Page 16 of I Ran Away to Evil
Five years ago, she had taken the continent by storm when all the Cast Crystals had lit up and Madame Potts’s voice had emerged.
Hello? Can anyone hear this?
Sorry to hack into the Crystal Cast Network, but there’s going to be a dungeon break in Frisia unless someone can find and clear it.
I would start the search on the southwest side of Mount Seagirt for the dungeon entrance.
The Mages Tower had been inundated with outrage that someone hadhacked—which presumably meant illegally connected to—everyone’s Cast Crystals … until an adventurer had followed the lead and found DungeonMalik on Mount Seagirt. The place had been teeming with ghouls and just mere days from a dungeon break.
It had been a near thing that could have wiped Frisia from the map.
Lizardkin from around Kith Bog had come out to listen to the crystal. They crowded around the village square talking about the predictions in various levels of curiosity and outrage.
Milith shook her head. “That King Simon never learnsss. Why doesss he throw away resourcesss attacking our lord like that? It’s just foolishnesss, is what it isss.”
“Masss murder?” Sithli stared at me in horror.
I blushed. “I mean … I was sent here tokillKing Keith. I wasn’t expecting everyone would just, you know, welcome me in and escort me to the inner sanctum!”
Sithli stared at me harder, reaching an arm around Milith.
“I’m not gonna suddenly mass murder everyone now!” I defended, a touch loudly. People turned to look at us, so I added, “Madame Potts said so herself! It’s beenavoided.”
Milith, who caught on quickly, cut in. “Soyou’rethe crown princesss?”
She looked over my high-quality, warm and soft green lady’s hunting tunic and lace-up floral print boots. All articles I’d found in the late queen’s wardrobe.
“It’s a long story,” I said. Then I spotted a beautiful wooden sign hanging from a log shop with Dithba’s Laire scrawled on it. I motioned toward our destination. “Wanna talk about it over garlic-and-cheese twists?”
CHAPTER 8
So Don’t Be a Hero
Keith
“Is she back yet?” Keith pushed up his glasses and surveyed his clean workroom. They’d even managed to get the bloodstains out with some good, old-fashioned baking soda and vinegar. Sure, it had taken two treatments, but that was Tulith’s job.
He’d finished Delilah, a defense-based golem with enhanced construction, and imbued it with [Sense Enemy]. It’d been immediately sent out to the western field. Then he’d just sat around refilling his mana pool while Tulith made his workspace presentable for experimenting on the princess.
Not that he was cleaning things for the princess, mind. Just that it would be easier to interrogate her while she wasn’t sitting on a bloody, oily, arcane wooden bench.
That was theonlyreason.
“The princess was spotted entering the castle not too long ago.” Tulith came back from disposing of the cleaning materials and brought with her a platter of snacks. She held it for the Dark Lord to nibble on as he contemplated dark things. “She was carrying two hampersss: one full of bimbleberriesss, and the other full of garlic.”
“Garlic?” The Dark Lord scrunched his nose in distaste. “What dish requires berries andgarlic?”
“I don’t know, Master,” Tulith said. “But you may ask her yourself; I can sssmell her approaching.”
Henrietta peeked in through the open door before marching in with her head high and shoulders back, looking regal. Somewhere, she’d acquired new clothes, and the dark-green pants under the decorative, layered white-and-light-green hunting tunic suited her. The pant string on her waist bunched up, as thepants weren’t exactly the right fit, but it worked well nonetheless. Her moment of poise was ruined when her stomach growled.
She blushed. “My apologies; [Quick Step] always leaves me hungry, and I didn’t have time for lunch, excepting the bimbleberries.”
“You can snack on this while I ask you some questions and run my first series of tests.” Lord Keith motioned Tulith forward with her tray of cucumber sandwiches, candied fruit, sausages, and unigoat brie. Keith had already eaten the honey scones.
Henrietta looked beside herself with appreciation as she picked up a tiny sandwich.
Keith tried to ignore her adorable facial expressions and turned away to get his scanning tools. “First, we will determine how you got through my minions, then we will see your effect on my constructs. Take a seat on the worktable, please.”
