I Was Reborn To Be With You

Autumn Leaves Part 2

"Your Highness?!", called Isolde who was quite surprised to see Arzoo who entered his room.

Arzoo looked embarrassed but tried to look normal, in his mind Arzoo screamed to himself with his behavior just now, " Why am I embarrassed to see Isolde wearing clothes like that, ah how stupid. Isolde is a man like me. Why after being reborn I am to have these strange feelings for Isolde".

"Duke, I heard you were injured. How are you now?", He ask Isolde to cover up the strangeness he felt.

Isolde looked stunned but then he came to his senses and told Arzoo to come in and sit down, "Just an ordinary wound, nothing serious. Just resting for 2-3 days is enough. Come on in, Your Highness, sorry this place is so frugal".

Isolde immediately cleaned the chair he had just sat on with his hands and motioned for Arzoo to sit down. But Arzoo still stood and looked around the room.

"It looks like the view from here looks good", said Arzoo who actually wanted to avoid being close to Isolde.

Arzoo walked to the window and saw the place he thought would be a good sight, which turned out to be just soldiers busy with their activities. Arzoo felt very awkward and didn't dare to look at Isolde and just stared far out the window.

"Is seeing soldiers with sweat soaking their bodies a good sight for Your Highness?" Isolde said teasing Arzoo.

Arzoo felt very embarrassed and lowered his head. As soon as Arzoo saw Isolde who was standing a few steps away from him, Arzoo's first sight he saw was Isolde's right leg which was wrapped in a bandage and a small amount of blood had stained the bandage. Arzoo was immediately shocked and immediately walked over to Isolde. Isolde was clearly shocked that Arzoo suddenly approached him until the two of them were only a step apart.

But Isolde was even more shocked because Arzoo suddenly crouched down and looked at him from below, "Is this what is called just a normal wound?".

From above, Isolde could see Arzoo's face looking at him in disbelief, "It will heal itself in a few days, Your Highness".

Isolde who tried to calm down and reassure Arzoo that his leg only suffered a minor injury had to surrender to Arzoo's behavior which directly touched his thigh and Arzoo's hand moved down to his injured right leg.

"Your Highness!", Isolde who was shocked and couldn't believe what Arzoo was doing immediately tried to pull Arzoo's body so that he stood up and didn't touch his feet.

Arzoo finally stood up and said annoyed, "Has the Duke met with a healer or physician? From what I can see the Duke didn't treat his injured properly".

"And who are the people who hurt you? They should be punished for leaving wounds on the body of a duke", continued Arzoo which made Isolde smile because of his words.

"I've met a physician but since it's a wound ftom magic, even my own body's strength will heal the wound on its own, so Your Highness doesn't have to worry," said Isolde softly.

"Hmp, then let me see for it by myself and call a healer to heal it faster", said Arzoo angrily.

"Alright, Your Highness", Isolde said give in.

"Leone! You outside?", called Isolde quite loudly.

From outside immediately someone answered the call, "Yes, General".

"Come in", said Isolde who told Leone to come in.

The bedroom door instantly opened and Leone came in and salutes to Isolde and Arzoo.

Isolde grabbed Arzoo's hand and quickly pulled Arzoo to sit on a chair while Isolde stood next to Arzoo. Arzoo had not had time to react and suddenly he was already sitting on a chair. Leone seemed to just look at nothing and stood in front of the door quietly as if nothing had happened before his eyes.

"Has a healer arrived?" Isolde asked Leone.

Arzoo was obviously surprised to hear that because all he knew was that in every military squad there was usually a healer who always participated in every mission, but from what he heard now it meant that there were no healers with Isolde's military squad.

"Currently, there are no healers who have come, only physician, General".

Arzoo himself did not bring healers from the palace because there were very few healers in the royal army and usually healers in the royal army also worked for the palace, so bringing healers to join the dragon search was not necessary other than the number of royal soldiers who joined Arzoo was only a small amount but also because it would there are healers from various dukedoms who will also join. Healer who is usually with Arzoo is currently being assigned to accompany Aria and Arzee.

"Duke, didn't you bring a healer from Arabella?", asked Arzoo to Isolde.

Isolde looked at Arzoo who was much shorter than him as Arzoo was sitting down and Isolde said quietly, "The healer from Arabella is healing the soldiers and many healers are already quite tired after the war so no one is coming here. Nor is the healer from Ronan coming here either due to exhaustion."

