Reborn as the General's Useless Daughter-Chapter 293: The mysterious parchment scroll

A faint crease appeared between Zora’s brows. Harold’s certainty lingered in her mind, and she could not quite understand where that confidence came from.

Still, there was no hostility between them. On the contrary, they had helped each other twice now. If nothing else, they could be counted as acquaintances, perhaps even friends.

"Then, until we meet again," she said calmly.

She lifted a hand in farewell and turned toward the inn, her white figure gradually melting into the dim light of the street. It was already late. She had no idea how many people Guinvere might have arranged to come after her. Returning earlier would save her unnecessary trouble.

Harold watched her retreating back for a long moment. A faint smile curved his lips, while a subtle, unreadable glint flickered deep within his dark eyes.

A couple of moments later, his gaze dropped to the three lifeless bodies on the ground. The darkness in his eyes thickened, and with a casual sweep of his hand, the corpses vanished as if they had never existed. Only a trace of blood remained, quietly soaking into the ground.

*

By the time Zora returned to her room, her thoughts had already settled.

"Master, that Harold doesn’t seem simple," Black said slowly. "Shihtzu’s identity isn’t something most people can recognize, yet he saw through it at a glance. That alone shows how broad his knowledge is."

Zora nodded. "I feel it too. There’s something about him that’s hard to see through."

Harold was deeply hidden, like mist covering a mountain path. It was not necessarily malice, but the weight of secrets. She could not say he was dangerous, yet she could not fully relax around him either.

"Some people are like that," she said after a pause, then shrugged lightly. "Everyone carries their own story. There’s no need for us to dig into it."

After all, was she not the same?

To the outside world, she was once a useless young lady who suddenly transformed into someone else entirely due to some mysterious reason. How many people were secretly curious about her changes?

Yet she, too, hid her truth even from Kael, the one whom she trusts the most in the world at the moment.

Hearing her words, Black and White nodded in agreement.

"But that Guinvere is truly hateful!" Black snapped, its face full of indignation. "She acts all noble and aloof on the surface, but behind the scenes, she hires killers to murder you!"

"That woman’s mask should be torn off sooner or later," White added angrily. "It’s disgusting."

Shihtzu also nodded, clearly sharing their dislike.

A cold light flickered in Zora’s black-and-white eyes. She felt no goodwill toward Guinvere either.

There were two kinds of proud women in this world. The first were genuinely proud, truly confident in themselves. Such people would never resort to underhanded tactics because they believed in defeating their opponents openly and fairly. Anything else would be an insult to themselves.

The second kind only pretended to be proud. They wrapped themselves in elegance and arrogance, presenting themselves as lofty angels, while their hearts were stained and foul like demons. They would use any means necessary to maintain that false image.

When they first met, Zora thought that Guinvere was the first type. But now, it was clear that Guinvere belonged to the second type.

"What she’s done to me," Zora then said quietly, her voice carrying a chilling resolve, "I will return to her one day."

She never lets enemies go. Her philosophy doesn’t change. Regardless of the background of her enemies, if someone touches her, she’ll scratch them. If they try to poke her with a needle, she will slash them with the sword.

Now that Guinvere finally made the first move, Zora had no intention of showing mercy in the future.

It was only that, for now, Guinvere stood higher than her. Guinvere could strike at her freely, while she could not yet reach Guinvere.

But Zora believed this imbalance would not last forever.

And when that day came, she would settle everything, cleanly and thoroughly.

Disciples of great guilds and members of martial families had always stood above the crowd, let alone someone like Guinvere, the granddaughter of a Heaven Gate’s Scorpio Faction’s leader.

From the moment she was born, superiority clung to her like a shadow. Endless cultivation resources paved her path, and every step she took was cushioned by privilege.

Yet in Zora’s eyes, it was often the so-called grassroots Spirit Warriors who were truly frightening.

They carried everything on their backs themselves. Their past, their humiliation, their hunger for strength. That weight became the fire that drove them forward.

Because they had no way back.

It was precisely for this reason that many of the most renowned powerhouses on the Holy Mystic Continent had risen from nothing. Such people were often more relentless, more resolute, and far more dangerous than those born into comfort.

She had seen countless examples of this when she was still a family head in her previous life. Now that her identity had changed, that understanding had never once wavered.

As long as one’s strength was strong enough, any background could be forged by one’s own hands.

