My Beloved Princess ~The Boy Called Incompetent Rises with Only a Sword and the Princess's Devotion~ - Chapter 021: The Merchant's Daughter Alice

Night’s darkness deepened. The time was approaching midnight.

Four shadows surrounded the campfire.

He ladled hot water boiled in the pot with a wooden ladle and transferred it to a cup. When Kishō handed over the steaming cup, the blonde girl reflected the crackling flames in her blue eyes and said “Thank you” in gratitude.

“My name is Alice, a merchant’s daughter. I’m on a long journey from the merchant city of Westport to procure local specialties from various regions.”

Westport was a city in the merchant nation—the Great Caravan Republic—located in the west, and also a port city built at the westernmost edge. From the western-eastern midpoint—Algant and Rakure located in the continent’s center—there was considerable distance, showing she’d come on a long journey.

“And we were heading to the city of Rakure when we got lost in the forest and were attacked by magical beasts.”

Kishō recalled the countless claw marks left on the rear of the wagon bed and the scattered bloodstains. That amount of blood loss didn’t seem like it could fit in one person.

“What about the people besides you?”

Alice shook her head sadly.

“I don’t know. My father went out to seek help, but he never came back. There should have been two guards as well.”

“You were hiding the whole time?”

“Yes. I was told to hide. I was scared the whole time.”

She said she’d been hiding inside a barrel the entire time.

“But I think quite a bit of time has passed since we arrived here. Why didn’t you call for help?”

When Kishō voiced his question, Ōka answered instead.

“That’s because she thought we might be bandits. You know, there’s no way normal people would be in a forest like this.”

Dragonkin were a race with fierce territorial disputes. The strong could possess their own territory, but the weak couldn’t hold territory and many led wandering lives. The only places such weak packs could settle were dangerous mountains and forests where monsters appeared. And placed in such harsh environments, unable to find work, they reluctantly descended into banditry to earn daily wages.

Kishō had heard such stories in his hometown of Algant. They apparently only targeted humans they could definitely defeat.

“So it’s not just magical beasts we should be wary of.”

Starting to camp out brazenly in the Beast King Forest—certainly, only dragonkin could perform such daredevil acts. Considering this was dragonkin territory, her wariness was natural.

“I’m sorry.”

Alice dropped her shoulders apologetically.

For humans, this forest was tantamount to a death zone. Thinking of the anxiety and despair she must have felt being exposed to such an environment, Kishō’s heart ached.

“No, no, no, don’t worry about it. Most packs that fall into banditry are small-scale, and it’s natural to be wary of the three of us arriving. If anything, I think you endured well. You must have been scared, being alone the whole time.”

When he waved his hands exaggeratedly to emphasize “you’re not at fault,” Alice finally smiled slightly. Perhaps her foreign blood made it seem so—it looked like an angel’s smile. Kishō got a bit carried away.

“More importantly, drink it before it gets cold. It’ll warm your chilled body.”

When she nodded, Alice started blowing on the steaming cup. Ripples spread across the water’s surface in the cup held with both hands.

“I was so surprised! The barrel lid was slightly open, and when I tried to peek inside, a person came out.”

Ōka’s excited voice interjected from the side. Kishō returned with an exasperated tone.

“Why were you trying to open the barrel lid while bathing in the first place?”

“Because the gap bothered me.”

“Alice-san was probably the one who was surprised. That’s unpredictable to an extreme degree.”

“Yes, I was very surprised. But I’m glad I was found by such nice people.”

Alice, who’d taken a sip of plain hot water, said with flushed cheeks.

At least she can relax somewhat? Kishō thought, looking at Alice’s face as she sat across from him. Anyway, wanting to put her at ease, he said—

“Actually, I was raised in Algant.”

Kishō said this to demonstrate he had no prejudice against humans.

Dragonkin were a race that embodied “might makes right,” so they tended to look down on other races. Especially humans—weak with only cunning cleverness—they despised and scorned. Half-dragons were also scorned for inferior strength, but that toward humans was on a different level from half-dragons.

