Chapter 20: The Peace Treaty Burns and We Run for Our Lives 【Arc 1: I Was Expelled for Seducing the Enemy Princess】

One Day Ago…

I did not simply run back to the fragile safety of the southern guest wing.

I practically teleported through the massive, heavily decorated stone corridors through sheer, unadulterated, survival-driven terror. My legs moved entirely on their own, fueled by a massive, heart-stopping spike of pure adrenaline. Every single shadow cast by the flickering crystal chandeliers looked exactly like a towering elite guard waiting to ambush me.

Every soft rustle of the expensive, heavy wall tapestries sounded entirely like Princess Diana’s heavy silk dress gliding across the polished marble floor, coming to drag me down into the permanent darkness of the royal dungeons.

I burst violently through the heavy oak door of our assigned quarters like a desperate man actively fleeing a highly attractive, magically overpowered avalanche.

I slammed the thick wooden door shut behind me with a deafening thud. I immediately threw the heavy iron deadbolt into place with a loud, metallic clank. I collapsed heavily against the thick wood, sliding down until my knees hit the patterned carpet. I was gasping desperately for air as if the oxygen in the hallway had been entirely and magically siphoned away.

Gabriel and Togashi snapped to high alert instantly.

Gabriel had been right in the middle of frantically pacing yet another visible, worn trench into the expensive northern carpet. Togashi was sitting calmly in the far corner, meticulously and silently sharpening a lethal iron throwing knife with a dark gray whetstone.

“What exactly happened?!”

Gabriel shouted the frantic question, crossing the spacious room in two massive, heavily armored strides.

He grabbed my trembling shoulders with his large hands. His wide, panicked blue eyes immediately began scanning my entire body for any visible physical injuries or magical curses.

“Where is the terrifying Princess?”

He demanded to know, lightly shaking me.

“Did you accidentally look directly at a pretty flower?”

He listed off the paranoid rules he had given me.

“Did you politely compliment the temperature of the room? Takashi, look at me! Why are you currently as pale as a dead, rotting fish?!”

“The catacombs.”

I wheezed out the single, terrifying word, my lungs burning painfully with the physical exertion of my sprint.

“She is going to permanently lock me in the catacombs.”

Gabriel froze completely solid.

The rhythmic, highly desperate nervous twitch located just under his left eye stopped entirely. It was instantly replaced by a look of profound, chilling, and absolute horror. He slowly let go of my shoulders and took a single step backward.

“What exactly do you mean, the catacombs?”

He whispered the question as if speaking too loudly would summon the Princess through the floorboards.

“She completely dropped the diplomatic act, Gabriel!”

I yelled frantically, pushing myself aggressively off the wooden door.

I began frantically pacing the room myself, waving my arms in the air to emphasize my absolute doom.

“She violently hates Prince Foxu! She actively hates the entire peace treaty! She basically offered me the entire Northern Kingdom on a shiny silver platter!”

I grabbed my own hair, pulling at the roots.

“And when I very politely declined her insane offer because I absolutely did not want to cause a massive, bloody global war, she just smiled!”

Gabriel looked like he was going to be physically sick.

“She smiled her terrifying, beautiful, entirely dead-eyed smile!”

I continued my frantic rant, unable to stop the flow of panic.

“And then she calmly told me she was going to permanently lock me away deep beneath the castle, where absolutely no one from the outside world could ever, ever find me again!”

Togashi calmly set his dark whetstone down onto the small wooden table beside him.

“Standard yandere protocol.”

Togashi stated the terrifying fact, his voice completely flat and entirely devoid of any human emotion.

“This is absolutely not a simple protocol situation!”

Gabriel grabbed his own styled blond hair with both hands, his heavy armor clanking loudly as he practically vibrated with pure panic.

“This is a massive, unprecedented international catastrophe! She deliberately manipulated the entire royal council just to isolate you in that glasshouse! She is actively, openly planning to kidnap a foreign southern diplomat!”

Before I could even open my mouth to validate his completely accurate, entirely justified diplomatic paranoia, a very soft, deliberate sound interrupted us.

Sssshhhhk.

We all instantly stopped breathing. The heavy, frantic argument died completely in our throats.

