“What the… huff huff… the hells’ wrong with you?!” The silver-haired girl straddling my back shot out after my failed escape while trying to recover her breath. “Damn… Who runs through a wasp nest while throwing cutlery, dammit!”

Legging it back then was the best plan I had, even if it was barely a plan. The next step was likely about getting someone to help me or hiding away, but both things were hard to do when I was sure to choose somewhere this isolated. Which meant that I needed to put some work on it, not that it worked.

Every obstacle, object, and anything that could slow this girl down, I tried it. It was either that or trying a fair and straight speed contest against someone from a fantasy world. Not something I could do.

It wasn’t very ladylike, but beggars can’t be choosers.

Being tackled down after only a minute or two and then ending face-down on the ground with someone on my back wasn't too, but that was above me. Pretty much literally even.

“I can do a lot of things for self-preservation, not that they usually work… I ask for my execution to be swift and painless, by the way.”

Again, I wasn’t thinking that she would kill me now that I had some time to think, but in case she would, it would be better if it didn’t hurt too much. Pain isn’t something I’m fond of, even if I can take a lot of it.

“I’m not sure if you’re weird or just dumb… Do you not recognize my face at all?! Even if we didn’t meet before, this should be similar to someone you know. And running away at a glance isn’t the reaction I was expecting either way!” The silver-haired attacker continued without moving away from me. “Have you not seen my sister at least once? She’s always close to Dad or to whatever big shot is visiting the grounds, so she should have met a summoned hero.”

Sister? Is that…? Oh. Now that I think about it, I know two people with silver hair already, don’t I? More even, I also saw someone who looks very similar to this person… Almost too similar. And now I want to stick my head in a hole.

I mean, her silky silver hair was barely shoulder length, but it was still the same color. She had the same reddish sharp eyes, but a less serious aura. The same facial features, almost perfectly so. And then… that damn bombshell body! I will never forget this bit.

Everything else was too different still. The expressions, in special. Earlier, she was looking at me like how a wolf would eye the weak little rabbit, and now she’s, for lack of a better word, freaking pissed.

It’s not as if you would expect a princess to go around with a leather set of armor, right? It wasn’t as if the other pieces of her set were fitting too.

Her leather breastplate was over a simple top that left her abs in view, the lower half was barely a tight miniskirt with too big of a belt, and she had a heavy-looking cloak on top of everything. All colored in a half-and-half green and gray split too, so she looked more like someone wearing forest camo than a princess. Or in more fantasy-like terms, she was pretty much a ranger!

The only missing parts were the weapons, but since she seemed to be able to attack with magic, that was minor. I could see some knives hidden around too.

That was still weird, even without even considering the foliage, dirt, ashes, and two or three wasp stings through her body... although all of these were my fault. Except for the ashes. The ashes I’m quite sure were because she flamed the wasps with magic, but I didn’t dare look back while I was running.

She was still glaring at me, though, so it would be smart to say something fast.

“So… Your Highness? Can you stop holding me down, please? I promise I won’t run away anymore…”

A promise that I’ll break right away if I need to, but you don’t need to know that. I’m not dying this easily now that I got isekai’d, so losing my honor won’t stop me from flying away if you become a menace.

Chances are, I'll be caught again, but that's beyond the point.

“You’re a weird one, you know that?” She asked while getting up but without ever losing sight of me. “Also, don’t call me ‘your Highness’ like that, call me Eleonora or something. I don’t like stuffiness and I like my name.”

“Elen will do then?” I asked back as I also got up and started to pat my clothes clean with a neutral expression plastered on my face. “It’s easier to say.”

“You… What the… Hahahahahah! Yes, Elen will do, you weirdo.” Elen laughed at my words after looking confused for a moment, just like the plan, and then got even closer to me. “Now, tell me your name and we will have a little talk, got it?”

“That seems like a threat…”

“If it is, or not, depends on you.”

I wasn’t sure if this girl was crazy or if she was simply too direct, but talking with her wouldn’t kill me, probably. And it wasn’t as if I could continue my studies until my mana recovered again, so playing along shouldn’t be that bad.

