Also this contains spoilers so skip this if you don’t wanna know.
It’s not even the anime’s writers’ fault (though that scene where Hilmes just left Irina and Jovanna on their own knowing that Maryam has been run over by Lusitanian soldiers??? like really, Hilmes???), but I’m thinking more about the novel’s author writing Hilmes as such a one-dimensional character. He HAS the potential to change since he reunited with Irina and he could have lived the rest of his life happy with his family, but nooooo must drag him back to the conflict and killed Irina and their unborn child off. :/ Great writing, really.
I don’t know. I just feel so salty because Hilmes could have been a sympathetic character but the author was just so intended on making him a foil to Arslan, which was like, yeah ok we get it already in the first arc, thanks. Anyway.
Prompt: Zandeh feeding Hilmes
Pairing: Hilmes/Zandeh
A/N: This is my first time writing this ship, so thanks for sending me this request. I have fun writing these dorks. Also I feel like as I’m writing this, I’m gradually portraying Zandeh as a kouhai who really, really admires his senpai and just wants Hilmes to please notice him. I don’t even know, haha.
-
“Hilmes-denka, please allow me.”
The dark-haired youth rushes over to where his lord is sitting on the soft floor cushion. Before him, a few platters of food are set tidily on the lushly carpeted floor. The tantalizing aromas of roasted meat and freshly baked bread fill the dimly-lit chamber, but the black-haired prince, who has taken off the silver mask that has made him equally famous and despised and has replaced it with a simple white cloth covering the scarred half of his face, has not touched any food even once.
He’s been sitting there silently for a few minutes, injured arm wrapped tightly in bandages and placed in a sling to keep it from being jostled. He hasn’t complained or mentioned any discomfort, but it’s obvious that the injury is causing him some inconvenience, even when it’s something as simple as taking a bath or, in this case, having his meals.
Zandeh has seen his attempt at using his left hand to fork a piece of meat onto his plate, but that’s as far as he’s gotten. The piece of charred beef is obviously too big and chunky for the prince to place the whole portion into his mouth, and at Hilmes’ slight hesitation, Zandeh has decided to abandon all strict etiquettes and volunteers to help Hilmes cut up his food.
“There’s no need, Zandeh,” Hilmes tells him, his sigh barely audible as his icy teal gaze flickers across the knight’s enthusiastic expression before he returns his attention to the abandoned utensil beside his plate. “Summon one of the servants and have them do it instead.”
On any other day, Zandeh would have left it at that; he’d obey Hilmes’ order and call in one of the maids waiting outside, and that would have been the end of it. But something in the manner with which Hilmes persistently refuse to ask for help even for insignificant matters as this makes the grey-eyed knight’s heart constrict terribly, and he tells himself to stop – to get a hold of himself already before he embarrasses himself before the prince even further.
Despite his best effort, his mouth runs with the sentiment ringing loud and strong in his mind before he’s aware of what he’s saying.
“Please let me, denka, it’s no trouble at all!”
Was that too much? Was his intention too obvious? His cheeks flush dark, but Hilmes says nothing.
It’s the second time that his tongue has slipped into calling Hilmes “denka” but somehow, the man himself neither seems perturbed nor irritated as is the usual case. Providence may be on his side yet, Zandeh thinks, a little bewildered but glad just the same.
“Then, by all means,” Hilmes appears to have given up on changing the young man’s mind before he’s even started, and he pushes his plate towards the other man with his uninjured arm, the gesture a bit awkward because of the direction of his movement.
As the young knight begins to cut up the meat into bite-size pieces, his dark brows drawn together in concentration, Hilmes glances over, the usual cold, iron edge in his eyes dissipating a little and a trace of fondness seeping through. Zandeh is slicing the beef with meticulous care and efficiency despite his seemingly bulky and ungainly hands.
Soon, he finds himself facing a forkful of beef – the center still pink and steaming – held a few inches before him by the knight, who’s looking up at him with those overly bright and eager eyes that Hilmes always has trouble maintaining a steady gaze with.
Hilmes replies with a quirk of his eyebrow when he murmurs, “I’m fully capable of at least eating with my one good hand.”
“Ah! My sincerest apologies, Hilmes-denka,” the knight almost drops his fork in the process of his hurried speech but succeeds in tightening his grasp around the fork at the last second, and he continues in a softer register, head lowered as if to hide in shame, “I-I didn’t mean any disrespect… I just forgot myself and ––”
The teal-eyed prince has leaned forward, takes the piece of meat delicately into his mouth, and starts to chew as he settles on the cushion once more.
“Hilmes-denka?” Zandeh’s blinking owlishly, and he knows it’s rude to stare, but at the moment, he’s simply half engrossed by the prince’s reaction and half amazed that he’s somehow still alive having once again accidentally offended his liege.
“You were talking too much and I was getting hungry,” Hilmes explains in a deadpan tone, but it’s not rooted from real ire or annoyance, and so the knight decides to tease his fate once more.
He forks up another piece of beef and carefully, with an unwavering hand and bold, determined grey eyes meeting the prince’s deadly calm teal ones, Zandeh holds out the fork towards the prince, this time even closer so that Hilmes doesn’t need to bend too far out to take the bite.
Hilmes eats the mouthful without any hesitation.
