In a Female-Dominant World with a 5:1 Gender Ratio, I Saved a Girl as a Kid, and She Said She Wanted to Be My Bride—Who Would’ve Thought She Was a Princess… - 53

Chapter 53: Beyond the Horizon, the Crimson Gaze of the Pursuer

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(Alto’s POV)

With a thunderous roar, Sleipnir tore through the sky, leaving the royal capital far behind. The wind was fierce, making conversation nearly impossible. Behind me, Lilianna wrapped her arms tightly around my waist, and every so often she looked down at the scenery spreading out beneath us and let out delighted cheers.

Her voice was like the chirping of a small bird released from its cage—clear, free, and boundless. As the sun dipped low and the sky began to shift from crimson to deep indigo, we brought the bike down onto a small rise in an uninhabited stretch of wasteland, hundreds of kilometers away from the capital.

Zash…

The tires, their gravity control disengaging, crunched to a stop atop dead grass. When I turned the engine key, the explosive roar that had dominated my eardrums vanished abruptly, and the world was swallowed by a sudden silence. All that remained were the sound of the wind sweeping across the wasteland, the cooling metallic ticks of the heat-soaked engine, and the cries of insects.

“…We’re here, Lilianna.”

“…………”

She dismounted the bike and, her steps slightly unsteady, stood at the edge of the hill. The hem of her dress was stained with bike oil and dust, and her neatly styled silver hair had been tousled by the wind. Yet her profile, illuminated by the dusk, was more beautiful and full of life than any carefully adorned ‘mask’ she had worn in the royal palace.

Before her stretched a vast wasteland reaching all the way to the horizon, with the silhouettes of distant mountain ranges fading into the haze. This was not a view framed by a cut-out window. It was the real world—one with scent, temperature, and the feel of wind against the skin.

“Alto…”

Lilianna turned back toward me. Her amethyst-colored eyes shimmered as if reflecting the star-filled sky.

“The world is… So vast.”

“Yeah. The places we’re going from here on out are even bigger.”

I removed my goggles and stood beside her. The cold night wind brushed my flushed cheeks.

“Aren’t you scared? You threw away your position as a princess and a life without want. From here on out, it’s a life on the run as wanted fugitives, chased across the entire country. There won’t be soft beds, and there may be days when we have to drink muddy water.”

I deliberately spoke of the harsh reality. I had brought her out on impulse, but she was a sheltered noblewoman. There was no guarantee she could endure such a hard life. But Lilianna shook her head without hesitation.

“No.”

She took my hand and squeezed it tightly. Her hand was no longer cold. Warm blood flowed through it.

“Compared to living a hundred years in a cage, obeying others… Even a single day walking a thorny path with you is more valuable to me. …Today, for the first time in my life, I feel like I’m standing on the ground with my own feet.”

She looked up at me, wearing a mischievous yet resolute smile.

“And besides… I feel like I can overcome any ‘mystery’ as long as I’m with you. Just like when you told me about worlds I had never seen before, back in that library.”

My chest burned hot. She was no longer just a princess to be protected. She was a partner who would walk beside me.

“Haha, you’re right. …I’ll protect you. No matter what.”

“Yes, my dear!”

We began preparing a campfire. When I sparked a small flame with my fingertips, Lilianna’s eyes widened in delight, and the two of us shared our portable rations. Plain hardtack and dried meat—meager food that couldn’t possibly compare to palace cuisine. But laughing together as we ate, it was without question the finest meal in the world.

Listening to the crackle of the fire, we leaned close and gazed up at the night sky. A sky filled with stars. Wishing that this calm would last forever, we indulged in a fleeting moment of peace. But I still didn’t know. That the keeper of the cage we had shattered had changed its form, becoming an inhuman monster that was already closing in on us.

(Leonardo’s POV)

The world had changed. No, perhaps it was more accurate to say that its “resolution” had changed.

Inside my private room in the Duke Falkenberg household,  I stood before a full-length mirror while staring at my own face. Well-formed features. Golden hair. My right eye was the same as before, a clear azure blue. But my left eye…

It had been dyed a murky crimson, and deep within its pupil, a complex geometric pattern like an arcane magic circle rotated and flickered, pulsing as if it were breathing.

“…Magnificent.”

I held my palm up before my eyes and clenched it. Layered over my vision, vast torrents of information data streamed down like a waterfall. Magic power density in the air, fluctuations in humidity, the molecular structure of the walls, the heart rate of a servant walking outside…

All things flowed directly into my brain as numbers, as information. This was the perspective of an “Administrator.” So this was the world Alto—that filthy stray dog—had been seeing.

『It seems to have settled in nicely, Vessel.』

That inorganic voice echoed within my mind. There was no longer any discomfort. If anything, it felt pleasant, like a part of omnipotence.

“Yeah, this is perfect. …Now I understand. I can see it all as if it were in my hands.”

The corner of my mouth twisted.

“I can see just how cowardly that monkey’s tricks really were.”

Administrator Authority Code. The absolute right to view and alter the program known as this world. I could now clearly understand that the power Alto wielded was nothing more than a simple “cheat”—an act of illegitimate exploitation.

He hadn’t had talent. He hadn’t worked hard. He had merely abused a system bug and ignored the rules. And compared to that, what about me? I was a “legitimate Administrator,” granted authority through proper procedures by the system itself. Which of us was justice, and which was the “real thing,” was obvious.

I opened the window and looked up at the night sky. The old me would have seen nothing more than darkness. But to my crimson left eye, it was perfectly clear. Residual magic power trajectory logs, unnaturally distorted, lingering in the sky. The filthy remnants of an illegal program etched into space by that modified bike fleeing from the cathedral glowed like fluorescent paint.

“Found you.”

I laughed deep in my throat.

“Northwest. Distance: approximately three hundred kilometers. …Right in the middle of the wasteland, huh.”

『Are you going to chase after them?』

“Of course. I don’t need the knight order. …I’ll do it alone.”

I stepped onto the window frame. I poured magic power into my fingertips. Where once I could only light a small flame, now a compressed, swirling heat capable of incinerating the world gathered there. With a mere thought, the laws of physics rewrote themselves. I redefined “gravity,” nullified “air resistance,” and generated “propulsion.”

“Wait right there, you cheating fraud. I’ll expose every one of your tricks and reveal your pathetic true nature right in front of Lilianna.”

Lilianna, my precious princess. She was only being deceived. Toyed with by that man’s illicit magic. Once I showed her the truth and reduced him to a lump of flesh, she would come to her senses. And then she would weep and beg me for forgiveness.

“When that happens, I’ll comfort you properly…”

BOOM!!

The instant I leapt, the thick stone walls and window frame of the ducal estate shattered into fragments under the shockwave. With a thunderous roar, I was freed from gravity’s shackles and soared into the night sky. Black magical particles erupted from my back, spreading into an ominous yet beautiful aura, like the wings of a fallen angel.

KIIIIIIIN…!

The atmosphere screamed. I easily broke through the sound barrier and accelerated in a straight line toward the northwestern sky where my prey awaited. A crimson trail carved through the darkness.

This time, I am the protagonist. As the “true hero” who condemned evil and saved the princess…. I will not let them escape. I will chase them to the ends of the world and bring down the hammer called despair.

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