Zaldizko - Chapter 43 Leinards Loss

“I won’t sleep with you anymore,” Leinard said when I came round.

I groggily sat up and saw he was already dressed to go.

He waited for me to redress in my clothes and helped me reclaim my decency.

I sighed, feeling sad for Leinard. I was so convinced that Charlese was in love with him. Those heart flutters and insistent urges to be held by him and be at his side were strong feelings. She must have been thinking about that Troy guy when she was with him. It must’ve been that.

“Yeah, probably better you don’t. This body needs to get a better clue about what love actually is and the value of chastity. I haven’t helped being carried away with the moment.” I sighed again. “I think I’ve got a handle on that now.”

The sick feeling in my stomach at what I had discovered of Charlese was my trigger on holding back. From that memory of hers, I realised she was still impressionable despite being my age. I mean, I wasn’t wise like Shuso, but I think I had a better grasp of reality than her. To shoot a boy under ten summers because he was predestined to die or, worse, was in her way was disgusting. The lower class was just animals to her. I understood Trix’s dislike.

I realised Charlese’s succubus urges were to blame for jumping Leinard’s bones. By War’s knowledge, they were a special breed of human who were known for their seduction to beguile men. They were held in favour of the Armia Court for centuries. Most of the families were prominent and had direct relationships with the king and royal household.

“Hey Colonel, I’m not Charlese, you know that right?” I met his grey eyes.

He held my gaze before lowering his eyes toward the dirtied gloves I had yet to put back on.

“Yeah. I’m sorry for sleeping with you, won’t do it anymore.” He quietly apologised and stood.

I noticed his shoulders were bunched and head downcast as he walked away from me. Heart broken. I didn’t understand what made him crush on her so badly. Was it the sex? Must have been. I felt relieved he had been rejected. She wasn’t a good match for him.

“Hey Colonel, do you know a Lita Smithsonian?” I called out to his back to vary the subject.

He stopped and faced me.

“Lethal Lita? Deacon’s niece? Yeah, why?” He innocently replied.

His nickname for Lita made me burst with laughter. “Oh man, she’ll clobber you one if she heard that.”

He groaned and pointed to a light scar on the back of his shoulder. “She already has with a miniature kangaroo-bot.”

That was enough to make me keel over with a laughing fit. His expression lighten with his lips stretched in a wry smile.

“I do think Charlese values you,” I said once I had calmed down, hoping I had softened some of his heartache.

“I know she does as a friend, but finding out that sex with me was a chore is, well, I knew she felt that way. I guess I was hoping something would spark between us.” Leinard sighed. “Ironic. The first time I felt we were making love was when a man had possession of her body.”

He sounded less depressed.

“You fell in love with her.” I gently reassured him. “Being in love is nothing wrong. I mean, my eldest brother was brutally dumped in front of an army of Neska Gudari. His ex-lover publicly tortured him. So, I think you were let down easy there.”

“Humph, isn’t it weird that I’m getting consoled for being dumped from the mouth of the girl who’s indirectly dumped me,” he said with his one-brow look.

“Aah, yeah, sometimes I forget I’m not in my body.” I scratched my head, feeling awkward.

We dropped the love talk and changed our conversation to lighter topics as he made our way back to the group. We filled everyone in on what we both had seen from that memory.

“Also this body is off limits to anyone. You as much as leer at my lady bumps, I’ll… do something you don’t like!” I gave the men my ultimatum with a firm frown and raised fist.

I tighten Colin’s overcoat over myself, so I resembled something of a patchwork sack.

“Like anyone would! I know you’re not Charlese, but seeing this body before me makes me wanna hurl chunks.” Trix answered back.

He received a nastier insult from me in return.

We slung more insults at each other to initiate a gun fight.

“ENOUGH!” Deacon’s yelling rang through our ears to stop our fighting.

“This is why we shouldn’t use children to fight wars.” He heaved a weary sigh.

I handed back the gun I had stolen from Colin’s holster. He snatched it from my hands with a rude finger and expression of warning.

“Okay, now that we have order. Let’s discuss this Sol Saviour we’ve learned from Leinard.” Deacon called everyone’s attention around him.

“I’m worried that it could be a weapon.” Leinard turned to me with a sober expression.

He directed his question to me. “What do you think it is since you’re in her body?”

“Yeah, but I’m thinking like myself.” I blurted.

“Like dat’s gunna get us anywhere.” A stranger groaned.

I frowned at the knight standing next to Colin. His hair was a fiery red like War’s, he even had the same green coloured eyes. He also looked about War’s age (of the present time) and had a similar muscly body. His face was full of light freckles some dotting along his nose and along his cheeks, which made him appear younger and with a bit of cheek.

“Um, don’t wanna sound rude, but I will. Who the hell are you?” I blatantly asked the red-haired knight.

