This Clueless Hero

Before I knew it, a week had passed by.

I had spent most of my time playing tag with Ned, Alyx, and Erin. It took me a while, but I eventually picked up on several patterns.

In all honesty, I probably would've missed them forever if I didn't shift my perspective.

The entire time, I was asking myself how they knew I was going in a certain direction. However, what I should've been thinking about is the situation from their perspective.

If I was faster, then they wouldn't be able to catch up simply by following behind me. Instead, they would have to find some way to get to the same destination I was, while traveling less distance.

In other words, they cut me off by predicting where I would go next.

It was fairly easy for them. After all, I wasn't really thinking about it and simply ran down as fast as I could. If it wasn't for the fact I was not only faster, but also getting caught, I never would've thought this far.

If I was slower, I probably would have just attributed getting tagged to my slow pace. If I was not getting caught, I wouldn't even bother thinking about how to optimize playing tag and just attribute winning to having a faster speed.

I decided to try and use this newfound knowledge to my advantage.

As of now, Erin was chasing me.

"Come back here Jay!"

I laughed.

"No way!"

Erin smiled confidently.

"I'm going to get you anyway!"

A smile formed on my face.

"This time it will be different!"

Erin giggled.

"We will see about that!"

I occasionally glanced behind me, seeing Erin chase after me the best she could. However, her figure was gradually getting farther away. Normally, I would've been confident, but this had happened far too many times preceding the event where I was caught.

As such, my guard was up high.

Once more, I looked over my shoulder, but Erin wasn't there. I immediately stopped running in the direction I was and turned around.

Moments later, I saw Erin behind me once again. She raised both eyebrows in surprise.

"What! How did you do that?"

I waved teasingly with a cheeky smile on my face.

"I told you it would be different this time!"

Erin continued chasing me for a little before eventually giving up.

I was feeling pretty good about myself, but I ended up running into Erin by sheer coincidence when I turned the corner.

The both of us jumped in surprise, but Erin recovered faster and tagged me. She stuck out her tongue and blew, making a sound similar to a fart.

"Hehe, too bad!"

My eyebrow twitched as a bitter smile formed on my face. As for Erin, she immediately ran off, giggling to herself.

I let out a soft sigh and ran around the palace, trying to find anyone else I could tag.

Eventually, I caught a glimpse of Alyx in the corner of my eyes.

From my experience, she was the most evasive out of the three, which is why I didn't want to lose this opportunity and immediately shifted trajectories to chase after her.

When I turned the corner, she wasn't there. There was only an empty hallway, other than the pillars that stuck out of the wall. However, there was only one path she could've taken. I knew a path that would let me cut her off, so I hurried down it.

With my speed, there was no way she could reach that point before me.

...So why wasn't she here?

Upon reaching the point I believed I would cut her off, Alyx wasn't even there. The strange emptiness was almost creepy along with the silence.

After giving another quick scan, I realized that Alyx might've somehow realized I broke off, then ran back down the path she took. That was the conclusion I came to considering that was how I lost Erin.

With that in mind, I bolted back down the path, hoping that I would be able to catch another glimpse of Alyx.

However, the result was not what I expected.

I saw Alyx, who was hiding behind a pillar. She was peering over the side of the pillar down the hallway, except it was in the wrong way.

Seeing her exposed back, I shamelessly took advantage of her guard being down. Alyx didn't turn around once. That is, until I eventually tapped her on the back.

She jumped.

"Ah!"

I laughed.

"Got you!"

Alyx's eyes widened in disbelief.

"How did you get there? And why don't you make a single sound when you move! This isn't fair at all!"

I smiled cheekily while running down the hall.

"It's completely fair, you're just too easy!"

After throwing her line right back at her, a smile formed on Alyx's face. Though, it was twitching with anger. Her eyebrow did the same too.

"Get back here Jay!"

Unlike how she requested, I ran faster.

"No way!"

Alyx chased after me without hesitation despite the fact there was an unspoken rule to not immediately go after the person who tagged you. Her footsteps echoed down the hallway.

"You!"

Alyx was quite persistent, opting to chase after me for a few minutes. However, she eventually gave up.

For a while, I found myself running around the palace without encountering anybody, almost like it was empty. This was fairly normal, as it has happened several times. After all, the palace was a really big place for just four people to be running around it.

At that time, I thought about Alyx's strategy. I honestly did not expect it in the slightest, being able to get away simply by hiding.

I mean, it was called tag, not hide and seek!

However, that opened my eyes once more. It made me realize that I was treating things with too much simplicity. Yes, tag was a very rudimentary game, but that didn't mean there weren't more complicated ways to execute it.

Within simplicity, there was complexity. I guess that could be attributed to how complicated and vague the world always was.

Eventually, I turned a corner to see Ned running down it. Although I wasn't sure if he was 'it' I wasn't taking any chances.

I turned around and bolted off, prompting Ned to chase me.

He laughed as he ran.

"Come on, not even going to say hi?"

A smirk formed on my face.

"I can say hi fine from over here!"

Ned swung his arms up and down wildly as he chased after me, while his hair blew aside in the wind.

"Just a little bit closer is fine!"

With that, the chase began.

Ned tried to cut me off a few times and almost caught me. However, I was able to slip by since I was expecting it. However, part of the reason I wasn't going too fast was that I wanted to try what Alyx did, hiding.

I waited for an opportunity where I could slip out of Ned's vision, then hid behind a pillar.

I rested my back against the wall, feeling the cold marble against my back. From there, I simply closed my eyes and remained silent, almost like I was dead.

No, like I didn't even exist.

I heard footsteps, rapidly approaching me, but was not perturbed. Then, the footsteps passed right by me, completely unaware of my presence.

The corner of my lip turned up.

It honestly had more effectiveness than I expected.

Eventually, once we got really tired, we all went to the dining room and sat down in the chairs. All of us were panting heavily, even me, who had the strongest physical constitution.

Although the little tricks I figured out were really effective, sometimes my luck would just be bad and I would end up getting tagged anyway.

Ned plopped his elbow down on the table and hunched over, looking at me.

"You really... got better at this game, huh?"

He greedily gasped for air as he talked, but it was still coherent. As for me, I chuckled.

"I learned... a little bit."

Erin raised both hands in the air and flailed them around.

"Why are you so fast? I remember... you were slow before!"

I scratched the back of my head.

"Working on the farm made me get really used to running!"

Alyx let out a sigh.

"How about how silent you are? You never make a sound even while running! How is that possible?"

A cheeky smile formed on my face.

"You just gotta get good."

A twitching smile formed on Alyx's face.

"Oh, really?"

She got up out of her seat, prompting me to get out of mine and run away.

Alyx raised her fist and swung it around.

"I will get you one day!"

I waved back.

"And I will be waiting for that day!"

I chuckled as I heard Alyx's frustrated cries.

...And eventually wandered into the room with the spells spread out on the table.

There was a smile on my face, but it disappeared.

I hadn't even tried to learn for so long.