Chapter 41: Chapter 41

My gaze was casted onto the ground as I waited for the reply of the others. I think all of us were in shock as we tried to absorb what Custard just revealed to us. I mean, I don’t even know what to feel.

“If that’s the case then, Rose, these are your people.” Ren says. “That means that you are not their goddess, but their princess.”

I actually wanna correct that and say that I am a queen, but we all know that I am not ready for that responsibility just yet. I already want to quit being their goddess and they expect me to what? Become the queen? No thanks. I’ll just nod and pretend that I haven’t realized it yet.

“Uh huh. Wow amazing.” I nodded as my eyes rolled to the side, avoiding their gazes.

“Rose, this is actually a big news! It means that you are not the last of your kind.” Nate says.

Right now, he was sitting on Custard. His eyes no longer looked like a zombie.

“But king Ferius is still after me. Remember? Royal tamer blood?” I said. “I actually don’t know if I won the lottery by having royal blood because it comes with a lot of pros and cons.”

“Hold on.” Ace says as he looks at all the people around us. “If your familiar says that they are tamers then why can’t I see their contracted spirits?” Our eyes darted to all the people in this village. They were busy doing their daily routines like cooking, weaving, gardening, hunting, and training. There were men, women, children, and animals.

But no spirit animals.

I looked at my familiar. “Custard, how were you able to tell that these people are Tamers?”

‘The..’ Custard let out a whimper like he was feeling guilty about something. ‘The dark spiritual shadow that I destroyed earlier was supposed to be the familiar of that girl. My guess is that these people had their supernatural essence taken from them by Lord Nagga.’ Custard says and I relayed the message to the princes.

“Why would the late king take away their essence?” Ren thought out loud.

“More importantly, why did the spirit turn dark?” Ace asked.

“Is the spirit gone forever?” I asked in concern because of the word ‘destroyed’ that Custard said earlier.

‘From lord Nagga’s memories I can only guess that the spirit was corrupted the moment that an essence is forced to recover. I don’t know how to cure such spirit but I know that if I let it go on then the girl will die along with the spirit.’ Again, I passed that very same message to the princes.

“We have to go to the chief.” Ace declared. “I’m going to beat some stupid information out of the big pile of fat.”

Nate nervously looked around us after Ace’s claims. “I don’t think you should freely advertise your plan out loud.” He whispered. “And don’t forget that we still have a task to save those sibling healers. We need to continue on questioning the others.”

“It will be fine.” I assured them as a thought suddenly occurred to me. “Because I think I know who attempted to kill the chief and stole the chalice.”

Ren and Nate looked surprised as they looked at me. “Really? Who is it?” Ace asks, it was only him who didn’t seem impressed at all.

“It’s the uncle.” I said. My voice is full of seriousness and determination.

“How can you say that?” Ren asked while I already saw Ace shaking his head.

“How can it not be the uncle? It’s always the uncle. They have the motive and means!” I said proudly. Ren and Nate stared at me while looking disappointed while Ace simply sighed as if he already expected this answer from me.

“Do I ‘even’ want to hear the details?” Ace groaned.

“Oh come on! You’ve read a lot of books that the uncle is always the culprit!” I insisted and leveled the intensity of my gaze with Ace. “His motive is to kill the chief to become the new leader since Fical is still under age. I bet he plans to murder the son as well.” I whispered the last part and gasped as I looked at them. “Guys, we have to find them and warn them!” I started to turn around and run towards the direction of the chief’s hut when someone suddenly pulled my hair.

I was pulled back until I was looking up at the elf prince before he let go of my hair and I turned to glare at him. “To make such an accusation we need some solid proof!”

I started to open my mouth to argue but then closed it right back since he does have a point. I nodded my head slowly in agreement. “You are absolutely right. So here is the plan. Two of you will have to distract the chief while one of you will have to come with me and investigate.” Then I pointed to a tree just behind the hut that I am staying at. “See that tree over there? I will meet you guys there in just a few minutes with actual proof.”

Ace came to my side and pointed at a barn. “See that rope over there? If you won’t stop with that ridiculous idea of yours then I will f*cking-”

“Oh come on! I am being serious! You can ask Nate, who also has an evil uncle!”

