My Beloved Princess ~The Boy Called Incompetent Rises with Only a Sword and the Princess's Devotion~ - Chapter 018: The Abandoned Wagon

The first day passed without incident.

They steadily advanced magical beast extermination and successfully penetrated deep into the forest.

The second day was the same.

They proceeded through the northern part of the forest, trampling through vegetation westward.

Midway, they concluded they’d reached sufficient depth, so from there they focused on searching for and defeating magical beasts rather than advancing further. Magical beast extermination was progressing smoothly.

The incident occurred on the third day.

◇◇◇◇◇

Four-legged beasts raced across the earth.

Maddened Lions. Large magical beasts exceeding three meters.

Kicking up black soil, crushing dead branches, accelerating to the limit—the moment they reached maximum speed, three Maddened Lions leaped. Simultaneously, a trinity attack assaulted Ōka.

“Shit, dodge!”

“Ehhhhh!?”

Ōka, whose attention had been on other magical beasts, screamed.

They’d gotten behind the formation. Kishō, serving as vanguard, couldn’t provide support in time.

Kuroyō turned around and immediately recognized the situation correctly. She made a quick decision. Thrusting her palm forward—

“Judge those that belong—[Guillotine of Cruelty]”

She recalled the magic formula memorized in her brain and reconstructed it on her surface consciousness. Then, murmuring the keyword necessary for magic activation, she imagined detailed information consisting of [size], [weight], and [generation coordinates] in her mind. Using energy gathered in her palm as a medium, Kuroyō activated the magic.

Then a giant guillotine blade appeared in midair, capturing all three leaping Maddened Lions with perfect accuracy. The massive iron blade mercilessly bisected the three Maddened Lions.

—THUD!

The moment they fell to the ground, the guillotine blade vanished cleanly from the spot. Marks like those made by large claws were gouged into the ground.

“Thanks, Yō-chan!”

Half-crying, Ōka clung to her.

“Don’t worry about it. More importantly, the next one’s coming.”

“Huh!? No way!?”

Still clinging to Kuroyō’s arm, Ōka looked around frantically. The magical beast Ōka had been fighting was already defeated by Kishō during that exchange. No magical beast shapes were visible nearby.

But presences were approaching. Two this time, from left and right. Not yet within visual range, but faint sounds reached her. Kuroyō detected their approach with her five senses. She activated magic simultaneously.

“Become offerings to the dwellers of darkness—[Shadow Spear]”

Beyond the forest trees, in blind spots—abnormally elongated triangular shadows appeared from the ground. The two-dimensional flat shadows pierced the magical beasts’ throats. Only death cries that weren’t quite voices reached Kuroyō’s ears.

But Kuroyō didn’t easily lower her guard.

Eyes closed, concentrating. No abnormalities. She only felt Ōka’s body heat clinging to her arm. Just in case, she used Thousand-Mile Eye—advanced magic that sent only consciousness to super high altitude, securing vision from a third-person godly perspective. Confirming no enemy shadows in the vicinity. No abnormalities. Only after all that did Kuroyō finally release her tension.

“It’s safe now. That was quite a number. Handling them was exhausting.”

Their surroundings were a sea of blood. Over thirty magical beast corpses lay scattered about.

Kishō, who’d scattered the sword aura shimmering in purple flame from his practice sword, rushed over to the two huddled together with an alarmed expression.

“You okay, Ōka?”

“Yeah, thanks to Yō-chan. That was close.”

“Thanks, Kuroyō.”

Then Kuroyō remembered something and thrust her head forward. Kishō looked confused at the unexpected action. Kuroyō thrust her head forward again with a prompting “Nn” sound. She even stood on tiptoe.

“…………”

“…………”

The silence hurt.

Unable to endure it, Kuroyō abandoned a bit of her maiden’s pride.

“You did it for Ōka. Won’t you do it for me?”

Even her desperate prompting, swallowing her shame, didn’t work on the oblivious man. Feeling her face heat up, Kuroyō hung her head with a groan.

Ōka threw her a lifeline.

“Seriously, Shō-kun, you’re so dense. Don’t you realize she wants you to pat her head?”

“No way. She’s a Princess. She’s not a dog.”

He declared his wrong answer with such conviction. What does he mean, a dog? The Princess’s eyes were slightly teary.

At that intensity, Kishō stepped back half a step with a groan.

“You gave Ōka a reward when she defeated magical beasts.”

“A reward? I didn’t mean it like—okay, okay, I get it. So stop looking at me like that.”

Perhaps because her curse-intending glare worked, Kishō said “Can’t be helped” and patted her head. The casual manner was a deduction in points, but Kuroyō was generally satisfied.

“Yō-chan, I’m glad. You look happy.”

“Ah, I feel strangely fulfilled. Ōka also had a happy face.”

“Huh? I wasn’t like that. Not at all. Not not not.”

Ōka vigorously denied it, mobilizing all moveable arm joints.

