Then, amidst the screaming, Ran clearly heard Era's voice, and out of the corner of his eye he saw her trying to make her way through the crowd, calling his name.

His fear faded and he felt a new courage wash over him, yes, he couldn't afford to die here and now, he finally had something to protect, a reason for fighting.

The first bolt went off, shooting directly at his throat. However, he simply avoided it nonchalantly by tilting his head to the side.

"Slow..." he thought. Compared to rifle bullets a crossbow bolt might as well stand still.

The second shot wasn't as accurate and threatened to rip into his chest, so Ran didn't even bother avoiding it; with his free hand, he just smashed the arrow in the air with a simple backhand slap.

The attackers were surprised for a moment, but they quickly recovered and decided to retreat. They thought fast and aimed well, they were professionals. Ran couldn't say the same about the soldiers.

The soldiers present finally realized the presence of the two men and went after them. They didn't seem to want to skewer Ran anymore, but Ran preferred not to take any risks, he raised his hands above his head and made his weapon disappear into his inventory.

The princess had fainted from the shock but did not seem to be in any danger. The soldiers surrounded Ran awaiting orders.

"Err, I suppose you have some questions, right?"

…

Ran was tied up and taken to the mayor's residence where the princess was staying, the basement had been set up as an interrogation room especially for him. His jailers were divided, some claimed that Ran had saved the princess while others were sure that he was part of the attack and that it was better to try and get information out of him.

Ran sat there, bound hand and foot, enjoying the show. He could have freed himself but he didn't want to make things worse for himself.

" I say we stab him a few times and make him confess."

" Idiot, if he really saved the princess and you touch one of his hair, your head will roll before long."

"He's lying for sure!"

"Shut up, nothing changes the fact that we couldn't do anything, he shows up and waste three guys, and compared to that we couldn’t do shit...Even the one we caught killed himself before we could get him to talk."

An awkward silence filled the room. Suddenly, there were hurried footsteps and another guard came breathlessly to the door.

"The princess is awake...hfhf...She wants to see him, now!"

Ran was led into the reception room, a large round room richly decorated, there waiting for him was the princess sitting in a leather chair, holding her head with one hand. At her side stood an impeccably dressed butler who did not hide a grimace of disgust at the sight of Ran.

A dozen soldiers surrounded him and pushed him unceremoniously into the middle of the room.

At the sight of him, the princess quickly spoke up:

"Someone cut his ties!"

"You're not thinking about it, Highness, this man is dangerous" the butler whispered to her.

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"Don't make me repeat myself, Graam."

"As you wish, Highness..."

The man named Graam nodded and one of the soldiers came over to cut the ropes that were binding Ran. The butler gave him a haughty look.

‘Yep, definitely don’t like that one.’

He bowed to the princess and spoke.

"Glad to see you're doing well your...Highness?"

"Ran isn't it? Call me whatever you like, after all, you are the man who saved my life."

She gave him a warm smile that didn't seem to hide any pretense.

Ran had a sigh of relief internally, at least she didn’t confuse him with an attacker. Things would have become troublesome if she did.

"Indeed, even if not everyone seems to share your point of view.”

Ran stared at the butler.

"Strange, isn’t it ? Is the testimony of a princess so worthless?"

The princess laughed.

"What do you want, these men are only thinking about my safety, Graam here thinks that this attack was just a set up so that you could win my favor, others still say that you were part of those assassins."

"Three deaths would be a high price to pay for a staged attack, and the second option..."

"Yes?"

"I'll be frank, your highness, I shot two moving targets from more than 20 meters away, stuck a knife in a man's head in the middle of a crowd and I was only a few centimeters away from you, if I had wanted you dead, don't you think it would have been more than easy?"

Graam took offense:

"Insolent, how dare you speak like that in front of her highness!"

"Graam, enough."

"But?"

"This man is right, if he hadn't been there... I wouldn't be alive anymore, let's rather reward him for his heroism. Speak up, what do you want?"

Ran thought carefully about it, an offer like this would probably never come again.

'Er with my luck its actually quite possible that something like that will happen again !'

what could he possibly want... Money? A rare artifact? Or even a title of nobility? No... That would only reinforce doubts against him, ‘not even sure she has that much authority’, he needed something that only someone of such high status as the princess could grant yet would not ruffle too many feathers.

An ingenious idea came to him.

"In that case..."

He raised a finger to his face.

"1 year, I wish that the village of Coza be exempted from exploitation and sales taxes for 1 whole year."

Whispers ran through the guards, and even Graam turned his head away, cursing. No personal gain, so no reason to question his good faith, that's what Ran wanted.

"If that's all, I'll gladly grant your wish, but may I ask why such a request ?"

"Well, it's..."

Hasty footsteps came from the door and Era abruptly entered the room followed by 2 guards.

"Excuse us your Highness, this woman says she is the partner of the man we arrested, she ran here without waiting."

"It's okay, let her through."

Era knelt down.

"Princess Elisa, my name is Era, I am a member of the Coza village militia, I am here to witness the kindness of this man who has already saved many villagers."

Ran was relieved, he was able to exchange a look with Era and made sure she was okay. With her support, he could now speak without fear on behalf of the village. He took out the parchment where the deed of servitude was written and presented it to the princess.

"This is the reason for my request, this village wishes to regain its freedom and get rid of the serfdom contract binding them to the Marquis of Gliver. I humbly ask you, could you testify to this cancellation as a high dignitary?"

The princess thought for a moment and then glanced at Era, who nodded her head in approval.

She looked pensive for a bit then sighed

"So be it, so be it. I hope you know what you're getting into."

Ran didn't know if the princess was referring to the Marquis or to other potential threats, but it didn't matter now.

"Have no fear, this village is in good hands, Era smiled, looking at Ran."

"Oh? In that case I'm looking forward to seeing how it develops. She smiled back."

"Anyway, why don't you stay tonight, we'll have a banquet to celebrate Ran's heroic deed."

Ran put a hand over his heart and bowed slightly.

"Thank you for your attention, Your Highness. However, please forgive us, but we have a long way to go and we can't stay here any longer."

"If that's the case we can't do anything about it, guards! Escort these people. Goodbye Sir Ran, and a safe journey to you."

"Thank you, Highness, may our paths cross again."

'Or not, that felt like a massive headache waiting to happen'

Ran and Era were led back to the city center, Ran explained to her what had happened before she arrived and once they were alone, Era spoke up.

"Why do we have to leave so soon? A banquet would have been the perfect opportunity to get close to the princess and reveal the attack the marquis is planning, right?"

"Unfortunately, we have no proof, the nobles here seem to enjoy great prestige, at best, a surveillance would have been established and we would have been stuck in a cold war without knowing when the marquis would attack us from behind. And in the worst case... we would have been arrested for treasonous talk"

Era shuddered at the thought.

"Besides, what I did today must have pissed off a lot of people. Better get out of town as soon as possible."

Ran didn’t specify it but the main reason they needed to hurry was that now that the contract was broken it was only a question of time before Gliver learned about it, the clock was already ticking.