As Lord Gokudo said, "Today," my heart started to hammer against my chest loudly.

What did he mean by that?

Wasn't he happy that his daughter get to get married today after his request?

And then suddenly, the members of Toushi clan started to run. They couldn't bring any weapons because before entering Shinkyo, all of their weapons were taken. Only his men were equipped with weapons.

Half of them went toward the lake and half of them went to the Kuro soldiers who were around Kairo and Hana. I knew Hans, Kondo and Takagashi were there with him but those were more than twenty people advancing toward them while the rest went for the lake.

The other group of Toushi clan members advanced to the soldiers who were surrounding us. They wanted to attack us as well!

The Kuro soldiers wore their masks immediately and advanced toward them as they circled around them and they couldn't even come near us. They were stopped far distance from us. A few jumped on the lake while the rest went toward the couple.

In a second, the whole vicinity was in a turmoil as I felt my heart started to beat on my ears. I stood up and looked at them fighting. The Kuro soldiers swords cut through each one of them. They were so fast and moving quickly that the enemy fell like a bunch of ripe fruits falling on the ground.

But I saw no movements from Hana as she took off her veil and looked at her clan members with cold gazes. She looked offended...and sad.

It wasn't only her, Kairo and the others were completely composed and Hans handed Kairo two masks as all of them wore it.

The fox masks...

What was going on? I only watched with a pair of shocked and confused eyes.

Kairo wore the mask and he turned toward Hana as he made her wear it and she didn't even struggle or question. She wore it as Kairo gave him two needle swords.

In all these, Arashi stayed silent and I yelled at him, "What is happening? Why are they...they attacking us?!"

He said, "Don't worry. They can handle it pretty well."

And he yanked me toward him as I sat on my place again with a thumping heart.

"A simple mask won't be able to save your men, Prince of Wansai..." Lord Gokudo gave an evil smirk as if there was something in his sleeves.

"We will see about that..." And then Shin and Yoshi came, handing Arashi a plate full of food which contained some breads and garlics. Only garlics...

I cringed my nose as nausea hit me with the smell of garlic.

Arashi asked, "How about we eat garlic today?"

And Lord Gokudo's face became sour. He looked at him with deadly glares as I looked between them. What was going on? Was this some kind of performance?

Arashi smiled and said, "The only people will die today is your sacrificial lambs, Lord Gokudo. Because I don't keep lambs. All my men are wolves."

Lord Gokudo's smile seemed to be fading away as he looked back at the battle arena which was supposed to be a ground for marriage rituals.

Don't tell me...

This was a ritual!

That was some kind of weird bloody ritual they have...

I looked at Arashi and asked, "It's not a ritual right?"

He said, "Of course, it is not a ritual. It's a battle..."

I nodded and became unsurprisingly surprised. It was a battle in front of us and he was so casual as if he was watching a bull fight!

I said, "And you are eating garlic breads...where there is a fight..."

He nodded and said, "Don't worry, I have prepared a lot of garlic breads for them too. They will be having it once the fight is over. Isn't it Hiroshi?"

Hiroshi nodded. "Yes, your highness. We all love garlic breads, after all..."

And I blinked at them. Why were they all so casual...?

I moved my gaze at Kairo and Hana. And I saw them fighting with the Toushi clan members, their backs touched as they swiftly moved around each other. They looked as if they knew each other's movements. While Hana stabbed them giving them deep wounds, Kairo cut through them. They certainly complimented each other.

And then suddenly, a group came to attack Kairo from behind but Hana immediately went there and with a growl, she fought with them. She was so excellent in her fight that I couldn't look away from her. She was on par with the the Kuro soldiers. She flipped and cut through their throats.

And all the while she looked angry. Really angry...

I wondered why?

It seemed Lord Gokudo was a little restless as the number of his troops decreased incredibly fast and he saw Hana had joined us as well, he cursed under his breath.

Arashi just looked at the arena and then gave a smile as he said, "Well, Lord Gokudo, you know. You were wrong about one thing, my men are not my weaknesses," then he looked at him and added, "They are my strength. "

And I saw another group started to run for tha lake, but the Kuro soldiers started to run behind them to catch them.

Lord Gokudo smiled, "Maybe but even when you have so many soldiers, you won't win this battle. You don't win a battle with quantity..."

