All Chapters of The Immortal's Guide to Accidental Courtship: Chapter 31
- Chapter 40
71 chapters
Chapter 31: The Secret Path
"If you do not stop poking me with that damp piece of parchment, Alistair, I am going to feed you to the nearest mountain goat," Zinnia snarled, her hands clamped so tightly around the reins that her knuckles looked like carved ivory.The carriage came to a shuddering, grinding halt just inches away from the towering barricade of jagged gray boulders blocking the gorge. High above them on the sheer, mist-shrouded cliffs, a dozen heavily armed figures shifted against the gray skyline, their crossbows glinting wickedly through the damp air.Inside the passenger compartment, Alistair jerked his elbow back, frantically brushing a stray bit of lint off his sleeve while glaring through his fogged spectacles. "I am not poking you, Captain! I am merely attempting to point out the topographical anomaly presented by the ancient masonry embedded within that rockslide! Look at the tooling on those blocks! It predates the Second Empire by at least three centuries!""I do not care if it predates th
Last Updated : 2026-09-17
Chapter 32: Emerging into the Sun
"If you drop that sticky piece of dried fruit onto my shoulder one more time, Alistair, I am going to throw you out of this carriage while it is still moving," Zinnia snapped, her voice cutting sharply through the damp, heavy air as she hauled back on the left rein with both hands.The heavy carriage lurched violently forward, its tired wooden suspension groaning in agonizing protest as it smashed through the final, rotting remnants of the mountain tunnel’s rotting timber door. Outside, the oppressive, sulfur-tinged gloom of the subterranean passage evaporated instantly, replaced by an overwhelming, searing flash of brilliant white daylight that forced Zinnia to squint hard against the sudden glare.Inside the cramped passenger compartment, Alistair barely managed to catch his tumbling piece of dried fig, his spectacles sliding halfway down the bridge of his nose as the vehicle pitched downward onto a steep, descending slope."I was merely attempting to evaluate the atmospheric pressu
Last Updated : 2026-09-17
Chapter 33: The Village of Silver-Weed
"If you do not stop complaining about the structural integrity of this axle, Alistair, I am going to let it snap completely and leave you here to explain your advanced engineering theories to the local sheep," Zinnia muttered, her shoulders stiff as she guided the heavily laden, mud-splattered carriage off the dusty switchback and down into the sprawling, sun-drenched valley below.The carriage groaned in high, miserable protest, its right rear wheel wobbling on an axis that looked entirely ready to surrender. Surrounding them on all sides, the terraced rice paddies of the Verdant Reach stretched out in brilliant, shimmering swaths of emerald green, punctuated by lazy plumes of white smoke rising from low-slung, timber-framed farmhouses nestled along the winding riverbank.Inside the bouncing compartment, Alistair adjusted his crooked spectacles with a trembling finger, his gaze fixed anxiously out the cracked side window. "I am not merely complaining, Captain! I am making a mathemati
Last Updated : 2026-09-17
Chapter 34: The Unwelcome Letter
"If you drop that half-eaten wheel of goat cheese onto my freshly cleaned boots one more time, Aetherion, I am going to feed you directly to the village swine," Zinnia hissed, her voice cutting through the pleasant, sun-dappled serenity of the communal barn courtyard like a sharpened blade.She slammed her wrench down onto the anvil with a deafening clang, sending a cascade of orange sparks flying across the packed dirt floor. The blacksmith’s hammer trembled in her grip, her knuckles pale with an accumulated exhaustion that no amount of country air or fresh goat cheese could wash away.Inside the shaded recess of the open-air barn, Aetherion lazily draped one arm over a fragrant, towering mound of golden straw, completely ignoring the threat. He slowly blinked open one heavy-lidded eye, plucked a stray piece of chaff from his immaculate, embroidered silk lapel, and popped a rich, creamy chunk of cheese into his mouth with infuriating deliberation."Swine have notoriously poor palates
Last Updated : 2026-09-17
Chapter 35: Packing the Wagon Again
"If you roll that wheel of goat cheese across the floorboards one more time, Aetherion, I am going to feed you directly to the carriage wheels while we are doing thirty miles an hour," Zinnia snapped, her voice slicing through the crisp morning air of the Silver-Weed communal courtyard like a freshly whetted razor.She slammed the final heavy iron bolt into the carriage’s repaired axle with a resounding, metal-shaking thud, wiping a smear of dark grease across her forehead with the back of a mud-stained wrist. Her shoulders were rigid, the pent-up tension of the past forty-eight hours radiating from her posture like heat off a forge.Inside the back of the newly reinforced wagon, Aetherion lazily draped his long frame across a fresh mountain of straw, completely unfazed by the threat of imminent vehicular manslaughter. He didn't even open both eyes; he merely cracked one lid open to glare mildly at the offending round of dairy resting against his silk-clad boot."You really should not