A thick, heavy piece of tightly rolled parchment was being slowly, deliberately pushed under the narrow gap of our locked wooden door.

It slid silently across the expensive carpet and came to a complete stop right in the center of the room. It sat there innocently on the floor, heavily sealed with the thick, undeniable, and deeply intimidating red wax of the Northern King’s personal royal crest.

Togashi moved with terrifying, inhuman speed.

In a literal dark blur of motion, the ninja crossed the entire room. He silently crouched down and expertly checked the narrow gap under the door for any lingering shadows, poisoned needles, or magical traps. Finding nothing immediately lethal, he carefully picked up the heavy rolled scroll.

He handed it completely silently to Gabriel.

Gabriel stared down at the imposing red royal seal like he was holding a live, highly unstable magical explosive. With visibly trembling, heavily calloused fingers, he slowly broke the thick wax seal. He unrolled the heavy, expensive paper.

I nervously watched his face as he read the elegant calligraphy.

I watched the very last, incredibly fragile, and utterly desperate thread of his diplomatic sanity snap completely and permanently in two.

All the remaining color completely drained from Gabriel’s face. The panicked, constantly sweating, heavily stressed southern envoy completely vanished into thin air. He simply ceased to exist.

When he finally looked up from the heavy parchment, his blue eyes were entirely different. They were cold. They were incredibly hard. They were terrifyingly, dangerously clear.

He was absolutely no longer a stressed, failing diplomat desperately trying to save a doomed peace mission. He was once again the legendary, fiercely protective vanguard captain of an elite, monster-slaying SSS party trapped entirely behind enemy lines.

“The peace treaty is officially void.”

Gabriel said the words. His voice was deathly, unnaturally quiet.

“What?”

I stammered weakly, my terrified heart plummeting straight down into my leather boots.

“How is that even legally possible?”

Gabriel casually tossed the heavy, completely ruined parchment onto the low coffee table.

“The Northern King has officially declared the Southern Envoys to be grossly and unforgivably disrespectful to the royal crown.”

Gabriel recited the terrible words from memory.

“He specifically cited vicious, undeniable rumors of our rampant misconduct and inappropriate behavior within the sacred palace walls.”

He looked directly at me, his strong jaw set perfectly like carved stone.

“Diana played us all absolutely perfectly.”

He explained the brutal political trap.

“She deliberately fed the palace rumor mill. She made absolute sure the entire royal court clearly saw her intense obsession with you. And then she flawlessly framed her own obsessive actions as our unchecked southern arrogance.”

He closed his eyes for a brief, painful second.

“And Prince Foxu…”

Gabriel’s large hands slowly curled into tight, lethal fists at his sides.

“Prince Foxu has not sent a single messenger bird, a magical relay, or a diplomatic courier to support our position.”

Gabriel opened his eyes, and the burning anger in them was palpable.

“He actively left us completely exposed to take the entire fall for the failure of the treaty.”

The devastating realization hit me exactly like a massive, physical blow to the stomach.

The cowardly Prince of the South had essentially abandoned us to die in the freezing cold. The mighty Northern Kingdom had just officially, legally declared us as absolute enemies of the state. We had no allies, no backup, and absolutely no legal protection left in this hostile country.

“We are officially confined to these exact quarters immediately.”

Gabriel continued outlining our doom, his voice completely devoid of his usual dramatic emotion.

“We are to remain here pending a formal, highly public royal investigation scheduled for tomorrow morning.”

“An investigation?”

I asked the question weakly, my voice trembling with profound dread.

“It is a royal confiscation.”

Togashi corrected the political terminology bluntly.

He casually slung his dark, heavily packed leather travel bag securely over his right shoulder. He had apparently, and incredibly astutely, packed absolutely all of his essential combat gear and survival rations exactly three days ago. He had known this mission was entirely doomed the very second Diana had first looked at me.

“Togashi is entirely right.”

Gabriel said the words calmly.

He slowly reached over his shoulder and smoothly drew his massive, incredibly heavy broadsword. The thick, perfectly sharpened steel sang a lethal, terrifying metallic note in the confined space of the guest room.

