The confession hit me while I was running for my life.
The street shook under our boots as we tore through the North Kingdom capital, cutting past market stalls, laundry lines, and people who had no idea what kind of mess they were watching. Smoke drifted over the rooftops. Bells rang somewhere far off. The whole city felt too alive for the exact moment my life started falling apart again.
"I love you so much, please go out with me!!!"
That was Princess Diana, heir to the enemy kingdom, shouting like she wanted the whole capital to hear her. Her voice bounced off stone walls and painted shutters and came back at us even louder. People turned. Merchants froze. Two guards on the next corner looked up at the same time, and their faces changed the second they recognized her.
My name is Takashi, and I am the healer of an SSS party. I know what people think when they hear that. They think I got kicked out because healers are support, and support gets blamed when things go wrong. They think I was dead weight.
I wish that was the reason.
I am in enemy territory with my party -- Gabriel and Togashi -- on a reconnaissance mission that was supposed to be clean, quiet, and maybe even historic. We came to look around. We came to confirm the rumors. We came to help if a chance for peace opened up. That was the plan, and it was a legit plan, which is exactly why it exploded.
The kingdoms of the South and the North have been at war since before we were born. Everyone grows up hearing the same stories. Their side is evil. Our side is noble. Then you get old enough to heal actual soldiers, and you learn everybody screams the same when steel goes in.
So the royal families made a marriage deal. Princess Diana of the North would marry Prince Foxu of the South. One wedding. One treaty. One clean ending to a dirty history. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
It should have worked, but Princess Diana looked at me like I was the answer to a prayer after I healed a cut on her hand during a formal greeting. It was a tiny cut. A tray slipped. Glass broke. I healed her before the servants even brought fresh tea. I smiled because I am polite. She stared because my life is cursed.
Now she was chasing us through her own capital in a ripped royal dress, while half the kingdom chased us back. Gabriel ran in front, clearing a path with his shoulders and pure anger. He is the leader, and he looks like a hero statue that learned how to sprint. Togashi stayed at my side, one hand near his sword, eyes moving nonstop. He never panics. He just gets quieter... which is somehow worse.
I ran in the middle and tried not to die from cardio, fear, and bad luck.
"Takashi, do something, you put us here, deal with it!"
Gabriel twisted around just enough to glare at me, and I hated how right he was. I wanted to defend myself. I wanted to explain that I did not flirt, did not wink, and did not ask for this. None of that mattered while we were sprinting through enemy streets with a princess on our tail and palace guards gaining ground.
I could not even clap back because he was right, and that stung more than the running.
The avenue narrowed into a market lane packed with hanging cloth and stacked crates. We cut through a row of spice stands and blew cinnamon and pepper into the air. A butcher shouted at us. A dog barked and joined the chase for half a block. Behind us, armor clattered over stone in a rising wave.
I risked one look back and saw Diana weaving through the crowd like this was a game. She was smiling. Her hair had come loose and streamed behind her in bright gold ribbons. She looked happy -- and that was somehow the scariest part.
Then she jumped.
"Darlig, carry me!"
She threw herself at me with the confidence of someone who had never missed a landing in her life. I barely caught her before both of us hit the street. Her arms locked around my shoulders. My knees bent. My soul left my body for one full second, and came back salty.
I am a healer, and I am not built for princess transport.
Gabriel looked back and almost ran into a cart. Togashi did not look surprised at all, which made me feel worse. He just shifted closer and cut through the crowd with his shoulder so I had room to keep moving.
Diana settled on my back like this was the most normal thing in the world. Her cheek brushed my shoulder. Her breath touched my ear. I nearly tripped over a cabbage crate and saved us by pure panic.
We hit a left turn and dove into a tighter street lined with workshops. The smell changed from spices to hot metal and wet wood. A blacksmith stepped out with a hammer, saw the princess on my back, saw the guards behind us, and stepped right back inside. Smart man.
I pushed healing mana into my legs to keep them from turning into soup. Warmth spread through my calves. My stride got cleaner. My lungs still burned, but they burned in a useful way. I am good at support magic. I can keep a team moving past the point where other people collapse.
It is less cool when the battle is your own love life.
