In one swift motion, The King carried Xenia in his arms towards the bed.
"What is wrong with you? You should be the one serving me, not me carrying you like this!" He then gently put her on the bed and murmured, "Stay here while I call for a Healer."
Hearing him, Xenia panicked, thinking that her disguise would be blown by a healer looking after her body. As such, she immediately opened her eyes. Xenia froze as their eyes met. There was only an inch of distance separating their faces from each other.
"You're good now? What happened?" King Darius questioned with snapped eyebrows.
"Your Majesty, can you move? I can't breathe…" Xenia whispered.
At her words, he quickly moved away and stared at her in disbelief. "Explain," he demanded.
Xenia sat up on the bed and said, "Oh, this happens to me often. You see, I have this illness…"
"What?!" he burst.
"I… I have this fear of nudity…" Xenia murmured with a slight bow of her head, hoping desperately that the King would buy her alibi.
A moment of silence followed, but a bout of loud laughter from King Darius broke through the tension. Hearing him, Xenia raised her head to look at him.
"Are you being funny right now, Xen? Because it's actually effective…" King Darius heartily chuckled. He had probably never heard of such an absurd illness like that in his entire life.
"But I'm serious, Your Majesty. I tend to faint, but it's not always like this. Sometimes, I experience difficulty in breathing just like a while ago when you suddenly shapeshifted back in your human form," Xenia desperately explained, keeping firm eye contact with the King to convince him that she was dead serious.
She had honestly heard of such a case from a mage friend, Jayra, in their kingdom before; that someone having that disorder had asked for help from her to treat it with her magic.
"This is why I became a wanderer, Your Majesty… To find a cure for this illness," she morosely said, "I wanted to have my own family and have a life partner, but this illness will prevent me from having that. So if Your Majesty will be considerate enough, then please let me assist you in anything that does not involve any nudity…" she bravely requested.
The King's intense and scrutinizing gaze made goosebumps appear all over her body. However, she had to meet his stare to convince him that she was dead serious about what she just said.
Darius's eyes narrowed as he incredulously asked, "Fear of nudity? I didn't see you having problems talking with my bare-chested men a while ago."
Xenia purposely shrugged her shoulders as she emphasized, "Your Highness, I'm referring to nudity as in the whole body from head to toe, like when you shapeshifted back into your human form a while ago. The chest is tolerable, but I can't handle seeing your whole body naked."
She sagely continued, "I almost died a while ago, but I managed to keep myself calm since I hoped that His Majesty wouldn't see this weakness in me. But tonight, I couldn't help myself from fainting just from the thought of removing your last piece of clothing. Feel free to assign me to any personal chores like feeding you or anything, but please don't make me undress, bathe you, or help you in getting dressed."
There was a wry smile on him as he denoted with lifted brow, "All the more reason for you to complete such tasks so that you can overcome that kind of disorder, Xen. I will help you conquer that fear."
'Is he for real?' Xenia inwardly retorted, utterly speechless with how persistent the man before her was. She was just hopelessly debating with this man at this point, who seemed to not run out of answers to everything.
"But-" Xenia murmured.
"No more buts. This is for your own good as well. Who knows? I could be the answer to your disorder," King Darius scoffed.
"The best way to conquer your fears is always to face them head on without hesitation. I won't mind watching you faint over and over again till you will eventually get used to it. And who knows? You might end up not fainting in due time whenever you see 'full body nudity'."
Darius moved without batting an eye. No one knew what he was thinking with his stoic expression as his eyes never left hers. He then started removing his trousers in front of Xenia.
Her face paled so hard that she immediately closed her eyes, tightly shutting them off from the world as she squealed, "I'm sorry, Your Highness, but I'm not ready to die just yet! I assure you that I will lose all the air in my lungs if you continue stripping in front of me like that!"
Darius carefully studied Xen's expression, and he frowned as he moved to undress on his own. He then irritably dipped his body in the tub filled with warm water.
"You're the weirdest person I've ever met," the King commented.
Xenia let out a sigh. With her eyes shut, she couldn't see but she felt the king's gaze as it still lingered on her. From the sound of footsteps and splashing water, she assumed that the King was already taking care of bathing himself. She could also hear his silent curses, and she unconsciously bit her lower lip in response.
She could only hope that the King wouldn't torture her for another night like this.
They would have approximately four days and three nights of traveling by horse left, if she was right, before reaching the Kingdom of Ebodia, presumably before nightfall.
But… If they continued traveling during the day in the King's wolf form, they could probably arrive a day before the wedding ceremony, giving her more than enough time to correct her mistakes and save her sister.
Her shoulders dropped at the thought of how she would continue convincing the King to travel in his wolf form when she couldn't even please him as his personal servant.
Surely, he would definitely refuse to accommodate her wishes tomorrow in traveling in his wolf form because of what happened tonight and the sudden mention of her so-called fear of nudity.
Knowing how active his brain was, he would surely slap her with the excuse that it would simply be better to keep on traveling as it is, not shifting on and off from his wolf form.