My Beloved Princess ~The Boy Called Incompetent Rises with Only a Sword and the Princess's Devotion~ - Chapter 033: Return

“Hah, hah… I can’t anymore. Can’t move a single step.”

Kishō, sprawled spread-eagle on the stone-paved highway, said this while exhaling rough breaths.

Ōka, shading her hand like an awning from the cargo bed and gazing into the distance, agreed. Hopping down from the cargo bed, she landed right beside Kishō lying on his back.

“I’m at my limit too… I might not be able to stand.”

Her small body crumpled from the knees. Here and there on that petite body were countless bite wounds, and the red and white dragon robe was stained red with fresh blood. That was the same for Kishō as well, but more than bodily pain, continuing to run a long distance nonstop while moreover pulling a wagon was far more painful and agonizing. No matter how much oxygen he inhaled, his lungs wouldn’t be satisfied. Catching Ōka, who’d sat down right beside him, at the edge of his vision, he somehow regulated his breathing and squeezed out:

“Y-you okay? You’re pretty injured, huh. I… can’t say anything either though…”

The time when he’d treated Ōka like some princess and tried to protect her uninjured now felt even nostalgic. The wounded princess floated her usual lively grinning smile—

“Compared to Yō-chan, this much is totally fine. I’m not just being protected all the time, you know.”

Because she laughed so cheerfully, Kishō was also drawn in and laughed “No doubt.”

When his breathing settled, Kishō raised his upper body and directed his gaze forward again. The highway extended as if dividing the plains. On the highway’s right, above the southeastern horizon, a faintly spiky black silhouette was visible. That was the shadow of the tents placed at the camp headquarters.

“Humans can manage somehow if they try, huh? Though only half is human.”

“What was needed was the other half—the dragonkin strength, right? I think the human side of Shō-kun wasn’t useful.”

When Kishō made a wisecrack, Ōka returned with a wisecrack too.

If they got out to the highway, it was safe. Magical beasts rarely came out to the plains. That was why they could make wisecracks as usual.

“Still, without the wagon, we might’ve been done for. Moving while carrying Kuroyō, we might not have endured the magical beast attacks.”

Precisely because there was the safe zone called the wagon, they’d been able to come this far while protecting the Princess. If he’d been carrying her, Kishō thought they probably couldn’t have protected her completely. Plus, stopping every time for combat was also a problem. If there hadn’t been a wagon, they’d probably still be waging death struggles in the forest.

“But if we hadn’t found the wagon. The result might have been different…”

“Yeah, then we wouldn’t have met Alice.”

“…”

“…”

Silence.

Feeling unbearable, Kishō smoothly stood up.

“Alright, just a bit more. Let’s whip our bodies and make one more run!”

“We need to quickly get Yō-chan better.”

If they returned to the tents, they could use high-grade recovery potions for emergency treatment. Combined with dragonkin’s high natural healing power, she’d probably fully recover in three days.

“There’s no need to hurry.”

A whispering voice came from the sail’s gap. The Princess in upright posture was turning her face, half-covered by bandages, vaguely toward the distant camp headquarters. Her consciousness had returned. Though he hadn’t eaten wasabi, a sharp stimulus came to his nose. He’d shouted her name reflexively.

“Kuroyō!”

That loud voice had a tone mixing joy and sorrow with just a bit of tears mixed in. Ōka, whose shoulders shook with a start at the excessive volume, turned around slightly delayed.

“Yō-chan!”

On her usual meager expression, the Princess floated a soft smile.

Kishō and Ōka raced each other to jump onto the cargo bed and rush to the Princess. And because Ōka tried to embrace her without showing any hesitation—

“Wait a minute.”

“Gue!”

Reflexively gripping that collar firmly, he pulled her toward himself as if peeling her away.

“Hey Shō-kun. What are you doing, it hurts.”

“Are you stupid, Ōka!? Kuroyō is near-fatally injured. Are you trying to kill her!?”

While grinding at Ōka’s temple as she groaned “Uuu,” Kishō felt discomfort in his own words and actions. Thinking for several seconds—during which Ōka was being ground the whole time—he immediately arrived at its true identity.

“Why are you walking around when you’re near-fatally injured!?”

