Chapter 4 COMMANDER DE LOHR

The next day, Agni left the forest early in the morning after drinking a cup of herbal tea that Jamillah prepared for him. He hugged him and planted a small kiss on her temple before leaving the house.

Trading in the town is easy, all he needs to do is to hunt some animals as he goes down his way to the town but he already set up traps last night so everything will go down smoothly like before. After harvesting the wild animals that he caught using his traps, Agni went straight to the shop he's been eyeing since then. A jewelry shop. Gathering enough money to buy an expensive ring for her loved one before, when he was in the army, is not a hard feat yet in their situation right now where they rely only on the forest and had another mouth to feed, he needs to pour in an extra effort to afford it. Although it's not much of a challenge, time is also essential and it took him ten weeks to gather the amount that he needed.

He was immediately stopped in front of the jewelry store when he came in with blood dripping from his clothes. It's not even his blood but from the animals he carried on his back. But before they could kick him out, Agni threw the gold coins from his purse and walked straight to the ring he's been interested in since before. It's a simple ring with frost design that is made with white gold, carved intricately, made exquisite by a single sapphire stone on its center that is the same color of Jamillah's eyes.

"I'll buy this," he said and the store clerk hurriedly packed the ring before anything could happen inside their shop, caused by the bloody man that's throwing gold pieces like nothing.

Feeling the hard box in his pocket where the ring is kept, Agni whistled as he walked down the familiar streets going to the store where he buys his nails.

"Will you marry me, Jamillah?," he whispered, practicing his lines for later. "Too bland, too simple and direct. It won't make anyone's heart flutter, " he retorted to his thinking self. "What if I surprise her with a party? No. Not gonna work. Wife will see it before I can finish setting it up. Songs? I'm not a good singer. Flowers? We have it all the time in the garden. Damn this-"

"Excuse me, sir. We received complaints that a bloody man bought a ring earlier and paid only half of the value of the ring. We ask you to come to our station answer some questions for thi ca-"

"Who the hell are you calling a bloody man?" He looked around with a strong aura to see the person stopping him.

"C-commander de Lohr," the man said when he recognized the tall person in front of him. Those wide shoulders, short black hair, scar on his neck and red eyes are undoubtedly speaking that he's Commander de Lohr, the commoner man who rose up on his ranks and was rewarded with a noble title because of his contribution in war and demon subjugation.

"You know me?," Agni asked while smiling devilishly to both of them. "Do you know me?," he repeated and moved his face closer to them to let them have a closer look at his anger, making the two weak knees shiver in horror.

"Ah, it's been a long time, Commander de Lohr."

Agni's eyes narrowed when he saw the same hateful blonde hair, blue-eyed, child of nobility approaching him. His arrogance is the same as before, unparalleled. Together with his fancy tone in speaking and smooth talking, he's like a walking parade of charlatans, full of lies yet confident.

"Isn't this quite unpleasant, Herald?," he

voiced out.

"Ha, you're really funny and unforgiving, Commander de Lohr. But look, at first, I am here to take you quietly to the station to solve a case brought to us by this poor jeweler but it seems like I need to use force to drag you to your cell and torture you to my heart's content, deserter of the army, Commander de Lohr. Oh, should I still call you commander if you already abandoned your position, Mister Agni de Lohr?"

He paused in a moment but in a swift motion, Herald unsheathed his sword and attacked Agni with his sword, cutting in the middle of the air, aiming for his stomach. Agni blocked this using the dagger he's keeping under his clothes and ran as far away as he could. He couldn't let them find out about Jamillah and Jheon so he lured them away from the Rosmerta Forest.

"Are you going to keep dodging, mister great commander?" Herald jeered at him.

"Then don't you know this, blonde brat, me being able to dodge all of your attacks means that you're bad at doing these things. And take note, I am not even practicing my skills these past years. Can you see how wide our gap is?"

"Shut up!" Herald shouted, totally vexed at him.

The result of the taunts were strikingly impressive. Because of anger, Herald started to have multiple gaps, attacking almost anyone that comes close to him. He's even attacking without any regards for counter attack and this gives Agni more options to attack him and flee, go back to Rosmerta, take his wife and child and live a brand new life again. Until he's surrounded by more soldiers.

They were Herald's men and they encircled him, closing his escape route. He can't even look back to Rosmerta because it may trigger Herald's curiosity.

"Wow, that's a surprise, Commander de Lohr - I mean, Mister de Lohr. Isn't this scene familiar? You and your group are trapped in a circle and attacked from every side."

Scum. He's clearly talking about the time when they were ambushed and most of his men died from poisonous arrows. "How did you know that?"

"How naive of you de Lohr. It's not like your first time to get betrayed, isn't it?"

Agni's grip on his dagger tightened. He's going to attack Herald when the ring he's going to give to Jamillah falls to the ground. It bounced and rolled three times before Herald stepped on it.

"Is this the thing you bought from the jewelry shop? Hmm...," he said as he pick up the box and look at it.

"Take your hands off that thing, Herald."

Herald opened the box and saw the expensive ring inside. His eyes glittered at the exquisite ring and while Agni's attention was occupied with his thoughts about the ring, Herald raised his hand and an arrow from the east side pierced Agni behind his legs. It's laced with a high amount of tranquilizer, enough to send him to sleep in 10 seconds.

Agni fell on one of his knees and staggered to stand up straight. He can't have Herald take the ring from him. That's for Jamillah.

"Can I have this?"

"Are you going to let me go if I gave you that?," he asked. Correct. Going back to his family should be the right answer for now. He's sure that Jamillah's waiting for him with Jheon in her hands and they will be together for dinner. He'll propose to Jamillah and everything would be fine once more but the effectiveness of the tranquilizer overpowered his will and sent him to the ground. Damn, he cursed between his breaths. He's conscious but he can't move his body and the scenes around him are getting blurry. Even their voices are mixed like a slurry mud that he can't understand a single word coming from them. He's just hoping that Jamillah isn't here to see his pathetic state.

"Tie him and lock him up. We'll take him back to the capital. And Roel!," he shouted to his most capable man, "stay here with three more men and find out where he's staying at, persons he's in contact with and drag any woman that may be his lover." Herald looked at the shiny jewelry inside the box. "It's a blue-eyed beauty. The same color of this sapphire. Find her and follow us back to the capital. Don't show your face in front of me without finding her and let me warn you not to try to deceive me and give a girl that only fits my description but has no connection to de Lohr else, I will cut your manhood and feed it to the dogs."

The soldier, Roel, quickly picked three men to come with him to poke around the area and look for Agni's lady.

Meanwhile, Jamillah's having a hard time to sit still and wait for her husband to come home. The sky has already turned into orange strikes and his shadow can't be seen in any corner. She wanted to go down the town but it's hard for her to leave Jheon in the cabin alone. She needs to wait patiently and trust Agni's words. He said that he'll come back before she knew it but the night already passed and no Agni came back home.

Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months yet the coldness of the winter doesn't hold a candle against the chilling atmosphere within the cabin from Agni's absence. But for Jamillah, it can only mean one thing, he's back to his former life and he abandoned them. They are now part of his past as he lives happily with his original family and she's in no position to drag him back to her.