Irene had left not long after the rain had stopped, and a little later, Anna had come back from what she was doing with her hand stained with mud. 

Her face was similarly stained with mud, yet her smile was very brilliant, she suddenly laughed and said, "There are a lot of frogs in the late. Dissecting them as you suggested was a good idea."

Ovid waved his hand with the stick and said softly, "Since the rain has stopped, we will leave after lunch."

Anna was a lovable individual who always had a smile on her face. She was very skilled at making people feel comfortable. 

"Since that's the case, I will go cook some frog legs."

---

The grassy plains grew wild and still had droplets of dew, swaying gracefully in the wind, it gave off a refreshing feeling to the weary travellers who had journeyed pass the grim forest. 

Ovid and Anna walked on the well-treaded paved road. The ground closer to the city was certainly different than those of the remote forest, being far more agreeable to the cloth shoes and leather sandal the two wore. 

As Ovid and Anna walked leisurely, a sudden disturbance could be felt on the path. The loose rocks vibrated as a squadron of heavy cavalry donning pure white caparison rode silently and quickly pass the two. 

At the rear of the formation was a young woman wearing a vestment that was of similar design as the horses' caparison, say for the gold and silver stripes that laid at the edge of her vestment. She had a camauro resting on her head that seemed to contrast with her youthful age.

Her eyebrows were very heavy as if ink had split there, yet it was very well-groomed, with not a single stray hair. She was quite beautiful, though possessed an air of reversed nobility that suggested her prowess.

Her head was hung low as if dozing off and could fall off any minute, yet the horse under her was extremely obediently and did follow the group before her without a single misstep. 

Abruptly, the woman rubbed her eyes with her right hand and raised her left. Immediately, the group before her stopped without a single protest even though she had just woke up. 

She said coldly, "I shall let the young lady in the purple ride on my horse, slow your pace."

She lept off her horse and proceed to lead to it Anna, who climbed onto the steed without much difficultly. The woman in white then placed her hand behind her back and looked at Ovid calmly. "Escorting a member of royalty must have been a strain. Did you encounter any difficulties?"

Ovid wondered why the woman had started the conversation with him, though he had been raised to be respectful to all. He answered in a simple manner, "It was indeed quite dangerous."

The woman began walking alongside Ovid, the expensive red leather shoes did not make a single sound on the pavement, which were quite strange.

"There will be more brushes with death if you continue to follow madame Anna."

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Ovid answered truthfully, "I should be fine."

"Hmm." 

The woman in white gave Ovid a cold look. She thought to herself, a rural peasant could face death in exchange for a little wealth, he had probably encountered some bandit attack, yet remained so stubborn. It's also a little funny.

Ovid did not know why the woman gave a 'hmm' as a reply. Since he wasn't comfortable speaking with someone like her, he hasted his steps, wanting to catch up to Anna.

Who would have known this action had caused the woman's opinion of him to sink even lower. She looked at him and her eyes turned colder, "It is stupid to continue following madame Anna, even if you persist, you will certainly die."

Ovid was stunned for a moment hearing this. 

"I do not know who you convinced madame Anna to accept you. But this is not a fairy tale, a talentless peasant cannot accompany a royal. It cannot last for long. Only the drunks in taverns would believe in this."

Seeing the disdainful expression on the woman's face, along with hearing such insulting words, Ovid found it was a little difficult to open his mouth. Anna was shifting up and down on the saddle and was moving further away on the paved roads. There seemed to be some fluctuation of an unknown substance surrounding her, which blocked out the sound.

The woman looked at Ovid who was now behind him and continued, "I know you are not a smart person, so I will make this simple. Rather than following madame Anna for an unknown amount of time, and for an unknown about of risk, how about I compensate you a dozen hyperpyron and return to your farm. What do you think of my suggestion?"

Ovid tilted his head while he continued walking. He said a single word, "Why?" 

"I should have expected that you would ask this."

The woman looked at him expressionlessly and explained, "Why? Because you cannot hold a sword, much less fight off a deacon, priest or bishop. I meanwhile have already reached the level of a bishop at the age of fifty, and have the full might of the clergy behind me. I am not sure why madame Anna is out, but you are an ordinary person while she is the sister of the empress. Only a genius like me, Catherine is fit to accompany her. Is this explanation simple enough to understand?" 

Ovid blinked a few times, his voice was still very clear when he responded, "It is simple enough." 

The woman, Catherine, looked at the young face and decided to add straw to the camel's back. Facing such a little figure, she figured that simply by boasting her status, she could make his return to the farm to tilt his soil. 

She pointed at the horse Anna was riding on and said, "That charger is called is Tencendur, it is worth ten years of taxes from the most productive of villages, costing five thousand hyperpyrons. The caparison is from the papal workshop, you cannot afford it after working for fifty years. I let madame Anna sit on it because she is worth more than the horse, but you don't amount to a pebble by the road. Do you want to live the rest of your life decadently by escorting madame Anna? How foolish."

Catherine spoke with the utmost calmly. It was not as if she had sounded spiteful, yet her words had pushed Ovid beneath the pavements on the road. She spoke with such indifference that it was as if there were entire words between the two of them."

These words entered Ovid's eyes, and he was well aware that this was clearly an insult. He found it especially unreasonable when she had said he wanted to live a decadent life. It was displeasing to anyone's ears, and most would have kicked and yelled, running off from the woman in white and abandoning Anna. 

This was the result Catherine had predicted, for she was aware that the people tending the farms were mere simpleton, and acted purely on emotion. 

The road was silent except for the sound of hooves.

Catherine stared at Ovid and waited for his outburst. 

However, the events that transpired afterwards were completely out of her expectation.

Ovid looked at Catherine calmly and pressed his lips, not letting out a single sound from his lungs. 

When the wind blew, and the grass danced in the fields, he still remained absolutely silent.

Ovid stood in place, causing Catherine to think that he was perhaps trying to hide his embarrassment or prepared to run away at any moment. That would be good, she thought. 

Ovid's legs took long, but calculated strides, he walked past the strange fluctuation surrounding Anna and tugged her sleeves. 

Anna was not sure what Ovid meant, but climbed down the horse and followed him regardless.

It was clear that Ovid had no intentions of listening to Catherine's words.

---

Looking at Ovid's increasingly small figure, Catherine's face turned cold. She wanted to use her magic to burn a hole in the fragrant field but could not since that would deliver ammo to her rivals in the clergy to chastise her. Moreover, she did not want to show her emotions to her subordinates.

Her mood was growing worse and worse. It was evident what Ovid's silent represented - Your words are meaningless, and there is no more reason to talk.

In fact, Ovid had acted quite cordial the whole time and acted quite patiently. He hadn't even used a word and simply left to make Catherine unhappy. This could be considered a practised technique of his, which he had frequently used in his past life. 

The heavy cavalryman's face was dreadful. One of them rode to Catherine's side, lowering her voice, she asked, "Lady, you are capable of killing her by just glaring at her, why let her off so easily." 

Catherine dragged the woman down so that she would be the one looking down. "I originally thought the one accompany madame Anna was a simpleton, but now I know that he is a calculating and vicious villain. She was probably aware that madame Anna would have suspected I had a hand were I to kill her companion afterwards. Madame Anna would no doubt view me negatively afterwards."

Catherine's face turned cloudy and she continued, "Madame Anna's companion is certainly aware of this, and could thus act so arrogantly in front of me."