Bab 79: The Prince's Game
"I'm asking you! Which girl made this coffee?" roared the Prince, very angry. But after a moment, his eyes turned in their sockets and he landed on the servant curiously, "Why aren't you a female human? You should be a female human."
"Are you retarded? Or do you like acting like one?" Ru asked, looking directly at the teenage Prince sitting on the cushion. "Look at you, you can't even see in front because of the jewels. What kind of ornament is this? Isn't that heavy? Don't you have a headache?"
The Prince opened the pearls covering his face to show his grin, "I like your courage, jester."
"Jester?" Ru asked, looking around.
"Hahah! You're fun," said the Prince, pointing to the checkers game before him. "Shall we play?"
"No, because you're killing those who beat you at the game," Ru said, folding his arms in front of him and frowning.
"Are you that ashamed to admit that you don't know?" the Prince asked.
"Oh yeah, I don't know," Ru rumbled.
"Come, sit down," the Prince said, patting a pillow. "I'll make you a checkers master, you'll see."
"Why do you want to do it?" Ru asked, his eyes wide with curiosity.
"Because if I give you a lesson in draughts, time will pass quickly here," the Prince said.
"Actually, I don't like this place at all, and in fact, I hate it here," Ru admitted with a shrug.
"Okay, when you take my checker lesson, you will rest. Your intelligence will increase and your mind will clear up," said the Prince, his sapphire eyes shining from behind the beads.
"Your lesson won't take long because I'm smart," Ru said, looking directly into his eyes.
"The first word you said to a dangerous being like me is 'stupid' and you're smart. If anyone else had been in my place, you would be dead," the Prince said, in a serious and deep voice.
"I was the one who put cyanide in your coffee," Ru admitted suddenly.
"Cyanide would fry me. I suppose you wanted me to turn into an ifrit," the Prince said in a questioning voice.
"So I'm trying to figure out why you're not mad at me," Ru said, taking a few steps towards the pillows.
"You are smart, though, huh?" the Prince said, pointing to the pillow on which he should sit.
"Maybe you're angry, but you're hiding it," Ru said, sitting on the pillow.
"You're a little smarter now, jester," the Prince said, arranging the pieces.
"Lirui," Ru said, pointing at himself. "But everyone calls me Ru," he added.
"Lirui, that name sounds sweet. But you are not a female," the prince said, putting the black pieces in front of Ru.
"Yes, I am a man. Why is it so important?" Ru asked, looking at the pieces.
"You're not smart, that's for sure," the Prince said, shaking his head and making the pearls in his crown clink together.
Ru took a deep breath and said, "Oh no, at most you'll kill me." Then he focused on the checkerboard. "Come on, teach me, let's play games. Let me die while having fun."
"Your disposition towards death is unamusing, Lirui," the Prince said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"After all, I am human. I have only one life." Ru said, copying the Prince, and arranging black pieces. "I can't change my body, like you genies."
"Are you a human?" the Prince asked. Suddenly, he placed his finger on Ru's finger and forced him to straighten the piece.
Ru thought he was getting an electric shock for a second. As he was pulling his hand back, the Prince grabbed him.
"Fear... Oh, I love that vibration," he said, his voice full of pleasure.
Ru was watching with fear the luminous patterns drawn on the Prince's silver skin by the blue liquid flowing through his veins. But he knew he had to suppress the fear. He gazed at the prince's face, as far as he could see through the beads, and said with a smile, "I like the vibrations you emit. I was ticklish. And a little excited, to be honest."
"I can increase the current if you want, it will be fun to watch you fry in front of me," the Prince said.
"Okay, fry me. So they can send you one of the female humans you want," Ru said.
The Prince tugged Ru's arm roughly and asked, "Who are you to tell me what to do?"
"I am a person without memory, pursued by demons. I was sold to the genies by a witch in exchange for a valuable artifact," Ru said.
"So you're worth so much," the Prince said, mockingly. And he forced Ru closer to him. "Tell me!"
"That's all I know," Ru said, distressed.
The Prince pushed him away quickly and said "You are boring."
Ru straightened his spine and rubbed his arm. He was hurt and angry. "Did you burn my friend's face because she was boring? What did that girl do to you?"