Tilting her head slightly, Kuroyō recalled what happened two hours ago. Indeed, in the image in Kuroyō’s memory, Ōka’s face looked relaxed. She seemed happy, but was that wrong? If so, what kind of expression was that?

“I’ll correct myself. You looked pleased.”

“That memory’s been tampered with! Definitely tampered with!”

When told that, even Kuroyō lacked confidence to assert herself. As she remained unconvinced, Ōka pushed her back saying “Come on, come on, let’s extract the magic cores quickly. There’s so many, we’ll be super busy.”

Reluctantly, she moved to the task.

They extracted magic cores from the defeated magical beast corpses for extermination proof.

If you destroyed or seized the magic core while the magical beast was alive, its body would disperse and become dust in the air, but if you extracted the magic core after the magical beast died, the body remained. If you wanted to bring back magical beast parts as materials or use them as food, you needed to kill them without damaging the magic core.

“Though I don’t really wanna eat this meat.”

“It’s precious protein!”

After extracting the magic core from the magical beast’s body and storing it in her waist pouch, Ōka licked her blood-soaked finger. Then immediately made a sour face.

“I take it back. This is impossible.”

“At least cook it. What if you get sick?”

“I’m fiiine. Dragonkin stomachs don’t get sick from that.”

“Ōka, you were supposedly the sickly type, remember?”

“No such setting exists!”

The taciturn Kuroyō had trouble entering their conversation. While regretting that, she envied Ōka who could talk casually with Kishō. That bottomless brightness drew in even Kuroyō, who was bad at socializing.

Ten hours had passed since departing the camp in the morning. No fatigue showed in the excited Ōka.

They’d exterminated 136 magical beasts. Progress was extremely smooth. Magic cores were distributed equally.

Raised in the world’s wealthiest pack with excellent grades, Kuroyō needed neither more money nor school grades, so the magic cores were unnecessary, but Kishō had said “We’re moving as a team, so equal distribution is obvious,” so she decided to take her share.

(A pack should share the fruits of the hunt.)

Kuroyō was probably convinced in a slightly different way than Kishō intended.

The sun set, and the surroundings began darkening in an instant. Night was coming.

They coated cloth with collected resin to make improvised torches. An orange light source was born in the darkness. Though this was a temporary measure. Not for exploration.

“Kishō, I think we should start preparing for camp. Night exploration is dangerous.”

Magical beasts might be lurking in the darkness. Taking a preemptive attack while unguarded would increase the danger of taking serious damage combined with the darkness.

“Yeah, I agree, but look at this.”

Kishō leaned forward and pointed at the black soil ground. Bringing the torch close, Kuroyō and Ōka simultaneously looked down at the ground.

“Wheel tracks. And relatively fresh ones.”

“You mean a wagon passed through here?”

“A merchant caravan might’ve gotten lost.”

Near the Beast King Forest that spread east-west, highways ran north and south with the forest between them. Considering their current location, Kuroyō guessed they’d wandered in from the northern highway.

She held up the torch to see further ahead. The two wheel track lines meandered irregularly while extending deeper into the forest.

“Look, the tracks are meandering. They must’ve been quite panicked.”

“Let’s follow them a bit. Based on the horse hoofprints, it should be this way.”

“If you look closely, isn’t this like a path? It’s pretty wide for an animal trail.”

(A path? There’s a path cut through the Beast King Forest?)

As Ōka said, though not straight, a path wide enough for wagons to pass seemed to continue. A black soil band extended while avoiding trees. But there was no advantage to deliberately cutting a path through the Beast King Forest. If it wasn’t man-made—

Kuroyō stated her speculation.

“If they chose a route passable by wagon, wouldn’t it naturally become a path-like route with few obstacles?”

As if proving that hypothesis, the black soil path narrowed and exposed stones became more prominent. Proceeding for a while relying on the torchlight, she saw the two wheel tracks veer sharply sideways into the brush. A sharp curve drawn by the meandering wheel tracks. Illuminating the spot that became the starting point with the torch, Kuroyō understood.

“They were being chased after all. They were going quite fast. Then they rode up on this stone, lost balance, and lost control.”

Then she illuminated inside the brush where the wheel tracks continued. A toppled covered wagon lay there. Kuroyō’s group investigated around the wagon.

The wagon bed bore countless claw marks that seemed to be from magical beasts. What appeared to be blood spatter was thickly stuck to the rear wheel and nearby wagon bed. Traces of massive bleeding were also visible in spots on the ground. The horses that had been pulling the wagon had their organs devoured and become unmoving corpses. Fortunately, no human bodies lay scattered about.

Many wooden crates were loaded in the covered bed, and the cargo was firmly secured with belts. Perhaps thanks to that, the cargo hadn’t scattered from the toppling impact and remained firmly attached to the bed floor.

Releasing the restraints on a nearby crate and removing the board lid revealed silk textiles and pottery inside. The pottery had cracks from the wagon toppling impact.

