[JARA]
Seven days later, the Jara kingdom, home to the red helmets, was abuzz.
The battlefield chaos had reached home with the red helmets. The disappointment on their faces, the rage and confusion of the abandoned war still lingered, which none of them dared to speak of.
It was a miracle that they had come home in one piece, but the fact that it was King Yuma who decided it was a choice for the battle to end was not something the red helmets had appreciated.
It was dismissive and humiliating on a scale that no one had ever thought of just yet.
And it was unnerving in one too many ways.
"Go home to your families. I will brief the king," Saito, the Sondra Dynamite's second in command, ordered.
No one challenged him. They were too tired for that. The race back home was not something that their portals could handle. So they had made a run for it. Like cowards, when in truth, they were never cowards.
They had wanted to finish the battle.
To make sure glory came home with them. But things had taken a different turn, and now that they were home, their helmets in their handsome swords on the other, the red helmets didn't know where to start.
"Aye, sire," was all they managed.
Saito walked toward the palace.
No matter how stiff and cool he tried to look as he walked past the curious civilians and warriors who had stayed home to guard the king, the worship of their shame was not something that anyone could take off him this time.
"Sire, the king is expecting the Sondra Dynamite," a high guard stationed at the entrance of the east wing stated.
Saito stiffened.
Of course, they had heard the chaos of the battlefield by now, but protocol demanded statements. Accountability. Real-time notes on events that had happened, and post-battle reports.
But what was that supposed to look like when they didn't lose or win but all went home as survivors of the greatest bout of insanity in their lives?
"The Dynamite rests, soldier. I shall represent him as dictated by Jara's martial laws," Saito said calmly, his voice neutral. She didn't even have the energy to be angry at this moment.
"You may proceed," the high guard said stiffly, even though the stench of confusion was clear on him.
Saito moved through the familiar hallways; his mind filled with different rehearsed versions of what he needed to say to the king.
Because he knew more than any other, their king trusted the Sondra Dynamite more than life was trusted with air. That was what made this even a harder deliberation, because the king would take his word for the truth.
While it was tempting to say something different to save face from the dynamite, Saito knew that their king had expected everything and nothing for the Sondra Dynamite.
There was nothing that the Sondra Dynamite ever did that had the king surprised at any point. The good, the bad? The king was always aware of it all.
"Rama," Saito greeted the high guard outside the king's work chambers.
"How bad is it?" Rama asked.
"Craenia 1 bad," Saito sighed.
"Maybe the gods will be with you, brother," Rama said before opening the door to the king's chambers.
Craenia 1 was a code name for the year that everything had gone to hell for the Sondra Dynamite. Long before the name that had gotten them a reputation across the Sondra realm.
Before victories that had blasted through roofs in negotiation rooms with different kingdoms. Long before the strategic destruction campaigns that had put the kingdom of jars in the highest spot when it came to power and armies.
Because it was the year of intense isolation for the Sondra Dynamite.
Back then, he was just a nameless recruit who had returned broken forward with the other Jara warriors. When the recruit who had caught the king's eye stepped back and disappeared for a year.
A year when no one understood the king's insistence on checking in on a nameless recruit. Hell, Craenia 1 had had the king himself lose his spark and get colder than he had ever been.
To this day, no one understands what triggered Craenia 1.
Some said that the recruit had been broken because he had never seen that amount of death in any war, while others assumed he was just being dramatic.
But those who had fought beside him in the years that followed never believed that. Because the Sondra Dynamite they had grown beside, was never one to flap back just because he wanted to go out in a performance.
And that was the triggering bit.
Because even though the red helmets had been there on the battlefield, the Sondra Dynamite still pulled a Craenia 1.
"Ah, Lieutenant, I see you came in place of that stubborn man," an authoritative voice spoke the moment the doors opened and closed behind Saito.
Saito stiffened.
"Your majesty…" Saito trailed off, unsure of where to begin.
Honestly, nothing he said could ever make his explanations to the king any simpler or even more relieving. This was a disaster that was waiting to happen, and he hoped not to be the sacrificial lamb this time.
"I hear rumors of him running away," the king said, staring into Saito's eyes like he was daring the am to lie; to say anything that wasn't what he had heard.
"You're scaring the poor guy, Kenji. You know how Kira can get sometimes," a woman in royal robes spoke fatly. She had a dangerously calm aura around her, almost like she had seen death firsthand and fought it one too many times.
