Chapter 37: Dead man walking
Stefan’s POV
They marched me to the General’s tent like I was already a dead man walking, which, given the circumstances, felt uncomfortably accurate.
Zinnia was at the front while Lily was at the back, putting me in the middle like I was a valuable criminal who couldn’t be rough-handled yet couldn’t be allowed to escape.
Even though I didn’t know how this meeting would go, I knew I wasn’t going to die tonight. There was just something in me that was so sure about it...
However, that didn’t stop my nervousness.
I breathed through my nose when we walked inside the General’s tent.
She was inside, eating, that same deep frown carved into her face like it had been chiseled there permanently. Surprisingly, she didn’t have her dinner spread out like a ceremony which I had imagined someone of her status would be doing.
Seemed I was the only one acting spoiled around here. One part of me pointed out and another part of me rose in defense.
"Nah, they just haven’t seen someone to teach them." I said convincing myself that they would live lavishly if they knew how to.
I studied the General’s demeanor from where I stood and even frowning, even mid-meal, the woman was stunning in a way that made my brain short-circuit for half a second before survival instinct kicked back in.
Her heavy breasts filled out whatever armor she wore even sitting down, her dark hair falling loose around sharp, lethal features. Beautiful and terrifying in equal measure, which felt about right for someone everyone kept warning me about.
I found myself staring at whatever meat she was chewing through, morbid curiosity winning out over good sense. Was that actually - no. No, surely not. I glanced at the frown on her face and couldn’t help the thought crawling up my throat.
"Maybe the cock tastes bad,"I thought, biting back an actual laugh. Out loud, I’d have said something like "you’re welcome to come taste mine sometime, just don’t eat it," except my brain had the good sense to keep that one internal, for once in my life.
Her voice cut through my thoughts before I could dig myself any deeper.
"Who is the offender that dared release that slave from the dungeon I sentenced him to." She demanded loud enough to make the hair on my arms stand up.
My stomach dropped straight through the floor. She remembered. Of course she remembered, women like her didn’t forget things like that, and the second the question landed, my brain jumped straight to Jonquil - the risk she’d taken to drag me out of that tent, the consequence that had never actually landed until this exact moment.
The System chimed in immediately, quiet and flat.
[HIDDEN MISSION DISCOVERED.]
[Protect Jonquil.]
[REWARD: +100 EXP, +5 MA]
I nodded, small and immediate, barely a twitch of my head. Every mission mattered now. I had learned that lesson the hard way less than a day ago, staring down an eighteen-out-of-a-hundred Miracle Authority bar that felt like an insult.
I discreetly raised my hand and jabbed at the accept button.
[MISSION ACCEPTED.]
The General had already stopped eating. She rose sharply, every movement radiating the kind of controlled fury that made the whole tent feel smaller.
"Shield-second Lily, summon every Flower charged with overseeing the punishment dungeon. Now." She barked.
I watched Lily’s face but it was unreadable as ever, though I caught the faintest tightening at her jaw before she moved. She stood at the tent entrance, put two fingers to her lips, and let out a whistle sharp enough to cut straight through the evening air, followed by something loud and fast in that clipped beast language.
A few seconds later, three women arrived at a near-run.
Jonquil was among them.
My chest tightened at the sight of her, that same stoic, composed face walking straight into whatever storm the General was about to unleash, completely unaware I’d just accepted a quest with her name on it.
Lily peeled off to stand with the group - five women total now, all of them clearly the ones responsible for the punishment tent’s operation.
The General’s glare swept across all five of them, sharp enough to cut, and I could feel the air in the tent go thin and dangerous.
Okay, Daddy Stefan Sinclair to the rescue.
"Here I come my damsel in distress..." I chuckled lowly.
Before the General could get a single question out, I stepped forward.
"None of your Flowers took me out of that tent or dungeon as you called it," I said, loud enough to be heard, steady enough to sound like I believed it completely.
Jonquil’s eyes flicked to me, sharp and startled. I threw her the smallest, most discreet wink I could manage, hoping to whatever god ran this planet that nobody else caught it.
"If somebody needs punishing," I continued, "it’s me. I got myself out. Nobody helped."
The General’s fury didn’t cool one degree. If anything, it sharpened.
"Who are you to stand before me and speak? she bellowed, her voice cracking through the tent like a whip.
I squared my shoulders, reminding myself, fast and hard, that I had stared down furious politicians and vindictive rich husbands on Earth for a decade straight. A beast-kingdom General was just a bigger, scarier version of the same problem.
Same principle; Stay calm, stay charming. Never let them see you sweat, even when you’re absolutely sweating.
"Stefan Sinclair," I said, chest out, voice even. "I’m not from here if you haven’t noticed that I’m different. I came down to this planet to offer civilization."
She stared at me like I’d spoken gibberish, which, given the blank confusion flickering across her face, I apparently had.
"I have no need of your civilization," she said flatly, dismissive, already turning the conversation toward my execution like it was a foregone conclusion. "You shall be beheaded. You shall be sent back to wherever you came from."
I let a slow, cocky smile spread across my face despite every instinct screaming at me not to provoke an armed, furious woman holding my entire life in her hands.
"You’d really lose two of your Flowers, because you’re too archaic to embrace a little civilization?" I said.
Her eyes narrowed dangerously, but I kept going before she could interrupt, riding the momentum like I always had back home, closing a con before the mark had time to think too hard about the details.
"I have magic. Real magic. One that heals anyone who has been won over." I pointed straight at Lily, standing steady among the others. "She’s my living proof."
The General’s gaze slid slow toward Zinnia, waiting, demanding confirmation without a single word needed.
"He is the alien I told you of." Zinnia said, calm as ever, like she hadn’t just decided my entire fate with six words.