Chapter 449 146 – Perserios territory – part 1- Settling in (part 9) ”…this doesn’t seem right now, does it…?”
Zoemi muttered to himself.
The small-scale showcase of the nearest contested point continued and ended within the next few hours without any surprises.
In the end, it was just like the armored man had said – that point wasn’t often contested.
It was just not an attractive point to barbarians since if they focused solely on it without capturing most – if not all – outposts on the way there it would be laughably easy to retake by the Perserios’s forces after surrounding it as it lacked an advantageous terrain of the other locations.
As the trio returned to the Perserios castle Zoemi left Miriette for a moment and took Burushi to the side.
”Good, I see you want me to advise you on how to get rid of that helmeted…”
”Burushi, it was fun, but seriously. That helmeted heathen is Miriette.”
The blond heroine nodded with a content expression and spoke in a satisfied voice but then Zoemi rolled his eyes and cut her off.
”EEEEHHHH?!”
Burushi gasped as her eyes widened.
”Shush. Seeing you act so protectively towards me was funny in a heartwarming way and I would love to continue the joke, but honestly, I doubt that Miriette would tolerate it if you tried to ever stop us from any sort of skinship.”
The black-haired boy waved his hand dismissively, hurriedly explaining things because he wanted to get to his actual point.
”Wait! Seriously?! That is Miriette?! Why is she wearing such a ridiculous helmet?! Why didn’t you tell me sooner?! I was this close to calling her a flatchested thieving cat!”
Even so, Burushi wasn’t all too keen to move on from the subject and gasped.
”Dear heavens… good thing you didn’t do that – even with all the good will you earned yourself by protecting me from her, she would have at least punched you for calling her that.”
Zoemi leaned back and shook his head in shock.
*smack*
”Hey! What was that for?!”
The next moment the blond-haired girl smacked him on the shoulder and he frowned in confusion.
”Don’t you – what was that for – me, you asshole! I was seriously worried that some bitch tires to seduce you!”
*smack* *smack*
Burushi scored out in anger and continued the assault.
”I said I was sorry, okay? Now hold on and listen.”
”…hmph…!”
Zoemi let her channel some of her anger but then grabbed her wrists and made a serious expression, which caused the blond girl to look away with a grumpy expression.
”The thing that Devios’s cousin has told us, about the hexes and curses, don’t you find it strange?”
He asked while holding Burushi’s wrists as she was still attempting to hit him despite looking away.
”Are you asking because you suspect something or just want to change the subject? Because if it’s the latter then just let go of me? I need to go and apologize to Miriette for not recognizing her.”
Burushi finally stopped trying to beat Zoemi up and grumbled in annoyance.
”Huh? Wait. Why aren’t you mad at her?! She could have told you too!”
The black-haired boy was about to answer but then he frowned and asked, offended by the clearly not equal treatment.
”Because you surely were the mastermind behind this dumb prank, not to mention that I would be angry if my friend couldn’t recognize me just because of some stupid helmet!”
Burushi was fuming and she faced Zoemi with a furious expression.
”How are you so sure of that? Didn’t you say that you didn’t have friends?”
”SHUT UP!”
The black-haired boy furrowed his brows and asked, tilting his head, which made the blond girl become red from anger as she raised her voice at him.
With her hands restrained, she tried to kick him, but Zoemi dodged the attempt without much trouble.
”Alright, I admit, the last one was too far. But to answer your original question, yes, I am serious. Something doesn’t seem right here.”
The black-haired boy apologized and released the blond girl who backed off and glared at him for a few more seconds.
”…”
And then a few more.
”Alright. What exactly is suspicious in your opinion? What our guide said that made you feel conflicted?”
After she decided that Zoemi made himself look apologetically and self-reflecting enough, Burushi breathed out and asked, motioning at him with her chin.
”Apparently hexes are a bloodline thing and cannot be learned, right?”
”Yah. That’s what he said. It wasn’t mentioned in the game so neither of us can confirm or deny it though.”
Zoemi said and Burushi shrugged her shoulders dismissively.
”Yeah? So why Arisu can use it?”
He pointed out with a concerned expression.
”I… eh…? Umm…”
The blond-haired heroine flinched, taken aback by the statement.
”You know? I might be overthinking things again, but having someone like Arisu using hexes since he was small makes me think that it isn’t so hard. After all, in one of his events he shared a story about practicing light attribute spells for over a year before he was able to use the most basic one. And my informant assured me that our white-haired capture target was hexing people before he was twelve.”
The black-haired boy leaned back and shrugged his shoulders delivering more facts to the cautious heroine.
”So as long as neither the queen nor lord Lazaram are of barbarian descent, we can agree that the bloodline part doesn’t make sense.”
He added, raising his brow and looking straight at the concerned girl in front of him.
”Well, yah, I guess, but… you do know that your informant might be the one mistaken, right?”
Burushi asked not knowing that the informant in question was the second prince Surou.
”True, but to be honest I prefer to trust them instead of a person that spent most of his life on a battlefield in close proximity to the people who might have hexed him.”
Zoemi responded in a calm but stern voice, making Burushi close her mouth and lower her head deep in thoughts.
”We need to learn more. Both from the perspective of the Perserios family and that informant of yours.”
She spoke without raising her head as she stroked her chin in concern.
”Alright, so, since we made that clear, I will be off now to be lovey-dovey with Miri, alright?”
”Eh…? EEEHHH?!”
The black-haired boy nodded in satisfaction and took a step to the side while pointing in the same direction that the dark-haired girl wearing a strange helmet went, which caused a shocked voice from the blond-haired heroine.
”What?”
Zoemi asked in confusion, raising his brows at his shocked friend.
”You want to be like that here?! Are you out of your mind? What if someone would spot you?!”fre ewebn ovel
Burushi began scolding him without a moment of hesitation.
”Oh, don’t be like that. The people who know her real identity are aware of the consequences of going against her, and the rest never saw her face and should believe the word of their leader. That being Devios.”
”Should…?”
Zoemi waved his hand and assured her, but Burushi didn’t seem particularly convinced as she asked.
”Who in their right mind would believe that Mirienne is Miri? Even you got tricked – and you know her.”
He added trying to make a compelling argument.
”Don’t bring my ability to read people into this. Need I remind you that I didn’t realize that you were also a reincarnated person despite all the signs? Listen, all I say is that if everyone else gets tricked like that, then maybe we have a problem and they are all brainwashed already or something… Though that would be outrageous, considering that if it was actually possible then the barbarians would have already taken over ages ago. Okay, forget that. You know what we should do instead of overthinking?”
The blond heroine mumbled in annoyance before straightening her back and asking.
”…it’s kind of weird being on this side… sure, what we should do instead?”
The black-haired boy blinked a few times before encouraging the girl to continue.
”Let’s go to Miri, she should at least try to change her voice or the way she speaks even a little bit.”
”I already told her that, but she said the helmet was enough and I recognized her because I like her that much – but maybe she will listen to you.”
Burushi scoffed before deciding and grabbing the black-haired boy’s arm and pulling him towards the same destination that Miriette had – Zoemi’s room – as the boy revealed with a soft smile.
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