, tender control.
She led them to a small, steamy washroom, gently helping Jayhon wash the dirt and parsley from his hair, and patiently cleaning the deep, jagged gashes on Hanjun's knuckles.
Her touch was incredibly light, infused with a faint, soothing green hum of gentle life-Zheki that instantly numbed the stinging pain in Hanjun's fingers.
Once they were thoroughly scrubbed and clean, Elena wrapped them in oversized, plush white towels.
She looked at them with a slightly puzzled, sheepish smile as she rubbed the back of her neck.
"Well, you're clean, but... we don't have any children's clothes in the house," Elena said softly, her charming face tilting with pity as she looked at Hanjun swimming in a massive adult-sized linen tunic. "Barn's old shirts look like tents on you.
You'll have to wear these clothes,barn wore them when he wasn't fat back in the days, still large for you but will do the job for one day,and stay inside for today.
Tomorrow morning, I'll go down to the clothier market and get you some proper trousers and shirts that actually fit. For now, you eat, and you rest."
"I always wear oversized clothes this is not a problem,"
Hanjun reported, adjusting barns old clothes.
"However, this is better than my previous stolen clothes. I will accept the delay."
"Not like you have a choice" Jayhon answered.
Meanwhile, far away from the peaceful smell of lavender, the atmosphere in the royal castle had taken a sudden, violent plunge back into absolute tyranny.
King Lucas Morvane stood in the center of his grand throne room, his golden hair perfectly brushed, though his face was a tight mask of sudden, mounting annoyance.
He had left Lilly in his private quarters for a brief moment, having suddenly remembered a highly specific detail that had been bugging his giant ego.
High Commander Kalve stood at attention at the base of the dais, his heavy visor up, revealing a face caked in sweat.
"Kalve,"
Lucas said, his voice dropping its cheerful, defensive tone and snapping back into a cold, arrogant baritone.
"I've been thinking about those two human rats from the gutter. The ones who triggered the alarm last night."
"Yes, Your Majesty?"
Kalve replied carefully. "By your explicit, frantic orders from five minutes ago, the execution was called off. The tracking squads have ceased all operations."
"Yes, yes, I had to say that because Lilly was looking at me with those giant, judgmental blue eyes,"
Lucas hissed, waving his hand dismissively as he paced back and forth. "But I just remembered something important. Those two pathetic gutter rats... they didn't just steal bread.
They killed an elite practitioner of my Sun-Zheki right inside my throne room! They broke my property! It is an absolute insult to my royal brand! Those stupid guards why did they not use any zheki!"
Kalve blinked, utterly thrown off by the King's whiplash personality. "Sire? But you just told the entire city guard—"
"I don't care what I told you in front of my future wife"
Lucas snapped, his golden eyes flaring with a dangerous, volatile heat.
"What happened to them before you called off the hunt? Did anyone engage them?"
"Uh... yes, Sire,"
Kalve stammered, pulling out a report. "Guard Rodolf of the lower slums patrol intercepted them in a courtyard.
He utilized his Sand-Zheki and was reportedly one second away from executing them before your new order arrived via messenger."
"Perfect!"
Lucas clapped his hands together, a dark, wicked grin spreading across his handsome face.
"Send him back! Tell Rodolf to take his spear, go right back out there, and terminate those two pests immediately! And listen to me carefully, Kalve—whoever tries to defend them, whoever hides them, whoever even gives them a sympathetic look... kill them too! Wipe them all out!"
"But Your Majesty... what about the public relations? What if Lady Lilly finds out?"
"She won't find out unless your big, metal mouth leaks the data!"
Lucas roared, pointing a finger directly at Kalve's nose.
"And do not interrupt me when I am in the middle of a lovely, romantic night with my soon-to-be wife! I need absolute concentration!"
Lucas took a deep breath, smoothing his golden hair back into place.
"Now, hurry up. Send Rodolf out again. Give him two backup elite guards from the inner circle, but make Rodolf their leader since he already fought the targets and knows their capabilities.
I wouldn't normally mind a couple of starving kids, but they broke one of my most loyal defenders, and that ruins my aesthetic hierarchy. Now, get out of my face!"
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
Kalve saluted frantically, turning on his heel and sprinting out of the throne room before the King could change his mind a third time.
Lucas instantly smoothed out the wrinkles in his fine silk vest, his face transforming in a split second back into a look of smooth, brainless, lovesick adoration.
He skipped out of the throne room and bounded down the corridor, bursting back into his private chambers where Lilly was still sitting on the chaise lounge, subtly trying to wipe his perfume off her wrist.
"Heeeyyy, my blue floweer"
Lucas cooed loudly, throwing his arms out wide as he sauntered toward her with a massive, oily grin.
"The boring state affairs have been thoroughly managed by my immense intellect! I am officially back, my sweet sapphire! Time for another lovely, unpolished night of pure romance!"
Lilly's entire face tightened with profound, systemic annoyance.
She internally screamed, wishing a meteor would strike the palace, but as he slid back onto the velvet cushions next to her, she forced her lips into that dazzling, utterly fake smile, batting her eyelashes like a perfectly trained doll.
"Oh, goody..."
Lilly said, acting as if she wanted nothing more in the world.
"I was so lonely without your immense, golden presence, King Lucas..."