Lady Andrea fainted when she heard that her daughter is missing. After General Ardor made sure that his wife is fine, he and his people immediately help in scanning the whole capital to look for his daughter and Prince Anders.

The whole capital was shocked when a large number of imperial guards and soldiers are now roaming around the whole capital to look for two people that are missing but the identities are kept unknown to them! They did house-to-house check bearing an imperial decree to thoroughly check every house, powerful family or not! Prince Andrew personally helped in checking the whole palace then the whole capital but after a whole day of thoroughly checking, no signs of Prince Anders and Beatrix were found!

Prince Anders and Beatrix, who are wearing male commoners' clothing, traveled almost nonstop day and night for seven consecutive days for fear that the imperial soldiers can catch up to them and they will be captured and sent back to the capital. They took turns in driving the carriage so that one could have a rest but most of the time, it is Prince Anders who did the driving, he does not want to make her very tired, especially in the evening. During these seven days of travel, they only consumed ready-to-eat food and water that they brought from the capital while the carriage is running very fast!

They would only stop for a while to answer the call of nature somewhere... This part is very hard, especially for Beatrix. She would blush like a red beet every time she would ask Prince Anders to accompany her at night and stand somewhere near but also not so near for her to have privacy! She is beginning to thank the heaven that Prince Anders insisted on accompanying her or else she would tremble every night or just hold in the call of nature whenever it is dark!

On the eighth day, Prince Anders insisted that they stop traveling in the meantime because they need to celebrate her eighteenth birthday. They are also very tired and the horses cannot take it anymore! They need to celebrate, relax in the meantime, rest properly, and refill their food and water supply.

Beatrix was taken aback. The stress, worry, and fear made her forget about her approaching birthday. Today, she reached eighteen years old again. In her previous lifetimes, this day should be 'The Selection Day', the day she should choose who among the two princes she would want to marry but she ran away with Prince Anders in this lifetime...

Can this be considered as I chose Anders?

She smiled as she received Prince Anders' gift for her birthday. It is a simple yet interesting necklace! He removed the necklace she is wearing on her neck and replaced it with his gift. Beatrix kept the original necklace she is wearing. She remembered that Prince Andrew gave it to her on her fifteenth birthday. He told her that it is very important and made her promise that she would never take it off...

It was Anders who took it off so I did not break a promise...

They chose to camp near a small stream in the middle of a forest so they could have a proper meal. Prince Anders said that he will try to catch fish in the stream but in the end, it is easier said than done...

"Sometimes books cannot be trusted!" He angrily complained after he tried to catch fish using knowledge from the books he previously read but still without success. "I wonder if Beatrix is more successful..." He said to himself and glanced in her direction.

For Beatrix, getting dried firewood and twigs is an easy task but what is hard is how to start a fire to have a source of light and warmth in the night, to ward off night predators, and to cook for meals. Her hands are already very sore but there is still no sign of smoke!

She tried harder to create more friction but her delicate hands, which never experienced hard labor previously, could not take it anymore!

What now?!!

She thought unable to decide whether to laugh or cry.

Who says that running away is very easy? Why do novel authors make it seem so easy? Are they trying to fool the readers that it is as simple as walking to a marketplace that as long as you have the money, you have the glory?!!

"I wonder if Anders is more successful than me..." She asked herself looking in Prince Anders' direction.

She saw Prince Anders is so near, walking towards her without any catch! They both laughed when they realized that both of them failed but suddenly they became so serious when they realized that it will be dark very soon...

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