Second Female Leads' Playbook

"I believe you're setting out for the town the fire temple is in?" he asked while feeding his crow. 

I nodded. Why was he here? 

"That's your dinner?" he asked skeptically. 

I looked at the bread and cheese on the mat. I nodded. 

"You're not planning to treat a high priest to bread and cheese I hope." 

"No, of course not." I smiled elegantly. I picked up the bow and arrows from my horse. "I will go and hunt something for you, your Grace." 

This lazy priest! I really wondered if he showed up now just so I could hunt and cook for him. Why didn't he just call for his shadow puppets?

"That's very nice of you," he smiled with something evil sparkling in his eyes. "I thought I'd send out my shadow puppets to hunt something, now I don't even have to use my power! So glad you offered!" 

Now some of the not so great memories of dealing with him came rushing back. The memories I had of him before I died in my second life must be too impactful, it must have blinded me. 

"Please wait a moment, your grace." I bowed and then turned around to enter the forest. The elegant smile I had just a second before slipped from my face, I was clenching my teeth and rolling my eyes as soon as I turned my back at him. 

A cold hand wrapped around my wrist. "Are you angry?" he chuckled. "I am just joking." He snapped his fingers as two black shadows drifted into the forest. 

I glared at him. But a second later I regretted it. I lowered my eyes as I reminded myself once again. He was not the high priest I got to know in my second life. He was the high priest of the god of darkness. In this life I was just his spy and we only met twice. He was not the high priest I could roll my eyes or glare at. 

"If I let you hunt for me, who knew when I can finally have my dinner." He shrugged. "My puppets are much more efficient." 

And now I wanted to strangle him again. I did not want to face him at the moment. I went and take out seasonings I had packed in my luggage. 

The Odette in her first or second life might not know how to cook, but the Odette who had experienced running away from home and hiding out in a foreign country, she could at least cook something edible. 

I picked up some more woods from around my camp and sat in front of the fire to wait for the raw meat to come. 

"You are still angry at me." The high priest's face was just an inch from mine when I looked up, his red eyes gazing intently at me. Some scenes flashed in my mind, my cheeks felt slightly warmer, as I scrambled back as elegantly as I could. Don't blush, Odette, you're not Rachelle. 

"No... no I am not angry at you, your Grace." 

"Do you know how to cook?" 

"A bit." 

"You either know how to cook or you don't. There's no in between."

I glared at him. "Then do you want to bet?"

A grin spread on his face. "If you win?"

After a moment of silence I said. "You take off your mask." 

His grin deepened. "If I win?"

"Then I become a pupil of the god of darkness." I raised my eyebrow in challenge. 

He burst out laughing. "You seem very confident in your cooking skills." 

"It's up to you to decide, your Grace."

At that moment, the shadows brought back two rabbits. 

"Skin them first," I ordered the shadows. "I don't want the blood to get on my hand."

After the two rabbits were skinned, I started to prepare tonight's dinner. I started to roast the rabbit after brewing a broth with the rabbit. As I roasted the rabbit over fire, I covered my nose with my sleeve. 

After being burnt to death on a stake in my first life, I hated roasted meat. The smell of fire burning on meat and on fat revolted me. I could still eat meat, just not roasted. But there's no way to cook this rabbit aside from roasting it. Just brewing a broth was not enough for him. 

The smell of meat being burnt was getting stronger every moment. It got better as I was reborn life after life, but it's still discomforting to me. Then I heard a snap of finger and a shadowy hand took hold of the rabbit I was roasting. 

My wrist was once again circled by the cold hand of the priest and was pulled away from the fire. 

"Let's wait here. The smoke over there is getting unbearable." 

"But I haven't finished cooking..."

"Your broth is more then enough to display the fact that you can cook. You passed." He nodded solemnly. 

That's right, I had already given him a bowl of broth while I was roasting the rabbit. 

"Thank you for your acknowledgement, your Grace."

"As I have promised..." He took off the mask covering most of his face.

I lowered my eyes to hide the emotional turmoil in my eyes. Among all of my four lives, he was the only one I could call as my friend. Even though he was bossing me around most of the time, he was the only one I could talk to. But not now, he was not the priest from my memories. 

"I hope I am not that bad looking to the point you're speechless. How long has it been since I last took off my mask?" he sank into deep thoughts. 

He pulled me to sit down on the mat with him and placed a bowl of warm broth in my hands. 

"No, I am just shocked you have a face just like ours behind your mask," I retorted.

"Oh yes the old legend that only beasts follow the god of darkness. Quite sure the god himself can't communicate with beasts nor order them to work.." He smiled sardonically. Then he asked all of a sudden with a playful grin on his face, "Do you hate your popular, well loved stepsister?"