Chapter 34: Alleria's thought

Lireesa's quick disappearance in the eyes of others wasn't strange for those who understood her situation. She wasn't strong enough to quickly suppress her friend from all directions lest the cart overturned should she stayed longer. After the initial surprise, uncontrollable variables could happen and Sena might find a way to react. Lireesa was satisfied with her provocative actions without suffering any consequences in the future nor received any Sena's counterattack. In this exchange, it was obvious the victory belonged to Lireesa. She never bothered the inner monologue of her friend.

Her friend at the moment was stunned and speechless; until shaken by Alleria did she come back to her sense. Lireesa's new behavior completely shocked her into a daze. She wondered when did Lireesa begin to research flirting, because even with her husband she never acted such in public, not to mention in front of her daughter. What did it show. It meant she approved of Sena's initiated steps, but Sena wasn't really happy, although if Lireesa accepted her pursuit, Sena would run around the whole manor and exclaimed in exhilaration. The reason was She desired to be on the top and the current trend warned otherwise, as Lireesa's recent moves dominated absolutely to the extent of affecting the soul.

While she was deep in her thoughts, her body still trembled like a trampoline played by Alleria beside her, who knew she'd already recovered but still continued to do so. She stared at her fiercely, who then ignored her eyes and shook her arm wantonly without regards to whether her delicate arm being able to withstand the toss. Although her arms appeared delicate owing to their racial physiques as elves, she wasn't weak as people expected, rather there were thin layers of strong muscle fibers across her whole arm, necessary for drawing bows as rangers. Except for the arcane mages who looked like fragile porcelain, most other elven professions required stronger physiques. That was also the reason why she didn't give mages a good look. If it was a woman, it's fine. But a man who acted soft in Sena's eyes was weakling, a wimp.

Had Lireesa listened to her thoughts, she'd immediately grasp her rolling eyes—a complaint about being a double-standard. In this very few gender-discriminations world, you still upheld such concepts. What's wrong with man being soft, it wasn't your business. Yep, Lireesa would say this to her.

No matter what change in her facial impression, it didn't seem to scare Alleria off. Sena knew what she was thinking behind her back, protesting silently against to take her mother away, even though her mother hadn't gone anywhere, but Alleria still had a hunch. Alleria was currently in a state of revenge when the opportunity was still there. Sena flaunted her arm away from her little niece or daughter-to-be while she glared back and instantly heard her clicking her tongue.

Damn, she thought. The big hen just abused me right now, can't I suppress you little chicken. Naturally, it was just a mere idea. Where did she dare to bully Alleria and her sisters. Their old hen protected and doted them like nothing else. She reckoned they were the only cherished for Lireesa to continue living in this world. Right now, she discovered the new side of Lireesa which signaled dangers for her, blaring alarms in her heart as if previous wolf became a little rabbit in front of Lireesa. Her lecherous eyes and lips which seemed to gnaw her body piece by piece shuddered Sena's inner peace. Her heart ripened into a new form, when encouraged by Lireesa slutty actions, especially her lewd language lingering in her ears, provoking her calm demeanor and making her heart itched. She really desired her Lireesa to original cold elegant mesmerizer, who brought a sense of conquest to Sena. She didn't want to be conquered.

Lireesa: Who's yours?

"What're you doing?" Sena asked annoyed and didn't even give a good face to Alleria. "I'm your elders. Be respectful."

Hmph, go away your respect. You just wanna poach our mother from us. Although this was her true thoughts, some things couldn't be said out loud. She pretended to not see Sena's mood and said chicly, "I was worried you become lost in your thoughts forever. After all, I only have very few aunts who can guide me. I was just trying to shake your heart back to its position."

Although, her sound hearing didn't capture what Lireesa had said, it must be nothing short of flirtatious words. Alleria was inexplicably annoyed at Sena. Her father just passed away recently, and this old lady was plotting against her mother and had already succeeded in seducing her mother away. Oh no, she must guard against this badass black wolf, and she needed allies; she must tell her sister and unite resisting the invader together. Alleria wanted her mother to be happy and worry free. She didn't want to limit herself to the family. She had already paid enough. But the surrounding gossips and rumors wouldn't forgive or give understanding toward Lireesa and should be avoided. She didn't forbid the two, yet she wanted them to wait for some time to pass so that faults couldn't be pointed out by the public.

