Chapter 899 Taking Things Slowly
“What’s the matter?” asked Xavier as he approached her, sensing her strange behavior. While her head was lowered as she observed her surroundings, Veronica answered, “It’s nothing.”
“Did someone try to kill you?” Despite her efforts to hide the truth, he had guessed the answer just from studying her expression.
Knowing she could not hide the truth from him anymore, she nodded without speaking as she observed the footsteps on the ground, wanting to find clues from the traces left behind.
Xavier went inside the tent and felt his heart skip when he saw the two stab marks. At that moment, his anger for Matthew surged, but he knew that no matter what the situation was, he did not want to see Veronica get hurt.
When he came out of her tent, he saw a few people coming toward them and whispered a reminder, “They’re back. It’s better if they didn’t know what happened last night.”
“Alright.” She nodded and stood up straight before looking toward Nelson’s tent. Narrowing her eyes, she fell into deep thought.
“We found a few wild bird eggs. Xavier, Miss Murphy, you guys get some water boiling so we can cook them,” Liam ordered.
“How are we supposed to cook without a pot?”
Keeping the events of last night in her heart, Veronica smiled and joked with Liam, “There’s no pot of any sort in our mighty backpack.” Then, she pointed at the eggs in his hand. “Let’s eat them raw.”
Since they have limited resources, it was best to have it raw.
“Miss Murphy’s right. I agree with her,” Nelson voiced his agreement.
Frowning, Zac spoke in disdain, “We aren’t in a hurry to head up to the mountain, so why make things difficult for ourselves? It’s still quite early. We should slow down our pace. After all, isn’t there a saying that those who covet gains ahead are unaware of the danger behind them?”
In other words, it was already challenging to find their target animal, so would it not be better if they let the other groups see the animal and fight amongst themselves for it? Then, they would be able to take advantage of their worn-out state and get what they wanted.
“Zac’s plan sounds nice.” Xavier agreed.
“I agree with Zac too.”
Liam crossed his arms and beamed. “Since there are so many competitors, we don’t need to be in such a hurry. Wouldn’t it be better if we just treat this as a camping trip?”
“Prince Liam is right.” Nelson nodded.
Seeing that they were all supportive of Zac’s idea, Veronica did not say anything else. She turned around and looked toward the mountain’s peak in the distance, feeling nervous. We’ve agreed that we would look for each other after entering the mountain, but now, Zac and the others want to slow down our pace and even stay in the same spot. That means Matthew and I will not be able to meet up. It will be more difficult for him to look for me. If I leave here alone…
While thinking of that, she glanced at her tent, conflicted.
…
“Good morning, Master Iron. Here, for you.”
On the other hand, Matthew and Eleanor were arranged into the same group with three other strangers. However, since yesterday afternoon, he had concluded that the other three were here to protect her.
The three had prepared wild fruits and barbecued fish early in the morning before presenting them to the princess.
After thanking them, Eleanor immediately brought them to Matthew and gave them to him.
“Thank you.” He accepted her offerings and took two wild pears before taking a bite.
Since they entered the mountain, there were not any other edible foods besides the hardtack, and in comparison to that, he would rather have some wild fruits.
“Hehe. Master Iron, you don’t have to be so polite with me.” She approached him and leaned against a tree trunk. “It’s what I should do.”
While saying that, she glanced at the tree behind him and saw a snake with a bright green body spitting its forked tongue at them.
