Trying to escape but it never works of course

These names were ridiculous but thanks for your helpful, expositional information! Eric continued to linger at the door, "However, new earthers and magicers never saw eye to eye. Then apparently magicers attacked new earth and now this cyberwar broke out."

So, Eric concluded, new earth fights with technology and magic, with magic, Eric wanted to know more but the servants' conversation was cut short when the head servant came and caught them dilly-dallying. Eric went back to Eli's room and slept until the next morning.

Tightly held by Eli, the next morning, Eric stared excitement in the face. Oh no, this princess was up to no good.

"Howl, how about it? Let's sneak out! You want to see Murim too, right? It's a shame to be holed up here..."

'No, princess, it's fucking not! Stop seeking trouble and ruin the plot! Fuck, you're not even the MC! What are you trying to do? To be? A plot convenience? Oh look, the possible love interest of the MC sneaks around and whoops, finds injured Hans! They fall in love, get together and stop the war! Wow, what a nice cliche plot. Yeah, not under my watch, all boring, cliche plots will be destroyed! You better sit your ass here tight and avoid the trouble!' but all that came out of Eric's disdaining dragon mouth was, "Rawrawrarraww!"

Eli's eyes shone, "You want too right?"

Stop misunderstanding me! Heaven! Princess, you suck as a translator! I swear if any small character comes and comments, "You actually understand him?' I'll flip the world like a pancake and eat it whole after frying it with my dragon breath! Because guess what? You're not understanding me at all!

But of course as oblivious as the princess was as energetic she was. She insisted to take Eric with her to sneak out. In the wooden hallway, the princess became a ninja wannabe and from corner to corner stealthily peeked around. There was no one, but faint voices were heard. Eli quickly hid behind a corner. Wow, look at this princess' skills... She was better off commanding the spaceship than applying to become a spy.

"Howl shh," Eli whispered as she noticed Howl was trying to leave her embrace.

"The stairs are on the right, he needs to make it-"

"Princess," suddenly one of her crew members turned around the corner and saw their dignified princess crouching, "Here you are. Please follow me. Some of the Murim masters, the martial gods are here, it's rude to not greet them."

The crew member figured out the princess' intentions and thus emphasised the 'rude' part. Caught, Eli cleared her throat and instantly became elegant, however, the dragon's face showed how done the dragon was.

The crew member had to suppress his smile at the dragon's expression. Yes, Eric couldn't bother any longer with this situation. He had to find the MC.

"Very well," Eli said as if nothing's happened, "Lead me there."

Imposing as always Eli threw her hair back and followed the crew member while Eric was still, more or less, held prisoner.

They made their way to the second floor again and were seated in one of the meeting rooms which basically was on the ground, around a table with some refreshments. The king already sat there and opposite to him were two middle-aged men and a younger one.

Eli sat next to the king with Eric on her lap, then she looked at the king who nodded. Toning down on her arrogance she said, "I greet the Murim masters.''

"We greet the Princess of new earth," the Murim masters followed suit but their eyes were glued to Eric.

A dragon was a very, very, very rare sight in this universe. They were long extinct, but of course, plot convenience and protagonist halo, Hans had a super ultra rare dragon as his pet.

The Murim masters, contrary to Eric's expectations, were quite nervous although they tried hard to hide it. But Eric guessed it was because against the technology of new earth, Murim with its martial arts, would be completely wiped out if new earth used SSS weapons.

Poor Murim. Eric felt pity.

"What honour do we have to welcome the royal family to our humble Murim?" it obviously wasn't honour for the Murim masters to have new earth here, it was rather a curse.

"We are just in search of someone. We won't implicate you, rest assured," the king casually said and put the cup to his lips.

"Is that so?'' The masters breathed a sigh of relief but their worries were still not eased. Eric questioningly looked at Eli hoping for answers and for once she didn't misunderstand him.

She lowered her head and whispered, "Murim is the last neutral pace in this cyberwar. Every other planet has either sided with us or the enemy. Murim doesn't want to get involved in the war. We're here to find Hans, so it's inevitable for us to come here."

Eric was surprised, Murim was actually able to remain neutral? Were neither sides pressuring Murim? Or was Murim a powerless ally no one bothered to have?

"How is this person important enough for the royal family themselves to come here?"

Actually, Eric was also curious about this. Who was Hans to new earth and the king? What role did Hans play? What was his identity? Yeah sure, he was the MC but Eric knew nothing about this MC!

Instead of the king, this time it was Eli who answered rather arrogantly, "He's my best friend and hero. We heard rumours that he was here after he got injured during the war. He's new earth's hero!"

Eli's words caused a wave of surprise to freeze the room. Eric as well was surprised that Hans and this overbearing princess were 'best friends' and that Hans was a frickin herp! What hero? What did this mean? What achievements did Hans accomplish? Being your friend or what?

While it was clear what the masters were shocked about. The princess words made it seem like new earth was accusing Murim to have captured their hero! As a veteran and ruler, the king naturally realised the noob mistake his granddaughter made and pacified, "During the war, our hero was badly injured and we heard the mages chased after him. Thus he had to find refuge in Murim.

We know Murim has nothing to do with it but we still ask Murim to cooperate with us and help us find our hero. We don't try to implicate you any further. Once he's found, we will leave immediately. Of course, for your help, we will compensate you."

With one glance of Eric's, he condemned the princess. See, this is how you talk. Your mouth's too arrogant. You need to be able to mend and not offend.

Seeing that new earth was hell-bent on finding their hero and they'd be receiving rewards, the Murim masters had no choice but to accept. The most important reason however was that obviously, Murim didn't want to be held accountable under the false charge of hiding new earth's hero and get involved with the war or on new earth's bad side.

It was best to find this hero as soon as possible and get rid of new earth's presence in Murim. This was easily read from the masters' faces.

Eric already figured out that new earth and magic were the strongest forces in the galaxy and no one wanted to mess with them.

So, after the fruitful talk, Eric once again tried to escape the fangs of Eli. Eric has gathered enough information and was afraid for Lav, possibly Hans. Worries rose, Eric had to be there with Lav to edit this story!

If he wasn't with the MC, the story would never smoothly progress. Who knew what stupid decisions the MC was going to make?

But damn, that princess was fucking tenacious.