Chapter 6: Inside the Cave

Once she stepped inside the cave, she saw a long hallway that led further inside. It was dark and cold, only torches illuminating the way. She stopped to look at the hall for a few minutes before walking again.

Walking in silence made her feel so alone. She remembered her mother's cheerful voice that would always ask her about random topics that would make her think for her not get bored. The halls would always be filled with laughter and bickering.

She smiled while recalling the days spent with her mother. The next thing she knew she was at the end of the halls.

At the end of the long halls, she saw a big training room with an elevated mini-stage for sparring matches. There are two stairs on each side of the platform and a line marking where each opponent should stand before the spar starts.

There are also four benches to rest for after every training. On those benches, there is a latch attached to the side. Once you open the latches, inside lies the freshly washed towels to wipe the sweat of the soldiers training.

In the middle of the four benches stood three majestic doors. It was engraved with peculiar but beautiful patterns that are unique to each of the doors.

The doors also have different colors. There's silver, red, and gold from left to right respectively. Each room is much bigger than the training room itself and has different purposes. It is also maintained by abundant mana stone that is stored in a secret room that's also inside the cave.

This secret room is only accessible only to the Crawmore family and its descendants. Only someone with the blood of Crawmore can go in and out of that room.

The secret room not only stores mana stones but other rare treasures and some of the other family heirlooms that are unknown to the outside world.

Becca sighed. She slowly walked to the silver door that is on the left of the cave. She slowly opened the door and saw the marvelous inside of it...

.....

"My lady, time to go back inside. It's almost sundown."

Becca snapped back from her thoughts as Emma spoke behind her. She realized that she was standing in a field of red salvia flowers. She took one last look at the mesmerizing flower rows before agreeing to go inside.

Once they got inside, Emma helped prepare bath water for her and some maids went inside to help her bathe.

While Becca was still taking a bath, Emma slipped something from her pocket and put a drop of it on the perfume that Becca took a liking to. Emma then put it back in her pocket and helped Becca out of the bath.

She pretended everything was alright and helped the other maids choose a dress for her. In the end, she wore a light green dress with some flowers laced in the dress. She let her hair loose with a braid in the middle and a flower pin.

Lastly, Emma sprayed the perfume on Becca which made her smile because of the fragrance. The sweet fragrance of the ylang-ylang perfume wafted the whole room. She was so entranced by the scent that Becca almost got late for her dinner with Zeke.

Zeke was already waiting at the table as soon as she went to the dining room. She quickly made her way into the seat next to him.

"I'm sorry I'm late. I forgot the time."

Zeke chuckled.

"It's alright. I also just arrived."

"O-oh... T-that's good. I guess."

She gave a very awkward smile then looked at the table, avoiding Zeke's gaze. Instead of getting annoyed that she was avoiding him, Zeke secretly smirked under his mask.

He enjoyed seeing the changes in Becca's emotions up close. Becca became anxious because Zeke kept staring at her. She thought that he got offended by her avoiding him that's why she started fidgeting with the bracelet her mother gave her. She only does this when she's worried about something.

Zeke knew this but he didn't do anything. He felt it amusing to see her like a little lamb in front of him. A few minutes passed and...

*Growl~*

Becca was surprised and quickly covered her stomach. Zeke couldn't help chuckling before asking the maids to prepare the table.

Becca was so embarrassed that she wanted to dig the ground and bury herself alive. Because of the embarrassment earlier, she couldn't enjoy the meal in front of her.

After eating, she said goodnight to Zeke and bid him farewell. She went back into her room immediately after that.

Once she arrived at her room, she started feeling funny. After a few minutes, her stomach started aching and she felt nauseous. She called for the maids to ask for medicine. When the maids got into her room, she suddenly started vomiting before she could even speak.

Everyone got alarmed because of this. They called for a doctor immediately and reported to Zeke what was happening.

As soon as Zeke got into the room, Becca was burning hotter than the sun. He got stunned and soon got so anxious that he started roaring for the doctor to get there as soon as possible.

He volunteered to wipe cold water on Becca's body to help lower her temperature a bit.

Soon, the doctor came tumbling to her room while panting like a horse. Upon seeing him, Zeke appeared in front of him out of nowhere and directly dragged him into Becca's bed.

Half running and half stumbling, he finally made it into Becca's bed. He shakily examined her thoroughly under Zeke's eagle eye.

"Stop. Trembling. You're done once you examine her wrong."

Terrified. The doctor abruptly stopped what he was doing and steadied himself first before he continued.

After a thorough examination, the doctor faced Zeke shakily.

"S-she is suffering f-from... food poisoning."

"WHAT?!"

Everyone immediately knelt from the might of his rage.

"DANTE!"

No sooner than he shouted did Dante came rushing to his side.

"At your service, my lord. What are your orders?"

A sinister aura started emanating from Zeke that turned the whole room eerie.

"The doctor said that my princess got food poisoned. What do you think?"

Dante trembled from his question and immediately kowtowed to Zeke.

"P-please forgive my negligence. I'll go and get to the bottom of this. Please spare me!"

Zeke sat down beside Becca who is sleeping due to fatigue from vomiting too much. He gently stroked her face with the wet towel to clean her face.

"I'll only give you one chance. Or else..."

Zeke's cold voice sent shivers down his spine.

"Of course! I'll do my best."

Dante immediately rushed out of the room to investigate. Everyone else is still kneeling in the room.

"Get out"

Everyone scrambled to get out of the room before they get punished.

As soon as everyone left, Zeke kissed Becca's forehead and kept wiping her with the wet towel.