I can't believe it's actually him; it was just a stroke of luck that I saw him observing me back when I was waiting for a carriage.

I genuinely thought that it was just a coincidence that the person staring at me was wearing the same clothes that he usually would ingame- he is a private investigator after all, so wearing the same thing over and over again is just bad business practice, - but I guess not, it genuinely was John Doe (real name not revealed even with all my playthroughs,) and out of all the private investigators in this city, I couldn’t believe that it was John Doe of all people who had been sent to tail me.

I’m curious about how Crust Eruptia of all people managed to find him- as far as I’m aware, the guy had never been John Doe’s client in canon, - but that can wait, for now, I want to know about why Crust wanted information about me.

“Are you gonna talk or not?” I tried to play it cool and my years of dealing with petty nobles have helped with that by quite a lot but I was still feeling nervous, this is John Doe we’re talking about- someone who’s capable of listening in to conversations and parsing what they meant from a rooftop away.

I'm basically pulling off a bluff on someone who was smarter than me here, I'm sure that with his skill set and experience, John Doe already knows what I was doing and that I’m obviously bluffing.

Chances are, he’s probably also aware that I couldn’t actually do anything to him even if I tried- revealing him to the world wouldn’t work because of all his disguises and identities and if he wants, he can also lie to me and not reveal anything about his client at all so I’m on the losing end here.

I probably (definitely) also sound like an idiot to him right now.

It was why I was wearing clothes that I knew were appealing to him, or at least they should be according to one of his many idle dialogues back in the game, it's one of the few things that he revealed about himself; that he liked ladies who wore black dresses and other accessories with the same color.

“Can it wait?” He replied and reluctantly, I nodded, after a second or two of just sitting there, he started looking around and tapping the table in a rhythm.

Okay, what the fuck does that sign mean? Do I pretend I know what it is?.. Wait no, he said that he hated that sort of thing, it's better if I just say that I don't have a single clue what it is then, even when it makes me look stupid.

"I don't know what that sign is,” he actually had the gall to look shocked at that, does he think I know everything or something?

Okay, maybe I'm panicking and also being aggressive, not a good idea when I'm dealing with him, “sorry, but uh, don't just do that? Just say it out loud or make new signs if you want to stay hidden or something,”

“I…” he trailed off, “how can you say that so loudly?” He asked while gesturing at everything around us with his index finger, which spun in place like a compass, “there’s a lot of people here,”

Now it was my turn to look stupefied.

“What do you mean?” I asked in genuine confusion, wasn't it his idea ingame to go to Horizon because the restaurant can make their tables private? I mean, sure, it was just a weaker version of the “mute” function in the settings tab but I still thought it was kind of cool that the devs went out of their way to actually implement it into the game.

Even with that knowledge though, I did my best to play it cool and raised my eyebrow at him, “this table is completely silent, no one can hear us here, it’s part of Horizon’s thing?”

He looks at me, then at the table, "they can do that?” I nodded, just when did he learn about this particular tidbit about Horizon exactly? I thought he always knew about this? John Doe shook his head, “no, I guess it's on par for the course, I've heard rumors about it from my peers but never actually believed any of them,”

“So… you've been what? Talking to your clients in bars? Also, aren’t those more packed with people?” I asked, “wait- is that why you have hand signals?”

“Well not everyone could afford to be in this place,” he said and I narrowed my eyes at him, not everyone can afford to be in this place huh? So who's the buyer that allowed him to know about this sort of thing back in the game then? It couldn't have been Crust because I wasn’t in the game, so he wouldn’t have the motive to tell this guy to stalk me, so if it isn’t him…

I realized that I wouldn’t be able to know anything about it unless I actually see it directly happen… which never will since John Doe is already here and now also knows about it thanks to me- okay, that’s fair, someone paid him with enough money that he knew about Horizon in canon, whoever they are, they aren’t relevant right now.

“You didn’t know about the tables being silent in this place,” I said, “and that’s why you weren’t willing to talk,”

He nodded, “right,”

“Well now you do, so, talk, what did Crust want to know about me?” I asked, letting a bit of my fear seep out and hoping that my tone sounded impatient to him instead of scared.

“How’d you know it was him?” He questioned back.

I stared at him- I already told him about the signs that Horizon uses for special clients but if he didn’t want to believe me then I could always just say that-

“It’s obvious, isn’t it? Who else would it be but him? Crust has a lot of reasons to hire a private investigator to spy on me,” I answered vaguely, “and not just anyone can afford you either,” and that was the truth, the guy in front of me isn’t exactly the cheapest private investigator out there, “also, how many people know about you in this city?”

From my own ingame knowledge, I knew that the only ones who knew about his existence would be sleazy nobles and among them, the one who’ll want to hire someone like John Doe to investigate me would be my uncle, Crust Eruptia- connecting all of those dots isn’t exactly that hard to do.

