"Claridad, alam mo na ba yung balita?" [Claridad, do you already know the news?]
Hearing that, Claridad knitted her brows and answered
"Ano po iyon?" [What is it?]
"Do you have any livestock there? Well, if you do you should take a good look at them because..."
"Don't mind her Claridad. Just take care of yourself and enjoy. This is just a small matter."
The owner of the dead carabao interupted. He was reminded of what happened to Clari. She's all alone now, maybe if she'll knew about our problem she'll creep out. I don't want her to think that there is something scary going on in this village. Also she's living alone.
But the woman said frankly,
"What? She should know, she is living in the same village as we are. At least she could say that we warned her."
"Warned me? What does that mean?"
With a sudden pause from the villagers, Clari's heartbeat became fast, making her to want to know more and became impatient.
"Please.. Tell me."
"Okay!" the man nodded and pursed his lips.
"Well, I found that my carabao was dead with no blood on it's body. She lost her chickens one day, then found it was all dead. They had a goat but then it was dead too with no traces of blood..."
As the man keeps telling the story, pointing into the person, Claridad's eyes widened, her heartbeat became faster and her face became pale.
"Claridad are you okay? You've become pale?" A woman interrupted.
"I told you! We should not have told her."
"No! it's fine. Hehe." With a beautiful smile, the villagers just let out a sigh of relief. Then she added.
"It was just a bit shocking that something like that would happen in a peaceful village like ours."
"Oh don't worry Claridad, your boyfriend is making a move to investigate it."
My boyfriend? When did I have a... remembering Seikatsu's face, she blushed. Causing them to tease her.
"You're so cute together."
"Feels like your marrying a prince Claridad."
"or something like a 'war hero' "
"I agree. Smith is a brave man."
Hearing the name, she suddenly snapped out of her senses. I got the wrong idea, of course they're referring about Smith and not him.
After saying goodbye, Claridad went directly to the kitchen to prepare a dinner for two. She put it in a big basket and covered it with a clothe.
Before taking a bath she made sure that all of the windows and doors were tightly closed and locked.
---
She wore a dress with a headscarf to cover her face. With the lights off, no one can see her lurking inside the house. She peeked several times on the window before she went out using the backdoor.
Bearing a regretfult feeling, she hurriedly walked across the street, towards her way to the forest.
"Is that the lady Claridad? Where's she going? It's already getting dark. We should stop her" The soldiers nodded.
Walking and thinking, she can't help murmuring about how stupid she was. I'm so sorry Seikatsu. I have forgotten about you for the past days. I felt so helpless that I was just thinking about my sorrows. It was all because of you that I'm still alive. "I was selfish and I'm so stupid to...."
Suddenly, a heavy hand pulled her arm.