“They are absolutely not going to arrest us.”

Gabriel tested the weight of the sword in his hand.

“They are going to formally and publicly deport me and Togashi back to the South for severe diplomatic insults.”

He pointed the tip of the heavy sword toward the floor.

“And the Princess is going to officially confiscate you as a permanent prisoner of the northern crown.”

My blood ran entirely, completely cold.

She had actually done it. She had systematically, ruthlessly burned the entire historic peace treaty to the ground just to legally and permanently trap me inside her frozen castle. It was a masterpiece of political manipulation and terrifying romantic obsession.

Gabriel turned completely to face me.

The terrifying, overwhelming aura of a seasoned, highly decorated battlefield commander radiated powerfully off his broad, armored shoulders. He was ready for a brutal war.

“The peace mission is a total, unmitigated failure.”

Gabriel declared the absolute truth without a single trace of hesitation.

“Diplomacy is officially dead. We are now operating in a highly hostile, extreme survival scenario.”

He walked purposefully over to his heavily packed, expensive travel trunk. He did not bother to open the delicate brass latches. He simply raised his armored boot and kicked the thick wooden lid completely off its iron hinges. The wood splintered loudly across the room. He reached deep inside the ruined trunk and pulled out his heavy, battle-scarred steel combat gauntlets.

“Take absolutely nothing heavy.”

Gabriel ordered me sharply, rapidly strapping the thick steel plating tightly to his muscular forearms.

“Leave the ridiculous formal clothes. Leave the expensive peace offerings. Leave every single one of the diplomatic gifts.”

He tightened the final leather strap with his teeth.

“Grab your healing satchel, tie your boots tightly, and find your absolute will to live.”

I frantically scrambled across the room to my assigned bed.

I desperately tore my worn, highly reliable leather healing satchel out from completely under the massive pile of suffocating, ugly cotton shirts he had previously forced me to wear all week. I rapidly checked my glass vials of healing potions, my rolls of clean bandages, and my emergency mana crystals.

“Are we actually fighting our way out of the castle?”

I asked the question, my hands shaking so violently I could barely fasten the brass buckles on my satchel.

“We are actively running for our miserable lives.”

Gabriel corrected me grimly, grabbing a heavy cloak from the bed.

“We are going to violently break out of this heavily guarded, entirely hostile royal fortress under the absolute cover of darkness.”

He threw the dark cloak completely over his shiny armor to hide the reflective metal.

“We are going to expertly navigate a frozen, highly aggressive capital city that actively wants our heads on silver platters.”

He looked at Togashi, who gave a single, sharp nod of confirmation.

“And we are absolutely not stopping to rest until we physically cross the southern border.”

Togashi moved silently back to the large, frosted glass window. He peered carefully out into the pitch-black, sprawling, and beautifully manicured moonlit gardens located far below our room.

“Palace guards are actively doubling their standard patrols.”

Togashi reported the grim tactical situation.

“The massive outer iron gates will be entirely locked and magically sealed.”

“Then we will simply make our own brand new gates.”

Gabriel snarled the promise, smoothly sliding his massive broadsword into the heavy leather scabbard strapped tightly to his broad back.

He looked directly at me. And for the absolute first time in an entire, agonizing week, he did not look incredibly stressed or furiously angry at my bizarre romantic curse. He just looked exactly like my oldest, most reliable friend in the entire world.

“I am absolutely not letting a crazy, overpowered northern royal lock you in a dark basement, Takashi.”

Gabriel said the words fiercely, his eyes shining with absolute brotherhood and fierce loyalty.

“If we die tonight in the snow, we die entirely together as a party. Is that completely understood?”

I swallowed the massive, heavy lump of pure terror currently lodged in my throat. I nodded my head firmly, pulling the leather strap of my satchel tightly across my chest.

“Completely understood, Captain.”

“Good.”

Gabriel stepped up right beside Togashi at the frosted glass window. He stared out intensely at the terrifying, heavily fortified, and completely hostile enemy city that currently stood between our fragile lives and absolute freedom.

He took one incredibly deep, entirely steadying breath of the freezing air seeping through the glass.

“Let’s go make a massive mess.”