“Well, aren’t you intelligent. You pretty much destroyed all of my leverage by offering yourself to me and making further demands impossible.”, I grumbled as I was led along the long hallways of the palace. All around us maids and servants hurried around, carefully avoiding us while throwing curious glances at me.

The princess chuckled.

“Well, I somehow had to contain your ambitions and giving myself to you was a perfect opportunity to chain you to this kingdom while simultaneously acquire some additional power through you.”, her grin played on her beautiful lips as she turned her head around to face me.

“It’s not like you lost out though. After all, you are free to use me however you would like.”, once again those darn alluring blushes appeared on her cheeks. I was pretty sure that they only served to confuse my already strained mind.

The princess had foiled most of my plans. Originally, I could have used my demand for payment to increase my position and exert some dominance over the court, immediately gaining some foothold I could rely on. Now I had not only lost my leverage but also looked like a lecherous pervert that was only eager for company at night.

No matter how I saw it, I had thoroughly lost against this pretty young woman.

We reached a side wing of the palace and the princess dragged me into a spacious living quarter consisting of multiple rather large rooms including a bedroom, a really big bathing area and something that I could only describe as an over-dimensional living room. At least the king wasn’t being stingy with my accommodation.

The heavy wooden door closed behind me and my originally downcast expression changed. Before the princess could even react, I had already grabbed the short and mostly decorative dagger on her waist, while simultaneously pushing her against the wall to the right. In the next moment, the dagger pushed against her gracious throat.

Shock mirrored in her blue eyes and she panicked, almost crying out for help. Then she realized the situation and restrained herself, anger becoming visible in her expression. I was no expert at wielding a dagger, but my vigorous training before arriving in this world had allowed me to be quite proficient at wielding it, making it impossible for her to escape.

“Now let’s have a nice little talk.”, I said with a frigid expression.

“If you were just some naïve princess, I would have been able to deal with you, but sadly you are even more troublesome than the king. I cannot really trust anything you or your father are saying, but I need reliable information so please excuse this brash method.”

The princess’ expression flickered. Then she sighed.

“I guess you are really different from the other heroes. Usually, they have incredible latent talent but close to no skill, from what I have heard they are also easy to manipulate, but you…”, even she herself clearly wasn’t sure if my apparent skills were a good thing or not.

“Well, I purposefully came here after training myself for over a year, so that much should be expected.”

She stared at me in shock.

“You… purposefully came here? How??”

A wry smile appeared on my face.

“I took a chance and killed myself…”, thinking about it I really was crazy!

My words thoroughly shocked her, and I was pretty sure that there was a faint glimmer of fear in her eyes. Not that I could blame her for it, the crazy guys are always the most dangerous ones. Especially when they have a knife at your throat.

“W-what do you want to know?”, she asked, now seeming more conscious of the weapon on her neck.

I grinned.

“Your name would be a good start.”, I reduced the pressure on the blade and gave her a little bit more room. I have been playing a try-hard ever since I had arrived in this world but overdoing it would only harm the relationship between me and the royal house.

She seemed a little taken aback by my slight change in attitude, but quickly adapted.

“Excuse me for the late introduction. My name is Maira Haelles, second princes of the royal kingdom of Haelia.”, a wry smile appeared on her lips.

“I would perform a curtsey, but the dagger on my throat is a little bit of a hindrance.”

“Bear with it.”, I said with a grin.

“But let’s get to the point.”, my expression became serious.

“I cannot be certain that anything that you say is truly the pure truth, but I still need information. First of all, how is the situation of this kingdom in regard to the invasion of the north? I need a general overview of the military situation, the size of the army and the strength of the enemy. Also, how is the social hierarchy structured, are there any unrests among the population or rivaling noble factions?

ANY information can decide the fate of this kingdom.”, I quickly enumerated the most important questions that I had prepared even before arriving in this world. The faster I got a feel for the general situation of this kingdom, the higher were my chances of achieving the goal.

I could have asked her without going to the lengths of threatening her with a dagger, but the probability that she would have truthfully answered without leaving out lethal details was low. This wasn’t just some fiction, after all, there was no way a royal clan would tell a stranger the delicate intel relating to their reign.

It was more likely that they would just treat me like some soldier, only revealing the most critical information and letting me in the dark. Being manipulated like this was not exactly something I looked forward to, so I had to establish myself as an independent unit that wouldn’t be controlled by the whims of the royals.

“You are really prepared.”, Princess Maira suddenly said. A dangerous light shone in her eyes.

“It seems like I alone am far from enough to control you.”, in this moment she seemed to have made a decision and I suddenly felt immense danger from her frail figure. Words of an unknown language emerged from her mouth and I knew that I had screwed up.

I hadn’t accounted for the possibility of her being capable of casting magic.

Suddenly, she pushed me away from her, giving herself enough time to finish her incantation. The feeling of intense danger skyrocketed, and I gritted my teeth, incapable of thinking of a way out of my predicament.

Then at that moment I suddenly felt my vision dim for a moment before the view in front of me changed.

