"You seem different," Jack said as he locked his eyes on Ave's.
Ave stood there speechless for a few seconds.
"What do you mean?" she asked with a smile on her face. She refused to let him know anything about her not being the real princess and losing her life.
"Oh. Nothing." Jack turned around and went back inside the carriage.
"Sigh. That was close." Aveline let out a deep sigh and follow Jack after a few minutes.
****
After two days, they had already left Helzon and were about to cross the border to head to Seldor.
"How long do we have to keep going?" Ave asked holding her back that was hurting from sitting for straight three days.
"Well. Another two or three days. Are you not comfortable?" Jack approached the female and held her back.
Her face flushed when his hands touched her back through her dress.
"What are you doing?!" She pushed him against the wall with a huge force.
"Calm down. I was just checking..." Jack mumbled dejectedly.
'Why is she so distant lately? She would always jump on me whenever we rode a carriage together...'
"Your majesty, the road is blocked because the bridge broke because of a storm a week ago. It's under construction. We need to wait for a few hours. Would you like to head to an inn for now?" Sharrkan questioned the king as he landed towards the open window.
"Mhm. Lead the way."
Sharrkan nodded and told the horseman to go towards a nearby inn.
"How did they come if the bridge broke a week ago?" Ave questioned Jack who was surprised by her smartness. Usually, she wouldn't understand much of this and ignore it. After all, she only cared to be outside of that palace.
Jack's lips curved into a smile. He liked that change in her.
"They went through the forest. I can't let you go through the forest." The black-haired man replied nonchalantly.
***
"We have arrived." Keiji notified the king and queen inside the carriage.
Jack went outside. Ave was about to get out when Jack extended his hand to her with a bright smile.
"Hm?"
"Hold my hand."
Aveline looked around and noticed that every woman was taking the hand of a man to get out of the carriage. She sighed and took his hand and stepped on the ground. Her legs became weak due to not having walked for a long time so she almost fell. Her husband wrapped his arms around her waist to catch her. She was dazed into his handsome face for a few minutes. Everyone around had their stares locked onto the young couple.
She blinked fast with pink cheeks and pushed him away fast.
"Ahem. Thank you..." she softly mumbled and rushed inside the inn.
The inn was not very very magnificent but it was for a village of Helzon. Helzon is a small country and people here are very poor.
The building had two floors, the first one was used a restaurant where people eat or take drinks. The second one was with bedrooms to let travellers stay for one or more nights.
***
"Woah. This girl is so beautiful."
"Very much..."
Some men were drinking at the corner of the room and admiring the beauty of the young women who entered.
Her blonde hair was waving around as she walked elegantly. Her green eyes were shining like precious gems. It triggered the drunk men even more.
"I shall have some fun." One said as he licked his lips. He was huge in height and had muscles that showed off since he was wearing a shirt with short sleeves. He approached Aveline as she glared at him.
"How dare you glare at me! I will show you—" he couldn't finish his sentence when he got hit by a sword still inside its scabbard. It was so hard that it knocked him out. He fell on the ground twitching.
"Don't you dare touch her," Keiji said with a bright smile on his face. He walked towards Ave and bowed.
"I hope I wasn't too late."
"It's ok." Aveline smiled softly.
The her who was glaring with a murderous aura had disappeared.
'It was probably my imagination.' Keiji told himself. 'She's so sweet.'
Jack stepped inside and wrapped Aveline with a cape and put the hoodie on her head.
"Be careful." He wrapped his arms around her shoulder and walked towards the stairs to go inside a room.
"Wait, we didn't order—"
"Zain already ordered the room."
"The room? Are we sleeping together?!" Aveline asked with a shocked face.
"Uhm yes. We are married now, Avi." Jack chuckled finding her reaction cute. "Let's go now."
Aveline hesitantly followed him upstairs nervously.
'Ahh... goddess please save me. I don't want to sleep with an unknown man!!'
***
After entering the room, Jack took a seat on the bed.
The room was clean and had a fresh smell. Like a rose perfume was sprayed inside. Aveline took a deep breath to smell the fragrance. It surprised her how it was better than the perfume she used in her past life.
'My past life...' Aveline closed her eyes as she remembered everything she did in her past life.
When she was born, her parents had left her on the streets. She grew up in an orphanage as an orphan. Nobody wanted her. But a lot of families adopted her. Some abused her or starved her. She would be happy for the days she didn't get abused and starved. She also tried to beat them up back when they hit her. Alas, she was too weak and got a double beating instead.
Thankfully, the last family that adopted her let her go to a school. She went to school and had great marks.
She got to work part-time and entered a good university. She later became a famous businesswoman. Unfortunately, she didn't have anyone by her side.
She got assassinated by someone she trusted, her manager. He was blinded by greed. And he took her life to take over the company she had worked so hard on.
"Sigh."
"What are you sighing for?" Jack asked as he walked towards her.
Ave came back to her senses and walked past Jack and went inside the room. She sat down and took off the robe Jack had put on her earlier.
"Hm?" Jack turned around and looked at her strange behaviour.
"You are acting very strange, Avi." He said again.
'Why. Why can't he just ignore it!!'
"I'm not. It's just we haven't met it's been too long." She replied indifferently.
Jack's felt a sting in his heart. It was a better feeling he never felt. Not even when his mother abused him or treated him unfairly.
"Oh. Ok. Let's sleep." He laid on the bed and turned around.
Aveline put a pillow between them and did the same as Jack.
'Well. He sure is a gentleman!' she thought with a soft smirk on her face. She fell asleep instantly.
***
Later that night, Jack woke up from his sleep. He suffers from insomnia, which causes him to sleep only 2-3 hours per day and night.
"Ugh... This is all because of that woman," he mumbled and turned his head towards Ave. His anger washed away at the sight of her face. She was sleeping so peacefully that he felt a slight ray of happiness. She was the only person he had ever wanted to be with and he would do anything in the world to make it happen.
He watched her sleep for a whole night without sleeping. When the sunlight came inside the room, he realized it was already morning. He rushed to pretend to be asleep as he saw Aveline's eyelashes moving.
Aveline opened her eyes and sat straight up after remembering that Jack was sleeping on the same bed as her! She got off the bed quickly.
"You already woke up?" Jack asked as he pretended as if he had just woken up.
Ave nodded without saying a word.
"Get ready. We will depart soon." he got off the bed saying that and walked outside the room.
'Ahhhh! How can he be so calm?!' she let out an internal scream?
***
After an hour, they took the carriage and took the road towards Seldor.
Aveline looked around through the window.
The landscape was beautiful compared to Helzon. Here the population was wearing nice clothes and was doing great. Some were even chubby, but no one was skinny enough that their bones could be seen.
The carriage they took a that of a nobleman, so the people didn't know the king was inside and was watching them with a bright smile on his face.
'Such a nice ruler...' Aveline thought starting at him, smiling at the sight of his people being happy. 'If only... J was the real Aveline, maybe I could open up more to him... No, what the heck am I thinking?! This man can kill me anytime!' she slapped her cheeks to control her thoughts.
"What are you doing?..." Jack asked raising an eyebrow as he glanced at her slapping herself.
"N-nothing. Just a bug." She looked away towards the window to continue watching the beautiful scenery of her new kingdom.
'So this is... Wait. Where is this?!' The girl finally realized she doesn't even know where she was. She only knew one country of this world, Helzon.
'What about the rest of this world? This sure is an ancient time. But when?'
"Avi?" Jack stared at her with an unhappy complexion.