My Beloved Princess ~The Boy Called Incompetent Rises with Only a Sword and the Princess's Devotion~ - Chapter 025: The Princess Plays the Villain

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaah!”

Alice screamed and bent her body forward. She covered her face with both hands, shoulders trembling in fear.

The Princess sent a gaze as if to say “See?” with a triumphant face. He understood what she meant. Because Kishō had felt the same thing.

She’d bent her body as if—to avoid the [Sword Aura] manifesting in the practice sword.

It certainly looked that way. It looked that way, but normally speaking, having a practice sword’s point thrust at you while being threatened with “I’ll behead you” would naturally produce such a reaction. If anything, he could definitively say the abnormal one was the Princess.

To begin with, even if she could see [Sword Aura], where was the necessity for such an outrageous act? Unable to keep up with the rapidly developing situation, Kishō wanted to hold his head.

“Yō-chan. Calm down a bit. This won’t solve anything.”

Next to Alice, Ōka spoke as if worried about Alice, who’d curled her back like a turtle. Those brown eyes wavered in confusion. On the road toward the highway, she was the one who’d exchanged the most conversation with Alice.

But perhaps even Ōka’s voice didn’t reach her—the Princess slowly shook her head.

“We need to resolve this here and now. We can’t postpone it any longer.”

“Can’t postpone… but if you do that, you’ll just complicate things more.”

Ōka probably thought this outrageous act was due to jealousy. But the Princess’s attitude clearly wasn’t that of a woman crazed by jealousy. Rather, she was calm and composed—that transcendent bearing was the talented and beautiful Princess herself as usual.

That’s why it was all the more confusing. Unable to gauge her intent or true purpose, Kishō couldn’t open his mouth.

“Why are you being mean? Did I do something to you!?”

With her face still covered by both hands, Alice raised a scream-like shout.

In response, the Princess formed a faint smile on that beautiful face.

“No. I won’t let you do anything.”

“I don’t understand! Is it jealousy? Because I got close to Kishō-kun?”

“Wrong. I didn’t like you from the start.”

“That’s… terrible! So you’re another one who discriminates against humans!”

A stabbing pain pierced Kishō’s chest.

If it wasn’t jealousy after all—

Was that it after all? An emotion close to resignation surfaced for just an instant.

But the Princess’s next words pulled him back to reality.

“Then let me ask—that mountain of mushrooms you gathered. Many poisonous mushrooms are mixed in, were you planning to poison us?”

Poisoning dragonkin was impossible.

So even if poisonous mushrooms were mixed in, there was no problem.

In other words, that wasn’t what the Princess was taking issue with.

“Huh… poison? Ah… no, this is… I didn’t know they were poisonous mushrooms.”

Witnessing Alice’s flustered state, something clicked together in Kishō. That was the discomfort he’d felt earlier—its true identity. There was a psychological blind spot in the fact that eating poisonous mushrooms posed no problem.

Sensing the invisible malice hidden in those depths, Kishō shuddered privately.

“No, that’s strange. Alice-san—you said it, didn’t you? When you saw Ōka delighted at the highly poisonous Tropical Fly Agaric, you said ‘They’re delicious.’ If you didn’t know about Tropical Fly Agaric, how could you say it was delicious?”

Dragonkin could enjoy poison with the same sensation as seasoning. But humans were different. They had no taste perception for poison, and if they ate highly poisonous food, one bite would kill them. It was unnatural for Alice, being human, to intentionally gather poisonous mushrooms, and if she’d mistakenly gathered them without knowing they were poisonous, there was no way words like “they’re delicious” would come out. That was the discomfort’s true identity.

Was she burning with murderous intent behind that smile?

Or perhaps—

“You knew, didn’t you? That we could eat poisonous mushrooms. That’s why you said they were delicious. But then I just can’t accept it. You’re human, so you can’t eat Tropical Fly Agaric. If it’s put in the pot, you won’t be able to eat the meal. Plus there’s no need to lie about not knowing they were poisonous mushrooms.”

With her head hung and face buried in both hands, Alice answered in a tearful voice.

