It twirled the sword for a quicker death but Tetsu was dead the moment steel had entered his body. The guard removed his hand from the sword then looked at Shinji’s direction.
“S***!” Shinji got up. He wondered if he was hallucinating or not. After seeing same expression on Fujimoto’s face, he understood it was all for real. The guard had just killed his master on his own consent.
Fujimoto ran to check for Tetsu. But life was long lost in Tetsu’ body.
“Why did he commit suicide?” Fujimoto glanced at Shinji, who had just arrived there by leaping over the metal stack.
_
“Fast. Don’t let your feet slow down!” Commander Eiga bellowed at the row of some hundred soldiers walking behind him.
It was the last time he was going to give them orders in such high pitched voice till they seized Tetsu. Absence of Lord Wernh’An had impacted them in all sorts of ways. But it had not derailed them from their purpose.
The group of red hair army marched inside the forest in the quietest way possible.
Hearing them come was impossible to even birds and other creatures roaming in the realm of woods. Breeze shaking leaves was louder than the hundreds of men walking. And they were close to the destination.
A horse, untied, was grazing outside a hut which smelled rotten flesh and beer. Even a commoner would get alarmed by the sight. They were well trained soldiers from Hilcastle.
Eiga paused and waved his hand, commanding those men to scatter in order to form a circle around the house. Every soldier knew where to be so Eiga didn’t need talking to anyone. Occasionally he pointed their spots to soldiers by their fingers. Other than that, he didn’t require any extra effort.
Everything was going smooth until the horse got scared due to the presence of so many people. It raised its forelimbs and neighed loud, galloping to nowhere.
Shinji saw the horse looking around in fear.
“Bear or what?” Fujimoto questioned.
An arrow flew towards the horse, hitting it on the neck.
Before the two cut-throats could recoil themselves, some people charged inside the room with bows and swords. They covered all the spots which could be used as escape route.
The tallest of them appeared with a big helm over his head when the soldiers were locked to their position with their weapons drawn. A long feather on the top of helm made Shinji realize who the person could be.
Phoenix feather. Wernh’An’s man!
Commander Eiga’s eyes first fell on Shinji and Fujimoto. Then at the corpse with sword planted in the chest among all rotting the corpses laid by Nobukazu Chosokabe. The horse outside hadn’t calmed down.
It took an arrow from a soldier to make it quiet.
Wernh’An’s men showed no surprise to Tetsu’ murder. Nor anger because they had come there to murder Tetsu.
“Someone behead Tetsu’ corpse.” Commander Eiga said, “It will be hung at the Mighty Gate of Hilcastle.”
One soldier, waking at the corpse, took the knife out of his sheath and kneeled towards the body. He had a look at his reflective knife then started hacking head from the shoulder.
“And kill these two as well.” Commander Eiga said.
