Second Arc (His Art of War) - 119. A Nostalgic Meeting III
Rose was breathing heavily, her heart was pounding. But different from five years ago, this time her heart was beating fast because these events were too similar. Somehow this made her mind go back to the past.
'No! What am I thinking? This is a battlefield, I don't have time to think about the past.' She quickly dispersed her thoughts and turned her eyes to the monster, her hand gripping her rope dart tightly.
Meanwhile, Angel's eyes watched the Fiend Bear which was walking not far from their hiding place. The monster's eyes swept in all directions, trying to find them but it couldn't find them. Traces of his dark aura were still on Angel's hand, ready to kill the monster if his plan failed.
The monster paced back and forth in front of their hiding place before approaching them slowly. But after a few steps, the monster suddenly roared.
"Graaahhhhh!" And turned the other way and ran in that direction.
'Looks like he's already found the rebels,' thought Angel. But he didn't let his guard down, it could be a trap.
Shortly, some people's screams of pain echoed through the forest, coupled with the battle's noises as well as the monster's roars, indicating that his plan was successful.
Angel exhaled in relief. He knew it wasn't easy to beat a Fiend Bear, so the rebels would have a hard time dealing with it.
"Thank you ..." Rose's voice came from his side.
Angel turned to her.
"It's my duty, Your Highness," he replied.
In that darkness, they locked gazes with each other. An old memory that had been covered in dust in their minds replayed in their heads. But of course, everything was different. To Rose, the man in front of her was a member of the Elite Euphorion troops who had conquered her kingdom. Meanwhile, because Angel was in disguise, he had to behave as a soldier. He couldn't let her know that it was him because he had to cover up about his teleport skill from Rose.
Rose's eyes gazed at him. The black mask that covered one-third of his face and the hood that covered his head made her not recognize him. But there was an undeniable sense of nostalgia bothering her, especially from the look in his eyes.
His voice interrupted her thoughts.
"You shouldn't act recklessly, Your Highness," he said as he shifted his gaze to the outside. He was on the battlefield, this was not the right time for his personal feelings.
But instead of answering him, she asked another question.
"Do I know you?"
"No, Your Highness."
Rose frowned, her eyes staring at Angel in curiosity.
"But why do I feel I've met you somewhere before?"
"I took part in yesterday's battle. Maybe you saw me there."
"No ... Not there. We've met in another place," she said.
Angel returned his gaze and smirked.
"Your Highness, all the elite forces' members wear masks. Maybe what you saw was one of us."
Rose frowned, trying to dig into her memory. But she was sure she had never one of them before. After all, she had spent most of her time at Zephyrus for these past few years. She glanced at him again and stared into his sharp eyes, not even his mask was able to cover it.
"Your eyes look familiar..."
Angel returned his gaze to the front.
"You must have mistaken me for another person, Your Highness."
Encouraged by her curiosity, Rose's hand moved to remove his mask. But Angel caught it.
"Forgive my impudence, Your Highness. But we can't show our faces to anyone."
Rose pulled at her hand in disappointment.
"What is your name?" Though she wasn't sure he would give his real name at least she knew what his nickname was.
"Rai ..." he replied. He took that name from his middle name Raizel since he couldn't use his hunter name 'Zel' as he was also known as King Zel before.
"I assume it's just a nickname," said Rose.
"Yes, Your Highness. We can't give our real names either."
"Fine," said Rose in disappointment.
"Let's move." She had just taken a step but Angel grabbed her wrist once again, stopping her.
Rose looked at him with displeasure.
"What do you mean by this?"
"I'll take you back to the town. Let me handle this, Your Highness," he said. Previously he had assigned his troops to capture Rose at the Fortaare town's west gate since she was supposed to return to the town after finding out that her horse was dead. And if she took another horse from within the town, she shouldn't be able to get out since gates were closed.
"After all the trouble I went through, you asked me to come back?" Rose pulled her hand in annoyance once again and glared at him.
"No," she replied curtly. To get the horse, she pretended to be injured and screamed for help so the gatekeepers opened the gate. After she entered, she snatched a horse from the stable near the gate before running away.
Note: In the second Arc chapter 12. Memories II, Angel mentioned his name as Zel to Ophelia because he thought his name was not well known as now. Besides that, Ophelia didn't realize that it was the King of Euphorion's name, because she locked herself in her room.