My Beloved Princess ~The Boy Called Incompetent Rises with Only a Sword and the Princess's Devotion~ - Chapter 024: Unraveling

The Beast King Forest spread east to west, with highways running north and south of it.

Since magical beasts rarely left the forest, safety could be secured by reaching the highway. To safely escort Alice, they needed to aim for the highway by the shortest distance.

From their current location, the northern highway was closer, so they decided to head north for now. But they also had to escort Alice, who lacked stamina, so they couldn’t advance as planned. At this rate, there was no telling how many more days it would take to reach the highway.

Worried about Alice, who was out of breath and painfully clutching her chest, Kishō stopped walking.

“Alright, let’s take a break.”

At this rate, fulfilling his promise with Instructor Fūga to return within a week was looking doubtful. Dragonkin could keep walking at a brisk pace even on rough, unpaved roads. The distance Kishō and the others had covered in two days would take more than double that on human feet. Currently day four, with three days left—it looked tough.

He quietly whispered in the Princess’s ear so Alice wouldn’t hear.

“You might be dissatisfied that we can’t advance well, but please bear with it for now.”

“I don’t particularly mind that.”

The Princess said this while directing a sharp, vigilant gaze toward Alice chatting with Ōka. The atmosphere was absolutely not “I don’t mind.” Just earlier, when it was the three of them with Ōka, the mood had been peaceful, but the moment Alice joined them, they’d reverted to this state.

“You don’t look it. Kuroyō—”

He started to speak and fell silent. There was no way he could say to the Princess’s face, “You’re jealous, aren’t you?” But it was also true that things would be bad if he didn’t do something.

—Embrace her and silence her with a kiss.

Ōka’s delusion crossed his mind.

But there was no way he could perform such presumptuous acts. To begin with, for dragonkin, kissing held special meaning. He mustn’t do it so casually.

So as a compromise, he tried patting the Princess’s head, but—

“Why are you patting my head? I’m not a dog.”

He got scolded. No, you were happy about it earlier!? He endured the urge to retort and swallowed his cry of injustice.

By any measure, her mood was maximally bad. The Princess turned away without even trying to make eye contact with Kishō. Even counting from when they weren’t yet close, this was the first time for such an attitude. Feeling a bit annoyed—

“Look at me.”

He grabbed the Princess’s shoulders and turned her around. Looking somewhat perplexed, she said—

“What are you doing? I’m busy right now.”

“Liar. It’s break time now.”

He looked straight ahead, intending to dive into those jet-black eyes so deep he could be sucked in. The Princess finally looked at Kishō’s face. Her jet-black eyes reflecting sunlight glinted sharply.

“Aren’t you misunderstanding something?”

“Misunderstanding…?”

What if she wasn’t jealous of him at all in the first place?

His confidence instantly vanished, and his face ignited.

Nothing was more embarrassing than a hasty presumption.

At that moment, a helping hand was extended from heaven.

“This one’s so fluffy!”

“Wow, it’s cute.”

Cheers rose from Ōka and Alice, and when he turned his gaze, in front of the crouched girls was one white fluffy creature. Short limbs and long ears. A kemari-sized rabbit twitched its nose seemingly friendly.

She must have thought to pet it. Just as Ōka, who’d rolled up her sleeves, extended her hand—

“Huh!?”

“Kyaaaah!?”

The rabbit suddenly gigantified. Its volume swelled more than double in an instant. And the mouth that had been cutely twitching opened greedily, countless sharp teeth like shark fangs peering from inside. The rabbit, having grown to a massive body exceeding one meter, leaped—and attacked Ōka. Kishō immediately moved to action, but faster than that was a long-distance attack by magic—the Princess’s strike.

A black spear protruding from the ground pierced the rabbit’s chest, killing it.

“That scared me!”

“Not yet. We’re surrounded.”

When Ōka, whose legs had given out, complained tearily, the Princess issued a sharp warning.

Rabbits of the same species appeared from the grass shadows. They were surrounded from four directions, and the number was—

“Ten… twenty… thirty… tch, too troublesome to count. More than thirty. This is troublesome. Things got complicated.”

Clicking his tongue, Kishō spat the words.

Just defeating them wouldn’t be much trouble. Yesterday too, they’d been surrounded by over thirty magical beasts and won uninjured. But today they had a non-combatant—Alice. With a protection target, keeping her uninjured would be somewhat troublesome.

Ōka used her body as a shield to protect Alice behind her. Kishō also circled to the opposite side, securing the front and rear. But the Princess didn’t try to move from her spot.

“What are you doing, Kuroyō? Form up.”

“No, the situation’s different from yesterday. We should avoid melee.”

“Well, if we can avoid it, that’s ideal. But how?”

“I’m going all out.”