Nate smiled awkwardly as we both turned to look at him to hear his opinion. “Not that I am trying to side with anyone but I would just like to point out that my uncle has hatred within him. You did not see the chief’s brother, Rose. That guy looks frail and weak. I don’t think that he is the man that can actually pull off whatever you are accusing him of.”

I narrowed my eyes suspiciously at his claim. “Or maybe that’s what he wants you to think.” I pointed out. I heard cracking of knuckles behind me and I turned around and saw Ren stopping Ace’s raised fist.

“I think we should go and see them first? Just judge them when you see them.” Ren laughed nervously.

I knew it. They really don’t trust me that much. I’m not really that concerned about it at all since I already expected it.

My eyes darted around until I met gazes with a kid. I smiled at him and tilted my head to the side. I have heard rumours from these people that if the goddess - a.k.a me - will smile upon you then you must head over to her and offer your assistance. By the looks of it, I can only assume that the rumours were true since the kid ran towards me. I angled my body just so my back would be facing them as I crouched down and held the kid’s hands. “Yes, child? What do you need?” I asked the little boy and mouthed the words ‘ask me to play with you’.

Thank, God! Really. I thank the heavens that the child wasn’t stupid because he was able to get my message on the first try. “Goddess? Can you play with me?”

“But of course!” I said sweetly and batted my eyes to the princess as I looked back at them. “Oops. Sorry guys. Can’t say no to a child. Ren? Can you come with me?” I smiled.

Ren looked at the other princes as if he was asking them for their permission. “Just go with her.” Ace sighed. “It’s better if she’s with someone.”

Ren nodded as he walked beside me. “I’ll leave Custard to you guys so you guys can stay away from trouble since you have the Goddess’s familiar with you.” I called out as soon as we were walking away from them.

As we walked, I looked back. We were already far away from the two princes that I decided to drag the kid and Ren to the side. “Alright, kid, tell me where the chief’s brother lives.”

“Rose!” Ren hissed just as soon as he figured out what I was planning.

“He lives just beside the waterfall to the far South from the chief’s place, goddess.” The kid said without a second thought or even questioning why I was asking such a question.

“Seems suspicious living out there all alone. Don’t you think so, Ren?” I said while looking at Ren with a smug look on my face. To which he countered with a sigh.

“There’s a hut by the water. But if you want to see him right away then I heard from my mother that he is currently with the chief to check on his health.”

“Thanks, kid.” I patted the child’s head gratefully. The child gave me a toothy grin and bid me goodbye as he went back to his mother. After he was gone, I turned to the wolf prince. “Shall we?”

Ren was shaking his head at me disappointedly. “Rose, I can’t believe that you are doing this! Are you really planning on investigating the chief’s brother because you simply think that he is the culprit?”

“He’s the uncle, Ren. He’s an UNCLE!” I emphasized the words. “You never read mystery and betrayal books so you don’t know how this works.” I explained and started to move. “You coming or what?” I didn’t look back as I asked that question.

I heard a sigh. “Coming, GODDESS.”

***

As soon as we reached the place, I took in a deep breath. There it was. A curved and jagged terraform of a waterfall. A few feet from the right side of the base of it is a hut that was surrounded by weird varieties of plants.

I placed my hands on my hips and took in a deep breath. “Smell that? The scent of suspicion.” I glanced at Ren, who simply shook his head at me tiredly. “Hey, it took us, a couple of youngsters, to get here. How do you think a frail man - just as you had described - like him was able to arrive back to the tribe in just a short amount of time?”

“You don’t even know what time he got there!”

“I don’t?”

“You don’t.”

“Then what time did he get there?”

“A few minutes after you left.”

“See!?” I pointed at him with a gasp. “How did he know that the chief was injured without someone telling him? Not to mention the fact that he was able to get there at a short period of time.”

“Maybe because he was in the village to celebrate the ‘arrival of the goddess’?”

I pretended not to hear him as I started to make my way into the hut. I heard Ren calling out to me with a hiss and a warning not to proceed, but I did not head him as I continued to walk.

