Published at 29th of June 2021 7:00 am

Volume 4 Chapter 2: Where the Journey Takes Us (Part 4)

This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml

We soon reached the inn and devoured our food quickly. Though the food was from the countryside, it tasted better with its rustic flavouring. I had learnt my lesson from yesterday and made sure not to eat too much.

We retreated to our rooms after our hearty meal, but Larna did not follow us this time. I guessed that she was going out for a stroll around the city, but she said that she had to do some work at the government. Her schedule was really busy.

In the end, it was just me and Maria in the room and we chatted about the things we saw in town, about the academy and about other funny miscellaneous stuff.

After our long chat, Maria took a bathroom break.

I had been waiting for this. I grabbed my bad and carefully took out the stickseeds. And in the next instant, I hurled them at that annoying Ugly Bear that was sitting on Maria’s bed with a stupid proud expression. The bear was now completely covered in the stickseeds just as planned.

HAHAHA! How do you like that, you arrogant bear! Are you scared of me now? Are you?! You’re just a plushie! You had this coming, don’t mess with Katarina Claes, the brilliant villiainess!

Upon affirming that my plan was a resounding success, I raised a hand to my lips, before bursting out in my trademark villainess laugh.

I was satisfied at my successful revenge, I put the back of my hand to my mouth, breaking out into the typical laugh villainesses made.

The bear was completely oblivious to what had happened. It froze and took a while to process the situation. When it realised what had happened, it flailed its puffy arms in attempts to remove the sticksteeds while glaring at me furiously. But of course it was to no avail.

I continued my best impression of a villainess laugh until Maria came back.

When she saw the stickseed-riddled bear, Maria looked surprised.

She was shocked to see the bear covered in stickseed.

“Whatever has happened to the bear, Lady Katarina?” she asked.

“What happened to the bear, Lady Katarina?”

“Oh, it… tripped and fell onto some stickseeds,” I replied.

“Uh… it just tripped and fell onto the stickseeds.”

The angelic and pure Maria believed me and it kind of hurt my conscience, but there was no way I was going to tell her that I was serving justice on the bear.

With Maria’s help, the bear got all of the stickseeds off its body, while glaring at me with scorn whenever she looked away.

Whatever, I got the justice I deserved!

I went to sleep feeling much happier. As I tucked into bed, I started seeing the stickseeds more fondly because it proved useful against the bear.

I’m going to tell all about it to Keith.

Usually I would tell Keith about my day before going to bed. Thinking about it, there was never a day we were apart ever since he first moved in. This had never happened before.

Ah… I want to see Keith. The first thing I’ll do is apologise to you, so please come back home and listen to my stories again, Keith. There are so many things I need to tell you…

***

I had fallen asleep in a cozy and sunny area under the large tree at the Claes Mansion, having been drained by all the fishing and running all over the place.

I had been sleeping in a very cozy place, but I had been dreaming of things that happened to me a long time ago. That was when I was stuck in a tight and dark place… those days I remembered, when I was tortured so much.

But things were different now. I had a loving family and they all cherished me. I’m in a happier place now, I’m so happy, so happy that the old me would have never thought possible. Every day was a blessing. But there was still a shadow of the past lingering over me, that I would have nightmares of the past quite often. These nightmares made me think my current life was just my imagination. And in fact, I was still stuck, alone in that cold small room…

But those nightmares quickly disappeared when I saw a girl standing over me with a worried face.

“Keith… are you okay?”

There was a halo of sun rays shining around the girl, making her look like a goddess, just what the books depicted.

“…I’m okay, sister. It was just a nightmare.”

“Oh… I was worried about you because you kept mumbling and tossing about. So it was a nightmare… I should have woken you up as soon as possible! I’m really sorry, Keith!”

“It’s ok… I’m sorry that I made you worried,” I replied.

“…Ok, but I won’t let this happen next time! If you ever get a nightmare again, I’ll wake you up immediately!”

Katarina puffed up her chest to say “Ha! Just leave it to me!”

And Katarina would look at me with a smug face as if to say “Ha! Just leave it to me!”

I opened my eyes… Katarina was not there.

Ah… It was just a dream. It was just about the pass. A nice and nostalgic one…

I used to suffer from bad nightmares every night when I moved into the Claes Mansion. And everytime Katarina would act like a big sister and do her best to comfort me.

“Don’t worry, Keith! I’ll hold onto your hand,” she would say to comfort me.

Though I was happy, it still hurt how the girl I was in love with would say “I’ll hold your hand until you fall asleep!” and “I’ll sleep with you tonight!” My feelings would be all over the place.