Black, White, and Shihtzu exchanged knowing glances after sensing the shift in Zora’s gaze. Nothing more needed to be said. Their master and Guinvere were destined to stand on opposite sides.

When Prince Kael returned, they would make sure he knew the truth. That so-called gentle and noble "good sister" of his was nothing more than a venomous woman hiding behind a flawless mask. As for whether he will truly stick to the choice he told her back then, she would see it for herself.

Zora quickly reined in her thoughts and took out the parchment scroll she had picked up earlier at the trading market.

Her eyes lit slightly as she looked at the black parchment. At the time, she had clearly sensed a faint fluctuation of spiritual power from it, though she could not be entirely sure it was something extraordinary.

Slowly, she unrolled the parchment. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

What appeared before her was nothing more than a simple landscape painting.

"Master, this is just... a scenery painting?" Shihtzu tilted its head, a fluffy paw pointing at the mountains and rivers on the scroll.

Zora studied it carefully, yet found nothing beyond the inked scenery. No inscriptions, no hidden text, no obvious formations.

Her brows lifted faintly, confusion surfacing in her clear eyes.

Logically speaking, this should not be so ordinary.

"If it’s only a common painting, how could I have sensed spiritual fluctuations from it?" she murmured.

As her words fell, she probed the scroll again with her spiritual sense, only to find that the faint fluctuation she had felt earlier was gone, as if it had never existed.

"Master, I’ve heard that some stall owners deliberately infuse a trace of soul power into worthless items," Black said cautiously. "It tricks buyers into thinking they’ve found a treasure, so they pay a high price."

Merchants were never fools. They always found ways to profit.

White shook his head. "It shouldn’t be the stall owner. If it were intentional, he wouldn’t have sold this parchment so cheaply. I also clearly sensed the mental fluctuation earlier."

His expression turned puzzled. Something about this did not add up.

Zora’s gaze stayed fixed on the parchment. She was certain of one thing. This scroll could not be just an ordinary landscape painting.

Moreover, who would bother painting scenery on a parchment of this size and texture?

Her fingers slowly traced the surface of the scroll. At that instant, her eyes brightened.

The material beneath her touch felt a bit different.

"Isn’t there something wrong with this parchment scroll?"

A spark of realization flickered in Zora’s eyes. When she had once followed the elders of the family, she had heard of certain methods used by Spirit Warriors to conceal true treasures, sealing them beneath layers of disguise. Many priceless items were lost to time simply because no one knew how to uncover them. Only those who understood the trick could reveal what lay beneath.

Her fingers slowly traced the surface of the parchment again, her thoughts turning over possible approaches one by one.

Then, determination settled into her gaze.

No matter what, it was worth trying.

Without hesitation, Zora reached for a candle.

The moment she did, Black, White, and Shihtzu all froze, their expressions shifting in unison.

"Master, what are you doing?" they asked almost at the same time.

"If I can’t tell whether this parchment is useful," Zora replied calmly, "then I’ll test it another way. If it works, that’s perfect. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t matter. Otherwise, it’s nothing more than a useless item taking up space."

Her tone was steady, untroubled. She knew burning it carried risk, but without risk, how could she ever know the answer?

The three beasts exchanged glances, then nodded. Her reasoning made sense. None of them had grounds to object.

Zora lowered the parchment toward the candle flame. Heat washed over it, curling the edges slightly. After only a moment, she noticed something strange.

The parchment twisted, and she clearly saw that it wasn’t a single layer at all.

It was three layers thick.

The outer front and back layers were ordinary parchment. The landscape painting vanished as the heat took effect, leaving nothing behind. But sandwiched between those layers was a thin, delicate sheet of paper.

"It worked!" Black blurted out, unable to contain his excitement. "We really found something!"

A smile curved Zora’s lips. Her judgment had been correct.

When she had first handled the parchment, she’d felt it was just slightly thicker than normal, but not enough to raise an alarm.

To think it had been crafted so seamlessly from multiple layers meant the person who made it had put in extraordinary effort. Achieving that level of thinness while hiding something inside was no small feat.

Once the outer parchment had completely burned away, Zora placed the inner sheet carefully on the table.

As the last traces of ash faded, the markings on the paper became clear.

"A map?" she murmured.

White leaned closer and nodded. "It looks like one. But it’s incomplete."