"You're less boring now," the Prince said and he showed the checkerboard. "Black always starts."
"I don't want to play," Ru roughly stated.
"So you want me to take possession of your body," the Prince said eagerly.
"Try and see," Ru said defiantly, fire starting in his green eyes.
"With pleasure," the Prince said and transformed into his smoke form. His clothes, jewels, and crown were piled on the cushion.
The blue mist encircled Ru, moving with a serpent-like grace, growing thicker and more oppressive by the second. It wrapped around his limbs, constricting him with a strange coldness that made his skin crawl. The sensation of the mist pressing against his skin wasn't entirely painful—it was worse. It felt like an invasion, an alien force trying to slip beneath his surface, suffocating his senses, and suppressing his thoughts.
Ru's breath hitched, his body instinctively tensing, but he refused to give the Prince the satisfaction of seeing his fear. His green eyes flared brighter, defiance etched into every fiber of his being.
The Prince's disembodied voice whispered from all sides, echoing with a sinister thrill, "It won't take long, human. Surrender to me."
Ru grits his teeth, fighting the dizziness that washed over him as the mist probed deeper, trying to reach his core. He felt it—something dark and unsettling—scratching at the edges of his consciousness, seeking a way in. It was like icy tendrils creeping through his mind, trying to claim him from within.
But something shifted.
Ru's body jerked violently as the Prince's essence collided with something within him. The smoke whirled frantically, as if confused, disoriented. Ru’s pulse quickened, but instead of panicking, he narrowed his eyes, feeling a surge of energy that wasn’t entirely his own. He could sense the Prince's presence faltering.
"You can’t take me," Ru growled, his voice barely more than a whisper, but laced with venom.
The mist pulsed in response, the Prince’s voice returning, this time with an edge of frustration, "What… what is this? Why can’t I…?"
Ru could feel the Prince struggling to maintain control. The cold pressure on his mind turned into sharp pain, like claws scratching against steel, unable to penetrate further. The Prince's form flickered—bits of blue light crackled in the mist, faltering as if something was disrupting his power.
A moment later, the mist shrieked, an unnatural, high-pitched sound of agony. The blue smoke twisted, contorted, and snapped away from Ru like a rubber band stretched too far. The mist lost its coherence, flashing and flickering wildly, struggling to maintain its shape.
Ru collapsed onto the cushion, gasping for breath, his heart pounding. But as his vision steadied, he saw something incredible—small fractures appeared in the air around the mist. The fabric of the genie’s ethereal form was breaking apart, the blue light to dim within.
The Prince reappeared in his physical form, panting and clutching his chest. He was completely naked. And those sparkling veins were almost stained with darkness.
"You…" the Prince muttered, his sapphire eyes wide with shock. "You’re… not just human. What… are you?"
Ru, still catching his breath, forced a grin despite the pain. "I told you. I’m a problem you can’t solve."
The Prince staggered back, a dark, oily liquid leaking from his hands as he tried to reform his body fully. His expression twisted with both pain and confusion as he realized that the damage was more severe than he expected.
"You’ve hurt me," he hissed, his voice trembling with rage. "No one hurts me."
Ru stood slowly, every muscle aching but his spirit unbroken. He stepped forward, staring the Prince down. "There’s a first time for everything."
The Prince tried to straighten, but his body flickered again, struggling to maintain its form. "This isn’t over, human," he spat, his voice laced with bitterness. "I'll figure out what you are, and when I do…"
Ru interrupted him with a sharp laugh. "You can try. But it won't end well for you."
With a final flicker, the Prince vanished, leaving behind a faint trail of blue mist that quickly evaporated into nothingness.
Ru bent down and picked up the Prince's crown. Without hesitation, he placed it on his head. The weight was unfamiliar and cold, but it felt… right. A crooked smile crept across his face as he glanced at the discarded pile of the Prince’s garments. He found the earrings—delicate, ornate, shimmering—and, with a sense of reckless defiance, put them on as well.
As the earrings clicked into place, a slow applause echoed through the room, reverberating off the walls.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
Hadiah
-- Hadiah diterima Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone