207 Narration Comes Unannounced. Eh? Now?
"I would like you to be my bodyguard. As my life is likely going to be in constant danger, you would stay by my side at all time. 'Ordinary' guards are not reassuring enough. I wish to have a bodyguard who bears absolute strength."
I almost screamed back, 'are you being sarcastic?' but held back. The princess couldn't have possibly read my mind.
"What do you need my help for? I want to hear the real reason."
I knew she'd ultimately ask me to be her guard. I've given up on that.
Yet this is something I need to know.
But it seems my question isn't obvious enough, the princess looked puzzled.
"Why would you ask that?"
"Ah, guess that wasn't clear huh. Err. Is guarding you all I need to do?"
After seemingly digesting my question, the princess nodded before and started to talk.
"My mother had gone through a similar assassination attempt once. Her life was spared, but afterward in order to distance herself from the royal palace, she went and led a secluded life in a rural village taking me with her under the pretense of recuperation."
The princess started narrating her past. I listened in silent.
(Ah, there'll be no escape once I find out about her situation huh. Guess I'm already knee deep in this mess.)
I'm bracing myself for a long winded story seeing as the princess has 'switched' on.
"She would keep reminding me to 'Play the fool so other people lose interest on you' as I grew up. And thus I started acting as an egoistical and ignorant princess."
The princess continued on.
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"There is a danger of catching the king's, my father's attention, if I am known for my wisdom regardless of my succession right. And that would result in my siblings treating me as a thorn on their side. That was the reason I kept up with the acting all my life, but even after all that, someone still sent assassins. Were it not for you, I and even all the guards would have lost their lives. Their formation was for a massacre."
The wagon still seems so far from the Kingdom. The princess's story seems far from over.
"I was called back to the royal palace after my mother passed away from an illness, and soon afterward I made a visitation to a certain poor village. I could not bear to look at the terrible spectacle in that village and decided to make use of the knowledge I had been secretly studying for a construction plan. I directed the soldiers who came with me to exterminate pest around the village and such. My exploits went so well they caught on my acting."
Her long seemingly unending 'explanation' continued.
"Today we were just on our way back from another visitation to see the results of my plan in that village. I have yet to find out who sent the assassins. But I am now an actress in the ugly war for the throne."
Just when I thought that was the end, she added one more thing.
"And that is why I wish for you to lend me your power. Will you help me?"
"Way too long! How'd my question compel you to narrate your life story? What the hell."
The princess looked confused at my reaction.
"What I'm asking is if you just want to survive, then you could've just get married to some powerful noble and declared your right to throne annulled! You'd probably at least stay alive even if it means becoming a 'tool' for the royal family."
I had no idea if the stuff with nobles in my world applied here, but I still went on it.
I'm still not done yet. If I don't make it perfectly clear here, she's gonna misinterpret again and go on another long exposition trip.
"What do you want to do with your saved life as a royalty? What are you gonna use that life for? I'm asking you about your 'resolve'. Once you're safe, then what?"
I'm a bit fed up having to listen to that long narration when that's all I wanted to hear.