Though Alia’s expression was still soft, her words weren’t
"Kidding," Alia said with a playful smile, and Joseph chuckled awkwardly.
"I just figured, why should I act like Cinderella and wait for a prince to co and save ? I found my way out," Alia said, walking ahead towards the tent to get so water.
Joseph followed her.
"Alpha Killian wanted to send a team for help, but the weather conditions weren’t exactly alright," Joseph tried to explain.
Alia waved her hand dismissively.
"If it had been soone from your pack, would you have given up on that person too?" Alia asked before she popped a bun in her mouth.
Joseph stuttered.
Of course, they would never leave a pack mber behind. Pack mbers were like family, and their people would have risked their lives to save a girl from their pack.
"I know you guys knew I would make it out of there. I am strong, aren’t I?" Alia blinked innocently, dismissing her earlier words, and Joseph smiled forcefully before nodding.
He wanted to send help, and their soldiers who accompanied them to the trek to ensure their alpha’s safety were ready too, but Alpha Killian said they would do it in the morning, and he couldn’t go against his alpha’s words.
Alia turned and saw Marcos looking around urgently, and her heart ward imdiately.
She clearly rembered that Marcos had gone to attend his daughter’s tenth birthday and didn’t know what had happened to her. However, he rushed to the site as soon as he learned.
He was the one who started the search mission.
"Marcos!" Alia waved his hand.
Marcos rushed to her side and looked at her with deep affection and care, as a parent would look at their daughter before taking a deep breath.
"Are you okay, Miss?" Marcos asked.
Alia smiled.
This man was her driver, who also acted like her bodyguard. She rembered how the man had tried to make her see reality, but she was so blinded by her sister’s tricks that she never saw them.
And in the end, this man got killed because of her.
Alia took a deep breath before she pulled her bag before her.
She unzipped the bag and took out the opal stone she had found in a coral a month ago.
"For your daughter," Alia said.
Marcos widened his eyes at its shine.
Even Joseph raised his brows. He clearly rembered that Hannah and Alpha Killian had asked Alia for the opal stone, but she had said she would place it in the healer’s center for everyone to study.
"Miss... this...." Marcos’s eyes brimd with tears.
He knew this opal had a significant aning for healers.
"Please take it," Alia insisted.
In her past life, her stupidity destroyed the lives of many good people, but this ti, she was ready to make up for it.
Alia took a deep breath once the man took the stone and placed it in his wallet as if he would cherish it.
"Take to the healer’s eting. I don’t want to be late," Alia said.
Marcos nodded before helping her to the car.
After driving for two hours, they finally arrived at the healer’s eting.
It was supposed to be one of the most important etings, and healers from the North were also arriving.
Alia looked at her attire with a helpless look before turning to her left, where a mall was.
"Marcos, I need to get changed before attending. I can’t ruin my father’s reputation," Alia said, and Marcos nodded in understanding.
She went to the bathroom to wash up quickly.
Since it was early, there were hardly any people in the mall.
Marcos quickly got her a nice pair of clothes and handed them to her through the door. She was standing outside it like a bodyguard, ready to attack whoever would disrupt her work.
Alia walked out, looking fresh with only a few scratches on her hands.
"I should’ve bought sothing that covered your hands," Marcos pressed his lips dejectedly.
Alia looked at her hands and smiled.
"No. These are my battle scars," She said.
Marcos looked at the back of the girl with furrowed brows. Battle scars?
Did she an everything she had to fight to get out of that forest? He wondered, following her silently.
The eting had already started, and Hannah stood from her seat, ready to present the herbs with which Alia had prepared decoctions.
Since Alia wasn’t there, her father insisted she take over.
Hannah knew almost all the herbs except one, the main ingredient in healing the wounds at lightning speed without supernatural powers.
"Miss Hannah, is it? What are this herb’s special qualities? What quantity is used here? I heard it’s poison," One of the older healers said.
Hannah stood there, unsure, and looked at her father helplessly, and Thas Cooper gritted his teeth.
"It’s indeed a poison," a soft yet curt voice resounded in the hall, and everyone looked at the entrance.
"Sister," Hannah looked at her as if she saw her savior, and Alia’s gaze darkened.
This was the elder sister she gave up her life for, her happiness for, and who stabbed her painfully in the back.
"And who are you?" The elder healer asked.
"The founder of this decoction. I am answerable for all the questions and bear the critiques. My sister and family have nothing to do with it," Alia said.
She knew that taking the entire credit for sothing you found and searched for in the West family’s laboratory would be frowned upon. It was supposed to be called a collateral effort.
However, she made it look like she was taking the bla, and no one said anything, just as she had expected.
"You are the founder, yet you dare to co late. Are you looking down upon us?" Patricia, Elder Noah’s daughter, said.
Alia looked at the girl and smiled.
"For a practitioner, saving soone’s life is more important than attending a eting. That’s what I have been taught. Last night, I happened to encounter a man in the forest who was stabbed with a dagger, and I had to help with the little herbs I had. This also made co across a new base for the healing paste," Alia said and walked to the board.
Since most formulas needed explanation, there was a whiteboard in the room.
She picked up the marker and wrote the herbs she used to help the man.
She explained the changes she noticed and how they were more beneficial than the traditional herbs they had been using.
People asked her for a sample; luckily, she had a few leaves left.
She placed the leaves in the middle of the table.
Elder Gloria took the herbs in her hand.
"Aren’t these leaves similar to acacia poison? How did you differentiate?" Gloria asked.
"By trying them on myself," Alia answered as if it was no big deal.
On the other hand, Hannah looked at her sister, who was getting all the attention, and clenched her fists.
She was pleased when Alia fell into the ditch. She also succeeded in persuading Killian to search the next day.
Though this eting had tainted their family’s na, it would have made their father hate Alia, and that was what she aid for.
How co this girl ca back on her own, and that to be looking like this?
After everything was explained, Elder Jade stood from his place and nodded at the Thas.
"We are pleased with this eting. It made us realize how much elders still need to learn from young minds. Our son Victor had been researching so similar herbs. How about you send Alia to our center for a month?" Elder Jade said.
Thas looked at Alia proudly before smiling.
"That would be an honor," Thas said.
Alia smiled on the surface, but inside, she scoffed.
Sothing like this had happened in a previous life, and Hannah had rejected it because she wanted to stay with Alpha Killian.
The eting ca to an end, and Hannah rushed to Alia.
"Alia, are you alright? You have no idea how worried I was. But then I had to co here to save the family’s na. I am so happy that Alpha Killian helped you out," Hannah said.
She was probably trying to see if the man helped Alia.
"Thank you for caring so much, sister," Alia said, feigning innocence.
She wanted to know so many things about her sister and family, the most important of which was why they hated her. What did they want to gain?
And for that, she would’ve had to keep pretending while not falling into any sches herself.
Alia played with the bangle in her hand before leaving the conference hall.
"Let’s go, Marcos," Alia said.
"To the sa place, Miss?" Marcos asked, and Alia smiled knowingly.
"To the sa place," She smirked.
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