After that, the nightmares stopped. Being with Katarina, her refreshing and bright personality filled my life with so much joy and blessings, that it wiped away all those nightmares. In fact, it had been a while since I last reminisced about the past… Was this all because I was stuck here? I was tied down, my limbs immobile and trapped in a dark space.

I was called out by a woman, who was my mother who had abandoned me. I had let my guard down and I was taken away by unfamiliar men and imprisoned here. After that I had been reunited with my half other brother who I hadn’t seen in years, we had different mothers. And my brother Thomas has been hitting me. Being stuck in the situation brought up old and distant memories, because I was in a similar situation I had been in the past.

…How long have I been here? My family…Katarina must be worried.

I missed that loving, caring and gentle family that I have been with since I was eight… and the person I loved the most. I could not stop thinking about the people who had surrounded me with more things I could ever wish for, their kindness and their love. I have always been on the receiving end, I hadn’t got the chance to repay their kindness.

Though I had been imprisoned in this room and could only lie on the floor, I was still fed occasionally. I lost track of whether I was eating breakfast or dinner, but anyways it didn’t seem like I was going to die.

But what awaits me from now onwards and what were Thomas’s plans for me… I had no idea. But I refused to die in this place, there were things I needed to do, like returning the favour to those who treated me kindly… And I wanted to be with Katarina. I needed to survive so I forced down the horrible food I was given… even if I seemed like a pathetic mutt

Though memories of my abusive childhood kept resurfacing in this dark and cold place… I could hold on as long as I thought about Katarina. Her warm smile felt like the bright sun. Those kind hands that embraced mine. All those memories of her gave me strength.

No matter how much Thomas acted violent with me, I didn’t have any strength nor the means to fight back…

Thoughts of Katarina helped me pass the time. I told myself that I will escape this horrid place one day and go back to her. Katarina kept me going, she was my strength.

Shortly after Thomas had come into the room to verbally abuse me, the door opened again. I just thought that he had returned to continue his acts of tyranny. The only other person who occasionally entered this room was just a quiet and solemn man who brought me my food.

But this time the woman I had seen when I first came to was now standing before me. She entered the room with that innocent smile she always had. She stopped in front of me and bent down to meet my eyes.

“How are you?” she asked in a way that seemed like she was talking about something trivial like the weather.

I couldn’t figure out her intentions, so I chose to just shut my mouth and glared at her in silence.

“You look pretty lively, so I guess you’re doing fine, huh?” She chuckled.

Ever since I first saw her, I found this woman a bit fishy. She looked about my age, but yet she acted like a child. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but she felt dangerous. I was scared of her, more so than Thomas who always beat me whenever he saw me.

I tried to maintain an indifferent front, trying to observe her more, and she just laughed back.

“Haha. A normal person would go a little crazy after being imprisoned, restrained and tortured. You really live up to your title as the Claes heir. Or is it because you’re already used to this because of your past?”

From what she said, this woman seemed to know everything about me, my past and basically my entire life.

“…Why are you doing this?” I questioned her.

“Haha! Well, you know…I want to see your…demise.”

“…My demise? What… what do you mean?”

“Oh, I mean what I said. I want to see you suffer from losing everything. To watch you fall from your position as the amazing heir of a Duke household… down to the bottom. To drop from your tower and into the abyss.”

“Fall… to the bottom?”

The entire time I had assumed that they kidnapped me for ransom. Now I was confused by what this woman was saying and just showed an expression of disbelief. The woman saw all this and laughed again.

“Thomas was the one who requested this from me. Then again…”

The woman had a complicated expression like she was troubled, but of course I knew that she was just faking it.

“It seems that Thomas is losing it huh? He hates those forthfront eyes of yours, how you never back down no matter how much he beats you.”

She gave an eerie smile again.

“Henceforth… Keitch Claes. You will now be my experimental subject, basically my guinea pig.”

“…Guinea… pig?”

Her disturbing words sent chills down my spine.

“That’s right, you’ll be my guinea pig for my experiments in the Dark Arts. It was very difficult for me to find a perfect one as they need to have a strong will. The old ones were destroyed after a single test, I was really troubled… but now Thomas says he is done with you. Looks like I struck gold this time, huh, so…”

“Experiments in the Dark Arts…Destroyed…?”

She said all of this with a carefree look, as if she didn’t mean any harm. I had a hard time believing her and just stared back at her with a blank look.

“I did say destroy, but nothing will happen to your body. The only thing we’ll see getting destroyed will be your mind! No harm will come to your physical body so don’t worry too much, huh,” the woman continued speaking with a smile.

