Chapter 7: "Was this it? Was this your true intention?"

In the dead of night, they stood there, face to face. The only source of light was the full moon that shone down on them. Shocked, the soldier stood there, tip of a blade just inches away from his neck. Takoda quickly took a step back, his chainmail armour rattled as he took a step back from the sword. Fujika stood there, shocked.

"Kurono, what are you doing?" Takoda asked.

"What I have to," Kurono replied.

"What do you mean?"

"I must achieve my goal."

"What is that?"

"Something for you to find out. I'll give you a choice Takoda, leave now and never return to the southern army, or… Die!"

Takoda grasped the broadsword made of silver on his hip and drew it.

"I would die for my country," Takoda said as he pointed his sword directly at Kurono.

There was a tense moment, then, there was a clash of swords. Kurono had made an attack but Takoda had blocked it. Takoda swung his sword down at Kurono but Kurono dodged to the side. He swung his sword at Takoda but Takoda just managed to block it using the sword. Kurono switched his blade to the other end, with the blade running parallel to his arm, Kurono swung his sword again. Takoda took the opportunity and elbowed Kurono, sending him backwards. The two were bent over, taking a short break to regain their breath.

"Was this it?" Takoda asked. "Was this your true intention? To betray all of us?"

Kurono ignored the question and furiously attacked Takoda. He swung his sword quickly, not giving Takoda an opening and giving him barely enough time to block the attacks. Takoda was being pushed back by Kurono's flurry of attacks. There was large rock, bigger than both men behind Takoda. Takoda got pushed up against the wall. Kurono went for another attack but Takoda kicked him in the knee making Kurono fall to the ground, creating an opening. Takoda slammed his sword down towards Kurono's head, Kurono blocked the attack with Mazqatal. Kurono rolled backwards and got back on his feet. Takoda went to attack Kurono and swung his sword down again but Kurono dodged to the side again then swung a right hook and hit Takoda hit in the jaw. Takoda was knocked back by the punch, Kurono followed up by kicking Takoda in the face. Blood sprayed out from his nose as his head was sent backwards. Takoda hit the ground with a thud, his sword fell from his hands. he laid there, looking up to his opponent. Kurono pointed the sword to Takoda's neck once more.

"I'll let you decide one last time, die now, or leave and never come back," Kurono said as he gave Takoda a menacing stare.

"Like I said, I would die for my country," Takoda replied. "But not today." Takoda batted Mazqatal away and stood up. "Not over something as trivial as this." Takoda and Kurono glared at each other.

"Leave now, and never return," Kurono said. "If I see your face around the southern army again, I will not hesitate to kill you."

"I see, it pains me to do this, but… I will leave," Takoda said. "Goodbye Kurono." Takoda began walking away. "Maybe in another life, we could've been allies."

Kurono watched the armoured warrior walk away into the deep forest.

A strange person in a black hood watched the whole battle unfold from one of the trees, once Takoda had left, the hooded person did too.

"M-master?" Fujika stuttered.

"Yes Fujika?" Kurono replied.

"M-may I ask, why did you attack him?" Fujika asked.

"Because I had to."

"But doesn't that mean you've betrayed your allies!?"

Kurono ignored Fujika's question and walked away. Fujika decided not to say anything and trust her master. She was suspicious, but she also believed Kurono was doing the right thing.

"So, who is this?" Commander Ocran asked, looking at Seili. Morning had now fallen on the camp as the bright sun beamed down on them, the sun was hot and there were no signs of rain anymore.

"Someone Kurono found, from what I understand, she is homeless," Nozomi asked while she stood next to Seili. Seili was a little bit shorter than Nozomi who was five feet and four inches tall making Seili about five foot three.

"Tell me your name!" Ocran demanded to know.

"S-Seili," Seili replied nervously.

"Is she going to be of any use to us?" Ocran asked.

"I don't know sir," Nozomi replied.

"Well, if she won't be of any use get her the hell out of here!"

"She can heal," said a voice climbing up the path to the camp, it was Kurono with Fujika following. "She's a healer and that will turn out to be particularly useful for us."

"Can you now?" Ocran asked with a grin. "Well, we'll keep you then and see what you can do. For now, you can stay in Nozomi's tent, Nozomi, you will take care of this girl in the night, alright?"

"Yes sir," Nozomi replied. "Come on Seili, I'll show you to the tent."

Nozomi walked towards a large tent and Seili followed close behind.

"And I see you've brought another," Ocran said to Kurono.

"Yes, this is Fujika, a friend of mine," Kurono explained.

"Hello sir, I am Fujika, I will help you in any way possible," Fujika bowed while introducing herself to the commander.

