The Witch in the Woods: The Transmigration of Hazel-Anne Davis
Chapter 90: Do I Make Myself Clear?

Chapter 90: Do I Make Myself Clear?

It was weird, coming down from a demon high.

Like an out-of-body experience without the drugs.

I could still feel Lust purring under my skin, pleased with herself for putting on such a performance. Wrath was grudgingly impressed. Pride didn’t even speak. Just hummed, like he already knew I’d win.

The soldiers kept their distance. I heard the whispers, no matter how quietly they thought they spoke. They were scared of me. Of the girl who melted flesh with a thought. The Crown Princess who walked through an army and came out smiling.

Fine. Let them whisper. I wasn’t here to make friends.

What I didn’t know—what I was still trying to figure out—was whether Shi Yaozu and Zhu Deming were keeping their distance because they were afraid I’d snap... or because they were hoping I would. Men like them didn’t like being protected. But they weren’t stupid enough to complain.

Either way, now that they were both in one piece and the Chixia and Yelan armies had been turned into compost, I had things to do. The Crown Prince’s manor wasn’t going to run itself. I had concubines to remind of their place, garden paths that needed weeding, and a cook I didn’t trust as far as I could throw him.

Yaozu waited nearby, silent as ever, tracking every step I took like the hound he pretended not to be. He had disappeared for a while when the older man came, but now he was back in his proper place, and I could finally breathe again. He didn’t speak. He didn’t ask questions. But his presence was comforting in its consistency.

The water at the stream ran clear now as I rinsed the last of the blood from my fingers and stood. Behind me, Deming remained where I left him—kneeling, blade stuck in the ground beside him like a monument. Most women would have swooned. I just rolled my eyes.

"I like cherry blossoms," I said flatly. It wasn’t a compliment. It wasn’t a metaphor. It was a simple statement of fact.

Deming blinked up at me, clearly not following.

Of course not. Neither of them picked up what I was laying down unless I smacked them across the face with it. I could strip down and crawl into their beds, and they’d probably ask if I needed more blankets and left the room to guard the door.

He stood slowly, eyes flicking to the green ribbon still tied around my throat. His hand lifted to trace it.

"I don’t think you understand," he said quietly like I was the stupid one. "To give a hairpin isn’t just kindness. It’s courtship. It means I want to be your husband."

"I know," I said slowly, nodding my head. I would have just said it outright, to say that I wanted him to be that. But Pride made me bite my tongue. I could drop hints, I could spell things out, but Pride refused to let me throw myself at their feet and beg for their attention.

No matter how okay Lust was at that idea.

I turned without another word, my throat full of words that would never pass through it.

I didn’t need to look back to know he was still watching.

Yaozu joined me a moment later, falling into step like he was born there. Maybe he was.

"You’re ready to go?" he asked.

"Yes," I sighed, closing my eyes.

"You’re not going to say goodbye?"

"To who?" I raised a brow. "The soldiers I didn’t fight beside? The generals I don’t report to? Or the Emperor who thinks I’m just a pretty distraction?"

He didn’t answer. He never did when he agreed with me.

We walked through the camp in silence, past stunned soldiers who still hadn’t decided if I was their savior or a curse in silk. They parted quickly. No bows. Just the kind of reverent stillness reserved for temples, tombs, and gods.

Shadow padded behind us, silent as death, his tail swaying in lazy menace. No one dared stop us.

As we neared the edge of camp, I heard someone rushing behind us.

Zhu Deming.

Of course.

I paused without turning. "What is it now?"

"I am coming with you," he said, his tone harsh and firm. I turned my head slightly and raised an eyebrow. "To the capital? Away from your darling Demon Lord?"

He nodded. "They’ll try to control the story. Rewrite what happened here. Blame it on magic or luck. They won’t understand what you did—or why."

"Who said that wasn’t what I wanted?" I sighed, closing my eyes for a moment. "It’s bad enough that they brought me to the capital when they thought I was a weapon. What do you think they will do to me when they realized that I am one? If everything goes my way, they won’t believe a word any of you say."

"I don’t need them to believe me," he said. "I just need to make sure they don’t forget."

I studied him. He wasn’t asking for permission. He was stating a fact. I just wish I could club him upside the head so that he would understand. So that he would see me as more than what I had accomplished on the battlefield.

"No," I replied at last, already turning my horse around in the direction of the capital. "You say with Sun Longzi and do whatever you need to do here. Hopefully, by the time you make it back to the capital, all this will turn in to nothing more than rumors and myths... and my name nowhere near it."

"You can’t be serious," he protested, his head snapping toward Shi Yaozu like he expected him to back him up. "Why would you want to go back to the Crown Prince’s manor just like that?"

"Tell me, seriously. If I went back to the mountain, to my home in the woods, do you think the Emperor would just leave me there?" I sneered, letting out a long sigh.

"No," grunted Zhu Deming, his fingers gripping down on the reigns. His horse pranced to the side with the tension radiating out of his rider. "He would not."

"Exactly. He would burn down the village, burn down the mountains and left it so that I had no place to retreat to. Therefore, I am returning to the Crown Prince’s manor like a good little weapon until my temper has finally snapped and I kill everyone around me. Do I make myself clear?" I snarled and Shadow echoed my feeling with a snarl of his own.

"Crystal," snapped Deming as he jerked his horse’s head back toward camp. "Expect a cherry blossom hairpin soon."