Sena rolled her eyes, waving her hand to silence Alleria from her gibberish. She decided to selectively forget the current scenario and continue what she had always done. Pursuing Lireesa. Right now, she decided to stay in this clean silent room with Alleria for a moment. Having no knowledge of her friend's deep thought, Lireesa blinked her eyes several times, because as soon as she left the room, the whole noise was like a wave of air rumbling toward her like a strong breeze on the beach. She frowned and wondered when this intensity would end. The whole argument was around her topics and the subordinates around her appeared not to have noticed her at all. At least, there must be one. Lireesa tried to find someone who really knew she was watching over them. None. Not at all.

She pursed her lips in disappointment and wondered if she was being too approachable because she discovered strangely no flattery amongst her subordinates. It was just her subtle complaints. In fact, she wasn't frustrated about such situation, because it showed a healthy environment among her manor. Respect was given but no more to the point of blatant flattery, and it was often scorned by Windrunners. She sat on the previous Sena's seat without making any noises and thought to herself while listening to the other officers' discussions on drawbacks and puzzlements. Unless she displayed it outside in a practical training session, it was almost impossible to explain the logic behind these tactics. She never spoke a word in a room full of heated squabble.

"Since it was outside the territory how do we solve the logistic issues. If every ranger carries on her own like you said, the movement speed and maneuverability will be affected." One of the arguments from her subordinates caught Lireesa's attention. Her eyes showed a strange color when she learnt they were having difficulties with logistics. When she thought guerilla's logistic wasn't any different from conventional nor did it involve any other complexities.

"Move the logistic to the frontline base and extend our combat out of this base, preventing these resources from being destroyed by the trolls." Another voiced her opinion, which was common sense to Lireesa, nothing too different. But for her subordinates, the new ingenious method proposed by Lireesa had caused them to lose confidence in their judgements and ideas.

"But that'll make our whole group stationary and guerilla suggested by Lady Lireesa means otherwise. It has to be quick, efficient and maneuverable. There must be some other way." Lireesa thought to herself, of course there is. The military meeting here in front of her had only a slight contrast with the military in previous world. Naturally, that only applied to the Windrunner family, while the rest of the Quel'Thalas seemed to like sticking to tradition and have stricter and unnecessary hierarchy.

Lireesa decided to show up and intervene, otherwise the morale among the officers would drop because of their worries on the new tactics. In addition, she heard some new stuffs despite sounding well founded, it was crooked in her opinion. If she had the time, she could experiment it during the long years. However, the current war meant immediate action and she wasn't going to approve of unproven plans, placed by her subordinates, though she'd archived them at the moment. Lireesa might appear dictatorship with her opinions when her ideas were also unproven in the eyes of others. Her previous world history had already shown the way and with new innovations forwarded by her officers, that would then be done. She needed no proof, just adjustment, acceptance and adaptability.

She cleared her throat and a cough clanged crashing the whole room into silence. The whole room quieted down even the rustling of the leaves rang in her ears. Lireesa didn't know if this noise level was considered normal here, but it was really damn loud. Now, clarity presumed the whole atmosphere and everyone's attention was on Lireesa whose hand rubbed her both temples. Her frown worried the rest whether she had any dissatisfaction with them. Although Lireesa disliked flattery and encouraged her subordinates not to care about her mood, it was never a good feeling to have your superiors sulking at you for a particular reason.

She knocked her knuckles on a deck time and time again. Her subordinates remained silent watching their lady deep in thoughts. Maybe because there was a sudden reticence inside the whole room, a creak from the door opened from the room attracted their attentions. Alleria's and Sena's heads came out on top of each other curiously watching what happened outside just after Lireesa left. They thought they were in secret but was awkward when gazed upon by others. Their eyes roamed around and exited the room patting their clothes to drive away embarrassment. Nobody spoke other than heeding to the continued rhythmic beating of the desk.

Lireesa after some time raised her head and said, "I've heard all your worries and confusions. It's actually easy to solve and at the same time hard to think about. Because your way of thinking is still so stiff and not flexible. In any battle, commander must be flexible. Same applies here. You all have to think out of the box." She gave what she thought was an inspirational speech and allowed her subordinates to ask her questions they still were in confusion. However, Windrunner officers felt their lady was in great disappointment for not discovering a correct path even if she had given direction. Lireesa didn't know and wouldn't care if she knew. Rather action spoke louder than words was her motto. Show them the realities and you can convince others, and let people know deeply about you more.