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

Chapter 120: To Black Emperor Castle

Across the vast blue sky, a bronze shadow glided.

Kyui had flown without rest for a full day and night, yet his wingbeats still held the same powerful strength as he carried Kirin toward Black Emperor Castle.

When the gigantic, black-glossed city came into view beyond the horizon, a wave of nostalgia washed over Kirin. This was the capital she had built together with Kokuren over a hundred and fifty years. In a way, it was also a place filled with painful memories. Before she knew it, a sigh had slipped from her lips.

“I am not eager for this… but it cannot be helped.”

In the blink of an eye, the cityscape of Black Emperor Castle swelled before them.

At the same time, that meant they were entering Black Emperor Castle’s air-defence zone.

The anti-air batteries opened fire all at once.

From the cannons lined along the city walls, densely compressed waves of energy came hurtling toward them.

“They’re coming, Kyui.”

“Kugyaa!”

Kyui dodged the bombardment one volley after another with his natural agility. Skillfully working both wings, he carved broad arcs through the open sky and never let the gunners settle their aim.

Riding that momentum, he smashed through the defensive line in a single rush and boldly violated the skies above Black Emperor Castle.

The people in the streets looked up in shock at the sight of Kyui roaring overhead.

From the watchtowers scattered throughout the city, and from the guards who had climbed onto the roofs of houses, countless Breaths were unleashed at him. Six-coloured attributes streaked into the sky one after another, but they could not catch Kyui as he rolled through the air.

Slipping through that concentrated six-coloured barrage like fireworks, Kyui flew on through the gaps. Corkscrewing, wheeling, and at times dropping straight down to evade, he then pulled up sharply just above the ground, and the gust that followed sent residents sprawling over.

“Honestly. You’re far too excited, Kyui. But you mustn’t startle them too much.”

Violent rises and plunges. Yet Kirin, astride Kyui with nothing but a single rein in hand, showed no sign of being shaken by her partner’s wild flying. She merely chided him in a quiet voice.

As though he were enjoying a game of tag, Kyui raced freely across the skies over Black Emperor Castle. But as time passed, more and more guards joined the response, and the curtain of Breath thickened. Kirin tugged on the reins and signalled their destination to Kyui. Sensing her intent, he angled toward the centre of the city, toward the palace surrounded by high walls.

A gale seemed to split the blue sky in two as he shot forward.

Once they reached the air above the palace, Kirin patted Kyui on the neck, leaned close to his face, and said,

“I’m just going in for a moment. You wait somewhere safe.”

“Kugyaa!”

Letting go of the reins, Kirin lightly kicked off from Kyui’s back.

With a soft sense of weightlessness, her body was cast out into the open air.

The fierce wind lashed at Kirin’s bangs. Free fall began, and her body dropped in a straight line toward the palace. When she looked up, she saw Kyui climbing sharply to escape beyond the range of Breath. A moment later, he vanished among the clouds.

“Such a clever child.”

She looked once more at the palace spread beneath her.

The Phoenix Pavilion and the Tower Palace, standing side by side like a married couple, looked small from here. Kirin’s former residence, the Tower Palace, came rushing nearer and nearer.

Then she noticed him.

Standing atop the tiled roof of the Tower Palace, the most lavish structure in the palace grounds, was a handsome man in black. His smooth, elegant long hair streamed down to his waist, and his strikingly well-formed face was turned toward the falling Kirin with a cold, emotionless gaze.

Suddenly, sunlight reflected off the black tiles and flashed into Kirin’s eyes as though to burn them. She narrowed her eyes, and in that split second, the man’s shadow wavered as though dissolving into the air.

The very next moment…

A sharp flash of steel had already reached Kirin’s throat.

◇◇◇◇◇

The palace where the Dragon Emperor dwelled: the Central Palace.

Forbidden Army Commander Unran had entered the palace to attend upon the Dragon Emperor before taking up his next mission.

Even those who belonged to the same pack could not enter the palace without following the proper procedures. If there were any exceptions, they would be the Six Consorts, the maids who attended them, and the Forbidden Army, the Dragon Emperor’s direct subordinates. Of those, perhaps only Unran, their commander, truly stood apart.

Anyone one passed inside the palace was either a maid in the Dragon Emperor’s service or a member of the personal guard protecting its vital points.

The personal guard were easy to spot, dressed as they were in dragon robes built around flashy red. The Forbidden Army led by Unran was also part of the Dragon Emperor’s guard, but in the end their main duty was dirty work done out of sight. From their purpose to the way they were organised, everything about them was different. If those women were the shield that guarded the Dragon Emperor’s person, then Unran was the sword that made the Dragon Emperor’s ideals a reality.

