It wasn’t surprising that the north groups had gotten to the top of Mount Prime first, but, the south groups were doing a good job, I thought, as they were mostly done too. It looked a lot stepper, looking over the edge and I was quite proud of them having done this much!

Yes, we had silently made it through from the north of mountain to the south, now ready to help the rest of our people up.

By the time that they could see the top, Kael was there clicking his fingers twice, making the person with the rope throw it up to him.

I couldn’t believe it…

Was this the reason why he said to bring the rope?

Upon Kael catching the second time the rope was being thrown up, I suddenly felt like kissing this man!

And upon seeing what happened next, I was completely stumped…Because, the rope was connected to all the man in that south group and they were all pulled up within just a couple of minutes…

Kael took my hand and quietly led me to the other side of the mountain in the south, to do the same thing to the other southern group.

When he caught the rope on the first try, I just couldn’t help it, I leaned in and kissed him on the cheek!

Cheeky man!

Widening my eyes, I quickly grabbed the rope and pulled on it, because Kael had let go!

After I was starting to get dragged across the ground, two hands took the rope further ahead of me and then pulled, others coming to help as well.

Why did he let go in the first place!?

…Now…Our whole division was on top of the hill…

But…Still…Why didn’t we just climb up altogether?

For the first time in months, I wanted to talk again…

If I had spoken and asked, Kael would have said that the people climbing from the back was going to be the advantage if we gotten caught, as they would come from behind and help free the north groups from being attacked.

The hill would be taken and the rest of the archers in the south groups would target the people trying to chase after the north group, who will obviously hide and not fight. The number of enemies was undetermined, but they were sure that they were there, that was all. It really all depended on what the outcome was to coming up to the hill.

I would say that we were lucky for getting us all up here and not being found out, but Kael would say that they were not underestimating the enemy. Knowing now that the number of enemies was less than what they had thought, if it were much more, doing this strategy would have worked better in our favour. At least they had been careful and even though it had taken more effort, they weren’t being careless with people’s lives.

And this is what I don’t understand about Lieutenant Black. He might say things about the enemy’s lives, but when it came to his own people, he liked the way the General thought and trusted him wholeheartedly with his life!

Having climbed up onto the mountain, we had found very little Gelmain people here.

Kael had not been a hundred percent certain though, so we weren’t going to take any risks.

We continued to be quiet and knew that a fight was going to happen, so we all waited for everyone to get up the mountain and surround the area.

I don’t know what happened, but suddenly there was a big fire on the southern part of the mountain and Kael yelled out that it was time to attack…Did they find us?

I charged in, with Kael right next to me, and as we got closer, we finally saw that there were about fourty people here…

But…

In the dark…Lights could be seen, and someone noticed a fire out into the far north.

News had been spread!

“Continue the attack!”

I dodged an attack by rolling and found a stick. Using that stick, I threw it at the attacker’s legs and made him fall over. Before I could continue, Kael finished the man off and went off.

Picking up the stick, I scooted off in that direction and hit someone focused on Kael on the back and got his attention, making him lose focus…And his life.

It seemed, I was either making the enemy falter and Kael would finish them off, or I was making an enemy’s attention get distracted…So Kael could finish them off…

The circle of our men that we had, had grown smaller and we started to meet up in the middle, where the rest of the Gelmain’s soldiers were.

Running in, I threw a rock at someone’s calf muscle and then sliced my dagger through another man’s arm, making him drop his axe.

Now…There was nothing left for me to do…

“Puppy?”

Hearing Kael, I ran up to him and he sighed in relief. “I told you to stay near me!”

I looked down and pouted…Nothing happened, see, I’m fine…

Feeling arms around me, I heard him say, “Did you get hurt?”

I shook my head and looked up to see him smile, “Good.”

He took my hand and then headed towards the middle and looked back towards the north, where in the distance the other fire had started.

“Lieutenant.”

“Sir!”

“Prepare for an attack.”

“Sir! Alright Boulders, each of you get the rope and string it from one side to the other, upon the northern side of the mountain!”

Kael let me go and looked around the area, where the fire close by could show us a small area of the hill.

“Puppy.”

I ran up to him and he whispered to me, “It’s nice and warm here, you stay here. Have a sleep.”

I frowned…

He laughed and then looked out towards the north, “It is said that it’s colder in the north.”

I was pretty warm right now, as it had slowly gone from winter into summer, I didn’t want to be cold again.

