Can I Really Trust You?

Chapter 5

The ride to Ingela felt much shorter than the ride to Rasten itself. My mind kept replaying the scene with Eren and it was like something out of a Manhwa or a movie. I let out a giddying smile as I looked out the window. Ingela’s house was smaller than mine but it makes up for the amount of land they have. Ingela’s mother, Irene, loves to horseback and she was the one who actually taught us how to ride horses. That’s mostly the reason why the Pazuci’s have a lot of land. To accommodate for their stables and to let their six horses and my one horse roam free. 

As soon as we pulled up, Ingela greeted me on horseback which could only mean one thing, she’s had a bad day. Whenever she’s had a bad day, Ingela would take Ervi (her horse) out for a ride in the trails that her Father had made Irene when they first moved here. It was impressive, almost like an obstacle course. There were so many things to do that you’d never get bored, even if you rotated the route daily.  

I remember the first time Ingela had a bad day. My parents had dropped me off at the Pazuci’s to spend my day with Ingela. I had caught her out in the back with a bow and arrow with a portrait of a badly drawn Kai pinned to the target and her arrows were all over it. The first thing I did was laugh and then she proceeded to draw me next and pinned my portrait next to Kai’s. We had a good laugh about it after but that was the one thing that I had always envied Ingela for. She was always active and doing some sort of sport that women are never allowed to do but that had never stopped her from teaching me. Her parents are also supportive of her outgoing personality whereas if I were to ask my parents, they’d be furious. But that also didn’t stop Ingela from teaching me how to use a bow and arrow. 

“Hey twerp!” Ingela called me and I frowned.  

“I came all this way just so you could call me a twerp?” I stuck my head out the window and stuck my tongue out at her.  

She scrunched her face up at me playfully before giving me a devious look. “I brought your favorite man in the whole world!” She announced as she pulled Harvi’s reigns from behind her.  

Harvi was big black Friesian horse that my parents had gotten me. He stays here with the Pazuci’s because our mansion wasn’t equipped with a stable or land like theirs. I try to come here at least twice a week to visit with Harvi but sometimes my schedule doesn’t even allow it at all.  

“Oh my Tasnia! You brought Harvi!” I opened the carriage door and hopped out with bare feet, careful not to land on my injured ankle.  

“Lady Vanderbrown! Please be careful, you were recently injured”, Brand whined.  

“I’ll be fine Brand! Why don’t you mingle with the others? I’ll be back soon”, I jutted my chin in the direction of the servant quarters. He may not look it but Brand is popular among the ladies. I would always hear whispers of how good looking Brand is. The maids wished to marry him and the male butlers and caretakers wanted to be friends with him. 

“Soon”, Ingela winked at Brand who rolled his eyes and went off to park the carriage.  

I gave Harvi a quick pet on the neck and mounted up with my left foot, the one that isn’t injured. Harvi shook his head and huffed as I hugged and kissed him from the back. “Oh come on, Harv. I know you’ve missed me”, I kissed him before placing his reins in my hands and adjusting myself to make myself comfortable. 

I looked over towards Ingela whose face looked troubled, and I trotted Harvi to stand next to Ervi. “Wanna race?” I gently punched her on the shoulder. Her eyes lit and I grinned as I bit at my bottom lip, excited at this challenge. I loosened my hold on Harvi and squeezed my thighs, signaling him to go. His pace quickened and the wind from the run blew through my hair. Sitting up straight, I squeezed Harvi with my thighs as I let go of the reins. I slowly stretched out my arms, steadying myself making sure I wouldn’t fall off a moving Harvi. I took a deep breath in, taking in the smells of the grassy meadow we were on, smiling as I felt like I was flying. 

“If you keep that up, you might just lose!” Ingela shouted as she passed me.  

I brought my hands back onto the reins and clicked my tongue for Harvi to go faster. We went down towards the trails where fallen tree trunks act as an obstacle course. I arched both my feet, anchoring them to the stirrups as I got ready to jump Harvi over the first trunk. Harvi’s pace quickened and I pushed my bottom up as he jumped. My right foot slipped further into the stirrup trapping it. I let out a sharp hiss as I tried to twist my foot out from there. 

I quickly ducked as a branch with a dummy sat above our heads giving me an idea. “Archery?” I challenged her as I saw the post with the bows and arrows approaching.  

“You’re on”, she smiled at me. I slowed my pace and stuck my arm out to grab a bow. Placing the bow into my other hand, I went to grab the quiver holding the five arrows for this course. There were five targets to shoot at: one down to the right, one to the left, two up a tree, and the last target in the middle at the end of the trail.  

I hooked the strap of my quiver onto the horn of the saddle and nock my arrow onto the string. I brushed my thumb against the feathers for luck before pulling the string back and aiming at the first target hanging up on the tree. Ingela shot first, hitting the outer ring on the target. I gave her a mock laugh as I let go of the string, smacking into the inner part of my left arm as the arrow flew out, hitting the target right on the bullseye. 

