Chapter 31

Chapter 31

Nora's POV

I had a good mind to call them all out and question them on why they were treating me the way they were, as if I was some kind of pest and some kind of infiltrator here, like I wasn't one of their own. They were supposed to give praise where praise was due, and without a doubt, my own idea just now was brilliant and there was nothing wrong with it. They should at least deliberate on what I said, but instead, they seemed to swallow up my suggestion whole, some of them glaring at me at intervals as if to tell me to keep quiet and stop saying anything.

What suddenly made me an enemy? I thought to myself, but the good part was that it wasn't all of them. I might as well have questioned their attitude outright. Some of them were just neutral towards me, and some of them were acting wary—not saying good or bad. In some cases though, they outright opposed me and everything I said to the point that I finally stopped talking in the meeting, finally pissed off and annoyed and deciding that it was the best idea for me to keep silent now until later when they finally came back to their senses and started acting like human beings once again instead of primal animals that simply wouldn't budge and wouldn't listen to what someone else had to say apart from their own opinions.

I was absolutely happy when the meeting finally ended. It had seemed rather too long for a meeting, but finally, it was postponed. It would continue again, but not today, not for a very long time, and I was grateful for that at least. Alexander seemed to have some sense in him to postpone it for the next three days before we met again because I really couldn't deal with another one of these tomorrow or even the next.

Even three days is not enough, I thought to myself bitterly as I walked out of the large hall, thinking about how much information I would need to go through in order to become up to date once again and so that I could contribute positively to their meetings and not be outdated at all. I glanced at the alpha apprehensively, not knowing how to make my request. He was walking beside me, but he wasn't saying anything at all. I could tell that his mind was still on the meeting and the queer behavior of the elders, and he was trying to figure out what was going wrong—or maybe I was just joking with myself and he didn't care about how they were treating me.

I took a long moment to wonder what to say to him. I wanted to find the library, but I didn't know where it was. I was simply very confused right now, and I might as well have someone give me a tour and a complete orientation in this new place, but there was no one I could ask. So I could only keep on grappling and groping around in the dark, trying to figure out things all by myself without any form of assistance in this strange world.

I let out a sigh as I decided against asking him. He was already suspicious enough as it was; I wouldn't want him to know what was going on and that I wasn't in the normal way too, that I was another person just that I had her face. I started moving faster than him even though I didn't really have an idea where I was going. If only I could find someone to help me, but I knew that that would be a stretch and most likely I would never find anyone that would help me with such an issue.

I might as well start exploring then, I thought to myself, stopping abruptly and looking at the crossroad before me. Such a large palace and so many things to do and see—it would take me forever to go through everything, and even longer than forever if I was to go through everything without a guide. But I didn't hesitate now that I was presented with the task. There was no running away from it, so I might as well run towards it and take it in stride before the time I had to spend on this expired.

If only I could spend my time on something more productive, I thought to myself, regretting what I was about to do—get lost and then find myself again, you know, just so I could get lost once again. That was the plan I had in mind because I would definitely get lost if I went around here without someone to lead me.

"Is there anything the matter?" I heard.

I looked and saw Alpha standing at a distance, looking at me with a frown on his face, looking as if he didn't quite understand why I was suddenly looking at the two crossroads ahead, trying to figure out which one to take.

I smiled at him immediately, refusing what he said because I didn't want any problem at all. Better he thought that everything was weird than he suspected anything more with me. Because I had honestly gone so far now and I was afraid already that if I kept on pushing it, I would soon start crossing the invisible, intangible line and that he would finally question me outright for all my weirdness and I would need to tell him the truth.

If he knows the truth, will I remain the queen? I thought to myself in question, deciding that it's a very crucial thing for me and that I should think about it carefully. For a while, I couldn't really fathom if it wouldn't change anything. The truth seemed to be very important already, and I had a very good feeling right now that it wasn't going to take long before the truth would come out all on its own. If that was the case then, what would I do? Would I lose my position and all the power that I have right now, or would I still have something to fall back on? Would he keep on accepting me? He claimed he loved me. Did he really?

I shook my head, deciding that it wasn't the time for me to contemplate such issues. Best I did other things with my time instead. He was still staring straight at me, and I realized I had wasted too much time thinking. I would have thought previously that a moment's thinking would simply be ignored by him and others, that it wouldn't make a difference to myself, but I knew right now I shouldn't have spent so long because right now he was frowning so hard at me that I knew that the waiting made me more suspicious.

"There's no issue," I told him smoothly. "I'm taking one of the roads."

I could see ahead of me I wasn't quite sure what it led to, but I was determined more than ever not to spend any more time here because I would not only end up becoming more suspicious to him, but I would waste my time for no just reason at all. I made my way briskly as quickly as possible to where I thought the library should be.

I was simply trying to translate the placement and the things I saw previously then, when I was still in my own timeline, to right here, but even the beauty was different—the house type, every single thing, the colors. There was no way I could be determining them to know about things here. So soon enough, I found myself giving up.

"Fuck it," I told myself, annoyed at my current predicament. I'm completely pissed off already because of how things had suddenly gone sour for me. It hadn't even been this long yet, but already I was tired and I found myself wanting to continue going. Tired was one thing though. I had already started getting the problem that made me not want to stop this in the first place.

I looked around, wondering how to start retracing my steps. It was clear already I had gotten lost, and that it was going to take more than a good 30 minutes before I finally found my way back home to my room, which was exactly where I wanted to go now in order to get away from all these disturbances.