CHAPTER 30: I ALREADY KNOW ABOUT ALL OF IT

My eyes instantly went to Veyra.

Sure, everyone else was shocked. But I wonder how Veyra, who had eyes on Fenric from the moment she saw him, would react after hearing him say he wanted to be my spouse.

And sure enough, Veyra looked like she was about to explode.

I mean it. Her jaw tightened, her nostrils flared, and her eye did that twitchy-twitchy thing it always does when someone touches something she wants.

When ’I’ happen to get a little attention.

And right now, I wasn’t getting only a ’little’ attention. I was getting lots of it... From Fenric.

Her face twisted so violently that I honestly thought she might shift on the spot and claw me.

How was it that no one had seen this side of her yet? She was right in front of everyone, looking like a witch but no one managed to pick up a thing.

She even looked like she could blow steam from her ears like a kettle.

I was enjoying her reaction, though. How does it feel like to have what you want without even working for it?

I had no plans on fighting with Veyra if Fenric had his eyes on her, but I didn’t even need to worry about any of that since his interest was on me from the start.

Eat that, you two-faced bitch!

I grinned victoriously.

Then, Veyra stepped forward slowly, her eyes glued on Fenric, and my grin fell.

She’s up to something again. I can feel it.

"I think you made a mistake." She said, with a soft voice, almost pitying.

Ah, there it was. Fake Veyra.

I knew she would try to pull this stunt.

There’s no other way to try and make a male lose interest in a female than to reveal the female’s ugly past.

She probably feels she has the upper hand here, thinking Fenric doesn’t know a thing about me, which is why he can still be confident in wanting me as a spouse.

"You don’t know what my sister is really like." I almost heard her sniff, and it made my skin crawl. She was so fake, clasping her hands in front of her as if she were some delicate thing. "She causes a lot of trouble, she fights, she argues with anyone who looks at her wrong, and she even goes hunting—hunting, Fenric. And she’s not... feminine. At all. She’s not someone you’d like to have as a spouse."

Ugh. I already knew that she was going to pull this stunt but it still makes me uncomfortable.

She was trying so hard to make Fenric lose interest in me.

It wasn’t fair.

And what was even more annoying and heartbreaking was that the tribe nodded along, as if they were hearing some holy truth.

These were words they knew so well, so they didn’t want our ’guest’ to be deceived.

They were all in on it.

Even my father didn’t speak up because that seemed to be the truth.

It would be grave if they handed me as a spouse to Fenric when he didn’t know the kind of person I truly was, and that would bring problems to the tribe.

No one was on my side.

But Fenric didn’t even blink after hearing those words.

He simply crossed his arms, unimpressed.

"I know," he said. "So what?"

Veyra froze.

"What?" She asked, softly and a little taken aback.

Did she hear him right?

Yeah, he said it loud and clear.

"Everything you just listed," Fenric continued, his tone flat, "I already know about all of it."

A collective gasp swept through the tribe and they began to murmur again.

My heart did a weird flip hearing his words. It’s not new, since he said it before but it sure made me feel great inside.

I quickly looked down, pretending I wasn’t affected, but I was glad.

Glad that he could stand in front of my tribe and boldly speak out the words to any and every accusations, ’So what?’

Veyra’s painted smile cracked a little and she began to falter.

"A-And hearing that didn’t change anything?" she asked, looking a little frantic.

"No." Fenric tilted his head, calm as the moon. "Is it supposed to make me change my mind?"

"W-well, yes." She said, her face twitching in worry. "No male likes a female that acts like a male, you know."

"What does it matter?" He shut her down, pointing back at himself with his thumb. "I like Arinya."

That shut everyone up and my heart began to race again.

He went on to say,

"When I listen to you, it seems you’re more concerned with keeping the males away from your sister," Fenric said, narrowing his eyes suspiciously on Veyra. "As if you want her to be alone."

Wow, Fenric already uncovered the truth that this entire tribe couldn’t figure out no matter how many years passed.

Maybe because he wasn’t so blinded like they were.

"N-no," Veyra stuttered, but her calm expression was already falling apart. "I just worry." She got closer, "I don’t want you to be deceived. It would only ruin the relationship between both tribes." She reached for his arm but he evaded it.

This shocked her.

No one had ever tried to evade her touch before.

I nearly cackled, seeing the expression on her face. She finally met a male who was not a complete idiot.

"Anyway, it doesn’t matter," Fenric said. "What matters is that I want to make Arinya my spouse. And I’ll make sure she accepts me."

I choked on my own breath. Excuse me? Why did you have to add that part? It’ll make it seem like I rejected him.

Well, I guess that adds value to me somehow.

The tribe erupted into murmurs immediately after hearing Fenric’s words.

"Make sure she accepts...?"

"So she hasn’t agreed?"

"Is he being tricked?"

"Why would a beast warrior need to chase her?"

"Is Arinya deceiving him—?"

"How come Arinya’s suddenly playing hard to get?"

Gosh, I was right in front of them but they had no problem spewing all sorts of degrading words about me.

Somewhere in the crowd, someone muttered loudly:

"Why would he have to convince her? He’s a beast warrior. It should be an honor!"

I rubbed my temples. This was getting ridiculous.

Sure, it was the normal reaction since unwanted Arinya was suddenly putting up airs but it was dragging for longer than I could keep up with.