Chapter 6

Gusion laughs at Guinevere's comment. Sometimes, her wits hit the bullseye but he knew how to make her doubt her own.

"What are you saying?" he asks, trying to be as innocent as possible, "Why would I do such idiotic thing?"

Guinevere smiles at him with her hands gripping each other at her back. She steps forward to get a bit closer to him.

"Why won't you tell me?" she sadly asks with her head looking down the ground, feeling a bit disappointed. "We've been together for so long. I know it when you lie, I know when you are hiding something."

"Guinevere, I don't get you at all," Gusion says with a calm voice but he starts to feel uneasy. This time, it seems that Guinevere is trying to corner him and make him confess.

Guinevere lets out a sigh and grabs Gusion's hands. With a serious voice and determination look on her face, she tightly holds his hands. Her eyes staring at his.

"Gusion," she says dearly, "No matter what happens, I will be here to support you. I know what you've been keeping inside yourself for a long time and doing outside the city. I also know that you wanted to be an assassin."

Internally surprised of what he had just heard from her, Gusion gazes at her, "What did you say?"

"The look in your eyes whenever you see the assassins train in the field tells me of what you want. I have been looking at you, Gusion. And if that makes you happy and contented, I will support you. I will help you train. I will help you hide your secret," she replies sincerely.

Gusion is left speechless. He does not know how to react, he simply stares at her. Guinevere lets go of his hand and wears her sweetest smile.

"I'll see you around," she says before taking her leave. A smile curves on her lips for she has finally told him what she truly feels and she's free to show her support to him even if it means betraying the principles of the mage clan. For her, the true happiness of the man she loves matters the most.

Gusion goes to the secret cavern and what Guinevere said before is still bothering him. Who knows if she will betray him? Lesley is already a headache and now that his fiancee knows it too, it would be another business he has to take care of. He closed his eyes to calm his nerves and collect his chaotic thoughts.

"Gusion, I'm here," Guinevere announces her presence which made him lose his temper. He is still in the midst of thinking yet another annoying matter had come to him.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" he yells at her, his eyes raging with fury. "Don't you know how risky of you to be here?!"

"I... I made sure no one is following me," Guinevere stammers. She did not expect Gusion to be like this. Never in her entire life had she seen him mad. He is so composed even at the pressuring moments that she never expected him to be this furious.

"I do not give a fuck about that! My point is why are you here?!"

Guinevere feels hurt with his reaction. She thought that it would be okay now to freely come and go in the cavern since she has told him about what she felt, she was wrong. But now that she has come this far, she won't back out just because he is treating her like this. She only wanted to be of support to him, not just to become his fiancee.

"Finally," she thinks with a smile, "Finally, Gusion reveals the true him. No pretending. No false pretense."

From being a timid woman, Guinevere also uncovers her real attitude. She has acted to be the refined and frail woman for long in front of Gusion since she thought that it would be the best option so he could think of protecting her. But that is all in the past now, today is a bit different now.

"I came here because I know too well that you'd drown yourself with useless thoughts of worries!" she replies. "And do not get mad at me when I fully support you in becoming an assassin!"

She is also tired of playing the good girl and perfect modest daughter. She wants to be a straightforward and courageous woman. And now that Gusion has finally shown his true self, it's also time for her to reveal who she really is. At least she could now be herself in front of the man whom she trust and love.

"How did you even find this cavern?" Gusion asks when he finally calms down.

"I followed you before and pretended like I know nothing of it," she replies, "I was actually waiting for you to tell me yourself. But I just got so jealous of Lesley when she had also known about this."

"Jealous?" Gusion scoffs, "That is not you at all."

"I do not like it either!" Guinevere states as she crosses her arms, "But I can not just sit still whenever Lesley is around. Plus, I am your fiancee, for pete's sake. I always have the right to get jealous."

Gusion shakes his head as he walks towards the table where sets of blades are laid down. Dealing with jealous women is one thing that he avoids, he knew how bothersome they are for they think too much, worry too much to the point that they would come up with unreasonable and shocking conclusions that is incomprehensible for him.

"Jealousy is a useless emotion," he says. It is his belief that if one loves the other, one must give his trust and faithfulness with his partner. And doing such, jealousy would be out of the question.

"That is wrong of you to say," Guinevere disagrees with him. She is about to rebut but Gusion interrupts her.