“Gavin.” Gavin grumbled like his name was being forced out of him.

Colin stepped forward and introduced the other two guys next to him. Next to Gavin was Miller who was a lanky boy of my age with a stoic face that looked like it had never cracked a smile. Then Andy whose long silver hair was held back in a ponytail; his face was wide with a large chin, narrow set eyes and high cheekbones. He seemed to be about the same age as Death of my present time.

Deacon continued with the rest of the introductions.

“So, this is everyone Ganmo. Now, please answer Leinard’s question. Can you tell us more?”

I felt the bearded man’s question heating up my cheeks. Looks like I was going to have to give them something, so decided to let the instincts of this body do the talking.

I deeply exhaled, opened my mouth and began to speak.

“I think.” I began to speak then stopped.

My mind wasn’t in the right state for words. I thanked my training back at Gat Shiem and all the long hours Bulldog had me performing Zanshin in the pond to make my body more fluid and responsive to attack and counterattacks.

I stilled my heart and mind, tuning into the sounds and movements of Charlese’s body. Through a state of Mushin and stance of Zanshin, I was able to learn that the Sol Saviour was intended as a harvesting tool to gather chiorntex power of a vast magnitude for a greater purpose Charlese wasn’t aware of. There was something else I saw within her body, I wasn’t sure whether I should tell Leinard.

I provided an answer to the Evadale Knights’ questions.

“What?” I naively asked, noticing the silent shock from the men.

“Lass, dat be Zen?” Gavin blinked with disbelief.

“You’re a hiruda monk?!” Cass gasped. “Oddly, this makes sense. Yet bizarre and very creepy.”

“I’m not a monk,” I coolly answered.

“You did Mushin. I’m pretty sure that’s what it was. As far as I know, only monks from Gat Shiem know this.”

I raised my eyes, trying to work out how I was going to address Cass’s comment that wouldn’t spurn on other pesky questions.

“Anyway, we know what our king and Illuminate Group are working on. So, I think we should redirect our attention on the purpose driving the manufacturing of that telescope.” Leinard broke in to draw the men’s attention back to the matter at hand.

I sighed, thankful for his intervention.

The knights tossed theories, which stirred healthy arguments on the matter. They eventuated on one theory, High King Sirius was seeking world power to retain his autocracy.

“If Our Highness was able to wield the power of Chiorntex, fashion Sol to his whim” Cass ended his comment with a shudder. “He’s the High King? Do we even have the right to intervene on the matter?”

“Knights. Do not forget our credo and our role as the independent faction. ‘Oreka bilatzen dugu ordena mantentzeko. We seek balance to keep order.’ As per the blood pledge made between our king and the order’s founder – High Prince Brystagg.” Deacon firmly reminded the knights. “If the High King, himself, is planning to tip a balance, we must correct this as per our credo.”

“Then I offer the Evadale Knight Order my assistance.” A woman intruded on our conversation.

We watched an Illuminate Group officer of high rank enter our group. She was around the same age as Deacon, possibly well past thirty, so the curves of her body was mature, as well as her calm two-tone brown-green eyes. Her face showed many lines and wrinkles of a person having to withstand the harsh sun for many hours and days.

“Admiral Addison. Here for the party are we?” Deacon superficially greeted her. He also greeted the two junior officers that came at her rear.

“The party is over Deacon, and no, I’m here for the same reason you are, to see what our gracious king is up to.” Admiral Addison answered without mincing her words. “And, what my star pupils are hiding from me.”

Her eyes showed a fleeting expression of shock when they noticed me standing next to Leinard and Colin.

“Why are you still standing here?” she asked me.

“Excuse me?”

“Clinton!” she shouted a boy’s name.

A lanky freckled face boy soldier, whose hands was trembling by his side, stepped forward.

“Ma’am!” He boldly saluted Admiral Addison, keeping is eyes forward, so they were staring at an elm.

“Didn’t your report mention on Lady Charlese’s loss of life by the hand of a manufacturing woman?” she asked, whilst keeping her eyes fixed on me like a hawk.

“Ma’am, yes Ma’am! One of our Scouts saw a factory worker shoot Lieutenant Arlingdon-sama in the back with a normal bullet. He apprehended the culprit. We called for a medic who declared Lieutenant Arlingdon-sama’s chi count to null.” Clinton reported.

“As you were Sergeant.” Admiral Addison dismissed Clinton, sending him back to his place behind her.

“So, I can say my men were incompetent with their report. Or, you are a hiruda who had taken advantage of a lucky break.” She concluded.

“He is a hiruda name Ganmo, Admiral.” Stevie cheerfully confirmed on her suspicions.

My heart fell into a disarray. Charlese was no more? A stinging sensation to my back and nausea surfaced; the body’s way to confirm the fact. I glanced to Leinard and sighed at his expressionless face.

