Chapter 75

75 Brom’s Dillema

The situation in the war room suddenly lit. The incoming carriage of the royalty is the breath of the fresh air that they need. Vale and Henry rushed outside, waiting for the carriage. Up on the horizon, Silver Hawk flew low to his master.

“Welcome back, Silver Hawk.” Vale was happy to see his familiar once again.

‘I am back, master. I can be assured that you will be so happy to see the inside of the carriage.’

“Yes, I know Justice was there. You can go back now. Good job, Silver Hawk.”

‘It’s not just the crown prince, I’ll go back to take some rest now.’

Vale was frowning, and tried to ask Silver Hawk once again, “Not just the crown prince? Who?” But Silver Hawk already flew inside Vale’s shadow.

“That was weird? I wonder who that was?” Asked Henry. He was also curious about Silver Hawk’s information.

“It is your girl, captains.” Muttered Brom, while he was yawning, with his uninterested face from behind them.

“Our what?!” Shouted Vale and Henry at the same time.

.....

The carriage was already arriving when Vale and Henry still berating Brom. Xavier jumped from the carriage and grab the neck of his two friends.

“Hey! I missed you guys!” Shouting at them with a silly grin on his face.

Vale and Henry smiled when they saw Xavier, but after another person came out from the carriage, they were flustered and in awe.

“A... Anne?! What are you doing here?!” Henry asked her as Vale was frozen beside him.

Anne warmly smiled at Henry and Vale. “I came here to help, and also as the attending healer for the crown prince.” No one knows how happy Anne was when Henry and Vale appeared from the window of the carriage. She wanted to come and hug the two of them, but it will become a show for everyone around.

Vale and Henry looked at each other. The knight captain then tried to ask her, “What happened to Justice?”

“It was a long story. Let’s talk about it after we discuss Gaftan.” Justice was already out of the carriage, with Jason behind him.

The other nodded at them, and Anne took her bag and basket. “I’ll go unpacking in my room, just asked someone to call for me if you need me.” She said to Justice while her hand touched his shoulder.

The other three saw the subtle but intimate move from Anne, and also the serene face coming from the crown prince. Henry knows the face. He snorted and laughed, making the other look at him like he just losing his mind.

They saw Anne walk away with one officer, Vale, and Henry. Although worried also delighted to see her again, no words can describe of how they missed her. The bewitched spell took a toll on their sanity. Vale tucked on Justice’s shirt, trying to ask about their mission.

“So, did you get the book?”

“Yeah, we got it. Let’s look at the arcana tome when we are done in the war room.” Answered Justice to Vale.

Inside the war room, they discussed the oddity of the clandestine tower. Horden gave them the overall report of the first wave of the hoard.

“Basically, two days ago, the hoard was finally coming, the portal opened normally and there were two colossal, ten medium, and hundreds of small ones coming out from the portal.”

Justice and Jason listened to Horden with the written report in their hands. Jason’s face was frowning when he read the report and listened to Horden. “This is just a typical hoard, not even the biggest group.”

“Exactly your majesty, the abnormality was from the timing of the hoard, when the clandestine tower change color to red, sometimes we just need to wait for three days or one week for the hoard to begin, but this time, we were waiting for two weeks,” Horden explained to Justice and Jason and gave them another paper documents this time with the sketching from the battle artist, “Gaftan battle artist drew this, you can see the type of monsters that coming, we slayed all of them but somehow the tower still on red.”

Justice looked at the sketches and cursed, “F*cks! How come the monsters have different elements on them? Look, Snaillog is an earth type, but there was Pixikeep here in the wind element. This also never happened before!”

“Yeah, you’re right, we thought we were going to fight the same element of monsters also, but not only we got that pesky pixikeep, but we also got some fire type.” Henry handed Justice another drawing of a monster.

A frown came onto Justice’s face. “I have never seen this monster before, Xavier, do you recognize this monster?” He asked Xavier to look at the drawing.

Xavier came and surprisingly, never saw the monster, either. The hoard in Gaftan is becoming a stranger by the minute. The reinforcement will arrive tomorrow. They discussed the provisions and camps for the reinforcement, and also the carcass of the slayed monsters.

