Flora

꧁Chapter 7꧂

Playing: Bizet- Carmen- Overture

"Is it true? Are you really Princess Joanne Eira Shin?" He asked as he scrutinized her façade for any signs of agitation yet his hopes were dashed as she never showed a tad bit of it.

"That's rather none of your business, Mister." She said sternly and started walking.

"Just answer the darn question!" He snapped as she stopped on her track and gave him a bewildered look, even he was surprised of his sudden outburst.

"Why are you so worked up with my identity anyway?" She questioned as she narrowed her eyes, clearly irritated. Frankly speaking, he too wasn't so sure of the reason why. Perhaps the questions inside his head were too loud that it bugged him.

A deafening silence transpired between them, Ben was about to utter a word when he halted his words upon hearing the faint sounds of battle cries in a distance. Joanne heard it too and immediately ran towards the opposite direction.

"You shall sprint too, unless you wish to be beheaded." She shouted at the lad who was frozen in place, causing him to shook his head and ran after the girl.

"You will never get away from us again, Artemis! Not when you killed Master Alpha!" One of the dozens of bandits running after them shouted.

What a lame nickname he thought.

They just kept running through the denseness of the forest. Joanne was effortlessly dodging the branches and other debris that lingered on the forest floor. Ben however, was anything but as he was catching his breath and having the hardest time avoiding such, even dipping his feet on mud puddles and getting himself stuck for a brief moment before pulling his feet back up and continued running for his dear life. As soon as he catch up with the girl, he was puzzled as she stopped whilst panting with her hands resting on her knees.

He had noticed something peculiar about the horizon, it was treeless as he darted his gaze towards the mountains from a distance. Then realization hit him as he came closer to find himself along with the girl standing on a cliff, overlooking the greenery below with the midstream of a ginormous river. The strong water current of the river had caused it to appear white and his eyes widened as his mouth went agape, his knees suddenly felt weak at the idea of him dying no matter what he choose between fighting the bandits or jumping off the cliff. He is not yet ready to die, Not until he marry at least.

"I am so going to depart this life in this very moment!"

"Go on your own, for I shall fight!" She declared, fixing her stance into a battle-ready one when she pulled one arrow out.

"Again?!" He exclaimed and scratched his head in annoyance.

"The first one was barely a fight, I just threw a dynamite towards them. This one should be the real deal."

"None of that matters, they're closing in!"

"Then you know what you must do!" She shouted as the deafening battle cries of the bandits disrupted their communication. Seriously, why do they even always scream their battle cries when they're just dealing with a cowardly prince and some type of runaway princess, Joanne thought. She finally took out the weapon she had on the palm of her hands and aimed it, but perhaps she was too pumped up on obliterating them that the bow snapped.

"Ugh! This piece of shit!" She groaned as she threw the bow off the cliff. She darted her vision towards the lad who appeared to be trembling in fear, she thought that he was anxious as he held no weapon and he is completely entrusting his safety on her proficiency in combat. She pulled up her skirt and revealed a dagger that was resting on the strap that was wrapped around her thigh, She could see his cheeks flush red yet she couldn't care less and tossed the dagger for him to use which the lad immediately catch and gripped tightly with his trembling hands.