𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐧𝐞𝐦𝐲'𝐬 𝐇𝐮𝐬𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐝 || 敵の旦那様 (𝐁𝐋) ✔ [COMPLETE]

30. White Sand

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General Haoran had never before in his life felt this bewildered before. As Fu Lin stood behind the assassin disguised as the rider with his red gauze dress scathing to the currents of the winds billowing as the horses rushed down maddeningly. He stood harrowingly still as he tiptoed behind the rider, holding back even his breath. Fu Lin was extremely light in stature and agile in his movements and if he wanted to hide his presence, it was almost impossible to detect him except for one with a hounding affinity towards blood.

And unfortunately, the rider was exactly that.

The rider stopped his movement of tearing the General's chest into shreds and held his sword mid-air. Fu Lin too abruptly stopped his movement.

The General somewhat understood what Fu Lin was attempting to do. Because Fu Lin was both inferior in strength and had a weakness against blood, the only way to get to the assassin was to catch him off-guard in proximity and suffocate him. In which case, there would be no bloodshed and Fu Lin wouldn't go into fear induced paralysis, and he'd have the advantage of an ambush as well.

"What are you hesitating for?" The General attempted to distract the rider to not give him a time gap. "Are you perhaps scared of the consequences of killing the Imperial General or did you..." he sneered, "turn into a wimp like your subordinates?"

However, the rider did not react. He stood eerily still, listening to the slightest creak of wood or the slightest inhalation of warm air that fizzled about them. One second and two more seconds passed, but Fu Lin was as quiet as a lizard, pasted to the carriage wall behind.

The rider really wanted to swing his Katana back regardless of whether somebody was behind or not. Unfortunately, that would be giving the General enough of a gap to guard himself again and he really couldn't afford that, because ultimately his only goal is to make the General breathe his last.

The rest, the devil may care. But he certainly wouldn't.

Therefore, he swung his Katana over his head, aiming exactly at the jugular of the General and brought it back down. However, right before the sword could slice through the General's neck, it paused.

Fu Lin had come right behind him and had tapped on his shoulder.

What?! What was this fool doing??! General Haoran's face looked beyond bewildered. Truly, he had yet to meet a human who was as unpredictable as this mosquito bastard!

"Good Evening, fellow fighter." He kowtowed respectfully and smiled. "My given name is Fu Lin, and I'm the seventh prince of the Silver Mountains Empire. I'm super fond of talking and I mostly don't act the part of a prince at all. However, that's not the problem... the problem is that I-I am a bit of a wimp you see... and I really hate blood." Fu Lin looked down a bit pitifully.

This time it wasn't just the General who was bewildered. The rider himself kept looking at Fu Lin as he was that one clown who had accidentally walked into a sexual show and asked,

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because," Fu Lin said as he picked up the brocade bag he always carried and placed it in the rider's hands, "I wanted to give you something."

The rider looked into the bag as he said, "It's empty."

"Of course, because what was inside it is in my hands now."

The rider couldn't react before a handful of sand came flying onto his face, lodging between his lashes and sticking to the liquid inside the eyes. Fu Lin, who had thrown a fistful of sand, was suddenly disoriented as a sudden jolt threw him to the back of the carriage as the horses, now suddenly who lost track of their guideline, began to go haywire. The rider was now standing, his centre of balance completely destroyed as he was busy itching his eyes and crying in pain.

Fu Lin, amid this chaos, walked over to the General who was still laying on his back, entranced by the scene before him. Sand- the perfect weapon to take down an enemy without spilling any form of blood that Fu Lin was weak towards. The General suddenly felt ridiculed at how much he had underestimated Fu Lin.

"Come, Your Grace." Fu Lin said. "I'm not sure how long the sand could hold out before he comes back."

The General gazed at his figure that was bound in red, now standing above him and looking at him with triumphant relief as his hair rapidly flitted about in the tumultuous wind. General stooped his head down. He had never felt so incapable in his life as he did then and he felt absolutely ashamed of himself. And amid this raging disappointment, he couldn't help also feeling overwhelmed by Fu Lin and his presence. Thus, a plethora of emotions, from disappointment to awe to guilt, whirled in his head again and again for over 10 seconds until he had only one emotion screaming inside his head.

Anger. Hot, ruthless anger was all he could feel. Why do you hate me?

What do I do to stop you from hating me?

"Why did you come?!" The General's voice thundered, unable to contain himself. "Don't you always love to run away whenever you get the chance, Your Highness? Then why did you come back? You could have just waited there for me to die and return to your freaking country! Don't you hate me? Then why... just why... Or is this some new tactic to get on my nerves? Is that it?!"

"Imperial General." Fu Lin looked at the frontier of the carriage. "We really have to get down now."

"Tell me," He spoke coldly, ignoring Fu Lin, "tell me why you wanted to save me!"

He knew he was being childish and reckless- but right now he wanted answers. He wanted to know why Fu Lin would come to rescue him, despite hating him. He wanted to douse at least one third of the anger he felt within himself by affirming that Fu Lin too holds a certain, at the very least a drop of care towards him.

Because he...

"Imperial General." Fu Lin smiled mildly as he stretched his hand towards the General as an invitation to get up. "I do not prefer to owe anything to anybody."

The General's anger disappeared without a trace. While he was busy in his heart trying to hold Fu Lin accountable towards not having equally friendly feelings towards him and deciding to outright hate him for it very pettily, Fu Lin had striven to remember that he owes the General his life at the fire incident and repay it back by saving him. And this was despite how much Fu Lin hated the General.

The General breathed heavily, utterly exasperated. He now understood why he was that angry at the thought of getting hated by Fu Lin.

Because he could never come to hate Fu Lin. Not even if he wanted to.

The General accepted his outstretched palm and stood upright, dusting himself. Fu Lin signalled at the road ahead and showed that a cartload of sacks had been unloaded in the pathway 30 feet ahead. Before the General could get a hold of the reins, one of the horses broke out of the leather straps and the carriage began toppling to one side. Both the General and Fu Lin looked at each other knowingly.

And they both jumped down from the high roof in unison, their hands tightly bound. "It doesn't matter," The General thought as air flailed about him when falling.

Fu Lin could hate him all he wanted... and he'd still care for him.

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Something smells good... oh is that character development I smell?? hehe ┬┴┬┴┤( ͡° ͜ʖ├┬┴┬┴

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