“Wow. Algant? So even dragonkin live in human cities.”

“That’s right. Shō-kun is a rare dragonkin who’s never lived in a pack.”

This was the carefree Ōka. Though he’d predicted she wouldn’t harbor prejudice against humans, she showed not even a trace of it, so Kishō was secretly relieved. Though since she was the one who’d steered the conversation toward helping Alice, he’d had no intention of accepting complaints from the start.

Alice had apparently also stayed in Algant for several days as preparation before heading to Rakure. For a while, they bonded over Algant talk.

“So my house is on a hill in the outskirts, and since it’s outside the walls, monsters appear. Man, when my mother kicked my ass at age five telling me to fight monsters, I nearly died.”

“What!? That’s a strict mother. What happened?”

“Dragonkin muscles are special, you see. Even a five-year-old’s muscles can produce about the same strength as a trained adult human. After grappling and exchanging blows, I somehow won.”

Well-timed responses were inserted between stories, and Alice giggled. Urged on by the good listener saying “and then, and then,” Kishō got carried away and continued talking. Then he suddenly noticed—one person hadn’t entered the conversation.

“Ugh…”

When he glanced over, the Princess was hanging her head looking quite displeased. Kishō felt an aura of anger emanating. Perhaps she was dissatisfied at not being able to enter the conversation? But even when he and Ōka got excited together, she’d never once shown such overtly displeased behavior before.

In that case—before Kishō could open his mouth, the Princess spoke up first.

“Do you intend to escort that girl?”

The words contained pressure. He felt implicitly criticized.

An unpleasant feeling crawled pricklingly along Kishō’s neck.

“Yeah, I’ll take her to the main base. If I explain the situation to the instructors, they’ll probably lend me a wagon. Then I intend to take her to whichever she prefers, Algant or Rakure.”

In Algant’s case it would take several days, but that couldn’t be helped. In Rakure’s case, if they ran through the night, they’d arrive in one day.

Everyone seemed to sense with their skin that the atmosphere had changed. Ōka blinked repeatedly with a worried expression, watching the situation unfold. Alice was the same, having reverted to an anxious face. The Princess seemed about to say “I refuse” at any moment.

He recalled the Princess’s cold judgment when they’d discovered the overturned wagon and Kishō had hesitated about whether to search for survivors—she’d declared “I refuse. The fact you’re hesitating is out of the question.”

Perhaps the Princess, like typical dragonkin, held prejudice against humans. From her transcendent demeanor different from other dragonkin, Kishō had arbitrarily painted an image that she wouldn’t care about such trivial matters. That faint hope crumbled away.

At that time, what spread in Kishō’s heart wasn’t anger or disappointment toward the Princess, but sadness. He himself was half human. Having humans denied meant half of himself was denied. The girl who’d told him “I want to be first wife” now felt like she’d gone somewhere very far away.

But he hesitated to voice this. If the Princess truly held feelings of aversion toward humans, he felt it would create a fatal rift between them, making Kishō hesitate.

Enduring what he really wanted to say, he said instead—

“Just so you know, even if you oppose it, I’m doing it.”

Depending on her response, he was prepared to act separately.

The Princess turned that beautiful face steadily toward him, her black eyes wavering sadly. That expression trying to appeal for something nearly swayed his heart, but Kishō severed that temptation by looking away.

“I understand.”

The Princess said quietly. After that, she didn’t speak a single word until it came time to sleep. Kishō ended up sleeping while harboring unresolved feelings.

◇◇◇◇◇

Morning sun shone through gaps in the canvas into the darkness.

Feeling light on his eyelids, Kishō awoke.

When he tried to stretch his arm to rub his heavy eyelids, his fingertips touched something soft. A sigh of “nn” was heard from just beyond his closed eyelids. His arm couldn’t lift, caught on something soft. Recognizing this in his drowsiness, Kishō tried to forcibly push aside that obstacle.

“Nnn.”

A sweeter sigh, louder than before, reached his ears. At that alluring woman’s voice arousing lust, Kishō in his half-asleep state felt something ominous and half-forcibly opened his eyes.