“Ok then… shall we start?”

I finally moved when she said that, attempting to pull myself out of shock.

I cannot stay here any longer, it’s getting too dangerous.

I used all my strength to move… but my body didn’t move an inch. Neither could I make a sound — the words were stuck in my throat. My mouth just gaped like a fish out of water. And my eyes were stuck open, the only thing I could do was continue looking at this woman as she began chanting a weird spell.

After that, my vision went dark… and my whole existence seemed to have been engulfed by a heavy and malicious force.

“Let’s do our best, alright? Become an amazing creation for me.”

The last thing I heard was this woman’s innocent voice through the darkness and I silently yelled the name of the person I loved the most. KATARINA!!!!

***

“!”

I jumped out of my bed when I heard a scream full of pain and suffering.

Sunlight streamed into the room.

I started panicking because I didn’t recognise the place I was in. But in the next moment, I realized that this was the inn we were spending the night at.

Maria and Larna were still fast asleep in the other beds.

I must have had a nightmare because my whole body was drenched in sweat. I didn’t feel like going back to sleep so I decided to leave the room.

It was still quite early in the morning, but the residents of this town were already going about their day. I heard overlapping chatter from outside. I looked out the window to appreciate the rural sights that resembled my home from my previous life.

This scenery made me nostalgic. I left the inn for some fresh hair, still in my pajamas. The smell of the sun and grass felt refreshing and it helped soothed my nerves. I stood there for some time, enjoying the scenery that stretched beyond me.

“Katarina?”

I heard someone call me, I turned around and Geord was standing behind me.

The prince who was usually dressed neatly and perfectly did not look like his usual self now, he looked kind of messy. And this look made him look more refreshing and seductive in a way. Prince Geord never fails to live up to his reputation.

“Good morning.”

I probably didn’t look presentable right now, being in my pajamas, but I still tried to look as elegant as possible as I greeted him… But he just looked flabbergasted by me.

“Katarina… what’s with your head?”

“Eh?”

My head?

Geord gave me a stiff smile, and he slowly raised his hand up to my head.

“These things were in your hair…” Geord commented as he pulled out something from my hair.

I looked down and saw the stickseeds from yesterday’s hectic event.

Eh?! Stickseed?

I combed through my hair fervently, and indeed, the hated seeds were stuck on my head.

Why is this here…

Suddenly, the memory of how I threw the seeks on the bear yesterday rushed into my head. And he kept trying to pull them off…

“…Ah!”

Not that I’m thinking about it… where did the stickseeds stuck on that horrible bear go?”

Yesterday, Maria had offered her help to dispose of the seeds but the bear stopped her to signal that ‘I’ll handle it.” I never saw the bear throw them out, so that must mean… culprit behind the stickseeds in my hair… was that stupid bear!

Urgh! I just managed to take my revenge and it threw it back?!

It tricked me! It got me back! I let my guard down!

I stomped the ground out of frustation.

Geord just stood there with a confused look, watching my enraged expression as I stomped the ground.

After taking out my anger in the ground, Geord moved closer to pull out the stickseeds in my hair. I wanted to do it by myself it was tough because I didn’t couldn’t see where the seeds were. Plus, I was so clumsy I doubt I could get them all off. Geord was the complete opposite though, he was very observant and good with stuff like these. HIs soft and slender fingers nimbly sifted through my hair, it didn’t long for my hair to be back to normal.

“You’re good to go now, Katarina, all the seeds are gone,” Geord announced and gave some pats on my head.

“Thank you,” I was grateful to him, but his actions made my face heat up, and I didn’t know why I was acting this way.

“You’re very welcome, Katarina. Anyways… why are you out here this early in the morning?”

“Oh, uhm… I had a nightmare and woke up…”

“You had a nightmare?”

“Yes. I can’t recall what it was about… but it felt awful.”

Just a reminder about the nightmare made my body tremble. I hugged my body tightly, trying to bury those thoughts. Geord’s expression dimmed.

“…I knew this would happen, you must be very worried.”

“?”

“Though he is quite an annoying opponent, I do know that you care for him as a very important family member. I wanted to take the opportunity of this trip to strengthen our bond but… I believe now is not the time.”

“?”

I was confused with what he was going on about. Geord could see the confusion on my face and gave a lonely smile.

“And also… I finally got you to notice it, but you appeared to have forgotten all about it. Really, Katarina… well, I suppose I can’t do anything more about it, for now.”

Geord suddenly spread open his arms and pulled me into his tight embrace. I was surprised by his sudden movement, but I later realised that my trembling stopped in his broad and warm arms.