Devine ability [A Jack’s eyes] has been unlocked by the hero

The message popped up in my head and suddenly I saw a row of words swirling around the body of Maira.

Low-level magic Incantation detected

Due to low level, the magic can be copied completely

Magic was copied

Effect: a bolt of lightning that temporally stuns the target

As I read these words the incarnation itself also appeared in my mind, ready to be used by me.

The moment I realized what was going to happen, I immediately ducked away and jumped towards the princess. She just finished the incantation and a flash of lightning hit the location where I had just stood. Then my shoulder hit her lower body, slamming her into the wall behind her.

The air was pushed out of her lungs and a muffled cry emerged from her mouth. She collapsed onto the ground.

“Y-you…”, before she could say anything, I had already finished the incantation I had just learned and a bolt of lightning slammed into the princess’ body and stunned her. Without even thinking about what had happened, I immediately proceeded to drag her body to the bedroom, ripped the cover of the cushions into pieces and used them to tie up and muffle the defenseless woman.

Then I placed her onto the bed and hid her beneath the blanket.

Finally, I had time to think about what had just happened.

FUCK!

Really just fuck.

God darn it, I had just fought against the princess of the country I had been summoned to, used magic and then tied her up.

I am pretty sure that this could be considered high treason….

I am so fucking screwed!

SO FUCKING…

Well…screwed…

On another thought... I received my divine ability…

“’A Jack’s eye’ hm….”, I mumbled to myself.

Looking into a mirror in the bathroom I took a look at my eyes and they still had their normal, dark grey color. There was really no sign of anything having changed.

Yet I had been able to see what kind of magic princess Maira was going to cast and even more importantly I was now able to use it myself! I sat down on a chair in the living room and began to ponder.

The words I had seen back then said something about low-level magic and that I could copy it. As far as I understood it, my ability could copy magic and most likely other abilities if they meet certain criteria. Also, my ability was named ‘A Jack’s eye’, most likely a reference to ‘a jack of all asses’, in other words, an ability tied to my eyes that copied abilities without allowing me to allow complete mastery over them.

It seemed like I was lucky that the magic used by Maira was only a low-level one as I wouldn’t have been able to copy it otherwise.

I couldn’t help but begin to smile uncontrollably. I had truly arrived in another world. A world of adventures, magic and gods! This divine ability of mine once again reminded me that from now on I would witness and do things that were impossible in my old world.

The gamble had truly been worth it!

The only problem was the unconscious princess in my bedroom. I truly had no idea how to solve this more than perilous situation. After all, it was likely that if I let her go, she would get her father to arrest me. She was quite extraordinary and behaved different that I would have expected from her, but in this case, I was pretty sure that I was correct with my prediction.

I had overdone the tough act, causing her to see me as a threat to her or the royal family and now it was getting me into trouble! My desire to be in control had, in the end, caused me to completely lose control of the situation and end up in a dead-end that might potentially mean my death.

As I was furiously thinking of a way to resolve this stupid mistake of mine someone suddenly knocked at the door. Surprised and alarmed I rose from my seat and made sure that the princess was still unconscious and hidden beneath the bedsheets. Then I went and opened the door.

A person dressed like a knight had appeared in the hallway, a rather interesting mix of hostility and a front of pretended respect visible in his actions and expression. God these people were too easy to read.

“Sir Hero!”, the knight exclaimed as soon as he saw me.

“The king has sent me to escort you and Princess Maira to the city and lead you around!”, a worried expression mirrored in his eyes as he briefly peered into the room behind me.

How meddlesome. The king clearly worried that I would do some shameful things if he left me alone with his daughter. Interestingly he didn’t voice it out directly thought. Either my status was higher than I had originally anticipated, meaning the situation for the kingdom was truly grim, or there must be some sort of situation that forced him to stand by.

This knight also seemed like the overly aristocratic, prideful but useless type.

As I thought this I just put on a polite smile.

“Apologies, the princess is very exhausted and is now resting. I would gladly accompany you though.”, I stressed the word exhausted on purpose and made it seem like the princess and I had already done a certain very exhausting activity.

I hope this will prevent them from checking on her too soon.

The knight’s expression fell, and his face turned red. He obviously wished that he could use that long sword on his waist to cut me in half. Instead, he was forced to politely bow and lead me out of the palace and onto the streets, explaining various details while gritting his teeth.

The capital of Haelia apparently was a giant city with almost a million inhabitants and I could certainly see its wealth as soon as I stepped out of the palace. The streets were clean and paved, lined by tall and beautifully decorated buildings. It was truly the ideal version of a medieval fantasy world.

But of course, this ideal side always had to have a counterpart.

“I think I should lead you around the inner district first.”, the knight said with a thoughtful expression. Even though he clearly already hated me for some reason, he was going to fulfill his orders and execute his job properly. It seemed like he was a little bit less useless than I first believed him to be.

I smiled but shook my head.

“If possible, I would like you to bring me to the best slave merchant in the city.”, here I go destroying my image further!

“B-but of course…”, the knight stuttered, throwing me a dark, judging look, before leading the way.

And like this my adventure as a hero in another world begins with me trying to enslave the princess of a country!