56 The Princess Returns

Turning back time to two or so years ago. To the time when Clay was just summoned into this world. To a hut where a humble family lives and strives to survive. To a bed where a beauty of unparalleled proportions lay. Bloodied rags cover her body and her countenance, pale. This was Giselle. 7th Princess of Acadria Giselle Vi Acadria. She was the one who was supposed to enslave Clay by way of making him fall for her looks and trap him in guilt. The Plan went awry when the Chancellor then, made rash plans of his own and jeopardized the plan of prince Guilbert, his collaborator.

With Giselle, thought to be dead, being able to lead herself to safety and find help in the person of the chief of the village who she trusted with her life.

The chief, called Holder, found Giselle as she entered a Rift created by her space magic and fell on the floor inside his home. Hurriedly, he called for his wife and daughter and had them take care of her without delay. They had to employ the local doctor's help and made him shut his mouth against spreading the information that Giselle was here and she was injured. The doctors code, it seemed, still held power over them even in another world.

With Giselle's condition progressing for the better, the wound had closed and regenerated, but her overall health did not stabilize even until 3 months passed. When the next month came, Giselle woke up from her coma and started to get slightly better by the day and the next after.

"Your Highness! You've awakened at last!" Holder exclaimed as he entered the room where Giselle had been laid down for three months.

"V-Village Chief… I'm sorry for troubling you with my sudden appearance. However, we must be careful about my location right now. I've become a hindrance to a nefarious plan to usurp the throne a– "before she could finish, Holder already interrupted her and told her the truth.

"H-How could it be? The Chancellor died, and the Hero… Clay, escaped. It's been four months since then? And no one has bothered to look for me? How could that be?" Giselle was at a loss for the truth. However, that truth was against her own prediction. She predicted that she would be hunted down by the people behind the Chancellor. She had a suspicion about her brother Guilbert, he was crown prince, but he was too eager to get the throne. Although, on the surface he was doing great as the crown prince, behind the scenes he was having illicit deals with the other nobles.

With her mind at ease knowing that she was not being pursued, Giselle, formulated a plan to get in contact with Clay again in the future and fulfill the promise they had made. To do this, she had to venture forth and find allies she can count on including this village in the Kingdom's outskirts.

A year passed since she went on her journey and she had already established and found for herself allies she could trust. There was Gran, the former knight-turned-mercenary who led a guild in the neighboring Kingdom of Aroshia. Aroshia was a Kingdom in between Acadria and Tongkil Kingdom. They specialized in military development and their troops always had infantry superiority when it comes to wars. That's why they were named the Warrior Kingdom by neighboring kingdoms. Tongkil on the other hand was a religious kingdom centered around what they proclaim as Theocracy. Meaning, their god is their only king and any other human kings were mere imitators and usurpers of god's throne. Safir was their god of course, but they called him in their kingdom as King of Benevolence. They proclaim that the god's benevolence is so far reaching that he even blessed those who were not chosen by him directly. However, there are no historic evidences that they were at all chosen by Safir to represent him to the world. Most probably, it was a political maneuver to manipulate the populace into giving their loyalty and money to the kingdom without much resistance.

In Aroshia, Giselle found Gran who had at first doubted what he was hearing from Giselle, however, as the conversation went longer, Gran's face had been distorted so visibly that his anger had shown and his rage boiling within. Giselle shared the story of Clay and how her kingdom had maltreated the Hero sent by the god and even plotted to kill him, however what really made Gran angry was that the "warrior" that the god had given them was plotted against and now may turn his back on humanity. That was a disaster waiting to happen!

"I don't know what you were taught about by your elders and historians, but heroes that were summoned eons ago had been recorded in one of the books of the royal castle in Aroshia to have strength to rival even the dragonborn and even surpass the demon tribes nobles if fighting with life on the line. That is, when they grew to that extent. However, a hero whose growth had been impeded by the very summoners that brought him into the world, that could spell a disaster to all human races in the human realm!" Gran had been dramatically explaining the importance and danger of making an enemy of a Hero. He was scared and frightened at the fact that the Hero who was plotted against was currently on the loose. It was as if holding a bomb in one hand while the other holding the lit wick. When the wick was consumed and the bomb was ignited, the summoned becomes the calamity that even ends the whole world as we know it.