Chapter 877: Julian And Rowena In Verona
"You know, you look even scarier than Hades now—" Julian said.
Rowena threw a dark look at the man before she sighed and nodded. "I know. I just didn't expect that I'd hear about my father again, after all these years..."
"I mean, maybe we could be wrong? We didn't actually have any specific names since we kind of rushed out."
"Only my father would be crafty enough to make some excuse like that." Rowena shook her head. "But, let's not just think about him. We're going all the way North, as far as possible as we can from him."
"Of course." Julian nodded.
Rowena remained silent as they rode on until she suddenly threw a look at Julian and slowly spoke. "Grasshoppers afoot."
"Birds snatching?" Julian raised a brow.
"Straight ahead," Rowena said. "But let me just grab something from my water pouch. Are you thirsty? Or do you want to get changed? You've been extremely sweaty."
"Will probably get changed, but I hope there's a nice breeze," Julian said.
It took a while before a strong gust of wind blew through the forest, but the instant it happened, the two quickly moved.
The two of them both reached for their bags and suddenly threw out a small pack filled with a lot of magical fruits towards the tree.
The onlookers who were observing them were thrown into a surprise as fruits suddenly exploded in a burst of sticky juice as they hit the tree. Before they recovered, both Julian and Rowena galloped down the road in a rush.
Arrows flew over towards them, but they were already far away. After what seemed to be a mad gallop for the last ten minutes, both Cinna and Hades finally slowed down and caught their breath alongside Julian and Rowena.
Over the course of traveling, they weren't the only people who wished to take money out of the pockets of others.
While the two of them took the path of conning, using tricks and other ways to fool people out of their coin, some people simply resorted to banditry and thievery.
Rowena and Julian already had their fair share and actually used simple phrases to alert each other when they noticed the presence of others.
"Are you alright?" Rowena looked at Julian.
"I'm good. Excellent hearing as usual." Julian wiped the sweat out of his brow. "What gave them away this time?"
"Someone stepped on a branch," Rowena said. "They probably thought they could easily loot us since we're just two. That's where they were wrong."
Even though Rowena hadn't actually faced much fight, both she and Julian were two level-headed and were great at running away from danger, it didn't mean th
ey didn't have precaution and plans.
"Ordinary bandits?"
"Yeah."
Julian sighed in relief and looked over his shoulder. "For a moment, I was afraid that the guy back at the tavern was upset and wanted to get revenge or something. Thank goodness it wasn't that."
"Gosh… I'm sure he was more focused on traveling and searching for the 'princess' or going to Ashland." Rowena rolled her eyes. "He called me a venomous woman, and I expect that he doesn't want that out of a queen."
"He practically missed the jewel hidden underneath the hood." Julian chuckled. "If I were in his shoes, I would have already suspected you."
"And that's what the hood is for." Rowena accepted the back-handed compliment and looked ahead. "Let's just take a safer route and head up to the North, okay?"
"Alright," Julian said, rather relieved that Rowena felt a bit better after the incident.
Soon, Rowena and Julian traveled up North and it took them about two more weeks before they finally reached the end of the continent, the kingdom of Verona awaited them just below.
The two of them entered the city, left their horses on the stable, and then talked with one another.
"So what's our plan?" Julian asked Rowena.
"Well, I think the two of us could gather information separately to get it more quickly." Rowena smiled. "There's no doubt that you can probably charm someone who works at a tavern to spill a secret or two?"
"You could do the same, so what about you?" Julian asked. "Do you think splitting up is a good idea?"
"It's going to be fine, we've done this before." Rowena smiled.
She hadn't completely forgotten about letting Julian have a chance to meet up with other people. He might have told her that he wasn't interested in romance, but she believed he was only being considerate for her sake.
Or even if he told the truth, she needed to be honest with herself.
Rowena shouldn't ask a person, even though her bond was strong with Julian, to spend his entire life with her. Julian also needed room for something else, and if she was in the way, Rowena wanted to give him some help.
"Let's meet up in the city's square in an hour or two. Maybe three? Does that sound fine?"
"Alright, let's do that." Julian reluctantly agreed.
And so the two of them split up to do their own errands.
However, the moment that the two of them parted ways, while Rowena went away to look for something nice and interesting while searching for clues about the portal to the mermaids... Julian faced his own challenge as a royal knight came
across him.
Truth be told, the situation was far much more than either bargained for. In reality, Julian was the one who actually liked the idea of living in the valley for all of their lives.
It reminded him of his time with the Marlowe family.
Those were happier and simpler times. Julian didn't actually crave for much, he had his fill with adventure and was more than happy to spend his days with Rowena in the hut and their small farm.
It was as if they were a family. However, when Rowena talked about adventure, Julian realized that someone like her was destined for far better things than simply staying in one place.
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