Please Die, Your Highness - Chapter 71

Maeve and Prince Declan hitched a ride on the village peddler’s baggage wagon for about three days.

During that short time, the man grew fond of Prince Declan and Maeve for different reasons. On the night of the second day, while having dinner together, the man asked Maeve and Prince Declan exactly where they were going. Prince Declan answered quickly.

“We are in flight. It is difficult to answer.”

Maeve stopped scraping the bottom of her bowl with her spoon. She looked at Prince Declan with eyes that seemed to be seriously reconsidering her choices thus far.

The man, Harold, let out a hearty laugh upon hearing Prince Declan’s prim response.

Maeve looked at Prince Declan with hollow-looking eyes and said:

“Young master. Usually, people who are in flight do not tell others straight out that they are running away.”

“But Harold is fine. He looks like someone who can keep a secret. Right?”

“Not really, though.”

As soon as Prince Declan replied confidently, Harold laughed heartily and said that wasn’t the case.

“That man’s job is traveling from this place to that place, young master. He will certainly go around talking about us in other places.”

When Maeve spoke with an expressionless face as if driving home a wedge, Prince Declan belatedly looked at Harold with a stiffened face.

“Well. It’s fine. He doesn’t know exactly where we are going.”

“But if someone looking for us asks if he’s seen us, he’ll tell them excitedly.”

Harold spoke as if he felt the need to refute that point.

“Not exactly ‘excitedly.’ I just tell them appropriately depending on who the person is. Do you know how many cases there are of lost families being found through this word of mouth?”

Prince Declan looked at Harold with eyes filled with a sense of betrayal.

“I told you we are in flight. We are running away from that very family.”

“Ah, I was just using that as an example.”

Maeve was gradually starting to get used to Prince Declan’s dramatic mood swings. When Harold rolled his eyes and corrected himself in a crawling voice, Prince Declan scratched his cheek with a face that quickly became sheepish.

Maeve let the two men continue their conversation and finished the rest of her meal. Potato stew with rabbit meat and pork jerky. This was a meal that was more than sufficient—it was bountiful.

Prince Declan had already set his bowl down and was focusing entirely on his conversation with Harold. It was obvious he would mutter to himself about being hungry before falling asleep. Maeve set aside some extra jerky in preparation for that.

“I cannot tell you exactly where the destination is. Not even you, Harold. At any rate, we are……”

Prince Declan furrowed his brow as if trying to recall something he couldn’t remember.

“Heading to my aunt’s house.”

“Your uncle’s house.”

Maeve finally couldn’t endure it and chimed in to correct him.

Prince Declan was not embarrassed at all.

“It’s also my aunt’s house. It’s a massive family clan village.”

“That’s something that wasn’t in the story. Please don’t just make things up.”

When Maeve kept interfering with his lies, Prince Declan glared at her as if giving her a hint. After sighing, Maeve went back to letting Prince Declan inflate his already ruined lie to his heart’s content.

Harold was already not listening to Prince Declan’s story very seriously. He focused back on his meal, merely adding occasional interjections as if listening to an old tale told by a grandmother.

As they were finishing their meal, Harold asked Maeve and Prince Declan to at least tell him which direction they intended to head, rather than leaving it at that. Before Prince Declan could activate another long-winded lie, Maeve readily pulled out a map and spread it out, using a wide rock as a table.

Maeve wordlessly pointed with her finger to a spot near the westernmost edge. When Harold saw the place Maeve pointed to, he furrowed his eyebrows as if it were unexpected.

“……Truly…… it is a place where people these days would absolutely never go.”

“Why? Do monsters appear there or something?”

Maeve quickly pried at Harold’s muttering.

Harold scratched his chin for a moment in silence.

“I don’t believe in things like monsters. It’s just, this area has been a place of endless strange rumors since long ago. People like me don’t go west even if there are supposedly great goods there. The roads are rough, it gets harder and harder to see a soul, and we only hear news that every single person who stubbornly went in out of greed has gone missing.”

“Perhaps there are groups of bandits?”

“Even bandits wouldn’t go in there. There have to be people to fleece, after all. The mountains are rugged, and you’ll see beasts more often than humans. They say it’s not just deer commonly seen around here, but more terrifying things—predators like bears—that run rampant. Among those who went missing, quite a few were likely eaten by bears.”

Prince Declan, listening to the low conversation between Harold and Maeve, unconsciously gripped his scabbard.

For her part, Maeve showed no sign of being particularly unsettled.

“Beasts are fine. What I worry about are humans.”