"hmm, where should I start.." Yana tried to arrange his mind

-fuuh- he let out a small breath. It's still quite cold for him.

"you said to tell you why you need to die in a place like this? hmm.. let me say..."

"...." Chanotte waited for the answer

"your commander want you to die"

!! Chanotte showed an angry looks to him.

"YOU...watched your mouth!! what do you know about commander Libhane!!"

"maybe much better than you"

"what a nonsense.....have you ever seen him? huh?!"

"nope, never"

"....are you intending to take this matter lightly?"

"no, I take this seriously"

"-fuuh- I decided listening to you..."

"I know, that's why you're not breaking your way out from here right?"

".... I'll try listen to you....go on. What do you mean by that?"

"you are chief of the king's guard. Why you need to lead this kind of exploration by your self? without any second commander or any capable person to assist you?"

"...because I'm more than enough, why would our commander need to waste more resources?"

"with one hundred new recruit soldiers? really?"

"what.... how do you know they're new recruit?" Chanotte couldn't hide his suprised expression

".....they weren't looking their surrounding. Not in archer's range attack, their formation, how they handle unexpected situation...anyone can tell that"

"just...who are you..soldier? another country's spy?"

"we will talk about that later. Should I continue?"

"....fine. You may continue"

"you're given one hundreds untrained soldier, to the unknown area, enemies, layout of the area. You even don't bother to make some plan first"

"....how.."

"-sigh- you're showed up the moment our eyes met. That's clearly showed that you did that without any consideration"

"you also decided to open war at night. If your mission was really to explore, to gain information, you will come to this village and ask about the situation first"

"yet you didn't that. The only possible thing is you already have information about this place, their people, their numbers, and a clear goal.... to annihilate them"

"....."

"and the only thing that's out of your expectation is me"

Chanotte really didn't understand. Why this man could know all their movement? their motive?, what made it worse he knew something that he didn't know. How could it be possible?

"...I don't know what to say.. it's all like you've said"

"then it will be easier from here" Yana nodded

"I'm pretty sure you already know something is missing when you got that order. I think there are several reasons for you to obey your commander, but I'll leave that for now"

"just...how far he know?" Chanotte kept wondering

"remembered what I asked to you before you fainted?"

"...about the rumors?"

"yes. Like I said, there's always a rumor started before the other race attacked the human town or residence"

"noticed that I said "it's all started with a rumor"?"

Chanotte didn't understand.

"-fuuh- I mean, you have met several cases of it. This is not the first time you encountered with other race.. and try to kill them" Yana rubbed his hands

"of course! that's why I said they're dangerous..." Chanotte realized something

"based on the rumors.. right?"

Chanotte turned his sight and stared at Yana. He couldn't say anything to express what he is thinking right now.

"what? you are the one that wanted me to tell you right?"

The room became silent for a moment

-----( Chapter 24 "How did you know?" )-----