She didn’t seem like someone who could kill me for sport, at least. Running away right away was still an option and I had my secret weapon pocketed still, so there were ways to escape if needed.

“If that’s so, then you can call me Illia or any variant of that. But where do you wanna have this talk of yours?”

For starters, I wasn’t that sure of where exactly we were after all that running, but having a chill talk on the ground wasn’t my style. Gardens were fine and all, but enjoying them from a proper seat or from inside a house was more in line with what I liked.

I also had a guess that this princess, even if her outfit said otherwise, was of the same mentality. She was even turning to the palace and starting to walk before even answering me.

“Follow me, Illia.” She called out without even turning or stopping to move. “I’ll show you my room.”

“Your room…?” I followed for the time being while ignoring the chills creeping on me. “Why not someplace more public? Or at least tell me what exactly we’ll be talking about…”

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“Won’t do. Think of it as a confidential rendezvous that wouldn’t be too good if was heard by bystanders… We’re also very close to it, so it shouldn’t take too long.” She continued while keeping a fast pace towards the closest entrance to the palace. “And don’t worry, I don’t bite… too much.”

Forget it, she’s scary.

Not exactly the ‘I’ll die’ scary, but I’m feeling a real drive to turn around and start running again. This kind of situation has a real 'bad flag' feeling to me, especially considering I'm still the 'random bystander' for now.

At least until I'm sure these people are indeed good, maybe I should just keep going with the safe and running around at all chances. It should be even easier now that we’re close to the castle again.

Yep! I'll ignore my intuition and run away from this predator just in case.

In fact, while I was thinking this much, I was already far away enough and in a full sprint in a different direction than the one from earlier. You should never turn your back to me if you wanna catch me, princess!

“See you later, Elen!” I shouted after getting close to a good corner of the castle that I could use to make her lose track of me. It wasn’t necessary to warn Elen about my escape, but it would be uncouth to not say my goodbyes properly. Not that this made the princess any happier with the situation…

“Wait? What?! Come back here, dammit!”

The early start and my passive lack of presence were perfect for these situations, and with how Elen was likely still a little tired, I managed to slip away this time. She would be on me very fast still, so the next step would be hiding away for a while. Which was easy to do when I could just enter a freaking medieval castle.

So, with this in mind, I opened the first window in my line of sight without making much noise and got inside.

“Now to where…?” I asked myself while looking around the room I had just invaded.

It was a very fancy room, that was for sure. Huge canopy bed, a whole wall with ornated dressers, three different tables, one of which had a collection of padded chairs, some bookshelves, and a very eye-catching pedestal with a golden scepter that I was sure to be magical. And all that was without even mentioning the fact that this room had three doors, so it was likely a suite with an annex too.

I was starting to hear footsteps approaching from outside, though, so it was time to move.

Being sure of which door led to the corridor was beyond me, though, so I simply went to the closest one and hurried inside. In the worst-case scenario, the plan would be to hide inside the bathtub and hope for the best.

I mean, my luck is usually quite good, right? The chances that I would end up in trouble shouldn’t be too…

“So you finally arrived.” A known voice called me out from the inside of the room I was sneaking into. And as was proper, I slowly turned to the voice as if my whole body was made of very bad clockwork.

“Your… Highness?”

“That’s me.” He answered with an amused smile and then eyed me whole for a moment. “Can I take it that neither my daughter nor her maid got you here this time?”

No, it wasn’t the throne room, that would be too weird. This room was more like a tea room, but it lacked any windows and the walls were full of shining symbols and decorations. My guess was that this place was some special meeting room since I could see some soundproofing spells around. And if it was, then it was likely the weird princess was indeed taking me to some important stealthy talk and that this was her room.

Next time be a little less weird about it, dammit! What was your plan if I actually managed to run away?!

“Should I sit down?” I resigned myself to my fate and asked the king just to be sure before moving closer after he nodded. The fact the guy I’m yet to ask the frigging name was calling me to a private meeting was already bad, but I’m sure it would get worse when his daughter arrived.

