My Beloved Princess ~The Boy Called Incompetent Rises with Only a Sword and the Princess's Devotion~

Chapter 105: The Daughter of Dragon Emperor Sendo and His Head Consort Rinrei

The daughter of Dragon Emperor Sendo and his Head Consort Rinrei.

Sendo had over a hundred children, but Kirin alone had been able to inherit the seventh attribute he possessed. Since she was also a daughter he had been blessed with in his later years, Sendo doted on Kirin to the point of overprotectiveness. He even imposed a gag order so information about her would not leak outside.

If it became known that she possessed the rare seventh attribute, there was no telling what kind of trouble she might get dragged into. Kirin understood her father’s worries, but being told to get through life at the academy without letting her true nature be exposed was an unreasonable demand no matter how you looked at it. More than once, she had thought he should have pulled strings with the teachers and made them deal with it instead.

“In that case, boycotting classes is the quickest way, don’t you think?”

“I do not! By that logic, the only classes you’re allowed to skip are magic and Breath!”

“You’re as stingy as ever, Shunka.”

“What do you mean, stingy? Don’t make that sulky face.”

“Because it’s troublesome, isn’t it? If something happens out in the wilderness, you can just smash it all apart with your fists. You don’t need the ABCs of business or the skills to build a house.”

“What kind of bandit logic is that? ‘If you want it, kill them and take it’!?”

Shunka raised both arms and protested with a huff. The childish gesture, like that of a little girl, drew a soft smile from Kirin.

Among the nobility, when a child is born, they are assigned an attendant of the same age. Shunka, who had become her personal maid from a young age, was like a little sister to her.

Her official status was that of a slave, but Kirin had never once thought of her as one.

Perhaps because of that, Shunka was deeply attached to Kirin. It was a slight flaw that she lacked a bit of respect toward her mistress, but since Kirin herself did not fuss over such things, the two got along well. Shunka was also one of the very few people who knew Kirin possessed the seventh attribute.

“More importantly, Princess, you’re far too lazy. Please learn from diligent little me.”

Kirin gave a wry smile and reached her chopsticks toward the lunch Shunka had made by hand.

They ate lunch in a gazebo in an elegant garden. It was a familiar scene.

“Shunka’s cooking skill truly is splendid.”

“Right? Please eat lots, Princess!”

When Kirin praised the taste as she bit into the cockatrice omelette, Shunka, who had arranged an enthusiastically prepared five-tier lunch box over the picnic cloth, proudly puffed out her chest.

Incidentally, the petrification ability possessed by cockatrices did not work on dragonkin at all. To them, a cockatrice was little more than a large chicken and could never be a threat.

“If you want to petrify us, you’d need to bring at least a medusa, wouldn’t you?”

“I don’t really want to eat medusa. It looks like it’d taste bad.”

“You’re worrying about the flavour when the opponent is an apocalypse-grade monster!?”

Kirin calmly stuffed a piece of fried cockatrice into her cheeks and reached for the white rice with her chopsticks. Watching her leisurely pace from the side, Shunka looked exasperated.

The reason they ate lunch like this in a deserted corner of the garden was, officially, that they were avoiding social contact to conceal the seventh attribute. But to be honest, the current environment, where she could avoid dealing with people, suited Kirin just fine as well.

“If I can spend my time with just you, Shunka, that’s enough for me.”

“You really are bad at socialising, Princess.”

“You certainly say it plainly. But I’ll admit it. Frankly, social dealings in noble society are a pain.”

“I don’t mind, since it means I get to keep you all to myself, Princess… but what are you going to do about where you’ll marry?”

With a pickled plum in her mouth, Kirin made a bitter face.

“After I graduate from the academy, I intend to wander the world.”

“There you go saying something outrageous again, Princess. That’s too much even for a joke.”

“Rest easy. I’ll be sure to take you along with me.”

“That’s not the issue! If you do that, His Majesty will cry!”

“To hell with political marriages. Let him cry.”

Cutting it off without the slightest mercy, Kirin coolly sipped her tea.

Should she rebuke that disrespect toward the Dragon Emperor, or obey her mistress’s wishes? Watching the troubled Shunka hesitate with a conflicted look, Kirin continued in amusement.

