(MC POV)
"Find the Saint! He's a wanted criminal now!!"
"Make sure he doesn't get close to the Hero!"
"Get more guards to watch the Hero!"
Hmm… Guess I was just a little too slow.
Well, I'm a fugitive now and I don't know where Bait, Laverna or Denna is. In fact, I don't even know if they were expecting me to join them or go against them in the first place. For all I know, they might have expected me to join them in going against Eris.
Were they planning on overthrowing Eris to become the main personality? But I thought that I had completely separated them and the only reason why they even still join together as one person is purely by choice?
So why would they even choose to betray Eris now? This doesn't make any sense…
I crept through the bushes to get closer to the party venue, hoping that I could catch Eris and take her away from here before the others get to her.
Our date would come to an end tomorrow, so if I could just keep her away from everyone until then, we would return back home safely even if the other three did intend to truly betray her.
Or I guess I could simply just return everyone right now but this is also a date with the other three and cutting it short would be ruining it for them so I'm kind of at an impasse right now.
Oh well, the first thing I should do is to reunite with Eris and warn her without getting caught first.
The party that Eris was attending was held in the upper floors of the castle with a balcony that overlooked the gardens below.
If I knew my disciple, she would soon get tired of all the nobles talking to her and want to go somewhere alone. For that, she could either excuse herself to the bathroom or move to the balcony so I was betting on her choosing the latter option.
I quietly snuck through the garden while avoiding the guards that were still looking for me.
Moving slowly, I arrived underneath the balcony with none the wiser, looking up just in time to see Eris leaning against the balcony railing and heaving out a deep sigh.
Great, all I need to do now is to get her attention without attracting anyone else. Easier said than done though, especially when there's a pair of guards standing right below the balcony.
Oh wait a minute, why am I acting like I have no choice but to hide from them? I'm not some weak priest that isn't able to fight back! I'm more than just a healer as I do debuffs and buffs for my party too!
I went ahead to cast a blindness spell on the two guards below the balcony, causing them to let out gasps of surprise.
"What?! What happened?! Who shut off the lights?!"
"Why can't I see?!"
I quickly ran up to them and hit them with a sleep debuff, prompting those two guards to slump down onto the ground, unconscious.
Their cries were loud enough to draw Eris's attention above and she peeked over to see me waving at her.
"Master? What are you doing down there?"
I quickly placed a finger over my lips to shush her and she seemed confused by my action but nodded to show she understood.
I then gestured for her to come to me while keeping my finger on my lips so that she knew I wanted her to remain quiet while coming to me.
She looked behind her for a moment before stepping up onto the balcony and leaping off, landing in front of me with a quick flourish.
"Hello Master~ Is this a late night rendezvous where we have some fun outdoors? Did Bait set you up for this?" She giggled.
"No and we don't have a lot of time so follow me and stay hidden," I instructed, moving through the bushes with her while keeping us concealed. "The Kingdom has betrayed you and so has Bait, Laverna and Denna. They deem you to be too big of a threat to be left alive and they wish to take you out before you become evil."
Eris stared at me for a good few seconds before finally speaking, "I… I think I misheard you, Master. You said everyone betrayed me?"
"You heard me right actually… And I'm not joking about this."
"But… But why? I don't understand? Aren't I supposed to be the hero? Why would they ever think that I would turn evil? I defeated the greatest evil of this World, didn't I?"
I sighed, "Because they now know you are stronger than even the greatest evil they have ever faced that they have become scared of you. That is how humanity is, I'm afraid…"
"Does that mean they're really stupid?"
I couldn't help but let out a chuckle, "You are right in a way."
"So what do we do now?"
"Well, we run away of course, unless you fancy being caught by the kingdom and then executed?"
"Ehhh… I don't think they can execute either of us even if they wanted to… But why is Master being hunted as well? In this World, Master is simply the healer of the hero's party right? They shouldn't think you'll become a threat too?"
I shook my head, "No, my threat to them came from the fact that I knew about their plans and chose not to join them. So they set me up by false accusing me of trying to rape someone and branded me a criminal for it."
"Haaa? Why would Master even want to rape anyone? If it did happen, it would have been totally consensual!"
Not sure where she got that idea from but it's not like I'm some incubus in this World or something?
Shaking my head at her, I reminded her of the crisis we were still in, "Anyway… If we go by the normal flow of events, we should make our way out of the city… The guards are still looking for me and they'll know you are aware of their betrayal should we be seen together."
Eris giggled before reaching out her hand to me, "In that case, do steal me away from here, Master~ Ehehe~"
I took her hand and raised an eyebrow, "You seem to be quite enjoying this, hmm?"
"Oh? Why wouldn't I? Isn't this fun, Master? It's like we're eloping~ Ehehehe~"
Huh, figured that she would see it that way… I guess she's not wrong since I'm taking her away from her other personalities…
Wait a minute… She didn't even react much when I told her that Bait and the others betrayed her… Almost as if she already knew…
Ah… I get it…
Those sneaky girls… They discussed it with each other before this happened didn't they? They wanted to specifically create this scenario for themselves to act out.
I'd bet all four of them are combined into one as Eris right now.
How sneaky.
Oh well, I'll just play my part like normal then, I have to admit this is quite fun~
