The Prince’s Runaway Bride - Chapter 319
Zenia saw the man blindly charged in her direction. He was not particularly looking at her. He seemed like he was in a trance. His body was moving on its own.
‘His martial arts… He must’ve detected my presence.’
Zenia was able to suppress her presence in time, and the man suddenly stopped. Before he knew it, he found himself standing in the middle of the room where the women had gathered. He rushed there when he detected a certain presence. He did not even notice that he was charging inside a room.
He stopped where Zenia was standing at the moment. There were already other women who gathered there. Zenia thought that his face looked familiar, but she couldn’t remember where and when she had seen him.
The women were all looking intently at the man who arrived. Zenia looked at him too and thought that he looked quite handsome. She even thought that the man resembled Vaughn.
She shook her head and thought that she could be missing her husband already. Why would she think that the man looked like Vaughn?
Roland surveyed the place but he could no longer sense the aura that he felt earlier. He looked at the direction where he came from and could not believe that he barged into the room that was full of women.
He looked at everyone in the room and stared a bit longer at Zenia. He could not sense anything from the women in the room. It was impossible for a mere woman to have such an ability. He surmised that the presence he detected earlier was someone with high martial arts skill
‘No one will be able to hear our conversation from this distance. Am I wrong?’
Roland did not stay for another minute and left the room. He took one last look at Zenia. He did not know why he had some kind of urge of taking that veil off. But, he also knew he would only attract attention if he did that. What he wanted to avoid most was to attract attention.
Zenia was about to investigate the man further when she remembered that Wolstan was with her, and Vaughn might get worried when she failed to make it home on time. She was certain that the man who suddenly barged in would not cause trouble – at least not yet.
As soon as Roland reached his spot, his lead retainer Suhrab did not hesitate to ask him right away.
“Young Master, did you catch him?”
Suhrab already knew that Roland was trying to capture someone when he suddenly dashed off earlier.
“No, I must’ve been mistaken.”
Suhrab was skeptical. It was rare for his master to make a mistake.
“Could it be one of Prince Vaughn’s people?”
“I don’t think Vaughn even knows this place. It is also one of the reasons why I asked you to meet me here to discuss the progress of stone mining. Vaughn will never bother coming here. This has always been a peaceful place, and I tried hard to keep it that way.”
“I understand Young Master. I will make sure that it will remain that way.”
The duo had decided to leave the place and discuss it again some other time. Suhrab glanced at the direction that his master went earlier and sent a signal to one of the shadow guards in hiding. He must confirm whether there was someone suspicious among the guests that arrived.
Zenia was contemplating whether to remove her veil or not. Although she could see where she was going, it was still partly obscuring her vision. She must find Wolstan fast. She had no idea if no one else came with the pair of master and guard. She knew that someone like that could be a nobleman and should have a few shadow guards.
“Ahhh!”
Zenia was startled when she heard the loud scream.
“Grandpa!”
She took off her veil and ran to where Wolstan was and found him hanging on a protruding root of a very tall tree on a cliff. She looked for something that she could use to tie herself and swing to where Wolstan was.
“Zenzen, hurry! My hand is slipping.”
Zenia found a vine and cut it swiftly with her dagger. She ran to the tree where Wolstan was and tied the vine around the branch, and she tied the other end around her waist.
Whoosh!
Zenia did not hesitate to dive. The root of the tree snapped and Wolstan began to fall. He closed his eyes and held his breath. He even forgot to scream. He thought about his younger days and accepted the fact that his life would soon come to an end when he suddenly felt like he was floating. Zenia grabbed Wolstan by his collar – just in time when the root snapped and Wolstan began descending.
Zenia did her best to swing her body and tossed Wolstan up the cliff. Wolstan landed on the thick, soft foliage. He checked his body and found no injury.
“Ha-ha-ha, I thought I’m done for,” he laughed and then stood up in a hurry to check on his great-granddaughter-in-law.
Zenia was having a hard time trying to figure out what to do next. The vine was starting to break off, and she knew that it would snap if she would move so much. Wolstan was about to shout when he noticed that Zenia was just dangling there and seemed to be in deep thoughts. He saw that the vine near the tree branch was about to snap and decided that he must pull the vine up quickly.
Zenia felt that Wolstan was about to do something and looked at him. He was looking at her, and she shook her head lightly and pointed at the area of the vine just above her head. Wolstan understood what she meant. The part that she pointed at was no better than the part that Wolstan noticed earlier.
‘Zenzen must be thinking of a way to climb up. She should not move a lot or the vine might snap.’
Wolstan left and went to look for another vine. Zenia panicked when she felt that Wolstan was no longer there. He did not even say where he would go. Zenia began to understand what Vaughn had to go through when dealing with his great-grandfather. She wanted to cry.
Zenia grabbed onto the protruding root and pierced her dagger to the trunk of the tree. The vine that she tied around her waist had snapped and fell to the cliff. She used her other hand to look for a crevice or a peeled off bark that she could put her hand as she climbed up.
She inched her way up and tried not to look down. She was already getting tired. She stopped for a while and a vine dropped down from the tree.
“Zenzen, hold on to the vine. I will pull you up,” Wolstan shouted.
He wound the vine once around the branch to create a makeshift pulley and dropped one end to Zenia as he held the other end to pull her up.
Zenia hesitated and wondered whether Wolstan would be able to lift her up given his age. Then, she remembered how he moved swiftly before – it cleared the doubts in her mind instantly. She wound the vine around her right wrist and held onto it. Her left hand held the vine slightly above her right hand.
Wolstan pulled with all his might. He did not expect that Zenia might be heavy. She was all muscles after all, but she made sure that her body would not have bulging muscles like most men in the Ishelon Military Unit.
Zenia could tell that Wolstan was having a hard time. When she was near the middle of the tree, she swung her body away from the tree and kicked it with her feet to launch her up. She let go of the vine as she ascended in mid-air. Wolstan did not notice that Zenia had already freed herself from the vine. He was too focused on what he was doing, and he did not even notice anything in his surroundings.
Zenia saw that two men were approaching Wolstan, and she noticed something off with their behavior. She also noticed that they were carrying swords. She landed on a branch of the tall tree and placed her dagger on a fighting stance before she lunged forward to the approaching men.
Wolstan felt a strong gust of wind passed by him and heard the sound of clashing metals shortly after. He turned around and saw Zenia fighting the two men. Wolstan gasped when he saw the faces of the two men.
“Stop!!”