Chapter 47 Unexpected Events

“Lenny?” Josiah almost couldn’t keep the low tone as he asked for her, after entering his tent.
There was nobody in.
‘Of course, she wouldn’t be here anymore. If anything, she must have left and his somewhere…’
Josiah stood silent for a moment so he could hear the instructor and Koda talking to each other outside the tent:
“The infiltrator was last seen running to the west.”
“What’s west?”
“Nothing. The fields proceed to the west up to two thousand miles.”
“Do you think there’s any place to hide?”
“At this point just running on a random direction is hideout enough.”
“Do we send a group to…”
With the duo walking away, the voices started getting to low to be heard.
‘Lenny… Where did you go? I hope she doesn’t get treated as a deserter or something because of that… I wonder if the team is going to start searching for this so-called infiltrator?’
Since there was nothing to do inside the tent, Josiah walked away and went on a quest to finding more information around.
‘Maybe Watt knows something?’
Josiah was walking to Watt’s tent when he saw Reeve talking to Sargeant Koda.
“Sargeant, sir… I don’t really feel well.” He was wheezing and speaking slowly.
“Sounds like a you problem.”
“I mean it. This seems pretty serious.”
“What do you mean?”
“I think I might have got poisoned. I…” Reeve curved his body and held the legs with the arms. His forehead was covered in sweat.
“Hey, come here.” Sargeant invited him to his tent.
Josiah waited for them both to get in, then looked around to both sides to check whether there was someone paying too much attention to him.
‘Now this seems like quite the event…’ He thought.
He went to the front of the Sargeant and the instructor’s tent, which was bigger. It was set up distant from the soldier’s tents. He was walking very slowly, kicking the dirt off the ground so that he could pass in the front of the tent and hear the most he could.
Josiah could hear Koda and another instructor speaking:
“What happened to him? The other minute he was walking and now he can’t even speak.”
“I don’t know. What did he eat? Or better… Where did he eat?”
“Every soldier shares the meal of the same pot. Do you think the poisoning was done later, aiming straight to take him out?”
“Could be. We shouldn’t forget the boy is a royalblood…”
“Then that infiltrator…”
Josiah thought it would become too obvious if he just stood there in front of the instructor’s tent, further from everyone else.
‘Now they are going to blame Lenny… Someone trying to take Reeve out? I have a hunch…’
He went straight for the tent of the one he was suspecting. He wanted to act uncanny, so he breathed deeply and opened the tent’s curtains without ceremony, without saying he was coming in.
Inside soldier Yvonne’s tent.
Josiah found the ten empty.
‘I just now realized it’d be pretty awkward if she was getting undressed or something. Luckily, she is gone.’
Josiah observed around the tent. There were some flasks near her personal cooking utensils.
‘Those look like Lenny’s… She was probably making some… Wait…’ Josiah grabbed one of the flasks with his hand. ‘Those are different…’
Josiah wanted to speak to Yvonne on his own to confirm his hypothesis. He assumed she went to the ‘bathroom’, so he left the tent and waited for her to come back. But after a while, Josiah realized she was taking too long.
Josiah started walking away from the camp, in the opposite direction from where people were saying the infiltrator ran to, and after a while he spotted Yvonne alone, crouched, with a flask on her hand. She was burying the content.
“Hey!” Josiah shouted. Still crouching, she turned her body to face him.
“Oh great, it’s the kid. What do you want kid?”
“Don’t treat me like some random kid!”
“What do you want?”
“What is this that you’re mixing there inside your tent?”
“That…? That’s just potions.”
In that world whenever people said potions without specifying, it was implicit they were talking about healing potions.
“…Wait, you’ve been checking on my stuff? Just because you’re nine doesn’t mean everybody has to deal with your…”
“Those are not healing potions! I know how a healing potion is made.” Josiah interrupted.
“…”
Yvonne stood up and brought her right hand near the belt.
“What are those?” He asked again.
“I assume you must have realized what I did in the second phase and then came to check? Yeah, that’s right… That’s what I do. This tournament is all about preparation. You prepare your victory before the fight and not during it. Still… I calculated wrong. I wanted the effect to kick in during the fight.”
‘So she was the one who did that, after all.’
“…But now that you found out, I mean, guess I can’t let you spread the word. Don’t take it personally.”
“Wait! You don’t mean you want to finish me off here?”
Yvonne brought her hand to the pocket, put it in, and took it out covered in blood.
“I didn’t want to use this until it was really needed, but you leave me no choice. Even though you are a kid you’re the favorite. I cannot take any chances.”
“Hey, wait!” Josiah extended his two bare hands to Yvonne as a stopping sign. “Who said I’m going to spread the word about this…?”
Yvonne, who was walking slowly to his direction, preparing for a fight, stopped midway and asked:
“You’re not?”
‘Damn, I said it. Well… Am I? It’s the right thing to do, but… Am I really that virtuous? Can’t forget they are my enemies after all. Especially Reeve. Plus, I bet she didn’t do it to kill him. She was just trying to win the tournament.’
“Yvonne… Why are you in the army? Why do so much to win a stupid tournament?”
“That’s none of your business. It’s not a kid who’s diverging me from my ultimate goal.”
“You don’t want just to work under the emperor’s Eneris’ orders, do you?”
“Huh? What do you know kid?”
‘Spot on.’ Josiah confirmed. ‘She probably has a story similar to mine.’
“Drop your weapon. No need to use your blood power. I will keep silent of it.”
“But not for free, right…?” She asked skeptically.
“You don’t trust anyone, do you? I’m gonna let this pass. But now you owe me one. I have the right to ask for a favor back whenever I need it.”
“Who says I’m going to help you when you need?”
“You are. You are that kind of person, after all.”
“Pff. This kid…”
Yvonne put her weapon back and wiped her hand on the armor.
“That’s it. I’m going back to the camp then…”
Josiah turned his back and left Yvonne behind.

‘It’s good to have allies inside the army when the time comes I become strong enough to overcome The Count and his men. One matter is settled. Now I just need to find Lenny.”