Laurene Hayes

"Nothing much, I just want you to dissolve the engagement."

"...Huh?!"

The Princess' surprised voice rang out in the room, as her expression changed once again. She stared at Evan in silence for a few moments before heaving a sigh and picking up the bell on the table.

**RING!

Upon ringing it once, there was a knock on the door, after which a maid entered the room. Laurene had the maid get some drinks for her and Evan, with the young hero adding an extra order of snacks.

It didn't take long for everything to be brought in, making Evan wonder if the cooks in the kitchen had made it on standby so they could be served on demand.

"Hmm? These are better than I expected."

"I know right, I thought they'd be slightly subpar as they seem to have been made on short notice but it seems I underestimated the chef's skills."

Evan replied to the Princess as he took a sip of his juice, his hands moving over to another tray as he picked up a cookie and took a bite out of it.

"Chocolate chips? To think they had these."

"They seem to be quite popular these days. A tea party I went to last week had quite a lot of them."

"Really? The ingredients seem to be quite scarce, how did they get so many?"

"That family is involved in confections business, so they have more than a few contacts. They were able to get everything they needed and at lower prices."

"Convenient..."

The two engaged in small talk as they savoured the snacks, with Evan gradually forgetting his original goal.

NOT!

"It's quite frightening how you were able to easily distract me from the original topic but I'm not dropping the issue.

I really think you should oppose whatever engagement that our parents are trying to create between us."

Evan cleaned his fingers with a tissue before picking up his glass and sipping it slowly.

On the other hand, the Princess stared at him in silence for a moment before asking a simple question.

"Why should I?

I have no reason to go along with what you say, do I?"

The young hero dropped his glass silently before looking up to meet the Princess' gaze. Her blue eyes were calm and clear like still waters.

"I agree, you actually have no reason to go along with what I said."

"Huh?"

"What?"

"No, I just didn't expect you to easily agree with me."

Evan chuckled a bit upon hearing the Princess' reply. He then called for the maid to take away the empty plates and glasses before initiating a memory download from the system Archive.

"Where was I? Oh yes. You indeed have no reason to go along with what I said. But what if I have reasons that you could accept?"

"Hmm...that's a different case scenario."

Laurene replied to Evan's question while nodding. She then tapped her hand on the table and silently activated a skill, with Evan none the wiser.

"Well, to put it bluntly;

An engagement with you is something that would serve as a massive obstruction to a few future plans of mine.

These plans are ones that involve me leaving this continent for extended periods of time, something I would be unable to do if I were considered the future husband of the Princess of one of this continent's most powerful countries.

However, if I suggest dissolving the engagement, things would be a lot more complicated as between us, I am the one with the lower status.

But if you, the Princess does so, it would be easier.

It also won't damage the relationships between our families, after all, the only reason our parents are pulling this is simply that they're close friends, well, at least as far as I know."

Evan scanned through the memories of the original owner of his current body before coming up with a suggestion.

"If asked for a reason, try saying something like, there's someone else you've taken a fancy to. Knowing the Emperor, he would definitely agree."

Hearing his suggestion, Laurene's eyebrow twitched in annoyance.

"It's quite annoying that I can't refute your words, if I told my dad that, he'd agree. After skinning this imaginary 'person I've taken a fancy to' alive, that is."

The Emperor was known to dote on the Princess even more than the Crown Prince Richard, her elder brother. There was no way he would refuse a request from his daughter.

As for the engagement being an obstruction to Evan, it was kinda true.

'In the game, some of the seven heroes were in another continent, meaning, I'd have to go over to another continent to get to them.

An engagement with a Princess in this one would be nothing but shackles binding me down.'

The Princess stared at Evan in silence for a few minutes, while he was using this time to download the information about the previous seven heroes into his head.

He also gained basic information about his mission and what exactly the goddess wanted him to do. During that time, the Princess finally sorted out her thoughts and decided to speak.

"Sir Evan, I-"

[Download Complete.]

"Hold on a moment please."

Evan interrupted her before he could continue as a blue notification prompt appeared in his field of vision.

'Download complete! Good, I'd fully review it later.

The Archive is really convenient, giving me information on how to activate skills, sense magic power, and use magic. If not for that, it would be quite difficult to come up with a reason why someone who has been learning magic theories since he was five can't use magic.

It's also quite good that besides the location of the seven heroes, almost everything else is the same as the game'

"Sorry bout that, I had a few...issues?"

It was only after he began speaking that he realised that he actually didn't have a legit excuse for interrupting her words at all.

However, the Princess only smiled wryly as if she understood his situation and continued speaking.

"First of all, while I could make a guess, your reasons were exactly what I thought they'd be."

"Huh? Honestly, all I said were vague stuff, you know?

I was thinking you'd ask me to say more or something..."

"I would not. I just have one last question before I make a decision."

"And that is?"

The Princess leaned forward, her eyes gazing straight into Evan's eyes as she asked.

"What's your name?"

"Huh? It's Evan, don't you already know that?"

Evan replied to her with a look of confusion, her asking for his name was something he had not expected at all.

Laurene on the other hand, only heaved a sigh of relief as she leaned back on the couch and spoke.

"I've confirmed your words to be true, but, Sir Evan, I would not cancel the engagement."

"Huh? Why? There's got to be some reasonable reason, right?"

"No, there is not. I simply do not wish to cancel it."

Laurene leaned over to the armrest of the couch and placed rested her head on it while gazing at Evan who stared at her as one would look at a crazy person.

