Fated to Die to the Player, I'll Live Freely with My SSS-Class Ship!-Chapter 48: Misdirection

After the short agreement, I was forced to guide Prince Leobert’s team back to the Range Falcon. Naturally, I dragged my feet as much as possible, stretching every second I could until just before the prince’s patience ran out.

Right now, time is our greatest weapon.

’I just hope Eva followed the plan. If they were anywhere near the Range Falcon…’ I shuddered at the thought.

If she messed up, the prince would get his hands on Cassandra, and I’d lose any leverage I had. After that, my usefulness would expire—and I’d likely get my head say farewell to my body. Still, despite the risk, I wasn’t panicking. This was all within the scenarios we had accounted for while heading to Haerith Star System.

The real problem wasn’t the prince himself—it was the power backing him.

Prince Leobert was the firstborn son, but Cassandra still outranked him in succession as the older one. That meant his influence, while considerable, couldn’t match hers. Even if she had renounced most of her royal privileges, certain restrictions still applied. Arresting a few commoners? Sure. But accessing classified Guild and Union records? No chance.

Which meant someone else was pulling the strings from the shadows.

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’And that’s the real issue here…’

Even if I misdirected Leobert, that unseen force wouldn’t be as easy to fool. This was a race against time.

"We’re here." One of the blue-armored knights announced as we came to a stop.

Just ahead, the Range Falcon stood with its cargo bay wide open. From the entrance, I could already see the mess inside—crates toppled, compartments forced open, and even my private quest package completely ransacked.

"This... is horrible…" I muttered, staring at the wreckage. "Did none of you see the contract pasted on that crate? What was the point of breaking it open?"

Of course, I knew better than to expect an answer. These guys didn’t care. Their job was to find the princess, and that meant they’d be tearing apart every inch of my ship, contract or not, just to find her.

And as for the damages? The Royal Guard wouldn’t be compensating me. Why would they? I was just another nameless commoner in their eyes.

’But I’ll definitely remember this…’

My mental Vengeance Notebook was getting thicker by the second. At this rate, I’d need a separate volume just for these guys.

"Ugh!"

"Move it!" One of the guards barked, shoving me forward with his boot.

I clenched my teeth, resisting the urge to lash out. Not yet. Not now. Losing my temper wouldn’t do me any favors.

Swallowing my irritation, I stepped into the Falcon and made my way toward the bridge. The knights followed closely, their formation tight—five ahead, two behind, with Leobert securely in the middle.

They weren’t just escorting me. They were making sure I didn’t try anything funny against the prince.

"Percy, boot from standby mode," I ordered as I walked down the corridor.

I had, of course, prepped for this situation. Before docking, I disabled the "fast boot" function. Normally, the ship’s systems would be up and running in thirty seconds. Now? It would take five long minutes.

It was not much time, but every second counted.

Walking from the cargo bay to the cockpit took three minutes, while the boot-up added another four. Seven minutes were wasted in total. Not bad. Not bad at all. I smirked inwardly as we stopped in front of the main console.

"Now, show us where my bitch sister is!" Leobert barked, his tone laced with both impatience and anticipation.

I turned to him, offering a deliberately slow, knowing smile before shifting my fingers over the console. My hands moved across the keys in a sluggish, measured manner—typing each command at half my usual speed.

The system took its time processing, and after a few agonizing moments, the main visor flickered to life, displaying the Star Map of the current system.

With a few precise commands, I zoomed out, expanding the view to include five surrounding galaxies. My gaze settled on a seemingly random point in the vast expanse of space, and I locked the map onto it.

"This…" I muttered, injecting just the right amount of hesitation into my voice. "It seems like the escape pod reached farther than I predicted."

Of course, that was a blatant lie. Everything was going exactly as planned.

More than a dozen hours ago, Eva and I had launched an escape pod carrying a special microchip into deep space. It wasn’t just any escape pod—it was a high-tier, SSS-class model, equipped with an advanced propulsion system that didn’t rely on conventional fuel cells. Instead, it harvested dark energy from the cosmos, refining it into a near-limitless power source.

