Rue ended up driving with them.

“Where exactly are you taking me?”

“To the empire of course, chosen one.”

Rue immediately winced and wondered how much trouble they would have if they just jumped out of the carriage. Looking out of the window they see that the monster is gone or rather its corpse. Did the others move it? But Rue doesn’t remember anyone stepping away though they were preoccupied with panicking. Or perhaps it survived and escaped. Rue bites their lip in worry when he jumps a little, noticing something in the woods.

They take a deep breath in deciding that they are simply being paranoid. A warm wind seems to suddenly brush Rue despite the cold weather it’s nice especially since Rue only has a T-shirt and shorts protecting them from the weather. During the day this is not a problem since it’s still summer, but the nights have been getting colder.

Rue suddenly snaps away from the window to idiot 3. The empire…

The Empire!

Oh! Not good. Rue stars biting their lip again already coming up with an escape plan but they can’t leave with the hero’s relic since they would be hunted and be considered public enemy number 1. Either because people realize they are a fraud or because they think Rue simply ran away from his duties. They cannot afford to live like that.

“Is everything alright?”

Rue lets out a quick and sharp laugh that sounds like they are choking.

“I’m fine. A-ok. Nothing to worry about! How are you?” Their shoulders are practically touching the celling from how high and tense Rue is holding them. Idiot 3’s eyebrow simply raises. They open their mouth to say something, but Rue beats him to it.

“You know I don’t think I ever asked for your name.” Rue forces their body to relax instead and sends idiot 3 an apologetic smile. They do feel a little embarrassed. Idiot 3 sighs. Shouldn’t you treat ‘the hero’ with a little respect. Rue internally grows more frustrated.

“I do not believe that my name matters-”

“Nonsense! You have been sooo helpful! And even if you weren’t I still think that every person and name matters.” Idiot 3 lets out a more troubled and deeper sigh.

“My name is Chris” Rue smiles genuinely.

“Nice to meet you!” Chris nods back.

“May I ask what your name is.” Rue jumps back looking everywhere but Chris’s eyes.

“Oh… well I don’t think it matters that much you know.”

“You do realize that you are the hero the most important person to our world. Additionally, you are currently contradicting your previous words. Quite hypocritical if you asked me.”

Rue scrunches up their nose. The betrayal! Their own words being used against them!

“Well, you can shove your hypocritical up your-”

Chris cuts them off by slapping a hand over their mouth. They quickly retract it though.

“I apologize but I do not believe that a young lad such as yourself should use such vulgar language.”

“I don’t think people should use words that were used before the dinosaurs died but here, we both are.”

“What.” Chris furrows their brows.

“Don’t answer that. That was a rhetorical question.”

“There you go again with your fancy words.” Rue copies Chris’s sitting pose. Legs and arms crossed and head held high.

“I do not get paid enough for this. If all our ancestors have had to deal with these quirks every 100 years I feel pity for them, me and my descendants.”

“I feel sorry for my past lives if they also had to deal with people who had not only a stick up their ass but an entire tree.” Chris does not react openly except for a raised eyebrow, but Rue can see their disbelief. Rue wonders if he figured out that they aren’t actually the hero or if he is simply in disbelief at how great their personality is. For the sake of their sanity and life they hope for the latter.

“You certainly are interesting.” He says and Rue gets the feeling it’s one of those insults that a disguised as vaguely nice sounding thing.

“And you certainly have the personality of a blank piece of paper.” Chris rubs their foreheads, obviously getting a headache. Rue lets their shit-eating grin grow.

“You dress, speak and act like a person of rather low breath.” While speaking Chris scans Rues appearance. There is a bandage on their left forearm, which is older and took some damage itself, their shirt was extremely baggy, the bracelet was old and worn and their blond hair was wild and unkempt. They also were very malnourished and had scars as well as fresh wounds on their body.

Rue didn’t like being scanned so intently that they crossed their arms over their body, trying to hide.

“I apologize if I made you uncomfortable.” Upon noticing their mistake, they quickly apologized. The carriage suddenly stopped.

“We arrived.” A guard informed them to open the door. Rue blinks a couple of seconds absolutely baffled. There is no way! The empire should have been father away. They were supposed to still have time-

“Are you coming.” Chris had already left the carriage and was now expectantly looking at Rue. They took this as their cue to leave ignoring the hand the guard extended to them to help. Infront of them is a big castle. It had a lot of golden accents and look like it could house 10 big families and still have plenty of space left. Rues mouth went dry.

They were led inside into a big room. Inside there were 4 people.