Chapter 32 - Danger.

"Your Majesty! Are you alright?" Rei asked, who sounds rather worried.

"Get into that secret path under my working desk... Now!" The King shouted, rather anxious, while at the same time, a bit out of breath.

Then, without giving any time for Rei to react, the King hastily dragged Rei with him to his working desk and opened the secret door under the desk. Under the door, there is a staircase leading to an underground space.

As soon as the King led Rei down to the underground space through the staircase, he immediately closed the secret door.

After confirming that the secret door is securely closed, he dragged himself down the staircase and reached his hand to a switch on the wall, turning on the light before sitting down on the ground and leaning to the corner of the wall with his eyes closed.

Rei looked at the King, she was rather concerned as he was obviously not looking well.

As he grasped for the air, his right hand held onto his left chest as his mouth slightly opened, and droplets of sweat can be seen dripping down from his forehead to his face which got paler every second.

"Your Majesty..." Rei softly called for the King as she was uncertain of what she should do to make him feel better at the current situation.

Upon hearing the call from Rei who was on the verge of crying, he forced a smile out of his pale lips without saying anything. However, that doesn't help at all, it ached Rei's heart even more and it somehow triggered a bad childhood memory of Rei where both her parents are bedridden due to some incurable illness.

She remembered how she was helplessly rubbing her parent's arm with her slightly trembling tiny hands trying to ease their suffering even for a tiny bit.

Overwhelmed by the fear from that piece of memory, Rei started doing so to the King as well. From that action of Rei, the King noticed her fear but he somehow misunderstood that she was scared by the current situation they are facing. With that misunderstanding, he gently pulled her near to his side and embraced her with his right hand that was holding onto his left chest just a moment ago.

Despite being totally unprepared and surprised by this sudden hug from the King, Rei did not reject him, as he gently pulled her to him, she carefully leaned her head to his chest, fearing that she might hurt him if she got too rough. As her face got really near to his chest, she can feel the reassuring warmness of his body temperature which slightly contradicted with his slightly unstable heartbeats that raised her concerns even more...

"Rei... Did you hear that noise?"

"Heh?"

That slightly frail voice of the King dragged Rei's attention back to their current situation. And yes, just as mentioned by the King, Rei heard a faint but clear rustling noise from another side of the secret path.

Alerted by the noises, the King forcibly dragged his almost collapsing body up while guarding Rei at his side. They carefully paid close attention to the noise that got nearer and nearer every second, and when the noise got close enough, Rei found out that the rustling noise she heard is quite similar to the noise made by a pair of feet that walked with a dragging motion.

"That sounds like footsteps... Someone must have opened the secret path entrance from the other side... But... Those footsteps... Doesn't sounds like a living person's footsteps..." said the King who sounds even more out of breath than a moment ago.

Then, he hastily reached a button panel on the wall and remotely locked the door from the other side before pulling out a sword that is hidden between the slit on the corner of the wall as soon as he noticed a deformed humanoid figure that can be seen walked out from a sharp turn which is less than twenty meters from them.

After taking a clear look at that humanoid figure, they realised that it was a lower-ranked palace guard with half of his face mangled, and just like the palace guards outside of the King's palace, both of the palace guard's hands had turned into a pair of deadly deformed claws, blood can be seen dripping from the tip of the claws...

***

Escorted by the King, Rei stared at that deformed palace guard while trying her best to stay calm as she slowly retreated and distanced herself from the palace guard. They were planning to leave the spot quietly without drawing the attention of that deformed palace guard to avoid any unnecessary fight since the King is obviously not in a good condition for that while Rei is totally defenceless.

However, just as they thought they were able to get away safely, some banging noises along with a near devilish screech can be heard from the other side of the secret door which successfully draws the attention of the deformed palace guard who was just dazing at the wall without making any obvious movements. Triggered by the banging sounds and the screech, the deformed palace guard aggressively ran towards Rei and the King like a beast that lost control.

With his bloody claws and partially mutilated mouth with bloody sharp fangs exposed, the deformed palace guard charged directly towards Rei for some unknown reason but fortunately, the King blocked him with his swords just before he could reach Rei.

"Rei, take cover under the table over there, I will get everything settled in three minutes, and... Don't look." said the King as he adjusted his breath.

Despite not very understanding why he told her not to look at him, Rei sheepishly nodded and did as he instructed, taking cover under a table three metres away from her original position.

Under the table, she faced the wall and did not dare to peek as she was told not to do so, but she can hear the fierce fight between the King and the assaulting palace guard clearly.

The clash between the King's sword and the palace guard's claws, the sounds of a sword slicing through fleshes followed by a scary screech and sounds of blood splashing. She heard everything...