117 Giving Up
How did it come to this? Something like this can't possibly be an everyday occurrence.
Even my past life, in private and work related, had never been in anything like this.
But it's a classic development in fantasy stories.
And I never would have thought I would end up having a role in one. You don't normally expect to get yourself in this kind of mess.
First of all, there's no 'Connection'. I'm just a villager. I got banished from that community, without an aim or a concrete goal, a homeless jobless nobody, why would an imperial family even had their eye on me. Really, just where did it all come from?
Though even before that, what seems to be my 'soul' got kidnapped by a god and forcefully reincarnated here. I guess that's a far bigger deal than stuff like this.
I'm currently inside the imperial castle, in the princess room even.
"Allow me to reiterate, as a reaffirmation."
Thus Reikana spoke after sipping her tea while sitting in her sofa. She's changed into a dress after entering the castle, magnifying her charm even more.
All the elves are here. She asked me at the tavern to lend her our strength, all of us so I introduced them here.
She's even going to provide our lodging and meals, in the castle. We're being treated as guests.
I had to cancel our booking at the inn thanks to it, but it was a smooth process, just had to pay the cancellation fee. The inn didn't make it more difficult for us either. As expected of a well regarded inn.
I had that random thought while listening to her explanation.
Doesn't feel real, of course. How do you expect a commoner to get used to a castle?
Fragrance of the tea served to us tickled my nose, making it feel like a nightmare.
"Please, I beg of you. Would you lend us a helping hand?"
The princess said these words again after all this. Naturally.
She offered a reward for listening to her. Which is lodging and meals in the castle.
That's not something normally attainable to plebeians. The sum must be astronomical when converted to money.
As I blankly stared at the ceiling while not caring less about that, I muttered, 'Yep no way to skirt this.'
The maid called Hanna is still sending a 'lese majeste!' glance at me.
Yep, this is now the time to choose accept or not. And yet it feels like I'm looking at a monitor with no 'Not accept' option anywhere.
Yes, I'm getting rewarded if I accept, but honestly, the best possible reward for me would be avoiding this mess.
"Serena, what do you think? Should we accept? If we did, we'd have to extend our stay for days though."
The elves look at one another, still under their hoods. We're still hiding the fact that they are elves. Or rather, I don't plan to divulge.
Seeing as Reikana never complained even once despite having six of them hidden under hoods inside the castle, I see that she must be quite broadminded.
"We shall abide by milord's wish."
Daily Special Diner was a cover for their intelligence agency. They would put people who stumbled their way into the diner and looked suspicious under watch.
They had people constantly monitoring the crime syndicate, thus they immediately found out about its demolition. They knew that I was the perpetrator right then and there. And even how I was heading to the empire.
That was all enumerated in Reikana's explanation. Without hiding anything.
As my goal of quietly living to the end crumbles to pieces, I thus answer.
"I got it. I'll help. Ah, whatever goes, I don't care anymore..."
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