Womanish Lady

Chapter 46:

   On Norekeito's end, after sparring with all of his suspects, there was no unusual or worthwhile information that would lead him to the General's whereabouts for about three months, so he was impatient.

Therefore, when he heard commotion at the horse stables one night, Norekeito was quick to investigate. At the stables, there were three people: the horse's caregiver, his interesting suspect and, though the weather was fairly warm, an unidentifiable man in a cloak.

Norekeito tried to stay hidden, but his own horse, who had been with the caregiver, whined at the sight of his best friend.

The soldier and the unidentifiable man looked in the direction of the noise before taking their horses and dashing off.

Norekeito quickly retrieved his horse and followed suit.

It quickly became difficult to follow the two horsemen without a lantern to see. He could only follow the dim lights of the two lanterns the riders had. But at a point, the two lanterns divided into different directions. However, Norekeito focused on the lantern of his familiar suspect and followed him without a second thought.

His suspect made a turn into a clearing. When Norekeito made the turn, his suspect had dismounted his horse and was waiting for him.

"What urgent matter could you have so late at night?" asked Norekeito, highly upset by the chase.

"What suspicion could you have that made you follow us?" retorted the soldier.

He found no further reason to hide it.

"The primary goal of me being here is to find the General! With the way the recent battle ended, there's no telling which side he's on, so he poses a threat to both of us!"

"Correction: our General only poses a threat to you!" said another voice.

Suddenly, Norekeito was kicked roughly in the back and he fell to the ground.

The third voice was from the unidentifiable man, who took off his hood and revealed that he was a Lieutenant. Norekeito was speechless

"Once my partner felt closely watched by you, I've been waiting to trap you just like this. I knew you wouldn't suspect me."

"Correction:" he found a smile through his pain. "It was basic knowledge that Commanders, Lieutenants and Captains would have closer relation to the General than a soldier."

The Lieutenant frowned heavily.

"I suspected all of you first, but knew that you would lay low by me, so I just relied on the soldiers for information."

The Lieutenant gave Norekeito another harsh kick and sent pain throughout his whole body.

"I love your confidence right before death!"

He then grabbed him by his hair to look him in the eye. The dim lantern light made both of their eyes look very dark.

"I heard you claim that we have no mannerism. Well, I shall be courteous and grant you the knowledge you've been looking for. Though you'll learn it in vain!"

He dropped his head back to the ground and stood up.

"The General - and this entire military, always only served those rightly in power. We were all waiting to faithfully serve Queen Favour, but Lenon forced himself to be the Second ruler instead. But we were still patient and faithful when our Queen returned.

"We waited for her to be the rightful ruler again, but she was killed. Not only are we still devastated by that, but we're also resentful towards Lenon when he was King. he destroyed our precious Queen and soiled this Kingdom. He destroyed this Kingdom with his own hands but yet always had paranoia of someone else ruining us.

"The moment our Queen passed on, we've never really served King Lenon. We've been following the General, who has plans to restore our land." The Lieutenant got mournful for a minute. "This kingdom was so beautiful. We only wanted to see it continue."

The Lieutenant turned around again to look at him.

"We'll accept the fact that these last few decades were bumpy only if we can make things right again."

Norekeito struggled to turn on his side.

"That makes no sense at this point! King Kyuni, Prince Tuquor and Princess Zyla are all working tremendously hard to do exactly that! If the General - and all of you, remember your times of peace and stay faithful, you will surely-"

For the last time, the Lieutenant gave Norekeito a violent kick that left his left shoulder fractured if not broken.

"Those children were raised during Lenon's rule. They don't know a thing about the beauty of this land!"