'Is she okay? At least I tried to convince her but she didn't even give me a reason for her disagreement.

Perhaps she's under some sort of status effect or something that makes her act like this?'

He finally decided to appraise her partially, however, the information he saw shocked him out of his mind.

|Name- Laurene Hayes

Race- Human

Gender-Female

Age - 11

Level- 10

Titles- Princess of the Great Western Empire, Fourth of the Seven Heroes, Wielder of Mystic Eyes, Loved by Mana.

Class - Mage

Health – F

Energy – F+

Strength – F

Agility – F

Durability –F

Intelligence- E-

Condition- Normal, Slightly Amused

Magic Tiers- Lightning Tier 1, Fire Tier 0, Wind Tier 0.

Skills- Full Appraisal, Lie Detection, Magic Control, Lightning Magic (High), Chant Revocation, Mental Block, Language Comprehension.

Unique Skills- Mystic Eyes of Truth. |

Seeing this, Evan was nonplussed.

It was arguably his third greatest shock of the day, with being tossed into another world and finding out he wasn't human, being the first, and second respectively.

He never expected her to be one of the seven heroes he was somehow supposed to find.

As expected, the location and identities of the seven heroes were different than it was in the game. The young hero didn't think he'd see one of them mere minutes after he reincarnated!

However, when looking through her skills, he noticed something. She also possessed Full Appraisal, and his status was currently not concealed.

'That means!'

"You finally used your skill, I was waiting for you to use it since the beginning."

Laurene spoke up when she noticed Evan's rapidly changing expressions. The young hero heaved an exasperated sigh, as he now realized the reason for her earlier look of surprise.

She had appraised him the moment he entered the room and had discovered he was also a member of the seven heroes like her.

"Perhaps, the reason you wanted to keep the engagement was this?"

"Yes, seeing as you have been arbitrarily decided as the leader, it is better for me to be closer to you."

"Are you really an eleven-year-old?"

"Yes, I am.

Of course, this is not taking into account the memories of the ancient Archmage that rudely entered my head a few months ago.

Are you not the same?"

At that question, Evan realized something. She was treating him like an eleven-year-old, however, his title of reincarnated hero was one that showed he was obviously not one.

Holding doubt in his heart, he asked.

"What are my titles that you can see?"

"Um... The Second of Seven Heroes, Leader of the Seven Heroes, Wielder of Mystic Eyes, Loved by Nature, Heir of Eris Dukedom."

"What's my race?"

"Obviously Human. What else could it be?"

"My level?"

"20"

After that, he arrived at a conclusion, she could not see his complete titles, and neither could she see his actual race was not human.

Relief washed over him at this discovery.

'It was going to be a hassle to explain why my race was a different one, good thing they can't see it.'

It was at this point that it occurred to Evan that he had just made a massive blunder.

'Didn't I say I was gonna act like the original to avoid drawing suspicion?

Then I just went on to do something the original Evan definitely would not.

Well played Evan, well played.'

The young hero facepalmed as he just realized how contradictory he had been acting.

He then remembered that the original owner of his body did not possess the titles related to the seven heroes until he awakened his skills and recovered the memories of the previous hero.

Then the fact that the Princess had awakened her skills, means that there was a possibility of her being possessed by the previous hero.

However, he suddenly remembered her earlier words and scrapped that idea.

'Of course, this is not taking into account the memories of the ancient Archmage that rudely entered my head a few months ago.'

'The previous 'Fourth' of the seven heroes, was an Arch Mage, if she only has the memories, then she's most likely the original 'Laurene Hayes'.'

As if the Princess could somehow see his thoughts, she spoke up to clear his doubts.

"Ah, just like you, I have not been possessed by the soul of the previous hero, I only received their memories, ones I'd rather not receive.

My mental block skill protected me from the original mental attack that was required to disorient me before my body would be taken over.

Since the attack failed, the previous hero was unable to possess my body, and her soul was lost.

The memories I received stated that they only had one chance of possession, if they missed it, they were gone for good."

Evan nodded in affirmation upon hearing her words, he also received those memories too.

The spell the previous heroes used was one that messed with the law of reincarnation, so it had the drawback of having only one chance to possess a new body.

A mental attack was also required to disorient the body's original owner and destabilize their soul before possession, this was the reason the original Evan felt like his eyes were on fire and had a migraine before the memories poured in.

In the Princess' case, she possessed the Mental Block skill that granted complete immunity to almost all forms of mental attacks, this was the reason the possession failed.

"Wait, how are you sure I'm not possessed by the previous 'second'?"

Evan asked her with a narrowed gaze, however, she calmly replied, as if she had expected it.

"When I asked your name, I used my lie detection to confirm your answer.

The previous 'Second' was not named 'Evan' as we both know, so the fact that my mystic eyes told me your words were true, was all the confirmation I needed."

As soon as she finished speaking, Evan felt cold sweat over his body. He thanked his stars that he had only answered with his first name, otherwise, it would have been a whole new issue altogether.

'My last name is different from that of this body's original owner's last name.

Even our first names too, his is Evansen while I'm Evankhell. However, both are shortened to just 'Evan'.

That was my saving grace.'

Evan's fear was quite visible on his face, making the Princess give him a questioning look. To divert her attention from the matter of names, he randomly spoke about something else.

"So, you know all about the bullshit the previous seven pulled and the restrictions they received because of it huh?"

"Hmm...?

Unfortunately, yes, I do. It would seem our history books have been praising the wrong people."