Last Updated : 2026-09-19
Chapter 36: The Creaking Axle
"If you roll that wheel of goat cheese across the floorboards one more time, Aetherion, I am going to feed you directly to the carriage wheels while we are doing thirty miles an hour," Zinnia snapped, her voice slicing through the crisp morning air of the Silver-Weed communal courtyard like a freshly whetted razor.She slammed the final heavy iron bolt into the carriage’s repaired axle with a resounding, metal-shaking thud, wiping a smear of dark grease across her forehead with the back of a mud-stained wrist. Her shoulders were rigid, the pent-up tension of the past forty-eight hours radiating from her posture like heat off a forge.Inside the back of the newly reinforced wagon, Aetherion lazily draped his long frame across a fresh mountain of straw, completely unfazed by the threat of imminent vehicular manslaughter. He didn't even open both eyes; he merely cracked one lid open to glare mildly at the offending round of dairy resting against his silk-clad boot."You really should div
Last Updated : 2026-09-19
Chapter 37: Fog on the Low Road
"If you drop that wretched star chart onto my neck one more time, Alistair, I am going to tie you to the back axle and let the mud swallow you whole," Zinnia hissed, her voice cutting through the suffocating gray gloom like a butcher’s cleaver.She yanked hard on the reins, the leather wet and slick in her blistered palms, trying desperately to keep the heavy carriage from slipping into the dark, reed-choked ditch that bordered the low trade road. The fog had rolled in off the Oakhaven wetlands barely twenty minutes after they cleared the shale switchbacks, thick and oily, swallowing the horses' heads and turning the world into a claustrophobic cage of white vapor.Up on the driver’s bench beside her, Alistair groaned, hastily snatching a rattling tin cylinder from the floorboards before it could roll beneath the brake pedal. He straightened his crooked spectacles, his face pale and pinched with cold, and fumbled frantically with a massive, damp piece of parchment that kept trying to
Last Updated : 2026-09-21
Chapter 38: The Toll Gate at Miller’s Crossing
"If you hand me one more scrap of unverified municipal tax code, Alistair, I am going to feed these toll receipts to the horses and drive right through the middle of this rotting timber bridge," Zinnia snarled, yanking the reins hard enough to throw a shower of dark, foul-smelling mud off the rim of the left front wheel.The heavy wagon groaned, its newly bolted axle giving a sharp, metallic screech of protest as the team ground to a halt directly in front of a sagging, weed-choked wooden barrier. Rising behind it was a crooked guardhouse built entirely of water-warped pine, leaking greenish moss from its rotting shingles and smelling intensely of stagnant creek water and cheap pipe tobacco.Leaning casually against the splintered toll-gate post was a guard whose leather jerkin looked as though it had survived three decades of rot and at least two peasant rebellions. He wore a rusted iron helm cocked at an insulting angle over one ear, chewing lazily on a piece of dried straw while ey
Last Updated : 2026-09-21
Chapter 39: Mud and Maneuvers
"If you don't pick up that wrench and help me lever this front bolster out of the clay right now, Aetherion, I am going to unhitch these horses and leave you to sink straight down to your eyeballs in this cursed flat," Zinnia shouted, her voice practically tearing from her throat over the steady, deafening roar of the heavy autumn downpour lashing the flooded clay flats three miles north of Oakhaven.She stood knee-deep in a sickeningly thick, brown mire that sucked greedily at her boots with every agonizing micro-movement she made. The sky above was a churning, bruised expanse of slate gray, dumping sheets of freezing rain onto the landscape with such relentless fury that the horizon had completely vanished behind a curtain of water.The heavy transport wagon sat at a grotesque, stomach-churning tilt, its front left wheel buried clean up to the wooden hub in a treacherous subterranean sinkhole hidden beneath what had looked like solid earth only moments before.Up on the driver's ben
Last Updated : 2026-10-04
Chapter 40: The Abandoned Toll-House
"If you don't secure those iron shutters before the rain blows completely through the north frame, Alistair, I am going to lock you outside with the horses," Zinnia snapped, her voice slicing through the howling draft of the storm-swept stone interior.She slammed the heavy oak-paneled door of the ruined toll-house shut with a resounding thud that rattled the loose slate tiles on the damp ceiling, throwing her full weight against the iron latch to drop the rusted security bar into place. Outside, the rain hammered against the thick mortar and moss-grown stones with the force of a small army beating shields, but inside, the air was instantly heavier, smelling of wet slate, old woodsmoke, and long-forgotten damp.Alistair dropped his bundle of damp ledgers onto a scarred wooden table with an undignified squawk, hastily retreating a step as a large drop of water dripped squarely onto the bridge of his spectacles from a leak directly above. He fumbled in his coat pocket for a stained line
Last Updated : 2026-10-04