I creased my eyebrows when I heard the male elf say "Princess" while looking at Renatta. As for Renatta, she didn't say anything but she remained in combat mode.
"Don't be stubborn princess. Your duties as the princess of the Elves are still in effect, even if you have disappeared. Now that you have returned, you need to go back and fulfill them. Your sister will be much more delighted to see you return."
"I am not going back to become a princess. I am already happy with my current lifestyle and I am tired of acting as a good princess. I wanted to be free and be like the other free elves and not duty-bound for their responsibilities. Besides, being a princess is more like a prisoner than a princess. I would rather be treated like an outcast than return to that lifestyle. Just replace me with other willing elves that wish to become one instead of forcing that duty on me."
"Princess, stop acting like a spoiled brat. You are not supposed to be like the other lowly elves like them as you and us here have the superior bloodline that is granted by the Goddess of Life and that alone makes us different from them. Being normal is something that we shouldn't even dream of as we can even go higher than normal."
"Bullsh*t, if you keep on insisting, I would rather defeat you all here and now rather than return to my post as a princess. You either have to defeat me and everyone here or surrender instead and leave us," Renatta readies herself.
"Doesn't matter. Your sister ordered us to subdue and bring you back. Even if you refuse, we will have to take you by force whether you like it or not."
The hooded elves immediately went hostile and readied their weapons.
"Manato, Labo, Alena, this is my fight. I will prove to them that I am not going to just let myself be tied by something like duties. This is my liberation from those laws keeping me chained."
"Foolish. No surrender!"
The elves immediately attacked and quickly came close to Renatta. Renatta didn't panic and just remained calm as they attacked, waving their daggers. Renatta immediately blocked their attacks using her bow and defended herself by kicking and punching any of them who got close. She is clearly holding back since if she does not hold back, a few attacks of hers would be immediately fatal to the attackers, and worse, they will immediately die.
Renatta obviously toys with them and clearly enjoys beating them up. Although I have seen Renatta fight before, I have never seen her fight hostile humans or humanoids before so this is the first time I have seen her like this.
"Is she always like this?" I asked Alena and Labo.
"Uh...I don't know. This is the first time I have seen her act like this..." Alena shook her head, completely baffled by how Renatta acted to the hostile elves.
"Well, I heard being a princess was actually tiring stuff and she usually avoids the topic most of the time so we never knew much about it," Labo shrugged.
"Have you always known her as the Princess ever since you guys have seen her?"
"Yes. But we didn't want to reveal her identity since she seemed to be hiding it from you and the others. Guess she really hates that identity as she is more on denying her role as one."
I have the itch to fight against them as this will be the first time I have seen some hostile elves but considering how weak they are, I wouldn't be able to hold back at all compared to Renatta who has the self-control.
After a while, the hostile elves turned from better to worse. Most of them are injured, their faces are no longer pretty and they all have a bleeding nose, black eye patches, or bruised faces. Some even have their mouths bleeding. The leader also suffered several injuries as well and is struggling to stand up as well.
As for Renatta, she remained calm and collected, not even a single injury can be found on her person, showing how one-sided the battle was, to begin with.
"H-how? How come you got so strong all of a sudden?"
"Why am I supposed to answer that? And you lot are even bragging of bringing me back and yet you all here seem to barely have barely even done anything to me. What if I didn't hold back? Perhaps you lot would be dead by now."
"W-what?"
"Anyways, it's time for you all to sleep. Next time we meet again and you lot would threaten me or anyone else here, then I will no longer keep my mercy to all of you."
Renatta then snapped her fingers and everyone fell asleep. Renatta shook her head and returned sitting on the log with a tired look on her face.
"Ugh...I hate this," Renatta shook her head.
"Well, good work there. I didn't think you would hold back," I said to her and handed her a bottle of water that was inside my inventory.
"I would need to do so as they are my former guards. Even if I don't want to go back, I don't want them to die in my hands for my selfish reason."
"Well, that is understandable, but I didn't understand why you have to hide the fact that you are an elven princess," I frowned. After all, if not for this revelation, I wouldn't even know that she is an elven princess in the first place."
"Well, it's not that I am intentionally hiding it, I just didn't want to remind myself that I am a princess of the Elves. I just wanted to become a normal elf that has no need to be tied by responsibilities that have been forced on me ever since my birth."
I look at Alena and Labo. "Is it that bad?"
"Based on how I see it, the role of a princess is one of the tiresome roles in our community. Not only are they the symbol of royalty to the elves, but they also are the secondary leaders of the community and will have to be constantly in demand of many things. They also have no free time as they will have to do many duties that involve getting the other elves better. They also cannot have any fun and cannot interact casually with other people. In fact, they cannot even act friendly to their attendants as it was one of the rules. If a servant disobeys this, they will be punished and worse, they are exiled," Alena explained.
"That's a little bit excessive. Even human princesses are not that strict in their movements and have some free time for themselves," I frowned. That is very controlling and very strict in my opinion and even I wouldn't want to experience it or I would have rebelled immediately.
"Right? Ugh, who in their right mind would treat their princess like a slave? Not only that, they are more controlling of my actions. I even wanted to have friends and they even prohibited me from that as the one who carries the bloodline that was granted by the Goddess of Life personally, I am far too important to be talking and getting friendly with elves that are not blessed."
I looked at the guards that are sleeping. "So what are we going to do to them?"
"Just let them go back to the ground. The spell I used would let them sleep for a day. They won't wake up until tomorrow. Of course, I will not be merciful to them if they still try to fight against me and forcefully bring me back to perform the duties I ran away from."
"But are you sure about returning? Shouldn't you hide yourself instead of going with us to meet your people?"
"I am not guilty of anything. Why would I hide? And besides, I am not going to just let them do something to me. I can choose for myself what I should do. I am not some machine that would agree to all the commands they wanted me to do."
I grinned at hearing that and nodded. "If you are so sure about that, then let's put them down. Help me with this before anyone wakes up from their sleep.
The three nodded and the four of us carried the elves down to the base. Now that they are no longer going to be a threat to us, we continue our guard duty. Thankfully, they didn't send any reinforcements until the morning came.
We just spent our entire night talking especially about Renatta's circumstances. Bu hearing her grumbling and getting upset, showed that even she still has some anxiety in some things. However, one thing was given light to our current situation. It seems Renatta's sister would be welcoming us later on if she had practically sent the guards to take back Renatta. For her, she will have to face her eventually.
And so, the next morning light has come and we are going to be moving again. This time, to the place where Renatta once called it her home.
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