Chapter 13

“CLERK!”

I almost fell from the branch I am sitting in the tree when someone suddenly shout my name, almost like announcing it. Darting my eyes at random below the tree, I saw Liebert looking up at me with a grin on his face.

“Do you really have to shout?” I protested.

“Well, I just thought you will not notice me if I didn’t do that.”

“What am I to you? A deaf?”

“Are you upset because of that? What a petty,” putting his hand on his hips as he shook his head.

Damn this man! I snorted.

“What are you doing here?” I ask him.

“I was just passing by when I saw a rare kind of monkey up at the tree.”

I can feel all my nerves were about to explode in my head, “And where is that monkey you are talking about?”

“Come down here. My neck is hurting talking to you like this.” Gently caressing his nape.

I diverted my gaze away from him, “Is that an order?”

He paused for minute and just nodded, “Well, you can put it that way… I’m your senior after all.”

Whatever, I’m not in the mood to bicker with him. I jumped down to the ground from the branch and stood in front of him.

“What?” crossing my arms.

“Why are you so irritated? I just want to talk a friend.”

“Are we friends?”

“You mean, I’m the only one who is thinking that we are friends?” He brought his palm to his chest acting as if he was hurt there.

“Stop your drama. I am really not in the mood to play with you S-e-n-i-o-r.”

“What are you up to?” caressing his chin with his fingers.

“Huh?”

Did he already have some suspicions of me? What should I do?

“You always go missing. Are you that afraid to be sent out to front lines?”

“Pardon?”

“You know, you are just a newbie. I understand why you will be scared in the thought of you will be sent out there.”

Pfft! I wanted to laugh but I held it within myself as I don’t wanna add suspicions.

“How did you know that, senior?” I acted like I was surprised to ride along.

“Of course, I already have been there. There is always a first time, right?” tapping my shoulder.

I don’t really need your comfort since I don’t have a plan going out to the front line. My goal is only on watching my brothers. I just forced a smile to him. We then just chatted some random things. Until the darkness fell and I went back in the back portions of the fortress since there is a knight, I was very suspicious of.

It was a very dark night; the moon was nowhere to be found in the sky. And the eerie feeling of the darkness the loomed over the surrounding is very surreal. Taking advantage of the sea of darkness, I dashed from tree to tree without ever making even a slight sound to hide myself from the knight I am following. His torch was the only thing that lit up the place.

As I was observing the place he always went out in the night to the forest for some reasons. And I really suspect that he is up to something shady. I hid behind a tree and constantly peeked towards the direction of the knight standing out there waiting for someone to meet him. Looks like they were bound to meet here in some abandoned town or some ruins of something. Heh! Quite a good spot for meeting with some hideous agenda.

“What are you doing?” someone suddenly whispered and grabbed me by my shoulder.

I immediately turned around. A shrilling metallic sound pierced through the night air as I pulled out my sword swinging towards the man’s neck but I stopped short. Just then I realized who he was.

“Liebert?”

“Woah! I don’t know if I should praise you for having a very good reflexes or you are just being so tense…”

I sheathed back my sword into its scabbard on my side as I sighed.

“Why are you following me?” grabbing him down to a crouch position. Thank goodness, the knight I am following didn’t notice us.

“I just noticed that you were doing something. I want to confirm earlier… yet you lied to me. So, I thought you were a spy or something.”

“You already think of me that way? How come you are not reporting this to the captain or pointing your sword to me?” I asked, very skeptical.

“You act weird but I can’t see you as a suspicious person who is about to do a crime.” Again, he gave me that never dying grin of him.

“Wow… I don’t know what to say… whether if you are too kind or just too dumb?”

“Hey, I’m still your senior.” He protested.

“Whatever… just shut up and watch,” taking a peek again to the knight standing.

“What exactly happening here?” he comes closer beside me and started observing the knight as well.

“That knight is being suspicious that is why I’m following him.”

“Oh, so you are like him and I’m doing like you are doing.”

“Do you really have to put it that way?” I blankly said.

He just ignored me and kept his eyes straight towards the knights. So, he also has this skill of ignoring someone. Great! This man never failed to hit my nerves.

“Look, somebody’s coming…” he said.

And there, in the opposite way. Torches emerged from the deep darkness of the night. Three knight-looking men with different uniforms appeared approach the knight we were following.

“Hey, is that a knight from the enemy?” I asked, darting my gaze from the men in front of us to Liebert.

“What? You don’t know the difference of our allies from the enemies? How did you manage to come here when you can’t even just do that?”

I really want to cut the head of this man and throw it between those men in front of us.

“As you can see, I never actually saw enemies. Who have thought they have that kind of attire and all,” I rolled my eyes in sarcastic tone.

“Yeah, that is expected for a newbie to not know some things. However, not this dumb as to can’t differentiate a comrade’s uniforms from an enemy.”

My god this man! I really want to strangle him and punch him until I get satisfied.

“You can now just shut up and listen to their conversation.” I protested and crept closer towards them.

“So, is there something new?”

“They plan to charge all at once and throw sheer numbers against you since they think… you guys seemed unable to fight anymore.”

“Huh! how confident for them to do so.”

“The operation will commence tomorrow as the sun appears. Prince Varis gave an advice that it is perfect that you ambush the second prince and his troops. That will hugely help you to turn the tables around.”

“Understood, we will advise our captain.”

After that talk they went separate ways and have gone back to their own camps. The both of us stayed there for a while and was just trying to sink in the conversation we overheard.

“That… this… prince Varis is communicating to the enemies?” he uttered, still in disbelief.

“I guess, that’s the case…” I replied.

So, it was really the first prince who is the traitor within the kingdom but how did they end up winning the war? No, Prince Varis suggested to ambush the troops of the second prince, and if they follow the suggestion of the first prince then Prince Varis will know the whole situation and prepare for a move.

This is a very tricky trap to catch the two troops. After fighting with each other he will come out of nowhere and sweep the much weaker state of the enemies and act like he came to help and own the credit for the victory just like what happened in my previous life. Well the investigations suggested someone is giving a report to the enemy since they were ambushed at the perfect time, but the investigations came closed abruptly after putting all the blame towards my brothers.

But who killed my brothers if they were not killed by the assassins earlier? Just who and how did they orchestrate the deed? Like a bolt of lightning that flashed in my mind, I came up with the realization.

After attacking and winning the war, they will head home straight without a delay. And so, the ambush will take place. This time my brother’s will really be killed for sure. An assassin maybe blending in and use the chaos of the ambush to attack them or one of the knights like the one earlier will act and will be the one who will stab them from behind.

“What a sly fox you really are Varis, you a hell sent scum,” I smirked.

“Clerk?”

I faced Liebert, “Whatever you hear from here you should not say a thing about it.”

“What are you talking about?”

“We should keep this between us.”

“No, we should report this to the captain and to Prince Reimir.”

Liebert and I are the knights under the command of my family and we are supporting Prince Reimir. This is a plot against the second prince that my brothers got into.