Hades’ closest associate was a bit strange and unfriendly to Latifa, but he seemed much more humanlike than Hades, so talking to him was more comfortable.
“Aren’t you still feeling well?”
“I keep vomiting even when I take the medicine. It’s hard.”
“Tsk. Can’t be helped. The military doctors said they used up all the herbs that make the medicine go down smoothly. Try to swallow it somehow.”
“…I have to. Is Brenda okay?”
Latifa asked with a weak smile.
Manut pulled out some flat bread, fruit jam, and jerky, and handed them to her as he answered.
“The girl who was with you? She’s now serving the captive princess.”
“The captive princess?”
“Yes. You may not know since you’re an Imperial, but there’s a princess with strange golden hair in the royal family.”
“Aris?”
“What, yeah, that was the name.”
At least if she’s by Princess Aris’s side, she won’t be starving or freezing.
Feeling slightly relieved about Brenda, Latifa now asked about the princess.
“What happened to the princess?”
“She will be presented to the Sultan. Probably going to be a palace maid, maybe?”
“Are there any other people from the royal family among the prisoners?”
“Hmm… no. Actually, leaving the bloodline of the enemy is a bit unsettling. Honestly, she should have been killed too, but she survived because of her golden hair.”
Manut’s words made Latifa stop tearing at the bread.
‘Golden hair, so she lived? What does that mean? Otherwise, they would have killed her?’
Curiosity, along with the realization that she must never reveal her royal lineage, made her resolve anew.
General Hades found her hiding in the palace basement, adorned from head to toe in splendid garments, looking just like a goddess. So the general decided to spare the golden princess and offered her to the sultan.
“The golden princess…….”
Thinking about what would have happened if she had been found by Hades in the palace sent shivers down her spine.
Her hair was not beautiful blonde, and she had no dazzling dresses or jewels to adorn herself with, so wouldn’t she have been killed by the soldiers even before Hades could discover her?
“Is there anything lacking? If you need more, just say it. If you fail, we get in trouble.”
“Ah, thank you. This is enough.”
“Take good care of yourself.”
“Yes. Manut also looks unwell, so rest well.”
“The general doesn’t worry about me, but that’s quite comforting.”
Manut left the tent with a slight laugh.
“He may look grim, but he doesn’t seem like a bad person. Right?”
Inside the tent, now left in silence, Latifa quietly mumbled and tore small pieces of bread, scattering them on the floor.
The sandy floor stirred, and three little desert mice sprang out, squeaking with joy. They had been darting about since Manut had taken out the food.
“The mice of the empire look scary, but you guys are cute.”
Latifa scattered small pieces of bread, and a little silver spirit arose above the head of a mouse that was happily nibbling.
Focusing on it, a cute voice echoed in her heart.
[You have a lot of family. Are you moving too?]“I don’t know.”
[Going without knowing where?]“Yeah. That’s how it is. Where are you going?”
[We are going up.]“Up?”
[Yeah. We need to go up.]“Why?”
[Because…….]The mice began to tell Latifa stories of the desert as they munched on the bread pieces. Listening to their tales while tearing the bread, she soon fell asleep, overcome by the strong scent of the medicine.
Another day in the desert passed.
[Star icon][Star icon]Latifa awoke early the next dawn, startled by a strange noise outside.
Outside the tent, many soldiers were bustling and chattering.
“Uh, what’s going on…….”
Latifa got up, clutching her disheveled hair, and noticed a thick leather blanket she didn’t remember covering herself with.
She looked around, still groggy from the effect of the medicine, to find no one else in the room, bathed in the purple dawn light.
Hades’ bed across from her was empty, and strangely, his alwaysneat space looked hastily disturbed.
“What’s going on?”
An uneasy feeling began to creep in.
Latifa hurriedly tried to pull back the tent’s flap to see outside, but the guard who had been standing there stopped her.
“Go back inside. The general has ordered that you absolutely must not come out.”
“What happened? It’s so noisy outside?”
“Something big has happened.”
“Big?”
“More than half the water has disappeared overnight.”
“What? The water?!”
The water was gone?
Water was the most crucial thing when crossing the desert. Even when resupplying at the transit points, security for water was the top priority.
Latifa had seen, while working as an interpreter, how much Hades had focused on the water, so she was utterly shocked.
“Why, why is it gone?!”
“I don’t know the exact cause yet.”
They still had more than a month of hard travel to reach Grand Bazaar.
But if more than half the water was gone, these many people were as good as stranded in the middle of the desert.
“What’s going to happen next?! Water is the most important thing!”
“I don’t know. Everything depends on the general.”
“Everything depends on him…?!”
The soldier spoke grimly with a stern face.
“Either cut the number of people in half. Or everyone must tighten their belts and wither away. It’s one or the other.”
‘Cutting the number of people in half doesn’t mean sending them back to the empire!’
Latifa Glaesia had to bite her lower lip to prevent a scream from escaping at the shocking news.
“Anyway, right now all the soldiers are so excited, we don’t know what dangerous thing may happen. So you must never come out.”
The soldier said that and closed the curtain again. She looked worriedly at Hades Caleb Ignite’s empty bed.
“There must be a good solution for everyone to live……! There must be…….”
‘Hades is certainly an unlucky and arrogant man, but he’s competent enough to topple the empire in one go. He’ll somehow find a good solution.’
But if he were to reduce the number of people by half.
‘I will surely be included in that.’
Her hands and feet were becoming cold again with the threat to her life that kept coming back just when she would forget it.
Outside, people were still shouting and running around in confusion.
Anxious at the increasingly dangerous atmosphere, Latifa, who had been lingering around the camp, found the bread crumbs left by the rats last night and became lost in thought.
‘Come to think of it, the rats yesterday…….’
Latifa, bothered by the story she heard yesterday, quickly began to gather the remaining food.
“I need to hear it clearly from other places too.”
Murmuring so, she donned her black robe tightly and prepared to sneak out.
Turns Out He’s Been Secretly in Love with Me
One-line summary: He acts like he doesn’t like her but is actually playing hard to get.
Synopsis:
Xu Muzhou like her. He has liked her for a very long time, and through repeated schemes, he finally closed the distance with her.
But this is still far from enough.
He wants to be the one who stands out among her many suitors, to fight for her attention, and to make her take the initiative to pursue him.
_____
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