The next one quickly approached, which happened to look like an ogre with horribly drawn teeth. The ogre’s head peeked out from behind a rock, and I nock another arrow, releasing it on my next exhale. The arrow left the string hitting the ogre right between its three eyes. I could hear Ingela’s frustrated groan, and I steered Harvi to the right as I got ready for the next shot.  

This time, the target itself would be considered “back-to-back". There was no room for mistakes as the targets are literally five feet apart with the horses going at a fast speed. The key to getting both targets within one another is to shoot the first arrow at least twenty feet away from it and then immediately nock the second arrow and shoot at it while approaching the target. 

I immediately got ready to shoot the next target that was hanging up on the tree. Ingela thought that it was funny to make this one look like Kai, hair as red as the sun and eyes as green as emeralds. I smirked as I recall a memory of running through this course with Kai and had deliberately aimed for his genitals and timed it just so he could watch my arrow land on his precious jewels. He would scream as if it had landed on him, and we would all laugh.  

A big thump sounded when the arrow landed in between his legs and Ingela laughed as her arrow landed on his face. For the next target, Ingela had decided to make it look like me. Of course, we were young and dumb when we designed this and now that we’re older, we realized how sadistic this was.  

Ingela’s arrow whizzed past my head and landed it onto my nose, and I shot mine to land on the chest. Harvi jumped over a trunk, and I quickly  braced myself for the landing. I leaned forward and gripped onto the horn and squeezed my thighs against the saddle as hard as I could. The way I had controlled Harvi had caused him to slow down and Ingela quickly surpassed me. 

“Come on, slow poke!” She teased and sped off with Ervi.  

I felt my competitive spirit begin to rise as I pulled back my bow before Ingela could even nock hers. I took a deep breath in, aimed, and released. The arrow whizzed by Ervi’s ear and landed right in between the eyes of an Ingela’s looking target. I let out a victory scream and moments after I shot mine, Ingela’s arrow landed next to mine.  

“Yes!” I celebrated and pulled Harvi to a trot down, slowing down to let him breathe.   

“You’ve changed”, Ingela panted, breathlessly.  

“How so?” 

“More competitive and you suddenly had gotten better at using the bow and arrow”. I laughed and made my way next to her. We moved in the direction of the stables, and I suddenly recalled one of Rika’s memories. Turns out my improvement had something to do with my life as Rika.  

When I was little, I had always been interested in archery. My parents enrolled me in archery classes when I had just turned six. I participated in my very first archery competition at the age of fourteen and received a gold medal at each meet. I was pretty good at it, and I was competitive but all of that stopped after I had graduated high school and dated Josh. Worst mistake on my part.  

“I suddenly feel... Inspired”, I finally told her. I wanted to tell her that I had lived my life as Rika but thought better of it.  

Ingela has a very outgoing and mouthy personality. She may be the daughter of a Count, but she sure doesn’t act like one. If she has her eyes or mind set on something, she will get it done. If I were to tell her that I had lived as another person for twenty-seven years and was transported into my favorite Manhwa which is where we are right now and that the duke was going to kill me… Boy, you bet that Ingela is going to rain hell on everyone in the Rasten Empire, especially the duke himself.  

“Is it a boy?” She asked as she pinched my arm. I loved how her first thought was that a boy had inspired me.  

“Ow!” I rubbed the area she had pinched. “And no. What about you? Are you sulking because your parents finally found you a suitor?” I teased her but her face dropped. “Ingela? Are you getting engaged?” 

“I overheard my parents talking about it and that they were going to announce it during a Christmas party they’re hosting this year”. My ears perked at the mention of the Christmas party. Is that the Christmas party I die at? “You’ll be upset when you hear who it’s with”. 

“Who is it?”  

She made a face and looked away from me mumbling. “Ka…”.  

“I can’t hear you, Ingela”.  

“It’s Kai”, she sulked as she looked back at me. My heart dropped and it felt like my head was under water. I’ve had a crush on Kai since we were little and Ingela knew that which would explain why she’s acting the way she is right now. “And I know that you like him but--”.  

“There’s no buts, Ingela. If anything, I’m glad that you’re the one that would be marrying him. You would keep him in his place”, I smacked the back of my hand onto my palm and laughed a little sadly. I was happy for her. For them but at the same time I was hurt. The pain of it felt like I was pouring salt on an open wound as I thought about what happened with Josh and Ashley. Of course, Ingela and Kai aren’t them, but it feels that way at this moment. “It’s not like Kai and I even like each other, Ingela. It was a crush on my part”.   

“I just feel terrible. It’s the what-if part for me. What if he did have feelings for you and the two of you were soulmates”.  

“Pfft! I doubt it, Ingela! Plus he hasn’t written to me the past two years he’s in the Army. A simple, ‘I’m fine’ would’ve suffice but I got nothing”.