Page 28 of The Wild Prince’s Favorite (The Dragon Empire Saga #3)
Normally, there would have been orders given, and two or three men jumping in his way, but because that man was running toward the Commander in Chief, no one was brave or mad enough to stand in his path.
Instead, they all watched as Kassein stepped forward, calmly grabbed his sword, and with one perfect, clean movement, swung his sword in the air.
The blade had been sharpened so well that it cut effortlessly through the man’s skin, flesh, and bones, and sent his head flying high.
It dropped down right in front of Tievin.
“Ugh,” the Grand Intendant covered his mouth, barely suppressing a gag.
That answered everyone’s question, and nobody raised the idea of taking prisoners anymore. They only witnessed the Commander in Chief running into battle, his soldiers carefully getting away from him and his deadly long sword.
Meanwhile, Tievin tapped the shoulder of the soldier closest to him.
“Y-you. Get that... that thing out of my sight.”
The men guarding him were annoyed. None of them wanted to be there guarding that wimp... Still, one of them swiftly took care of getting rid of the severed head.
As expected, the battle quickly ended. No barbarian was spared, and truthfully, they hadn’t shown any signs of trying to leave either.
They all had fought with the intention to kill and hadn’t stopped even when injured.
Despite the North Army leaving them a route to go back, none ever ran away.
For some reason, they were resolute to come down to kill their enemies from the Empire or die trying.
Not that the soldiers felt much pity; like every battle, there were casualties on both sides and this time again, they had to count their dead and gather the wounded.
While doing so, most couldn’t help but steal glances toward the Commander in Chief.
That man had nothing to envy of the legendary War God, in their eyes.
Once again, he’d come out of the battle unscathed, with the highest count of kills despite joining late.
And yet, none were so bold as to go up to him.
Instead, they watched from the sidelines while the most cowardly of them casually walked up to the Commander in Chief, a handkerchief on his mouth.
“...Another victory,” Tievin commented. “There are four confirmed deaths so far, twelve men in critical condition, and about fifteen sent to the medical tents for lesser wounds. All barbarians are dead.”
Kassein’s eyes were on one of the barbarians’ bodies, and Tievin followed his gaze, although he immediately averted his eyes at the exposed entrails.
“They are from a different tribe than her, sir,” Tievin said, his voice muffled by his handkerchief. “Their attire, weapons, and tribal markings suggest they did not come from the same tribe as that woman.”
Kassein had noticed too. They had fought with the tribes enough by now to notice there were several of them, and some were quite different from one another.
It didn’t make him feel better, or worse.
He simply wondered if her tribe was going to come for her, and if it was indeed her own tribe that had initially chased her.
.. If so, would they try to save her, or finish the job? He put his sword away.
“Take care of the bodies.”
He turned around and left, headed back toward his tent.
When he stepped back inside his tent, to his surprise, he found Alezya trying to stand up. She had one leg out of bed and was using her elbow on the bedside table to try and support herself.
Their gazes met, and she froze, visibly embarrassed to be caught. He rushed to her side. What was that mad woman doing, trying to get up by herself? She fell back on the bed, her face turning red, grabbing the blanket to cover herself.
“Why are you trying to get up?” he asked her, completely confused.
He’d left her with water, and she had eaten enough to be full for twice the time he was gone at least..
. So what was it? Was she trying to leave the tent?
Why? To escape? He kept staring, but she was flushed red and avoiding his gaze.
Seeing how she’d gone back to being cautious, her shoulders a bit up, he retreated one step, giving her some safe space.
Something was off, in the way she wouldn’t look at him. It was not the attitude of someone who was afraid after being caught trying to escape, so what was it?
“Alezya?”
He was trying to figure it out, but this time, she wasn’t answering or even looking at him.
Instead, she kept turning her body away from him, her legs hanging out of the bed, her hand on the fur blanket covering her front.
.. That’s when he understood, from the way she held her knees awkwardly against one another.
He was an idiot! She had been lying in bed for two days, and she hadn’t been able to relieve herself... and now she had drank quite a bit too. He internally called himself an idiot again and tried to think quickly.
