The Wilderness (6)

"Princess, stop looking back at me and keep moving forward, I don't like to have my time wasted."

Last night after Ronald finished up gathering the resources and setting up the beds for both him and the Princess, Ronald warned Princess Sophia not to leave out of the cave again and headed straight to bed.

But while he was laying on bed pretending to sleep at the time in order to make sure that the Princess doesn't end up running away again, he noticed that Princess Sophia kept staring at him while she was sitting next to the campfire cooking up a fish on a stick.

Although he didn't know why Princess Sophia was staring at him at the time, he didn't think too much about it and just headed to bed after confirming that she wasn't planning to escape again for the night.

But now that it has been the next day, and the fact that Princess Sophia is still looking at him from time to time made Ronald feel weirded out by the entire situation.

However after thinking about it for a while, the most logical answer Ronald could come up with was that the Princess was still on guard against him.

He was suppose to be her kidnapper after all.

"O-okay..." Princess Sophia quickly turned her head forward and continued to walk again.

However despite the fact that her kidnapper had told her to stop looking at him, she still couldn't help it but subconsciously look at him from time to time.

For some reason, she didn't seem to hate him as much compared to the time when they had first met, and she even felt at ease knowing that he was standing right behind her.

"..." Even though Ronald had clearly told Princess Sophia to stop looking at him, he still noticed her taking a peek at him from time to time.

Although he didn't really know why she was still acting this way, as long as he could finish his task and manage to get all of the heroines to hate him again, then nothing else really mattered to him.

So with that in mind, Ronald decided to ignore the Princess's stares and continued to give her directions on where to go.

***

Just as Princess Sophia was still walking on the path that her kidnapper had told her to follow...

"Be quiet if you don't want to die, nod your head if you understand." Ronald quickly grabbed one of Princess Sophia's arm, covered her mouth with his hands, and then rushed behind a tree.

Although Princess Sophia didn't know why her kidnapper did this all of a sudden, she still nodded her head and blushed.

"Good." Ronald took his hands off of Princess Sophia's mouth and then started to peek behind the tree without realizing that Princess Sophia had blushed when he touched her mouth.

The reason why Ronald had grabbed Princess Sophia just now was because a certain girl with a maid outfit on was wandering around the forest seemingly looking for someone with an anxious look on her face.

That's right, it was Iris.

"You see that maid over there, Princess? It looks like she's trying to rescue you as well, I assume you know who she is right?" Ronald whispered to Princess Sophia and then pointed at Iris who looked like she was desperately scoping out the area trying to figure out where the shoe imprints that Ronald had marked was leading to.

One of the main reasons why Ronald wanted to venture throughout the entire forest everywhere despite the fact that they could've just stayed at one location until he revealed himself was because he wanted to let the people who were trying to rescue the Princess know that he was still here and still had the Princess as hostage.

So after realizing that his plan seemed to be proceeding smoothly and Ronald knew that people were actually trying to hunt him down, Ronald silently cheered up in his heart.

And not only that but just by looking at the desperation that Iris had on her face, Ronald knew that even if he doesn't manage to make the heroines completely hate him this time, they'll at least think badly of him the moment they realize that he was actually the one who had kidnapped the Princess and made them go on an entire manhunt for two whole weeks.

"Yea I do know that maid over there actually... Isn't she one of Ye Fan's subordinates?" Princess Sophia instantly recognized who that maid was.

She remembered that after she had gotten to know Ye Fan better, Ye Fan suddenly introduced her to Iris and told her that if she needed anything that couldn't be handled while he wasn't around, she could ask Iris in order take care of it on his behalf.

Even though Princess Sophia should've been glad that Ye Fan had sent out Iris in order to try and rescue her back from her kidnapper, Princess Sophia felt somewhat uncomfortable in her heart.

For some reason, she was hoping that Iris doesn't actually find her so she can stay with her kidnapper longer.

But why?

Why did she want to stay with her kidnapper for longer?

Despite the fact that she wanted to escape from him as soon as possible literally about a few days ago?

Although she didn't know what kind of feelings were boiling up inside of her heart right now, all she knew was that she wanted to stay with her kidnapper for as long as possible.

"Yep. You should know that even if you try to run up to her right now, it's completely useless, after all, I will still catch you in the end." Ronald said ominously and then waited for Iris to leave the vicinity before finding a location for the two to spend the night once again.

***

After arriving seemingly in the middle of the forest again, Ronald told Princess Sophia to stay put here while he goes out to grab some more supplies.

However, just as Ronald was about to head out once again...

"Umm… can I come with you...?" Princess Sophia grabbed Ronald's hand and tugged on the sleeve of his suit.

"No." Ronald instantly rejected her and quickly ran away from the campsite before Princess Sophia could say anything else.

Although he didn't know why Princess Sophia all of a sudden asked to go out with him, he saw the face that Princess Sophia had made and started to get worried.

'Don't tell me... did the Princess somehow fall in love with me?'

'But how come? She isn't even the heroine!'

'Right... she isn't the heroine.'

'Now that I think about it, why isn't she a heroine to begin with?'

'Not only is she as beautiful as every other heroine out there, but she also belongs in the protagonist's camp.'

After thinking about it for a while, Ronald concluded that he was just overthinking things.

After all, why would anyone, let alone a Princess of a royal family all of a sudden fall in love with their kidnapper after everything the kidnappers had put them through.

So after Ronald finished collecting the supplies for the night, headed back towards the campsite, and then created both the campfire and the stick beds, Ronald went straight to bed and layed down.

About a few minutes later, just as Ronald was about to fall asleep once again...

"Hey... I haven't gotten your name yet. If you don't mind me asking, can you tell me what it is?"