I finished refastening my clothes, made the war criminal crouching on my bed take about five steps back, and sat myself down on the edge of the mattress. The atmosphere was still a little awkward, but I did my best to ignore it as I put a question to Craig.
“So? What are you going to do now?”
I had a whole heaping pile of concerns on my mind, but that was what I wanted to know first. There was no way Craig had just barged in here without any plan at all, right?
“To begin with, I’ll have you accompany me back to His Highness Prince Sighart. Once we have regrouped, we’ll be taking you into protective custody, at least for the time being.”
“Protective custody? Your master’s seriously on board with that?”
I mean, I’m pretty sure I gave him the absolute worst first impression.
“His Highness was hesitant, I admit. The Lion Princess— Her Highness Princess Natasha and the others were vehemently opposed.”
“They’ve got good instincts.”
Of course Sig had hesitated. In the novel, he was a kind and compassionate guy, but that was exactly why he never let true wickedness go unpunished. That was how he had to be, or else it wouldn’t be a tale of good triumphing over evil.
“However, following the battle by the Pieira, His Highness spent some time in the care of House Kisch. He acknowledged that he had been puzzled as to why you had unconditionally released Elmer Kisch and returned him to his family unharmed, and why you had taken no action whatsoever to quell the rebellion. And so, he consented to my proposal for the time being, on the condition that I return with only you and no others. He will make a final decision once he has had the opportunity to speak with you directly.”
“Huh...”
Getting to join the heroes of my favorite novel should’ve been an exciting prospect, but the thought of being surrounded by enemies on all sides made my spirits sink. I was basically a walking pile of pure evil; marching right into the middle of the good guys’ stronghold would be anxiety-inducing in a different way from my confrontation with Eberhart. That didn’t matter, though—I’d just be reaping what I’d sown.
But there was another issue I was concerned about.
“Mm... I know it must’ve taken a lot of work to win everyone over, but sorry. I can’t go along with that plan.”
Craig seemed confused, like it had never occurred to him that I might reject his proposal.
“Why not?”
“Eberhart’s going to be sending someone here soon. Uh... Actually, how long was I asleep for, anyway?”
“I don’t know the answer to that, but you and I parted ways yesterday.”
“Tomorrow, then. When his people show up, I absolutely need to be here to meet them, no matter what. Basically, Eberhart also found out that I’m...uh, not the real Heinreid? So right now, he’s giving me a final few days of freedom out of the goodness of his heart. I don’t know how many guys are going to come get me, but if I’m not there when they arrive, he’s going to take it all out on the people of this duchy.”
My conversation with Eberhart had happened only yesterday, and the two of us had been all alone in the throne room, so obviously Craig wouldn’t have known about it. He clearly had a mental image of what “taking it out” might look like, and his brow furrowed grimly.
“You’re certain of that?”
“He told me so himself. Do you think he’d just say it as a joke?”
Craig had no rebuttal for that.
Yeah, Eberhart’s definitely going to follow through on his threats.
After a few seconds of silence, I made a counterproposal. “Here’s my suggestion: You head back to Sig on your own right now, and while Eberhart’s distracted dealing with me, all of you storm the palace. I think that’s your best option.”
“Absolutely not.” He shot me down instantly. “Once you’re taken to the palace, the odds of your survival are unacceptably low.”
Seriously?
“Look, maybe things aren’t quite black-and-white, but I’m a dark gray at best. If I end up getting sacrificed for the greater good, nobody’s going to fault you for that, okay?”
“I can’t accept that.”
Damn hard-ass... Yeah, this isn’t working. If I keep trying to argue my point, he’s just going to drag me straight to Sig whether I like it or not. I definitely can’t let that happen.
I sighed with resignation.
“All right. In that case, we’ve only got one option—when they come for me tomorrow, we’ll let them into the manor and then lock them all up. After that, we’ll take horses and ride out as fast as we can to meet up with Sig and his crew.”
