Chapter 40: Arsonists

"Y-Yes, Princess!" In his state of restlessness and agitation, in his panic, or overflowing energy, he even tried to get up at once, only to find a ceiling on top of his head and whack it with an "Ouch!" "Princess. Far from me the idea of offending you but, presently, it should be impossible for us to—"

"Meet with the forest's Sisters, right? I know. We still have to, however."

"About the demons' army—"

"I know that too, White-haired. I understand the terms of war. And I knew you would oppose me on that matter. Obviously you would. For that, I have to thank you. You're not nearly as good enough an advisor to your princess, White-haired, but I trust you do your best nonetheless."

"Princess. Your kind words touch me. I will be sure to try more and meet your expectations." Hideous let out a deprecating laugh, clearly forcing out his laughter with a raised voice. A glance from me sufficed to let him fall back meekly. "Furthermore, I would rather you don't worry about me. I considered your good advice."

What good advice might that have been? I didn't know about any words of advice I gave any people. Seeing my confusion, White-haired explained to me that, upon discovering his sovereign's strength and hard spirit, he was sure that I, the princess, wouldn't easily back down from fighting my own little vendetta and accept the True Demon Lord's conditions for a 'truce'.

My life and pride were on the line, after all. My eyes widened in surprise. The elf was going to make this way easier than I thought it'd be. I had gotten myself ready to go on a long, tedious argument to convince them my way of dealing with this whole conflict was the best... but I didn't have to. I was relieved.

Also, White-haired decided not to doubt the benevolence of her princess anymore. He confessed to me that he had been wrong in trying to force me along with his plan. Because as it was now, he trusted I wanted to save their brethren's lives even more than him. I was the royalty upon which everyone relied.

"So... Princess. Whether we succeed in executing your battle plan, your plan of action or not, if it comes to it, I know you will bend to the demons' will." It was needless to say White-haired clearly thought we wouldn't be able to succeed with whatever plan I came up with. He thought it was vain to even try. Still, if his princess wanted to try to put up a resistance (in a way that didn't disrupt the present 'peace'), he had no right to deny her wish. Why, because he loved his princess, and because they had time to spare before what he thought was inevitable would come.

There was no 'battle plan' to begin with, however. The only task I concerned myself with was that of my quest's completion. After the mission was done, I was gone. I had no intention to deal with these two troublesome elves' issues. The war was theirs to fight, not mine. By using them to go and meet up with the Dryads, I simply wished to use them to wrap up the Character's Creation quest and be done with it.

After that, sayonara. The 'battle plan', from their perspective, would have evidently failed by then. And with their princess, they could go on and sacrifice themselves for the vain sake of a truce that wouldn't last anyway. The only problem was their elven princess was already dead, which meant they had no way to deal with the demons' threat. Like I was going to help these two do anything and meeting with the forest's Guardians was any part of a greater plan to get back at the demons in a fair war.

"You're making this easy for me, White-haired," I solemnly nodded at him. "You don't have to hide it, however. I know but too well how so displeased you must be with my plan. Still though, I'm asking for your cooperation. Worst, you must even be more displeased with this whole situation... our late Kingdom has found itself in. Know it, though. I won't change my stance without first... trying to put up a good fight, as you so wisely pointed out."

I was surprised they didn't ask me what the 'battle plan' actually was, by the way. The old man helped me prepare some nonsense of a plan to tell them a while earlier, but I was glad my subjects didn't want me to elaborate the hows and whys of our sneak-move against the demons. Again, it made things easier for me.

White-haired stuttered words of thanks to my magnanimity, bowing his head low, and didn't bother to deny he didn't like any of the directions I was trying to take. I paused to appreciate the man's earnest honesty. "We shall move according to your plan then, Princess." He had been working on himself very well from what I could see. In the end, he agreed to my conditions without putting much opposition. It was great. After notifying me that we were still a little tight on time—meaning we should hurry it and not linger too long with a plan that was doomed to fail—White-haired's mind was to be put at ease when I told him he was correct. Hideous was to make the carriage go forward, and we set off.

"We're sailing off North then, boys—I mean, my loyal subjects!" Thus the princess and her two priorly not-so-dutiful servants all together set off down the track to pursue the princess' goal and get her what she desired. Yes.

That was the story of a meek, weakling of a princess who couldn't do anything aside from being a pushover and crying herself to sleep during a time of war, who in the span of a single night drastically changed from zero to hero, who now possessed great might and determination, and who now would rule over her people properly, with a cold, strong leading hand.

That princess, however... Was she after the noble adventurous undertaking of saving her ill-treated people and raise them back to glory? She wasn't. Ha ha ha. I just needed to get that System's quest done and follow along with whatever else the System told me to do.

That was my purpose. And so, just like this, I inwardly bid my farewell to the kind ma'am of the inn, telling her I was sorry I couldn't help her with today's customers, and that someday, we shall meet again. Or maybe not. Who cared about that now useless background character.

Not half an hour after we were gone from the old man's house, the dwelling caught on fire. Yes, we both thought it would be fun to set it on fire before we left, as both he and I, the new best buddies in the world, were sure we would never turn back and definitely go on an adventure together, we thought it a good idea to burn it to the ground.

What both the hearty senile old man and I hadn't thought about was that some trees also caught on fire. Thanks to the moist climate, the fire fortunately didn't burn down more than a percent of the sacred forest. Still, we made the national elven kingdom TV news being known as the two demon lord arsonists. At any rate, we were gone.