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

74. Military Prohibition

The military subordinate in charge of cleaning the General's Camp was dusting the stacks of parchment that lined the stalls inside. Warm sunlight streamed into the camp through the hides of camp material, and a slight smile made its way to the soldier's face as he heard the hustle and bustle outside the military encampment. It was the soldiers making merry and whistling tunes to celebrate the joy of winning the ultimatum of a decades' long feud.

As he glanced from the corner of his eyes, he saw that even the General looked quite satiated with his predicament, as he reclined on the chair, throwing his head behind and absorbing the happiness. He had his eyes closed and was relaxing deeply.

Until the Soldier's eyes caught the image of something.

He quietly walked over to the place the General was asleep and peeked in on the situation. Indeed, it was as he thought. Taking a step closer, he whispered apologetically at the general's face, "I apologise about the intrusion but this is an emergency, Your Grace." And then he abruptly slapped the General's hand with crashing strength.

The General's eyes flew open, enraged.

"Oh, Your Grace! My apologies for touching your noble body without permission. It's just that there was a mosquito at your hand—"

Shuddering at the eyes of the General that suddenly turned a few shades deadlier, the soldier gulped, trying to come up with a defence. What could he do? He didn't know the General hated getting touched that much!

"I swear, I only wanted to kill the mosquito, Your Grace!" He cried, almost bursting into tears, "See it-it's dead. Crushed and squeezed."

General Haoran saw red as he gazed at the battered and very much dead mosquito.

"How dare you.." He snarled as he took a step closer to the man, "...kill the precious mosquito I've been feeding for the last two days?"

"Your Grace?!"

"Get lost before I slap your life out of you like what you did to the mosquito," He spat as his eyes stormed in fury, "Don't you ever think of disrespecting mosquitoes!"

"Of-of course, Your Grace!"

The soldier scurried out of the camp like a water snake thrown on kerosene, not wasting another second. The General turned around, pinching his eyes in irritation. This was the fourth time... earlier. The three lieutenants barged in and martyred his mosquitoes the same way.

He opened his eyes. This cannot go on.

Taking to his heels, he turned towards the opening of the camp and strode out in even steps. The soldiers grouped and ganged around the fire stoves as they poked fun at each other. The smell of charred carp and eel suffused into the air along with the resounding cheers and loud hoots of laughter. Haoran, however, didn't stop at the edge and walked right into the middle of the camp dunes. The laughter and noise abruptly died.

As Haoran kept looking at the army with hawk-like eyes, the soldiers felt pressure weigh down their bodies and got up one by one to bow down to him, afraid that they had angered their General somehow. The silence etched longer.

"Umm... General," One of the soldiers made way to say awkwardly, "Is there something we can help you with?"

"No," The General told frostily, "I'm here to make an announcement."

The entire army immediately whipped back to attention and Haoran, realising that they were for the important notice, opened his mouth.

"I, the Imperial general, am here to notify you about the instigation of a new code of prohibition within the Military Camp of Blazing Sun and that is that due to this General's chivalry and gentlemanly courteousness towards the insect and animal world: It is prohibited to kill mosquitoes within the Military Camp."

The crowd gasped but immediately shut up when they saw the general was still here. But as soon as he left to his own tent, they began groaning and whining.

"Holy Suns," whistled Lieutenant Bing Ze and turned to his two companions outside their own tent, "Also, how promiscuous! He's actually getting it on with mosquitoes."

"You...! Don't speak that way about the General! I'm more worried whether he'd catch a disease from all those mosquito shenanigans," said Shen Yue.

Jiang replied grimly, "Unfortunately, I have an inkling that the General would love to bite the dust that way. In fact, that would be his dream death."

"Right?" Bing Ze scoffed, "I can't believe he'd go for that average fool-face instead of going for the feast right in front of him if he could go for men."

Jiang raised a brow. "The feast right in front of him?"

"Me, of course!" Bing Ze gestured to himself, "I'm the whole meal and the extra meat the diner gives you for free. The General really has horrible taste to go for that ugly guy instead of going for something divine like me. Any man would want me, right?"

Met with a horrible silence from his friends, he asked, "Right?" And again silence as the three of them stared at each other.

"You stupid, shoe-face!" Bing Ze jumped at Jiang's throat, "How dare you not choose my beautiful self?!"

"And why would I? I'd marry Shen Yue ten times over," Jiang began fighting back.

"You two, ugh... stop fighting! I'll marry the both of you, alright?! So stop." Shen Yue got between them.

They brawled on the ground for a while until they heard the words, "Unsightly," come from above them. As they stopped fighting to glance above, they saw that it was in fact the last person they wanted to confront right now.

One of them took to the General's camp where he was currently looking over the stack of parchment from the Emperor that was sent this morning. True to his word, after the General promised to keep his end of the marriage bargain, he had reduced Fu Lin's sentence and sent the relevant verdict documents.

The one who barged in was Lieutenant Bing Ze, "General... somebody is here to see you." "Who?" asked the General, looking up from his papers.

"Your... err... Fiancé, Imperial General." 

General Haoran's face changed. "Let her in."

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