“I hear that in the human countries, there’s a profession called adventurer. They travel all over the world, earn their daily coin, and live one day at a time. Doesn’t that sound wonderful?”

“It does not!”

She answered instantly, but then Shunka tilted her head in worry and froze. Before long, her expression steadily turned serious, and she continued.

“But if you absolutely insist on going, Princess, then I’ll accompany you anywhere.”

“Oh my. It’s rare for you to agree with one of my wild ravings.”

Shunka poured more tea, returned the teapot to the brazier, and straightened her posture. With an expression more serious than usual, she dropped to her knees on the ground and bowed her head.

It was a kowtow of the highest respect.

“I am grateful that you’ve treated someone of slave status like me so well, Princess.”

As the daughter of the Head Consort, Kirin held the highest rank within the pack.

For that reason, Shunka, who was under her protection, had almost never been subjected to abuse for being a slave. Even when it came to her father, the Dragon Emperor, Kirin did not permit him to treat Shunka with contempt.

Shunka was now showing her determination to repay that debt.

“Slaves are not comrades. That is an ironclad rule of dragonkin society. But you treated someone like me as a comrade, Princess. Even so, foolish me thought that was only natural simply because we’d always been together since we were little. But after I started living here at the academy, I was made to realise that it was not something natural at all.”

To dragonkin, a comrade was a friend, a colleague, and family. The word comrade held every positive concept within a community. If a dragonkin called someone a comrade, one could safely take it as the utmost goodwill.

And Shunka’s existence was, precisely, that of an irreplaceable comrade to Kirin.

“The other day, I had a chance to speak with a child of slave status. She said that even among fellow slaves, they couldn’t feel any sense of comradeship. Just living through the present took everything they had, and they had no room to spare for caring about others. Hearing that made me sad. But…”

When Shunka raised her face from the kowtow, her eyes were brimming with tears.

“I have enough room in my heart to care about others. That must surely be thanks to you, Princess. A slave who knows no hardship may be ridiculous, but even so, in order to repay the kindness I’ve received, I will follow you anywhere, Princess.”

Kirin herself was neither for nor against the slave system. If she had to put it one way, then from the logic of the strong devouring the weak, it couldn’t be helped… which made her a neutral party leaning toward approval out of resignation. She accepted it.

Then why was she bending that logic when it came to Shunka?

“Why are you saying something so distant? We were sisters who grew up together. That alone makes us comrades. And if I say white, then even black becomes white.”

“You’re as selfish as ever, Princess.”

Wiping away her tears, Shunka laughed bashfully.

Taking her hand and helping her stand, Kirin embraced Shunka.

“Your status as a slave only has to be endured until I marry. I don’t know whom I’ll marry, but I intend to take you with me and grant you treatment above that of a consort. If that cannot be granted, then the wild raving I spoke of earlier will become reality.”

“Are we going to elope together?”

“Yes. When I say I’ll do something, I truly do it.”

At that moment, an explosive roar pierced the ears of the two girls as they shared their hearts.

The blast wind, kicking up clouds of dust, washed over the girls locked in embrace and blew away the garden’s elegant atmosphere with it. Tiles from the gazebo were blown off, and stone lanterns toppled over. The lunch boxes that had been spread out so beautifully had vanished somewhere.

Her dirt-covered shoulders trembling, Kirin glared sharply at the centre of the explosion.

“Too bad, Rakuyō! You might call yourself the strongest, but Kirin’s way stronger than you are!”

“What was that!? I will not let it pass that I’m inferior to that weirdo princess!”

There, the same two from the other day, Kokuren and Rakuyō, were once again arguing without learning their lesson. Not only that, from their palms they were firing Breath blasts like cannons with BOOM! BOOM! after BOOM! BOOM!.

Holes had opened all over the garden, and the scenery was ruined.

Shunka timidly peered into Kirin’s face, whose shoulders were trembling, and said in a restrained voice,

“Um… Princess? Are you angry?”

“Indeed. I certainly said not to use [Sword Ki] because it was dangerous. But I did not say a single word about using Breath instead. Isn’t that right?”

“Y-yes. Yes indeed, Princess.”

