Chapter 338: Like An Eyelid Defends The Eye
[KAWAI]
Tamiko looked at his father, his heart in his hands as he tried to let what the king had just said sink in.
For the first time in so long, he felt like there was a link between him and his father, and not just because they were related, or because he was the song that Diana had wanted so badly, or even that he was the fruit of love that had ended in shambles.
This time, he felt like his father saw him, for who he was. A broken boy who had been striving off of his rage and anger. A kid who had suffered at the hands of so many people and who had struggled to brace himself for the worst, even in situations when love and light was all that was preached to him.
And that confused the young Lycan. He had been out of Grealor for two years already, and he had interacted with his father most of the time but today, the kid felt like this was a connection.
He felt like he could talk to Zaffuto as a son and his father, without having to force himself to laugh through the horrors of the past that had roped them and turned them into shells of what they had once been.
"Tamiko... you’re okay," King Zaffuto said to his son, willingly addressing him as ’Tamiko’ instead of ’Kaito;’ and that did a number on the young prince. He looked up at his father, even as his eyes filled with tears that blurred his vision.
He didn’t know why he was getting emotional over a name that wasn’t even truly his to begin with. Then again, that name had been his identity his entire life, with all the horrors that it came with.
He had trained himself over the two years to embrace himself for the Kaito Hinata name, but it never really fit well on his tongue.