The fluffy rabbits gradually closed the distance. From an outside perspective, it was a comically non-tense picture, but for those directly facing it, this was unmistakably a crisis situation.

The Princess stood before the rabbits as if offering herself.

“If you submit, I’ll let you go. But if you insist on hostility—”

The rabbits all gigantified at once. Then they leaped, attacking.

The surrounding space was dyed entirely in white fluff.

“A foolish choice. Restrain them—[Black Chain Binding]!”

Circular shadows rose on the ground as if swallowing the enlarged rabbits’ shadows. One shadow per rabbit. They looked like black holes, and also like rabbit burrows. And from the black holes, countless black chains were shot out. The number of chains released from over thirty black holes easily exceeded several hundred. The chains, writhing like snakes and moving irregularly, captured the rabbits one after another, restraining them.

One rabbit, then another. The chains sank as if dragging them into the ground, yet the rabbits themselves didn’t enter the ground. As a result, they were restrained as if sewn to the ground. The rabbits forced into prostration groaned in suffering.

And it wasn’t only the rabbits who groaned.

“No way!? Simultaneous activation of multiple spells… and over thirty at once.”

Even Kishō, who wasn’t well-versed in magic, could understand what an extraordinarily abnormal feat that was.

To activate magic, one first needed to construct a magic formula on the brain’s surface consciousness. And in doing so, one needed to configure the magic’s activation information in detail, and that configuration was precise and delicate. Simultaneous multiple activation meant performing these tasks simultaneously in parallel, which was a highly advanced technique with heavy burden on the brain. Additionally, using magic placed a load on the body, which would also be multiplied.

Simultaneously activating over thirty of these required a work volume unthinkable by common sense—it was so outrageous that even Kishō, who only knew magic as knowledge, was shaken. After all, even the Lower School’s top student had a limit of dual activation.

What she’d captured were magical beasts called Killer Rabbits.

Kishō lacked that knowledge, but could tell they were magical beasts from the [Miasma] they emitted. There would be no inconvenience in disposing of them as is, but the Princess didn’t do so. The restraining force of the black chains loosened.

“I won’t say it twice. Leave.”

Looked down upon by cold jet-black eyes, the rabbits trembled. Starting with one that shrank with a shrinking sound, the rabbits cancelled their gigantification one after another, becoming smaller. When a horned rabbit who seemed to be the leader among them issued a “Gyuuuu!” command, the rabbits scattered into the forest one by one.

“To show mercy to magical beasts—you’re unexpectedly kind.”

At the same time Kishō, whose tension had released with the danger’s departure, called out, the Princess’s body nearly collapsed from the shoulders. He caught her small shoulder at the last moment.

“Hey, you okay?”

“Ah. It seems I overdid it a bit.”

◇◇◇◇◇

Tall trees. Green branches and leaves running to cover the sky.

Daylight hours in the forest were surprisingly short.

Dusk came early, and the fourth night arrived.

By the fourth day they’d naturally gotten used to it, and camp preparations proceeded briskly. Kishō prepared the campfire and created a log table. The other three went out to search for ingredients. Since solo action was dangerous, they moved together in a group rather than scattered.

That said, since massive amounts of Demon Bear meat from what they’d defeated during the day remained, they’d probably search for mountain vegetables and mushrooms nearby. Just as Kishō finished making log tables and log chairs for everyone, Alice came running over and showed him a basket full of mushrooms.

“Look at this!”

“Wow. You gathered this much?”

The basket was lined with various types of mushrooms. To have gathered this much in such a short time—Kishō was impressed when Ōka stuck her head in from the side.

“Wow! There’s even Tropical Fly Agaric.”

“Yes. They’re delicious.”

To Ōka’s delighted expression, Alice answered with a beaming smile.

There, Kishō felt “Hm?” —a sense of discomfort.

The two girls proceeded to organize ingredients without paying attention to Kishō.

“What? Just now, something felt caught in my mind.”

“Do you think you should trust your intuition?”

The Princess’s voice came from behind. Sweet breath touched his ear. From there, the Princess’s actions were swift. Leaping high, she stood behind Ōka and Alice, who were sitting on log chairs getting along while working on organizing ingredients, then drew her practice sword and directed its point at Alice’s nape.

“Don’t move. If you move, I’ll behead you.”

“Wait a minute.”

A sharp voice of restraint blocked him just as he reflexively started to rise.

“Kishō, you too! Move even one more step and this person’s life is forfeit!”

“Don’t say such outrageous things! That’s completely villain dialogue!”

He’d intended to shout with his utmost angry voice. But even receiving that fury close to killing intent, the Princess proclaimed leisurely without changing expression.

“Well said. That’s right. For your sake, I won’t even hesitate to play the villain.”

And navy blue [Sword Aura] manifested at the practice sword’s point.