Her tone may have been flat and her words simple, but her voice was that of a woman who was used to command. A woman who had seen power, a woman who was part of the elite herself.
Only then did the Jara king break eye contact with Saito, turning his focus to the beautiful woman who'd just come through one of the doors inside the king's chambers.
Saito's head bowed instantly.
"Chin up, Lieutenant," the woman spoke, her voice filled with familiar authority, and Saito straightened his posture before he stood at attention like it was routine for him.
"You should start speaking before this barbarian decides to hand you whatever punishment he thinks is fit for Kira this time," the woman added calmly.
"Yes, Chief," Saito replied.
"And you say I am the one scaring the man, Khione?" King Saito spoke amusedly.
"He doesn't look as stiff when I am talking to him. Perhaps you could try being nicer, your majesty. Anyway, I have to leave now. The alliance reports are on your desk.
"If this is another situation like Craenia 1, then even the gods would save us this time," Chief Khione said.
The king laughed softly. Almost like he knew he could cap the situation, but was that what this was about?
All that time, Saito's posture did change. Not even the woman walked past him out the door. He didn't relax when the door closed behind him.
Because he was terrified of the Jara king. The man who smiled politely at everyone, including his enemies, all while he stabbed them and took their lives. He was dangerous, and Saito knew that too.
"Did Kira run from the battlefield, lieutenant?" the king asked again.
This time, his voice was sharp. He sounded like he needed answers fast, or heads would start trolling. And Saito was willing to bet his entire lineage that he was at the highest risk of that possible bout of madness.
"No, sire," Saito said confidently.
The king paused. Then, like a predator, he stalked the lieutenant, who was shaking internally from the lie he had already told. It was obvious in the man's posture. The way he was shaking slightly.
Hell, the man was already breaking in cold sweat.
This was the kind of game he had signed up for. But then seven days of running away from the battlefield like cowards just to come home to ask who had been an explicit victory was not an easy feat.
Especially when it would most probably end with his head on a stake outside the Jara palace.
"That is not what King Yuma Ishida said in his letter three days ago," King Saito said coldly, like a predator who was waiting for more.
"He wrote, and I quote: 'Maybe it is time you douse your dynamite in water. One look at my warrior, and he bolted like a thief in the night. If you are to send your best warriors after my best;
"… consider training him well, that is, if he is not dead already from the brutal strikes my best warrior landed on him.' Are you still going to stand here and tell me that Kira didn't run from the battlefield, lieutenant?" King Saito asked grimly.
His eyes followed the sweat that was trickling down Saito's temple. Anyone with eyes could see that the lieutenant was in trouble, and yet the man had stayed stiff, even with what was being thrown at him.
The truth was what he could make it be, not for the sake of Kira, but because that truth could save the red helmets.
General Kira was a phenomenon that none of them had ever been able to fully understand for the past decade. So, for Saito to even want to assume that he would understand the man, it was impossible.
"Yes, sire. The general didn't run from the battlefield. I created the portal and pushed him through it," Saito said confidently.
The king laughed.
Really laughed humorlessly.
"You?" the king asked sinisterly.
"Yes, sire. The general unmasked the Craenia warrior, and King Yuma didn't like that we saw the face of his weapon or even that we knew his name: Konno. When the general fought with Konno, he got stabbed twice through and through.
"He wanted to keep fighting, but he was too hurt, and if he kept fighting, he would die from septic shock. That is why I pushed him through the portal before King Yuma and Konno had the chance to deliver their fatal blows," Saito spoke stiffly.
He sounded like he was reading off a script that not even the devil himself would ever believe. But he needed to let this out.
He knew Kira.
He knew him so well, and he knew Kira wouldn't care about what he thought of him. Not even the king. Granted, it was stupid to defend a man who wouldn't give two shits about what it was that was here, Saito's loyalty was a dangerous vow.
"Septic shock? Are you a doctor now, lieutenant?" the king mocked.
Saito didn't answer.
"Do you know the punishment for being a deserter?"
"Yes sire… Death by a thousand strokes."
"And you still insist on your version of events?"
"It is the truth, sire."
"Well then. You shall be detained for three days, during which I will have a talk with General Kira and a few red helmets. If your versions match, good for you. if they don't… then may the gods have mercy on your soul."