Chapter 8: Looking for an Escape Part 2

“Good morning, Milady! Are you excited for the party tonight?”

Alright, so running away was a flop, but I still saw some potential with that strategy. Things had been going shockingly smoothly until the prince showed up on his stupid white horse, like some kind of fairytale hero. If I could just keep him from getting tipped off, then maybe escape would be possible, but before I could do that, I first needed to figure out who had given him the heads up.

My eyes immediately turned to Sally. Yes, she was my attendant and she’s served me since birth, but I couldn’t say for sure that she hadn’t reached out to the prince as a way of getting me to go to the party. She had tricked me like that in the past, and I still suspected that she had picked out an inferior carriage to punish me. If she had done that, would ratting me out to the prince be that much of a stretch?

I wasn’t sure, so I decided to go with her to request the carriage this time. Was this a strange request? Absolutely, but no stranger than me trying to flee the academy, so Sally barely reacted, though, honestly, her expressions were always pretty hard to read. At most, I would get an occasional raised eyebrow when I said or did something truly bizarre or a slight smile on the rare occasions where I performed my noble duties without too much complaining.

However, for the most part, she was indecipherable. Her face remained utterly placid and unreadable, leaving me to guess what she was thinking. As a result, when she requested the best carriage available from the stable manager, I internally celebrated, assured that I had outmaneuvered her attempts to punish me. Alas, that feeling quickly deflated as I saw the carriage being pulled out and realized it was the same one I had ridden in the past loop.

“Isn’t this a bit shabby?” I eventually asked Sally after we had departed. “Do you think the stable manager was looking down on me?”

“Not at all, milady,” Sally assured me. “I understand why you might think that, as it is certainly a step down from your regular carriage, but this is the nicest carriage the academy has. It is reserved only for those of high nobility.”

“Oh. Is my regular carriage really that exceptional?”

“Of course, milady. It is sturdy enough that even a high-level magic attack would do little more than scratch it, and it has been specially enchanted to ensure that it does not shake even when traveling over difficult terrain. Your parents spared no expense to ensure that you at least had a comfortable ride when attending and returning from the social events you despise so much.”

Suddenly, I wanted to cry. I had been utterly oblivious to my own privileged upbringing, underestimated how much my parents cared for me, and had suspected Sally of betraying me. Though I still partly suspected her of informing the prince, those suspicions were obliterated by what she said next, since it was exactly what she’d said last time.

“Oh, dear,” she said as she squinted into the distance. “I can’t be certain, but that seems to be the prince’s horse.”

I couldn’t doubt her any longer. Sally had been with me since I woke up. There was no way she’d had time to tell the prince I was running away. That left just the stable manager as a suspect, but there was little I could do if that was the case, as I needed his help to actually get the carriage. I thought about possibly threatening or bribing him in a future loop, but that wouldn’t help me now.

“Is he perhaps upset that you departed without telling him? I warned you that such actions were ill-advised. Should I instruct the coach driver to pull over before you further upset him?”

“Actually...is there any way you could slow him down?” I pleaded out of pure desperation, unsure of what she could possibly do to help me in the moment.

“Is that an order, milady?” Sally asked with a slight raising of her eyebrow.

“Yes,” I replied after a moment, slightly concerned by how seriously she had taken my ridiculous request.

“Understand,” Sally responded before standing up and opening the door of the carriage. I reached out to stop her, but instead watched in awe as she effortlessly stood on the step leading outside as the scenery continued to race by behind her. As always, she remained expressionless without the slightest hint of fear or concern. After a few moments, she returned inside, but not before making a strange move with her right arm. It was so quick that it looked like nothing more than a blur to me, but moments afterward, the prince’s horse let out a loud neigh and began to slow down.

“What was that?” I asked in awe as I watched the prince and his horse fall further and further behind us.

“A minor neurotoxin,” Sally responded casually as if she hadn’t just said something completely insane. “As your orders were only to slow him down, I chose a non-lethal paralytic agent to limit the risk of him being thrown from his horse. However, I will admit, I’ve never used this compound on such an animal before, so I am a bit uncertain about how long the effects will last.”

As Sally continued to describe neurotoxins as if they were her favorite brand of tea, I merely stared in shock. I had assumed that she had cast some kind of sleep spell on the horse, but based on her explanation, it seemed more likely that she had somehow injected something into the animal from a hundred feet away.

A flurry of questions floated through my mind. However, before I could ask even a single one, I once again spotted the prince approaching the carriage, except he wasn’t on a horse this time. He had left his mount behind to chase after me on foot, and while this should have been a ridiculous decision on his part, he was catching up. Somehow, his body pushed itself forward at speeds that nearly matched what his horse had managed. I suspected that his divine magic played some part in this, though that question quickly left my mind, as that same divine magic shot from his hand.