After the Villainess Failed to Overthrow the Gods

Chapter 11

The weird feeling I had of Archer persisted till the next day. We're heading out of the woods, the girls in the group were chatting with me. The boys in the group tried to include Archer in the chat, but he refused. He just silently followed us in the back, holding tight onto his bag. 

I had this strange feeling that I was a prey and he was the predator. I grew more and more tense as the minutes passed. This would not do. Before I could escape, I would have lost my mind. 

Could it be that this Archer was really the god of order? Something was wrong, it's too silent. After a whole day of trekking through the woods nonstop, the group said we'd probably be able to leave the woods by noon tomorrow. The earthquakes had stopped, but we hadn't even seen a single puppet sent out by the god of order.  

We're preparing for dinner tonight, I glanced at the silent Archer who was piling woods to start fire. I tried to match him with the god of order. He gave off the same scent, but much weaker. This could be explained by the fact that he was a follower of the god of order. His appearance could not be compared to the ethereal appearance of the god of order. But if the god of order occupied the body of a passerby like me... no he would not do something so out of order. 

But did Archer really look nothing like the annoying god of order? I questioned myself. Aside from the fact that Archer did not have the silver white hair god of order had, he was actually quite similar in height and body build as the god of order. Adding to the fact that the god of order always had his eyes covered with a ribbon, thus successfully hiding part of his face most of his time. All I could say was that I wouldn't be surprised if Archer was really the god of order. 

When he joined us yesterday, the only light was from the fire in our camp site. It's lucky if we could recognize each other's silhouette or correct hair color, it's only till when we started trekking through the woods this morning that I realized how his features were alarmingly close to the god of order. 

I grabbed the pot and some ingredients for our dinner and walked towards the stack of woods Archer placed orderly next to the fire. The more I observed, the more ticks Archer had in common as the god of order. But who knew if it's a tick commonly found in the followers of this god of order? Maybe the god of order decided that the passing criteria was to be as orderly as him. 

When I was close to the stack of woods, I pretended to trip and crash onto the stack, thus effectively scattering the once orderly pile all over the ground. I also dropped all the things in my arms across the ground. I glanced at Archer's hand through my eyelashes. Waiting for any of the similar ticks to appear. 

When Archer took in the mess on the ground, I caught his fingers tapping on his thigh for a few times before stopping. As soon as I caught that I glanced down and looked at my hands that bore a few scratches. The chances that Archer was the god of order was increasing. Let's assume that Archer was indeed the god of order, why wasn't he capturing me the moment he saw me? Could it be that he was not sure of my identity or even better he did not know? 

I would not be as careless as him, if it's really him. 

"Lilith! Are you alright? You're bleeding!"  Alice, the girl who 'rescued' me yesterday, cried. 

I glanced at the tear on my palm. Unlike the mild scratches I inflicted on myself yesterday, this tear on my palm was much deeper, blood was seeping out of the wound non-stop. A sharp rock must be on the ground when I fell. For some unknown reason, looking at the deep wound on my palm reminded me of the death of my siblings. 

At that time, after I had completed my task of luring Rachelle to stab her lover, the god of light, with the dagger, I returned to find all my siblings killed off brutally by the gods. Swords piercing them through their heart or across their neck, blood dripping out of their wounds. My sister's last words were asked me to run away. But it was too late, the gods were back to kill off the last of us, me. 

"Lilith, use my handkerchief to stop the bleeding first!" Alice tucked the handkerchief into my bleeding palm. "Put pressure on it!"

This pulled me out of my flashback. I looked up to find Archer staring at me. When I responded by staring back at him, he again looked away nonchalantly. He then started to tidy up the mess around us.  The woods were stacked into orderly piles once again. 

"Don't worry," I comforted Alice. "Let's cook dinner. We have to wake up early tomorrow." I smiled gently and stood up to start preparing dinner. I pretended to be this gentle, nice girl in front of all of them, a complete opposite to my real personality. 

Even if I said we should start preparing for dinner, in truth I had no idea how to cook. I hadn't cooked once since I was captured and that's more than three thousand years ago. I had to hide it. 

"Lilith and Archer, can you help boil the broth? We'll help with the meat," asked Kris. 

"Of course," I replied with a fake smile plastered on my face. 

Of all people, it had to be Archer! I had to avoid spending too much time in his presence. I dug my nail into the wound that had just stopped bleeding. When I walked towards Archer, blood begun to drip down my hand once again. 

"Your wound is opened up again," Archer pointed out. 

I pretended I had no idea about that and looked at my palm and gasped. "I'll go and clean this up, can you start first? I'll be back as quickly as I can." 

I was about to turn around when he clasped my hand. A jolt of pain shot through my body and into my soul. I bit my tongue to avoid showing any expression. When I glared at him, he released my hand. 

"It's healed. You don't have to worry about tearing it open again," Archer looked at me with his grayish eyes meaningfully, like he knew I reopened the wound on purpose. Then he turned back to our mission on hand. "Preparing a broth is quite easy." He then started to list out the steps of making a broth. 

"I know that," I retorted. "Don't treat me like an idiot!"  

He glanced at me in silence again, why did I feel like he was about to sigh?

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Author's note

Second update of the week! Praise me! Hope you like the story so far ;) Things are getting exciting. Is this Archer really the god of order?