Chapter 39: Chapter 39

I woke up in a very uncomfortable bed of hay covered by animal felts. Nonetheless, I was still surprised that I was able to sleep. I was even drooling.

I only woke up when someone let out a horrified scream outside of the tent that I was staying. “THE CHIEF HAS BEEN STABBED!” I heard a guy say and a few footsteps were heard as they used in panic.

I let out an irritated sigh and rolled over to continue to sleep. So the chief has been stabbed. Apply a bandage on it! No need to announce it. This is the very reason why tw*tt*er was invented in my world. To avoid these attention seeking-

“AND THE CHALICE IS MISSING!

I blinked sleepily and turned my gaze to the direction of the voice. It was still too early that the sun wasn’t even up yet. But something about the announcement prodded me awake. It couldn’t be, right? I was probably hearing things. For years it has been in this place. No way would-

“I REPEAT. THE CHALICE IS MISSING!”

“Bloody hell!” I yelled and scrambled to my feet and tripped. I fell on the carpet on the floor. Wait no. It wasn’t a carpet. It was Custard.

‘MASTER, THE CHALICE!’ Custard said urgently.

“I know!” I yelled. Soon, Custard and I were racing towards the beaded covers of the hut. Once I was outside, I let out a horrified scream and pointed at the faces of the princes. “WHAT ARE THOSE!?” I pointed at the dark circles under the princes's eyes.

Ren simply yawned and rubbed his eyes while Nate looked alarmed and covered his face with his hands. “DON'T LOOK AT ME! I HAVE BECOME HIDEOUS.”

“It looks really bad!” I gasped and grimaced as I watched their handsome faces being plagued by obvious signs of stress. I covered my eyes to shield myself from the reality that princes don’t always have perfect skin.

“I hate to disrupt this VERY IMPORTANT conversation that you two are having right now to point out that the CHALICE is missing.”

“THE CHALICE IS MISSING!” I screamed and attempted to grab Ace’s collar, but then I remembered that they weren’t wearing anything for a top. It was all bare and naked chest that I paused midway as I stared at the abs. I suddenly slapped my face to stop myself from staring. “Let’s go!”

I suddenly ran to where the crowd was gathered and paused. I looked back towards the princes and pointed at the people in front of us. They were all waiting outside of a huge hut that I assume is owned by the chief.

“How are we supposed to get past them?” I whispered to them. The princes exchanged knowing glances before looking back at me with an evil grin plastered on their lips. I gulped.

“Oh we know of a way.” Ren says and he was looking at Custard and patted his head briefly before heading towards me. “Rose? It’s finally your time to shine. How about you do a little bit of lie for us, goddess?”

I looked at Ren and placed both hands on his shoulders. “That is a brilliant idea. Unfortunately, lying is bad.” I gave him a disappointed look. “Shame on you.”

“But you do it all the time!”

“Hey!” I pointed a finger at him. “I’ll have you know that I am an honest liar!”

“What does that even mean?”

“It means…” I placed a hand over my heart and stared into Ren’s eyes. “..That I put a lot of effort into lying and when I do lie, I honestly do it with all my heart and full of emotions that it makes you feel that I am telling the truth.” I smiled peacefully as soon as the words left my mouth as if I just gifted them a bit of my wisdom.

“That just means that you are the heavy liar.” Ace pointed out.

“Do you want me to lie or not!?” I gave him a pointed look. Ace looked like he was ready to argue but Nate placed a hand on his shoulder. When Ace turned to look at him, he simply made a silent gesture by placing a finger over his lips.

“That’s nice, Rose. So can you honestly lie for us? Please?” Nate said sweetly.

I pointed at Nate and looked at Ace. “See? That is how you do it. Ask nicely.” I said and looked at Nate. “And thank you, Prince Nate. I have to admit that your eyebags are not that big anymore.” I smiled, making Nate cover his face again when I mentioned his dark circles. I crossed my arms over my chest as I studied them one by one. “You guys follow my lead. And no side comments! Need to focus and stay into character.” I flipped my hair over my shoulder and let out a yelp when my hands were caught in a tangle of knots in my hair. I smiled sheepishly at them when I saw the dead look in their eyes. “Give me a few seconds and I promise to be in character.”

