Absolute Loyalty

After arriving at his own tent Cass put Elea down on his bed and covered her with blanket. He sat down beside barrel which contains water to clear himself from all the dirt and blood from the battle.

Even though he had something like soap it's effect is far lover than from the one back in earth.Thought of having no shampoo and tooth paste was grim.

They gave him something like salted water to wash his mouth but as expected it didn't feel good. How did people take care of their teeth in medieval age anyway? While he was bickering Itami started to wail in his head.

"Whyyyy.. why is it only me who has no powerrrr!!??"

"Shut up man, don't you see that I am trying to clean all the dirt and shit"

"You... tell me truth! What trick did you use? You were so damn fast!"

"Trick? I didn't use any... I just felt I was way faster than before when I did few practice swings"

"Kael is strong, you are fast and I am the only one who is normal? What the heck is this?"

"Don't get yourself down, We still don't know if Isano got anything or not"

"Haha don't joke with me! Even without any power Isano is capable of slaughtering every single person in this camp"

"Yeah... Just the thought of having Kael's strength or my speed on Isano is scary..."

"Hey Cass, do you think those blessed knights are match against our Isano?"

"I don't know... but remember that we never seen Isano getting injured.. "

"If only waking him up wasn't ... ummm that troublesome"

"Well that is true, by the way is it summer or autumn here? I can't really tell. If it is autumn.. you know that day is coming"

"Oh right, 7th of november... we need to ask around dates or there will be disaster"

"It's just... how dates work here anyway? If it is different from earth we are screwed"

"I hope it is the same or it will be too dangerous to remain here... specially when Elea and Charlotte.. no I mean Ascelot around"

"Don't forget to ask around tomorrow alright, Itami take over and sleep. I am not good sleeping on floor..."

"Fine.. "

Itami placed one blanket on the floor then lied down on it while looking at Elea who is sleeping on his bed.

I just wanted to tire myself to sleep by strolling around... how did it turn into killing 6 no 7 people and earning myself a girl?

*****

"What happened? Is princess safe?" Arminel came out of his tent with fast steps and questioned his squire.

Drystan hurriedly saluted then followed him while reporting "Sir there are 2 tents burning over there" he pointed to the edge of the camp where 2 smoke pillars are erected, then continued

"When patrols on duty noticed it they blew the horn and camp is on alert! I sent Farre and his men to check the situation"

While they were walking more officers from his army joined behind him, Arminel glanced at smokes then ordered

"Lanos, Aslo, and Yuxa get your troops and guard area around princess's tent"

"As you wish" the three saluted then hurriedly went to gather their troops.

Arminel continued without looking back "Sed and Hurl you two go after Farre and support him if needed. But your top priority is to bring me news as fast as possible"

"Yes sir"

"And the rest of you maintain your troops to be ready for battle at moments notice. Drystan follow me, we will go to Her highness side asap"

Right after saying it he sped up towards huge tent in the center of the camp.

Reaching the tent Arminel entered without hesitation, only after seeing princess Ascelot sitting behind the table with map on it tiredly, did he heave sigh of relief.

He bowed his head and greeted her "Your Highness"

"Oh, Sir Arminel did you get any news about situation? Is it attack of wolfman?"

"I am not sure Your Highness, But we will know soon enough"

"Is that so... attacking our camp in middle of the night.. If I am not wrong that place is where Sir Foulque camp is right?"

"Yes Your Highness" Arminel wondered where Foulque is now... If not attack happened at his camp , his absence at this crucial moment is untolerable.. This is why he hated sheltered young lords calling themselves knights.

The moment attack happened he should be first to know situation, but there is no news from him. Even if he is busy fighting his first priority must be send back news to Her Highness. Based on smoke pillars, attack must have happened at least 15 to 30 minutes ago but still no news from him? This is really suspicious...

Seeing him in deep thoughts princess asked with bit of concern in her voice

"Is Foulque safe? Should we send reinforcement for him? He should be fighting now..."

"I am not sure about the situation but there is no sound of any battle going on... It is possible that sir Foulque is chasing the enemy but.."

Just when he were about to continue Foulque walked in with few of his officers behind him. He saluted princess and reported quickly

"Your Highness, two of my Jaguns got murdered along with few of their soldiers. After killing them he gathered corpses and burned them. Assassin may have infiltrated our camp! Although we searched through entire camp set by my soldiers but until now there is no trace of him..."

Princess's face turned dark after hearing there is an assassin roaming around their camp freely. She knocked table with her slender fingers slowly then ordered "Wake entire camp and search through tent by tent. We need to find whoever did this... And surround refugees too until killer is found no one is to leave this camp!"

