A Dose Of New Information Can Also Be Deadly

As we were walking, I didn't even notice when we left the wooded area and found ourselves on a hill offering an incredible view. There was a large rock by the road, and I sat down on it, suggesting a longer break for refreshment. I could hear Renet bustling around behind me, searching for something in his backpack while I ate a simple sandwich. I was so focused on admiring the agricultural landscape that I didn't even notice when the sounds faded. Never in my life had I seen such a relatively flat landscape stretching beyond the horizon, divided into colorful fields just before harvest. Somewhere on the edge, I glimpsed small villages, probably inhabited by hard-working farmers, and composed of their well-kept farms.

I kept pondering Renet's words, and a revelation struck me. I was terrified by the thought that I might be right. Could this beautiful picture I was gazing upon be just the calm before the storm? By ambition and radicalism, he meant the desire to annihilate those on the other side of the Wall? Was that the goal of both? Renet said that for several hundred years there had been no contact between them, so the princess needed knowledge about the humans to understand the current situation, how they had advanced technologically, and what potential threats they could pose. She was preparing for war; that was her plan, and the information I provided would simply make it a little easier, as my role wasn't crucial to her. She had assumed she would win anyway and eliminate all the humans forever.

Now the princess's behavior and her amusement at the whole situation seemed obvious to me. She didn't value my life; she thought I might simply ease her path to victory by a stroke of luck. It's no wonder my suggestion of spying amused her, and she emphasized that my decision couldn't be influenced by what I learned later. If I betrayed her, well, I'd die anyway while carrying out her plan. If I didn't, I'd unknowingly become a traitor to my own species. In the current situation, it was a death sentence.

I started looking around frantically, but Renet wasn't there again. I jumped to my feet to go look for him and lost my balance. Like an idiot, I waved my arms to avoid falling on my face, and I don't know where he'd suddenly come from, but he'd caught me. I turned around, terrified not so much by his disappearance again, but because I realized what was actually happening.

"I asked you not to disappear without a word again," I scolded him, to which he looked contrite. I noticed that the headscarf he was wearing was tied less tightly, but there was no time for that. "You're dirty." I merely pointed to the corners of his mouth, stained with something red. "There's no time. We have to go."

"Is something wrong?" Renet asked, trying to straighten himself. "Why do you want to hurry now?"

"I don't know, because there's going to be a war soon?" I muttered. "Just tell me how I get to the capital. I need to find someone in charge here. You don't have to help me anymore. Go back home."

I became so fixated on the vision of war and the scenes my imagination suggested: of him, Tifia, and even Wilhelm and Wanda lying dead in a pool of blood. I couldn't get it out of my head. And I didn't even notice how much I resented being separated from Renet the day before, but now I had to try to do something to ensure his safety. Then he would be able to create in peace. I didn't think something as superficial as setting a specific goal would allow me to regain the will to live. Renet froze at my words, but he wasn't about to grant my request.

"I didn't want to tell you this so directly, and I guess I hoped you wouldn't guess what was behind my words," he replied sadly. "But it hurt me more that you wanted to get rid of me."

"For your own good?"

"I may not look like it sometimes, but I can take care of myself." For perhaps the first time during our short journey, he straightened and immediately took on a different aura, even a royal one. "And I won't let myself be dismissed so easily."

We stared at each other for a moment, and this time I acknowledged his victory. I understood that despite my discomfort, I was doomed to him. I was simultaneously happy, but on the other hand, if he stayed with me, he would surely learn that my original role, which I had assumed only to save my own life, was to spy for her. In this situation, my decision could not have been any different and would have killed me anyway, and dissuading her from the idea of ​​eliminating the human species seemed impossible. It definitely might have been easier with a human, unless he was also as mad, but at least it might be possible to talk to him normally, without feeling like he was about to eat you alive. I shuddered at the memory of that feast with the princess.

Renet strangely didn't share my anxiety; he was staring at something in the distance, probably in the direction we were supposed to be heading. He smiled, as if to reassure me.

"You don't have to worry. Nothing's going to happen anytime soon."

"You know something?" I asked, surprised.

"I've heard a few things."

"You really are a mystery to me," I said, eyeing him suspiciously, to which he blushed slightly. "I believe you, but I'd still rather not coast too much on the way."

"You're already putting too much strain on your ankle," Renet reminded me. "If you don't take care of it properly, it'll only get worse."

"As if that were the most important thing right now." I hissed in pain, having just put too much weight on my foot, having a crutch slip on who knows what. Just at the unfortunate moment when I had to prove my condition wasn't important. "I'm not looking for a wife. I don't need to look presentable," I muttered under my breath.

"A wife?" You must have such good hearing, I cursed silently at Renet's desperate tone.

"Wife, husband, it doesn't matter now. Let's just go."

I should have bitten my tongue; the conversation was once again veering onto dangerously shaky ground, with dangerous undertones. It was so hard to figure out Renet in this area. Sometimes I felt like we were drawn to each other, but then again, I guess I cared too much about the only person who had been so kind to me in this world to risk misreading any signals.

"Where exactly did you disappear?" I asked some time later.

"I just wanted to check something," he replied, returning to his version without the regal aura he had displayed moments earlier.

"And you're really not worried about the future? When war could break out at any moment."

"I'm just worried that now that you've entered my life, you'll soon stop being a part of it," he said with such sincerity and sadness that my heart ached. And what's worse, I didn't know what to answer him.