“Hello? Sorry not sorry for the intrusion~!” I sang as I pushed a heavy leathered cloth away and peaked inside. There was a single bed at a corner and a lot of scrolls and some weird plants on the table. A bookshelf was placed just beside the bed. I moved to the side to let the wolf prince enter and crossed my arms over my chest with a proud look on my face.

“What?” He asked with a raised brow. “So the guy likes to study. The kid did say that he studies medicinal herbs.”

“Ren? There’s literally a leather bound book here and a well made shelf. How the actual f*ck do you think that this guy managed to obtain all of these?” I bend down and grabbed a skeleton of a snake I found on the floor and raised it up. “Do you think this is real?”

Ren turned to see what I was holding and let out a surprised yelped when I made a sound and swung the skeleton to him. I laughed at his reaction as he snatched it away and placed it inside the gap in my dress. It was my turn to scream as I felt the bones of the snake piercing my skin.

“DAMN YOU, REN!” I screamed as I danced around as I tried to remove the blasted skeleton and knock the shelf in the process. Ren chuckled headed over to one of the tables while I busied myself from dancing and finally got rid of the skeleton.

I heard Ren gasp and saw him standing over one of the tables, reading an opened book. “What the hell?” He breathed out.

It was rare for him to read books that I got curious and followed him to see the contents of it. I gasped as well. This was not what I was expecting. “He’s...he’s not studying about plants.” I whispered as I read the contents and turned the page. “He’s studying about tamers.”

“Rose? Look at this.” Ren pointed to the other book where I saw an inked drawing of the chalice. I stood closer to him as I read the description.

‘This Chalice was forced by the Nymphs when the spirits started to bless the First tamers. Only those with the blood of the blessed tamer can be able to use this Chalice to cure a curse and to restore the essence of a supernatural.’

“I don’t understand. Books like this should belong to the royal family. In which case is you, Rose. But since your kingdom was destroyed, it now makes me wonder how this man was able to obtain these.”

I gulped as I looked at Ren. “I told you so!” The books were right. It was always the uncle. It’s basic logic and it can never be refuted! “I think these will be enough of a proof, don’t you think?”

“It will be enough to question him. Yes.”

“OH COME ON!” I slammed my hands on the table and rattled a few instruments in the process, including a mortar and pestle with a familiar looking substance on it. I tapped on Ren’s bare shoulder as I pointed at the familiar red paste. “Have you seen that somewhere?”

Ren followed my gaze as he leaned in close to smell. Then he immediately pulled back with a horrified look on his face. “Devil's root!”

“Devil’s root? Isn’t that the one that was used to poison the chief?”

“Yes.” He nodded and took out a pestle as he grabbed a nearby cloth and started to wrap the mortar with it. “I can’t believe it.” He whispered as he looked at me. “You may actually be right. This might be more than enough reason to question him and postpone the execution of the accused healers.”

“I told you so!” I beamed and took a step back when I tripped as I stepped on a random scroll. I paced a few steps back before I crashed onto the shelf. Something broke on my head and a strange liquid started to drip from my head.

“ROSE!” Ren panicked as he ran to my side and examined my head. “Are you hurt!? Are you injured!?” He started to gently dust my head to get rid of the glass on it.

I reached a hand and touched my hair. When I drew it back to look at it, I half expected to see blood, but it was just water. “Not injured. Just a bit dizzy.” Ren helped be back onto my feet. He sniffed my head just to make sure that I wasn’t bleeding first before he headed back to bring the mortal full of devil’s root paste with us.

My vision started to blur and I saw the place was starting to get bigger and bigger. Am I hallucinating again? “W-Wen?” I called for him and for some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to pronounce his name right. And why does my voice sound weird?

Ren tensed when he heard me calling for him and gasped as he turned around to look down on me. “R-Rose?!” He dropped the mortar back on the table as he slowly made his way towards me and bent down just so he could look at me in the eyes. “I-Is that you?”

“It’s me. Wose. Why? Why the fwak do I sound like a chwipmwunk?” Something was weird. It was not just my voice and I could feel it. I looked down on my hands to see small and chubby fingers. I gasped.

I became a child!

“Rose?” I looked up to see that Ren looked like he was about to cry with joy as soon as he saw me. “Can you give me tips on how to take care of a...child?”