To someone who had eaten a mouse, cockroach, and lizard for the sake of healing her body, Rosalind would never refuse to eat a roasted snake.
And that might have come as a surprise to the stranger.
He had been staring at her as she gobbled up a portion of the snake without gagging.
"You eat snakes," he uttered.
"And you don't," she fired back.
"There were no snakes… where I lived."
By now, she was certain he was from the North. The place was too cold, no snakes could survive ten months of snow.
She shrugged. So, why would he kill the snake if he didn't eat snakes? She narrowed at her as she realized something.
He was lying.
He must be.
Was he doing it so she could eat?
Perhaps she was just overthinking things.
She stared at his side profile. The man looked normal. One couldn't see any weakness in his features. Yet, his wound was still bleeding. The blood wasn't really spurting out of flowing nonstop. It was more like oozing from the damaged part of his body if he moved or used his leg. She found it hard to distinguish how much blood he had lost because he was wearing black clothes. Unfortunately, she thought.
What type of magick could have caused something like this?
Black magick?
A cursed weapon?
In the end, she concluded that this might be the result of a cursed weapon. A cursed weapon wasn't really made to kill someone, but to make them suffer.
Still, this doesn't explain the fact that he was still conscious.
"Staring at someone's flesh is… a bit rude." He turned to her. "Don't you think so?"
She cleared her throat, then she decided to focus on her food instead. The snake wasn't that big, to begin with, so eating it took just a few minutes. There were no spices or anything that would add flavor to the flesh, but she didn't mind. At this point, she would eat anything just to survive and live to see her enemies suffer.
"The rain has stopped," he said. "You should leave."
"At this hour?"
"Well, do you want to stay with a man in a little cave?"
Her jaw dropped, her face heating up. "Was that more important than living?" she asked.
He offered her a bemused smile. "Many ladies from the empire would think so."
"Not me," she responded.
"Then I will be resting. You take the first watch." The man said. She watched as he leaned against the rock and closed his eyes without even waiting for her to say a word. But she quickly deduced that this was because of the wound.
She stared at his calm expression for a few minutes before she, too, leaned against the rock. She then removed the purple plant that she had neatly tucked on her chest and swallowed it.
The plant was poisonous, and it would give her immense pain.
But she didn't care.
After everything that she had experienced in her past life, Rosalind would do everything to survive and make all those people suffer!
In her past life, it was Dorothy who told her about a poisonous plant that could kill any human. She said she saw it in the forest, near a river. She purposely told her how the plant lived near rivers and was feared by everyone because of its potency.
At that time, she thought it was nothing but a normal conversation that sisters have. Now she understood the meaning behind her older sister's actions.
Dorothy purposely told her those things to give her a way to end herself. She must have wanted her to kill herself using that plant.
And she did.
Oh, the foolish Rosalind tried to end her own life by eating the poisonous plant.
But instead of dying, her blessing awakened.
Obviously, she immediately told Dorothy about it. At that time, her older sister, Dorothy, was the only person she could trust. She was wrong.
So wrong!
She shoved the memories out of her head as soon as they popped up.
At first, it felt like a sting, like an ant bite on her navel. Then it started throbbing. Slowly, it felt like someone started stabbing her body with a blunt knife. Blinding agony hit her like a brick!
She opened her mouth in a silent scream. She was determined not to make a sound and wake up the stranger. Her eyes sprang open. She soon used her hand to cover her mouth, stopping herself from making a single sound or pain.
She held her breath, hoping it would help with the pain. She failed.
Her skin started burning. It was as if someone ripped her skin and then used a needle to put it back. She didn't know how long it took. Minutes, perhaps hours. All she knew was that her body was changing, reconstructed into something else.
And just when the pain reached its peak, it dissipated, vanishing into nothing.
Rosalind slumped against the rock, her breathing labored, her face pale as beads of sweat appeared on her face.
She opened her eyes to a blinding light.
The day has come, she thought inwardly as a smile appeared on her face.
It took her hours to awaken this time.
In the past, it took her about a day of suffering.
This time was shorter, but definitely as painful as the one in the past.
After calming herself, she looked at the man, who was still asleep.
"Hm?" almost immediately, her expression changed.
The wound had gotten bigger; the blood was now flowing endlessly from what looked like a stab wound on his leg. She carefully approached him and used her palm on his forehead as she examined his temperature.
He was…. Cold!
But he was still breathing.
Thank the goddess, she thought inwardly. Using a knife that Milith gave her, she cut off the lower part of his pants, allowing her to check the wound closer.
The empire customs would tell her that this was an inappropriate action of an unmarried lady. Looking at a man's body is enough to force any lady to marry the man.
The action isn't only considered shameful; it is a scandalous thing for someone like her who is a member of the seven great families.
But as a woman who died in her fifties, this was nothing. Who cares about customs when she just wanted to save a life?
She stared at the wound and her expression turned grim.
It was indeed a cursed object.
It seems that this man was born lucky!
A cursed object's weakness was something that was blessed by the goddess or any object that had been submerged in the water that surrounded the church of light.
At least, that's what everyone knew.
There is actually another thing that could help this man and that… is her.
The one who received the blessing of the goddess.
The heir of the light.