Page 164 of I Ran Away to Evil 2
“And?”
“He challenged anyone and everyone in the Keep to a duel.”
I gave in and rubbed the bridge of my nose like my dark liege tended to do. It helped, but only a little.
“How did he do?” Bronwynn piped up from the side. She had happily consumed half of her bowl of stew in the time it took me to try and wrap my head around the lizardkin general.
“Well …” Jessica’s smile faltered, but she regained herself.
I raised my eyebrows. “Well?”
My sister breathed a frustrated sigh. “He didwell. He beat everyone, even General Quinton—”
“That’s not hard.” Olen leaned over from where he’d just dropped off food at a nearby table. “That tiger’s been talking about retiring all year … It’s time we get some fresh blood running things.”
The customers at his table shared a chuckle. They were two rabbitkin, one white and one black, both with adventuring attire and cutlasses at their hips. The white rabbitkin said, “He’s right; everyone knows Puma is practically the general already!”
“She’s been doing the bulk of the work for a year now,” the black rabbitkin added.
Olen resettled his platter, which still had two bowls of soup for a waiting table against the far wall. A mixed adventuring party of dwarf, catkin, and beastfolk were distracted talking amongst themselves and wouldn’t know that Olen was delaying delivering their dinner. “So I think it’s a good thing General Knolith defeated him so easily—it finally convinced Quinton that it was time.”
The entire conversation settled in my gut, wrenching my stomach. I had to push aside the momentary, overwhelming feelings of … jealousy?Envy. That Quinton could just finish up the year and retire with grace if he so chose.
But I had a dungeon waiting for me. A comfortable dungeon. With wine. And lurid romance novels … and patients.
But was I even needed these days? Truly? I mostly holed up down there because Keith had installed some enchantments that let me have a reprieve from the otherwise endless notifications that I had to deal with all day.
Feeling sorry for myself was helping no one, least of allme. I’d missed a bit of the conversation even, coming back to things when Bronwynn asked, “We all know Mistress Puma is the best, but how does everyone feel about General Knolith becoming the new commander general?”
CHAPTER 100
General Knolith Is Incredible
Brownie
Brownie noticed when Rufus flinched from her question, but she didn’t regret asking it.
If he was battling the lizardkin for his job every year, she would like to know if he needed to worry about what would happen in the worst-case scenario.
Olen answered first. “General Knolith isincredible.”
“That’s right!” the black rabbitkin agreed. “He’s one of the more terrifying fighters I’ve ever battled, and his ability to read the flow of battle is outright brilliant.”
“When I fought him, he was already calculating the exact amount of knockout damage it would take to propel me from the ring without losing momentum to carry through to Baker Annie.”
“I saw that!” Jessica cut in. “Baker Annie didn’t even get a chance to swing her axe before he blew her out of the square.”
“And he was able to manage his own abilities so well that he could defeatall of uswith enough left over to help fix the city wall.” Olen decided it was time to move on before the soup got warm. As he walked away, he added, “It was really well done of him to do so.”
“Well then.” Brownie never took her eyes from Rufus during the exchange. Her beastman wasn’t responding to the information at all. His tail hung as usual, and his carefree face didn’t crack once while they listened to the tavern extol the virtues of his competitor. “That’s good to know.”
“Jessica.” Rufus suddenly turned to his sister, who was fiddling with her empty cup of tea.
“Yes?”
“It’s probably time you head back.” He stood, having never even touched his soup.
The two shared a look, and then Jess sighed. She looked out at the dark rainy storm unloading buckets of water onto the town just beyond the doors of the Damp Gizzard, and then she took a deep breath to convince herself it was time. “You’re right. I have to get back soon, or my husband’s cooking will go to waste. I’ll tell everyone you said hi.”
