Chapter 930: People Call Me The Ice Prince
Rowena started to look around and kept a tight grip on her potion.
Raphael didn"t have any idea who this person was or a single clue as to who they were, but he thought the person that Rowena was trying to save must have been a close friend of hers.
He knew she would do anything for the people she cared deeply about. He remembered she risked getting hurt when she tried to protect Lucent from her father"s sword. That"s just who she was.
Raphael paid for the carriage and looked about their immediate surroundings.
What Rowena had in hand was a very valuable potion—and he was glad that King Urther provided it, but this was a precious potion that might attract unwanted people who wished to grab ahold of it.
Before any of that ill sort could happen, Raphael stepped right behind Rowena and gave her a smile.
"We should go this way," he offered.
There were several other merfolks lined up, but in the presence of Raphael, they all quickly parted to allow them to come first.
Rowena looked at Raphael with newfound admiration. She now realized just how much influence this person seemed to have as a guest of King Urther.
"Is he some kind of prince?" Rowena muttered silently under her breath.
"Rowena, let"s go." Raphael offered her a hand.
She looked up at him in surprise, took in a deep breath, and then accepted his hand. Rowena expected some difficulty with the pa.s.sage from one portal to another—similar to how she was swept in by a whirlpool into the realm.
Fortunately, there was no large issue whatsoever. It only felt like she and Raphael merely pa.s.sed through a waterfall and came out into another side. Which Rowena and he actually did.
Raphael grabbed ahold of Rowena"s hand tightly to prevent her from slipping on the smooth boulders and looked behind the vestiges of the portal. All of the portals were linked to bodies of water, and Raphael may have intercepted it so as to not make it so burdensome for Rowena as well.
"We"re here," he said.
"Where exactly is HERE?" Rowena asked as she took away her hand and then balanced on the boulder. She looked over at the bottle that glowed and looked up worriedly at him. "How far away are we from Verona?"
"Close enough, it will only take us a ride, I believe," Raphael surmised.
He had spent a better portion of the past year familiarizing himself with the human kingdoms that received letters from King Draco and so the geography and terrain were not a problem for him.
"A ride?" Rowena asked and leaped back into one of the next rocks and gave him a cold stare. A wave of doubt lingered in her heart if the man in question had bad intentions.
She may have accepted his offer of help because Raphael seemed like a good choice to stay safe, but now that Rowena had spilled her emotions to a complete stranger... she felt as if that was strange.
Rowena was not trusting of people and she had good reasons not to, after what Liam did to Julian.
"What"s the matter?" Raphael looked over at her in surprise.
"I—I"m not sure who you are, but after everything that happened in King Urther"s realm. I"m not sure if your intent
ions are pure at all—or if you cast some spell on me to make me like you!" Rowena blurted.
Her one hand was on the panacea, the other reached for the miniature pearls that the sea witch gave her earlier.
During their planned escape, the sea witch utilized and infused more magic into the pearls in order to act both as an explosion and attack. If this man took one step closer, then she"d throw it at him and then make her escape.
Raphael was shocked to hear it but also felt his heart pound at those declarations.
She said that she liked him but she suspected that her feelings for him were caused by a spell? This made Raphael grin.
"I didn"t cast any spell on you and I don"t intend to harm you," Raphael smiled in glee. "So, you like me?"
"Forget what I said," Rowena said as she clutched the pearls hard. "Tell me if you are really planning to take me back to Verona... or not."
"I am taking you back to Verona," said Raphael firmly.
"But... this is not the way that I remembered. There was supposed to be a lagoon the two of us could have traveled in. The Wis.h.i.+ng Mermaid Lagoon was close to Verona—I even told you on the ride here, so why aren"t we there instead?" Rowena pointed.
Raphael only wanted to bring her the least uncomfortable path back to Verona and so he had chosen the waterfall, especially because travel was not an issue for them.
However, now that he thought about it—Rowena did have every reason to misjudge his intentions. He didn"t think about how it would appear because Raphael knew Rowena, but in her eyes... the two of them had only met now.
"Please calm down, Princess," Raphael raised his hands placatingly. "I chose this place so we wouldn"t have to swim all the way up the lagoon."
"That"s not a valid reason!"
"You just traveled from a realm full of magic and then back to one without it—it"s a great toll on your body. I do not think that you can handle swimming up."
Rowena breathed hard and she realized that her lungs did burn—exhaustion rippled and coursed through her body.
How the man was aware of the effects of traveling to and from different realms surprised her, but it made her all the more wary.
Seeing her discomfort, Raphael spoke more gently.
"We can take the other route if you wish, but if you trust me, this way is the better one and we will reach Verona more quickly," he added, "If I wish to do anything bad to you, don"t you think I would have done it now?"
He raised his right hand and touched the waterfall beside him, immediately, the water froze into ice. Rowena"s eyes bulged when she witnessed what he was doing.
He was letting her know that it was super easy for him to freeze her to death if he wanted to hurt her. But he didn"t. He didn"t even touch Rowena just to prove his point, instead, he froze the waterfall and his own arm.
"Y-you..." Rowena held her breath. "What are you?"
Raphael found it difficult to answer this question. Rowena asked what he was, not who he was. She knew he was not human. She initially thought he was an elf, but now she was not sure anymore.
"Me?" Raphael shrugged. "Some people call me th
e ice prince."
"So, you ARE a prince?" Rowena looked at Raphael"s frozen arm intently. "Does it hurt?"
Raphael blew his arm and immediately the ice thawed. The waterfall flowed down again like normal. Then he chuckled and shook his head. "It doesn"t hurt me, but it hurts other people."
He quickly added, "But I would NEVER hurt you."
Rowena bit her lip. She trusted him. If he wanted to show his power and taught Rowena a lesson for suspecting him, Raphael would have frozen her, but he didn"t do such a thing. He replied to all her questions and suspicions so patiently.
"I know..." Rowena muttered.