Isekai (2)

"What the.." I quickly got up to my feet.

I didn't expect that. Looks like Liliath was quick to the chase.

"What is it?"

"There's someone there. Liliath is holding him or her down," I looked towards the fallen stone structure. It was quite large, but Liliath is like, behind it.

"Ah, let's go, let's go. Let's meet our first inhabitant!" Nine draped the mantle over her shoulder and ran.

"Are you alright Prune?" I turned around and asked Prune who took her time.

"I'm fine.. still a little confused. I was just about to sleep and then this happened, can't they pick a better time, jeez," Prune dusted herself and walked behind me.

And so we walked to where Liliath was and..

Liliath was down on the floor in an almost squatting position, staring square at a girl pressed against the back of the structure. The girl who looked to be as young as Liliath was wearing a dress you know? The yellow medieval fantasy kind of dress with a corset. Her hair was blonde-white, tied up into a neat bun half down by a large butterfly clip, a pair of aquamarine eyes peeked from beneath her stray hair.

"Oh.. my.. gawd. This is fantasy!" Nine's face contorted into a dumiffied version of herself. It looked pretty weird.

"Noel, what should we do about her?" Liliath asked.

"Um.. do you know who she is?"

"3rd princess of the capital kingdom Erudite, Princess Siesta.."

Oh, that's a pretty detailed explanation.. or not.

"Oh right, she is a princess, and oh! She's also a saint?!" Nine said. Appraisal magic?

"I don't think it's a good idea to corner a princess like that? We should give her some space.." Prune tried to say.

"You're not wrong.. however, it was as if she had been waiting for our arrival.." Liliath said sceptically.

"Uh.. what should we even do about this.."

We just got here and you're saying there was someone who knew our arrival? I don't think Bleu said anything about this? Also, Princess Siesta was curled up there like a frightened cat. I'm pretty sure Liliath didn't do anything all that grand to scare her did she?

"Liliath, maybe you don't need to stay close to her?"

"If you wish," Liliath got up and stood beside me.

"Oh yeah, can she understand us? Isn't there supposed to be a difference in language?"

"I believe she can understand you, English is similar to the language we use here," Liliath replied to Nine.

And so, in this biting cold weather, the five of us were having a stare down. I made sure to use my spatial senses to check for guards or something since.. you know, it's very suspicious how a princess is out alone like this.

Though she looked like she would burst into tears, this princess really isn't budging huh? She's shivering quite obviously to the cold though..

"Um.. hello?" I said, breaking the ice of sorts. I'm pretty sure it was a hella late introduction.

"G-greetings.. hero-sama?" she managed to croak.

"Mm.. Noel, are we heroes? I'm pretty sure Bleu said we're not that right?"

"Yeah, I think so too but.. we came from the summoning circle so.."

"Could I ask why you are here?" while Nine and I took the conversation elsewhere, Prune came up to the princess and asked in concern.

"I apologize for the sudden encounter.. I-I surely did not expect to meet O hero-sama.."

"Uh. Even her speaking manner is weird, just like Liliath," Nine commented.

"You know, maybe we should really direct our focus back to the person in question. Anyways, we're going way too out of topic. Um, nice to meet you, I'm Noel."

"I am Liliath, a pleasure to meet you Your Highness Siesta," grasping the intent from my eyes, she said bluntly.

"You can call me Prune."

"And I'm Nine. Nice to meet you Princess Siesta. So what brings you here? Assuming this is all but a chance encounter."

"I sincerely apologize. I.." She couldn't form her words, her mouth kept shaking.

"There's probably some reason to all this. Is this a trap? Will the guards come?" Nine turned to me and asked.

"No. No! I swear by my life that this is but a mere coincidence.. I didn't think it would come true.."

"Could you elaborate on that? What do you mean come true.. don't tell me you can predict the future to an extent?!"

Hearing Nine reveal that, her eyes turned round in shock.

Princess Siesta gripped her dress and looked down to the ground.

"Please.. I beg you. I..."

This is turning into some kind of next scenario shit already. Dropped right into action first thing after reincarnation.

"I don't want to get married to him.."

"Okay, GG. End of story, she's ded, let's go.." Nine turned on her heels, her mantle swayed in the wind.

"That's rude," Prune said.

"I believe what Nine said had its merits, no? Noel?" Liliath wanted my opinion.

"Ughh.. why do these things have to happen? Protagonist correction sucks… whatever."

Now then. It's a matter of accepting or not accepting her offer. Let's check what kind of options we have. I was dropped into this whole situation knowing shit so.. now we either go through the normal route of following this princess to the castle or the other route of escaping and leaving her alone until we get more info about the world.