Because she’d been so calm, even Kishō—though not as much as Ōka—had unconsciously thought “It’s fine now” it seemed. Though there was no way it was fine. But he seemed to be the only one taking it seriously, and even the Princess herself—

“I rested for about half a day after all. I’ve recovered enough to walk.”

“Like hell you have!”

Kishō released Ōka from the grinding punishment, then lifted the Princess’s delicate body with both freed hands.

“Wh-what are you doing?”

“You wanted to be held, didn’t you?”

“I said no such thing!”

The Princess reddened her cheeks and desperately denied it. It seemed she had no memory of last night.

Laying that feather-light body on the bed, Kishō smiled a bit mischievously.

“Listen. As long as you get up, I’ll carry you as many times as it takes. Be prepared.”

“Muu… since both arms won’t move, getting up is quite laborious.”

“Then keep sleeping. And hurry up and get better.”

Ōka, who’d placed a hand on the Princess’s forehead, tilted her head.

“But she seems fine already? The fever seems to have gone down too.”

“Getting better is from now on, right? We still need to keep her lying down.”

“But but! The shallow wounds have already closed!”

Flipping the chest bandages slightly, Ōka said. Only then did consciousness turn to the Princess being half-naked wrapped in bandages, and he reddened belatedly. Turning around faster than a peregrine falcon.

“Going outside in that getup. Don’t you have any sense of shame!?”

The Princess looked blank. Turning her neck and confirming her own state, as if noticing for the first time there—

“I should have been wearing my dragon robe. Did you undress me?”

“It couldn’t be helped for treatment. Plus it wasn’t me who undressed you.”

It ended up sounding a bit excuse-like, but it was fact.

Ōka, without following up, placed a hand on her mouth and giggled.

“Oh my. Even if your movements are falcon-level, why is your reaction elephant-level slow at the crucial point? Despite embracing half-naked Yō-chan all ‘You wanted to be held, didn’t you?’ *smirk!* Really, you noticed, didn’t you? Shō-kun you pervert!”

His back was smacked. Hips were in it. A considerably serious strike. Arching his back burning with pain, Kishō averted his reddening face and retorted.

“I didn’t do any *smirk!*”

“You did. Right, Yō-chan?”

“Ah, it was manly.”

At the coordinated wave attack, Kishō held his head and screamed.

“Kuroyō, Ōka, you’re completely back to normal in half a day!? Do you know how worried I was? Even returning to daily life, there should be something more, right!?”

Embracing and shedding tears, rejoicing in each other’s safety. Though he couldn’t expect that much, he thought they could continue being a bit more serious. It was going well partway, so how did it become like this!? As he held his head self-questioning—

“Were you worried about me?”

Asked from behind, he reflexively turned around as if opposing that foolish question.

“Of course I was!!!”

“I see.”

On the Princess’s meager-expression face, an unusually soft smile floated. It was a pure-hearted gentle smile reminiscent of a goddess. At the pure smile containing not a single impurity, Kishō gazed as if his soul was being pulled. She also moistened her black eyes and stared fixedly this way. It felt like their feelings were connecting. Such dreamlike time was—

“Okay okay. Entering your own world stops there. Please continue at night, just the two of you.”

Ōka smashed it.

“I see, I see. So it was Ōka’s doing that serious atmospheres get smashed.”

I carelessly overlooked that. His ten fingertips continuing like that were making lewd movements wiggling as if each had separate wills.

Ōka’s face paled. While backing away, she—

“Wait Shō-kun? What are you planning? You’re making movements I have tremendous physiological resistance to.”

“What else but what you see? Tickle hell punishment.”

When Kishō floated an evil smile, Ōka, who felt danger to her身, shivered, hurriedly went around to the bed’s opposite side, and sought help from the Princess.

“Help me, Yō-chan. Shō-kun’s going to assault me!”

At that expanded interpretation, Kishō was taken aback, and hesitation arose in his advance. Before he could retort, the Princess said “It’s fine,” so he thought she’d surely follow up, but—

“Kishō will surely be gentle.”

—such opposite follow-up entered, so Kishō retorted with all his strength this time.

“No, deny it there!?”

Thus they returned to daily life.