That said, in the sense that both served directly under the Dragon Emperor, they belonged to the same side. He knew the girls in the personal guard as well. For him, entering the palace was practically a face check, and every guard who spotted Unran paid him proper respect. Returning their greetings as he passed, Unran was walking through the courtyard that led to the audience chamber.

It was winter, and the trees planted in the garden had already shed every leaf. Their thin branches stretched bleakly into the cold blue sky.

The Central Palace had been built in lavish splendour, but without the flowers that lent it colour, did it always feel this desolate? As Unran recalled the view from when he had visited in early spring and took another step, an alarm bell suddenly rang throughout the palace… no, throughout all of Black Emperor Castle.

“——–!?”

It was the emergency bell announcing an enemy attack.

The maids hurrying about the palace all looked up at the sky at once.

It had been around fifty years since Unran had been taken in by the Dragon Emperor, but in all that time the alarm bell had never rung even once. That alone spoke of the Dragon Emperor’s majesty and Black Emperor Castle’s impregnable defences. The peal of that alarm was like a stone cast into the Dragon Emperor’s glory.

The palace fell into an uproar. Catching one of the personal guards hurrying to strengthen the defences, he demanded to know what was happening, only to learn that a single wyvern was approaching at high speed.

“Impossible. You’re saying it’s charging in alone?”

Wyverns were extremely rare and expensive magical beasts. Throwing one away like that was unthinkable.

Then the intruder had to have a corresponding chance of victory. However…

“A frontal breakthrough in broad daylight. I must say, I’m impressed…”

One person was storming Black Emperor Castle, a city of one hundred thousand.

It was hard to believe anyone in their right mind would attempt such a thing.

Was this some overconfident fool with a death wish, or an idiot who did not know their own limits? Or else did they have some cherished objective they meant to fulfil no matter the cost? In any case, it was recklessness taken too far.

Unran had once infiltrated an enemy stronghold alone and succeeded in an assassination. But that had been done by moving under cover of darkness, carrying it out in secret, and only striking after first creating a one-on-one situation. If he were to act in broad daylight like this, not even Unran could force checkmate.

“It’s far too crude for an assassination. But…”

If the intruder were someone who thought rationally.

If this suicidal charge were being made on the basis of a sure chance of victory backed by genuine strength.

That absurd premonition flashed through his mind, and…

“This is bad. His Majesty is in danger.”

Before his thoughts could finish forming the conclusion, he was already running.

He sprinted straight across the stone paving and reached the Phoenix Pavilion, where the personal guard was fortifying the defences.

He checked above, below, left, and right, but there was nothing amiss before the Phoenix Pavilion gate.

Fifty members of the personal guard stood stationed there, and every one of them was an elite on the level of a warrior princess. Their defensive posture was perfect. Even so, he could not afford to let down his guard.

Unran kicked off the ground and leaped onto the tiled roof of the Tower Palace. From there he ran up the sloping tiles and, from the peak, cast his gaze into the sky.

There he saw it: a wyvern roaring as it flew straight toward him.

“What is that movement…?”

Zigzagging evasive manoeuvres. Sharp motions like flashes of lightning.

Unran stared in shock as the wyvern slipped through the concentrated barrage of Breath coming from every direction and rushed onward by the shortest route at the greatest possible speed. The wyverns he knew did not fly in such tricky ways.

When that avian shadow drew directly overhead of the Tower Palace, the wyvern suddenly began climbing straight upward.

It’s coming.

Without taking his eyes from the sky above, Unran reached for the longsword at his hip.

The tiny black speck that had separated from the wyvern gradually grew larger, taking on the shape of a human figure.

It was a lone woman clad in plain dragon robes.

A beauty with a soft, graceful face. Yet on that lovely face there was neither tension nor fear. No fighting spirit, not even the slightest hesitation. Only a gentle smile clung there.

She was forcefully breaking into the Central Palace, where the strongest man of the dragonkin race dwelled, and yet that expression was far too detached from reality. Something cold ran down Unran’s spine.

…I cannot let her get any closer to His Majesty.

The instant he saw the falling woman narrow her eyes against the glare, Unran reflexively kicked off the tiled roof. He leaped from the Tower Palace into midair, drew his sword, and flew at her in a thrusting stance, one hand outstretched and the tip aimed at her throat.