Nate was shaking his head, Ren and covering his mouth to hide his expression, and Ace pinched the bridge of his nose as I struggled to untie the knot in my hair.

***

“The goddess is here! Step away, unimportant side characters, and let me through!” I yelled loudly while sitting on Custard’s back. My familiar backed me up by letting out a loud howl as I flipped my new and neatly braided hair adorned with flowers behind me.

“The Goddess has arrived to bless us with her presence! Move aside!” Just as I suspected, the moment that they saw me, they instantly parted to make room for me to walk through.

I snapped my fingers and looked behind me at the princes, who were now my acting servants. Ace rolled his eyes as he moved ahead, while Ren and Nate were walking on either side of me as guards. We started to move and I raised my chin up proudly.

As we stood in front of the hut, Fical suddenly came out, his eyes were red - probably from crying - but he faced us all with an emotionless expression. “Goddess, what brings you here?” He asked me after bowing.

I waved my hands from side to side until I gracefully put a finger to my chin and balanced my elbow with a finger from my other hand. “I, the goddess of honestly, have come upon hearing the grave news that your father has passed away.” At that moment I saw Ace slapping both hands on his face while Nate turned around in embarrassment. Ren leaned in to whisper to me, “His father is just wounded and not dead.”

Oops. My bad.

“Goddess...Is my father dying!?” Fical’s face remained expressionless but you can hear the hurt in his voice. Ace, Ren, Nate, and even Custard were all giving me looks that was making me feel bad.

I bit my lips and thought of a way to get me out of this mess. “N-NO! The spirits are watching over him!” I lied. “And...that is why I was called here to...see your father for me to confirm if my divine magic can heal him.” At this, I made some graceful hand gestures by circling and waving them around me.

‘Master, you waving your hands like that makes you look silly.’

‘Hush, my child. I am trying to get into character.’

“Is that true, goddess? Then please, come in.” Fical suddenly moved back and opened the beaded curtain of the hut. I nodded gratefully at him before Custard and I entered the hut, followed by the princes. Upon entering, I saw the chief laying on his back on a thick mattress-like material. I got down from Custard’s back and headed towards the chief’s side. There were two people, a girl and a boy, scurrying around his sleeping body as they grinded some sort of medicine for him. When they saw me, they immediately stood on their feet to greet me. “Goddess, what brings you here?” The girl asked me.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Some citrus and green tea leaves to help stop the wound from getting infection.” She said and pointed to the side of the chief where I saw a patch of blood on it.

“I see.”

“The Goddess is here to see if she can use her divine powers to heal my father.” I was sweating a bit at Fical’s confident proclamation about my ability. I was even thinking about fainting from nervousness especially when the two left

“Well go ahead, goddess. Don’t be shy to unleash your full potential.” Ace grinned. Clearly he was enjoying my current predicament. I simply ignored him as I walked to the side of the chief and stared.

“So...any chance you might know who did this? And why?” I asked Fical.

“No.”

“What about the chalice?” Ace asked. “Do you have any idea why they would have taken it?”

“It’s just a cup, isn’t it? Though my father does seem like he holds it very dearly. Why? Why do you guys sound so interested in the cup?” Fical gave them a suspicious glance.

“They are my servants so you can trust them. But watch out for the guy with black hair. He has a habit of murdering people with his eyes. See? He is doing it now.” I pointed at PRINCE Ace who was glowering at me.

“How dare you glare at the Goddess!?’ Fical yelled at Ace and stood in front of me to cover me from the elf prince’s gaze. I moved my head to peak at Ace and snickered at him.

Serves him right.

Ace started to move forward but Ren stopped him by blocking him with his arm. “Ace, don’t start.”

“It’s PRINCE!” He yelled at Ren. “And one time. Just one time, let me hit her.” Ace gritted his teeth in frustration.

I tapped Fical’s shoulder as I ignored the prince having his daily and scheduled tantrum. “Are you sure you can’t tell us anything? Like, anything at all about the chalice or why would anyone want to hurt the chief? Well I am a goddess so of course I know!” I said and extended my ears to the heavens as if I was hearing a voice from somewhere. “Ah yes. They told me that if you come clean, then the spirits might give you their assistance.”

