章 14: Good at pretending

After being exhausted the entire day, Rhea had hoped to sleep well, but contrary to her expectations, she was woken up when the sky was still dark by the horses neighing outside in stable.

She shut her eyes and tried hard to block the noise, she even used a pillow to cover her head. They had to neigh themself tired at some point, she thought. However, it was the same as last night, there was no stopping for the rest of the night.

The horses were bothering her because of her sharp sense of hearing, despite the stable being a bit far from the main house, it still got to her like an ear piercing cry.

Early in the morning, Rhea got up from bed with dark circles. Once again she firmly swore that before she left, she would take one of the horses with her and make it race like hell had let loose!

When Rhea got up, she found Jurian had already changed into another set of black attire with his raven hair slightly damp. He causally straightened out his clothes before walking over and standing before the bed.

He took out a small dagger from his inner pocket, then swiftly cut his palm to draw blood, few drops of red blood dripped on the white bedspread.

Rhea raised an eyebrow after seeing his actions, "You're still thinking about tricking the old granny. You treat her well, you're still acting like her real grandson, when do you plan to let the real Jurian free?"

Jurian ignored her teasing and said indifferently, "It's done. Let's go and get breakfast, there are no servants in the general's house, if you're hungry, either you go out to eat or you cook for yourself. Stop wasting your breath and get off the bed."

Rhea had already heard people in the capital talk about how the general had no servants nor any personal guards in his house. Rumors had it that he killed them all in his moment of rage, due to that, no one wanted to work for him. Hence, he lived with only a few of his family members, and also had an ordinary house. So she wasn't surprised at the imposter's words.

She pursued her lips, "When are you taking me to get the treasure you stole?" This was her own business at the moment.

"I'll take you after I go and check on the soldiers in the camp." He said as he used a cloth to wipe his damp hair then walked out of the room.

Rhea nodded as she watched his retreating back. Her heart suddenly had a funny feeling as he went out of her sight. Though she couldn't say why. There wasn't even time to ponder on it before the grandma walked in with a young girl by her side. She beamed and rubbed Rhea's face,

"My grand-daughter-in-law must have missed home so much. I brought you a maid to keep you company in the house while Jurian is away. You can ask her for anything, she will be there to help you."

The young girl the granny brought who looked to be no more than sixteen years bowed to Rhea, "Good morning, my lady. My name is Mielle and I'll be your personal maid." She smiled, "I've prepared your bath, please come with me."

Since Rhea was going to leave after getting the secret treasure from the serpent anyway, she didn't feel like correcting the granny nor refusing to have a personal maid for a change. She nodded and made a sound in agreement before she followed the girl out and looked back when closing the door. She caught a glimpse of the old woman leaning on the bed, one hand feeling the bedding while she brought her nose closer to smell it.

Rhea felt nauseated and embarrassed by the sight, she promptly closed the door and quickly walked away from the room.

Her stomach made a rumbling sound as she followed the girl, she wasn't even given proper food since yesterday, but a bland and unappetising meal that was nothing like the sweet red bean cake that imposter had given her the other day, she unexpectedly asked, "Mielle, what do people here usually eat?"

Mielle didn't expect Rhea would take the initiative to talk to her, but she replied, "The people here are mostly vegetarians, we eat noodles the most in the border town. But..."

Vegetarians?! Rhea didn't hear the rest of what Mielle was saying as she looked on in disbelief. How was she going to survive in a place like this? Was that the reason she was given some bland noodles without meat yesterday?

Unbelievable! The more reasons she had to leave this place as soon as possible.

---

After taking a bath with the help of Mielle, Rhea was given another bowl of bland noodles for breakfast, she forced herself to eat it while crying internally. 'Good heavens, I will die before i get the chance to become rich!'

Not long after breakfast, Jurian prepared to head to the soldiers camp, as promised he also brought Rhea with him.

The old woman was clearly much reassured after confirming that Rhea and her grandson had done the deed. She didn't fuss too much before letting the two go. Perhaps in grandma Lila's eyes, her chaste decided her fate. Whoever it was given to would also be given her fate.

For a moment, Rhea couldn't tell if it was bad or good that the serpent demon was possessing the general's body now...

Rhea and Jurian went to the soldiers camp together. She followed behind him as he acted like the general and inspected the soldiers training while he gave them instructions. She couldn't help but think again that he was really good at acting. For how long had he been pretending? She wondered.

After they were done, they didn't take the carriage and headed to the place he'd hidden the stolen treasure. They walked into a forest, the imposter was twisting and turning routes to wind their way out of the bushes.