“——–“

He should have slammed her with his full-power [Sword Aura].

But some powerful force shoved him back, and with the tip of his blade still extended, he was forced backward through the air. Even as the sensation struck him as strange, he righted his collapsing posture in midair and landed on the stone paving. At the same time, the woman drifted lightly down to the ground as well.

The personal guard moved to surround the woman, who was looking around with the air of a sightseer.

As the drawn-sword guards tried to tighten the encirclement, Unran raised one hand and stopped them.

“Wait. This one is highly skilled. I’ll handle her.”

Strictly speaking, Unran had no authority to command the personal guard.

However, perhaps the tension in his face had told them enough. The guards stopped advancing and shifted into a wary formation meant to keep the woman from escaping.

Holding up the tip of his longsword as if taking careful aim, he challenged the woman, who was watching the whole exchange as though it were someone else’s affair.

“Who are you?”

“Your Head Consort-sama.”

“Nonsense.”

Her voice remained placid to the very end, utterly devoid of any sense of danger.

Together with the absurdity of what she said, it made Unran question her sanity.

“If you surrender quietly, I’ll spare your life at least.”

“Oh? How kind of you. I do not dislike men like that.”

“I won’t say it twice.”

“Then shall I give you a little training?”

“More nonsense.”

“Who knows? Nonsense or not aside, I think it would be best if you came at me seriously. If you do not want to regret it.”

Right before Unran’s furrowed brow,

the woman’s body sank low, and her outline wavered like a heat haze.

“——–!?”

He had not taken his eyes off her. He had not even blinked.

Carelessness was not a word that suited Unran.

And yet in the very next instant, the woman’s fist was right in front of him. From emptiness into substance. It was a magnificent trespass into his range, carried out by a superb shrinking-earth technique that slipped through the gap in his awareness.

He avoided that surprise attack with a backstep and met her next pursuing blow by bringing up his longsword to intercept. But the slash she brought down diagonally…

“…What?”

Was brushed outward by her left fist as though sweeping it aside.

She was handling the blade, clad in [Sword Aura], with her bare hands. Faced with that astonishing reality, all Unran could do was stare wide-eyed. It was not deflected away. It was guided aside. That difference created a fatal opening for Unran. Her light footwork, born of empty-handed combat, slipped into the space left wide open inside his guard. There was no way to stop that intrusion. Then the heel of her palm drove toward his defenceless chest…

“…Why did you stop?”

“I told you, did I not? That you would regret it.”

Her palm strike, driven upward from a low stance, had stopped barely short of Unran’s solar plexus. What she had aimed for was his dantian, the vital point that served as the key stronghold of [Ki].

Unable to understand why she had pulled the blow, Unran stood there in confusion. Finding him faintly amusing, the woman gave a thin smile and leaped back.

When he put a hand to his chest, the dragon robe around the place she had struck crumbled away like ash. If that blow had actually landed…

“Now you understand well enough, do you not?”

The weight of his very life lay behind those words as they sank deep into Unran’s heart.

“Yes. It seems this is no time to hold anything back.”

He lowered the blade slightly. As Unran reset his stance, his shoulders began to sway little by little from side to side. That small motion gradually grew larger, blending Unran’s outline into the atmosphere and making it indistinct. Entering emptiness, hiding substance. Flowing steps that bewildered the enemy with countless afterimages. This was his hidden trump card: Water Dragon’s Dance.

“Come, then. Attack me with all your strength.”

The woman spread both hands and smiled fearlessly.

Layer upon layer of afterimages swirled around her, enclosing that composure.

Like a leaf floating atop a current. It was impossible to read through those elusive movements at first sight. The surrounding afterimages all brought their swords down toward the woman at once.

The real body was positioned diagonally behind her to the right. At the very instant the descending longsword was about to graze her shoulder, the woman suddenly turned and looked behind her. Their eyes met perfectly.

“——–“

A chill ran through his entire body.

She had seen through him.

But by the time he realised it, it was already too late.

A sharp shock ran through his abdomen, and Unran’s consciousness rapidly dimmed.

His body, having lost control, lurched forward and started to collapse, but the woman’s slender arms caught him firmly and held him up. As though praising a gifted student, she stroked the head of Unran, whom she supported against her shoulder, and said,

“It was a splendid technique. However, if one reads the flow of [Ki], its movements are perfectly transparent. If you can learn to conceal your [Ki] when entering emptiness, the precision of the technique will improve.”

Together with the pleasant sensation of her stroking his head, Unran’s consciousness snapped off there.