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.
Also, this man couldn’t make up a believable lie at all. Even though he himself had officially denounced that his uncle had anything to do with the demon’s summoning and even made him out to be his savior, so that other people would never find out the truth and his maternal family would not have to live with this knowledge, he himself knew well enough what the truth was.
Agur Suhi might have been able to clear up some of his confusion but he never would have made him start assuming something that he hadn’t already thought before. Thus, it made no sense that he would have refused to speak up in the first place if whatever clue he had had would just affirm their original suspicions.
In turn, this meant that something else had to be going on. Something that Susha Unhuor was unwilling to tell him. Jusha Lale pondered whether he should ask him again to make sure of it but finally, he kept quiet.
No, Susha Unhuor probably wouldn’t say it. No matter what it was, he seemed to be of the impression that it was best that he didn’t know. Actually, that kind of refusal only made him want to know more. Since he couldn’t find out from the zhireng, there was only one other person that he could ask and that was Agur Suhi himself. But anyway, now was not the time. He would try to find out when this was over.
"So it was like that after all." There was a faint smile on his lips when he pretended to go along. He curbed it hurriedly to make sure that Susha Unhuor wouldn’t catch onto the fact that he knew and then motioned down. "In that case, we should indeed go. You still want to talk to the high priest, don’t you?"
Susha Unhuor nodded and then followed him down the hill. "Speaking to him is not as important anymore but I still think that it can’t hurt to do so. Maybe there is some small detail that he noticed. Priests are often very observant when it comes to this kind of thing. In the past, they have often been able to give me information that nobody else noticed. It might not look like much but information is precisely the one thing that a zhireng needs the most. We can fight with the powers we were given but we do need to know what we are up against to prepare."
"I see. Well, we shouldn’t lose any more time."
The two of them reached the foot of the hill, got onto the horses, and then continued on their way to the capital city En. They made haste and thus already saw the gates after just two hours.
Susha Unhuor’s gaze wandered over the wall and the bit of the buildings that he could see from behind them. He had actually never been to En. He had seen many capital cities and he had seen many towns and cities in Alo but he had never been here. Not in his time when he was doing tasks as a zhireng, and not in his time off travel afterward when he wanted to put down his weapon and never engage in the fight against the demons again. Now, he came here for the first time, having broken the promise he gave himself, and even being accompanied by Alo’s king. It was a little curious.
He sighed lightly and then followed Jusha Lale and his two guards into the city.
The dan turned around and then motioned up ahead to a building in the distance. "The high priest should be in the temple not far from the palace. Let us go there directly."
Susha Unhuor lightly furrowed his brows. "I’m not quite sure if you should get close. Since your uncle …" He hesitated for a moment and then sighed. Thankfully, he had gone with an explanation that worked both ways. "Since he was targeting you, it could be that the demon will still target you even now that he is dead. I’ve seen things like this happen before. So it would be best if you stayed as far away from the palace as you can. Coming so close definitely isn’t a good idea."
Jusha Lale gave a faint smile. "Don’t worry. As soon as we have met the high priest, I will return to the city with Shunche and Chomong."
Susha Unhuor sighed once again. Unfortunately, it seemed that he would not be able to make the young dan reconsider. "Very well. Better guard yourself though. We would not want to draw out the demon before we are prepared to deal with it."
"Do not worry. I will be careful."
The group continued on their way and soon reached the gates of the temple.
Susha Unhuor looked up, taking in the carvings on the metal gates, as well as the spire atop the building and the almost floor-length windows that decorated all sides of the building. Obviously, this temple was quite important in En.
Jusha Lale and his guards already dismounted and walked to the front of the gate. Shunche rushed forward and opened it for the dan while Susha Unhuor finally got off his horse as well and followed them. He still looked around though.
This kind of temple had a bit of power on its own. Most likely, he didn’t need to worry about Jusha Lale’s safety while they were in there. When he left though … that would be a different matter altogether. He definitely had to pay attention to that when the time came.
The guards closed the door behind them and Jusha Lale walked toward one of the inner rooms. When they reached the room right in the center of the temple, he stopped at the door. "This is the place where the high priest will be. I don’t know …" He gave Susha Unhuor a searching gaze. From what he knew, even though the zhireng had been blessed by the gods, not all of them were necessarily on good terms with the priests that saw themselves as somewhat of a messenger for these gods. He didn’t know what Susha Unhuor’s thoughts on that were.
The zhireng gave a faint smile. "Don’t worry. I know how to behave in front of other people. No matter what my personal thoughts are, I wouldn’t make trouble. And anyway, didn’t I tell you that priests have helped me before? I don’t know if they are legitimately messengers of the gods but they are definitely a force to be reckoned with. I will give them that and I will give them the same respect that any other person will receive from me."
Jusha Lale nodded and then opened the door, making the sound of low singing spill out.
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