Earlier, Seulgi had rushed into the compound, after hearing the shouts from her men without thinking about the danger to herself. It turned out that despite the fires being almost extinguished, the integrity of the structures within the compound had already been severely compromised and was beginning to crumble from the harsh fires. On her way in, Seulgi had narrowly dodged a falling beam that could have crushed her but failed to dodge the other which had fallen and struck her in its entirety on her left arm. If not for the steeled armour and leather beneath, the Captain was sure her left arm would have been crushed. Yet, there was only so much armours could do and Seulgi was certain she needed to deal with the injury herself.

The Captain received notice that she would be reporting about the incident at the Strategist’s tent late into the night. An excited smile crept into the Captain’s face and was only wiped off when she felt a sharp pain creep up along her left arm. Fortunately, she had deemed her injury as non-life threatening and would likely heal on its own as long as did not over-exert herself. The Captain knew it was dumb of her to hide her injury but pride still got the better of her and so she decided to keep mum about it.

Besides there was the risk of the Physicians forcing her to strip from her robes. This would not only be a problem now but a recurring problem in future. Seulgi wondered if she should make arrangements with her family to smuggle a family Physician in and so she did.

Making sure that the letter would sound vague enough lest it got confiscated, Seulgi then put her own seal on the wax and sent it out, along with additional instructions for the Crimson company. As Captain of the Crimson company, Seulgi would allow the brothers of the company to celebrate in whichever way they wanted that night. This was to reward their outstanding performance for their first mission. Seulgi had also instructed the messenger to make it clear to her company that she could not join the celebration because she had “military duties” to see to. The Captain then changed into a new set of robes before she headed for the Strategist’s tent. She would have to constantly remind herself to act natural about her injury.

Once Seulgi had received permission to enter the Strategist’s tent, the Captain entered without expecting to receive a bone-crushing hug from Joohyun, and that, immediately gave away her injury.

Pain shot up the entire left side of her body, a pain that was so sharp that it numbed her body. Seulgi gasped and almost dropped to the floor if not for the Strategist’s hold on her this time round.

Joohyun was terribly stunned by the reaction from her Captain. She knew immediately that the Captain must have been injured, somewhere, but where? Fear, that was like ice-cold tendrils seized her heart once again as she demanded for an answer from her Captain.

“Where are you hurt?! Don’t even try to hide it from me.”

Crippled by the pain which only intensified as the moments passed, Joohyun did not get her reply from the Captain. Tears of exasperation and anxiousness emerged from her eyes again. Joohyun was mad, so mad, that her Captain had tried to hide his injury from her. Joohyun did not even hesitate as she tried to remove the Captain’s robes but was suddenly stopped by his trembling hand.

“I will be fine… It’s just my left arm.” Seulgi said through his gritted teeth and Joohyun immediately knew he was not fine at all yet, the Captain’s grip on her did not loosen.

“You are not fine, let me look at your injury. No one will care about modesty here.” Joohyun had to insist, how could she sleep well tonight if she did not know what injury the Captain had sustained.

Joohyun could see how much in pain the Captain was but he still kept up the resistance and she realised that perhaps, this one time, that she would have to give in.

“Okay, let me just… cut off your sleeves. Please, let me take a look at it.” This was so frustrating, since a young age, Joohyun had rarely or never pleaded and yet she was doing so now.

The Captain finally relented, the strength in his grip and his body quickly ebbing away. Joohyun carefully guided the Captain to her bed, astonished to find just how light the Captain truly was.

The sight of Seulgi’s forehead beading with perspiration and his chest heaving from the pain, ached Joohyun’s heart so badly. The Strategist had to force herself to take her eyes off her Captain for a few moments to gather the things she needed to mend him.

Blunt trauma. The Strategist knew it once she had seen the entire patch of reddish purple swell on Seulgi’s slender yet muscular arm. The injury was just as bad as she had imagined and the Strategist suspected that her Captain might have suffered from a fracture which could spell a lot of trouble if she had not immobilised his arms. Seulgi had fallen to a state of semi-consciousness. Joohyun held her tears in the entire time she applied whatever was necessary to help speed up the recovery and would made a sling for the Captain later.

Ever since returning to tent, all Joohyun could think of was their meeting at night, in her tent. Yet, the meeting had turned out entirely wrong. The Strategist knew it was extremely silly but she blamed herself for not noticing the Captain’s injuries earlier. Why had she tended to other people’s injuries instead of paying attention to the Captain? Why had she not checked on her Captain first? Was it because of the watchful eyes upon them? But who was watching?

“I am sorry…” The Captain muttered as he struggled to get up.

Joohyun’s senses were on full alert upon those words from the Captain’s mouth and she placed a firm hand on the Captain’s chest.

“Stay down, I am not done with you yet.” Joohyun said gently.

What the Strategist got in return for her tender loving care was an equally tender loving gaze from the Captain, one that was so therapeutic that it made Joohyun feel immediately better.

“I promise not to hide anymore injuries from you.” The Captain said again and his right hand reached out to hold hers.

Joohyun should be putting on a frown but instead, twitched into a smile instead and she bent down to give a peck on her Captain’s cheeks.   

“Don’t even thinking about getting injured again.” Joohyun warned as she squeezed the Captain’s hands.

Seulgi nodded and kissed the back of her hand making her blush. This was really unbecoming of her and she knew it, even a simple gesture from the Captain as such was enough to make her heart flutter. Joohyun wondered what would happen if they did something more. The Strategist shook her head, surprised by how such thoughts could invade her mind when her Captain was in this state.

“What are you thinking?” Seulgi asked suddenly, making Joohyun flustered all of a sudden.

“N-Nothing.” Joohyun replied. For a moment, the Strategist was afraid that her dirty thoughts might have been exposed but she figured out this was what men usually ask