Page 84 of The Wild Prince's Favorite
“Attention, all units!” Sazaran thundered, causing Tievin to grimace and cover his ears. “Today’s training is a deathmatch! Forfeiting is not allowed! All units, you have the order to kill anyone who attempts to leave the training arena until only one victor is left!”
There were a few seconds of heavy silence as the actual meaning of his orders sunk into those men’s heads. Units Five and Six were the only ones on the sand with the Commander in Chief. Suddenly, all the other units felt all the more grateful to have been ordered to stand on the sidelines, and some even instinctively took another step away from the line of sand. Those twelve men were about to die, there was no doubt about that. The ones condemned were also starting to realize how bad their position was. They glanced around at the stares of the other units, and then faced the Commander in Chief.
“This... This isn’t fair!” one of them finally uttered. “We’re going to die!”
“It’s a deathmatch,” Kassein retorted with an ice-cold tone. “If you kill me and everyone else, you can survive. Unit Five first.”
Tievin smirked. So he wanted to make sure the sixth unit knew what was coming to them... Indeed, he was in a foul mood. Those men knew their chances were naught. They could possibly kill the others, but the Commander’s presence annihilated their chances of survival. A few of them glanced to the sides, but their chances of running out of there weren’t much better; there were twice the number of men ready to greet them with swords, and they had done absolutely nothing that would make the other units want to save them, quite the opposite.
“W-we... M-maybe we can take him, all of us! There are twelve of us! L-let’s get rid of this bastard!”
There were a handful of half-convinced cheers, more to try and summon the bravery they didn’t have than anything. Then, someone began running, sword first, toward Kassein, and the bloodshed began.
Tievin suppressed his vomit and quickly raised his notepad to block his view. He had little doubts about the outcome, and he hoped to keep his lunch down. Instead, he turned to Sazaran. Unlike him, the General had his eyes riveted on the fight, nodding at intervals as if he was watching an interesting scene and mentally giving points.
“Sazaran. Your opinion on the Commander’s recent... acquisition?” Tievin asked, trying to speak not too loudly so Kassein wouldn’t hear, but loud enough for Sazaran to hear him above all the screaming and shouting.
“The woman?” Sazaran scoffed. “What of it? The Commander’s a young man. Good for him!”
“She’s going to bring trouble,” Tievin insisted. “She’s a foreigner. An enemy.”
“So what?!” Sazaran shrugged, seeming annoyed to be distracted. “Nothing the Commander in Chief can’t handle. Plus, Princess Kiera is here, isn’t she? What are you scared of, Tievin, you chicken!”
Tievin rolled his eyes. These brainless animals...
“...The men are talking, for sure,” Sazaran said after a while. “A woman in the camp is a first... Frankly, we should worry more about the trouble on the inside than the outside. I’m not mad to be rid of those animals, but they aren’t the only ones. We’re not doing charity work here. Nobody would blame the Commander in Chief for taking a firmer hand on his troops!”
His words had Tievin smirk.
The issue wasn’t about Kassein being soft, but him lacking any interest. He had been sent here as a punishment and decided to stay because he refused to go back. Having to lead and take care of an entire army was just like a side dish on his plate. He didn’t care for it, just like he cared very little about actually conquering those mountains. In fact, that woman was the first thing he’d shown any interest in for months...
Just then, there was a damp sound of something landing in the sand a few feet away from them, and Tievin made the mistake of peeking. He almost threw up again and quickly hid behind his notepad.
“...How bad is it?”
“We’re going to need a big order of sand,” Sazaran chuckled. “The Commander in Chief is in particularly good shape today.”
Tievin rolled his eyes.
“Just let me know when he’s done...” he grumbled.
It didn’t take long, fortunately. After many screams, grunts, and shouts, everything suddenly seemed to fall into a half-admirative, half-horrified silence. Still, Tievin wasn’t foolish enough to lower his notepad just yet. He watched as Sazaran left his side to get on the sand, declare without surprise the Prince asthe winner, and then start scolding his troops. That was Tievin’s cue.
He grabbed the Commander in Chief’s heavy cloak and took a large detour around the sand to get through the crowd of soldiers and find Kassein to follow him out of there. Although he did his very best to avoid looking, it was clear the sand had taken a crimson color, and the horrified gazes of the other soldiers convinced him to keep looking in the opposite direction until they stepped out. The training area was going to take a while to be cleaned, but that wasn’t his problem. Sazaran would have his men do it... He doubted any unit would feel like going there after the word spread, anyway. And no doubt it would spread pretty quickly.
Those men had been executed as an example, although a lot of it was also the result of Kassein’s frustrations. Every time the Prince was pissed, there would be blood spilled. That was the rule and the main reason everyone was smartly staying out of their way as they crossed back through the camp. That, and the trail of blood dripping behind him too...
“...Are they back yet?”
Tievin, who was struggling to keep up behind him while carrying Kassein’s humongous cape on top of his notepad, blinked a couple of times, before realizing who he was talking about.
“N-not that I know of, Commander.”
He wanted to ask how he would possibly know better than Kassein when they’d been together all along, but it wasn’t worth dying today.
Instead, Tievin gestured quickly at a unit that was passing by with wide-open eyes at their Commander’s gruesome, blood-soaked appearance.
“You take this,” Tievin said, pushing the heavy fur cloak in their hands with a sigh of relief. “Was Her Highness spotted? And her dragon?”
