The Seat of My Heart

9 The Goddess of Hope

Susha Unhuor immediately left the town and then followed Chomong down the road. It didn't take long for him to spot the pavilion on top of the hill and the person that was waiting up there. When he and Chomong reached the place where Shunche was waiting with the two horses, Susha Unhuor looked up, waiting for Jusha Lale to come down. To his surprise, the dan didn't move at all.

Susha Unhuor raised his brows and then leaned closer to Shunche. "Are we still waiting for something?"

The guard glanced up at his king and then shook his head. "The dan didn't say anything." Also, he did not dare to guess his king's mind. If the king wanted to leave, he would say so. Since he was still standing there, there should be something he first wanted to do.

Susha Unhuor continued to sit on the horse, feeling like they were wasting time. Since they had the information, they should just leave. After a moment, he sighed. Most likely, this was exactly the problem: The one with the information was him. Jusha Lale did not know and since he wasn't moving, that might indicate that he wanted to know.

Now what? He had just said that it might not be necessary to inform Jusha Lale and he still thought that it would be better not to inform him. In this case, should he really go up there and tell him? He didn't want to do that. Even if he disagreed with what Agur Suhi had done, it really was too late now.

What should he do? Lie to the king? He could definitely do that. But he would need a lie that was believable. In this situation, something like that might not be easy to come up with. Especially since Jusha Lale was too smart to easily believe him.

Finally, he sighed and got off the horse, walking up the hill. He stepped below the eaves of the pavilion and turned to look at the city just like Jusha Lale. "What are we waiting for? Shouldn't we meet with the high priest as soon as possible?"

"We probably should. I would like to first hear what Agur Suhi said though. I figured that this might be the best place for that since nobody is around to overhear something that should stay hidden and we are still far enough away from the capital city so the demon won't make any trouble."

Susha Unhuor nodded slowly, feeling a little uncomfortable. "The idea isn't bad. To be honest, there isn't much to say though. He said that our initial guess was probably right after all."

Jusha Lale turned to look at him and raised his brows. "That my uncle wanted the throne? Why didn't he say so sooner?"

Susha Unhuor took a deep breath and sighed. The stuffy feeling in his chest did not want to go away though. "Well, your uncle was his best friend. I guess it's just that he did not want to speak badly of him. Especially now that he is dead and can't even defend himself.

"Thinking about it like that, it also isn't easy for him. There are those personal feelings involved, maybe he also feels responsible for not stopping this sooner, and then there might be fear regarding what others might think of his involvement if this came to light. It is understandable when looking at it that way. I just wish he had changed his mind sooner. Speaking of which ... your acting must've been pretty good. He was very apologetic about not saying something sooner."

Jusha Lale gave a faint hum. His acting skills probably weren't that bad. As the king, he often couldn't show his true thoughts on a matter immediately. On the other hand, the zhireng probably weren't like that. At the very least, Susha Unhuor wasn't. His acting ... it was horrible.

Despite being quite straightforward usually, he suddenly couldn't look him in the eye and the way he held himself was tensed. His chin was tilted upward and his jaw locked. And if he needed any other hint, then the way his fingers were twitching slightly as if he wanted to grab onto something but couldn't find anything would have given him away at the very latest.