The Wandering Samurai and his Beloved General (BL)

This battalion, though thought of as a suicide squad, appeared confident under the aid of the barrier. Four soldiers heavily guarded the blonde woman standing in the middle, her face full of impatience.

"When will this end?!" Akiko placed a hand on her hips and stomped the ground in frustration. "I knew we should have just destroyed that town!"

"Be patient, Akiko." One of the men guarding her softened his voice, but his gaze stayed sharp, scanning their surroundings. "The general told you that the town is under the protection of multiple guilds. We can't afford to earn their ire."

"It's Akiko-sama! Don't you guys respect different cultures?"

Akiko briefly rolled her eyes, muttering under her breath about how many times she had to repeat it. "Damn NPCs. Why can't they act like proper side-characters? How am I supposed to save this world if they don't treat me as the protagonist…"

She was either confident that no one would understand her, or she simply didn't care how her words would affect those around her. Though she had the appearance of an elf, her murmurs were spoken in one of the languages of the people not from this world—Japanese.

This body hadn't belonged to her. She had transmigrated.

"Hey, there's people over there!" A soldier with a sword shouted as they ran into the dome. His words were urgent, but they brought a sense of relief to the people surrounding Akiko instead.

"Is it the Silver Dragons?? Quick, ready a signal!" Akiko grabbed a nearby mage, her impatience now mixed with excitement.

But before anyone could confirm who they were, the water that reached just below their knees suddenly trembled violently.

Everyone was stunned.

"Fuck, mages—dispel it! Dispel it, hurry!"

"What the fuck, that's a lot of mana—!"

"It's an earthquake!"

Right as the last person identified the spell, the ground beneath them cracked open, a large fissure forming and aimed directly at Akiko. The water surged and splashed, dragging any soldiers who failed to find a firm foothold.

There were drownings, concussions, and body parts ripped apart as the crocodiles eagerly took advantage of the chaos.

Akiko's blood instantly drained from her face, freezing under the shock as she stared at the fissure, even though her mind screamed for her to run.

One of her guards easily hoisted her over his shoulder and leapt from tree to tree until he landed on a sturdy branch, away from the dangerous scene.

Schink—

The sharp side of a blade swiftly pressed itself to the guard's neck, drawing a bit of blood as a further warning.

"What luck! Of all the trees, why'd you jump here?!"

Haruki cried in distress.

After the information had been relayed earlier, Lanling hastily arrived next to Haruki with a grim expression on his face. He grabbed Haruki's face in panic, closely inspecting his eyes.

For what, Haruki didn't know, but he figured it had something to do with how Lanling feared him remembering his past.

"I'm okay." He comforted with a smile that turned into a grin. "My head is filled with the taste of your lips, and I can't think of anything else!"

Lanling let go in shock.

A sudden urge to continue his old habit briefly made him raise his hands, only for him to grab his robe tightly and bury his face in the crook of Haruki's neck.

"...If you can joke about that, I guess you haven't forgotten me," Lanling sighed heavily in relief.

It was a faint whisper. Haruki figured he would have missed it if it weren't for how close Lanling's lips were to his ear.

His heart pounded with both familiarity and fear, pulling Lanling into a tight embrace subconsciously, as though Lanling would disappear if he didn't hold on tightly.

"Lanling..." He wanted to say it was impossible for him to forget Lanling, but somehow, no sound came.

Lanling shook his head, his hair tickling Haruki's neck, bringing a sense of tranquility to both of their trembling hearts. "You're okay, and that's enough."

He pulled back slightly, though he remained in Haruki's arms. "Don't stay here. Go back to our tree. I'll be there in a bit."

Haruki's mind blanked under the care, while his heart melted. He grabbed Lanling's shoulders and pulled him closer, their noses almost touching. "General, shouldn't it be the other way around? Why do I feel like a wife being shielded by her husband?"

Lanling's brows twitched. For a moment, he closed his eyes, trying to restrain the blush creeping up his face. "Don't fool around. We're in the middle of a battlefield."

Haruki chuckled and was about to let him go when a hand grabbed his neck, and perfectly aligned teeth nibbled at his lower lip.

"Go back."

Lanling laced his voice with authority this time, sounding hoarse in the process.

"We've got plenty of time afterwards." He softly chuckled before pulling away from the embrace.

Lanling's eyes glinted dangerously before he stepped off the branch, heading toward a group of mages. When he looked back, he briefly spotted Haruki falling into a crouch, while holding his flushed faced.

Lanling laughed as he landed next to the mages.

"I need four mages to lend me their mana. Come down below when you're ready." He left those words behind as he descended the tree skillfully, leaving them to figure out how to fullfill his orders with full trust.

It had to be said that Lanling's soldiers knew their general too well when it came to the battlefield. Not a minute later, four mages—still looking prim and proper compared to the weary, mana-deprived soldiers—landed next to Lanling and formed a circle around him.

They stretched their hands out in a familiar motion, and blue mist began to flow from their palms.

It spread, uncertain of where to go, until Lanling opened his palms. Like a whirlpool, it was all consumed.

The winds suddenly rushed wildly as two magical circles appeared in front of him—one large and one small, rotating in opposite directions, calculating and locating their target. There was a heavy thud as the circles suddenly stopped.

It was then that enemy soldiers shouted to the dome that there were people nearby.

But it was too late.