The Wilderness (7)

After hearing what the Princess had said, Ronald opened his eyes and turned his head towards the Princess who was sitting at the campfire looking directly at him.

"Why do you want to know my name?" Although Ronald felt that the reason why Princess Sophia wanted to ask for his name was so she could expose him later on, he couldn't help but still have a confused look on his face.

Wouldn't there be a better way to find out his name without having to ask him directly?

"Ah... nevermind... forget that I asked." Princess Sophia then stooped her head down and started silently munching on the fish.

Even though she knew that he wasn't going to give up any of his information about himself since he was suppose to be her kidnapper, she couldn't help but get depressed still.

But after a few seconds later of complete silence, to her surprise...

"... It's Ronald. Ronald Kuangge."

The reason why Ronald had told Princess Sophia his name was because he wanted her to testify that he had indeed kidnapped her.

Then afterwards, Ronald will claim that although he was the one who had hired the masked man to kidnap her, he wasn't the one that actually kidnapped her.

Although it may sound extremely dumb as he technically just admitted to kidnapping her, it also completely fitted in with his original personality as a brainless rich second generation.

And besides, nobody was going to believe Princess Sophia anyways if she tries to claim that he was the masked man.

'Ronald Kuangge... Ronald, Ronald.' Princess Sophia kept repeating Ronald's name in her head as if she was afraid that she was going to somehow forget his name.

"So Ronald… if you don't mind me calling you by that name... I've been meaning to ask you this for a while now but why did you kidnap me?" After Princess Sophia snapped out of it, she couldn't help but directly ask Ronald something that has been stuck in her head ever since she had been brought over to the forest.

"Didn't I tell you already? I have some enmities with Earl Ye Fan."

"There's no way that's the case! If you really wanted to lure him out to kill him, why didn't you just kill him back at the abandoned factory? Please tell me! I promise that I won't tell anyone that you kidnapped me!" Princess Sophia said with absolute certainty.

She was absolutely certain that Ronald was lying to her, and even though she doesn't know why Ronald intends on actually hiding the real reason why, she wanted to get to the bottom of it.

"..." After hearing what Princess Sophia had said, even though Ronald had tried maintaining a straight face infront of her, he couldn't help but start to get nervous when he heard what she had just said.

Even though he doesn't know how Princess Sophia managed to find out, she was absolutely right.

Ronald didn't kidnap her just because he had a grudge against Ye Fan, although he technically does have a grudge against him anyways.

He just wanted the heroines to hate him!

But if she doesn't plan on telling other people that he had actually kidnapped her, how would his plan of making the heroines hate him succeed?

With his reputation as an absolute waste, if Princess Sophia actually testifies that he wasn't the one who had done the kidnapping and they had just somehow accidentally came across each other in the forest, wouldn't everyone believe her instead even if he tries to tell everyone that he kidnapped her?

And not only that, but it'll make him look like the hero of China for saving the Princess instead!

Gah! His reputation as a brainless rich second generation will actually fuck him over for once!

'Think Ronald, think! What should I tell her now?'

Ronald knew for a certain that she wouldn't believe him even if he tried to persist on with his story about having a grudge against Ye Fan after seeing the look Princess Sophia had on her face.

After thinking about it for a while however, Ronald didn't know what to tell her so he just decided that to just make up some shitty story without much thought behind it so he can make the Princess extremely mad at him.

"Okay Princess, since you're so confident that I kidnapped you for a different reason, then why do you think that I kidnapped you to begin with?"

"I... I don't know. That's why I'm asking you..."

"Well then, do you believe in fate, Princess Sophia?" Ronald sat up from his bed and said in a mysterious voice.

"Fate...? What does fate have anything to do with you kidnapping me...?"

"Well Princess, you see... fate can be pretty... interesting sometimes. For example, take a look at the fish you're eating right now. You can say that the fish's fate was to get eaten by you, right?"

"Uhm... I guess you're right?" Princess Sophia had an extremely confused look on her face.

"Now let's say if that fish knew its fate beforehand, what do you think it would try to do?" Ronald then walked over to the campfire and then grabbed the half eaten fish from Princess Sophia's hands.

"It would try to change its fate?" Princess Sophia said while staring at the fish on the stick that Ronald was holding up in mid air

"That's right Princess, it would try to change its fate from getting eaten on this exact same day. So how would it try to change its fate?"

"I'm not entirely sure... maybe it could try and move to a different location before it gets eaten?"

"Exactly, now think about this, what if that fish's fate was meant to die on that exact same day no matter what it tried to do, and the fish knew that. What would you think it would try to do then?"

"I don't know... either just accept its fate or try to go against the fate and see if it succeeds?"

"Right, now let's say you were the fish, what would YOU do? Would you try to go against the odds or would you just accept your fate?" Ronald then squat down and then hovered the fish on a stick infront of Princess Sophia's face.

"... I don't really know." Although Princess Sophia didn't know why Ronald had told her about this story, she thought long and hard about this question.

If she knew when she was suppose to die and how she was going to die, wouldn't she at least make an attempt to try and defy her fate just so she could live on to see the next day?

However, what if all of her attempts was useless and all she was doing was wasting time trying to defy the odds instead of spending more time doing the things she loved with the remaining time she had?

"Hmm I see... well I chose the latter half." Ronald then gave her back the fish that was on a stick and then went back to his bed.

"WAIT! What do you mean you chose the latter half? What are you talking about Ronald?" After staring blankly for a few seconds, Princess Sophia rushed all the way to Ronald's bed and kept nudging him to answer.

But despite the fact that she kept nudging him, he just didn't answer her at all.

"Ronald! Please tell me what you meant by that! HEY! RONALD!" Princess Sophia was completely on the verge of tears right now.

For some reason, she felt that Ronald was referring to himself whenever he talked about the fish.

Isn't he saying that he'll die sooner or later?

Princess Sophia wanted to confirm her suspicions, so she kept on nudging him until he answered her.

'Oh my god why does she keep bothering me? What's she so afraid of? I'm trying to sleep here.'

Ronald couldn't help but complain in his heart, all he did was made up a random shitty story about the fish that Princess Sophia was eating so that he could make the Princess mad and get away from the conversation, but yet she wants to hear more?

However after thinking about it for a bit, Ronald realized that Princess Sophia might've misunderstood him, and she might've assumed that he was comparing her to that of a dead fish.

"Princess, I'm going to actually kill you if you keep on shaking me. I'm trying to sleep here." Ronald said in a menacing voice.

However, despite the fact that he threatened Princess Sophia to stop it, she still kept shaking him.

And obviously Ronald couldn't just kill the Princess despite threatening to do so, Ye Fan still needed her in order for him to continue progressing on his stupid adventure after all.

So after thinking about a way to calm Princess Sophia down...

"Princess, don't worry too much about it, nothing is going to happen to you, you see... I'm destined to die sooner or later anyways." Ronald stated in an irritated tone.

In a sense, he wasn't actually lying, sooner or later he'll be gone from his shitty novel world anyways.

"Why...? Why are you saying that? How do you know that?" Although Princess Sophia doesn't know why, but for some reason her heart started aching hard and she couldn't help but started to shed tears.

Why was she in so much pain?

Wasn't she suppose to be thrilled knowing that Ronald would soon never bother her again?

No, more importantly how did Ronald know that he was going to die soon?

Isn't he extremely strong?

"Why? It's cause of Ye Fan of course. Now stop bothering me, this is your last warning." Even though Ronald could hear the sobs from Princess Sophia, he didn't think too much of it, and then went to sleep.

'Now that I think about it, I would honestly make a great philosopher.'