King Wesely definitely gave off the appearance of a gluttonous and greedy king more than a wealthy, powerful monarch. His hair appeared greasy like he hadn't washed it in weeks, maybe months, and he certainly smelled that way too. When he allowed us into his..."humble" abode, I got a massive whiff of his natural odor. In fact, the two knights accompanying him seemed to only breathe through their mouths to avoid inhaling that absolutely preposterous stench. Well, it sounded that way.
"Here, take a seat." Wesely said as he took Luca and I to the main room of the castle. It was extremely spacious, it reminded me of a library, which through me off because King Wesely didn't strike me as the type to read. There were many bookshelves, hosting books with a vast array of colors and genres.
In the middle of the room were two couches facing each other with a small table in between them, likely where the monarch had his discussions with friends, or maybe other leaders. A giant window was distanced around twenty feet away from the couches, giving us a stunning view of Zelch Kingdom. Luca and I sat down on the same couch, facing King Wesely as his knights stood beside him. I couldn't bare the stench...the guy smelt horrendously bad.
"So...tea?" The king asked.
"I'm okay." I answered, while Luca accepted his offer. King Wesely's face scrunched up into an expression of grimace when he heard my answer.
"Excuse me?" Just then, I saw his knights begin to unsheathe their swords.
Just a second ago, he was grinning ear-to-ear because Luca and I finally arrived, but now he was genuinely mean-mugging me. I swear I could see a dark aura envelop his entire body. Luca nudged his right elbow into my left shoulder, as if he were telling me to change my answer.
"I mean, yes please, Your Majesty." When I changed my answer, Wesely held up his hand, silently commanding his knights to put their swords back in their sheathes.
"Great!" He exclaimed. "Sandra, you heard them." King Wesely snapped his fingers and one of his knights moved to the back of the room and grabbed a kettle of tea off a table. Do they just have these randomly in the room? "I'm glad you were able to come on such short notice. Before we continue, do you two have any questions?"
"Well," I started, "I have one. Why did you call us here as bodyguards if you have knights with you?" Sandra began pouring three cups of tea for me, Luca, and Wesely as I talked. As soon as Sandra finished his, Luca began to take a sip.
"I'm so very glad you asked! To answer simply, these two are my last. All the others have been killed, unfortunately. Gruesomely, too. Decapitated, split in half, missing innards, you name it! I believe it's the work of an insane assassin after my head!" King Wesely enthusiastically explained. It sent a shiver down my spine, and I could tell Luca was visibly shaken up as well. He didn't even seem to care about his dead men. It sounds like they were dealing with a classic Fiend, but if it could exterminate a legion of knights, it had to be of a higher caliber.
"Well," Luca cut in. "These two knights must be pretty tough, eh? Hahaha!!" It seemed Luca was trying to lighten the mood, however, the knights stayed still as they kept their hands on their swords. You could definitely tell they were Wesely's Royal Guard, their armor was gold, helmets and all. I couldn't see their faces, but I knew Sandra was obviously female. Her figure was petite compared to the masculine body of her fellow knight.
"Nope, in fact, they are complete cowards! Come, Sandra and Talton, show these heroes your cowardly faces!"
Upon that command, Sandra and Talton removed their helmets with grace, slipping right off. They were Milchiens, a race of serpentine-humanoids with long, forked tongues, fangs that ejected venom, and pale skin. They're native to the central parts of the West Continent, so you don't get to see one of them everyday.
Sandra had shoulder-length light purple hair. She looked nervous, and a little sweaty. I'll admit she was cute, but a cuteness you could see in a little sister. She was adult, yeah, but I was definitely older than her. Talton on the other hand, was large. No where near the height of Luca, and only a bit taller than me, but he was very muscular, and his face was broad. His hair was short and black, and scars ran along his face. I felt bad for them, being humiliated like this. Wesely obviously doesn't know how to read a room, another reason not to like this guy.
"It's unfortunate," he continued, "Sandra is heavily pregnant at this moment with Talton's child, so they're supposed to be on vacation."
"You're not serious!" I blurted out and stood up in a sudden burst of disbelief. As someone with a heavily pregnant wife, I couldn't imagine her fighting for her life at this moment, especially for some fat, stinky king. This guy was really starting to bug me. Luca put his hand on my shoulder and looked at me, shaking his head as if he were telling me to calm down. I could only let out a sigh while I sat back down.
"Yes, yes, I know! That's why I called you two! Luca and I go way back, and now that he has a friend equal to him, I'm sure you both can take care of this assassin!"
"Yes, we can." Luca said. "We'll start today, so you can send both Sandra and Talton at this moment, Your Majesty." Luca was surprisingly calm. Well, to be fair, he's always been the more level-headed than I have. That, and he's known Wesely for a long time, so he was used to how he behaved. Luca, you certainly are a better man than me.
"Oh, wonderful! Well, you heard him, Sand and Tal, you may return home until further notice!" Wesely clapped his hands together and jumped up and down in his seat. With that, a face of relief washed over the faces of Sandra and Talton.
"Very well." Talton said.
"Farewell, Your Majesty." Sandra followed. The Milchien lovers joined hands and walked out of the room. Before they left, Talton mouthed the words "thank you" to Luca. I saw Luca give a heartwarming smile to him.
"Okay," I began. "Starting today, we are the bodyguards of King Wesely. We'll accompany you everywhere, except to the toilet, if that's fine with you."
"Yes, yes, very well. Now come along, you two! First task of the day, watch me eat breakfast." King Wesely exclaimed as he hopped up from his seat, waddling out of the room. I sighed, highlighting my dread for this job. Luca chuckled and patted my back as he got up from the couch, following King Wesely.
□ □ □
The day went by excruciatingly slow. King Wesely's life was painfully uneventful. All this guy did all day was eat, do a bit of paperwork, lounge around his castle, and sleep with concubines. Thankfully, while he was with his girls, he let Luca and I leave the room so we didn't have to be present when that was occurring. To be completely honest, his life was a bit similar to mine in terms of sleeping with women, but those women are my wives, and I definitely work more than he does. I did like his castle, though. There were many portraits of beautiful women, lovely landscapes, and even one of a small puppy with fur as white as the hair of the boy in my dreams. I liked all the space he had, massive corridors, a personal library, many windows, great food, and an overall nice appearance. It would have been so close to a 10/10 if not for that man's horrendous odor.
That night, Luca and I were guarding King Wesely's room. Both of us could easily here him with his concubines...most of the noises weren't even from the girls. Luca and I snickered and giggled at how silly that old fart sounded, something a couple of fifteen-year-olds would do. I'd be lying if I said we weren't a little immature despite the fact that we're almost thirty, but Wesely sounded ridiculous, the guy was panting like a dog in the summer heat.
It was dark, the only thing illuminating the hall were the two lanterns that Luca and I were given by Wesely and the large window also in the hall. The moon was red. I was feeling uneasy the entire time, the only thing keeping me from feeling entirely uncomfortable were the silly jokes Luca and I were making about Wesely's hilarious sounds. The reddish-pink light from the moon invaded a section of the hall, making the dark blue carpet a shade of purple. I stared at the moon, just thinking about that specific dream. What does this mean? Why has the moon been turning-
"Move!"
Just then, I was pushed to the ground by Luca, dodging a whip-like attack that slashed away at the wall near the door of Wesely's bedroom and harshly attacked the air, making my ears ring. My mind went blank, my heart pounded as my legs became weak. I couldn't stand, not at all. I had to come back to my senses. What was happening? I looked up from where the attack came from. All I could see was Luca's dark blue armor gleaming in the moonlight, facing off against a black, furry beast with piercing golden eyes.