Caught!

"going somewhere" general smile at Irie

on the other hand Irie is frozen in the moment and thousands of idea ran through her mind but her body just don't move. he has an aura that can make people like that when ever he looks at someone in the eye.

"who are you and where are you from?" he gets serious all of a sudden and place another sword over her neck.

"um...hello general haha what an coincidence meeting you like this haha anyways I am Irie and I live here in village nearby" Irie try to laugh out this awkward moment.

"and what you doing here at this hour?" he looked suspiciously

"um...I just came for hunting you know we could easily hunt a deer here and their dishes are very popular nowadays..." "enough! don't you know this is the border area and people are not allowed here?"

"sorry sir I wasn't paying attention at where I was going haha" she gulp hard

"hmm, go home kid" then he put down his sword and move aside to give her space so she could go back.

~what do we do Irie

'shit! guess we just have to retreat for now' Irie scold herself in her head

Irie lands on plane ground as she jumps from the tree she didn't dare to look back because she knows he is watching her back.

the very next moment in an blink of an eye she realised she is holding her sword in front of her blocking the general's own sword, it just happened so fast she didn't even realised it when her body moved on her own. guess grandma's training are worth it.

"you are quicker then I expected" general comments

"thanks"

"I will ask you once again who.are.you?"

"I told you general my name is Irie and I live here in the village nearby"

"oh! is this some kind of trend now, people are going to hunting with these types of weapons?" he pointed towards her big swords.

"yes..ha...ha it's trending" Irie laughs nervously

General lift up his another sword so did Irie, general didn't flinch from his place as usual, where as Irie dodge back few steps to avoid another attack she knows that battle with general Arthur will be a death wish because his skills is no joke.

"listen general Arthur I was going back home and if you could please let me...". thud*

Irie falls on the ground unconsciously.

"what a terrible lier"

(At the palace)~ next morning

it's a totally different world inside the main city, where you could see only the rich and rich everywhere but not just wealthy people but normal people too who come to main city in search of work or for selling of their goods and earn a living. the palace is guarded by highly trained swordsmen who are specially trained under the prince itself.

mean while Arthur goes to the record room since he is curious about Irie, this place is accessible to only few people in which general is itself.

"how may I help you sir?" the person on incharge asks as soon as general comes in

"ah! Peter search about this girl Irie for me she lives in the south villages" he takes a seat comfortably and cross his legs

"yes...sure" then he goes somewhere lost inside the bundles of papers and books

after about fifteen minutes he came back with a thick register and place it on the table

"Irie...Irie..." he looks through the letter I by Page by Page

"yah! Irie! but there are two persons named Irie sir?"

general take a look and there is two Irie one is just Irie and another one is Irie Carter

"tell me about their background"

"ah ha...let's see Irie Carter lives with her mother and father she also has a small sister...." "wait...tell about the other one" general cut him in mid sentence because he have a feeling the other one is the Irie he wants to know about.

"okay? so this Irie lives with her grandmother and it seems they were the refugees of the war that happened about 17 years ago... should I dig in more sir?" he asks for permission just in case.

"right! collect ever details and send it to me" and was just leaving like that

"look at him bossing around..." Peter couldn't help complaining about his big brother

"I heard you peter...I will see you at home" Arthur says giving a side eye and then leaves

presently Irie is lying unconsciously on the cold floor inside the prisons yes, Arthur was not sure at the beginning, he sensed something off about Irie but it was clear when she successfully blocked the sword. he realised she is not just anyone learning swordsmen but she got the great level of energy which is very unusual. so he has to lock her until he doesn't know her real motives.

~irie wake up we are in trouble!

Ryu pop out of nowhere inside Irie's dream where she is playing with her grandmother.

~irie you have to wake up!

"oh Ryu! look here I made this, pretty right?" 12 years old Irie shows flower crown to Ryu

~we don't have time to play they have captured us we are in trouble, please wake up

Ryu's desperate tone is bringing Irie back to reality, slowly she could feels the coldness of the floor beneath her.

Irie opens her eyes slowly, she try to reach her hand to her face as a habit but can't then she realised that her hands are tied with chain on the each sides.

"you finally up?" Arthur spoke up who has been sitting inside the chamber and watching over her for quite a while.

"oh! general where am I and why my hands are tied?" Irie looks around

"inside the palace, underground chambers"

there was an awkward silence for few minutes so general broke the ice

"I brought you here because I want you to answer some of the questions"

"wait! but why am I tied like this I am not a criminal or anything" Irie asks

"that's because we don't know what you might can do" general stands up and walk towards her getting down to her level.

"I know your little secret" general whisper to her

"what you talking about?"

"ah! you know what I am talking about or should I say 'who' I am talking about?"

"I still don't get it" Irie tried to play dumb as much as possible because she possibly couldn't let him found about Ryu at any cost.

"hm..apart from this how would you like to explain this" general pull out the small chest from her backpack where Irie has kept the savings left by her grandmother.

"general that's mine no doubt in that, my late grandma left all that to me"

"your grandmother you say, fine I will believe that since I am more interested in something else here" then he pull out the book which is the whole reason she was trying to escape in the first place.

"so basically this book explains everything about 'dragons' am I right?, what is dragon, how to tame them, their types of elements and this and that, so let me ask you are you interested in dragons?" he raises his eyebrow and looked at Irie.

"yes general I am very much interested in them" Irie forced a smiled still struggling with the chains not that she can't get free but because she is front of general and who is most likely to expose her here any moment now.

general shuts the book and stands up walking back to his seat but he didn't took it since he was looking for something else in the room, the swords.

"I see you are still learning them and you are very bad at it" general touches the buster swords

"yes...I know but I don't have anyone to teach me so.."

Irie looked down

"hmm?...tell me why you want to learn them?"

Irie looks up and answers

"I have something to protect which is very precious to me"