"I see," Ocran inspected the maid.

"She is very good at using daggers so I imagine she will be good for stealth missions," Kurono added.

"And where will she sleep, we have run out of room and I doubt Nozomi will fit anyone else in her tent, I also doubt Valle will invite her to sleep in her tent," Ocran though out loud.

"She can stay in my tent," Kurono suggested. "I have plenty of room."

"I see that as the only solution," Ocran said. "Do you agree with these terms Fujika?"

"Yes sir," Fujika replied.

"Good, you didn't have a choice anyway, just don't do anything weird Kurono," Ocran said.

"I would never think of it," Kurono said.

"Kurono, where's Takoda?" Ocran asked.

"He betrayed us sir, turned his sword on his own allies," Kurono explained.

"Why don't I believe you?" Ocran asked.

"I tell nothing but the truth sir. I have also eliminated the king."

"I had heard that the king had been eliminated and I thought it could've been you, but that doesn't mean the war is over, the king's son will simply take his place on the throne."

"I know that sir," Kurono replied.

"Kadri returned sometime before you, he was worried about you," Ocran said.

"I'll go check on him, make sure he's okay," Kurono said. "I'll just show Fujika to my tent first."

"Oh, and Kurono," Ocran said before he left.

"Yes sir," Kurono looked at the commander. Ocran then threw a forceful punch towards Kurono, hitting him directly in the cheek and knocking him to the ground. Fujika looked at the knocked down warrior with a worried look on her face.

"Are you okay master?" She said as she leant down to Kurono.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Kurono replied.

"Don't ever do your own thing without running it past me first!" Ocran screamed.

"Sorry sir," Kurono replied.

Kurono Showed Fujika to his tent, all the captains had their own tents while the other soldier shared large tents with their comrades. The tents had beds and other furniture, but everyone only got to sleep in single beds with normal soldier having bunk beds, although, Valle had acquired a queen sized and slept in that. She was not a captain but had her own tent as one of her requests. Commander Ocran only agreed to this because the magic wielding soldier scared him. She scared most people except for Kurono and Nozomi.

"This is my tent, we will probably increase our tent amount soon so you shouldn't be in here for long," Kurono said as he opened the light brown cloth allowing him and Fujika inside. There was a single bed in the corner of the tent and a small wooden table next to it. There was a candle placed on the table, spare weapons and armour arranged at the foot of the bed.

"Here we are," Kurono said. Kurono reached under his bed and pulled out a futon from under it with a spare pillow and blanket and laid them on an empty space on the ground.

"I hope that will do," Kurono mentioned.

"It will be fine master," Fujika replied.

"Good, I'm going to go see Kadri, make yourself at home."

Kurono stepped out and saw Valle standing there with her arms crossed, she looked angry.

"Hey," Kurono waved.

"So, she gets to sleep in your tent, but I don't?" Valle asked with a furious voice.

"It's only temporary," Kurono replied.

"That doesn't matter, she still gets to sleep with you," Valle said.

"It's not like we're sleeping in the same bed."

"You're still sleeping in the same tent, you never let me do that with you."

"But you never had to sleep in my tent, you just wanted to."

"Well, what if she and I swapped tents?"

"Who knows what you would do to me if you slept in my tent."

"I wouldn't do anything… without your permission."

"Not happening."

"What if she slept in my tent?" Valle suggested. Kurono was shocked. I did not think Valle would invite anyone other than me to sleep in her tent he thought.

"That's a great idea," Kurono said, he quickly opened his tent and poked his head inside.

"Fujika, take that stuff and follow Valle to her tent, she has offered to share it with you!" Kurono explained.

"Oh, okay," Fujika replied. She started rolling up the futon and walked out. She saw the angry Valle and was instantly intimidated, Fujika was accidentally showing how scared she was.

"Come with me," Valle said with a grumpy face, she flicked her long black flowing hair behind her and walked off. Fujika followed behind, clutching onto her stuff as if she were about to be attacked.

"Kadri, I have some bad news," Kurono was standing outside of a long tent. Inside was two rows of bunk beds lined next to each other. The tent had no one inside except for Kadri who laid on the bottom bunk of a bed two bunks down from the entrance.

"What is it?" Kadri replied, he seemed to be worried and was not his usual, happy self.

"I have returned!" Kurono flung the tent entrance open and strutted inside with a proud look on his face.

"Sir Kurono!" Kadri exclaimed, he got up instantly and ran to Kurono and looked him in the face. "I was so worried about you sir."

"I thought I told you not to call me sir," Kurono replied.

"Oh sorry," Kadri replied.

