Having collected all our things, we reached the camp where the natives were waiting for us. The cost of transporting twenty people on carts seems to have been quite a lot for this country, and the coachmen treated us like important people, although at the same time they did not understand what our importance was. Having reached the camp, the first thing we decided to do was rest before heading further to the capital of the kingdom, the city of Ran.

Oddly enough, Granid was still sleeping, but Fred said that his body was no longer very exhausted and he could wake up the next morning. While we were waiting for this moment, I decided to find out something and approached Sigrun, who was looking after her comrade-in-arms, whom we rescued from the Itsqueen dungeon.

A black woman, dressed in a gray tunic, admired a golden-haired native, dressed exactly like her. Even after she made that mistake of deciding to save the little thief, she still decided to take the same rash action and now pulled her out too.

It looks like she will never change.

"So who is this?"

Approaching Sigrun, I asked her, crossing my arms over my chest.

"You won't believe it."

Sigrun smiled.

My gaze became more interested.

I really hope so.

"I'm listening to you."

"This is Ilifreeta, princess of the Lakuus kingdom."

I opened my mouth, not believing my ears. I expected to hear everything from her, but definitely not like that.

"W-what?"

I stuttered.

"I had the same reaction."

Sigrun laughed.

"Wait. Are you sure about this? Is this really the princess?"

"Yes. These two can confirm."

Sigrun pointed to the old coachman and Furgur, who had been on duty guarding the camp all this time.

"They know her by sight."

“Okay Furgur, how does this old man know her?”

"He took part in her kidnapping."

Participated in the kidnapping... so stop.

"What's going on?"

I was perplexed, scratching the back of my head.

Then Sigrun decided to tell me everything. It seems that someone in the kingdom decided to kidnap the princess, but the reason for this kidnapping was not yet clear to us. Since she was paralyzed, she was not provided with the proper security that she most likely should have had. She ended up in Itsqueen's dungeon after a certain mercenary named Agnes kidnapped her, and the old man brought the two of them to Itsqueen. From this we can assume that none other than Count Laroy himself was behind the kidnapping, but Sigrun had some doubts about this.

She believed that the count could not organize the kidnapping and that someone helped him with this information. I thought so too after hearing her story in full. I wouldn't say that it would be safe for us to keep the princess of the Lakuus Kingdom nearby. She is an important person, a member of the royal family, and who knows what will happen to us if someone finds out that she is here.

On the other hand, it can become the key to negotiations with the king of this kingdom and then we can fulfill our part of the deal, and he his. We can easily pass through the lands of Lakuus and reach the positions of the 127th Army. Or maybe they will even organize a caravan so that we can get there faster and be able to quickly fulfill our part of the deal.

It certainly sounded good, but as soon as I remember a few moments, the joy disappears from my face. The kingdom will soon enter the war and by the time help arrives from the 127th Army, it is quite possible that this country will no longer exist. Then this deal becomes absolutely useless and the only ones who benefit from it are us. Of course, we can take advantage of this, but it’s better for us not to attract unnecessary attention, and it’s unlikely that the king will agree at all, knowing how long it will take for reinforcements to arrive.

"We'll leave her here."

I said, making Sigrun scared by my words.

"What?"

“We’ve already dragged enough people along with us. We don’t need to drag a paralyzed princess with us. It’s none of our business what’s going on in this kingdom.”

That's right, it's none of our business anymore. We've already done a lot of bad things. It is no longer possible to turn back time. It is better to leave the girl somewhere and continue the journey on your own way.

"Incartia said that there will be a village ahead. Let's make a short stop there and leave the princess there."

"Boris, we can't do this."

Sigrun shook her head.

“We are not good people, so you know. We are soldiers, members of the 127th Army. We are not a charity organization for the protection of princesses. So, enough is enough for us. We will not interfere in the affairs of the kingdom. We just need to get through this territory. We will do it ourselves without anyone's help."

"You don't understand..."

"NO YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND THIS!"

I raised my voice to Sigrun, hovering over her.

“It was because of you that we had to use force on innocent people. IT’S ALL BECAUSE OF YOU! It was you who decided to play a caring person and now you paid for it! Are you suggesting that after this we continue to do God knows what?”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Sigrun sank at my words, although I had no intention of offending her. I really thought she was guilty of what happened. We could not deviate from our principles and from our people, putting ourselves as a priority for survival on this planet. We should have been more careful, we should have not attracted too much attention, but instead we carried out a massacre as if we were some kind of terrorists.

We were lucky that they believed that the Antigonians were behind this, but still we killed these people. And in the end, I finally realized that it was all my fault. I didn't warn her that we needed to be careful, because she wasn't a soldier, she was just a ship's engineer. Of course, she didn’t know how to behave in such a situation.

And why do I take it out on her then?

I thought, seeing the saddened Sigrun in front of me.

"Okay... let's forget about it for now."

"B-Boris..."

Ikaya addressed me as Sigrun.

"I r-really didn't mean to. I just..."

“You don’t have to apologize, it’s all over. The main thing is that this doesn’t happen again.”

Sigrun pursed her lips and nodded several times. She was still depressed after my words. It was sad to see her like this, so I hugged her, which made her surprised.

"Boris?"

“I told you, it’s all over. Calm down and finally become yourself, the cheerful and cheerful person you’ve always been.”

"Boris."

Sigrun sniffed and hugged me back. She needed to cry a little, she had been through a lot that night. They bullied her there, and I stand in front of her and scream right in her face. I'm not treating her like a human being. I need to make it up to her and everyone else. I decided that when I return to Earth I will take full responsibility for everything that happened here.

I am responsible for my people, for my actions. Everything that I didn’t notice, everyone who died, all this happened through my fault and no one else’s. I have to remember this because my people rely on me and they expect a lot from me. I won't abandon them, I will bring them home and Sigrun too. We will not die on this planet. This will never happen.