I crossed my arms, “I’m not gonna say anything more, just that it’s obvious, and that’s it.”

“Fair enough,” he gave me a reaffirming nod, “but just to be sure about this whole silent table thing, I’m gonna say something bad about one of the other diners around us and you’ll take responsibility for it if they react,”

“Sure, go ahead,” I nodded, does he really think I was lying even after everything I just said? Seriously, we talked about one of higher ranking members of Eruptia in the open, that’s more than enough proof that the table is silent.

“The pig right next to us is an old hag who doesn’t know how to properly hold a fork, so she’s clearly new to this nobility thing, is she a gold digger or something?” When John Doe finished, I just stared at him weirdly- Okay? That’s an odd thing to say but fair enough.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

The two of us waited for a reaction and even after a while, got none, I smirked at him, he scoffed, “don’t stare at me like that, I wanted to make sure,”

“Do you hear them talking?” I asked and that somehow got him to react in shock and surprise- and I tried to figure out the reason as for why that is and got nothing other than the fact that he’s potentially- “wait, are you deaf?”

He scoffed in reply, “of course not, if I was-”

“You’d rely on lip reading,” I said, remembering this particular Technique that he taught the player ingame- which is now starting to make sense to me, “you’re actually deaf aren’t you?”

Reluctantly, he nodded and I let out a sigh, that explains everything- I’ve been wondering how he was able to listen in to conversations from another rooftop when I was following him during a quest but I guess he wasn’t listening in, but was just reading their lips, and I guess most of his dialogues make sense under this context too.

But I guess that also means that he’s not a Beastman, “so wait, you’re not some sort of Bat Beastman?”

He shook his head in denial, “what made you think that?”

“Well you’re wearing baggy clothes, so I thought you were hiding something,” that was always my headcanon as to why he wore thick, woolen clothing; because he wanted to hide his animalistic features but then again, his hat was small enough that bat ears wouldn’t be able to fit underneath there at all…

“Well I am hiding something,” he said, admitting it easily, which made me suspicious that he might be lying, “but not for the reason that you think,”

“Okay? I’m not gonna pry, and we really need to go back to talking about Crust here,” taking a brief pause, I looked over to the side of his head and smiled at the waitress carrying over our food for us, “thank you,” I said when she placed the two delicious smelling steaks on our table, I turned back to John Doe, who I hope is more comfortable now that food has arrived, “so, why is my uncle making private investigators go after me? It’s not like he’d get something out of it right?”

And it’s not like I was lying either- Other than my ingame knowledge- which no one but me is aware of to begin with, - nothing that I knew would have any use to that guy, Crust is effectively set in life, what with his position in Eruptia, the fact that he has a powerful Pledge, stuff like that, it’s why I’m confident that I didn’t know anything that can be useful to someone like him.

“The goal isn’t always to get something vital,” John Doe replied as he dug into his food, I waited for him to talk, curious as to what he was going to say next, “he might just want your everyday activities and actions written down, or your occasional, very rare outings in the city recorded, or, maybe he wants me to make a psychological profile for you, any of those can work really,”

“And which one did he ask you to do?” I asked and he looked at me with a raised eyebrow, I showed him my card, “I’ll pay for it,”

He nodded, “all of them,”

“All of them?” What the fuck? That’s taking the word creepy to a whole nother level! What does he want all of those for?!

“Why?” I think I sounded pretty close to being demanding when I asked that.

“I only work, not ask questions,” he shrugged and continued eating.

I bit my lip and followed his example- at least the steak was good enough to calm me down, - I chewed on his words for a bit and thought about how I felt about what I just learned and I found out that I don’t actually have anything to say other than ask John Doe’s opinion about his task and what he thinks Crust’s motives are.

And that’s exactly what I did- “so what do you think he’s making you do this for?” He met my eyes, I showed him my credit card again and pushed, “it doesn’t have to be right, just what you think he’s doing all this for,”

“What I think huh?” He stopped eating and wiped his hands, “I think he’s planning on kidnapping you,”

“What?” I asked.

“Or at least something along that line of thought,” he shrugged, “I don’t really know though, since all he asked me to get was your psychological profile, day-to-day activities, to note the places that you frequent, write them down, that sort of thing,” he smiled, “those could lead to anything really, poison you, set you up for a crime that you didn’t commit-”

“Okay, how?” I asked, genuinely curious, how does one set up another person for a crime they didn't commit?

“You walk in on something at the wrong time and the guards just so happen to be patrolling that particular area during that time, by coincidence, of course,” he answered with a carefree smile.

“But no one would believe him,” I said.