"It's fine," Kurono stated. "Now tell me, what have you been doing, getting up to any trouble?"

"No sir, I mean, Kurono, my most recent mission was to find you, but it seems that was successful without me."

"It's fine, I would've returned eventually, and I'm sure you helped somehow."

"I tried."

"When did you get back?" Kurono asked.

"Yesterday, once Nozomi had disappeared I didn't know where to go to find you, so I thought to come back here and await orders."

"You should've kept looking, a true soldier doesn't give up."

"But I didn't give up, I still wished to look for you, but I didn't know where to look, no one told me where to look."

"You've got to learn to take initiative, not wait for orders all of the time."

"Okay."

"Have you done any training recently?"

"Not since I went to look for you."

"Well, let's go out. I'll teach you some techniques."

Kurono lead Kadri to the large, circle fenced area, they both stepped inside. Kurono grabbed a wooden training sword and a wooden training bow.

"Seeing as I'm not perfect with a bow, I will teach you how to defend yourself in close quarters combat using your bow," Kurono said.

"Oh, okay," Kadri replied. Kurono threw the training bow to his comrade and Kadri caught it.

"You never know when someone might attack you from close range," Kurono mentioned. "You can be deadly as a sniper; you are outside the actual battlefield but can still kill the enemies. But as a sniper, you could be attacked by an enemy from close range if the enemy were to launch a stealth attack. This is where knowing how to counter using a bow is helpful. I know you keep a dagger with you for situations like these, but that cannot be your only plan, you need another way to defend yourself." Kurono pointed his training sword at the archer. "Let's begin!"

Kurono sprinted at Kadri with his sword, Kadri raised the bow in front of his face to block the attack, he closed his eyes, bracing for impact. Kurono saw the opportunity and hit Kadri's hip, then he swept Kadri's legs and made him fall to the ground.

"You can't close your eyes," Kurono had the sword pointed at Kadri's face as he stood over the fifteen-year-old. "If you close your eyes you cannot know where the enemies going to aim their attack."

Kurono offered his hand to Kadri.

"Let's try that again, shall we?" Kurono suggested. Kadri took his hand, got up and prepared to try again.

The pair trained for hours, trying the same routine over and over again. Eventually the time had come for Kurono and Kadri to go to the main tent to eat.

"I'm hungry, I haven't eaten in ages," Kurono mentioned. Then, right on cue, Kurono's stomach rumbled. Kadri laughed, then, his stomach rumbled as well.

"Ha ha ha," they both laughed as they walked towards the main tent to get some dinner, the sun was setting then, creating a beautiful, orange and pink sky.

Night had fallen on the camp, Fujika was settling into her new tent with Valle already on her queen-sized bed reading a book.

"What are you trying to do with my Kuroo?" Valle said while she was reading her book.

"Kuroo?" Fujika asked as she got into her futon.

"Kurono, what are you trying to pull?" Valle asked.

"Nothing, I wish only to help him," Fujika answered.

"I don't believe that," Valle replied. "Oh well, I know Kuroo has the common sense to not go for filthy trash like you!"

Fujika laid there and did not respond. Not long later, Valle blew out the candle next to her bed and fell asleep quickly. Fujika couldn't fall asleep, which was weird because she didn't get any sleep the night before.

After a few minutes of just laying around, Fujika decided to get up and get a drink of water from the main tent. She stepped outside into the dark night and onto the dusty ground. She had gotten spare white pyjamas from Nozomi that seemed to fit her well, but she did not want to get them dirty. It was hard for her to see when it was this dark. She then sensed a light from behind her, she turned around and found Kurono standing there with a candle. Kurono still had his coat and normal clothes on but Mazqatal was not on his left hip like it usually was.

"Need some light?" he asked as he offered Fujika the candle he had in his hand.

"Yes please," Fujika replied.

"Where are you off to?" Kurono asked.

"I just wanted some water," Fujika replied.

"Do you know where it is?"

"Yeah, I saw many water jugs during dinner, I'll just find a glass and pour some in there."

"Okay, just make sure you don't spill it."

"I won't."

"How is Valle treating you?" Kurono asked with a concerned look on his face. Fujika looked at the dusty ground.

"Listen, don't take it personally," Kurono commented. "She's like that with everyone, now go get some water."

"Okay," Fujika said as she walked off.

Kurono looked up to the cliff above them and noticed a faint glow at the top.

Kurono walked over the rocky ground and saw Nozomi sitting there still in her normal outfit with her legs hanging over the edge, he noticed her hair was down and she was shivering. Kurono took of his white coat and wrapped it around Nozomi's shoulders. Nozomi got a small scare before she noticed it was Kurono.