He smiled and said, "Who said I was winning the battle because of my quantity... I haven't even assigned 10% of my troops yet..."

And Lord Gokudo's brow twitched. Veins pumped on his forehead as anger could be visible on his face.

He sneered at Arashi and said, "Your arrogance will end today because the moment they jump into the lake, you all will be exposed to the poison... And then we will see if your 10% of the troops can handle it or not."

Arashi finished his garlic bread and said, "Well, I don't know about my arrogance but maybe today we will get to witness how over-confidence makes a man ruined."

He smiled at the poor old man and asked, "Did you know why did I make Shinkyo my city, Lord Gokudo?"

Lord Gokudo's brows ceased on his forehead as he only looked at Arashi with questioning gazes.

He added, "Because all the lakes and the plants we grow here are for detoxification. Unfortunately, there are a kind of fern that grows in that lake which takes poisonous substances and still survives because it is how they work."

A wide gap formed on Lord Gokudo's mouth as Arashi continued, "And you know my mother used to love foreign plants and by plants mean, every kind of plants. Whether it is toxic ones or the detoxifying ones."

Arashi leant forward and rested his chin on his palm as he said with a sigh, "Your poison will only go to waste if they jump on the lake..."

And then he looked at him and asked, "But there is no one who will tell them that. You surely wouldn't want to try yell it at them, would you?"

And there were five swords pointing at his throat from behind. Their tips glinted dangerously around his neck. One movement and he would have to sacrifice his neck.

Arashi gave a tight-lipped smile, "Oh. You wouldn't otherwise how will you negotiate with your customers without a head?"

All Lord Gokudo could do was glaring helplessly at Arashi as his hands and legs were bound by iron chains while five swords were pointing at his neck. His shout for help couldn't even reach his men since he nearly had no men left.

The ones who jumped at the lake were all captured as well and they dragged them from there while the rest were already dead. The battle only lasted about half an hour and the winner of it was already been decided.

Lord Gokudo asked, "How did you know about the poison I asked them to use?"

Arashi answered, "The colour... They wore green..."

Lord Gokudo was shocked as he said, "But it is impossible for someone to know that since the normal colour of the substance is white or no colour at all!"

Arashi released a sigh and said, "You are not the only poison master out there, Lord Gokudo. You forgot that I could be one too."

And his eyes bulged out of his sockets. He didn't have a clue that Arashi's specialty was infact poison...

Thus, this was a pretty one sided battle.

Arashi was worrying too much about nothing! Even I was worried about nothing!

At that time, I wanted to throw a garlic bread on Lord Gokudo's face for making us all riled up about nothing!

But I somehow contained myself and asked, "What is the poison?"

Arashi said, "Arsenic and another one I don't know."

Lord Gokudo grumbled, "But you still survived..."

"Yes, we did. Thanks to your daughter, Hana..." Arashi said and my head snapped at Arashi. Hana helped!?

While Lord Gokudo displayed a disappointed face, my heart jumped loudly in joy. I knew it!

She wasn't bad!
----
26th December, 22
1539
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A/n:

Well, the green colour they were wearing was Arsenic green. In Victorian era, people actually used to dye their clothes, shoes even walls with arsenic to get that beautiful yellow hued green which was poisonous.

They even used to know that the green was very dangerous yet they would still wear it and get ill.

Also, while Arsenic needs time to make someone ill, if you get too much amount at once, you will be dead.

Since Arsenic doesn't really dissolve and is a natural substance, Arashi's antidotes didn't really work. He knew it thus he ordered garlics. Because no matter what his soldiers would get a minimum amount of it (arsenic normally does not react with water in absence of air. It does not react with dry air, but when it comes in contact with moist air a layer is formed) so eating garlic would detoxify it from their bodies.

Garlics and onions have sulphur to break arsenic in non poisonous components. But I still couldn't find, if at that time they knew about it or not. XD

Fun fact: There is actually a certain kind of fern that helps in detoxifying Arsenic from water. They soak arsenic upto 80%. That's called Chinese brake fern. It is available on Asian and tropical islands and in some European countries and also in Australia.

Also, sorry if something from this story sounds surreal. It is fiction so it ought to be surreal... XD