Extra's Perfect Ending

Chapter 163: Deal

The horses galloped, pulling the heavy prison carriage forward. The priest at the front guided the whole thing, and though they could have reached Lmemore in three days with a regular carriage, the immense weight of this mobile prison slowed them down. It would take five days instead.

Two horses flanked the carriage, each ridden by priests with second-circle mystic powers. Reeva could spot them through the small peephole in the stone door.

Ahead of the prison carriage was a lighter, more typical one meant for travel. Inside, the prince of Eyre rode with three of his companions. Surrounding the whole convoy were more priests than Reeva cared to count, though he knew that escaping would be no easy task.

Inside the prison carriage, Reeva leaned back, trying to make himself comfortable. The journey would be long, with two village stops and two nights spent camping out along the road. Like when he first arrived in Tumidus, there were no villages nearby, so their first stop would be somewhere on the roadside.

Still, there was a long way to go, and Reeva decided to rest. Just as he was about to drift off, a voice interrupted him.

"Reeva, why did you help my sister?"

It was Onia. When the church had captured Reeva, they immediately ran a background check and discovered that he wasn’t the real Penu. Naturally, everyone in the convoy now knew this, especially Brent, who had declared Reeva to be under his protection.

Reeva opened his eyes and looked at Onia. If not for her addressing him, he might have forgotten she was there. He’d like to say he was excited to meet the female lead of The Divine Twig, but that would be a lie.

Onia was the type to jump into things, often causing trouble without fully considering the consequences. This impulsive, headstrong behavior led to many complications in the novel. While she eventually grew as a character, Reeva could hear in her voice that she was still in the early stages—driven by emotion, not yet tempered by experience.

This prison carriage had enough room for five people, and the lead carriage was similarly limited. Though they could squeeze in a sixth, it would be uncomfortable, so the arrangement was ideal with one extra person here.

What puzzled him was why they sent Onia in here... or, more likely, why she had chosen to come herself.

Very much in character.

"Can’t I just help people?" Reeva replied, raising an eyebrow.

Reeva asked with a neutral tone, feeling neither particularly good nor bad as he spoke to her. Onia, however, wasn’t satisfied with his casual response.

"Don’t lie to me—you must have some kind of plan," she pressed, clearly irritated by his lack of engagement.

Reeva squinted his eyes in mild annoyance. "Do I look like the planning type?"

He was playing on the fact that Onia didn’t know he wasn’t the original Reeva. The real Reeva—before losing his power—was a gambling addict, more prone to reckless moves than calculated plans. The idea of him concocting a master scheme to become a heretic while being an Antores and attending the Royal Academy? It would have been absurd, even for the old Reeva.

Onia, caught off guard, couldn’t immediately respond. "Then you must have gained something from helping her. What did you get out of it?"

"I gained nothing. Seriously, why are you so obsessed with this?"

The question wasn’t just for Onia, Reeva needed to know why she was here, grilling him like this. In his mind, Brent would likely denounce him at some point, probably once they reached the capital, where escape would be near impossible. There was a nagging suspicion that Brent hated him for some reason.

Onia, silent for a moment, frowned. "So you just helped my sister after becoming a heretic... for no reason?"

"Yep. Nothing better to do. I got kicked out of the house, wandered around, found your sister in trouble, and helped her."

"You just... stumbled upon her?" Onia’s skepticism was clear. She’d been searching for her sister for a while, and the chances of Reeva randomly finding her seemed incredibly slim.

"Fate, I guess. Now, are you going to tell me why you’re really here? Did you get in the wrong carriage?"

Reeva flashed her a casual smile, but Onia only looked at him with more suspicion.

"Are you really Reeva?"

"Who else would I be?"

"You’re different from the last time I met you," she said, her eyes narrowing. "The old Reeva would have been arguing with me by now."

"I can do that if you’d prefer," he replied with a smirk. "We can fight right now if you miss it so much."

"No, I like this better," Onia sighed, studying him with an unreadable expression. Something weighed on her mind, that much was obvious.

"So, what’s the plan?" Reeva asked, shifting gears.

"What?"

"Come on, don’t play dumb. If we make it to the capital, we’re all getting executed. You guys must have something up your sleeves, right?"

Onia’s immediate reaction confirmed that there was, in fact, some kind of plan in the works. He had touched a nerve.

"No..." She blurted out the denial, but when Reeva gave her a knowing look, she realized lying wouldn’t get her anywhere. After a moment, she sighed and gave in.

"Yes, we do have a plan."

"Great," Reeva said, not wasting time. "So, what is it?"

Onia hesitated, weighing her options. She seemed reluctant to reveal too much but knew she couldn’t avoid the question forever.

However, then she remembered what Klad said to her when she wanted to come here.

"I’m not telling you"

"Even when I have a potential solution to change Theia’s mystic foundation?"

"What!?"

"Yep, I have a way to change your sister’s foundation, and it’s pretty safe too but I would like to know what you’re planning, deal?"

"...." Onia look at Reeva with a furious face. She doesn’t like the fact that Reeva Is using her sister’s fate as a bargain to gain something.

"I need to discuss this with..."

"This deal ends the moment the priest hand us our lunch."

"....."