Most men would do their business outside in a deserted area, preferably far from the camp, and clean after themselves, but they didn’t have much to accommodate women.
Thus, he just grabbed a bucket that was in his room and placed it in front of Alezya, and without saying a word, left the tent, now feeling embarrassed too.
He stood outside, trying to think. He hadn’t realized there would be a few issues arising with bringing a woman inside a male-only camp...
There hadn’t been a woman in the North Army since he’d taken it farther up the inhospitable north.
Plus, a lot of criminals were sent under his command, and he wouldn’t have been able to guarantee the safety of several women.
But there was one, now, in his tent, and while he could guarantee her safety, it also meant he had to provide for her.
Kassein frowned, thinking long and hard. What else could she possibly need?
“Call Tievin.”
A pair of soldiers who were just in the vicinity and pretending to walk by stopped in their tracks, surprised, and then realized they’d received a direct order.
“Yes, Commander in Chief! Immediately, sir!”
The two of them literally raced to wherever they believed the Grand Intendant to be. Meanwhile, Kassein sighed and crossed his arms.
He’d grown up with three older sisters, so one would think he would have been more knowledgeable about a woman’s needs, except that he had also grown up in the gigantic Imperial Palace, with dozens of servants taking care of him and his siblings.
Now, he felt like a fool for not realizing Alezya would have needed to go to the bathroom, probably much earlier.
And they were in a camp, they had no proper bathroom either.
The men were living among their peers and had gotten used to washing themselves using hot water basins in their tents and doing their business somewhere private.
There had never been a situation where a woman came into the picture. ..
He and his siblings had lived in the north with their parents when they were younger, but that was ages ago, back when they still resided in the Onyx Castle, not so deep into the wild north.
When he had moved this army up north, to a wilder area, he’d never thought they’d one day welcome a woman...
He tried to think on his own what else she might need. Clothes could be arranged easily, they had no shortage of fabric within the camp.
His third older sister was a peculiar woman who needed a lot of things, but Alezya used to live in a mountain, not a palace, so there was no use comparing the two of them... He sighed.
“K-Kassein?”
He turned around, hearing Alezya call for him, probably meaning she was done. When he walked back inside the tent, she was back on the bed, hiding most of her body under the covers, and still red to the ears. Kassein did his best not to react and make her even more ashamed.
She’d left the bucket a few steps away from the bed, along with the little towel she’d used most likely to wash herself a bit.
She could probably use a bath... It might be difficult with her injuries, but he knew no woman who would hate a bath, and she was probably closer to being fully healed now.
He grabbed the bucket, ignoring the content, to throw it outside.
“Commander?” Tievin’s voice called him from the outside, sounding a bit out of breath.
Much to his bad luck, the Grand Intendant had appeared right when Kassein was walking out with that bucket and its content.
“Hold this.”
Without warning, Kassein pushed the bucket into Tievin’s arms and walked away. Confused, Tievin looked down, and for the second time that day, he hardly suppressed his vomit.
He dropped the bucket out of surprise, which, luckily, fell bottom down in the layers of snow without spillage.
“Commander?!” Tievin protested out loud.
Meanwhile, Kassein had found another pair of roaming soldiers and ordered them to bring a hot bath to his tent as well as new warm clothes, the smallest size they could find in the camp.
Alezya wasn’t particularly small for a woman, but she was very slender, and as a woman, she was still shorter than most of his men.
Any male attire would look big on her, but he figured they’d find a better solution later.
With that done and the soldiers gone to do as he’d asked, Kassein walked back toward his tent, finding Tievin with his lips pinched and an extremely upset look.
“Did I do anything to offend you, sir?” Tievin asked, with a higher-pitched voice than usual.
“No.”
“Then. What. Is. This?” he emphasized each word, pointing at the bucket.
Kassein ignored him but grabbed the bucket, and stepped away from his tent to get rid of the contents a few steps away, washing it in snow.
Luckily, his tent was isolated enough that he didn’t have to go far to get this out of the camp’s main alleys.
When he came back, Tievin was still standing there, with his lips pinched in a thin line of disapproval.
“She made you wash... that ?” he grunted.