Arzoo fell silent and looked at Isolde who was still standing and looking at him. Seeing Arzoo staring at him, Isolde smiled and his hand subconsciously touched Arzoo's hair which made Arzoo startled. Realizing what he was doing, Isolde immediately withdrew his hand again and averted his gaze.

Isolde pretended to cough and said to Leone who was just looking down "Cough cough, Hmm. Leone, then go to the kitchen and have the kitchen put the meat in dinner tonight".

Leone had been waiting for a long time to be kicked out of Isolde's room, happily rushed out, "Okay, General".

After being alone, Isolde carefully slowly looked at Arzoo who was sitting. Arzoo sat with his head down and his ears were clearly red. Isolde saw Arzoo's reaction like that felt very disbelieving and became embarrassed too.

Isolde was about to talk to Arzoo but Arzoo immediately got up from his seat and said in a quite loud voice, "Then I'll go to my room first".

Isolde was shocked and didn't have time to answer, Arzoo immediately left Isolde's room. Arzoo came out of Isolde's room and asked the guards guarding outside to escort him to his room.

Arriving at the room, Arzoo screamed in frustration, "Aaah, I'm crazy. Really crazy".

Arzoo pounded on the pillow and finally buried his face in the pillow. Arzoo said quietly "I like him, don't I?".

Isolde who was left alone was clearly confused but he was relieved too because if Arzoo didn't go then Isolde thought that he would do something to Arzoo that he shouldn't have done.

"So cute", Isolde said quietly and a smile appeared on his lips.

It's been 2 days since Arzoo was in the barracks and for the past 2 days, Arzoo has been trying to avoid Isolde. He only met Isolde when he was in routine training and when discussing the strategy to be carried out in the search for dragons with the nobles and other troops. But if Arzoo met Isolde himself then he immediately turned to avoid him.

Isolde knew that Arzoo was avoiding him but instead of getting angry, Isolde thought what Arzoo was doing was very cute and every time he met Arzoo and Arzoo immediately turned to avoid him, Isolde smiled which made Leone feel amused by this master's behavior.

"Your Grace, are you okay?" asked Leone who saw Isolde smiling to himself after Arzoo turned away when he saw Isolde.

"Huh?", in less than a second Isolde's smiling face instantly turned cold again after hearing Leone's question.

Leone just sighed and said to himself, "Hah, this kid. Since childhood with me but never smiled like that at me but with His Highness Crown Prince he always smiled like crazy even when he was ignored like earlier".

"Your Highness", Isolde called to Arzoo who was sitting beside the sword practice.

Arzoo was immediately shocked that he was shocked to hear Isolde's voice. Arzoo's face which was full of sweat and he was about to wipe it off with a handkerchief looked red because he had just finished training in the hot sun, Arzoo who had just taken out a handkerchief had not had time to wipe his sweat when Isolde's hand suddenly came close to his face and wiped the sweat off his face that would fall into Arzoo's eyes with his slender fingers.

Arzoo was stunned and his already flushed face turned even redder. Isolde smiled and said politely, "Your Highness, sorry for my impudence".

Isolde took out his handkerchief and wiped the sweat off Arzoo's face clean. Arzoo just kept quiet and watched Isolde who was casually wiping his sweat.

After Isolde finished wiping Arzoo's sweat, he immediately stood up and said quietly, "Your Highness, I came to take you to the meeting room to make a plan since the others have all arrived".

Arzoo woke up and got up from his seat, "Ah, okay. Wait a minute, I will change my clothes first".

Isolde nodded and let Arzoo walk ahead of him and he followed behind. Arzoo initially thought that Isolde was going to the meeting room first but as he walked he felt someone following him and sure enough when he turned around Isolde was behind him following him. Isolde smiled slightly when he saw Arzoo turn to look at him.

Arzoo was confused and finally could only walk faster to his room to change clothes. Arriving at the front of the room, Arzoo finally turned around and said to Isolde quietly, "Wait here".

Isolde agreed and Arzoo quickly went into his room and changed clothes. After that, he and Isolde went to the meeting room together. Inside the meeting room there were already nobles who got assigned waiting.

At the table with the Abizer Dukedom map in the middle, Isolde sat in the chair that was at the very end as the leader of this expedition and to his right, where Arzoo was sitting. To the left of Isolde, there is Walter de Ronan, Duke Ronan's second son with his ex-wife who is now the ruler of Witch Land, Gwyneth de Aspen and Walter is the official heir of Duke Ronan. Then next to him is Alcina de Aspen who is the wife of Zephyr de Aspen, the older brother of Walter de Ronan who took his mother's last name and is also the official heir of Gwyneth de Aspen. Next to Arzoo, there was Hugo de Chase who was the eldest son of Duke Chase as well as a cousin of Arzoo. Then next to him was Nevaan de Aracely who was the second son of the leader of the Holy Land, His Holiness Beght de Aracely. In front of him was Duke Abizer's first daughter, Caily de Abizer.

