Second Arc (His Art of War) – 11. Memories I

"Kyaaa ---!" Ophelia screamed when she tripped on a tree root. Angel quickly held her hand, preventing her from falling.

'I don't know how many times she almost fell,' he thought.
"Do you want to take a rest?" he asked worriedly. He knew as a princess she had never walked this far, let alone through difficult paths in a forest like this.

"No, I'm fine," she answered as she tried to get back on her feet.

Angel glanced at her feet which had begun to swell.
'I can't let her continue to walk like this.'
"Miss, if we want to go to Euphorion, we need some preparation."

"Preparation?" asked Ophelia.

"Euphorion is so far away from here, moreover we take it on foot. If we don't prepare ourselves well, we will lose our lives before we get there," he explained.

'He's right... I never travelled without guards before. I should follow his advice.'
"Fine. Show me the way," she replied.

He nodded in reply.

After they passed through the forest, they arrived at the edge of Swanstar Lake. His smile grew on his face when he saw a small wooden cabin not far from the lake.
'It turns out the cabin still exists. I thought it had been destroyed.' He turned his gaze to her.
"Miss, we will rest in that cabin."

She turned her gaze to the wooden cabin not far from her. The cabin was small and looked uninhabited for years.
"Is that your house?" she asked.

Angel stared at the cabin, his memories when he and his father were playing near the lake replayed in his head.
"Yes, that's my house, " he replied as his eyes stuck on the cabin.

'It turns out he's from a poor family…' thought Ophelia.
"Are your other family members living there?"

"I don't have a family." He turned his gaze to Ophelia.
"Let's go in," he said as he walked towards the cabin excitedly.

He opened the door which was about to come off the hinges. The dust flew out. He waved his hand in front of his face to dispel the dust and stepped in slowly toward a pole. He rubbed the pole, cleaned it from dust, a faint smile appeared on his face. Several horizontal lines appeared on it, beside each line there was a small carving.
--- Angel 6 years 7 months.
--  Angel 5 years 9 months.
-   Angel 5 years 2 months.

He stretched out his hand, his dark aura reshaped his sword, then he scraped it on the pole just above his head and carved 'Angel 22 years 3 months'.

Ophelia walked slowly toward the cabin and looked around.
'How can someone live in a house like this?' She turned her gaze to the nearby Swanstar Lake.
'I remember, Uncle Renart often brought Angel to play around the lake before that incident.' She looked down.
'Angel... where is he now…'

Angel came out of the cabin and approached her.
"Miss, the house is very messy. But we don't have another place to go. Do you mind if you spend the night here?"

She turned her gaze to Angel while frowning in objection.
"Didn't you say you only made some preparations?"

"The sun will set soon and we are still far away from any town. If we keep going, we only end up spending the night in the forest. Isn't that more dangerous?" he tried to convince her.

She was silent in objection, even though she knew what he said was true but she did not want to stay with an unknown man in the same room.

Angel noticed her objection and quickly added.
"Besides, we haven't been eating anything, aren't you hungry?"

The mention of food brought her to mind that she hadn't eaten anything since morning, and suddenly, her stomach rumbled loud enough for both of them to hear. Angel pretended not to hear it while Ophelia blushed in embarrassment. After a moment, she tried to regain whatever dignity she had left.
"I think we should take a rest before we continue the journey," she said while looking away in embarrassment.

"Alright, I'm going to look for something to eat. You can wait inside."