Chapter 860: Rowena Goes Undercover

It didn't take too long for the two of them to leave Almere and rode towards the south. Julian ended up with the horse with chestnut fur while Rowena ended up with the dark one.

It surprised the young man from the stables, but somehow, Rowena managed to make the dark horse listen to her.

Although for Rowena it made sense.  It seemed like everybody else didn't take the moment to befriend the horse instead of forcing it to follow them. 

The wind blew through her face, despite her hood, which was a refreshing companion as they rode through the roads of Ashland.

There were a few other travelers, but thanks to the maps she read, Rowena easily found the least traveled routes that still happened to be the perfect path for them to take.

"This is so fun!" Rowena laughed as she gripped the reins of the horse. She glanced over her shoulder and said, "Hurry up, Julian!"

Julian chuckled as he watched the young woman have fun, luckily his horse was nice, but he called out to her. "Not everyone took horseback riding lessons!"

The two of them ended up riding for a couple of hours and got used to their horses before slowing down. They had rode in the afternoon, but it was quickly approaching night time. They stopped at a small village, rented two rooms and stayed for the night.

The next morning, they continued to ride and ended up passing by some other travelers. It seemed like they were immersed in a lot of conversation and soon piqued the interest of both Rowena and Julian.

After the two silently exchanged looks, Julian approached the other travelers with a friendly grin.

"Good morning! I noticed that all of you are in a deep conversation." Julian pointed out. "Is there some trouble up in the south? Any bandits to watch out for? Something else?"

"Oh! Not at all, there's just been sudden checkpoints." one of the men explained. 

"News says they're looking for a girl, a young woman. I'm not entirely sure, but I heard some say, it's related to the princess?"

"Oh really? What happened to the princess?" Julian asked.

"We're not so sure either. Did she get kidnapped or run away?"

One of the other travelers shook his head. "Kidnap is unlikely. It means that someone infiltrated the castle and it's highly secure and with good security. There's no way that anybody would be able to enter it, much less leave it alive and in one piece." 

"Maybe we're wrong and misheard it." another added. "What would a person do out of the palace?"

Someone scoffed. "They don't even need to lift a single finger. Maybe it was something else."

Julian frowned a little at their scathing remarks. "Well, we don't kn

ow what happens in the palace. Maybe it's not all as wonderful as we might think it could be?"

"What nonsense are you even talking about boy?"

Rowena understood that Julian was trying to defend her in his own way, and moved closer to him. She threw him a look which left him sighing, and then he cleared his throat and looked at the other travelers.

Some of them were vegetable vendors, others seemed to carry other goods and so Julian asked. "Do any of you sell clothes by the way?"

"Huh?"

"Yeah." Julian nodded. "My brother and I haven't been able to pack much clothes."

Without any need to explain more, Rowena immediately understood what Julian planned to do. She appreciated the good idea and the two of them bought some baggy clothing for Rowena before they went their separate ways.

Once they were far away and was sure nobody was around, Rowena sighed in relief while Julian scanned around their surroundings one last time. "Coast is clear."

"This should be something I should have done earlier, but I wasn't really confident I could pull it off." Rowena admitted to him as she looked at her newly bought clothes. "Thanks for your help, I wouldn't have been able to buy without getting glances."

"No problem. You should tie your horse and then get dressed. It's better we arrive at the next place with you already in that male outfit," Julian seriously said. "We'll also help you say things at a lower tone so you can fool the others."

"Got it. I'll be tying Hades here for a while," Rowena gently petted her horse and allowed him to graze the grass. "If you come anywhere near me, he'll alert me and also he might kick you."

"What do you take me for?" Julian chuckled and tossed a look at his horse. "I'm a gentleman. Isn't that right, Cinna?"

"Cinna is…"

"Short for cinnamon."

"Okay. I'll be quick." Rowena nodded and moved behind a rather large tree to get changed. She was done before she knew it, and when she poked her head out, she saw Julian feeding his horse a sugar cube.

He must really like the horse.

"I'm done." Rowena stepped out of the tree. "What do you think?"

Julian stared at her for a minute and then said, "You look the same."

"What?"

"You look like a person." Julian chuckled. "Shall we get going now and practice how to speak along the way?"

"We should also use fake names." Rowena said as she got back on her horse. "I think I'll go by Rowan. What do you think?"

"You sure? I was thinking along the lines of Julio or Julius."

"Those are terrible names," Rowe

na said. "Think of something else."

He laughed. "It's like you're calling Julian a bad name."

"Well…"

"Wait, do you really think so?" Julian threw her a look.

Rowena chuckled and rode away. "Let's discuss it when we get to our destination!"

Before they knew it, Rowena and Julian arrived in the city and it was bustling with soldiers. There were a lot of people getting stopped and checked which made Rowena very nervous, luckily, they managed to escape undetected.

They failed to notice that among them had been one knight.

It was Jarvis.