They continue this in a comfortable silence, and later that same night, Hilmes will need to thank his ever loyal and thoughtful knight for his services.
Hello! Spoilers below this point! To read a very brief summary of their relationship, you can check here.
By “true romance”, I guess you’re asking whether or not Hirmiz is really in love with Irina? Given how much we’ve been shown about his character (manipulative, unscrupulous when it comes to things that he desires), I supposed it’s not impossible to presume that Hirmiz can be using Irina, but I don’t think that’s the case at all.
They first met each other when they were still teenagers. Hirmiz has just escaped from what he presumed to be an intentional murder attempt instigated by his uncle Andragoras, and he’d suffered a significant mental and physical trauma with the fire. Meanwhile, Irina, though she’s a princess and wants for nothing, is suffering from an illness that will leave her blind for the rest of her life, and she was feeling quite hopeless and alone at that point. This was when Hirmiz entered her life - two broken souls seeking comfort and solace from each other’s presence.
“... Can you not see? Then why do you pick flowers?”
“Although I cannot see, I can still recognize the flowers’ fragrances.”
The young man who’s suffered burns on one side of his face stares at the young woman and then at the flowers seemingly helplessly. Finally, he takes the young woman’s hand lightly and guides her to touch the flower’s stem and explains with an awkward, clumsy tone.
“This flower has five petals; its edges are blue-violet, and the colour fades to white towards the centre. The shape of the petals... You won’t understand even if I tell you. Ah, you can feel it for yourself.”
The young man’s tone is seeped with a hint of anger, yet he continues to describe the images of flowers, trees, birds and the clouds in meticulous details. He also tells Irina, after the princess has pleaded him, about how he’s been banished from his own country, and how he hopes to make a comeback in the future.
Hirmiz did not start out to be a cruel, ruthless man raging with an irrational desire for vengeance; he was capable of compassion for those he cares about, and this is evident even in the present timeline when he tells Irina and her group to avoid Ecbatana because he knows the capital city will be unsafe. He didn’t forget about Irina all these years, but he has this strange fixation of becoming a “worthy” man for Irina (”worthy” in his own sense - becoming the “rightful” king of Pars) before he’ll let himself get together with Irina.
I don’t think they see each other again until the end of the first arc. Hirmiz ends up choosing to leave Pars with Irina, and they’ve spent a couple of years in peace living in Turk. He wouldn’t have given up his goal of reclaiming Pars if he didn’t truly love Irina.
Hi there! Answers/spoilers can be found under the read more! :)
Also, just for future reference, I’d recommend looking through my arslan senki spoilers tag, or bowie reading arslan senki tag for more information about the novels and for answers to questions someone else might have already asked. :D (I really need to organize those tags though, damn.)
So, for those who don’t know, Ruknabad is the enchanted sword “forged by the shards of the sun” that Hero King Kai Khosrow used to fight against the Serpent King Zahk and bound him inside Mt. Damavand for centuries.
Arslan does, in fact, obtain Ruknabad, but I gotta go re-read some bits to remember what happened, haha. Hirmiz, under the sorcerer’s influence (claiming that since Hirmiz is the rightful king of Pars, being able to wield Ruknabad is a symbolic significance for his stature), goes and retrieves the sword, only to be interrupted by Gieve. Once Hirmiz removes the sword from Khosrow’s casket, however, there’s a huge earthquake immediately, and Xandes, panicking about the fact that Zahk is coming back, throws the sword into the depth of a crack on the ground caused by the earthquake.
The sword doesn’t get mentioned much again until book 7, when Arslan, determined to become Shah and knowing that Ruknabad is a significant symbol of Pars’ ruler, decides to journey to Mt. Damavand to retrieve it himself. The group is forced to take shelter when a rainstorm suddenly hits, but Arslan knows that he must use his own powers to summon the sword into his possession, and so with a genuine prayer/implore/promise to the spirit of Kai Khosrow that he’ll implement fair policies within the country and be a good ruler, the earth shakes beneath his feet and opens up in a flood of bright light. When the light subsides, Ruknabad is in Arslan’s hands.
What happened to Andragoras?
Short answer: he died at the end of the first arc.
Long answer from where the anime currently left off: he manages to escape from prison, takes Guiscard as hostage, and finally escapes from Ecbatana with Tahamine to Peshawar, where he then proceeds to keep acting like a jerk and kick Arslan out of the citadel despite how much work his son has done and ignoring how many of Arslan’s followers sincerely supports him.
What happened to Hirmiz?
WELL. A LOT of shit happened, actually, since he’s still around in the second arc of the story. Basically at the big show-down in Ecbatana between him and Andragoras at the end of book 7, he finally knows his own origins: he’s not actually Osroes’ son, but Gotarzes’ (Andragoras and Osroes’ father), which makes Andragoras his half-brother. Andragoras also reveals that Osroes’ dies of sickness, and that it was actually Osroes who requests Andragoras to kill Hirmiz before he passed away. After that, he and Eleanor (princess of Maryam; they’ve known each other since they were teenagers) run off. At the opening of the second arc 4 years later, Eleanor has passed away, and Hirmiz uses the power of Turk’s king to created the Masked Army in an attempt to make a comeback. It didn’t work out. Then he meets a Parsian girl named Fitna, who promises to help him take over the Misr kingdom if he’d make her queen afterwards. It’s working so far.