“We have it restored in the cold room, but not all of it. The pixikeep, of course, dispersed and the fire-type monster burned into ashes.” Martin reports everything to Justice and Jason.

“Ugh... I do hope I could see pieces of that fire monster, but I was glad there were no casualties this time.” Said Justice, he compared the documents with the old documents of another border town, “Although, Gaftan is always the safest, so we are going to double the guards, plus a magi and a huntsman in every rotation, the reinforcement will comprise magi, huntsman and healer.”

“I agree, we have too many knights here, and magic knight still a rare type in the kingdom,” Henry spoke out the fact, with a bittered expression, his dream is to become a magic knight, sadly he doesn’t have enough magica inside of him.

“Alright, let us hope the second wave is coming after the reinforcement settled in tomorrow.” Said Jason.

Justice squeezes into his brother’s shoulder, trying to be supportive, as the prince, even though he was the oldest, Jason is always supportive of his little brothers, he never wanted the throne and hopes for a peaceful moment as the aide for Justice. As the true son of king Ascend, he knew his place as soon as Justice was born. He knows who is going to become the crown prince.

They had a discussion for almost three hours. Only the captains and Horden were there, accompanying Justice and Jason, planning and rescheduling the rotation for the guards. Meanwhile, Brom met with Anne on the terrace of the barracks. He saw the purple color hair peeking at the bushes. Anne was in the middle of reading the herbology book. Brom peeked from the bushes, making Anne jump from her seat.

“Oh my God! Brom, you scared me.” Anne shouted at him, her book is now down to the ground, she cherish the book so much because it is her father’s book that he gave to her the moment she decided to become a healer.

Brom doesn’t even bother to apologize, he just looks at her and thought about something. “Hey, could I ask something?”

Anne, who was a bit annoyed by him, just shrugged at Brom. She concentrated on cleaning her book, “Yes? What is it?”

“When you came inside Gaftan, did you feel me?” Asked Brom.

Anne frowned after hearing the question from Brom. Her head tilted and her eyes look directly at Brom. “What? What kind of question was that?”

His eyes still gaze at our heroine, mostly wondering about the feeling that came into him the moment Anne was entering Gaftan. He doesn’t know why but he can feel her now, and the closer he was the feeling get stronger. “Because I can feel you.” Said Brom to her.

Brom answered, making Anne horrified. She whispered to Brom, “You... You’re not under the spell, right?”

“No, this is not the bewitching spell,” Said Brom. He was confused by this feeling, not an adoration that came from the bewitched spell. This was something else. He asked him another question that makes her even more terrified than before. “What are you?”

“I... I don’t understand. I’m the same as you. Maybe just have less magica, that’s all.” Anne stuttered at Brom. She was afraid Brom knew about her origin, and the truth that she already accepted her situation made her restless again.

“No... You are something else.”

Stepping closer to Anne, Brom was trying to confirm the new senses that came unbeknown to the two of them. But another hand grabs onto Brom’s shoulder.

“The f*ck you’re doing here?” Xavier looked annoyed at Brom.

“Nothing, I just wanted to confirm something, that’s all, captain.” Brom wasn’t afraid of anyone, even Xavier, he politely excused himself away.

Xavier’s eyes lock on Brom, who’s getting away, while Anne gets back to her seat.

“What did he want with you?” Asked Xavier, annoyed by another man’s presence so close to Anne.

Smiling at Xavier, Anne told him to sit beside her. “Nothing. He asked me something weird, though. About how he can feel about me.”

“What?! What did he say?!” Enraged by the confession from Anne.

Anne can sense the anger coming from Xavier, she steps up and calms him down. “No, I think it was a mistake. I’m going to have a talk with him.”

Xavier nodded his head, “Alright, look, we need to talk to you about the arcana tome. Let’s go inside.”

She packs her books and followed Xavier to the rest area. Her mind lingered on Brom’s words, whether or not it was a good thing, she doesn’t know about it for now.