Argenti has been on my mind all day so... Sick!Royal!Reader x Knight!Argenti for my own indulgence!! (~650)
You were sick. You had always been sick. On the day you were born; on every birthday that followed. You were sick when your siblings were born and you were sick when the heir to the throne was finally named. It wasn't you, of course. Your body failed you and your mind took the brunt of the exhaustion. Fatigue: it clung to your bones with cruelty. Succession was not for you but solitude was—a lonesome life was your destiny. The crown would not sit atop your weary head in this life. You doubted that it would in another.
The estate was silent, it often was when illness clung to its stuffy walls. Despite the countryside wind that drafted in warm currents through the corridors, a solemn air remained. Yes... loneliness. Many knights had left you for better stations. Many servants outgrew their positions within these old walls. You had watched them come and go. You had signed their letters of resignation. Their eyes... you knew they found you too numbing. Perhaps they thought you too dizzy to understand their sentiments:
Being by your side was punishment. There was no loyalty following your sadness.
Argenti was the newest knight appointed to you. A wonderfully kind man that served the kingdom with dignity. You were taken aback by his assertive politeness when he first spoke to you. His words were sweet, sickeningly so, almost cloying to hear. His eyes were gentle. His sentiments blunt in their passion. He was unabashed. He was filled with life.
You had always assumed he would leave you too; a knight like him deserved more than what a silent manor had to offer.
It was obvious that Argenti saw beauty within you. At first, you had assumed his words were courteous lies—it wouldn't be the first time a person spoke in compliments to you. Rather, it was a common occurrence given the royal blood that pulsed haphazardly within your aching veins. Sugar-coated sentiments. Demands masked in silk. However, the more he said it, the more you knew he believed every single word that spilt gently from his glossy lips:
"You have been blessed by the Goddess Idrila THEMSELF," he would say when the sun kissed your skin at midday. "A beauty like yourself rivals the depth of twilight," he would add when sadness clouded your tired eyes.
Argenti went beyond your expectations. His kindness was immeasurable. Not only did he remain diligently at your side, fulfilling his role as your knight with great pride, but he also picked up the slack for staff that believed they could get away with negligence. His eyes, often tracing the curvature of the hilly landscape, settled on your body. He was intense and you knew that he was searching for signs of distress. He supported you when your legs grew tired. He fed you when you felt too weak to do so. He kept you company when silence was what you needed most.
You believed he took pleasure in your comfort.
When the prospect of him leaving was brought into the air between you, Argenti shut the notion down quickly. "It is more than duty that keeps me by your side," he said with no room for debate, "to forfeit the right to serve you would be a disgrace to my very honour and an insult to you, my lord/lady. I would blemish beauty itself!" You knew he meant it. That's why you felt a creeping fluster ebbing up your neck. "I do not wish to lose the right to your company."
Argenti never looked at you with pity; you were uncertain whether the knight could hold onto such sentiment. He was the very image of patience and riddled thick with passion. He was devoid of ill-intent and if time allowed it, he would serve you till the end of time itself.