A flawlessly beautiful face was right before his eyes.

His breathing stopped.

The questions ‘Huh? Why?’ immediately surfaced.

And he immediately recalled the conversation they’d exchanged before sleeping last night.

He should add that Kishō had gotten a bit carried away when the Princess, who’d been maintaining silence, finally spoke to him.

“Let’s sleep together.”

“Huh?”

“Let’s sleep together.”

“Why would that happen!? You’re always so sudden, hey!?”

“I refuse.”

“I haven’t answered yet!? Wait, Kuroyō the proposer is refusing!? If the proposer has veto power, that’s invincible. What kind of dictator are you?”

“Don’t worry. Ōka will also sleep together.”

“Huh!? Me too!?”

“It’s dangerous. We should sleep clustered together so we can respond immediately if something happens.”

“So that’s what it is! Say that first!”

After various arguments about needing a lookout, being able to handle magical beasts alone, and whether men and women sleeping together was appropriate regarding chastity—

In the end, they’d ended up sleeping together after being pushed through by the Princess.

(Why are we this close?)

He had memories of sleeping side by side. But it hadn’t been at this distance—faces pressed together. Surely unmarried men and women sleeping in an embrace wasn’t permitted. Especially if the partner was the Princess.

And then he realized.

(Huh? Why are we embracing?)

The Princess’s slender arms were wrapped around Kishō’s waist. Her lustrous thigh, exposed from the blanket, had slipped between his legs as if entwining. Her pale pink lips releasing sleeping breaths were surprisingly close—he could easily steal them with a slight movement. And Kishō’s left hand embraced her delicate waist drawing beautiful curves, while his opposite right hand extended toward the Princess’s exposed chest—

The blood drained from his face.

The moment of kneeling at the guillotine with the sentence being executed flashed through his mind.

His sleepiness vanished instantly, and he regained clear consciousness.

Simultaneously, he sensed a human presence overhead.

In a position where he couldn’t move freely, he moved only his eyes to look up.

Overhead, at a low position about fifty centimeters away. There—

—A devil smiled wickedly.

His eyes met the devil bending its knees and leaning forward to peer down at him. It wore a grinning, extremely malicious smile. When it narrowed its eyes to half-open, the devil raised the corners of its mouth looking thoroughly amused. At that sadistic countenance, something cold ran down his spine with a shiver.

“Good morning. It seems you enjoyed last night.”

It burst into laughter. It wasn’t a devil but Ōka. Kishō felt an enormous amount of heat—enough to make a volcano erupt—gathering in his face.

“Th-this is, um, well…”

His tongue tangled. His usual banter wouldn’t come out.

To begin with, it was a misunderstanding, but there was no way to make excuses given the situation.

While peering at Kishō’s blushing face, Ōka said teasingly.

“Even your ears are bright red.”

“——————”

He frantically tried to separate their bodies, but was blocked by firmly locked slender arms and couldn’t move freely. He was locked in a vise-like grip unthinkable for a woman. As Kishō despaired thinking “no way,” someone was observing his flustered state in detail and giggling. Apparently Ōka had no intention of lending a hand.

Then without warning, the vise’s fixed width suddenly narrowed all at once. Intense pain ran through his spine.

“Gwaaaah.”

A sound like a crushed frog came out.

He physically couldn’t breathe. Though something soft was pressed against Kishō’s chest through the dragon robe fabric, honestly he wasn’t in a position to savor that. The Princess, who looked slender, had more refined muscle strength than imagined. Indeed, this was the Upper School’s top student. A true elite. Even in places like this she’s high-spec. While half-losing consciousness, Kishō thought such things.

“Oh my. Yō-chan seems to have a hugging habit. A severe one at that.”

If you understand that, then help me. That didn’t become a voice—just air being expelled with wheezing. Ōka, who’d been observing the dying frog with amusement, sighed languidly and with heartfelt sincerity as if truly thinking so—

“I’m glad I wasn’t next to Yō-chan.”