Befriend the heroine!

Chapter 9

"Baron Joren was involved in a huge scandal that he would bring young women to his bed chambers every night, and that he was involved in sex trafficking! His highness prince Mikhael was so heroic and uncovered the incident. There were both girls and boys, most under the age of 13! "

I learned a lot of information from Lyra, but these incidents seemed a bit off. And I still didn't get anything on Kayla. I figured right now would be the best time to ask.
"How horrific! The Crown Prince is so admirable! " I lowered my voice and whispered, covering my mouth,
"Have you heard about Lady Ectere... Attempting to seduce his Royal highness. Apparently they're going to.. Elope! "
"What! That...the adopted daughter of Arch Duke Ectere! How on earth did that happen! My lady, you must be careful talking about such incidents! You could... You could, in the worst case get charged for treason.. Anyways how on earth can she associate with someone as great as Crown Prince Mikheal! Of course not after the rumours being spread about her."
Now this conversation was finally going somewhere.
"What rumours? " I widened my eyes, to show I was interested fully. Lyra and her sharp sense understood the assignment and spoke to me in great detail.
"Lady Ectere is frequently visiting Bethera. It's a small village outside Elner and is infamous for it's crime and the amount of brothels it has. That was where the sex trafficking incident with Baron Joren was discovered. Rumors have spread that she is also taking part in another branch of it. So there is absolutely no way she is involved with His highness! "
Of course Kayla would got to Bethera, that was her home town before getting adopted. Though she only spent 5 years of her life there, she had a close link with it and wanted to do everything in her power to bring it out of the poverty stricken conditions it lay in. This was mentioned in the novel when it started, it was on one of these trips she encountered Mikheal. Wait..
"Lyra? " I asked, uncertainly.
"Yes my lady? "
"What day is it today? As in date.. "
"Its the 365th year of the Elner empire, the fourth of the first month. Have you lost track of time? "
No way..
"Lyra get up, there's no time for tea! We have to go to Bethera! "
"Wh-why on earth would you want to go there? My lady, it's a dangerous place! Haaah, have you went crazy! "
"No! I forgot something! We need to pack a lot of food."
I grabbed Lyra by the shoulders and stared right into her eyes.
"Lyra.. If we don't do this, I'm going to be executed for treason. "
"You've finally gone crazy! Don't tell me you're going to play hero and expose Kayla Ectere... They're just rumours! "
"No Lyra, we're doing some charity work.. "
"Then let's set out tomorrow. It takes us an entire day to travel there without rest, let alone the preparations!"
"No." I answered.
Lyra glared at me, exasperated.
"Fine. Fine! But don't expect me to com-"
"You're coming with me."
"... "

I had been far too careless. I didn't even bother to keep record of the days that passed, and the poisoning incident had made me lose sense of time. The novel is supposed to start tomorrow. For a better chance of securing a relationship with Kayla, it's best to earn her trust as soon as the novel starts. But because of my irresponsibility, I failed to realise Kayla goes to uncover the other branch of human trafficking just tomorrow, which marks her heroic and most female lead worthy opening of a novel! I should have known from Lyra mentioning Baron Joren's scandal. Mikhael appears as well, and now I'm going to bomb this scene and hopefully replace him in the story for a bit, and try delay their romance! But I need to get back in track. If this fails, then I can lower my life expectancy from 20% to 2%! Now that my so called family is out to get me, not even Lyra will be able to protect me. At least Kayla's connection can secure me some sort of safety and influence.

Oh how hard it is just to survive!