"What?"
"I can train you if that's what you want." The Lieutenant repeated.
Bei Tan quirked an eyebrow, "You would train me?"
Not making a sound, the Lieutenant nodded.
Bei Tan suspiciously scanned him down, trying to catch any abnormal expressions or movements. However, the man's face remained stationary. Next to him, the underling stared with a perplexed look.
Finding it frustrating without Lady Ina's memories, Bei Tan bit his lip, he could only base his decisions off personal encounters. With none of these meetings existing between them though, he could only aimlessly puzzle.
Did this man have a motive to do this?
Noticing the confusion stamped on Lady Ina's face, the Lieutenant spoke up sincerely.
"Simply because I wish to stop the constant complaints about our country's future leader." He said.
Hearing this, Bei Tan face twitched.
"So you heard?" Bei Tan asked almost rhetorically. Everyone has heard the rumours.
There was a soft clacking, barely audible through the walls of the dojo and over the conversation. However, there it was, like the quiet boiling of a kettle. Before the Lieutenant could react to the sound, Bei Tan blurted a word of agreement to his suggestion .
Another guard slammed the door open. Turning around, the expression on Bei Tan's face mutated rapidly. The man, who had his hand up against the rim of the door, had been following him protectively for four hours after he left his room. Only around an hour ago, had he managed to escape unnoticed, and finally got a chance to uncover what he had yet to see.
Bei Tan scrunched his brows in thought, "Was it my 'extravagant speech' that gave away my location so fast?" Even after fleeing across the entire castle, this man – Mo Zhi, had dug him up.
Puffing, the guard bellowed, "Lady Ina! Please stay in my sight!" Bei Tan sighed, rolling his eyes.
After observing the situation, Mo Zhi calmed himself and bowed slightly towards the Lieutenant respectfully.
"Mo Zhi, come in," The Lieutenant beckoned him and without warning demanded, "Fight Lady Ina."
"What?" Bei Tan and Mo Zhi simultaneously dropped jaws. They stared at each other before turning back to look at the man.
"You have five minutes to prepare." The Lieutenant smiled before backing up against a wall without explanation.
"I can't fight her…" Mo Zhi trailed off and looked at Lady Ina's figure.
Staring back at him was a pair of azure blue eyes, and like crystals, they glistened under the dim light in the dojo. Her body was slim, legs were like noodles and skin was sickly pale. She looked weak.
How could he fight the delicate flower of this kingdom? If he ever injured her, the king would probably punish him for hurting his spoiled daughter, a penalty probably worse than death. Thinking about it sent cold sweats drizzling down his forehead. However, when Mo Zhi caught a spark of determination in her eyes, the fear diminished momentarily, he felt as if she had changed. She was no longer an unreliable, quiet, slow wallflower.
Bei Tan blinked as he watched Mo Zhi daze off towards him, sarcastically thinking to himself, "He must be in love with me."
Ignoring Mo Zhi, Bei Tan asked the Lieutenant in a serious tone, "Is this part of my training?"
"Yes."
"Okay." Bei Tan nodded understandingly.
"What? Why did you just agree?" Mo Zhi shook his head.
Next, to them, the other guard couldn't believe his ears, almost wearing an amused expression as he watched them bicker among themselves. What was going on? Our weak princess versus one of our trained guards. A match worth watching.
Pressing his back against the wall next to the Lieutenant, he chuckled, "Wu Ming, what are you trying?"
"Just a skill test." Wu Ming replied.
"You? You training the princess? I didn't think you would ever do that. Not in a lifetime."
"Never?"
Mo Zhi looked at the brothers-soldiers combo mumbling among themselves, almost wanting to jugulate them. To him, this could be a life or death situation if he harmed Lady Ina, yet none of them even glanced in his direction.
He slummed his shoulders and looked at his feet sadly, before begging, "Wu Shuai, Wu Ming, please don't make me do this. The king, he-"
Before he could finish, Wu Shuai suggested, "Have Lady Ina vouch for your innocence. After all, this is just some training right?"
Hearing this Mo Zhi looked at Bei Tan and felt a sense of relief.
Moments later, the fight had already begun.
Unexpectedly, Bei Tan was able to dodge all Mo Zhi's attacks through the agility his body harnessed, but he could already feel his lungs begin to tighten. Lady Ina's body lacked stamina, which meant she lacked the endurance she needed to fight. Bei Tan found it hard to keep up. Luckily, there would be moments when Mo Zhi would hesitate to hurt him despite already bruising his pale skin.
In a slipt second between standoff and fight, Bei Tan saw Mo Zhi's eyes flickered between him and Lieutenant Wu Ming. However, his face remained unreadable and Bei Tan continued to dodge until a similar opportunity to counterattack appeared once again. The predicted incident occured almost a half a minute after the first. In spite of Bei Tan's exhaustion, he pulled himself together and delivered a spinning roundhouse kick to Mo Zhi's head.
Bei Tan's move was fast, but Mo Zhi was too. He shuffled his feet quickly and in a mist of alertness, instinctively grabbed Bei Tan's noodle-like leg, threw his light body towards Lieutenant Wu Ming.
Swiftly, Wu Ming hooked Lady Ina into a tender embrace. Bei Tan could feel the bulge of his chest muscles, and pushed away, practically choking noisily.
Untangling himself, Wu Ming leaned in and murmured softly in Bei Tan's ear.
"How was it?"
Bei Tan felt a sudden flutter converge under his skin as the sounds of the other two figures dim into a soft groan.