The choice

*To my readers I'm editing and releasing chapters at the same time. I just wanted to let you know I'm sorry if you read a chapter and it doesn't seem quite ready just yet. I will edit and fix it in due time**

The general then signalled for the next course to be brought out. The plates with our soups were taken away and the main course was brought out.

Multiple plates with several dishes were placed in front of us. Observing each dish I found my mouth watering the moment I'd been waiting for finally arrived. A bowl of brown rice, plate with an assortment of meats, and others with all kinds of different pickled vegetables. Then something caught my eye in plate of meats and some of the vegtable bowls. I saw a black object in each of the plates that stuck out from the rest of the food. Looking closer to see what they were I then saw what was unmistakebly a leg.

Was that an insect?! I aksed myself in disbelief. I took a spoon poked the one that was in the plate of meats. It looked like a cricket and a really big one at that. I suddenly felt sick. How disgusting. Considering the insects were in several of my plates I can only assume they were intentionally placed by someone.

'Who could have done this?' I thought as I looked around. Everyone else had begun to eat and didn't seem to have any issues at all with their food, so it was just me. Out of all of them it was Rina who had a starnge experession. Although, she was looking at her own food, from her side profile I could see she was grinning oddly. She then glanced my way for a moment with an amused smirk, confirming my suspicions. Of course it had to be her.

She was also the one who'd ordered to have me served rotten food during my confinement. She was the one currently in charge of organizing and choosing the meals to be prepared in the kitchen after I was removed from the position.

She continued to smile childishly at me. This was all very entertaining for her I presume. Since she clearly wasn't getting any entertainment from the General. Out of the other wives she was only one who couldn't get the Lord's attention. I noticed her several times awkwardly trying to pitch into their conversation and failing.

Ayan may have been the least favoured wife but Rina was a close second. In the two years that the harem had been started she had been the one to receive the least amount of attention from the General before Ayan officially took the spot.

So I suppose she had to resort to tricks like this to keep herself from boredom, that.... and she was probably doing this to Ayan as she had been quite mean to her.

If I were the real Ayan I probably would have screamed at the sight of the insects and complained to the General immediately. Either that or she would attacked Rina on the spot. That's probably what she wanted me to do,make a scene either way. She had probably also found a way to cover her tracks and not look like the culprit if I told on her anyway.

If that was the case then I didn't want to make a fuss about it. In fact I had a simple way to resolve this issue. Rina seems to have forgotten I'm sitting right next to her. The general was still talking to the other three wives, and the wives were fully invested in him not paying attention to us at all.

Once I was sure their eyes weren't on me I brought my spoon back into one the vegetable bowls slowly lifted a bug. Rina was still grinning amusedly at me from her side profile but would occasionally turn to look at the general so she didn't seem too suspicious. In that moment, sure that no one was looking at me, I then flicked the bug in the spoon towards Rina.

It landed right on her chest, right in the cleavage of the dress she wore. I then quickly put the spoon down and pretended to focus on something else.

Rina immediately looked down to see what it was that had landed on her. Seeing it was the bug she immediately screamed and smack her arms around hysterically. However, her outburst took a dramatic turn. She was freaking out so much that she knocked over the plates in front of her but as jerked around she came over to my side and knocked my plates over as well. I quickly pushed away from my sitting cushion and moved back before the knocked over food would spill on me.

My eyes widened at the sudden turn this all took. I knew Rina was going to freak out, I just didn't think it would be this dramatic. This is was turning out even better than I thought.

"Get it off me!" She screamed out.

"Rina what's going on?!" A deep voice demanded. It was the General.

He and the other wives were all staring at Rina wondering what had happened. Rina stopped jumping around as if suddenly realizing where she was. The bug was gone from her chest, no doubt from all the thrashing around she was doing. "My Lord... " she started, her cheeks turning red from embarrassment. She appeared to be at a loss for words. She turned to look at me for a moment. "... there was an insect..."

"An insect?" The General repeated confused.

She bowed her head low from where she was. "An insect suddenly landed on me and I panicked. I apologize for the mess I have made and the disruption of our dinner my Lord." She burst out in one go.

"All this over an insect?" He asked as he looked at the mess of the plates of both Rina and I. The other wives laughed at the situation.

"I'm sorry, my Lord." Rina's head remained low, I noticed her body was slightly shaking. She must have been really embarrassed.

From the expression on his face I could tell the General was still confused by the situation as he appeared to still have questions. Then his eyes landed on me as if he was suspicious of me. I looked away from him nervously. I hoped he wouldn't say anything to me. There was a moment of silence.

"Learn to control how you react to things Rina." Was all he ended up saying.

"Yes, my Lord." She slowly responded.

He then ordered for the servants to clean up the mess and bring out new dishes for us.

The servants were surprisingly fast, before long Rina and I were once again seated at the table with a replacement meal.

Rina began to cast death glares at me but other than that the rest of the dinner continued without any issues. And I got to enjoy my food which I'd been looking forward to enjoying.

With the final dish served dinner finally came to end. I had survived my first dinner with them. I let out a sigh of relief as I couldn't wait to get back to my house. I planned to take a cup of tea with Yema and Kaylee before going to bed. I knew Kaylee was going to be bombarding me with questions about how the dinner was.

"Maris and Laika you can go and wait for me in the sitting room." The general told the two allowing them to stay the night in the main house with him.

"Yes, my Lord." The excitedly said as they got up to leave the room.

Samira who had been doing her best all night to also get the General's attention looked upset that she hadn't been chosen to stay with him as well. Samira, Rina and I then got up to take our leave and head for our individual houses.

"Ayan, Rina stay for a moment." The General then spoke up. "I'd like to have a word with you two."

I froze for a moment. Sh*t. He probably knew it was me who threw the bug isn't it? Was that what he wanted to talk about? Just when I thought I was safe and could safely retire for the day.

Rina and I turned back to face the general." Yes, my Lord." We both responded as we walked back to the table. Samira looked back at us confused wondering why we were being called back but then continued to make her way out.

We were about to sit in our original positions at the table when the General stopped us. "You can sit closer to me." He told us.

I went to sit where Maris had been sitting next to him and Rina went to the other side of the table where Laika had been sitting.

The General sat there not saying anything for a moment creating an awkward silence amongst the 3 of us. He then brought his arms up and folded them across his chest, an action which made me uncomfortable, as I didn't know where to look now. The robe which he wore was wrapped around his body in such a way that revealed a window to his large chest. With his arms folded it only drew more attention to that area.

I looked across the table to where Rina was sitting she seemed to be equally as nervous as me if not more. Her face was bright red now perhaps she was excited to be sitting next to the general. I'm assuming she didn't get to sit close to the general often. She noticed my gaze on her as she looked up to meet my eyes. Then a snarky grin appeared on her face.