“I’m sorry. Being told you’d behead me made me panic and lie. I actually knew—that dragonkin is a race that enjoys poison. I’m baggage that can’t fight, so I wanted everyone to get nutrition…”

It felt logically sound. So Kishō posed one question.

“Where did you hear that we’re a race that enjoys poison?”

“Algant.”

Kishō groaned at that immediate answer.

That dragonkin enjoys poison was common knowledge in dragonkin territory.

Even restaurants run by other races had highly poisonous dishes for dragonkin prepared—that recognition was widespread. However, in other races’ nations, the story was different. Considering the danger of adding poisonous dishes to the menu was natural, and to avoid deaths from accidental consumption, no establishments serving poisonous dishes existed.

Therefore, the common knowledge that dragonkin enjoy poison became less known the farther one got from dragonkin territory.

If Alice had answered that she’d heard it in her hometown Westport located at the western edge, he could have judged she was lying. But the result was “Algant.” Algant was right nearby—a city adjacent to dragonkin territory, so there were a fair number of humans who knew dragonkin preferences. It wasn’t unnatural that Alice, who’d stayed in Algant during her journey, had heard that story.

Kishō hesitated in judgment.

Should he believe or doubt Alice?

The carefree Ōka chose the former without hesitation.

“Everyone’s overthinking. It’s pitiful to take goodwill as malice.”

“Even Kishō-kun doubts me?”

A tearful voice trembling with deep sadness said so.

Kishō grimaced with guilt. Indeed, there was no proof. Everything remained in the realm of speculation, and if it was a false accusation as Ōka said, it would become an irreversible situation.

And above all, the feeling of not wanting to doubt the goodwill of Alice, who’d said she liked him, worked strongly.

“Hey, Kuroyō. Isn’t that enough? For us, that’s a trivial issue. With that, not even an injured person let alone a dead one will appear. I think it’s more meaningful to build certain trust relationships than to nurture uncertain suspicion.”

Ōka nodded repeatedly in agreement. Alice was crying with her face covered.

Only the Princess, going her own way, smiled quietly.

“I disliked that woman from the start. That woman who was supposedly cowering in hiding.”

“That’s unreasonable. A merchant’s daughter with no power, alone in the forest—of course she’d cower.”

“Wrong. That woman is no merchant’s daughter.”

Not only Kishō but even Ōka raised voices of surprise together.

“Wait a minute. I don’t know how you reached that conclusion, but Alice-san is definitely a merchant’s daughter. Did you forget? The photo in the wagon. Though she was a bit younger, that was definitely Alice-san in it.”

Navy blue [Sword Aura] manifested again in the practice sword placed vigilantly above Alice’s head, roaring as if flaring up.

“Remember what that woman said last night. Where was she heading when attacked by magical beasts?”

—We were heading to the city of Rakure when we got lost in the forest and were attacked by magical beasts.

“And I want you to remember one more thing. The cargo loaded on the wagon. And what Rakure’s specialty products were.”

The overturned, abandoned covered wagon.

Many wooden crates firmly secured with belts were loaded in the wagon bed.

Inside the crates were silk textiles and pottery.

Perhaps from the overturning impact, the pottery had cracks, and seeing this, the Princess had murmured quietly “Such fine celadon ruined.”

On the road to the Beast King Forest, he recalled the conversation in the wagon.

When Dragon Lord Rag’s story came up, they’d also touched briefly on Rakure’s city. In that conversation—

To Ōka’s question “Hey, what are Rakure’s specialties?”—

“Silk textiles and celadon pottery. Though silk textiles are produced in any eastern city, in terms of specialties only available in Rakure, it would be celadon pottery.”

Hadn’t the Princess answered that?

“I see!”

Kishō groaned. He squeezed out words with disbelieving feelings.

“That covered wagon was returning after obtaining specialty products in Rakure.”

The Princess nodded satisfactorily. While smiling as if praising a capable student—

“But that woman said she was on the way to Rakure. Clearly contradictory.”

“If she’s really a merchant’s daughter, such a mistake is impossible. But why did she tell a lie that would expose such a flaw?”

To that question, “She probably simply misrecognized,” the Princess said.