“Not unless he gets me to investigate people close to you, or ones that you hate,” he retorted confidently, “he already told me about you hating a particularly annoying brat from Vicissi earlier, which means we have someone who can act as the victim to your “crime”, which, since your classmates know that you have a bumpy opinion of each other, will have potential witnesses who will confirm that yes, you did hate Vicissi,”

I scowled, how the hell does he even know about that? Did Inferno snitch on me?

John Doe stopped eating and raised his hand defensively, “it’s not his son that told him about this, if you are curious,”

“Uhuh,” I said, not believing him.

He shrugged, “believe me or not, I don’t care what you think who’s responsible for this but just know that you’re definitely blaming the wrong person,” his words were followed by a shrug, “do what you want,” he added before he went back to our prior topic, “anyhow, he can get me to learn and stalk people you’ve talked to, like that Whiskette girl, and when the time is right he’ll-”

“Kill them and then set me up, and since I talk to them a lot…”

“You’ll be the perfect suspect yes,” he finished for me and went back to eating.

So did I, and I thought everything through- I can’t believe that the games that the nobles played ran deeper than I expected, I never knew that this shit was a valid strat, and until now, the only thing on my head is that they- I don’t know, that they only did things to be petty or something, to ruin the names of other nobles but this?

Framing others for murder? Holy shit- what?

Come to think of it, this is way too similar to the rich back in my old world literally getting others to catch their spouses cheating for a divorce isn’t it? Does the same go for here? “So if I ask you to find my husband cheating so I can divorce him, will you?”

“You have a husband?” He looked shocked.

“Assume that I do,” I replied and he sighed in relief for some reason- I eyed him, trying to spot why he would react like that, and well, even with the clothes that I was wearing, he didn’t seem like he likes me romantically, so it’s probably for Inferno. AGAIN.

I swear I’m starting to feel tempted to punch the guy. And not just in a spar either, but on a regular, normal day where he least fucking expects it.

I hate him, I really, really do now that I know the extent of what he’s doing to me, and sure, it’s Crust who’s doing all of this but he is Inferno’s father, I also know that Crust is an asshole yes, but I think this is just the standard case of the fruit not falling far from the tree- or a saying similar to that.

“I can,” John Doe answered a positive to my question, and that made me sigh.

“Fucking knew it,” I said, guess it’s all the same in the end- but still, it feels pretty weird that nobles and rich people will literally hire investigators to prove that their partners are cheating, and all of that for what? A divorce?

But John Doe being here isn’t exactly because Crust needs me to divorce someone right? They want to frame me for something- or even kidnap me? That last one didn’t make sense but my point before that did. Ruining my name sounds like a valid option to bring me down after all…

I resisted the urge to pull on my hair and decided that you know what? I’m just going to sit here and eat.

I chewed on my steak- I’m now forced to take part in the noble politics within Everlast, which is annoying.

Also, does this mean that Adamantite is also doing this shit too? Do I need to watch out for my brother of all people now as well? Fuck this is such a headache- I’m supposed to only fight Demons! And not- not do any of this!

I didn’t have to deal with this back when I was a Player so what changed? That I’m a princess instead of a player character? Is that it?

Goddess that’s… it makes sense that I’d be dragged into politics because I’m a princess but it doesn’t mean that I like it.

I finished eating, “thank you, for this,” I said as I stood up, “is there a way that I can make you come to me or do I have to go to Razor’s to find you?”

He looked at me with narrowed eyes before throwing a rolled up scroll my way, I grabbed it in the middle of the air and nodded, “thank you, I’ll pay on the way out, oh, and-” I took out the rarely used cheques on my person and wrote down a number, my payment for everything, “here, thanks again,”

He took it with a smile, “pleasure doing business with you, your majesty,”

“Mhmm.” I replied.

I got out of the restaurant and called for another Basilisk Carriage and as the chameleon-looking reptile ran my way while towing a large, rectangular carriage behind it, my thoughts slowly went back to what I learned from my talk with John Doe, and the more I thought about it, the angrier I got at the situation.

I’m being dragged into politics even though I didn’t want anything to do with it, and worse still, I don’t know anything when it comes to that sort of thing so I’m either gonna have to ask one of my sisters for help (Amber and Pearl seem like the best candidates,)

… or, I suck it up and learn how to deal with all these stupid, unnecessary politics by making Zath, Prescine, Korbinian, and possibly even Elise teach me standard politics stuff and then fight fire with fire.

Am I gonna learn how to do court stuff now? Well, I have to, I don’t have a choice.

Will I like it? That still remains to be seen but as I rode back into Pledge Academy, I couldn’t help but think that maybe, just maybe, there’s a merit to all of this, I was never one for politics but then again, I didn’t really need to learn anything about it did I? I’ve always focused on learning how to fight Demons and make myself an effective fighter because I never had the thought of becoming Crown Princess but if I’m being forced to do this anyways then sure, I’ll play along.

Learning politics didn’t sound so hard either.