POV bee traya

I was sent to this forest by my superiors as bait for those self-righteous hero wannabes, to nip the problem in the bud before they grow enough to threaten us, by us I mean the demon race, the race that occupies quite a large portion of land in this world in the shadows

anyways my job is to act as a princess in training struggling to fight even lowly goblins, so a ‘hero’ can jump out just in time to save me, and add me to his party where I can assassinate him as he sleeps.

Today was the usual, go to a random place in this forest, order my goblins to attack me and scream for help, if no one arrives after a few hours move somewhere else far away, repeat.

This time, however, I managed to snag a fish after calling just twice, I can feel his presence moving closer so I instruct the goblins to fight me.

I kill a few of them to make this look more realistic, after sensing my prey draw near I instruct the goblin to hit the back of my head,

I take a look at my prey, he is a 10-year-old cat beastkin, wearing ripped wolf skin as clothes under a torn cloak, short black hair with triangle cat ears above his head. as the goblin hits my head I fall down and feign unconscious.

As I lay here with my eyes closed I hear my would be savior shout a bunch of incomprehensible words and a lot of screaming, after hearing that the fighting ended I sit up to see my prey walking up to me wounded and covered in blood, tears in his eyes, but acting tough

he asks a question ‘’who might you be?’’ while tilting his small head and offering a hand, following my assumed identity I reply ‘’me? I’m princess trey’’ tor being the closest city to this forest and trey being the name of the king's 3rd daughter who I'm impersonating right now,

I grab his small hand and get up, nicking against his nail in the process making a large gash on my palm ‘’AAAHH IM SO SORRY!’’ he says while panicking,

scary!

My skin has been hardened through training and he still managed to cut me with just a small graze, I need some countermeasures for them when taking him out, but for now I just need to follow my role ‘’its fine, its fine, you did just save me after all’’ I will pay you back later, after all, then he asks another question ‘’what are you doing here?’’

what are my lines again? ‘’I was sent here to train myself, in case something happens royalty must know how to survive’’ a perfect textbook answer, everyone knows in the kingdom of Tor the royalty must go train in the forest by themselves,

now for my counterattack ‘’what is a child doing in this forest by himself?’’ he really is small, about 10 years of age with his ears his height barely reaches my chin, the youngest I’ve met here

‘’I uh, live here, in the forest’’ makes sense considering what he’s wearing, only a wolf skin loincloth and chest piece under that ripped cloak, he looks like a beggar living in the mountains, the child asks me ‘’so what are you going to do now?’’ perfect, he’s practically inviting me, now to play it cool ‘‘’dunno, I’m meant to stay in this forest for a week, don’t suppose you have a place to stay?’’

his cat ears perk up and he has a face full of excitement, oh how much I want to see that face writhe in pain, ‘’you can stay at my place, I don’t have an extra bed and I don’t clean up very often but its better than nothing’’ hook, line and sinker, getting my gear, a dimensional bag with all the necessary supplies, I’m ready

‘’perfect, just lead the way’’ he nods and begins jumping around, climbing trees, doing seemingly random turns, are we going in circles?

Without realizing we arrived at his ‘house’, an old hunters cabin in the woods filled with holes and a rickety fence around a small clearing, in which this house belongs, ‘’welcome to my humble abode’’ the child bows as a loud crash happens in the background emphasizing how poor living conditions are.

‘’is this all?’’ the child sighs with a dejected ‘’yes’’ tail drooping and ears folded makes me wonder how he will react to other things, he opens the front door only to be greeted with a swarm of dust

‘’sorry about that, I don’t use this room very often’’ this is the front door, how can you not use it often? How else do you leave the house?

He leads me to an unused room across his own, and I spy something in the corner, a V shaped cloth and phallic rod,

knowing what these are used for and what they are doing with a little kid makes me giggle,

oh my~ you aren’t as innocent as I thought~

he looks at me confused so I point at the corner and ask ‘’what is that for?’’ his face instantly flushes red the moment he sees what im pointing at, so it is yours~

‘’t-t-t-that isn’t mine!’’ you’re stuttering now little boy~ he blocks my sight with his small body and hides the objects,

that only makes you look more guilty, his body doesn’t hide anything so where did he put them? Oh, dear~

’’s-so this is where you can sleep’’ he says while running away and hiding in his room, a shy one aren’t you?

You are a lot more fun than those other wannabes~ I change my clothes to make him believe I’m ready for bed before knocking on his bedroom door,

he opens it just enough to peek out, face still red with a ‘’what is it?’’ now to lower his guard against me, the common thing would be dinner together, but since I don’t have anything currently I will just take his food

‘’since you’re the host, you should prepare lunch’’ trying to suck up to him, which is weird to do as he is shorter than me

‘’uhh okay then follow me’’ he says and walks towards the room we entered from,

is this meant to be a dining room? He sits on a worn out chair beside a broken down table, am I meant to sit across you?

I sit on the only other chair when a loud *crack* sound appears from under me,

moments later I am on the floor,

you did this on purpose didn’t you!