“Such fine celadon, ruined.”

Kuroyō muttered quietly to herself, returned the crate to its original state, and looked around again.

Then she discovered a photo frame fallen in the gap between crates. A color photograph by magical telephotography.

“Looks like a family photo.”

Ōka, who’d peeked at the photo over Kuroyō’s shoulder, said.

The photo showed a middle-aged man and woman and a girl about twelve years old. A cute girl with blonde hair and blue eyes.

From the side, Kishō showed his face and looked down at the photo, murmuring “Ah.”

“This is merchant clothing from those living at the western edge of western nations. I’d guess this wagon’s owner.”

“Shō-kun was raised in a western human city.”

“Though when I say western city, it’s just Algant, right next door from here.”

Kuroyō recalled the story that merchants from the west entered Rakure via Algant through the northern highway, and after obtaining trade goods, passed through the southern highway heading for southern cities seeking the next trade goods.

But that knowledge was immediately pushed aside. She was more interested in Kishō’s upbringing.

“You were raised in a human city. That’s unusual.”

“Yeah, well.”

Kuroyō wanted to expand the conversation more, but for some reason Kishō responded curtly. And Kuroyō lacked the conversational skills to draw him out, so the conversation broke off.

After thoroughly inspecting the wagon, the group went outside.

“Judging from the freshness of the tracks and the horse corpse’s decay, I’d say within the past two days.”

When Kuroyō stated her reasoning, Kishō nodded in agreement.

“There might be survivors, but… what should we do?”

“I’m opposed.”

“I haven’t said anything yet!?”

“The fact you’re hesitating is out of the question. We have no obligation to search while endangering ourselves.”

Kuroyō, who’d been drilled in imperial studies as a Princess, had thinking circuits slightly different from ordinary people. One of those premises was “prioritize the pack’s interests.” She’d already decided in her heart to make Kishō her master, and she regarded this current three-person party not as a simulated pack but as an official pack.

Dragonkin females had the habit of loving and following only those they recognized as master. After officially establishing a pack, they swore loyalty to their master and would never betray them until death parted them. Hand-turning only occurred during the trial period while students.

“It’s a matter of priorities. What’s most important to me is you, my master. And next, Ōka. I can’t endanger you two to help outsiders.”

However, Kishō with fundamentally different values didn’t seem convinced.

“There’s something called human compassion in the world. A spirit of mutual aid, you know? If there are lives we can save, isn’t it okay to save them? But you’re right that there’s risk. What do you think, Ōka?”

“Hmm, I understand the feeling, but I agree with Yō-chan.”

That became the deciding blow. Even Kishō apparently didn’t have enough passion to push through against both their opposition. “I see. My sense is off,” he easily reversed his opinion and moved to preparing camp.

Kishō put strength into both arms and lifted the toppled wagon bed, righting it. His dragon robe sleeves rolled up, glimpsing his trained, supple arm muscles.

“A covered bed. Might as well use it as a tent substitute.”

Then something made a clunk sound from inside the bed. When he’d righted the wagon bed, something seemed to have rolled. Including Kuroyō, no one paid it any mind. Everyone’s consciousness had already turned toward camp preparation.

They diligently gathered firewood and lit it. Next, procuring food ingredients. They’d brought portable food like dried meat and cheese. Kuroyō went to secure water at a stream—location identified from super-high-altitude perspective via Thousand-Mile Eye. When she finished her work and returned, wild vegetables and mushrooms were placed on what seemed to be a hastily made thick log table. The log’s upper surface was horizontally cut and processed into table form. From the cutting sharpness, Kuroyō guessed it was Kishō’s work.

“Look! Isn’t it amazing? Tonight’s hot pot, Yō-chan! Ah, but Shō-kun made that table. Forgive that it’s tilted.”

“Shut up. Sorry for being clumsy.”

Kuroyō’s eyes wandered uncertainly.

“What’s wrong, Yō-chan? Let’s make it together.”

“Ah… yes.”

Her response lacked conviction. Truth be told, Kuroyō had no cooking experience. Not almost none—zero. That’s because while she’d been stuffed with mountains of knowledge for pack administrators growing up, she’d had absolutely no opportunity to learn housework, which was lower-ranked work in packs. This was due to an educational policy assuming she’d hold a high position in the future.

That said, in small packs, housework was an essential skill. An unavoidable path. In a small voice audible only to Ōka—

“Um, actually, I have no cooking experience.”

“Huh, really!?” Ōka acted slightly playful. “Leave it to me. I’m good at cooking,” she said, puffing her chest.

“Oh, is that so? That’s reassuring.”

“Then, can you sort the ingredients first? Group the same things together.”

“Understood. Leave it to me.”

However, several minutes later, Kishō’s shout echoed throughout the forest.

“Wait a minute! Ōka, I thought you said you were good at cooking!?”