Rhea had been carefully memorizing their route Incase if he tried to trick her, but when they reached the end of the forest, she realized this path didn't take them out of the town. It actually led to a river behind the town.

The source of the river was precisely the very river that flushed her out from within that forest on that fateful day.

Rhea stood on the shore as she watched Jurian find a boat by the riverside with a movement that suggested he had done it before. He then called out to her,

"Come, get on."

Rhea looked at the flowing river which stretched as far as the eye could see. Then she looked at the water sloshing over the boat he stood on. She naturally loathed rivers right from childhood. A few days ago she'd felt like she was being burned by fire within, which was the reason she'd slipped headfirst into the water, but now looking at such a large river...

She didn't have any powers that could help her, and she didn't know how to swim. What if she fell inside and drowned to death?

Rhea took a deep breath. Right when she was mentally readying herself, she saw a hand extended to her. Looking up, she saw the handsome angel who was standing on the boat looking at her. Even though his expression was still cold, the hand he reached out to help her was warm.

Rhea stared for awhile, in the end she took his hand, with some force, he pulled her onto the boat. He then shook off her hand to paddle the boat with the paddle stick.

Not a single moment was hesitant. A demon serpent that ignored her yet helped her. He really had a strange temper...

After he paddled the boat through a narrowed river that leads into a dense forest for almost an hour. Rhea saw a vertical cliff in the distance. Under the cliff was a dark hidden cave. If it wasn't for Jurian paddling the boat towards the cave entrance, Rhea never would have been able to discover it.

"You are really smart to pick such a place to hide your stolen treasure." She muttered.

Rhea took a step, intending to cross from the boat into the cave. However, she suddenly felt a wave of heat come from the cave, her feet in midair, was blocked by an invisible heated wall. Before she knew it, fire balls blew out from the cave, but Rhea was quick to dodge it. She then angrily turned her head to look at Jurian,

"Are you crazy, I would have gotten burned by your fire barrier. Bring the barrier down!"

Rhea wanted to snap at him again when he didn't move, but she stopped when she noticed his complexion was slightly off. She furrowed her brows and slightly sized him up. His lips were pale, and his eyes were slowly becoming bloodshot. It seemed like his body was in discomfort being here, but his expression hadn't changed at all, it was as cold as before, it was like he wasn't the least bit concerned about his body. Even when it seemed like his body was in pain due to the fire barrier, he didn't care at all.

"What's wrong with you?" She asked. But he didn't answer and asked, "You can't enter the cave?" He also furrowed his brows as if in wonderment, "Try again." He urged her again.

Rhea listened to him, she lifted her hand and placed it flat on the barrier, but this time, an invisible force pushed back their boat a bit of a distance, before another fire ball blew out like before. She quickly dodged it again.

Jurian's mouth pressed into thin line, his expression turned grave, "Can't you use your ice? Try your cold blood..."

Rhea was somewhat angry at his words, she turned her head to glare at him, "You set up the fire barrier with your demonic powers, can't you just bring it down yourself or are you planning to burn me alive to get rid of me?"

Jurian was silent for a moment, then said, "Your ice spikes did something to my body, I currently don't have the power to bring it down."

After all that work...he also didn't have any magic! But then it seemed right after thinking about it. Otherwise why else would he fight her last night with martial arts. Knowing this, Rhea slightly relaxed and decided to stop misleading him. She shrugged,

"What a coincidence, your venom flushed away my inner snow flurry, I also don't possess the ice power anymore."

The two looked at each other in dismay.

Rhea had her head in her hands and crouched down, "Why is getting rich so hard? I just wanted to get a house for myself and my foster mother."

The boat stayed at the cave entrance for awhile, then she felt the air move all around her. It was Jurian, he was paddling the boat away from the cave. His face had paled to a shadow of his former self, yet his voice was as steady as ever,

"There is only one solution left now; wait for some more days until we find a way to open it, maybe we can return again."

Rhea, who was squatting down, looked up at him for awhile, then said, "I've been wanting to ask you before...are you sick? You don't look normal, even your complexion."

Jurian finally turned around to shoot her a look, "No, I'm fine."

Even though he denied it, Rhea didn't believe him at all. However his tone was steady, if she were to close her eyes, she would probably believe him.

But since he was trying so hard to put up a brave front, then she would pretend like her eyes were closed. Right next to her just happened to be an imposter she met by chance, she had no viewpoint of him to be sincere and she would like to leave this border town in one piece. Rhea thought, not knowing not everything one hoped for would never happen the exact way one wanted.