Before dawn, a knight still wearing his iron vest armor without a shirt underneath comes to the king's residence. He is Rangkabhumi, a low rank knight Prabu Jayantaka trusts the most.
He looks in a hurry, until he finds the king being alone in a certain gazebo near a waterfall.
"Jayantaka! What's the meaning of this? Why did you throw away your own child? Don't tell me you blame the baby for Gayatri's death!"
He talks so bluntly in front of the king, without showing the respect that a king usually gets from his knight.
But Jayantaka is not offended at all, because they have been close friends since childhood.
Instead of being offended, he openly shows his fragile side while holding a unique dagger with a dragon-head motif handle.
"It's not the kid. It's me! Gayatri died because of the curse I brought! It's because of this Kris," he deplores.
Rangkabhumi knows so well how the queen died, and there's nothing to do with the dagger the king is holding in his hands. "What are you talking about? Dying after delivery is not a rare case. You can't say her death was because of that Kris. How is that even possible?"
"I don't know! But recently, it kept seducing me to sacrifice my son too," utters the king with a face filled with guilt.
"What the?" Rangkabhumi looks so shocked. "Is it the devil's temptation? If it's true, you can simply ignore it, can't you? You are The Great Jayantaka. A mere devil can't simply tempt you!"
"It's not that simple!" Prabu Jayantaka gently shakes his head.
After being silent for a few moments, he suddenly takes a deep breath and then throws that mystical Kris to the waterfall.
Soon after that, he looks so weary, and then rushes to find something to hold on. He looks just like someone who has just let go of the most precious thing in his life.
Rangkabhumi's face looks so stupid. He knows how precious that mystical dagger is. But soon, that stupid face slowly turns brighter with a peaceful smile.
"There! You just threw the Kris away! There's no need for you to abandon your child now," he comforts
But the king simply shakes his head. "There is no guarantee I will have the strength to fully let it go. The devil's temptation is so strong, beyond your comprehension. I could just order everyone in the palace to look for that cursed dagger tomorrow. Who knows? Please, my friend! This is the only way. Take the baby with you, away from me, away from this cursed palace."
Rangkabhumi falls to his deep thoughts. So far, he has heard rumors quite often about the mystical Kris's contribution to Jayantaka's success in establishing the Chakradwipa kingdom.
Seeming to understand the complexity of the situation regarding that cursed Kris, he ultimately complies with the king's request.
The next morning, Prabu Jayantaka promotes Rangkabhumi to the rank of a General. He sends him to occupy Talang Asri Fortress, the kingdom's outermost fortress in the south.
"Before I leave, don't you want to give the baby a name first?" Rangkabhumi asks.
"It's Adanu Raksa. That's the name Gayatri prepared for him," replies the king. "Never tell him he was the son of the king of Chakradwipa. I don't want him to be cursed along with me."
***
In the middle of the night, Rangkabhumi and Arkadevi leave the palace by taking the king's child, with one servant named Bramasti as the carriage hackman.
Considering the long journey, Bramasti tells Rangkabhumi and Arkadevi to take a rest. But Rangkabhumi is the only one who can truly rest in peace.
Arkadewi has to breastfeed the baby to stop his crying. And Bramasti, his face is now turning red by the sight of her beautiful breast.
"So, the King assigned you to be his mother from now on?" Bramasti asks.
"Stop talking as if this baby is the king's child," replies Arkadewi coldly, talking without even looking at the hackman. "Prabu Jayantaka's decree is clear! No one must know about this child's true identity."
Bramasti feels so offended, finding that Arkadevi's way of responding to him is a form of arrogance. In his eyes, Arkadevi is only a maid in the palace, not a noble.
Despite that, he can't stop admiring Arkadevi's beautiful face which is hit by the dim light of the carriage resin lamp. He keeps secretly glancing back at her, even moving his sight to the beautiful arc in her breast.
This hackman is actually quite close with Rangkabhumi, but he never knows that Arkadevi's status is already Rangkabhumi's wife at the moment. So he keeps admiring her like there's nothing wrong with it.
At least this situation lasts until the next morning, before this hackman needs to stop to give his two horses some water.
Before going to the river, he finds Rangkabhumi chatting while teasing Adanu Raksa in Arkadevi's lap. There his jealousy begins to grow.
"That damn Rangkabhumi! Can't he just leave that maid alone? With his status, he could marry any noble woman in the palace," he whines.
When he is fetching water from the river, he accidentally finds a dagger at the bottom of the shallow river.
"No way," he mumbles with a disbelieving face. "It's Prabu Jayantaka's royal dagger."
He rushes intending to inform Rangkabhumi. But then, after he finds Rangkabhumi being so close with Arkadevi, his face contorted so badly with so much resentment.
His mind and heart are full with jealousy. He starts thinking of a way to get Arkadevi from Rangkabhumi.
Right when his jealousy reaches its peak…
<< You want her, don't you? Just admit it! >>
Bramasti is so shocked to hear a voice of someone else. But it sounds similar to his own voice, talking directly to his mind. He looks behind, but there's no one nearby.
"What was that?"
He begins to doubt his sanity. But then, his gaze slowly is averted to the mystical Kris. Whatever comes into his mind, he simply cancels his intention to inform Rangkabhumi regarding the King's royal dagger, and hides the Kris under his robe.