Zih Rui leaned in on the bull caressing his neck. it snorted happily."What good big boy~," Zhi Rui said with a playful tone.
She played and made baby voices all the way until reaching the group.
The old man"s face twisted as he looked a the corpse.
He pointed his finger at her. "What are you waiting for? she killed one of yours!"
The old man seemed more p.i.s.sed by the man"s death, then to the personal insult, he received from sandworm.
He was huffing and puffing but in a second he looked around and noticed the mood.
Seeing no change on the mounted warrior"s face, he suddenly forced himself t calm down "Maybe they knew? d.a.m.n."
Zhi Rui was two steps away from them, she stopped.
*twuck* "Ughhh!!"
Sandworm"s knees buckled and he fell holding his stomach cold sweat streamed down his face.
A small round pebble fell from his stomach.
"Your thinking was good, and you handled the issue well. I"ll reward you later. but for now, you"re punished for directly making decisions without consulting with me." Zhi Rui said.
"B-But, you we-" He tried to say something back through the pain but he saw it written on her eyes "I know exactly what and why you did it, don"t quibble."
Normally he would think it was just overthinking, but when it"s about Zhi Rui, he has to take it as it seems. He closed his mouth and didn"t speak again.
Zhi Rui turned to the apprehensive Blue-amethyst.
*twuch* "UGHH"
She fell down in the same fas.h.i.+on.
"W-Why so rough, w-w"re fellow women."
"For the same reasons as him. Now both of you go back and lead the tribe here, I want to rest."
They could barely move but they did and walked with hunched backs.
Zhi Rui chuckled as they went away slowly. Zhi Rui was pretty sure that pebble had torn some tissue inside them. Of course, they claimed she was too tired and wounded and they took her place in talking to authorities and making decisions for her without consulting.
It directly undermined her authority and screamed to the whole tribe they are the ones replacing her and doing her job as alpha.
But at the same time, she felt proud. They were working together, one is too cautious while the other is hotheaded, one controls the other"s extremes
She turned back and examined the people there.
The old man who ordered an attack on her was calm now. The mounted warriors didn"t show a single sign of caring for the man"s death.
Finally, Zhi Rui turned to the handsome man, who was scrutinizing her, since the moment she appeared on the horizon. He saw her throw the corpse but didn"t warn anyone. His men were killed and he showed no hatred or anger.
Zhi Rui didn"t expect that. Even if he didn"t care for his subordinate he should care about losing face as the subordinate was in his care. even if he truly didn"t care for the lost face, he had to show at least some fake rage to keep the image.
Zhi Rui tilted her head to the side, she stared at him from top to bottom. She closed her eyes and tried to feel it. But it didn"t matter how much she tried. She couldn"t feel his emotions or see the color of his aura. It was the first time it happened.
The handsome man bowed with a smile. "You must be the new alpha that won the battle. My name is Han Lee, I"m one of the main sons on the white tribe. "
"White tribe? that"s the neutral one.." Zhi Rui thought.
She looked at him deeply in the eyes, he was being gentle and polite but Zhi Rui felt an urge to test his cool and she didn"t hold back.
"I killed one of you men, jumped on him and smashed his head." Her words are curt and serious with no reason or explanation, leaving no way for another interpretation besides hostility. In her eyes, he was cornered.
The tall man gave her one of the most sincere and carefree smile she had ever seen.
He laughed "I"m sure there"s a good reason for it. He wasn"t our best you know. He was even receiving money from this old man to steer things his way."
His laugh was so carefree, but the undertone of his words and the fact that he just threw the fact out there in front of the old man, portrayed his confidence.
Zhi Rui looked at him with slightly surprised eyes. She hadn"t seen someone like him before.
She was going to retort again but frowned. "Why am I reacting to him?"
Instead, she turned her eyes to the biggest bull. The old man had the same calm eyes but his neck and face were red with anger. His transgression was so casually put out there, that he didn"t have the words to retort.
He simply convinced himself that as he was the steward of the royal siblings and he had the protection from the two strongest tribes he didn"t need to justify anything.