"As you command!" All the men inside her tent bowed their heads after receiving their orders.

Both Arminel and Foulque sent their squires out to carry out princess orders, while princess sent her personal army commander out.

Arminel turned to Foulque and asked

"Sir Foulque when did this attack happen? How come your soldiers didn't inform Her Highness about situation earlier?"

"About that... I am not really sure when the attack has happened.. I myself happened to hear about this after the fire started. Corpses were badly burnt so it took quite a while to identify them. I also am not sure about why they built their tents so far from the main camp. They are supposed to be outpost... still they built their tent too far and at hard to see location.

About reporting.. I wanted to report after I made sure what is going on so as to not trouble Her Highness"

Arminel frowned upon hearing his replies. What do you mean by 'after making sure'? And to be clueless about where his camp outposts are, also not being able to identify your Jaguns.. you are supposed to be able to identify them just by their tent locations...

He wanted to lecture this guy about how important it is to report, when this kind of thing happens at first sight. If there were enemy army invading them his camp would be gone by the time Her Highness and I hear about it.

No wonder why current prime minister didn't care when he heard Foulque has gone to help the princess.

He probably is happy right now because if Foulque dies while protecting Princess he will get leverage on king and if he returns with princess he will get leverage all the same and good rumours going around. Both way is a win for him.

In the end Arminel just shook his head and remained being silent.

At this moment Princess Ascelot asked

"So who were the 2 Jaguns you mentioned? Did they have any grudge or hatred with anyone in your army? Could this be inside job?"

Troubled by question Foulque face went slightly red, he shot a glance backwards and one behind him hurriedly stepped forward

"Reporting to Princess, Two Jaguns killed this time are called Gerbaut and Gartu, Jagun Gartu supposed to be on patrol this night while Gerbaut is on outpost. They did not really quarrel with anyone in the army, it is actually opposite they got along with almost everyone"

"So this is not an inside job, but to think an assassin appears in place like this, and attack Jaguns while being aware of the camp... Also as soon as refugees appear an assassin appeared." Princess muttered with low voice.

Arminel also thought this is surely related to refugees. There is no way some guy walking around nowhere place like this, and kill few soldiers then disappear.

When they were discussing goal of the assassin Arminel's squire drystan entered the tent and reported nothing is found in his camp. After about five minutes later Foulque's squire entered and reported same thing.

Finally commander of Princess personal army entered and directly walked toward Princess and whispered on her ear. Although Arminel were near them he only heard one word from whole report. One word he heard was "Blood".

Are they talking about me? Since his title was Blood knight, Arminel wondered just what did commander of Her Highness personal army reported. He glanced at Princess Ascelot trying to find about more from her reaction and face changes.

Princess closed her eyes and seemed to be thinking seriously. All the personals in the tent became quiet wondering what was the content of the report. After about 2 minutes princess opened her eyes and ordered

"For now let's just rest... but just in case increase the number of patrols and guards onefold. Also Sir Arminel please come here tomorrow a little earlier than usual, we need to talk. Well then gentleman, I wish you a good night"

Then princess stood up and left for her bed.

Are they suspecting me? was the first thought to come across his mind when he was walking back to his own tent. But that is impossible! Well whatever it is I will know few hours later. After instructing Drystan to arrange for extra patrols and guards also wake him up earlier he went to his bed to sleep.

*****

Itami got up earlier by the sound of patrolling guards. For some reason there were lot of patrols than usual. Specially around his tent, like every two minutes you could hear heavy armored soldiers walking in numbers.

Itami glanced up at his own bed where Elea is sleeping. Her face was very dirty, blood and dirt mixed together here and there. Also because Cass brought her here covered in blood stained blanket they didn't change the blanket. Blanket of his own bed is now placed on floor. And now when you look at Elea sleeping in bloody bed, it looked like some murder scene...

Itami scratched his hair, Now where should I look for women's clothes? She is pretty much n.a.k.e.d under that bloody blanket... Also I need to find her doctor too.

I guess I got to talk with Charl.. no, Ascelot about this... But I don't really want to explain what happened yesterday to her...

Right I also need to clean my armor and wash my own clothes.. damn those retards spraying their blood everywhere

Ahh it smells so bad .. I really want to have a shower. Because of my armor and clothes being like this I can't really go outside with all these guards walking around.

Thanks to these huge water barrels, I can just wash them here.

Just when he were about to throw his armor into one of two water barrel, 2 figure pulled open his tent door and entered. One of them were red head and other was the Princess. They looked around the tent and saw Elea in her pitiful "I am the victim" state and Itami who is currently holding his bloody armor.

"Oh shit" Itami g.r.o.a.n.e.d.