Three years have passed since I planted the seeds, and I harvested the crops a couple of times now.

The trees are still growing but they should soon start bearing fruits too. My poisoned fence vine is also growing well, it keeps getting thicker and thicker.

I am enjoying this kind of life. I start the day by doing my exercises then I would water my field and spend the remainder of the day on top of my roof patio looking into the distance while gently rocking my chair.

It sure is peaceful, at the very least my house is peaceful. In this three years the traps I prepared haven't been used at all. The forest ecosystem is surprisingly balanced. The goblin/kobold war is still ongoing and when the population of one side inflates the orcs start attacking. They carry the prey deeper into the forest so it must be bringing it home for others to eat. There must be something that eat the orcs too since their numbers don't inflate. I don't want to venture deeper since its too dangerous. As far as I'm concerned they haven't bothered me so I won't disturb them.

The village, or rather the kingdom is starting to get rocky. After the prince recovered he went on to hunt and get revenge to those who tried to assassinate them however he got lured into a trap and lost an arm. The royal doctors and healers tried hard to regrow the arm but the poison left in him is too strong.

Right now there is a massive recruitment drive for soldiers that even affected the village. Most of the apprentice carpenter have already been recruited along with half of the hunters and the young farmers. This village is part of the princess' territory but since she only stays at the castle I thought no one would recruit here. Looks like even the royal family are getting desperate enough to recruit this far in the countryside.

Security got lighter because of the recruitment, now bandits appeared in the forest. The hero kingdom is quite peaceful especially when the kingdom supply food to villages who needs it. A fed kingdom would barely have bandits, unless its some greedy pig who wants to act like king of the hill. If you don't have to worry about food you won't have to complain.

Then where did the bandits came from? Is there any question that the nobles are sending them to places who support the royals?

How annoying, I can deal with bandits but a well armed army will be hard. Should I start expanding my traps so it surrounds my whole land?

*clip* *clop* *clip* *clop*

That sounds like a horses, looks like I have a guess. I wonder who it is. I wonder if its bandits? do they have bounties?

I didn't prepare any defenses from humans since I can't camouflage them enough to make it unnoticeable to the villagers. If I can't hide it from the villagers then I can't hide it from trained enemies. The monster defense is alright since monsters are dumb and if they really stampede out of the forest they won't stop since they would be trampled by the one behind them.

In cases like this I tie a steel wire on a somewhat flexible tree and hold the other end of the line tightly. Now I just need to wait at my front gate, if they are enemies I pull hard and let the tension pull me out of the situation like tarantula-man.

Now, come 'guest' I am finally prepared for you.

*clip* *clop* *clip* *clop*

"Good afternoon, Sebastian"
"h-head maid....."

If the head maid is here then the princess might also be here. I can see the usual scouts in the forest too and for a single carriage to be protected by 20 knights, the princess has to be here. What do they want? No, it should be obvious. The heir to the throne is in a critical condition after two attempted assassinations. The royal family is desperate enough to gather recruits from the country-side and me being a previous servant of the princess.

She is here to take me back into service. No, if I think about it more, they fear that I would get recruited by the nobles. Me who has been a personal servant of the princess and knew her schedule and habits. Me, who knows the castle pathways and guard patterns. Even my presence with the nobles would be a problem for them. If a rumour started that the princess had frequent meeting with someone from the nobles, which I as the butler saw, it would stain her honour. Even if it's not true they can use my position to force it to be true.

In other words I'm a liability, if they can't recruit me then they will kill me. I can't outrun the knights on their horses in the open road, I could run into the forest but even with my [Forest Stalker] job that makes me blend in and move a bit faster in the woods, the scouts who specializes in their speed and reconnaissance, would easily find me.

"We meet again, Sebastian."

There it is, the princess. She really came to this remote place.

"Princess, what a pleasant surprise. To think I have the pleasure of having the princess personally visit my humble abode, Welcome."

Bowing, showing respect, and talking in this stiff painful way. How annoying.

"It's good to see you too, Sebastian. We came here because we need your wisdom. Will you come back to the castle?"

The princess is looking at me while doing the 'you're my only hope'-prayer pose. The knights are holding their weapons with a 'you know what you should do, right?'.

"I understand. I'll prepare right away, Princess."
"As expected of Sebastian, how dependable."
"Would the princess like to wait inside? Its a rundown home but the view at the top of the barn is wide. The whole forest is visible from there."
"My, as considerate as always sebastian. Very well, head maid let us go and see the view ourselves. We have some time until Sebastian gets ready a bit of tea could be forgiven right?"
"As you wish Princess. Knights secure the surrounding, four of you follow us. Please meet us up top after you finish your preparations, Sebastian."
"Understood, Head maid."

That should buy me some time. They still think I'm trying to escape, they didn't move until I started heading towards my house door. Now that i'm inside they have already surrounded the whole place. The scouts are still staying the outer perimeter though.

Too bad I already made preparations in case of something like this. A few months when I moved in here I accidentally dropped my coin pouch into the toilet. My harvest have only started to grow so that was the only way I could buy food, not to mention three lives were lost to get that gold. So I dug a second tunnel in an effort to get it back. In the end I had no choice but to dig all the way into the depository. I manage to find my coin pouch but it stinks and I had to patch up the holes I made to the waste mini-tunnel. Thinking that kind of thing might happen again, I made a tunnel alongside the it and later converted it into an escape route.

The tunnel leads to the forest up north and its hidden underneath a tree. At best it would look like an animal hole.

Too bad about my house, I haven't tasted the fruits from the trees yet. I have most of my things in my storage so enjoy what you will with my house, Princess.

I won't be your servant anymore, Sebastian no longer exist.