You know, wasps, running around, and all else probably meant she didn’t have the best impression of me. The nicknaming and how she seemed amused by my antics would help, but I needed to be ready to beg for forgiveness.

Nothing I couldn't do, though.

“It would be best if everyone was here already, but you alone are most of the reason I’m here.” The king continued after I tucked myself into a chair. “And for the first question, young lady, why do you keep on fleeing dinnertime? Not only is it worrying your friend, but it’s also a problem for your image.”

“About this… Well… I'm training?” I tried to come up with some excuse, but my head was more focused on the other words. In special, on how exactly my image could have some difference in this whole thing. “And why such worry about me? Isn’t unlucky bystander who is leeching off you enough for my image?”

“If you had no value for the kingdom or was vehemently against helping us, then yes, that would work. I’m sure your training sessions will be worth it at some point, though, and by then, having connections will help a lot. Or will you pretend that you don't have any will to act like a hero?”

He had the same ‘know-it-all’ expression from when he nudged me to convince Hayato to play along at the throne room. If at least he knew how much of a death flag having me play as a hero would be… And more than that, he was saying so to the one person who couldn’t be a hero.

The most I could do was die as a foil or become something much worse.

Still, this stupid old man had me figured out just like how I had him, but his position was simply better. Showing clear displeasure was a no-go, though, so I held back and instead tried to steal some sweets from the tea table before answering. I wouldn’t be going down this easy.

“I don’t fit those kinds of events, okay? If you force me to come, I won’t have an option, but it won’t be good for either of us. Best case, whoever you call will see me and be disappointed, worst case, I’ll mess something up...” I tried to answer as clearly as possible while going through the motions drilled on me to serve tea and prepare some of the scone-like refreshments. “But again, if you order me to appear, then I will and I’ll try my best there. I don’t have an option and I’m kinda used to it anyway…”

“Is that so?” He answered while seemingly watching me, and I ignored his eyes and sipped on the, by my guess, tea, although I couldn’t pinpoint which kind it was. I also forgot to add sugar, jam, or anything sweet, but I pretended to not care for now as the king continued. “I don’t plan on forcing you to do anything. If you need a reason to believe me, then you can consider the fact that you’re too good of a deterrent to keep your friend helping us... It would still be wonderful if you stopped pretending to not exist and talked a little with us.”

“I’ll think about it.”

“A very polite way of refusing, as expected.” He answered amused again, and then threw one of the smaller cakes whole into his mouth as if to show some point. “But if that has any value for you, then I know of someone that would put whatever little ‘mess ups’ you could do at a dinner to shame… Someone that should be here soon too.”

“Are you talking about Elen… I mean, about the other princess?”

“Elen, is it? Interesting… Yes, I’m talking about my younger daughter, though calling her younger is only something they both decided…”

“What do you…?”

But before I could finish my question, and since we were talking about the devil already…

“Can you believe that brat simply turned tail and…?!” Elen’s voice rang as the door to the tea room was almost kicked open and, after a moment of confusion, closed into me. “HOW THE HELLS YOU GOT HERE?!!!”

I wanted to say ‘through the door’, but one, she was too close for me to run, and two, it would be uncouth. Not fitting my current character and all that, you see? Nothing I could do there. It was already lucky that I could hold my laughter from showing just by the fact I thought of saying this… But I still cleared my mind right away and moved on.

“Would you believe if I said that I kinda wandered in here while I was looking for somewhere to hide?”

“You’re really bad at fleeing, do you know that?”

“I’m very bad at many things, princess. Fleeing is just one of the worse ones…”

“Hahahahah! You’re a good one, girl!” Elen started to laugh in the same unhinged manner she did earlier before turning to her father. “Damn, I get why you bothered me so much to stay around longer, Dad. This is much better than fighting some strays or sneaking around someone’s city.”

“It’s good to see that you both are already acquainted.” He answered with an expression that instantly made me feel like something troublesome was coming. “It’ll make my new project so much easier...”