The War God’s Favorite

Chapter 19

 The Prince’s Tent
While listening to Kairen and the General, Cassandra couldn’t ignore all the eyes on her. The camp only had men, thousands of them. They all wore the very same black armor, like Kairen’s. The only difference was that the higher-ranked ones, like the men in front of her, had extra decorations, like gold braces or belts. The Prince, however, was the only one wearing dragon scales on his armor and braces. But aside from that, there wasn’t any display of wealth.
With so many eyes on her, Cassandra was glad to be covered with the fur cloak. Being the only woman was sort of intimidating, even with the Prince standing right in front of her.
Kairen was talking with the old General about conditions at the camp. He had only been gone since the previous day, but many of his men were trying to hold his attention. She could only stay still behind him and wait.
Most of the conversation was about tactics, training, and new recruits. Cassandra listened, but she wasn’t knowledgeable about any of those things.
“We also have to consider food rationing, My Lord. We have doubled the hunting teams, but it’s getting harder for everyone. The men are starting to talk…” said one of the Generals, awkwardly.
“I have brought more,” Kairen said simply.
“Thank you, My Lord.”
The man was about to say something else, but another of the lieutenants spoke ahead of him, so he stayed quiet. Despite his beard, Cassandra noticed he appeared to be younger than the others. He would frown every time another of the high-ranked officers spoke, clearly paying close attention to each word that was said. Then, the oldest General, who appeared to be Kairen’s second, invited him for a tour outside of the training grounds. He briefly turned to Cassandra.
“Stay here.”
“Yes, My Lord.”
Kairen left the tent first and all of the men quickly followed after, though some couldn’t stop themselves from looking back at Cassandra before leaving. She didn’t avoid their stares. Instead, she tried to remember each of them. There were about twenty in total, and once they left, the room felt strangely empty.
Cassandra was now all alone in the large tent. Holding the fur cloak tight around her, she got up and wandered around. Not touching anything, she observed each item in the room, a little curious about her Prince’s life at the camp. The table was mostly filled with military books and maps. Cassandra knew how to read, and it wasn’t her first time seeing maps, but she couldn’t help but smile a little when she spotted one where her homeland appeared. The Rain Lands were so small on the maps compared to the Dragon Empire… The territory had been annexed by the Eastern Republic, so the map was probably old. Her finger slowly traced the route that, as far as she can remember, had probably been taken all the way to the Capital. With being bought and sold over and over again, she had seen a few places, but the majority of her life had been spent in the Capital.
She didn’t have any regrets about leaving those places, though. She never made friends there, or had anything of value. Slaves couldn’t own anything anyway, not even their clothes. Cassandra sighed and brought her fingers up to her slavery collar. It was heavy and, most of the time, painful too. She had touched the locking mechanism so often she knew it by heart. Only a slave trader possessed the key to open one of these. And even if she got rid of it by chance some day, it would take years for the red marks it had carved into her flesh to disappear. Slavery was something that was never forgotten.
Taking her eyes off the many maps, Cassandra headed to the wardrobe. As expected, the Prince didn’t have many outfits, and close to no jewelry, except for a few gold chains and rings that she didn’t dare touch.
The furniture was probably the fanciest thing in the tent. Most of it was expensive wood, surely carved by a specialist. There was even gold in some parts, in the throne-like chair or the head of the bed. It wasn’t as low-key
as the Prince’s room in the Castle. Was it because he spent most of his time here?
“Excuse me?”

Surprised, Cassandra turned around. She didn’t think someone would come here while Kairen was away. It was a rather young man carrying a large basket. He looked even younger than she was, and seemed quite shy too. He bowed a bit clumsily to her.
“I was told to bring this here for His Highness, Ma’am. Is it fine if…”
Cassandra was surprised he was waiting for her approval to put his basket down. She nodded.
“Uhm, sure, please do.”
“Thanks, Ma’am.”
He walked to one of the corners of the room and put down his basket, taking out some armor.
“It was done while our Lord was away by our blacksmith, with reinforced iron and dragon scales,” he explained with a strong northern accent.
“Is it from Krai… I mean, His Highness’ dragon?”
“Yes, ma’am. We collect them when the Black Dragon sheds its scales so our blacksmith can break them and reshape them for His Highness’ armors. It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
“It is…”
Cassandra walked closer to look at the armor and indeed, it was gorgeous. The black of Krai’s scales was shining and perfectly molded into the Prince’s armor. The blacksmith had even been very precise while re-carving the scales’ shape, making it look like the original pattern. As if she had praised him, the young soldier smiled.
“My teacher is very good! He is one of the best in the Empire.”
“Are you an apprentice?”
“Yes, Ma’am. I came here a year ago to follow my master and complete my apprenticeship.”
Cassandra realized some of the youngest soldiers she had spotted were probably apprentices, just like him. Indeed, an army required many types of expertise, like the blacksmith master he was so proud of. Embarrassed by her eyes on him, he blushed a little and bowed again.
“I’m Orwan, Ma’am. I’m part of the first blacksmith team.”
“Nice to meet you, Orwan. I’m Cassandra.”
“Uhm… Nice to meet you, Ma’am… I mean, Lady Cassandra.”
Once again, it felt odd to be addressed like that, but she didn’t say anything. Actually, she noticed a bad burn on his hand, and frowned.
“Are you all right?”
“Oh, this? It’s fine, I get burns like this all the time… It will heal.”
“No, it looks like it’s infected. Have you not tried to get it healed?”
Orwan frowned, looking a bit embarrassed.
“No, Ma’am…”
“Don’t you have healers here?”
“We do, but…there are only a few, and mostly for high-ranked officers.”
“What if someone else is injured?”
“We usually put water on it, and our lieutenant will give us a few days of rest.”
“What if it’s bad? This could seriously lead to losing your hand!”
“Hem… There is the Red Room, but…”
“The Red Room?”
Orwan nodded.
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