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“Haha! Mount Prime, boulders are here, do you feel the pressure, haha!”

The Lieutenant’s loud voice interrupted us, and I looked at the man laughing loudly, a few metres away.

“Puppy…”

Looking back at Kael, I see him staring at me.

What?

But…He sighed and said nothing.

What!?

Sighing myself, I continued to watch as the men set up base camp, as we were to stay here now until further orders.

My time seemed to fly by after this and I didn’t get to know too much of what else was happening for another four months…

And over the four months, I did get a little sad at times, but it wasn’t as bad as before…Then I would receive the ‘cycle’…Making me count on Neil very much…Much more than before…

Having him being able to produce what I need out of nowhere, again I wanted to speak…

But, having to keep it a secret for those few days a month, was a lot harder!

It was still scary…Scarier than ever…

But, wasn’t this the path that I had chosen?

I was not sure if I regretted it or not…Especially since I counted so much on Neil and Kael…

Perhaps, I just wish for life to be a little bit easier…

***

In the first two months that we stayed on the mountain, we had gotten attacked the next morning that we had claimed Mount Prime…After that, there were no more attacks…Mount Prime was ours!

Out of two hundred and fourty men, we had lost another fifteen with taking Mount Prime and keeping it. Those fifteen people, strangely enough, were people that had been the lowest ranked amongst us. It is been said that they might have been too exhausted after the climb up the mountain or still not ready for real war…

I get sad when I see our men dead and unmoving, only having to go back to their families like that and make them sad.

…But wasn’t it the same with the dead people from Gelmain as well?

Again, I have to tell myself that it’s the same but different. If we hadn’t been at war, it probably would be a tragedy, but if one dies during these times, I can’t come up with any other reason. It’s either them or us…

This is where war was terrible…

Besides that of war being a lot of work as well!

Supplies had been left below the mountain and it got brought up after that attack and it was finally looking like the base camp that I thought it would be.

A big tent was situated closer to the southern end of the mountain and other small ones had been put up close by, adding on the few tents that were already here.

There were shifts and even a training area put up, then there was hunting parties that would hunt to the south, having even marked trees in these days, so that we knew where we were and didn’t get lost.

Water was the biggest problem, as we had to bring that up from the south, but after having several barrels, and water restrictions, we did not go thirsty.

Having to leave carriages and horses at the bottom of the hill, there was also a small camp there where men looked after the horse’s well being and kept watch as well. I would travel down to this other camp once a day to tend to the General’s horse and make sure that it was being well looked after.

And…I finally found out why people didn’t bully me.

It was because of the training period back at the capital, I had shown that I was definitely capable of defending myself. I even had someone come up to me to ask for help upon how to use daggers better…

I guess, I never realized that I had gotten good enough for this type of new experience. Never in my life had anyone come to ask for help in any kind of matter, and I was really astonished!

I had been too engrossed in training to become strong, to have something like this ever happen to me, had put me into complete shock!

It did make me feel good though, after I came back to my senses. I couldn’t help a really happy smile show up on my face, as the man asking for help looked at me strangely…

The fight on Mount Prime had helped a little bit as well, in keeping bullies away, just like that of me still being the assistant of General Wilton, so, whenever I attempted to try and get something, it came to me without any fuss whatsoever!

It was good, I liked it!

But, it was hard to get used too! I still get looked at strangely when I attempt to bow or show any kind of thanks. Men were strange in that regard and either looked at me strangely or didn’t look at me at all. Once they were done with one thing, they directly moved on and looked to me like they forgot anything prior to what they were currently doing!

Life was very different to that of a slave and being around other women…

I wasn’t a slave anymore, I had my own place in this division, a place where I was looked upon in practically the direct opposite of when I was a slave! I guess that was why it took me a while to get used to being treated completely different…

Of course, just as I got into a routine, something had to change!

The Icklish army had gotten sorted out, something about being able to bring out their last defence to spread around Icklish, while the rest of the army could actually leave the country and go to war…Well, continue the war…

I thought the war was over, but it wasn’t…

Just because we had defeated the people who had invaded our country, didn’t mean the war was over…

The country had to worry about food for the soldiers, medicinal things and doctors, they had to make sure they were safe from anyone coming from the water in the south, re group and find out who had been killed when we had been invaded…

The list went on, even mentioning barbarians, but I had fallen asleep when Kael was going through it and I sort of regret it now…

I was still quite dumb…Even though I really tried not to look it…

I still, after all this time, wasn’t smart, and it did get to me, but I didn’t know how to fix it! Could it even be fixed?