"What are you doing up?" Kurono asked.

"I can ask you the same," Nozomi smiled for a moment, then went back to having a sad look on her face as she looked towards Pilbate. They could see a faint light coming from the castle and the city.

"Are you thinking about Frinz?" Kurono asked. Nozomi nodded sadly. "Tell me, are you his daughter?"

"Biologically yes," Nozomi replied. "I only have faint memories of my childhood, but I do remember him. He always treated me terribly, saying I was useless and a waste of space, he abused me, hit me and cut me. He would lock me away every now and then, for days at a time when I was little with no food. One day, when I was six, he threw me onto the streets in the pouring rain, telling me he had no need for me. I was found by a travelling merchant who took me to a small town and raised me along with his wife. He is who I call my father, not that monster."

"Thank god that bastard is dead," Kurono said.

"All I want is to save my parents, they were taken and enslaved, I was able to escape but all I want is to save them."

"I'll help you, it will be my top priority," Kurono replied. "I will find where they are, and we will save them together!" Kurono announced. Nozomi looked at Kurono with her beautiful, blue eyes, she managed a sad smile while she looked at him.

Kurono looked at Nozomi and smiled. While Nozomi was looking at her friend, she noticed his ear again.

"What happened to your ear?" Nozomi asked. Kurono was confused for a moment.

"Oh, that," Kurono realised what Nozomi was talking about. "It was cut off during battle and Seili healed it for me, she didn't do the best job though."

"It was cut off!?" Nozomi was shocked.

"Yeah, but it's fine now," Kurono replied. "I also got a haircut in the same battle."

"How?"

"Fujika was a bit reckless with her dagger. Speaking of hair, you should wear yours up more, it looks better," Kurono mentioned.

"You think so?" Nozomi asked.

"Yeah."

Nozomi pulled a thin, red ribbon from a pouch on her hip and put her hair up in a ponytail.

"Beautiful," Kurono whispered as he sat there in awe looking at his ally.

"What was that?" Nozomi asked.

"Oh, um, it looks good," Kurono gave her a thumbs up and a grin.

"Thanks," Nozomi replied.

"That flower might look good in it as well," Kurono looked at a flower that was between some rocks of the edge of the cliff. The petals had a purple base that faded into a white at the ends. Kurono got up to go pick it.

"Stop!" Nozomi demanded as she reached out to Kurono.

"What?" Kurono was confused again.

"Don't pick that flower," Nozomi said.

"Why not?" Kurono asked as he sat back down.

"That's a rare type of flower called a 'Wilted Violet'," Nozomi explained.

"Wilted Violet?"

"It's a very rare species of violet, it gets its name because, just before it goes into full bloom it looks like it is wilting, then, miraculously it turns into what you see now."

"You seem to know a lot," Kurono said.

"My mother taught me," Nozomi replied. "We used to look at flowers when I was little."

"Your biological mother or?"

"Adopted mother, I never met my biological mother," Nozomi said.

"Oh," Kurono said. He then looked at the sky and saw the stars shining down upon them. He saw all the stars clearly in the night sky. "Wow."

Nozomi looked up as well. "Wow indeed," she said. They both looked in awe for a moment.

"Wonder if there's anything out there," Kurono said.

"I doubt it," Nozomi replied. "It doesn't seem like there is."

"Human's might eventually find out," Kurono said.

"I don't think that's possible."

"Well, you never know what might happen," Kurono smiled at Nozomi.

"But there is no way for us to get up there," Nozomi replied.

"I heard that in other country's there are these animals that are like horses with wings."

"That doesn't sound right."

"I think it was called a Pegasus."

"I think you're tired and just thinking of the impossible now," Nozomi said.

"Yeah, we should get some sleep, let's go," Kurono got up and then helped Nozomi get up. They took one last look over the country and then left for bed.

His rich leather boots stepped along the red carpet on his way towards the throne. A long red cape flowed behind him with a rich, white shirt under it. His blonde hair swayed across his face as he strutted through the throne room. The windows to the throne room had now been blocked by stone bricks. The castle was slowly being turned by its new ruler. The blonde prince sat down on his new throne in a room only lit by torches. His red eyes emanated from his face, which, were complimented by his large crown, spikes on both sides, this combination overall gave him a devilish appearance.

"Now that my father has gone, I can rule this country the way I want to," Fasonru's son, the newly crowned king said. "I, King Haikuma Mutemai, will now rule this country!" he announced. "And soon, the world will be mine to play with!" Haikuma let out a devilish grin, lit only by the flames around him.