Phantasia: The Princess Knight 115 Test Of Strength Part Three

Before leaving Alicia also took some brush to cover the body of the young girl so it was not as visible. She hoped that she could be back in two days' time to bury the girl as she had promised. She just did not have the time right now with how she had to take care of the situation at hand. Alicia's plan was quite simple. She was taking on the trojan horse approach. But instead of a wooden figure as the trojan horse, she was using herself, by disguising herself as an Empire soldier. She planned to infiltrate the Empires camp and take them out from the inside. 

Alicia quickly found herself a place to hide as she waited for the bugle call. After another two hours, the bugle call finally came. Alicia came out of her hiding spot with her sword staggering by her side acting as if she was injured. A young man in an Empire soldier uniform came running over calling out to Alicia. "Are you okay?" 

Somewhat startled by suddenly being called out to, Alicia turned her head while quickly swinging her sword.

*Clang!*

 "Woah! Careful! You could have taken my head off with that. The enemy has already pulled back. We are also retreating for the night." The young man had a bead of sweat drip down his back. If he was any slower he would have just lost his head!

Alicia came back to her senses and looked at the young man. "Sorry about that! You suddenly came up behind me so I thought..." 

"It's fine, it's fine. After such a tough battle I would have done the same if someone snuck up on me like that." The young man scratched the back of his head. "Anyway, let's go. We need to hurry." 

Alicia nodded her head and followed after the young man. A sly smile formed on her face that quickly disappeared. They traveled for an hour when they saw a long line of women chained up being dragged in the same direction as the camp. Alicia frowned seeing this because she knew these women were all from her country! Her eyes scanned the group until they paused on a certain figure. Alicia, grit her teeth and thanked the fact that she had decided to execute her plan on this day. Because the person she saw within that group was her sister Edith! 

"Where do they take the prisoners?" Alicia asked the young man who was a few steps ahead of her.

"Ah… Them? I feel somewhat bad for them tomorrow night they will be offered up to the highest bidder to warm their beds. If they refuse they will die. Sometimes even some pretty boys will be tossed into the mix for those who have a special taste. Tonight they will be fed well and given a good cleaning. But tomorrow their fate is left up to whoever buys them." The young man replied. 

"They auction them off?" Alicia let out a small sigh of relief because this will not happen until the next night.

"Yeah. It's to keep the morale of the men up. But most of the time the Empires nobles will end up buying most of them. Let's just say you do not want to end up in the hands of a noble. They have what's called very unique tendencies. It's better to end up with a soldier who will actually care for your well being. If you're looking for a wife then I would suggest saving a bit of silver. You will need at least one hundred to buy one of them." The young man answered as he gave Alicia a wink. 

A sudden realization came to Alicia at this time. The young man in front of her actually thought she was a guy! Although Alicia was a bit angered by this she still felt that things were better this way. 

"This must be your first deployment?" the young man asked.

"Ahh? Yes, it is… I just arrived this morning. I don't even know the camp all that well. Can Big Brother show me around if you have time?" Alicia was hoping she could get an escort to show her around the camp. It would make things easier if someone who was familiar with it showed her where everything was! 

"Sure why not! Since you call me Big Brother, how could I say no!" The young man smiled. As he continued: "My name's Ro, what's yours?"

Alicia smiled and answered: "Kell..." 

"Good to meet you, Kell! From now on we are brothers!" Ro patted Alicia's back and let out a laugh.

Alicia felt a little guilty about lying but she had no choice. She now had a second priority and that was saving her sister. If she could when she was finally discovered she would hope Ro would not become her enemy. Although in actual fact they were already enemies. She did not like betraying people. But in this case, she had no choice. She had to in order to pass her test. But this was also a good lesson for her. Not everything goes the way you wish it would. This test of strength was also testing her character. How she would act. If she was strong enough to follow through with her actions. Strength came in many forms, it was not always about how much power one had. It was also based on a person's character and determination. 

Thinking of how bad this test was compared to the first. Alicia's brow furrowed when she thought about the third test that had yet to come. The test of no mercy. Alicia made her way into the camp. She followed behind Ro until they met with an officer who set Alicia up with accommodations. Ro then brought her to her tent. Luckily the tents were single person tents. This made it so Alicia would be able to move around a lot easier. After a quick wipe down with a rag and some water, Alicia donned her armor once again and met up with Ro. 

"Ready?" Ro asked.

"Yep! Thanks for this. I will be sure to remember each and every area..."

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Chapter end