Honey : The Empire's Treasure

Braeden picked up on Ailwin"s divertion away from this Lady Minx person. No one else noticed though, as they were all eager to hear the healer"s diagnosis.

"Prince Ailwin, because of their other injures and since we don"t have any healing pods. They need to stay in bed for another day or two before I could give the okay."

Ailwin figured as much, the lack of the healing pods would slow their recovery time down by a lot. However, he didn"t want to use the healing pods they found, he didn"t trust anything in this city. If they needed two days, he"ll give them two days then they can all leave this G.o.ds" forsaken city.

"Okay, that is fine and all...but healer, can I get a mirror?  My face has felt a little weird since I woke up... I don"t remember getting it injured when we were fighting the monster though." Braeden said to the head healer.

"...." 

Everyone in the room went silent and froze, not knowing want to do or say.

With the virus taken care of, Braeden"s face looked better then what it was, yet the bruises and swelling from a certain person"s attacks were still blatantly there.

"What is wrong with everyone?" Staring at the head healer, Braeden held out his hand, "Why won"t you pa.s.s me a mirror?"

n.o.body wanted to be in the healer"s shoe right now. The head healer wanted to get confirmation from Prince Ailwin, but Braeden shouted at him before he could.

"Get me a mirror now!" Thinking he would have a huge hideous scar down his face, Braeden started to freak out. It was already a little painful for him to speak.

Throwing his covers off his body, Braeden moved to stand up. All the guards and Ailwin rushed to his side to push him back down on the cot.

"General Gilwenys, you need to stay in bed."

"Then just pa.s.s me a mirror!"

"Here." 

Everyone froze under Mika"s soft voice and small hand holding out a medium size mirror.

Ailwin gave her a look that said, Why!?

"He wants a mirror. Just give him the mirror. What is the big deal?" Mika said nonchalantly.

Braeden thought the masked person"s voice sounded familiar, but he couldn"t place it.

Taking the mirror from Mika"s hands he said his thanks as he threw everyone else"s hands off of his body.

When they saw the mirror was in Braeden"s hands, everyone quickly backed away. The only one who stayed by his bed, was Ailwin.

Holding up the mirror in front of him, Braeden was shock by the damage clearly done to his face. 

"What the h.e.l.l happen?"

"What do you mean?" Mika asked.

"My face! What the h.e.l.l happen to it?!" Feeling the lumps in his cheeks, the swelling on his busted lips and the two black eyes. Braeden recognize what these injuries meant. 

I got beaten up! 

"Really? That"s the face you were born with, you shouldn"t be shock by it now." Mika answered his question when no one else would.

"My face did not look like this!"

"You sure? You were pretty out of it the past few days, you might have dreamt you had a better face."Mika retorted was making Braeden scowl, which had his face aching.

This masked girl"s words irritates me just like….!

Looking Mika up and down, Braeden"s brain put the two images of Mika on top of each other and they were a perfect fit.

Turning his head towards his friend, he looked into his eyes for verification. Ailwin gave him a slight nod, proving that his a.s.sumption is right.

Since it didn"t take long for Braeden to figure out who Lady Minx is, he could also guess who"s fault it was that his face was in the condition it was.

"You…!"

"Me what?"

"You did this to my face, didn"t you?"

The guards and the healers in the center were amazed by General Gilwenys" deducing skills, and swiftly nodded their heads.

The memory of that day of seeing their General getting beaten up, was too much of a blow to their self-esteems. 

They are the soldiers of the most powerful army in Kaia, the Shadow Wolves. They were led by the most formidable General, Braeden Gilwenys; and yet, he was taking down not by another kingdom"s General or on the battle field, but by a young masked women half his size.

They didn"t want to see this getting out by any means, it was bad enough that they couldn"t erase the picture from their minds. 

"You shouldn"t blame your ugliness on some else, you should blame it on genetics… You simply were meant to be handsome." Mika reasoned, throwing the blame back at Braeden"s feet.

"I am not talking about my looks… I am talking about the wounds and bruising on my face!"

"Oh! That…. What about it?"

"Argh! Did you do it…!?"

"If my fists. .h.i.tting your face, caused it to bruise….then yes, I did it."

"Why?!" 

"...because you attacked me first. Was I supposed to just stand there and let you kill me?" Mika shook her head from side to side, "Shame on you General Gilwenys, how could you think of blaming the victim of your crime."

Braeden didn"t believe her words for a second, if it was anyone else he might have chosen to believe, but Mika, never.

"Ailwin…"

"It"s true, you did attack her first…" Ailwin went about telling Braeden what actually transpired during that time.

"See, even your Commander is telling you I did nothing wrong."

The people around the room wanted to tell Braeden that she kept hitting him after he was already down, but thought it would be throwing salt on an open wound.

Grumbling, Braeden begrudging apologizing to Mika.

"Sorry, I wasn"t myself when I attacked you." 

Mika shrugged her shoulders, "It"s okay. Hey... I"m sorry for f**king up your face." 

Braeden"s face took on an infuriate expression and it flushed a deep red as he grabbed at the clothes covering his chest.

"Uh-oh! I think he about to go on a rampage. Do you want me to subdue him again?" 

"NO!" Everyone jumped to stop her when they saw her getting close to their General"s cot.

 "All right, all right...no need to shout. Geez, I"m just trying to help you guys out."

 Picking up the books and bag Ailwin placed on an empty cot, Mika left the room, much to everyone"s relief.

Watching Mika leave as she struggled to carry the books and bag, Ailwin made sure Braeden and the two soldiers were okay before rus.h.i.+ng off to help her.