…And now, that we had been there two months, in another two months the rest of the army were going to be here to continue the war with Gelmain!

So, in another two months, we will be going onto Gelmain lands to bring the war to them this time and so, I felt like I really needed to make the best of this time that I had.

I still felt insecure because of my secret, but while I was constantly surrounded by Neil, Kael and recently Dilan, I was able to keep my dark thoughts at bay.

What other thing that seems to help, strangely, was that we were at the front lines, we could be attacked at any moment…So, the thought that my life could be on the line tomorrow, made me feel better and not think so darkly and hold of wanting to be alone. I wasn’t sure why I felt this way, all I knew, was that if tomorrow doesn’t come for me, I felt like I should be happier and make the best out of everything today…

I wanted to be in Kael’s arms, I wanted to train with him and pour wine for him as he talked to me. I wanted Neil to always be there for me, not just when I needed to do personal deeds, but he knows exactly what I want and knows how to make me laugh. I had tried to be there for him too, but he would laugh at me and tell me that I wouldn’t have to do that…Why not!?

I considered him a friend and he is always there for me, but how could I repay him and be there for him too!?

Neil didn’t know that I felt indebted to him like this, because not only is he someone that should look after his ‘Mister’, but I had already helped him in the past. The day that I had gotten stabbed, he remembers well that I had come to help and he knew how close he was to death that day…He was immensely grateful, even though he knew that he should have been the one doing the protecting at that time…Not only that…But, he was the only one that knew of the secret. He felt privileged and honestly did not want for me to go out of my way for anything.

But, I was no mind reader and had no idea that he was happy being treated exactly the way he was…

Dilan…Well, I guessed I finally understood him a little more now.

He had seven siblings and I assumed it’s because of them that he was a protective type of person. He was the oldest child and had watched over his siblings before coming to the army.

What I didn’t know, was that Dilan became very protective at the age of five, when he and his sibling got into big trouble. He knew then, that if he doesn’t protect his brother’s and sisters, his father might hurt them…So, for many years, Dilan would make sure that if anything went wrong, he would take the blame for it for them.

He didn’t hate his father, but he did dislike him. His father was a strict person and when he drank, that was when he was abusive. Otherwise, his father was easier to tolerate. Dilan worries a lot about his family and protecting someone in the army not only makes him feel better, but it was just something he was used to doing.

I had really hurt him when I didn’t talk to him, making him feel unwanted, and I hadn’t realised at all that I had hurt him so much. It was really strange to see such a big, brawny man have such a weakness…

I was able to cuddle him then and give him a candy.

I didn’t know what else to do…I had never been in that situation before…

But…It seemed to be enough because he picked me up and twirled me around…

Actually, I felt like he was quite lucky to not have the General around at that time, but the best part…Was that I seemed to be forgiven…

Forgiveness wasn’t something I had ever had to ask for and without speaking, it wasn’t easy to obtain…But, for some reason, each and everyone of my friends forgave me…

I never knew the amount of worry I had about this, until it was gone…I felt lighter, now that some invisible weight had been lifted off me, and I found myself able to smile a lot easier now…

The Lieutenant wasn’t ever able to get away from me anymore!

I was able to finally kick him whenever the General gave me orders to do so!

It felt really good now, not like before…

I also found out that the General had been worried about me so much, back in the barracks, that he had ordered the Lieutenant to watch over me.

I didn’t want to believe it, but the big, bearded man told me himself and then said that I was like the brother that Kael never had, and that it seemed like he is fiercely protective of me…That Kael wants to make up for not being able to protect his mother and sister in the past, by protecting me now in the present.

Most of the time, the Lieutenant was loud and laughing, but he hadn’t been like this when he told me these words.

I believed them…I believed him…

A brother…

For another hour that day, the Lieutenant and I sat there together silently, and I thought about what he had said.

It felt good, I liked it. Being an assistant was different to being a brother. It was obviously a more closer relationship and that seemed something that made me feel good.

But…It did not get me any closer to bathing with Kael, nor cleaning myself while he was around!

Luckily, Kael seemed to have gotten over it a lot now and accepted this easily.

So then, the other two months flew by…