Mysterious man

That was right. Dislike!

Actually, right now, Rhea also really disliked herself. In the past, no matter how dirty the fight was between her and Zoorah, she never resorted to childishly biting someone's hand to resolve a problem.

But now...

Rhea's expression hardened from the depths of her heart, she abandoned the little pride she had in her and bit down harder, "I'll bite it off!"

Right now, the only thing she was happy about was that the handsome angel wasn't a flame controller, or else she would have been long gone, as they were known for their short temper.

Rhea regretfully sighed, she was biting down for so long her mouth was getting sore, but her victim hadn't uttered a sound. If her senses weren't wrong, then the metallic taste in her mouth was the blood from his thumb and not her gum.

How was this seemingly handsome delicate young man actually able to endure so much pain?!

There was a saying in Birhhan; that the fingers were linked to ones heart, but why doesn't it link to this man's heart? Why wasn't he withdrawing his hand or feeling the pain?! She thought with her eyebrows furrowed together.

Rhea was almost bored to tears, when at that time, he suddenly moved his hand. But surprisingly he wasn't trying to force himself free, instead he used his fingers on the hand Rhea was biting, aside from his thumb, to gently stroke her cheek.

The moment his fingertips touched her cheek, she felt like she had been touched by lightning, the tingling heat rushed into her heart.

Ba-thump! Ba-thump!

She heard her own crazy heartbeat again in her ears.

"I can't let you go." He finally opened his mouth to say a sentence. His voice was pleasantly husky and deep, like the warm breeze in spring. However, his tone had a hidden darkness, there was a weird feeling in the contrast between his voice.

Rhea released his thumb and he withdrew his hand before wiping it on her clothes. He then said, "Grandma likes you, so you will stay."

When he said that, yet again Rhea felt like something was different from before. He seemed to change from something sinister to something normal.

But wait...

"Why the hell did you wipe the blood and saliva on my clothes?" She asked with a slight glare.

His pale blue eyes meet Rhea's black ones, his eyebrows were slightly raised and he had a faint look of derision, "Weren't you the one who bit me, it's your smelly saliva in the first place, you don't expect me to clean it with my clothes, do you?"

He didn't wait for her to reply, he picked up the basket of food and steadily walked out.

Rhea stared at the once again shut door with disbelief. Did he just call her smelly?! She scoffed, "Who does he think he is? This man is definitely not the so called hideous ruthless general! I've heard a lot about him to know this is not him. But then who the hell is this man pretending to be the general...?"

---

Putting the empty bowls in the kitchen, the young handsome man looked out the window, the moon shone bright in the night sky, with countless stars twinkling.

His expression was still blank as he stared at the moon, his pale blue eyes slowly began to change, it turned completely black and seemed impenetrable to the moonlight. They were like a hidden bottomless abyss where demons and beasts lived in the purgatory.

He sighed and looked down at his thumb which was injured by Rhea's bite. Suddenly, he coldly laughed, "She wants to leave? How can I let her go when she is my..." He trailed off halting his words as if he couldn't bear to say them, clenching his hand into a tight fist as if recalling something.

---

After the man left, Rhea pondered upon the identity of this very enigmatic man, who claimed to be the general, but right now she really didn't understand his circumstances. She couldn't come up with anything. While mulling over it with no answers, she started to drift off. However she couldn't sleep in peace.

Inside the horse stable, right next to the place she was kept, were horses, they started neighing at one in the middle of the night. It was so noisy she was getting agitated and couldn't sleep.

It wasn't that they had no animal in the Villden mansion, but rather they could be shut out by Selena's magic. So they became aware of the devils who resided in the Villden mansion and would only seldomly cry out, not like these lousy ones...

Rhea burrowed her head into the pile of hay and covered it up, but the hay couldn't block out sounds, she started to secretly hate the horses. If she managed to get out of this horse stable someday, she would definitely stew those horses into soup!

After the morning sun rose in the sky, the horses didn't neigh out as much anymore. She went back to sleep but was once again woken up. But this time by a withered, coarse hand touching her arms to her face.

Rhea's eyebrows furrowed together in displeasure as she slowly opened her eyes. Her vision wasn't fully cleared from sleep, but she saw a blurry face full of wrinkles with withered eyes. The person's body was covered in an overwhelming scent of ash that seemed to bring back bad memories in Rhea's mind.

She shivered and retreated back while crying out, "Please don't hurt me, go away from me!"

When Rhea was just about ten years old, she had once mistakenly hit her step mother with an ice ball, and after that, her father had angrily thrown her out of the mansion saying she wanted to kill his wife just like she'd did to her mother.

Little Rhea had cried and banged her little hands on the gate while begging her father to let her in, but no matter how much she cried, nobody came to open the gate. In the end she decided to go away to find something to eat that night. She had wandered away to a deserted place without knowing where she was going to.