"It's time for you to go," he says for he does not feel to have some company that moment, "Go now before the guards would look for you. Don't risk this place being found or you'll forever regret it."

Guinevere sighs in surrender. Even though it is against her will, if it's for Gusion's sake, she will have to abide.

"Fine," she says, "I'm going. Do not stay here for too long."

When Guinevere finally got up from the cliff, she almost gets a heart attack. She feels her heart skipped a beat when she saw a silhouette sitting down by a tree branch.

"You look like a furry, curly mouse that has carelessly entered in a cat's lair," Lesley teases her after holding her rifle down.

"What are you doing here?!" Guinevere hisses with her eyebrows almost meeting on her forehead. "You could get Gusion in trouble!"

Lesley laughs at her ridiculousness as she shakes her head.

"Almost eveyone in the city knows that this is my favorite spot in killing some lurking demons. They'd pay no attention to me," Lesley informs her with a smirk. "Though they would wonder why the curly haired mage of the Baroque is here at night. They'd also wonder why you're covered with dust, dirt and leaves. 'Is the Baroque Princess trying to be a farm girl?' How would you like that as tomorrow's news headline?"

Guinevere grits her teeth in annoyance. Whenever she encounters the pink-haired girl, she always outsmarts her giving her no room for rebuttal that it makes her feel so irritated.

"Just make sure he won't be found in there," she warns before dusting off herself. "Furthermore, do not dare blackmail Gusion again using his weakness. You do not have the right to do so."

Lesley positions her rifle again for she has spotted a flying demon trying to enter in the city. But before she pulls the trigger, she shifts her position and aims at Guinevere.

"Stop blabbering before I shoot you," she commented before aiming at the demon once again.

"Don't think a pathetic bullet would even touch me. Plus, your shot won't even reach that lowly fly," Guinevere spits but right before her eyes, the demon that is so far away from them has been shot after Lesley pulled the trigger.

"You were saying?" she snickers at her.

"Hmph! Whatever!" she scoffs before stomping away.

Lesley simply shakes her head and whispers, "She looks rather cute with an angry face."

As the night deepens, Lesley is still beside the cliff waiting for demons to kill. Her insomnia is once again taking a toll on her so forcing herself to sleep is just wasting her time. While she's aiming at another flying demon, it suddenly got shot before she could even pull the trigger of her rifle. Lesley looks down and sees Gusion playing with his dagger.

"Your shots are too slow," he says with a grin and when he raises his hand, the dagger he has thrown comes back at him. He proudly stares at her as if he has made the greatest shot in his entire life.

"Should I call you baby-faced assassin, then?" Lesley teases him.

"Your jokes aren't funny even just a little," Gusion replies as he waves away his ego before Lesley could step on it again which she had done quite a lot of times.

"They're not jokes, though," she states. "So how does it feel that your fiancee has found out your I-want-to-be-an-assassin dream?"

He glares at her instead of replying. This is the worst time for him; being teased and played around by her as if he is just a puppet under her control.

"Your glare tells me you feel lovey-dovey in your stomach. I mean butterflies," she teases even more, "She is very supportive when it comes to you. Well, I guess a woman who's smitten by you would act like that. Poor her."

"Really? Your face before also tells me how you missed being lovey-dovey with the death chanter," Gusion says as he tries to get in the nerves of the pink-haired girl.

Instead of an angry reaction, Gusion is taken by surprise with Lesley's reaction. She laughs so hard for a while until she's holding her stomach and she even sheds tears of laughter. He even scans the surroundings hoping that no one is around. Her laughter could attract attention from unnecessary people.

"What's so funny?" he asks, feeling a bit offended. He even reflected on his words and tried to pinpoint which part has he said that made her laugh like that but not even one word sounds funny.

"I bet you were thinking that Granger and I had been in a romantic relationship," she says when she finally calmed down. She gets down from the tree branch and starts to walk away.

"It would have been better if that is the case," she adds before disappearing in the dark.

Every step she takes, it's getting heavier. Not just her body but her emotions start to feel as heavy as lead for she remembers what happened before. A long time did pass but she could not move on. The memories and feelings still linger around her, still vivid in her mind that they keep on haunting her, resulting to uneasiness and anxiety.

"Now, I'm curious," Gusion mumbles as he watches her walk away.