Craig still wasn’t on board, though. “Why do we need to wait for them to arrive here? We can fight them on the spot when we run into them.”
“No, that won’t work. If we slip past each other somehow, there’ll be hell to pay. Besides, like I said, I don’t know how many guys Eberhart’s sending. Instead of getting into a fight on the open road where they’ll see us coming at the same time we spot them, it’ll be safer to lie in wait here on our own turf.”
“However many they are and wherever we meet them, I shall protect you—no matter what.”
Damn, that’s one hell of a promise. I know how strong he is, though. I mean, I’ve only seen him in action once since I awoke in this body, when I made him fight Sig. But he’s definitely got both power and skill.
That wasn’t the issue, though.
“I... Unless I absolutely have to, I don’t want to order you to kill anyone.”
Even I had to wonder where the hell I got off saying crap like that. Coming out of this mouth, it just sounded like total hypocrisy.
But, Craig, you’re the one who thinks I’m not Heinreid, right? So you’ll have to listen to this. You definitely won’t be able to blow it off.
“Your survival is more important to me than theirs, so I won’t insist you keep things nonlethal no matter what,” I added. “But I don’t want to sacrifice any more innocent people from this duchy. Please...”
I wasn’t going to back down any further on this. I’m making a compromise, so now it’s your turn, dammit. I stared straight into his eyes, silently conveying my resolve with my gaze and attitude as I gauged his reaction.
Craig wore an uncomfortable expression, but as he looked back at me, he closed his eyes in resignation.
“Very well.”
I inwardly breathed a sigh of relief.
Thank goodness. Now there won’t be any more victims.
Now that I could breathe a bit easier, I decided to give another order while Craig was in a listening mood.
“Great, sounds like a plan. I’m going back to bed until morning. Good night, sleep tight, get out of my room.”
I sharply gestured to the door. Craig stared back at me like a pigeon hit with a peashooter.
“What? You’re going to sleep?”
“Sure am,” I replied casually. “I was resting because I completely exhausted myself yesterday, but someone woke me up partway through, so I’m still tired. Anyway, you haven’t slept either, have you? We’ve got time, so why not at least take a nap or something?”
Craig slumped his shoulders in exasperation. “You really aren’t nervous in the slightest, are you?”
“Compared to facing off with Eberhart, this is pretty much nothing. Plus, I’ve got you by my side now.”
He gazed at me silently for a moment. “Are you trying to tempt me?”
“Why’s that where you’re taking this?” I groaned. “Anyway, if you’re sure you’ll be fine tomorrow, then you don’t need to sleep. But either way, get out of here. I’m not gonna be able to sleep a wink with a guy who says stuff like that hanging out in the same room.”
I pointed at the door once again, like I was ordering a dog to go back to its house.
Frustrated looks aren’t going to get you anywhere. If you wanna blame someone, look in a damn mirror.
I glared up at him, and he gave a slow, rueful shake of his head.
“Very well. However, let me be clear that you are absolutely not to consider fleeing. If you leave this room or try to escape through a window, I will discover it immediately. And if such a thing were to happen...”
The moment he said those words, he grabbed the arm I was pointing with and tugged it forward. I yelped as I nearly lost my balance, then fell against Craig’s chest. His other hand snaked around behind my head and lifted my hair. I felt a sudden, sharp pain—his teeth sank into the nape of my neck, hard.
“Oww!”
I cried out in pain as I heard the unpleasant sound of skin tearing.
The man who’d just bit the (former) (fake) hand that fed him pulled his lips away and whispered right behind my ear.
“I’ll do far worse than that.”
You sound like an absolute villain! What the hell’s going on? How’d one of the good guys get so utterly twisted? Shit, this is definitely my fault for bullying him so much, isn’t it? After everything I put him through, his rebellious urges must’ve awakened some weird fetishes or something...
I felt a strange sense of guilt, but for the moment, all I could do was frantically nod my head back at him.