This was not the first time a mission had gone bad because a woman decided she liked me. It was not even the second. There was the guildmaster's daughter who wrote me thirty letters in one week. There was the pirate captain who tried to kidnap me during treaty talks. There was the saint apprentice who cried, proposed, and set a chapel curtain on fire in the same afternoon.
Reconciliation missions always go wrong because of this. Damn.
The road opened into a wide square around a fountain, and for one stupid second I thought we might get space to breathe. Then palace bells started ringing from the tower ahead -- deep and sharp -- and every guard in sight snapped awake.
We cut right before they could close the lane.
A fruit cart rolled in front of us at the worst possible moment. Gabriel vaulted it. Togashi slid around it. I tried to follow with Diana on my back and clipped a wheel with my shin so hard I saw white sparks. Apples flew everywhere. A guard stepped on one and crashed into two others.
We tore through a street of silk shops and lantern stands while the city closed around us. Windows opened. Faces appeared. Rumors spread faster than we ran. By tonight, every tavern would have a different version, and in most of them I would sound cooler.
The truth was ugly. My shoulder ached from carrying Diana. Sweat soaked my shirt under my armor. My braid stuck to my neck. I kept breathing through my mouth because I could taste blood where I bit my tongue on a bad step.
Diana still looked thrilled, so I looked for any sign she was joking, testing us, or trying to trap me. I found none. She held on tighter whenever I stumbled. She leaned away from walls so I would not clip her. She even lifted her feet when we jumped puddles.
That did not make this less insane.
We cut across a narrow bridge over a drainage canal, then dropped into a lower district where the streets turned rough and crooked. Fewer banners. More brick. Less perfume. This part of the city felt real, and it gave us cover.
Togashi pointed with two fingers and veered into an alley without slowing. We followed. The alley twisted behind storage houses and opened into a yard full of stacked barrels and broken carts. A wall boxed it in on three sides. Bad exit -- great temporary cover.
We crouched behind the barrels while armored steps thundered past the alley mouth.
My chest heaved so hard it hurt. Diana slid off my back and dropped beside me, then looked way too pleased with herself. Gabriel braced one hand on a cart and glared at me like he wanted to throw me over the wall. Togashi listened with his eyes half closed, counting footsteps and tracking the search pattern.
I wanted to vanish, because this was the part nobody talks about when they tell stories about heroes. Not the sword swings. Not the speeches. This part. The crouching in filth while your mission dies in real time because your face apparently causes diplomatic incidents.
Diana reached toward my shoulder like she wanted to check if I was hurt. Gabriel smacked his own forehead so hard the sound echoed off the barrels. He looked like a man watching his house burn while holding a bucket full of holes.
He was done, and I knew that look. He wore it after Eastport. He wore it after Blue Reef. He wore it after the chapel incident. Every mission, same mess. Different city. Different woman. Same Takashi problem.
I cannot even blame him.
We waited until the footsteps faded, then slipped out through a side gap in the yard wall and pushed toward the outer roads. The run got quieter after that. We stayed low. We cut through courtyards, back lanes, and one abandoned stable. Nobody talked.
When we finally cleared the last houses and hit the broken road outside the city edge, the sun was already dropping. Orange light stretched over the fields. The walls behind us looked huge and cold. Horns sounded from the towers, but they were farther away now.
We slowed to a walk because our legs had no choice.
Gabriel turned first. He looked deep into my eyes like he was making a final decision, and his expression had none of his usual sarcasm left. Togashi stopped beside him and crossed his arms. Diana stood close to me with dust on her dress and a weirdly hopeful smile that made this worse.
I knew what was coming before he opened his mouth.
"You're fired!"
The words landed harder than the sprint -- harder than the guards, harder than the princess on my back. I just stood there and stared at him while my brain caught up. A part of me wanted to argue. A part of me wanted to laugh. A part of me wanted to lie down in the road and let fate run me over properly this time.
I did none of that. I looked at Gabriel, then at Togashi, then at Diana, and I felt the shape of my life changing again in the worst possible way. The peace mission was dead. The princess was still here. The war was still waiting. The road ahead felt long, weird, and absolutely cursed.
My Party Expelled Me Because I Keep Charming the Wrong Women, and Honestly... They're Not Wrong!!!