Ah, so he’s doing this to comfort me. Geord is such a nice person.

I was really blessed to know these many warm and kind people.

We stayed like this for a while… but Geord suddenly let me go.

Hmm?

I looked up and noticed that Geord didn’t let go of me, but someone had pulled back from him.

“Ah, a very good morning to both you, Prince Geord and Lady Katarine,” Sora greeted, I hadn’t noticed when he stood next to me.

“…Sora. Can’t you just let it go this time?” Larna said with a troubled look on her face.

Sora responded back with an upturned smile.

“It’s just my job, you know.”

“Is it me, but it seems like there’s something more to that,” Geord shifted his glare towards Sora.

Sora continued smiling and just replied back, “You must be mistaken, Prince Geord.”

Of course, I was completely lost with what they were talking about. But I was no longer feeling scared… instead, I was feeling kind of peckish. My stomach made a loud grumble, earning a smile from everyone. After that, I returned to my room.

~~~

I had my clothes changed and returned to the dining hall for breakfast. After finishing my meal, I turned my attention to issue concerning me right now - finding the culprit behind my stickseed incident. And of course, the culprit was ugly bear.

The bear, who couldn’t speak, tried gesturing what happened last night. He tried saying that he accidentally fell and got the stickseeds he had collected onto me. And that was definitely a lie.

Everyone was oblivious to the bear’s true nature, so they all believed its lies! But I couldn’t just go up front and claim that “It’s a lie, it’s lying to you! Why can’t you see that it did it on purpose!” Because I had used the same lie to get my revenge on the bear last night.

Anyways, the bear and I suffered from each other’s actions. But no matter how unsatisfied I was with the outcome, there was nothing I could do.

After that we boarded the carriage and departed, together with the bear.

It had been three days since we started this journey. Larna mentioned that we were nearing the kingdom’s borders around the countryside. And if we continued on, we might end up crossing it to the next country.

I was honestly surprised because I didn’t expect Keith to run this far. Was Ugly Bear really speaking the truth? Were we on the right track?

In this life and my last, I had never left the land I was born in. Of course, one reason I didn’t leave my last country was because Japan was an island in the open sea. Here, the kingdom I was reincarnated in was huge and well-developed, so I never saw the need to leave. Geord and Alan were different though. They had to leave the kingdom frequently for diplomatic matters, but most gatherings were held in our kingdom because our land was the largest.

If we really continued on, this would be the first time I left my home country. Though these foreign lands belonged to a different monarch, everyone spoke the same language and shared a similar culture too, so I didn’t expect much difference. Crossing the borders did not require a passport or documents that worked the same way. Despite so, this would still be a new experience for me and it made me really excited.

What are these countries like?

We arrived at a town that was the second closest to the kingdom’s borders, and Sora announced that he would head out to gather more information.

“I’m going too!” I gave my response excitedly.

For the whole trip Larna had been my partner. I recalled what we last talked about, and I felt that Sora’s job was a lot like a spy, just like those you’d see on film. I really wanted to see it with my own eyes.

After I said that, Geord gave a quick response,”Then, I will go with you, Katarina.”

I see… so Geord wants to see Sora in action too, huh?

But Sora quickly shot down Geord.

“Well then, Prince Geord, please do your investigation in the other direction.”

And Geord fought back with, “If that’s so, I will go with Katarina. I believe that you are capable of doing your inspection alone.”

“Even so, I am more familiar with places like this, so I can better guarantee Lady Katarina’s safety.”

“Are you sure about that? Because I cannot help but notice your malicious intentions.”

“You must be mistaken, Prince Geord. I believe that I am a better gentleman than you.”

“It’s almost amazing that you would say that. I know what you did to Katarina during that incident.” Larna didn’t notice the sparks between them and interrupted their argument (and I didn’t get why they were arguing in the first place)

“I don’t get what you all are going on about, but you are wasting time arguing here. What Sora said makes sense, he is familiar with places like this, he would be a better guide for Katarina.”

Larna’s words gave the final blow as no one protested back. Though Geord looked very unhappy with this decision.

“You get it, right? I am the one who is Katarina’s fiance,” he said, enunciating his every word carefully. He turned to me next and said, “Make sure you keep your guard up, Katarina,” repeating it incessantly.

This was getting out of hand.

“I will, really! I won’t obstruct his work and inspection! And I won’t get lost too!” I declared with all my heart, puffing up my chest and with my hands on my hips.

Geord just gave me a disappointed and hurt look.

Why though?

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