“Then why, exactly, are those two firing Breath at each other with BOOM! BOOM! after BOOM! BOOM!?”

“I-I don’t know. It is unclear, Princess.”

Even during this exchange, blast winds rose again and again, and each time Kirin’s whole body was covered in dust… no, in mud, grass, tree branches, and all manner of debris.

Suppressing the twitching spasm around her temple, she glared at the two of them as they leaped about like street performers. Unaware of Kirin’s anger, Kokuren and the others happily fired Breath at each other, almost as if they were acknowledging one another’s strength.

“Honestly, those two… It seems they need to be taught a lesson.”

At that, Shunka suddenly stiffened, then shook her head back and forth at high speed.

“You mustn’t kill them, all right? Please hold back properly, Princess.”

Faced with that rather earnest plea, Kirin did not nod.

Then, baring her fangs like a wild beast, Kirin sprang toward the centre of the explosions where the bombardments crossed.

Two screams shot up into the blue sky.

◇◇◇◇◇

“So Father snuck into the Upper House again?”

When she finished her old story, Kuroyō leaned forward and asked.

It seemed she was interested in how mischievous her father had been in his youth.

“I recommended him so he could be promoted to the Upper House. Kokuren was excellent, after all.”

Kokuren and Rakuyō were both terribly competitive, and whatever they did, they turned it into a contest, causing one trouble after another. Kirin and Shunka were dragged into it as well, and after the whole academy had been thrown into turmoil, things always seemed to end in a terrible mess.

At the time, she must have found it troublesome, but now that she looked back on it, they did not seem like such bad days. Shunka had been at her side, and Kokuren had been doing foolish things. Proud Rakuyō had gradually softened her attitude…

The corners of her mouth naturally loosened as she sank into her memories.

“In the end, Kokuren took the top seat. Then, with the highest-ranking Upper House students including Rakuyō, along with me and Shunka, he founded the pack.”

According to the laws of the dragonkin, a princess had to marry as the Head Consort of a Dragon Flash or above, or as a consort of a Dragon Duke or above. Inevitably, Kirin was to marry as a Head Consort, whether she wished it or not.

Kuroyō, who had been listening intently, asked with eyes shining like a little child’s,

“How did you and Father come to be in love, Head Consort-sama?”

Was it the same in every generation, that girls loved talk of romance? Kirin remembered Shunka asking her much the same thing over and over as well.

Kirin pictured the face of the young Kokuren. Then she gently placed her index finger against her lips.

“That is embarrassing, so it’s a secret. But when it came to the engagement, I attached one condition. ‘Don’t make the pack any larger than this,’ I said.”

The flush on Kuroyō’s face clouded slightly.

“Hm, and why was that?”

“Because I am the jealous type.”

She was aware that she herself had always stood apart from dragonkin common sense.

She did not like gathering in groups, preferring solitude. The things her classmates found value in held no value for Kirin. Status, grades, honour, the praise of others… everyone desired such things, and yet to Kirin they were useless excess. While her classmates busied themselves playing at diplomacy, she drank hot tea.

And yet her ability was beyond doubt. No one could voice an opinion to her. Owing to that near-hermit-like attitude, the nickname she had been given was the Weirdo Princess.

“The weirdo who kept stubbornly bothering a weirdo like me was Kokuren. And weird me desperately wanted him to love only me.”

However, Kirin herself understood better than anyone that such a demand was unreasonable.

“A powerful dragonkin is not permitted to love only one person. I was a princess in particular, after all. On that point, I had no choice but to compromise.”

“And that led to the small-elite way of thinking?”

“Yes. I thought I could accept it if it were those girls who had spent their academy days with us. I also did not want to be separated from Shunka.”

But the other consorts had wanted a policy of expanding the pack. They often criticised her, with Rakuyō at the forefront, saying that someone as brilliant as Kokuren was not suited to a shabby life and ought to seize dazzling glory. Yet in the end, Kokuren had taken Kirin’s side.

That was why…

“Why, then, did Father come to follow the current policy of expansion?”

“A good question. Now that I think about it, it began with an incident from our days as mercenaries.”

Kirin closed her eyes and sank into remembrance once more.

Her thoughts flew back to that age when she had been called the strongest mercenary, the Black Kirin.