"... Where the h.e.l.l am I?" she asked herself after realizing she was not in her room or anywhere in the castle.The girl fought the fear sprouting from within and tried to remember what took place after she successfully escaped from the street thugs.
It seemed… she was with the fake messenger who kept trying to shoo her away?
What then?
She got up and lightly ma.s.saged her back waist. It was aching due to hours of lying on a hard bed which she was not used to. Her expression contorted due to the pain from her back. Her feet too seemed bruised. What the h.e.l.l?
"So I tailed that youth and then managed to get back to the main street. But why am I here? Where is this place?"
The girl hurriedly stood up, and without removing her hand on her back waist, she strode towards the window. A gasp came out of her lips upon discovering she recognized none of the houses and everything in the street. There were no tall establishments. It was as if she was in a simple village, with the dwellings all so simple or, even, crude. There was a vast expanse of fields in front. She could even spot several farmers emerging from the fields and entering the paved roads.
Wait… maybe she was really in a village? Which one? This did not seem like the village inside their territory... There was no pond near the plantations.
"If I managed to reach the main street earlier… Did I rent a wagon to send me back to the church? Or simply waited for Adam and the others to fetch me there?"
"Oh no! I remember knocking my head on the wall when I was chasing after the fake messenger. Er, wait, that seems to be a giant"s back … I might have lost consciousness back then."
Aliyah felt so uneasy as she had no recollection of what happened after. The place was unfamiliar. She wanted to look for people to gather information. What if she was actually in a gang"s hideout?
As undesirable scenarios popped up in her mind one after another, she scooted towards the door. For several seconds, she hesitated to move its bar lock to the side, fearing there would be malicious people waiting for her outside.
Quite a while had pa.s.sed before she came into a decision.
When she finally managed to gather the courage to push the door open and peek out, the first thing she saw was dark brown… Or maybe the color was different but since there was not enough light there, it appeared brown to her. What she was sure was that it was so close to her. There was no way it was the wall opposite the door.
Her gaze moved down.
She held her breath upon seeing a pair of worn-out leather shoes there. It meant there was actually a person standing before her!
When her eyes moved up again, Aliyah"s mouth fell open as she saw a pair of brown eyes that were so cold, yet at the same time, seemingly burning… in suppressed anger.
"Have you fooled around enough? Then move to the side," said the person without raising his voice. Yet the words and tone were enough to tell his current mood.
It was the fake messenger that spoke!
Aliyah"s brain short-circuited for some time. She didn"t know her current situation so she didn"t reply. But her body moved before she knew it.
"Bang!"
She closed the door fiercely! It was an involuntary move. She even pasted her back against the door while contemplating which heavy objects inside the room to use as a blockade. Cold sweat was running down her spine.
As expected the man outside became too irritated and began to knock violently on the door. "Hey, did you know you almost injured my nose? Why did you suddenly close the door? Let me in!"
Loud screeching noises accompanied the young man"s angry outburst.
Before Aliyah replied, she first made sure the chairs and table she dragged where securely placed before the door.
"Sorry, I"m still busy understanding my situation. So can you please stay outside for a while?" she said while checking out how high the window was from the ground.
She had already confirmed that the room was on the second floor. There was a sense of urgency within her. She didn"t know how she ended up here.
And the guess that seemed closer to the truth was that she was kidnapped by the youth again! As expected of a person who made a fool out of a bishop, he was not a good person!
"d.a.m.n!"
Outside, the young man felt speechless by the response he got. Using his free hand that was not holding the bread wrapped in a piece of clothe, he rubbed his forehead.
"... What the h.e.l.l is wrong with you? Until when are you going to give me problems? You don"t want to go back by yourself so you followed me all the way here. Now you"re acting as if I did something bad to you. This is so crazy!"
"Yeah, you are too..." she muttered, unknown whether he heard it. Probably not since her voice just now was almost inaudible.
"Hey, Miss Psycho. Are you"re finally done with messing with me? If you are, then I"m so d.a.m.n happy!"
The sarcasm in his voice was not veiled one bit. He sneered and turned around.
Meanwhile, the person on the other side of the door gasped. What did he say? She began shaking her head.
"Psycho? I"m no psycho! And… Y-you said I followed you here. Y-you must be kidding! Why would I tail a kidnapper? You"re the crazy one!" In disbelief and agitation, she couldn"t help but exclaim aloud.
The guy outside immediately stopped walking. An odd expression appeared on his face. He was silent for some time, as he too was confused by the woman.
It was a fact that he was sometimes abnormal in the head, so that was not something new. But the case here was that she did tail him and even slip past the gate"s guardsmen through some unknown means. How come she suddenly couldn"t remember?
Perhaps she was really sick? With a real mental disease? Apart from the "I"m a princess, you have to pamper me" syndrome present to every female lead?
While Aliyah was digesting the information gotten and filtering out which ones might be true and which ones should be lies, she heard the youth say in a doubtful voice.
"So strange. You forgot every absurdity you did this afternoon. So are you saying, there is a stupid side and a slightly crazy, no, rational side? Also, there seems to be no synchronization of memory."
"Are you a bipolar? Or somebody with split personalities?"
Her hands that were testing out the makes.h.i.+ft rope she made froze. A dumbfounded expression flashed across her face and her mind turned blank.
What did he say again?
Aliyah couldn"t speak for a while as her throat began to feel dry. "Split personality..."
"I was conscious after the chase from the alleys?" she subconsciously asked.
"..."
A groan resounded through the gaps of the door. "I see. It must be the latter. After all, there is impaired consciousness as a symptom."
The girl flinched upon hearing that. A minute later, she cleared the obstacles and once again summoned the courage to open the door.
She saw that the guy was already walking down the stairs. Due to anxiousness, her voice was breaking and her eyes were darting around when she yelled at him,
"Hey, wait. Please don"t leave yet."
He only scoffed. "I think I"ve got no business with you anymore. You locked the door. So I plan to head downstairs to get a refund for a room I can"t use."
Aliyah felt anxious since he did not halt. Now, only his head as he had already descended a few steps.
"Alright! F-for what happened just now, I"m at fault. I"ll let you in too. I, I"m sorry. I just have mistakenly thought you captured me again. Can you… can you please tell me what happened? After we made it out of the backstreets? It"s true that I have no recollections of that..."
"…"
Jiang Li"s jaw almost reached the ground after hearing what the female lead said. He ended up staring dumbfounded at her for some time. Then he burst into laughter.