Everyone had gathered so that this meeting was the first meeting where all the envoys from every dukedom and territory had arrived.

The results of this meeting are not only making plans during the expedition but also dividing the tasks. Like in his previous life, Arzoo had guessed the task of each person and because of that Arzoo found fault with his previous position and caused many shortcomings during the expedition. Arzoo remembers that at that time, he and Isolde always quarreled in making decisions and ended up choosing positions that were not suitable but this time, Arzoo and Isolde did not fight and this time Arzoo would make decisions with common sense without emotions like his previous life.

After arguing for a long time, they finally got a task based on their respective skills and abilities. It was clear that the leader and deputy were Isolde and Arzoo. Isolde herself will lead the entire division and move according to needs along with Arzoo and the light shadow or Arabella elite troops who only work under Isolde, one of the light shadows is Leone. Meanwhile, Arzoo will also work with elite troops from the royal army (Phoenix Army) who are also only obedient to Arzoo and King Akshant.

Walter de Ronan served as the leader of the 1st division where he would be in charge of leading a direct attack force who was skilled in martial arts and swordsmanship. Alcina de Aspen served as the leader of the 2nd division which led the attack force with magical powers that went directly down and cooperated with the 1st division. Hugo de Chase served as the leader of the 3rd division which led the attacking troops with heavy weapons and would cooperate with the 4th division in guarding the defense. Caily de Abizer will be in charge of leading the 4th division as a defense force guarding the barracks and managing supplies and also sending messages or signals. Nevaan de Aracely is in charge of leading the healers and physicians as well as taking care of the supply of medicine and taking care of the health problems of the soldiers.

Because the exact position of the Fire Dragon is currently unknown, the troops will join the local troops who have handled the Fire Dragon before in the village of Sterre which is a place of refuge for the people whose villages have been destroyed by the Fire Dragon. With a total of 200 people the journey started from Etta to Sterre divided into 3 teams, Team 1 at the front consisted of troops from the 1st and 4th divisions who determined the path to be taken and ensured safety during the trip and brought basic food supplies because Etta was the trading center not only of the Ashley Kingdom but also of the neighboring kingdoms which caused many bandits to rob merchants passing through several places in the deserted and forested in Abizer Dukedom. Team 2 is led by Arzoo and there is a 3rd division and also Healers and physicians. Team 2 brought supplies of weapons, other foodstuffs and medicine. Team 3 is led by Isolde and there is a division 2 that is ready to guard from behind and also ready to help other teams if there is a problem.

The team made during the trip to Sterre so as not to make disturbance and make ordinary people curious which resulted in slowing the trip. During this trip all the soldiers did not wear military uniforms but mingled with the people and pretended to be ordinary traders who went in a limited number of people. The number of soldiers in the barracks was actually more than 200 people who would join the expedition but only 200 people would walk first to Sterra while the others would wait if needed.

_

It was dark, left and right of the road was a forest which was very suitable for bandits hiding to attack passing traders but because team 1 had already passed this place and from the message it said if the bandits in this place had been cleaned then team 2 realized or not had lowered their guard to the point of not realizing that someone was targeting them.

Arzoo sat in the carriage together with Nevaan and Hugo, all three of them busy with their activities. Nevaan is the second son of His Holiness Beght de Aracely who is known to have an extraordinary history, both good and bad. In contrast to his father and older brother who only had a relationship with one woman and married her, Nevaan is known to have relationships with many people not only women but also men and is known to break off an engagement that had been arranged since he was a child until he was expelled from The Holy Land Of Aracely for violating the Holy Land's rules. But Nevaan also has an unexpected side too, he is known to take advantage of the time when he was expelled by the Holy Land by traveling around various places to help poor people who can't get treatment by using his medical abilities and also helping the lower classes by teaching them to grow crops and reading and writing to the children. This is what eventually made Nevaan known as the Wanderers, the wanderer of love and the wandering healer, depending on which side one sees Nevaan.

