"Maybe you've forgotten, but that was one of the rules I spent half my life teaching you.
How can the son of the Crown Ribbon be so stubborn, careless, and childish?
When I was your age, I was already ruling that kingdom alone."
Kyoren's breath caught.
His heart thudded, caught between embarrassment and guilt, yet a spark of silent defiance burned under it . He thought :
"Why does he always insult me like this…?"
The thought stung as much as it comforted.
Instinctively, Kyoren's gaze flicked away again... but Kuradome's hand shot out, gripping the back of Kyoren's head by the scarf tied through his grey hair.
Not painfully hard, but firm enough that Kyoren winced and his mouth fell slightly open.
"No looking away when someone speaks to you. That's cluelessness," Kuradome growled, voice low.
"A future Crown Ribbon doesn't act this nervous around anyone."
Kyoren swallowed tightly and quickly nodded, forced to keep his golden eyes on his father.
Kuradome tilted his head back just a little, searching his expression.
"Let me see. Don't you dare move or flinch away," he murmured, rough but gentler now.
His gaze drifted to the half-healed wounds.
Kyoren's heart pounded , hid mind raced :
"Can't he check without grabbing me like prey…?"
Kuradome's warm hand pressed lightly over the wound.
Kyoren hissed, biting his lower lip hard, one eye shutting tight from the pain.
Kuradome's red gaze held his, eyes flickering between worry, anger, and something more tender he never spoke aloud.
"Hurts too much?" he asked, voice soft as falling ash.
Kyoren nodded once, ears still drooped low.
"Remove your ribbon," Kuradome ordered quietly.
"It must feel heavy by now."
He gently untied Kyoren's layered black ribbon himself, the pearls clicking together with a soft echo.
Kyoren's eyelids grew heavier, weighed down by tiredness and something warmer... the feeling of being seen, if only for a moment.
Kuradome placed the ribbon carefully on the table beside them.
Seeing Kyoren's exhaustion deepen, Kuradome raised two fingers to his own forehead. A faint wine-red glow lit his fingertips.
Then he pressed them lightly to Kyoren's brow.
Kyoren's golden eyes slid shut at once; his breathing steadied.
His head lowered forward until it rested against Kuradome's shoulder, completely asleep.
Kuradome's hand slipped around his son's waist, holding him gently ...as if afraid he might break.
His other hand, warm with golden light, hovered over the wounds, sending slow healing energy into the cuts and scars.
When the wounds eased, Kuradome's hand drifted up to cup the back of Kyoren's head, thumb brushing lightly against the tangled hair.
He drew Kyoren closer, until the sleeping prince almost sat on his lap....just as he used to as a small child. His three fox tails gets fluffy as his all tails wapes around him .
For a breath, Kuradome let himself bend forward, his cheek brushing Kyoren's soft hair.
In that quiet, his eyes shadowed with thought, embarrassment, and sadness.
"Those few people in your life… they ate up all the space that used to be mine…?"
He whispered to no one, voice too low for even the moon to hear.
After a while , Kuradome gently layer down kyoren on his bed over his back , gently removed his silver hair from his face then layer down beside him .
He takes one of kyoren's Hand over his , spreading it over his own , finds it almost as his own size yet still not fully because kyoren is still young enough as a 500 years old yokai and kuradome is 1000+ .
" those same hands..which was tiny 500 years ago..is now almost same size as mine..so close..yet..those are now far away..really far away from me..while I only tried to hold it close to my heart in my own way "
He sits up , lays Kyoren's hand beside him gently as he pours a cup of wine for himself from the table beside . The golden cup was filed with sweet geap wine now as he drinks it in one go while his half laded wine red eyes were on Kyoren's peaceful sleeping face ....then drinks another cup..then another...then another...another and another before another....when half drank he forgets those tiny manners to use cup..he directly drank from the middle sized golden bottle...his eyes even more dizzy
[ End of Chapter 28 ]