I already have a plan on how to help the chief. But first I need some information from Fical, anything that he can speak freely without the watchful gaze of his father. “I am waiting, child.” I said in a graceful tone and twirled my wrist until one of my palms was behind one ear. A gesture urging him to talk. “I am waiting. Anytime now. The spirits are too. They are getting impatient.” I added to put more weight into my words.

“I really don’t know what to say.” Fical scratched the back of his head awkwardly. “My father told me that I have to take a rightful passage before he can impart the knowledge of previous chiefs.”

I blew out a disappointed sigh. “Fine.” I said through gritted teeth and forced myself to smile. I got nothing from the guy. Might as well ask the good old chief for his holy wisdom. But just as I approached the chief, he started convulsing.

“Father!” Fical ran over to his other side just as the princes did the same. “Call the healers!” Fical shouted. Nate nodded and raced through the beaded curtains while Ace and Ren stayed.

“What is this? This is poison!” Ace said and ripped the bandages off along with the medical herbs attached to it. “This is a devil's root! It is known as a legal poison when it is exposed to blood. What kind of idiot are your healers!?”

Fical took the bandages and glared at it in outrage. Just then he raced outside, probably to capture the healers who poisoned the chief.

“I told him that the root is poisonous and now he plans on bringing it along with him. What an idiot!” Ace cursed and ran to follow Fical. Only Ren and I were stuck in the hut with the chief. I looked up at Custard.

‘Custard? Didn’t you heal my wound before? Do you think you can do the same to the chief?’

‘I can.’

And again with this guy keeping all that information for himself. Honestly. ‘We really need to review what we can and can’t do, buddy.’

‘But, Master.’ He whined and lowered his ears sadly. ‘If I do that then you will experience his pain. It’s different if you are hurt, but when you heal others, it will feel like you have the wound yourself.’

‘Bud, I don’t think we have much of a choice? You said that it will hurt but I would still live, right?’

‘Yes…’

‘Go ahead. I don’t mind.’

Custard glanced at me one more time before he lowered his snout to the wound and started licking. “Hey! Bad, boy. That has poison!” Ren yelled while I suddenly dropped to the floor and winced in pain. My stomach burned and contracted like I was having period cramps but worse. My whole body was shaking probably from the poison.

“Rose, hey! Now is not the time to play around.” Ren kneeled beside me and grabbed my hand. His brows were drawn up with worry and I could hear him whine. Ren was wiping sweat off of my face as I continued to convulse.

Ren suddenly looked at Custard, who was still cleaning the wound. “Custard, whatever you are doing, just stop. Your master is hurt!”

Custard didn’t listen to him and I almost laughed if my whole body didn’t feel like it was on fire and dying. It was getting harder to breathe, but Ren stayed and coached me to breathe. It felt like it lasted for a long time but when Custard was finally done, I could still feel the afterpains from the treatment.

“What the hell just happened? Why does Rose look like she’s giving birth!?” Nate demanded he came over to my side.

I looked at Ren and he nodded in understanding. He reached over and slapped Nate’s cheeks. “Sorry. The lady’s orders.”

“I bet she didn’t mean for you to slap that hard!”

“Dad? Dad!” I was too weak to look up. I can only guess that Fical ran to his father judging by the footsteps that I heard. But I did look up the moment I saw Ace standing before me with a smirk - is he looking proudly at me? I must still be in pain because I am being delusional.

“Well, all hail the ‘goddess’ for actually surprising me for once.”

“ALL HAIL!” He all jumped just as soon as the people outside started cheering.

Ace furiously looked back at them with a hint of disbelief. “How did - I DID NOT EVEN SAY IT OUT LOUD GEEZ!” Ace yelled and I can safely assume that he is becoming sick of this place and its people. “And this is why you people need doors! Not enough privacy!”

“Goddess! Thank you for healing my father!” Fical cried as he hugged the chief, who was now sitting up straight.

“Indeed, Goddess. Truly a miracle..” The chief said weakly as he addressed me.

“Yeah. No problem.” I said weakly. “And never….again.” I said as I made a silent vow not to use that part of my power again.