*Rion*

I was so stunned by what the princess had just told me that it took me a while to respond.

“You’ll go with us, willingly?” I asked, still unsure what to make of it.

I wondered if she was playing me for a sucker, or if she genuinely meant it. She could have been saying anything just to get my guard down. It was within the realm of possibility that all she wanted was for me to become complaisant.

My thoughts drifted to her motives, which ...