‘‘Looks like the floor it is!’’ he says and sits on the floor beside me, ignoring the table and passes me a crude meat skewer that appeared from nowhere, i dont see any bag like objects on him so where is he pulling these things from?

I take a bite and instantly regret my decision, its like someone picked up goblin feces, slathered it in slime, put it on a stick and roasted it until burnt, I’ve had bad food, but nothing this bad, is he messing with me?

‘’I know my cooking sucks’’ he said looking sad, you knew yet you still gave it to me!

You are doing it on purpose! ‘’so what were you doing fighting those goblins?’’ he asks me while eating his abomination with tears building up,

I take another bite and the taste is leaving my mind blank, think! Think ‘’I was, fighting them…. To train myself… and they surrounded me when I wasn’t looking’’ good enough for an excuse I made up on the fly

‘’So what’s with you collecting ears?’’ doesn’t he know the standard collection procedure for adventurers?

You always cut off the right ear for proof, has he been living here his whole life and ignorant of the world?

I tell him it’s the basic procedure for assignments ‘’oh… my assignment marks increases with more things I kill, the ears are just my proof’’’ like the adventurer guild, the royal assessment marks you via ears

‘’but you can take ears without killing them?’’ yeah but its easier to just kill it, then take the ears instead of cutting and running

‘’its just how it works don’t question it’’ what’s with all these questions?

‘’so what country are you from?’’ you don’t even know that? How have you been living for this long?

‘’I am from the glorious kingdom or Tor’’ trying to sound like a stuck up princess, and pointing at the emblem stitched to my ‘night clothes’ he hands me another meat skewer, which I reluctantly take, and heads off

‘’ it's getting late so sleep well’’ before entering his room,

I wait for a while, sneak into his room and check if he is really sleeping, perfect!

Now time to prepare my assassination. I head to the other rooms and coat them in a special demon made lighter fluid from my bag, making sure I get everything,

I head to his room and enchant his bed in case his strength is high and he can just smash the place,

I tie up his arms and legs with high treant fibers that are so strong you need Mythril to cut through.

why am I going through all this trouble instead of directly cutting his head off right now?

When he finished fighting with my goblins he was injured pretty badly, but to my surprise, after just a little walk his wounds closed up like nothing!

with Regeneration that strong just cutting his neck off might not kill him so you need to burn everything to ash to make sure, and with these preparations, nothing can escape so I can rest easy,

after I finished tying him up he starts screaming for no reason! What is wrong with this cat? He starts looking around, noticing his predicament

‘’t-trey? Are you there?’’ now for my favorite part, watching my prey squirm ‘’my~ my~ so the kitty finally woke up~’’ he has a look of shock, like he never expected this ‘’why are you doing this?’’ why? It's my job to take care of troubles before they grow, that and I really like watching their faces

'’its what you get for trusting a random stranger you meet in a forest~ like what are the chances you meet the perfect girl that just so happens to be in danger so you can save them?’’ I'm always confused why so many guys put their lives at risk for a stranger, only to die from behind or they get treated as hostages

‘’so do I just leave people that are being attacked? That not very hero-like!’’ typical hero wannabes, what’s next? Is he going to spout some garbage like justice?

‘’with the position you’re in now, I wouldn’t be thinking about white knighting if I were you’’ the bonus side of this method is that, instead of a quick death, he dies horribly and slowly, but if he does manage to survive, he will no longer trust people and maybe even kill the real princess in the process, effectively helping us.

He starts whispering something under his breath, what? Is he going to use magic? HA! I’ve reinforced the bed, and good luck trying to damage that rope! Also, beastkins are known to be bad at magic, so any magic he does know will be horribly weak

‘’what are you trying to do?’’ he jumps a little like I just caught him doing something I shouldn’t ‘‘s-so what are you going to do to me?’’

I'm going to kill you, that’s what

‘’what? Do you think I’m going to monologue my whole plan just because you asked me?’’ that is the number one reason villains lose, they just blab their story and even tell the hero how to stop them! The boy attempts to cut the rope with his freakish nails, but to no avail

‘’don’t even try to cut your way out, that rope is made with high treant fibers and I also reinforced the bed so no breaking out’’ his face drops with a look of disbelief HAHAHA yes, show me that face more!

‘’so are we just gonna chill here or what?’’ oh quite the opposite my boy, he starts shivering and tears collect in his eyes, are you cold? You really should wear some clothes, but don’t worry, aunty here will warm you right up

I walk up to him and whisper in his ear‘’Ohh yess keep struggling~’’ before taking a bite, the taste of his ear is delicious. he is now fully crying, AAAHhhh~ its such a shame for a young body to to be wasted like this, but sadly it is time for me to go~

‘’here is a little present from me~’’, something to remember me by, I throw the match and promptly vacate from the premise ‘’AAAAHHHHHHH WHY IS ITT ALLWAAYYS FIIREEEEE’’, music to my ears~ too bad I cant see his cute little face~ time to continue my job, so I leave to another part of the forest changing my disguise.