“Wow, I’m… shit,” Trix mumbled with as much confusion and mixed feelings on the matter.

“Aside from Arlingdon-sama’s passing, your reason for approaching us is?” Leinard moved the conversation back to business.

Admiral Addison stared at him a satisfied smile. “You would’ve made a wonderful successor to the king.”

She sighed and exchanged information about Sirius’s plans to absorb an ultimate power, so he could wield the magic of a god. He had stumbled on ancient scripts that foretold of a great feeding occurring during a once off planetary alignment. The prophecy indicated sibling planets would be feeding power into Sol’s magic moon at that time, making Sol one big power cell.

“No one knows when the Sol Universe will be aligned, but scholars suspect it occurring within one or two years.” She concluded her information.

“So, if he points the telescope to the moon at that time, he’ll be able to take power into himself?” I blurted my question.

“Something like that. He would already need to be in possession of lesser chiorntex powers to negate damaging effects.” Her eyes shrewdly observed for my response.

“Um, well, like the fabled Power of Null?” I mumbled my question and shuffled awkwardly on the spot, feeling bothered by her heated gaze.

“Something like that,” she answered.

My mind connected pieces. So, this was the beginning.

“Considering these facts, I offer you a proposition to monitor his next plans. Your payment will be from the Blood Pledge coffers of course. For those who sign up there are land rights and titles of status to be awarded. Not to mention a generous salary,” she said, dangling a bait before the knights.

“What do we need to do for this generous and sizeable package?” Deacon soberly asked, obviously weary about her offer.

“What you knights normally do, monitor and maintain order.”

“Where?” Deacon prompted for more.

“Apocalypse. More specifically in the kingdom’s maximum prison facility, Hell’s Labyrinth.”

A stir of shock and outcry came from the knights, which was silenced by Deacon’s order.

“I will give you a day to think it over. I give you reassurance that my men will not pursue your knights and intelligence officers any further.” Her eyes darted to Leinard and Trix.

“Admiral Smithsonian, this is a golden opportunity to seize the heart of the matter before it breaks order. I would not waste it.”

Admiral Addison tipped her stiff peak officer’s hat to Deacon and his men. She retreated back through the forest path that lead to the mansion. Her escorts followed at her heels.

The knights fell into a heavy discussion.

Leinard pulled me to one side and asked me a direct question. I noticed his eyes showed an expression of pain.

“I’m sorry about Charlese.” I blurted before he could get a word in.

He heaved with a weary sigh and nodded. “I need to ask you, are you from Hell’s Labyrinth?”

I gulped down a knot of nerves.

“Charlese lost her life because of her work for our king. I know she wasn’t the best person. If I told her my feelings, something might have changed in her. If I said I loved her, I” His voice trailed off.

Tears dropped from his eyes. He closed them, released a deep sigh. When he opened them, his tears stopped falling. His expression was one of resolution.

“Are you from this place that the Admiral was talking about?”

I pressed my lips together to form an answer. One word come out.

“Yes.”

“Okay,” Leinard replied.

Trix and all the others faced me with a single burning question.

“I’ve heard the rumors, but what’s this Hell’s Labyrinth like?” Trix asked.

“Not telling. Figure it out for yourself,” I answered appropriately with an inappropriate huff.

“Well, you heard the man. Let’s go figure it out, aye Leinard?” Trix flashed his brother a cheesy, tacky, and most comforting smile in all of Sol.

“I guess,” Leinard agreed with lacklustre.

“I think, saying this from Charlese’s body, she would feel honoured you’re doing your duty. As a friend, she would’ve wanted you to pour your love on a special someone who’d receive it in like.” I gently reassured him.

Leinard smiled and leaned in close to my ear, so his whisper could only be heard by me. “Truth is, I think I accidentally fell in love with someone else. What should I do about it?”

I raised my brows with shock, never pegging him for a flighty romantic.

“Ouch!” I cursed when I felt a stinging sensation to my back.

It increased intensity, so I wasn’t able to stand. I heard the knights’ curse aloud when all my nerves went haywire. I couldn’t stop my convulsions nor the banging feeling in my head, the ringing in my ears and stabbing needles all over my skin. Pain was everywhere.

Blue links flailed through the air and roped around my limbs to tie me down.

The knights shouted with panic when Leinard drop to the ground next to me in a sudden unconscious state.

I turned to the see the side of him and saw glowing blue links of light slide off his body, making his limbs twitch involuntarily. They snaked themselves over mine own to bind me further to the ground. Tips of light struck my eyes. My vision turned to black.

“Ganmo! Leinard! Stay with me!” Trix’s voice sliced in and out of my hearing.

Gan…mo… His voice broke off into distant syllables.

I was blind to the world. The only sound in my ears was ringing.