His Servant[Book 1]

Promise

Next morning when Kira faced him in the court, heat crept up her cheeks as he looked at her for a quick second. She quickly averted her eyes and pretended to be alright so no one suspects anything but it was proving to be very hard to keep a poker face after what happened the previous day.

All throughout the day, Kira found it hard to keep her composure. Her mind was still clouded with confusion over various things running across her mind and that was making it hard to keep her concentration in the present. She was trying to tame her wild thoughts when suddenly something jolted her away from her mind palace. Namely, a messenger from a foreign kingdom had arrived. Everyone looked at him quizzically, anticipating the message he had brought.

"What brings you here?" Gouenji questioned sternly.

"I have brought a message from Emperor Dai . He wants you to know that he intends to take over this kingdom within a fortnight but before he attacks, he is giving you a chance to surrender." He announced with an air of defiance.

Gouenji frowned upon hearing this but as he was about to say something, Kira rose up from her seat and before anyone could realise what was happening in front of them she had the messenger down on the floor, her sword ready to cut through him any moment. She glared at him with fire in her eyes,

"You insolent fool! You have some nerve insulting our Emperor in our court. Give me a reason why shouldn't I just end your life right here, right now."

The man, now utterly terrified, stared at her in shock, surprised at her speed and her intensity.

"Riye! That's enough. Step away from him." Gouenji commanded. Kira glared at him for a couple more seconds, then reluctantly put her sword back into its sheath and returned to her seat. Gouenji then directed his attention back to the messenger,

"Tell your emperor we are not afraid of these empty threats. If he is brave enough he can try to win this kingdom away from us. Now leave."

The messenger hastily left but that did not ease Kira the least bit. She kept glaring in the direction he came from until Gouenji pulled her attention back to the court,

"It looks like once again our kingdom is under a threat of invasion. Even if this doesn't turn out to be a formidable opponent, we should prepare ourselves for anything that comes our way. We should discuss this in detail after the court. All defence officials will stay for this." He asserted.

As planned, after court, everyone gathered in the defence meeting room. The place was specially designed for such purposes.Various maps hung on each wall and a miniature model depicting the Inazuma Kingdom and its neighboring areas was situated on a long table in the centre, accompanied by several chairs neatly placed around it. By that time, Kira's mind was already running to think up their war strategy. It was her responsibility to instruct her subordinates on how to place their army and when and how to attack. If she made even the slightest mistake in her judgement, she would be putting a lot of people in danger. When Gouenji entered the room, he looked like he was in deep thought too but he became attentive once he reached the table and addressed everyone,

"Before we start any discussions about our strategy, I would like all of you to know that this time I'll be going to the battlefield too."

"But, Your Majesty, you don't have to do this. We are still powerful enough to..." Kira immediately tried to protest but was cut off mid-sentence by Gouenji.

"No, Riye, this is necessary. Dai has challenged me directly and there is no way I can sit back doing nothing." Gouenji spoke, determination evident on his face. Kira knew that there was no point in discussing this further at the moment. She nodded politely and moved onto presenting her ideas, pointing to various places on the model.