Page 85 of The Wild Prince's Favorite
“Th-the women aren’t back yet that we know of,” they replied with a dry throat. “N-neither is the Commander’s dragon...”
“Fine. Take this to the Commander’s tent, and have someone alert us as soon as they’re back!”
“Yes, Grand Intendant!”
Tievin didn’t need to repeat what had been said, for he was sure Kassein had heard it all already. Instead, his hands now free from that heavy piece of clothing, Tievin hurried behind him, catching up to a safe distance of a couple of steps between them.
“Your Highness, may I suggest you... get cleaned up before the ladies return?”
Kassein stopped and looked down as if he’d only just now realized he was drenched in fresh blood... Tievin sighed.
At the very least, having women in the camp would get a few of those animals to finally exert some basic hygiene. Soon enough, he ordered another unit to bring a hot bath to the Commander in Chief’s tent. Kassein kept glancing at the skies, and Tievin silently prayed that his sister would come back before he ran out of patience... He could imagine the ladies would want to take their time and enjoy their baths, but even in his eyes, it had been quite a while since they’d left. Tievin chose not to voice it out and instead, act as if this was to be expected.
He might have had his doubts if it had been anybody else, but Princess Kiera, the Emperor’s younger sister, had cultivated quite a reputation since childhood as the most unpredictable member of the Imperial Family. Even when she was young, she’d taken the habit of escaping the safety of the Imperial Palace on her own with her dragon, finding every opportunity she could to escape her caretakers’ watch and disappear, at first for a fewhours, and as she grew up, for several days. Her whereabouts were more often unknown than known, and it usually took one of the dragons to actually find which corner of the Empire she’d gone if she even stayed within the borders...
Now that she was an adult, her entire family had quite accepted the fact that Kiera couldn’t be tied down to anywhere, and only visited home whenever she felt like it. As a child though, it had been quite problematic.
The Imperial Family counted eight children, and it was an exceptional sight to see them all in one place, mostly because Kiera had a genuine talent for disappearing. Tievin, who had been raised alongside them, had a front row seat in witnessing the countless number of times Kiera had been brought home by one of her older siblings’ dragons, or been escorted by the Imperial Guards after she’d been caught stealing with other children in the street.
As she’d grown up, her family had seemed to be less and less bothered by her carefree spirit and accepted that she was more often gone exploring the world than safe at home. Moreover, when she did return, she spent most of her time training with her older siblings and father, making her one of the best fighters in the Empire and confirming that very few things on this continent could actually harm her.
Thankfully, she’d dropped the stealing habit… or perhaps she’d gotten good enough at it not to get caught anymore, Tievin wasn’t quite sure. He had no idea how the dragons were able to find the Imperial Family members no matter how far they were, but he was quite sure Kiera would have been capable of disappearing for entire weeks if it wasn’t for the family dragons chasing her to bring her back home.
Thus, her disappearing with her companion Lorey and that foreign woman wasn’t as worrying as it should have been. It wasmostly Kassein being quite annoyed with it, and for his nerves’ sake, Tievin did hope she had intended to return that day.
“...I’m going on a hunt,” Kassein grunted after he was clean and changed into a new set of clothing.
“You just bathed, Your Highness,” Tievin said, hardly suppressing his eye roll.
Kassein glared back, meaning he did not care.
Tievin sighed but shrugged. The only way for the Commander in Chief to exercise patience was while he was keeping himself busy, and hunting seemed like a better option than slaying more of their soldiers...
Kassein left with his weapons, leaving Tievin alone to stand in the camp, glancing at the sky again. He really hoped Kiera would soon remember her brother was not as patient as the rest of her family with her antics...
At least, with Kassein gone and such nice weather, Tievin had no trouble keeping himself busy around the camp. While his superior was gone, he collected reports, interrogated the medical unit, rearranged the night watch’s shifts, refused or agreed to new orders of clothing, and ordered for more snow to be shoveled out of the way. Since no more sightings of Kein were reported, he assumed both dragons had now gone to Kiera’s side. This meant the Prince wouldn’t return from his hunt until he heard the dragons come back to the camp as it was hard to miss Kein’s loud growls.
It was later in the afternoon when he heard news of Kein returning and, sure enough, the orange dragon appeared in the sky with a loud growl. Tievin was confused for a bit as he only saw a couple of silhouettes on its back. The dragon landed heavily a few steps away, and Lorey and Alezya got down, both looking refreshed.
“Thank you for sending the clothes, Tievin,” Lorey said as she helped Alezya down.
“You’re welcome. May I ask where Her Highness is...?”
“She had Kiki take her to her brother once she realized he’d gone hunting. You know how she loves to compete with her brother. They’ll be bringing us a nice dinner, I hope.”
Tievin nodded. Not having the siblings around for a little longer was not something he was going to complain about... His eyes drifted to Alezya. That woman looked a bit better, with rosy cheeks, her wounds bandaged anew, and in clean, fitting female clothes.
“I don’t recommend you two tour around the camp alone,” Tievin said, going back to Lorey. “I can escort you ladies, but as you know, we also have quite a number of ill-reputed people living here. It wouldn’t be smart for young women to go around without an escort.”
Tievin didn’t consider himself much of an escort, but without Kiera and Kassein by their side, he knew he’d lose his head if he let those two explore without ensuring their safety first, and he could summon a couple of reliable units to escort them within the minute.
“Thank you, Tievin,” Lorey said with her usual kind smile, “but I think we’d better rest in a safer area until Their Highnesses return. Actually, would you be kind enough to provide us with what I would need to paint?”
“Paint?” Tievin repeated, confused.
“I want to teach Alezya our language, or at the very least, the basics of it. She only knows a handful of words, it ought to be frustrating for her. It would be better if she could communicate with us, at least a minimum.”
Tievin wasn’t too comfortable with that idea. That woman was a foreigner, and she belonged to the enemy. Her intentions were completely unknown, and the Commander in Chief hadalready been quite bewitched by her without Alezya speaking a word of their language... Would he get even more unreasonable once she could use her tongue to seduce him too?