However, she came across a big monster whose body smelled like ash, she was terrified and scared as the monster started to run after her, while saying, 'I want your heart!' Rhea had ran with all her might while crying for help, but nobody came to her recuse until she bumped into an old man.

The old man had helped her and also took her back home, however, since that day, countless monsters had been haunting both her dreams and reality, she started to see strange things that didn't make sense to anybody, she would even try to explain it to her foster mother, but even if the woman had tried countless times she wouldn't be able to understand anything Rhea meant or see anything the girl claimed to see.

But one day, she had suddenly come across that same old man who helped her that night from the monster. He believed that everything she saw was real, and even drew a talisman for her which repelled common minor demons. She used to call him old man Ju.

Only old man Ju understood the things that haunted her, she had stopped seeing those monsters after he drew the talisman for her, but they never stopped appearing in her dreams. And right this moment when she felt something crawl on her arm, and the smell of ash, it reminded her of those monsters, thinking they were back to take her heart.

She buried her head into the hay, but then heard an elderly sigh, "Young lady, did I scare you?"

Hearing the familiar elderly voice, Rhea looked over and suppressed her fear, she used her shoulder to rub her face, "Grandma Lila..." She said softly.

Old lady Lila smiled, Rhea then said, "You are forcing me to marry your grandson, but you still left me tied up in here, and also you like touching me... is something wrong?"

Old lady Lila laughed, "Happiness, this old woman is happy. My grandson will finally have a wife. Nobody wants to be with him because of his disfigured face, my grandson has always been short tempered after his face was disfigured in the battlefield, but I've noticed these days, his temper has become normal, so I am happy you will be marrying him."

When the old woman said this, the wrinkles on her face were even more visible. Rhea looked around, past the horse stable door, she could see a bright halo of the morning sunlight behind the so call disfigured general just standing there.

What disfigured face? This person looks just fine! He looked completely normal with an unblemished face that could defeat that of an immortal!

He looked back at her with a blank expression as she sized him up and down looking for what was disfigured about him, but there was none.

Rhea cleared her throat as she looked back to the old lady, "Grandma Lila, you are aware I am no longer your grandson's wife-to- be after escaping the marriage thread. And again, you are lucky the one you tied up was me, I'm tough and can withstand any hardship and pain, if it was another girl, then today you would definitely find her dead body in here."

"Please don't force me to marry your grandson, I am not the marrying type. Release me from these binds and let me stay in your house for a few days to recover after eating. Once I get my strength back, I will leave and forget any of this ever happened. And I will hold no grudges against you and your grandson."

Rhea didn't know the mystery behind this general or why everyone thought he was disfigured, but she wanted to get out of here and continue to strive to become rich. She had nothing to do with these strange people.

When the conversation got to this point, old lady Lila sighed and coughed twice, "I know this is not right. But my child, take pity on me, I have put a lot of effort for the Emperor to send a wife for my grandson, if it wasn't for these old bones being at their limit_Cough, cough...!"

Rhea could see that old lady Lila's life didn't have much left. she couldn't help but feel a bit pity for the old woman.

The granny resumed to speak after coughing, "If it wasn't for the fact that there is no one else to care for my dear Jurian, then no matter what_Cough! No matter what I wouldn't commit such a sin of forcing a young woman to marry after breaking the marriage thread. If I don't sin, what about my grandson? My child, just have pity on me and let your mind be at ease and stay. Jurian might be indifferent and short tempered, but when he gets used to you, he will treat you well."

Rhea's mouth twitched, setting aside the matter of the old lady thinking this person was disfigured, she said,

"Grandma Lila, I empathize with the difficulties your family is going through, especially with your son Jurian's unfortunate disfigurement. However, I must assert that I cannot be obligated to adopt a pitiful attitude along with you both. I understand that you might be hoping that I would take care of him, but it would be more practical if you were to wish for an abundance meat pie to fall from the sky for him to live on than for me to care for him."

The old lady was silent. Then sighed, finally she patted Rhea's hand, "I have invited some of the townsfolk tonight, so you and Jurian's wedding ceremony will take place as soon as possible." She informed then stood up.

Wha...what!

Rhea was shocked for a moment before she yelled at the Grandma's retreating back, "Do you even know my full name?! What if I turned out to be a killer and kill your dear grandson?!"

The so called disfigured Jurian, expressionlessly closed the horse stable door. The moment the door closed, however Rhea could swear that she'd seen through the cracks that indifferent Jurian, looking down upon her. He was quirking his mouth, it was an extremely slight yet evil sneer.

He...was laughing at her?!

The Hell, were the entire people of Birhhan blind or what?! Even the entire people of this town were blind along with the old lady Lila. How could they not see through this person?

Rhea was furious beyond belief. She scooted over and kicked the door with her two feet, "Damn you Jurian! Bring my breakfast before leaving!"