"Jane Sampson, even if youâre the National Grandmaster, youâre still only worth three points," Hibiscus Wood pleaded with the person in the tree, "If you were just a soldier, you would be worth one point. Is it worth risking your life for?"
"Whatâs wrong, you look down on one point? A single point could decide the winner you know. The loser goes without dinner!" Jane patted her belly, "At noon, I pretended to be a little fairy eating wild fruits and drinking spring water, but I donât want to play the fasting ascetic this evening."
"What! No dinner if we lose?" Mair Williams looked astonished, obviously unaware of this until Jane mentioned it.
"Who said that? The instructor or the director?" Hibiscus Woodâs expression was hardly any calmer than Mairâs.
Probably, this was the first time the three girls had ever cared so much about any single meal.
Usually, skipping one meal wouldnât kill them, and if they were really hungry, they could eat some biscuits or order takeaway.
At worst, they could still drink a glass of milk or juice.
But! Once the guard team missed a proper meal, they truly had nothing to eat! And worst of all, they were as tired as dogs in the daytime!
"For the sake of dinner, Mair and I will keep watch under your tree this afternoon! I refuse to believe you wonât come down at some point!" Mair promptly found a clean spot out of the sun and sat down, pulling Hibiscus Wood with her.
"Why not, of course I can! Itâs almost 2:30 now. To secure a dinner, I can hang in there for three hours in the tree, no problem." Jane swung her kettle, "I have water! There are peaches in the tree I can eat! Besides peaches, Iâve got other wild fruits in my pockets. With food and drink, Iâm in no hurry to come down."
After speaking, Jane found a comfortable position to lean back, and just then John Riverâs voice came through the transmitter.
"Goddess Sampton, Iâve dealt with the enemy! Where are you now? Iâll come to find you and regroup." John River asked.
"Iâm up in the tree, very safe," Jane replied with a grin.
"In the tree?" John River thought he had misheard.
"Right, down below are just Hibiscus Wood and Mair Williams, they canât get up here, which means Iâm safe. Just now, Charlie Peterson told me they all went after Benjamin Worthington. You better go help them, just make sure none of your team heads my way," Jane instructed, "Youâre capable; go fast to help them chase the second teamâs king. If the king is out, we win outright."
"Alright." John thought for a moment then replied, "I just asked Charlie Peterson, and apparently, several from the second team are accompanying Benjamin Worthington to protect him."
So John figured, even in terms of numbers, their first team couldnât lose to the second team.
After ending the communication with John, Jane shouted down to the two below, "Your king is being chased by our people, you know. You two are here, and John just now took one out, leaving only four people in your team including the king."
Jane counted with her fingers for the two below, "Our team, minus Brother Edwards and me, still has five people, you see! By numbers, weâre also set to win. Arenât you two going to provide support?"
"You think you can fool us as if we were three years old?" Mair Williams rolled her eyes at Jane, "With our combat power, the two of us gang up on you is more like it. To compete with those men, would we be reinforcing or dragging them down? Plus, your team has Charlotte Miller who barely counts. If we went, weâd probably be the ones getting taken out."
Itâs like Mair had summoned bad luck, because just after she said that, someone from the directorâs team spoke up, "First teamâs Great General is out, the second team has a total of five points."