Riches and Bitches: I have a gate to an isekai and leveling-up system!

Chapter 264: Night counsel

"Tsk…"

Hidden within her private tent, Etaria bit down on the nail of her thumb.

"Don't tell me you are still thinking about that kid," Zanba asked before dropping the empty bucket to the ground and wiping the sweat off his forehead.

Filling up the bath for the princess was no easy task. Yet, as close to the only luxury she ever demanded during the campaigns, he was more than happy to keep heating the water behind the tent before hauling it inside. A task that took him an hour and that could be completed by a mere hand-servant…

And yet, here he was, an officer of a ranking higher than any commoner should ever be allowed to gain, toiling for close to an hour every day just so the princess could relax in her beloved bath.

"I just can't get this out of my head," Etaria complained, leaning forth on the simple stool she sat on and pressing her hands against her temples. "It's common knowledge that leaving corpses behind might cause plague… But why was he so insanely concerned about it?"

The princess shook her head before releasing a groan only a few other officers of her golden legion ever heard with their own ears.

"The bath is ready," Zanba announced, cleverly timing the news for when Etaria started showing signs of getting stuck on the problem.

"Right, the bath…"

Shaking her head, Etaria stood up from her stool and stretched out her arms to the side.

"Come help me," the princess requested, keeping her arms stretched out while turning her back to the man.

"It's been a while since I last saw you so demanding," Zanba jeered a little, positioning himself behind the princess's back before undoing several zips, knots, and buttons that held her outwardly simple yet elegant outfit together.

A moment of the princess' uniform rustling as it slid down her beautiful body later, and Etaria stood bare before him.

Neither of the two blushed.

Zanba was merely an officer of common roots. The fact that he was offered a noble title in exchange for all of his merits thus far didn't change the fact, especially when he ended up refusing the nobilitation.

For all sakes and purposes, their current relationship never had any right to exist.

But what grew from the seed of long years spent fighting together and went through the bloody baptism at the siege of Lunagar Fortress…

"I can't put my finger on it, but something really ticks me off about that kid," Etaria whined as she marched across the insides of the tent before climbing up a small step and then dropping into the bath.

Caring not for all the precious, warm water that splashed all over the barrel she used for a bath, Etaria closed her eyes and uttered a long purr as the warmth instantly helped her body relax and her thoughts scatter.

For but a brief moment, the comfort of the embrace of the warm water lulled Etaria's strained mind, offering it the solace she so desperately sought.

"Are you going to listen to his requests, then?" Zanba asked, grabbing the stool Etaria used just now and placing it down by the bath before sitting down and resting his back against the barrel.

"Yeah," Etaria groaned again before stretching her arms out and then throwing them out of the barrel and resting them down on its edge. "Regardless of how I feel about him, things are moving as planned… No, even better than planned."

Etaria heaved a long sigh before pulling herself up on her shoulders and resting her chest against the front edge of the barrel, leaning with her head above it and over Zanba's shoulder.

"Better than initially planned," Zanba corrected the princess, caring not for just this little would get him a death sentence back in the imperial court.

But with how the best painmakers of the empire would gather just to discuss the most creative ways of torture if the news of his relationship with the princess were to ever get out… A mere threat of death wasn't something that could move the man.

"But not better than they should after we included the parameters of the battle he had with the mercs into the equation."

Etaria bit down on her lips and cast an annoyed look at the man below. Then, as her mood shifted a little, she gathered some of the warm water in the palm of her hand…

Before dripping it right at the top of her officer's head.

"Do you always have to be in such a bad mood?" Etaria whined, only for the corners of her mouth to twitch a little when Zanba nearly jumped on his seat when the water dripped down on his head.

"Consider this my payback for how much you love to bully me," Zanba snapped back, jumping out from his stool and escaping outside the range of the princess' playful hands.

His brightened complexion quickly turned back to its cloudy state.

"I think he is trying to play us, somehow," he noted.

"Is that a bad thing?" Etaria asked back, only to roll over in the barrel and rest her back against the edge she was pressing her boobs against just a moment earlier. "It's not like we are here to do him any good. In fact, his audacity to stand against the empire…"

Etaria shook her head.

"What, am I not enough now?" Zanba appeared right before the supreme, easily moving faster than she could perceive.

This was the one and only reason why he could allow himself the attitude that would otherwise put him on the shortest trail for the high treason in the history of the empire. For a while, he wasn't a supreme like the princess…

Not one person knowing of his true accomplishment would dare to consider him to be any less than a supreme. In some circles, in fact, his status was that of the emperor's equal…

If not the old man's superior.

"I'm interested in him, but not like that," Etaria laughed out, only to reach out with her hand slightly behind her head, pressing her fingers against the cheek of her childhood friend.

A commoner who refused the imperial nobility he could receive directly from the emperor's hand. A mere officer in the golden legion of an upbringing as humble as one could imagine.

And a successor to one of the few surviving schools of ancient art of the sword.

One of the remaining seven swordmasters who, with their bodies alone, reached a realm beyond what the world deemed possible.

A realm that remained a mystery even to supremes.

"So there's no need for you to be jealous, 'key?"

Etaria grinned lightly when she felt Zanba lower his head down under as little as the slight caress of her fingers.

"I'm not jealous. I'm worried," Zanba said, his face once again taking on a darker hue. He then shook his head and bit down on his lips. "He is just too different. Too unpredictable to rest easy with him around," the officer pressed his lips together before lowering his eyes down and gracing his brain with the sights he formerly tried to avoid.

"He is too confident for…"

"My princess!" A voice from outside the tent stopped Zanba from finishing his opinion. "The imperial majesty is calling!"