I Ran Away To Evil: Book 2 & 3 - A Cozy LitRPG RomCom

I reread my invitation and smiled.

At midnight, an envelope with Grand Duchess Calisto’s seal had been slipped under the door to my room. It was an official greeting from the North Sumbrian royals, a clear schedule laid out for the wedding ceremony, and an invitation to participate in a special game unique to the festivities.

The grand prize for the most Blackfog spies foiled over the course of the day was a custom built magical elevator - to be delivered and installed at a destination of choice - and there was a collection of smaller prizes for capturing anyone out to ruin the wedding.

That included but was not limited to assassination attempts, poisoning the punch, disrupting the ceremony, or otherwise making themselves a nuisance.

Henrietta found me still ruminating over my own plans to save the day.

“Gerda!” The Dark Lady sat down beside me in the palace dining hall, still in her regular attire.

“Good morning, Your Majesty.” I stuffed a fresh sweet summer cherry tomato into my mouth and bit down. I’d chosen a classic breakfast with scrambled floofpoof eggs, thick-cut flying pork side bacon, a slice of golden sourdough, and a side of tomatoes.

“Enough of that! I heard you broke your promise and left the guard station early and disappeared...” Henrietta’s eyes were full of worry. “What if something had happened to you?”

“Something did happen to me,” I told her. “I had a shadow start following me, so I used a travel ability to escape. I joined in the search for a while, and then went back to my room after I learned that Julia was back.”

All true. The best falsehoods weren’t falsehoods at all.

“I’m happy you’re safe, but try to stay low today.” Henrietta put a hand on my green arm and squeezed gently. “I’m worried they’ll target you again.”

I picked up the piece of parchment I’d been perusing and waved it, “Then how am I supposed to get myself an elevator?”

“Ha!” Henrietta let go and picked up a fork to tackle her own breakfast. She had a stack of waffles with markleberry jam lathered between the first layer, strawberries and whipped unigoat-cream in the second layer, and topped with a light drizzle of strawberry syrup and more whipped cream. “You could surprise people by rising up from below the bridge in style! It would be spectacular.”

“It would be slow.” I argued, taking a bite of my eggs and enjoying the fluffy soft taste. “They’d be long gone by the time I exited onto the bridge.”

“True.” Henrietta’s nose crinkled in thought.

“If I won,” I said, smiling at my friend, “I could give you the elevator.”

“That would be nice.” Henrietta said, clearly joking. She added, “Keith would be beside himself with excitement to take it apart and find out how it works and if he could make one.”

“So what are your plans for today?” I asked, changing the subject.

“I’ll help Keith get ready and run any errands that need running before the ceremony. Then I’m sitting at the front opposite Grand Duchess Calisto as an extra precaution.” She sighed. “I wish Chloe and Julia didn’t have all this added stress for their special day.”

I nodded; it was unfortunate.

“How about you?” Henrietta turned her eyes my way.

“I’m probably going to go straight to the hall, search for traps, and wait around with the rest of the party guests. Mingle a bit. And then use the ladies room before the rush.” I told her. Again, technically not lying.

“Good idea.” My queen approved, nodding her head happily. “If you need anything, just shout. This whole place is under guard and Chloe made enough Revive potions to bring back the entire hall if need be.”

"Impressive." I was not a potion maker, but she must have burned through a lot of time, money and mana potions to whip out 200 [Revive]. Honestly, I was pretty sure that must be from a private stash or purchased, because Chloe didn’t have a lot of time to just sit around and whip up potions.

"Right?" Henrietta got a bit of whipped cream on her cheek and then quickly wiped it clean. She never changed.

“That won't help anyone from a kingdom that disinherits on death.” I pointed out. "But if they chanced coming to the wedding even after Madame Potts' warning, that's their problem."

We finished breakfast around the same time and I bid her farewell.

I pulled at a lock of my dark green hair. I kept them in braids, and they were seriously fraying. My intention had been to use this time to properly wash and redo my own hair… but I was going to have to go as is. It was still pretty - I'd pulled back my braids in a half up-do and stuck small white and purple phoebe flowers here and there. There were two small braids that fell like bangs to either side of my face, and two thick braids that I’d pulled forwards to drape one over each shoulder. I wore a white and purple flower necklace that closely matched my hair.

My dress was a more elaborate version of my usual favorite, also a lavender purple bordering pink, with white flowers over the bust. The overdress cinched at the bra-line, opening at the front to reveal a soft white underdress. It fell in waves, with more flowers embroidered at the edge.

The slit I'd cut into the underdress was hidden under the purple dress, and would allow me to run, kick and jump at leisure in case of an emergency.

A fabulous fairytale look, if I did say so myself.

There were guards everywhere, and a lineup of guests who had arrived early to go over the Sanctuary in order to gain points towards the grand prize. The Continental Council members in attendance were there first thing, including an unamused Witch Agatha arguing with Master Thomas. The Pontiff of Sumbria, who had not been granted leave to enter North Sumbria in two decades since his predecessor made such a mess of things here during the civil war, was standing looking high and mighty behind the two. His nose was in the air, and his long ears twitched in annoyance when Witch Agatha said something particularly curt.

In expectation of the crush, two of the Grey Hawk knights were escorting anyone with an invite for ten minute intervals to inspect the sacred hall for traps.

I resisted the urge to facepalm as I joined the end of the line.

Of course there were going to be traps at the ceremony! This gave any ne’er-do-well the perfect opportunity to set traps under the guise of searching for traps. It was rare, thankfully, but it did happen sometimes that my Cast telling everyone to stop a thing actually helped the thing happen.

A great case and point was Sumbria - they outright ignored any and all warnings I gave them… which meant that evil could thrive when I reported it. Tell everyone to send guards to an unlucky coastal town about to get hit by one pirate ship? An entire fleet will show up because they know that the elven elders will deliberately turn a blind eye because I’d made the announcement.

It was infuriating, and I was still stumped on what to do about it.

“Here is the wait list,” A palace attendant was offering to let guests sign up for their turn so they wouldn’t be forced to stand around aimlessly. I signed myself down at the last available time slot before the ceremony, just behind Duchess Calisto herself, because I was a genius.

With two hours before the ceremony, that was two hours until I needed to come back. Plenty of time to get other important things settled.