Chapter 11

Runaway

"This doesn't feel right." Said Qrow.

"Yeah, I know what you mean, randomly told to escort Princess Ruby for no apparent reason other than we were ordered to definitely seems suspicious."

"It's just, so out of the ordinary for this to happen."

"I know, wouldn't they have the royal guard do this?" I asked.

"Supposedly."

"So why us?"

"That is a question that I am not sure we will get the answer to." Qrow replied.

"Why is that?" I ask.

"Because the person we're supposed to escort has just arrived." The princess saw us and walked towards us.

She was actually quite beautiful.

I have never seen her before.

However, most people have never seen her before, as she was known to be quite shy.

We kneeled before the princess, as was custom to do so when in presence of royalty.

"Are you my guards?" She asked.

"Yes, Princess." Replied Qrow.

"I hoped for a better pair of guards, but you will be fine." This caused me to be a bit peeved.

You wanted better?!

Well we are the best you're going to get!

"We are all that could be easily spared on short notice." Qrow said.

She suddenly looked at us with understanding.

"I heard about the siege, was it really that bad?" Asked Princess Ruby.

"Around half the men were injured or killed." Replied Qrow.

"Oh, that is saddening." Said the Princess.

"Shall move past this with some walking, perhaps?" I said.

"Yes, we should, thank you for the idea, Jaune."

How in Tartarus did she know my name when neither I nor Qrow said it?

We went onto our walk around the castle.

This was mainly to look for things to do.

As none of us knew that we were supposed to do after we met up in the hallway.

Well, time to look at the paintings.

We gave up on that idea when we saw how hideous some of the paintings looked.

Seriously!

One looked like a picture of a corpse!

Most likely because it was a corpse!

At least, that was what the Princess said about it.

Despite being a princess, she acted much more intelligent than one would expect her to act.

She didn't just dally around while we followed; she showed that she knew the castle better than everyone in the guard did.

No, really!

She surprised us with several shortcuts and secret doors that neither Qrow nor I had even heard about!

This escort mission was more educational than training in the ways of a scholar as well.

She knew more about the political talks happening in the land than we could ever imagine.

The Mistral Empire was making an alliance with The Kingdom of Vale to kill off the monsters in exchange for giving them magical weapons and armour.

Thank The Goddess for that!

I really hated those things!

I would love to help in killing them!

Oh life is getting better!

But then she told us the bad news.

"We have to be careful with the alliance."

"Why's that?" I asked.

"My father tried to have their Emperor assassinated a week ago."

"That is definitely something that could hurt relations." Said Qrow.

"Yes, which is why we are currently trying to hide that little fact from The Empire."

"Don't want to lose a powerful ally in case a war starts." I added to the conversation.

"We had the choice of allying ourselves with The Land Of Atlas or The Mistral Empire, The Empire was considered the better decision."

"Yeah, those magic bastards would have backstabbed us the moment we turned around from them." Said Qrow.

"Yes, that is true." Said Princess Ruby.

Something crossed my mind.

"Wait." They stopped to listen to me.

"Why do we have to choose, is a war happening soon?" I asked the question that poked the elephant that was being avoided.

Qrow wanted to know as well judging by the look on his face.

"A war is breaking out between the Empire and The Land Of Atlas."

"What started it?"

"The Empire is blaming The Atlasians for the assassination attempt." Said the Princess quite sheepishly.

"What!?" Said both Qrow and I in unison.

"We're playing along to avoid a war with them. It's the only way; we are in no shape to fight a war at the moment." Said The Princess.

"This feels like it's just going to end very poorly for all parties involved." I said.

"I know what you mean." Replied Qrow.

Today is just making my head hurt.

I just can t deal with this stuff.

And that is when they attacked us.

I ducked out of the way of the attack.

Qrow grabbed the Princess and pulled her down to the ground.

The blades from the lances missed all three of us.

Qrow pulled out his sword and amazingly sliced off the head of one of the assailants.

I don't waste time and simply punch the other assailant with my armoured glove in a quick upper-cut.

Qrow moved to my side and put his sword through the bastard's throat.

The man fell to the floor, gurgling on his own blood.

Qrow put the blade through the man's eye to end his suffering.

"Who in Tartarus are these guys?!" Shouted Qrow.

"Let's find out, shall we?" Said the Princess.

She went over and checked the bodies.

I was a bit disturbed at how she showed no disgust or horror at the sight of dead bodies.

Even I feel the need to throw up when I stare at a corpse for longer than a few seconds.

She messily checked the bodies, getting a bit of blood on her hands.

You would not expect of a member of the royal family to mess around with dead people's bodies like it was no big deal.

This led me to think of the disturbing implication that the Princess has had experience messing around with dead people before.

I did not like that implication.

Not one bit.

The Princess finished checking the body and stood up.

She looked at us with dull eyes that made us uncomfortable.

"These men are part of the guard." She said simply.

"What?" I said simply back.

"How can you tell?" Qrow asked.

"They have the guard earrings on their ears." She said.

"Why would they try to kill us?" I asked.
"Most likely reason is that either they were hired to kill us."

"Or?" Asked Rii, wanting the second answer.

"Someone, likely my sister, is trying to eliminate all rivals to the throne."

"Oh."

Oh my.

That is not good at all.

"We must leave the city then." Said Qrow.

"How do we do that?" I ask.

"It's not as if we will be able to leave through the gate if there is a usurp going on." They take in what I said.

"You're right, we will have to use whatever shortcuts and secret ways we can to get out." Said Princess Ruby.

We began to leave.

We were able to make it quite far before we encountered another pair of guards.

They drew their swords the second they saw us.

We did the same.

Qrow and I charged in for an advantage.

Both guards were surprised that we charged so recklessly.

However, they didn't know we were just using it to get closer.

They must have been new, because they couldn't tell that we were going to dodge their strikes.

Qrow and I ducked under their swings; we launched up and put our blades through their necks.

We killed them with but a scratch.

At least, I thought we did.

It was only when I noticed that Qrow was on the ground that I realized he had been stabbed in the part of his chest that houses one's heart.

My last remaining friend was dead Goddess damn it.