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2.82% The Crown's Entrapment / Chapter 23: Fear of Nudity

Chapter 23: Fear of Nudity

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.


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Eustoma_Reyna Eustoma_Reyna

Mass Release 3/10

next chapter

Chapter 24: You’re Simply Stupid

Darius's line on his forehead continued to wrinkle as he eyed Xen.

He was getting anxious, seeing the various expressions playing on the lad's face. The worst however was when the lad would bite his lower lip. It was annoying as hell for him, how the action somehow had an intense effect on him.

Finally removing his gaze from him, he was mortified when he bowed his head and glanced at his erection growing under the water.

'This isn't good,' Darius frustratingly thought. In response, he bathed in a rush and quickly got dressed.

"You can now open your eyes, Xen. For goodness sake!" Darius chided.

Hearing him, Xen slowly opened his eyes. He straightened her back and raised his chin when he saw that he already had his trousers on.

He had an awkward smile as he whispered, "Thank you so much, Your Majesty, for understanding my situation. Again, I apologize for any inconvenience-"

"Move to the corner," Darius instructed.

"You're going to sleep beside me?"

Darius, finally on the verge of his patience, snapped, "And do you want me to sleep on the floor? Don't you see that there's only one bed and it's big enough for more than three people alone?"

He let out a sigh of relief when Xen just moved to the side of the bed and let him lay comfortably beside him. Darius could tell what Xen was thinking as the lad stared at him in disbelief.

"What? It's normal for a servant to sleep in the same bed as their King. You're my warrior-servant Xen, so you also have to look after me. What if I have a nightmare Xen? So relax and clear those doubts that are way too visible on your face. Stop sighing and rest. We have another long day tomorrow, and I want to sleep early…" Darius murmured, hoping Xen would simply obey without any more questions.

But to his disappointment, Xen moved to get up from the bed. He opened his eyes and asked, "What now?"

"I haven't cleaned up, Your Majesty, and I need to go to the privy chamber for a while," Xen murmured.

"Okay, go…" Darius said and watched Xen move towards the small room. He had asked for a chamber with complete amenities, so he watched Xen enter the door and watched him come out and clean his teeth and face in the distance.

'Such graceful movements for a lad!' he suspiciously observed.

Xen was hiding something just based on the inconsistency of his alibis alone. First, there was an arranged marriage, and now a fear of nudity? He wondered what other reasons he would have next to become a wanderer as their journey together continued.

Darius watched as Xen carefully walked towards him but paused as his eyes darted towards the small chair and table inside the room.

"What are you waiting for? Come to bed and sleep," Darius commanded.

"Don't keep your king waiting. And don't you dare tell me you have a fear of sleeping beside someone. It would be too ridiculous to believe!"

Sensing the lad come forward with soft footsteps and climb on the bed, Darius heaved a sigh of relief. After a while, he carefully turned to face Xen's back, making sure that the latter was already asleep.

"He sleeps so easily," Darius murmured with a sigh. He wondered how long he would be in this limbo of confirming Xen's gender.

[Your problem will easily go away if you would just strip her right here and now.] Zeus grunted, becoming rather impatient as well.

[Let's sleep, Zeus. Stop tempting me with your barbaric ways. Xen is not like us. He is a human, and we should respect his beliefs even if he belongs to me now.] Darius mentally chided.

[If we do it your way and he turns out to be a woman, do you think she will even accept me afterwards? She would deny me, and I don't want to force a woman just because she's my mate. You do know that I still don't believe in Mate Pull. I will do what I want and get any woman I want, even if she's not my mate.]

[Yeah, and you can't deny that you want Xen. So stop with the boring speeches and just let me rest if you plan to do things your way.] Zeus chided.

Darius rolled his eyes and mentally murmured, [You're the one who interrupted me, suggesting your barbaric ways.]

Zeus only answered him with a snarl.

Hearing him, Darius sighed and closed his eyes, hoping that sleep would knock on his doorway soon. But sleep was too fleeting to his aide.

Darius's eyes were wide open as he moved and absentmindedly stared at the ceiling.

[He mentioned about an arranged marriage, Zeus.] Darius murmured to Zeus.

[Precisely, you dumbo! She's a woman escaping an arranged marriage. She's wearing a disguise to keep herself from being discovered, don't you think?]

Such a conclusion made sense, and instantly, Darius's eyes lit up with hope.

[How about you do this? Hug her now and pretend to accidentally touch her chest and grab a feel of her breasts?]

[Take note of your thoughts and actions. Don't push me too hard. You look like a pervert in heat! Wait till we find out more about Xen, and for goodness sake… you better be right! Or else I will kill you myself!] Darius grunted.

Zeus growled and whined, [I am right! I can smell her perfectly! You're simply stupid.]

Darius only sighed as he moved to his side and faced Xen's back again. He obviously wanted Xen beside him despite the torment on his part.

Darius moved closer to Xen and buried his face in Xen's nape. The lad's intoxicating smell was so pleasant that he had difficulty controlling himself from just approaching him and sniffing him to his heart's content.

Zeus was right, he wanted nothing more than to pull Xen closer and bury his teeth in Xen's neck to mark and claim him as his.


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Eustoma_Reyna Eustoma_Reyna

Mass Release 4/10

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