So we stood hugging for several minutes until Sigrun pulled away from me, remembering something:

"Boris, you should know."

"What exactly?"

"She has the ability of telekinesis."

"Telekinesis?"

For the second time that day I was surprised.

"Are you sure about this?"

"I saw it with my own eyes."

Another form of magic in this world?

I immediately thought and decided to find out something.

"Tell me what you saw?"

"Nothing fancy, just a flying piece of bread."

"Just a flying piece of bread?"

Indeed, “nothing unusual.”

"It sounds strange, but it's true."

Sigrun continued.

"When she wakes up, she'll show what she's capable of."

"Isn't she paralyzed?"

"Yes. She hasn't been able to move since birth, but it looks like she can still influence the environment with her ability. I think I should ask Granid about it, but that old fool is still sleeping. I wish I could sleep like him!" "

I grinned when I heard her address the old wizard in her usual tone and decided to leave her for a while.

"Okay. I'll ask Granid about this power."

"And one more thing."

I was about to leave, but Sigrun wanted to say something else.

"Something happened here..."

Sigrun looked awkwardly at the ground.

"Looks like Lecite and Camelia's relationship has reached a new level."

Just not this...

"This can't be true."

I shook my head.

"Have they started dating?"

"No."

I breathed a sigh of relief when I heard her categorical answer.

Problems would arise if they built a close relationship. We can hardly afford to start families with the natives.

But then Sigrun continued:

"They immediately had sex."

"…"

WHAT ARE THEY?!

I was shocked. After all, THIS could never have occurred to me.

"Did this happen while we were gone?"

Sigrun nodded in response, and I fixed my gaze on the resting Camellia, who was sitting leaning against a tree trunk. I had some doubts about whether she could do it.

She’s under eighteen years old... is she allowed?

Then my gaze turned to Lecite, who was sitting next to Camellia and again talking to her about something. For women, of course, he was outwardly attractive, but he was 37 years old, shouldn’t the difference of twenty years in age somehow stop him?

“Did he even think about what he was doing?”

I said it out loud, but Sigrun decided to correct me.

"Actually, it was Camellia's initiative."

"Egh~!"

Once again I opened my mouth in surprise.

“I’ve only been gone for a day, and this has already happened here.”

"And what will you decide to do with them?"

Sigrun asked, and I answered her honestly.

"I don't know."

“And if Camellia has a child, then it looks like Lecite will have to stay here.”

"Or he will demand to take both the child and Camellia with him to Ecostate."

I suggested, crossing my arms over my chest again.

"I'm afraid this is difficult to resolve somehow safely."

"Why do you think so?"

"Because this shouldn't happen."

I answered seriously.

The relationship between visitors from space and the natives has often been a problem during human space exploration. One could remember how people first found themselves on Fedricia, where an extremely underdeveloped civilization of the Stone Age level lived. The living conditions themselves did not allow them to develop into a technologically advanced civilization; at that time, the planet was undergoing a period of mass extinction of plant life forms, and yet the inhabitants of Fedricia were as well physically developed as people.

People treated them carefully, deciding to assimilate them; an alphabet and a single language were created especially for the Fedrisians, and special habitats were also allocated. Although due to active colonization they became a minority in their home world, they were completely safe. And although people and Fedrisians could not have common offspring, and in general the process of fertilization was too different, they could be in pairs, which in fact none of the people expected, because for the most part the appearance of both people and Fedrisians was not attracted to each other. Ultimately, they decided to allow the creation of interspecies families, but creating common offspring through artificial breeding in laboratories through incubators was strictly prohibited.

It was a different matter here, when the inhabitants of this planet not only looked like people, but actually actually were them. Moreover, in theory, they could have common offspring, and then the question arises “what should we do with them?” to which no one could give a normal answer.

General Zeonid Kudrinash, as the head of the 127th Army and the entire republican administration on the planet, was the only one who could resolve this issue. I, in turn, can only observe and leave the two of them to continue to procreate their already sexual relationship. Lecite is not a military man, but a civilian, and I have no right to give him the order to end his love relationship with a native woman. My task as a soldier is to protect him and if he decides to stay here with Camelia, then I will not interfere.

While I was thinking about this, the sun was already setting, and we had dinner gathered around the fires. In addition to the people, there was food prepared in advance on the carts. By the time we left, the taverns did not have time to fulfill the order in full, which was our reason for the delay. Nevertheless, now we silently dined under the red sky from the dawn and the darkening forest to the sound of fires and crickets.

"Do you think they'll guess it's us?"

Forn asked suddenly.

“About that we are behind this massacre?”

Fred asked in response.

"Yes."

Forn confirmed, to which Fred answered after chewing the cabbage and meat for a few seconds.

"The likelihood of this is quite high. We were the most suspicious in this city. Surely they will think of us first."

Looking at the natives with whom the drivers of our carts communicated, you involuntarily wonder what will happen to us if they find out the truth. Unfortunately, the answer was very obvious: they will not leave us alone. They will take revenge, they will pursue us, and we will be forced to fight back and flee. We are not able to fight here alone, and therefore we must be careful and act carefully.

"So far they think the Antigonians did it."

I said, sitting in front of the fire.

“We must do everything possible so that they continue to think like this, otherwise all our efforts will go down the drain. We will no longer get involved in the affairs of the local residents. We must do everything possible so that the natives treat us at least neutrally.”

The fighters did not answer, but only continued to eat with understanding on their faces. The next day we will have to be in the village, where we will have to continue our journey on foot. We have a long and difficult road ahead of us to the 127th Army, and I hope that it still exists, because the nature of this world is such that everything that comes here becomes part of it forever.