His Personal Maid — Chapter 21

Later, Sylvester left his little dove in the care of his eccentric sister to make one of his little trips down to the outpost that was closest to the South of the region of light also known as the Southern region. Sylvester didn’t really want to go, he wanted to stay back and spend all day indoors with his Personal Maid.

By the time Sylvester got there, the condition he met the soldiers was the poorest he could find. How can soldiers be dispatched to a place like this? The whole place looked more like a disease infested area and not a soldier’s barrack.

As soon as he got here, he went on to look for their military head and let his presence be known. He felt sad at the gory sight of wounded soldiers, and dying ones.

“How May I help you?” The military head asked as soon as Sylvester stepped into his office.

“What happened to these soldiers?” He asked

The military chief gave him a weird look, he was surprised as to why a stranger was questioning him about the military work.

“I’m Sylvester Ho, the Prime minister” Sylvester quickly introduced himself to clear his suspicion or confusion.

“My lord, to what do we owe this visit?” The man quickly stood up and bowed in respect.

“We have successfully recruited some more soldiers and before we start dispatching them, I decided to make small trips to all outposts to see the condition they were in and what they’ll need. But this is the worst I’d seen. What’s happening here?”

“We’ve contacted the palace several times to ask for help but we got nothing in return and we’re glad that you’re here right now, my lord”

“Why are the men so wounded and sick? Are there no able bodied soldiers in here?” Slyvester asked.

“We do have able bodied soldiers but they’re not more than a fifty and they all are on the training ground. We usually have the Barbarians attacking at any moment, leaving our men wounded and as a result of the lack of medical supplies, we lost most of them. The ones who managed to survive were the ones you saw, my lord”

“The Barbarians?”

Slyvester was surprised at the news.

This is the first time he’ll be hearing of such an attack. The barbarians were known for their wild and dangerous behavior, they behaved more like animals and not humans, maybe because they’ve lived in forests all of their lives. They only occupy about two percent of their entire population.

“Once I get back to the palace, I’ll relay all I’ve seen to the king and ensure that something is done about it” Slyvester looked around and realized the place might fall if care wasn’t taken.

Deciding to at least do something before leaving, he asked, “is there any place I can get a builder? He should start work on these buildings and repair them”

The military head smiled and quickly tried to reply, “I’ll take you to the one—-”

The man was not able to finish his statement when a soldier barged into the door, scared and tired from probably running.

“Have you no respect? How can you barge into my office like this?”

“The bar—baria-ns are on th—eir way” The man stuttered out, making fear to grip the military head.

Before Slyvester could say anything, all he heard was loud noise emerging from outside of the building. When he looked through the window, he saw them dressed in rags, some holding daggers while others held either an arrow and bow or a sword.

The door leading to the room that Slyvester was suddenly opened loudly and a wild looking child barged in, looking at Slyvester murderously. Before he could lift up his sword to attack Slyvester, he disarmed him by using the rod he could find in the room to hit the boy hard on the hand.

The boy fell to the ground while Slyvester held the rod close to his neck and the only thing left was to put a bit more pressure and successfully send the rod running through his neck.

Slyvester wanted to interrogate him a bit and that was his mistake. As soon as the boy’s father saw what was going on, he placed an arrow in his bow and shot at Slyvester hurting his hand.

Slyvester screamed out in pain and the Military head had to make him escape through the back escape route, sending him off on his horse with a little soldier to help get him back to the palace.

Meanwhile, Desire and Queen Naomi have gone to the market to buy fabrics that she’ll give to the seamstress to make her a dress for the king’s birthday.

It was during this time that Desire knew Queen Naomi has a strange taste in cloth. They visited more than five warehouses before the Queen finally settled on one and even insisted on getting Desire a new fabric so she’ll also make a new dress.

Desire told her she had no intention of attending the birthday ceremony to avoid unnecessary attention to herself.

Queen Naomi agreed with her but she still insisted on getting her a new fabric Incase she later changed her mind and decided to attend the birthday celebration.

They returned back to the Queen’s quarters hours later with different types of beautiful fabric. The seamstress was invited in by the Queen who instructed her on how to make both dresses.

“My Queen, I have to go back to my master’s chamber before nightfall” Desire said, preparing to take her leave.

“Can’t wait to go touch him again?” Queen Naomi teased and Desire blushed.

“I’m sure my master would not want such a repetition,” Desire said bitterly.

“Do not worry about my brother, I can hook you up with other fine rich people” Desire’s eyes widened out of surprise.

“I was joking, Desire.” The Queen Laughed at her strange expression.

“Goodnight My Queen, I wish you a goodnight rest”

“You too Desire, goodnight”

As soon as Desire stepped out of the Queen’s quarters, Ying was trailing right behind her. He followed her till she got to her Master’s chamber and even sat with her when she decided to sit out front and wait for her master rather than stay indoors.

By nightfall, Desire was getting really worried about him.

“I hope he’s fine” Desire declared

“He’ll soon be here, do not worry” Ying assured her even though he was worried himself.

“Kim Chui said she’ll love to see you again” Desire gasped and was excited to hear the news about her new friend.

“You visited her” Ying nodded.

“She looks forward to seeing you again”

“I’ll love to see her too. Thank you Ying”

Ying was confused as to why she was thanking him. He had gone there for himself not for her.

Slyvester’s Ho’s horse approaches his chambers sending both Desire and Ying to their feet. He was already dizzy and weak from the loss of too much blood.

A bandage was woven around his hand, covered in blood and upon seeing it, Desire quickly covered her mouth with her hand as tears ran down her pretty face.

Ying helped Slyvester down his horse while the other soldier left after ensuring he was safe with Ying and Desire.

“Help him get indoors while I get the healer,” Ying instructed Desire.

She threw Slyvester's better arm around her neck to help him get into the room. By the time they stepped into the chamber, Slyvester collapsed on the floor, scaring life out of Desire.

She screamed and quickly put his head on her lap, crying bitterly.

Slyvester slightly opened his eyes and saw his little dove crying her eyes out. He touched her chin lightly.

“You’re even beautiful when you cry” He teased before his hands slipped off her chin as he lost consciousness for the second time.