And the real kicker? The faster it moved, the more energy it absorbed, pushing its acceleration to absurd levels. By now, it was less of a lifeboat and more of a deadly missile hurtling through the void.

The connection to the pod remained active, displaying real-time data on its speed and trajectory.

Currently, it was traveling at a staggering 1% of the speed of light, a near-unfathomable velocity for standard escape vessels. Its course was locked onto a nearby galaxy roughly two light-years away—far enough to seem plausible, yet close enough to induce them into giving chase.

I stole a glance at Leobert, watching his reaction unfold. Would he take the bait?

He turned to one of his guards, who immediately stepped aside, tapping hurriedly on his terminal. A few tense seconds passed before he returned to the prince’s side and whispered something in his ear.

Leobert’s lips curled into a triumphant smile.

"Alright, it seems you were telling the truth." He lifted his chin with an air of smug superiority.

"Though I’d rather dispose of you here and now—"

I stiffened upon hearing his words. Thankfully, he continued.

"I’ve decided to let you live—for now. If this information turns out to be false, you’ll need to answer for it. And trust me, the punishment will be… thorough."

Hearing his threat, a chill crept down my spine. If they caught me again after discovering the empty pod, my fate would be sealed.

"I-I swear to the gods, and all the mystic beings in the universe, that everything I’ve said is the truth!" I raised my right hand at a right angle, palm forward, as if taking a sacred oath.

The prince’s gaze darkened with suspicion, though he said nothing. He didn’t know I held no belief in gods.

"We’ll see about that," he muttered, his tone venomous.

*CLACK!*

Before I could react, one of the blue-armored knights clasped a metal collar around my neck.

"Ugh! What the hell is this?!" I snarled, instinctively wedging my fingers between the steel and my skin. "It’s too damn tight—!"

"That," Leobert said with a smirk, "is a Collar of Penance. A tool for punishing sinners and keeping them in line."

He lazily flicked his wrist, tapping a command on his virtual display.

*BZZZZT!*

Agony exploded through my body as a surge of electricity coursed through me. Every muscle spasmed violently, my vision blurring with white-hot pain. My knees buckled, and I collapsed onto the deck, gasping for breath. This lasted for a few seconds until the prince lifted his finger, stopping the powerful current coursing throughout my body.

’Damn it—my body is still tingling…!’

With trembling hands, I reached for the collar, cold sweat trailing down my temple. This… this was bad. I hadn’t accounted for this.

Leobert watched me with a gleeful expression, drinking in my suffering.

"Ah, I wouldn’t recommend trying to remove it," he added casually. "If you attempt to tamper with it without my authorization, it will release a 100,000-volt discharge. You’d be charred before you even hit the ground."

I clenched my fists, forcing back the urge to spit a curse at him. Not that I could manage one—the electric shock had left my tongue numb.

Satisfied, Leobert turned on his heel, leading his guards back out of the ship. I watched their retreating figures, keeping my eyes locked on them until they disappeared from view.

Only then did I exhale.

"Phew… I guess that went well?"

Though he didn’t say it outright, I knew Leobert had taken the bait. He was convinced that Cassandra was aboard that pod, drifting helplessly through space.

But in truth, the princess was nowhere near it.

"They would be chasing a chip that emulates the Crazy Princess’s vital signals!"

As members of the Meyers Royal Family, they have special methods of "finding" their kind. And that’s through their unique life signals that was unique to every single one of them. The knight who had stepped aside earlier had likely contacted someone in the expected search zone to confirm the signal—to see if it really matched Princess Cassandra’s.

And they had found it.

That meant they would be going after it.

Of course, catching up to something moving at 1% the speed of light—endlessly accelerating—was another matter entirely. If their goal was to eliminate Cassandra, there were a hundred ways they could do it.

But if they wanted to capture her alive…

"They’re about to embark on one hell of a wild goose chase."

Now, all that remained was retrieving the two girls and getting the hell out of this system.

"Ah, and I still need to get this damned thing off my neck…"

It seemed my to-do list would never shrink.