Instead, he changed the subject.
"The royal ones, are they sleeping?" He asked.
Zhi Rui looked at him with blank eyes. "Oh, you mean the blonde bunnies? I enslaved them."
After her words, silence prevailed. The old man looked at her, the first words enraged him, talking like this of royalty was nothing short of blasphemy but the last words took the words out of him
He looked at her with doubt, squinted his eyes scrutinizing every inch of her face.
No signs of joke or madness.
"W-What?" He stammered.
"The bunnies," Zhi Rui continued "I fought them and beat them up until they had no will to resist the slave mark."
Again, another curt remark without any explanations or attempt to convey reason. just a clear statement.
The man just looked a ther speechless trying to make sense of things.
Feeling frustrated by the old man"s speechlessness Zhi Rui turned back to Han Lee.
"So, you don"t care about your subordinates enough to seek proof. and just casually dismiss a loss to your group?"
Han Lee smiled.
"It"s tiring to pretend, I don"t care about them, they don"t care about me, we"re here because we"re competent enough. They are paid their wages and fed in the army, anything more than that we would"ve been spoiling them."
"It"s been a whole day since we ate though." A mounted warrior commented form the side.
"Our wages are late by one week too." Said another mounted woman.
Han Lee"s face turned slightly red making him chuckle with anger, "Ahaha."
Zhi rui laughed at his expense.
She wanted to say more but frowned and stopped herself. She looked inside her with her energy and didn"t feel anything not even with her spiritual abilities. "Then why am I like this?"
She frowned, even more, worst then finding a problem, is not finding one, and the issue continues.
Soon the sound of steps came, Zhi Rui looked behind and her the tribe was already near.
Remembering her plans Zhi Rui willed it. And the carriage doors opened.
The siblings stood holding the door.
"Look at their forehead." Zhi Rui said.
The old man, who until now was thinking of what to do. Squinted his eyes in the distance.
The siblings had a bright red mark s.h.i.+ne on their forehead and slowly fade back.
In a second the world around the old man disappeared and his heart sunk. The blood disappeared from his face, he couldn"t feel the blood on his veins. He stumbled off the mount and walked out from the group and looked in a daze at the siblings, his knees buckled and he stood there with slumped shoulders and open speechless mouth
He didn"t give a s.h.i.+t about royalty or whatnot, but he did care for his job and life. He was supposed to accompany and take care of them. But now they became another"s slave.
The carefully built royal image, the struggle that was to make the ma.s.ses truly lay their hopes on those two siblings, the power over the ma.s.ses they had was of utmost importance for the leaders to use when needed.
And he himself screwed it all up. A backwater n.o.body from outside the culture took royalty as slaves. He didn"t know what to do.
He looked back at Han Lee hoping for some hope.
Hand Lee scratched his head. "Well, it was good to know you." He said.
The light slowly disappeared from the old man"s eyes.
Zhi Rui looked on amused, Han Lee could obviously use his words to use the men any way he wanted as he was desperate, but he simply chose to step on it, to see the man squirm.
It was s.a.d.i.s.tic and malicious. Simply because the men had bribed one of his useless subordinates, he chose to completely break the man that was already on the very edge of despair.
He didn"t use him for himself and even ignored the option of using the information as leverage.
Zhi Rui smirked, it amused her, a lot.
But she has a use for the old man. So she chuckled and spoke.
"n.o.body besides us here knows. The people on the tribe don"t know and don"t care about that mark they a.s.sume is some healing magic I made so no problems with them.
Bring the dicision makers of the big tribes for a meeting with me, and I"ll keep you alive. I"ll brand my slave mark on you, in case they want to punish you, say that if they kill you, I"ll feel your death. Then I"ll kill the siblings, expose their bodies to the people and ran away back to my place.
These bunnies are of quite an importance for them tell them I"m willing to free them if my conditions are met. Also, tell them I have news from the other side of the frontlines."
The man that was on the ground deflated even more.
From a trusted representant of the two big tribes, he became a bug that no one wants around but can"t get rid of.
His eyes reddened and he slowly nodded in a daze.