In a past life, Nevaan was one of the people who was not much involved in Arzoo's life because after the expedition was over, Nevaan immediately returned to the Holy Land and never met Arzoo again but on the day of coronation, Arzoo remembered that he met Artin de Aracely, Nevaan's older brother that Nevaan will be the next leader of the Holy Land so he must be in the Holy Land to prepare for the handover of leadership. At that time, Arzoo did not know what caused it because Nevaan is not the first son but he become the next leader of the Holy Land and now Arzoo will try to have a good relationship with Nevaan so that maybe later Nevaan can help him against Aron and besides by seeing Nevaan's character who cares about the community of lower classes it was clear that he was a good person and deserved to be friends.

When Arzoo was lost in thought, the sound of a horse screeching was so loud that it made the three of them who were busy with their own thoughts immediately look at each other and wary. The screams of the soldiers made the three rush out.

"There's an attack!!", shouted the soldier who made everyone alert.

Arzoo, Nevaan and Hugo who were already outside the carriage were shocked when arrows rained down from both sides of the road. Arzoo immediately ordered the soldiers who were part of the defense to hold the arrows so as not to hurt other soldiers and damage the supplies. Nevaan who had no attacks power just stood by the carriage along with healers and the other physicians, surrounded by soldiers who protect them.

Arzoo is surrounded by the Phoenix Army protecting him, but Arzoo immediately orders them to find out who the unseen attacker is and orders the messenger soldiers to send signals to Team 1 and Team 3.

Hugo was already on top of one of the carriages and brought his arrows and binoculars to track who the opponent was and started attacking them one by one. Hugo has magic power in the form of thunder and his weapon is a bow with arrows made from the power of thunder which once released can attack in large numbers but the time between attacks takes quite a long time. Because Hugo was on top, many of the arrows that attacked him were aimed at him and he had to use his bow to get rid of the arrows that were aiming at him as well as find his opponent's position.

Arzoo immediately used his magic power to create a wooden shield to protect Hugo and the other soldiers. After the shield is formed, the arrow attacks decrease but because of the dark conditions it is difficult to find opponents hiding in the forest.

"Light!! soldiers with the power of Light, give light!!", Arzoo ordered loudly.

Within seconds the warriors with the power of Light instantly made light, Arzoo gave directions for them to illuminate the side of the road. Seeing arrows no longer useful and their position will be known. The enemy archers immediately retreated away, Arzoo also knew that and he didn't give a chance.

"Hugo!! Thunder!!", Arzoo ordered.

Hugo, who had been ready since earlier, immediately launched his thunder arrow and at the same time Arzoo also threw his blue fire which was small in size but in large numbers so that it looked like the glow of fireflies at night. For those who have never seen it, they must feel that Arzoo's blue fire looks weak and even looks beautiful but is actually very deadly. Along with Hugo's thunder that slid and destroyed the row of archers on the left side of the road, Arzoo's blue fire also attacked the archers on the right side of the road but the difference was very visible if Hugo's thunder destroyed the trees as well while Arzoo's blue fire appeared just like a glimmer of light in the darkness of the forest and only attacked the archers that Arzoo saw earlier.

The fire caused by Hugo's thunder grew bigger and in order not to get bigger and damage the forest, Arzoo told Hugo to put it out.

"Hugo!! Put out the fire from your thunder!!", said Arzoo who was now beside Hugo.

Hugo who was two years younger than Arzoo and his face was still very innocent, turned to look at Arzoo with an innocent face saying, "I can't put out the fire".

Arzoo sighed and watched the fire spread. Arzoo gave the order, "Soldiers with the power of water or those who can extinguish the fire, immediately put out the fire!!".

One of the soldiers in charge of enlisting the troops screamed, “No one has the power of water, Vice General!!”.

The men in bandit outfits attacked directly from the front and rear, Arzoo give loud warning, "Protect the supplies!!".

Arzoo remembers that Nevaan's healing power comes from the power of water, "Nevaan!! can you use your water power to extinguish fire? I can't draw this much fire!!".

Nevaan looked doubtful and said "I'm not sure, but I'll try".

Water in the form of lumps gradually gathered on the fire and the water dripped like rain slowly. Arzoo also draws fire to going in side him but the different kind of fire makes him unable to pull it out too much. With the fire he absorbed, Arzoo used it again to attack the bandits who were 3 to 4 times more numerous than the number of people in team 2. Hugo couldn't use his thunder arrows anymore and ended up going down directly with his troops against the bandits using his weapon called iron claw. Arzoo also started fighting the bandits with his sword. But after successfully fighting off many bandits, Arzoo felt a pretty strong magic aura and sure enough a harmless and fragile looking wooden arrow suddenly came behind him and quickly stabbed him. Blood dripped down Arzoo's clothes and Arzoo was unconscious.

_

To Be Continued