Highways ran north and south of the Beast King Forest. The northern highway connected Algant and Rakure, while the southern highway continued to southern nations. Normally, western merchants headed to Rakure via the northern highway, and after obtaining specialty products, continued their journey seeking new specialties in the south via the southern highway. In other words—

“That woman knew the wagon had wandered in from the northern highway. So she misunderstood ‘traveling the northern highway = on the way to Rakure.’ Despite actually being in the process of turning back for some reason.”

“…………”

The scene fell silent. Alice’s sobbing that had continued had stopped at some point. Not even the person’s own explanation came back. In that situation, only Ōka took her side.

“But! How do you explain the photo? That was definitely Alice-chan.”

“I hear monsters exist that mimic eaten humans’ forms. Perhaps that type. Or magical disguise, or possibly that photo itself was a fake prepared by this woman. In any case, this woman is dangerous.”

“But! But!”

Ōka, with tears brimming, desperately tried to defend her. What a good-natured person. That bottomlessly carefree and kind aspect was also her greatest strength. But now, that kindness was just spinning its wheels.

The Princess continued explaining as if persuading a stubborn child.

“Massive bloodstains were left around the wagon. Despite clearly being fatal wounds from that blood loss, not a single corpse remained in the vicinity. At first I thought magical beasts had carried them to their nests. But the horse corpse, though its organs had been eaten and torn, was left on the spot.”

In other words, magical beasts in this forest had no habit of carrying prey back.

“Then who took the bodies away?”

The atmosphere felt even heavier. Nervous sweat ran down his forehead.

The Princess continued.

“So suppose they’d only suffered grievous near-fatal injuries—weren’t dead yet at that point. But in that case, treating them in the wagon would be normal. They wouldn’t purposely drag dying companions far away to escape.”

If they’d treated them in the wagon, bloodstains should have remained inside the wagon bed, and above all, Alice hiding in the wagon’s barrel should have known about it. But she’d only testified that she’d been told to hide and was hiding.

“However, there’s always the slightest possibility. So let’s consider the possibility they dragged dying companions far away. Remember—where the bloodstains continued, where they dragged dying companions, what was there?”

Ōka gasped for breath. She already understood. The worst ending they’d arrive at. Where that scenario was heading.

“The man-eating plant. The merchant and guards all died from being eaten by that thing. The evidence was the bloodstains ending and the belongings left behind. But why does a monster exist in the Beast King Forest? Isn’t it too convenient to think it naturally grew there? Doesn’t it seem as if it was spawned there to dispose of inconvenient corpses?”

Dragging dying companions was unnatural. But what if you changed perspectives—what if they were already corpses? And what if the one dragging them wasn’t a companion but a malicious murderer? Thinking so, all the pieces fit.

“I disliked that woman from the start. That woman supposedly cowering in hiding—if Ōka hadn’t found her, she would have stayed hidden. So what if she could lurk unfound by anyone—what did she plan to do after that? What did she plan to do after we all fell asleep at night? Wasn’t piling up falsehoods and disguising her identity because she had malice?”

Ōka tried to attempt some rebuttal but got stuck with “Ah” and looked toward Alice beside her in a troubled manner. Following that, Kishō’s gaze also—

A chill ran down his spine.

Alice was laughing.

Through the gaps between her fingers, the corners of her crescent-smiling mouth peeked.

Ōka reflexively flinched back.

Loud laughter echoed through the night forest.

Silver flashed gleaming in the night sky.

In Alice’s hand was gripped a silver knife.

The target was the Princess’s right wrist holding the practice sword. From her forward-bent posture, Alice turned and slashed at the right wrist’s vein at the shortest distance. But the Princess avoided this by half a step back. In that opening, Alice leaped backward to take distance. Immediately counterattacking, the Princess’s practice sword bisected Alice’s torso horizontally.

—Slash!

“Ahaha. As expected. But too bad.”

The bisected torso didn’t fall but stood in place. The cut surface dimly blurred as if blending with the night darkness. There was no bleeding. Instead, black mist drifted around the cut surface.

“If you’d acted a bit earlier, that would have been a checkmate.”

When Alice raised the corners of her mouth in an evil smile, black mist converged on the cut surface, and the next moment her body split in two had revived along with the torn clothing.

“From here on is my time.”