Then again.. the 'assist the princess' route would hasten our info gathering.

Hm..

I looked at Nine-- the plus sign. I tapped on it mentally. A list of widget options appeared.

"Wow.."

"What are you doing?"

I quickly scrolled through the options available-- and there is actually A LOT. What the world did Unkwown add to my UI? Putting that aside, there's also 2 unopened messages in my inbox Including a new system tab for widget editing I haven't tried.

"Let's split up?"

"Huh?"

I added a UI operation widget, map widget, tracking widget, messaging widget and video calling widget to Nine, Liliath and Prune. I also added the tracking widget to Siesta.

"Bring up your UI."

"Huh.. Eh?!! What the hell? That's OP?!" Nine shouted, she could operate her own UI now.

"This is.." Prune looked absolutely stunned.

"Thank you Noel," Liliath.. she wasn't particularly fazed by it.

"Just saying but splitting up is my idea. We can split into two groups, one would follow Siesta and the other will move toward the town to gather information."

"Noel, the capital kingdom isn't merely a town," Liliath said.

"Sorry.. so is anyone up for the challenge? I guess it's a necessary part of solving Siesta's situation to progress the plot."

"Noel, address her properly," Liliath said. Ah shit, I should've called Siesta with her title.

"Sorry, Your Highnes.." I turned to her.. who was in a seiza, her head to the floor. Eh? Yikes.

Liliath then flicked my forehead with her finger. Ouch.. really?!

"You know, I'm very certain this person the princess has to marry is due to political reasons, so you're going to be responsible for it if she falls for you, you know Noel?" Nine said.

Cruel-- I can't believe we have to make such a bloody choice from the get go. To abandon or not to abandon.

"Ah.. darn it, what should we do. Um.. Princess, I don't think you need to keep bowing, please get up.."

Prune reacted to my words and propped Siesta up to a sitting position. She obediently complied.

"So. Uh.. Can I ask about where the heroes are? Currently?"

"The heroes.. they are currently training in the dungeon."

"20 of them right?" Nine asked.

"Correct," Siesta nodded timidly.

"Noel, can you get her a coat or something, she looks quite cold," Prune came up to me and whispered.

"Ah.. I believe that is unnecessary. I'll do something about it. I apologize for not noticing your condition sooner Your Highness, pardon my inadequacy," Liliath said then crystalized a mana barrier.. oh what. I didn't know mana was a corporeal thing? The area around us soon heated up to normal temperature.

"No.. you not need to humble yourself hero-sama.."

"Aren't we Irregulars?" Liliath then questioned.

As if she just realized, Siesta opened her eyes wide at Liliath, "You are mostly correct.."

"What are Irregulars?" Nine asked.

"It's recorded in history that a number of successful subjugations of demon lords were not done by heroes, but those who went astray. Those who became twisted due to abandonment or betrayal. A few have been noted, that however, does not imply all cycles were the same. Our current circumstances may be different."

"So there's that to worry about. How complicated is this world anyways wow.. Hey Princess Siesta-sama, you don't mind if you lose your position as a princess right?" Nine asked.

"T-that.. I can't just agree with.."

"So what do you want us to do anyways? If it's a political marriage arranged by the king or monarch, aka your father, it's not like the heroes can do anything to stop it. And why did they arrange you to marry him in the first place?"

"A. K. A?" Siesta couldn't understand that terminology. How cliche..

"Ugh.. okay. Let's make it simple. Who are you going to marry and why?"

"That is.. Prince Kyoshi Toren-sama.. "

"My brother.. how serendipitous," Liliath whispered.

"Really now?" I asked.

"Yes. Now I'm curious how long has passed since I last returned. If my speculations are correct, the time isn't too far from when I last disappeared."

"Noel, I think I'll take up this scenario whatever. Since we're talking about Liliath's brother then.. there's some leeway to the damage we can do right? Liliath?" Nine wanted to confirm, so she also joined into our whisper encore.

"I wouldn't say it's appropriate to annul the marriage, since big brother Kyoshi-sama could be said to be a wonder prince, in my personal opinion. If anything, I would congratulate him on this engagement."

"But Sies.. the princess doesn't like him though?" Prune interjected, being the fourth person to join in our whisper party.

"That is another issue entirely. The point is, what do we get from this? I only see a mess in front of us," Liliath said.

"Man… this is confusing.."

"You know, it's less to do with what we gain than it is what we want. We need time to think through all this info. Plus, we still have our skills we need to experiment with."

We haven't even gotten our foundation down yet. And here we are having to make a decision. Splitting up won't work unless someone is willing to do it. And as for joining Siesta or just abandoning her..