บท 22: Chapter 22 - Jasmine Flower Tea.

The King walked towards a wall of the secret path and lightly pushed a slightly protruding brick. Then, a hidden stone table slowly raised from the ground while a part of the wall turned to the other side showing a hidden rack with a complete tea set and tea along with a water supply and heater. The King casually walked towards the tea rack and started picking a suitable tea.

Despite it's quite amazing, Rei can't help but wonder why would someone build a hidden tea table and tea rack in a secret emergency path

"Hmm... I guess he has really turned this secret path into his secret snacking place huh?" That's what she thought.

After a short while, the King returned to the bench with two cups of tea in a tray, he placed the tray on the bench in between him and Rei.

"I don't really have any fancy cups in this place, so please bear with this plain porcelain cup." said the King as he took one cup of tea for himself.

After a short hesitation, Rei took another cup as well.

As she gets the cup of tea near to her nose, she smelled a nice scent of jasmine flowers. Despite the jasmine scent giving a really nice and comfortable vibe, she was somehow confused by the tea selection of the King.

"I guess you must be wondering why I chose jasmine tea instead of any 'high standard' tea, huh? Yes, lots of tea experts and aristocrats don't like jasmine tea and considered jasmine tea as a 'low and cheap' tea for peasants, or rather they didn't even consider it as a proper tea. But I believe that, every type of tea has its own goodness, moreover, jasmine tea is quite nice if been made properly and it matched well with the pastry we have here." said the King, explaining why he chose jasmine tea.

Rei nodded before taking a small sip of the jasmine tea. As soon as the tea entered her mouth, she was blessed by the nice aroma of a combination between green tea and jasmine flower, followed by the nice 'smooth taste' of the tea, and amazingly, there wasn't a single bit of unpleasant bitterness but instead, there is a unique and subtle sweetness that coming from the tea itself without any additive.

Rei was totally amazed by that sip of tea, this is the best tea she ever had. But at the same time, she can't help but wonder about a thing...

"Do you like it?" He asked.

"Mmm... Yes, Your Majesty. It's really nice. But, Your Majesty, don't you need to add any honey or sweets to your tea?" Rei asked in a careful tone.

"Hmm?... Ah... Haha! Not really, I guess we have a really cute misunderstanding here. I am okay with tea that is not sweet. And I do enjoy it most of the time." said the King as he laughed out in joy due to the cute misunderstanding from Rei.

Rei who realised how silly her misunderstanding was, laughed out as well...

***

"Your Majesty, I had been wondering about something but I'm not sure if I should ask or not," said Rei.

"It's okay, just ask." said the King.

"I had been witnessing it a few times, you seem to be listening to Dr Ben a lot, and now you even hid from him just to have a snack, is there any special reason behind that? Or does it have anything to do with him being one of the candidates for... The throne?" Rei asked, even more careful than before.

"Well, not really, it has nothing to do with who he is. It's just that he is a good person and a very good friend. He hates troublesome stuff but always got himself involved in troubles for me, and he had been worrying about me all the time. If possible, I don't want to give him too much trouble, and I don't want him to worry about me too much. By right, he wasn't supposed to follow me to this place, he has his own life, and he deserves more personal time for himself." said the King who sounds quite serious all of a sudden.

Rei nodded without saying anything...

The King looked at the timid lady at his side, his lips curved up a bit.

Normally, he would never tell anyone too much about this sort of personal matter of himself, but she is different, from her reaction when she saw he accidentally dropped the cup due to his shaky left hand, he knew that she is different.

She could have dug deeper into that matter, particularly about his left hand, but she didn't, and instead, she is more worried that he might hurt himself because of the broken cup...

***

That night. As usual, Ben came to Rei's room for her daily body check.

"Hmm? You want to know more about our past? But why would you want to know that?" Ben asked, rather curious and slightly cautious when Rei asked about his past with the King.

"Well... I don't know, I just wanted to know him better," said Rei, who is actually more concerned about the King's health and mentality, but does not dare to ask directly.

"Well... I can't really tell you anything right now, since I doubt if he wants to let anyone knows about it so randomly, especially when it is about his health condition," said Ben who had seen through Rei's thought.

"Ah..."

"But, if you want to know some other things about him, I could tell you some," said Ben as he sensed a dash of disappointment from Rei.

"Really? Uhm... Can you tell me what he likes? Aside from sweet things." said Rei, a bit excited.

"Hmm? Haha... So, even you have realised that he likes sweet things huh? That guy is seriously... Anyway, aside from sweets, you might have noticed a bit, he likes tea, almost all sorts of tea and is particularly picky about how his tea is prepared. And... Oh, he loves forging weapons and can spend days inside a forging room to create a perfect sword that he would most likely not going to use more than ten times. And most importantly, he is a devoted cat freak." said Ben with a bitter smile.

"Cat freak?" Rei is slightly confused by that term.

"Yes, but I wouldn't tell you in detail about that. You shall find out by yourself in the future if you have a chance to take a peek at his room," said Ben as he started packing his thing into his working case.

"Ah... Hold on, Dr Ben, just one more question." Rei hastily stopped Ben just as he was about to leave.

"What is it?" said Ben.

"I remember you told me that... uhm... there is a place that is similar to a harem in this castle... Can you tell me anything about that?" Rei asked, slightly blushing.

"Uh... Yes. Sure. But again... Why would you want to know about that?" Ben asked, this time he sounds confused instead of cautious...