Chapter 10. No Room for Confusion

NABU

My eyes peel open to the sight of a peach-colored bird whistling and dancing around the sun. My head is muddled, and my vision is hazy. With every breath I take, my insides growl like a motor. It is as if viscous liquid fills my thorax, leaving only a small passage for air into my lungs, making it difficult, even burdensome, to breathe.

“…I see the way you look at her, Cyrus. Let me advise you, take that thought out of your mind. She’s royal blood, a monarch. You’ll only be a liability…”

I hear numerous harsh whispers in the background, but I am too weak to move, too numb to react. It feels like I am floating in an invincible cloud.

“Don’t you think I know that?” a second voice replies.

“You know nothing, Cyrus!”

“And what about you? What would you know about love and affection? Nothing…”

“That’s totally untrue. I am way smarter than you, for I have had many women yet did not fall in love.”

“Oh, shut up.”

Cackles of laughter