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

Chapter 122: Dreams for the Future

Once, not long after Princess-sama transferred into the Lower House.

There was something he had asked Ōka in passing.

“Ōka, what’s your dream for the future?”

He hadn’t meant anything by it. It had simply come up in the flow of conversation.

After thinking for a moment, Ōka touched her index finger to her lower lip and answered.

“Mm… to be a bride.”

◇◇◇◇◇

The winter wind was sharp enough to cut into flesh.

Three thousand metres up, the wind lashing the deck of the flying ship as it sped onward was fierce enough to freeze a person to the core in a single breath. If it started snowing up here, it would no doubt turn into a merciless blizzard, like the breath of bitter cold itself.

For Kishō, a half-dragon, that went without saying. Even Ōka, a pureblood dragonkin, was apparently finding this cold hard to bear, and she shivered as white breath spilled from her lips. Even so, the reason she refused to go inside was because she wanted to see the view that would soon come into sight.

The flying ship was heading southeast through the dim pre-dawn gloom.

This was the coldest time of day, before sunrise. The deck, with nothing to block the wind, was especially frigid.

After seeing his mother’s return through to the end, Kishō and the others had left Algant.

Now they were en route to the site of the winter special practical training.

What had his mother discussed with her old friends after returning to Black Emperor Castle? She hadn’t said much, but one thing was certain. The obstacle standing in the way of his marriage to Princess-sama had been removed.

Only one problem remained.

The Curse of Sixteen.

It was an incurable affliction that brought certain death on one’s sixteenth birthday.

If Kishō were still the boy who knew nothing, he probably would have worried about Ōka, who often missed school, and suggested they go inside. He might even have teased her half-jokingly about playing the part of a sickly girl. But now that he knew she didn’t have long left to live, he couldn’t act the same way.

The dragon robes covering his body flapped wildly in the gale. The loose cloth at his sleeves had been beaten nearly horizontal by the wind and wouldn’t fall back down. Kishō casually shifted his position and blocked the flow of air with his body. She must have wondered why the wind had suddenly weakened. Ōka looked up at him curiously. Kishō turned away, as if avoiding her questioning gaze.

His back throbbed under the wind, but that was surely just his imagination. It wasn’t as if he’d been worried about Ōka. Kishō had merely changed positions. As a result, he’d ended up taking the brunt of the wind resistance himself. That was all.

“Look.”

Suddenly, she gave his arm a firm tug. The warmth of Ōka’s body wrapped around his right arm, which had gone cold.

Right between the prow and the port side of the ship, Ōka pointed into what should have been spreading darkness. Drawn by the motion, he turned back and, at the edge of his vision…

he saw the horizon glowing gold.

The land sleeping beneath the curtain of night awakened, and the sky regained its blue.

The moment the morning sun showed its face, the whole landscape was laid bare at once.

A single highway ran alongside the flying ship as though keeping pace with it. Colourful tents were scattered here and there on either side of the road. The winter grasslands were brown.

Leaning out over the port railing, Ōka gazed into the golden morning sun and sighed in admiration.

“Waa, what an amazing view. It’s spectacular.”

“Hey, be careful. If you let your guard down, the wind’ll carry you off.”

“I’m fine, I’m fine.”

The wind pressure outside the hull was nothing like what it was on the deck. Her small body, leaning out over the railing, looked as though the gale might whip her away into the far sky at any moment. Unconcerned by her chestnut hair being tossed into disarray, Ōka turned back with an innocent smile.

“I like dawn, you know.”

“It really is magnificent, or something like that. Definitely worth seeing.”

“Yeah. Doesn’t it feel like a future overflowing with hope stretches on forever?”

With the sunlight haloing her from behind, Ōka flashed him a dazzling smile.

At that utterly natural smile, Kishō could only stare in silence. Had she always acted so bravely?

Now, he felt as though he could see what lay on the other side of that smile.

“Your dream for the future. It was to be a bride, right? What are you going to do? You don’t even have anyone to marry.”

“Mm… yeah, that’s true.”

He’d thought it was a strangely silly dream for a fifteen-year-old girl to say out loud.

After all, everyone got married off somewhere eventually. He’d assumed it was the kind of dream that would come true one day regardless.

“If you’d be okay with it… I mean.”

“Mm?”

Why did she stay with someone like him, a dropout?

He had always wondered that.

“I mean, this is just a suggestion, so don’t tense up listening to it, okay?”

She didn’t cosy up to strong men. She didn’t try to form a pack either.

And yet she was always lecturing Kishō on how important a pack was. She kept nagging him to build a harem. Wasn’t that contradictory? What about her, then? He’d always thought that.

“My, my. You seem unusually serious today. Don’t tell me you’re thinking of confessing with the sunrise behind you, Shō-kun? You can’t do that. It’d make Yō-chan sad.”

With a joking, playful tone, Ōka took a step back. She was good at deftly prodding Kishō’s embarrassment and putting up a line of defence so he couldn’t press any further.

That was how Ōka had lived all this time, right up to today, keeping her own feelings hidden. Pretending to be cheerful while constantly fussing over Kishō.

Even though it had to be painful for her. Even though she had to be feeling a loneliness and fear that made her want to cry. And yet she was always smiling.

Are you thinking you’re the most unhappy person in the world or something?

Who had those words really been meant for?

“Won’t you join my pack?”

“…Huh?”

The clown’s mask, which had been performing its role perfectly, stiffened.

“Ah, no. I don’t mean as my wife or anything. It’s just, you don’t have any boys you’re close with, right? So I thought maybe you could be with us.”

“Me… joining your pack, Shō-kun’s…?”

“Yeah. I think Kuroyō would be happy too.”

Faced with the sudden offer, Ōka stood there in confusion.

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah. Of course.”

The reason Ōka had never joined a pack was because she knew she wouldn’t live to graduation.

So she wouldn’t trouble anyone if she had to drop out halfway. So everything could begin and end within herself alone. She had avoided forming ties with anyone. That was why she’d been able to stay by Kishō’s side all this time.

In truth, she must have wanted to join a pack too. Like any girl her age, she must have wanted to enjoy romance. To walk beside a boy, to hold hands on dates, maybe even to kiss in some romantic place… she must have wanted to enjoy her youth to the fullest.

That was why her dream was to be a bride.

“Come walk forward with us. Even after graduation, let’s stay together forever.”

That proposal might have sounded cruel to Ōka. For a girl who didn’t have long to live, talk of a future where everyone laughed together and spent their days in happiness would have been too dazzling.

Even so, he absolutely had to tell her.

That she was his precious comrade.

That he wanted them to overcome this difficult trial and step into the future together.

“Mm, thanks. I’ll think about it.”

He didn’t know how much of that message had reached her.

Ōka merely murmured that as she looked down a little. Her expression was hidden by her chestnut hair, and he couldn’t see it.

Beyond the earth, the sun had just lifted off from the ground. Its dazzling rays blew away even the faint remnants of night.

The silhouette of wings gliding dynamically floated in the backlight. The roar of the wyverns pulling the ship thundered through the air. Despite flying all night long, the wyverns showed no sign of fatigue. Drawn by those stalwart creatures, the suspended hull pierced the cold winter sky.

It sliced through the clouds.

The moment the hull plunged into a thick bank of cloud, his vision turned pure white, like dense fog.

He caught Ōka as she stumbled, and soon the flying ship burst through the clouds into the blue sky beyond. A change came over the scenery on the ground, which had been shifting by at high speed. The single road began to gather company as two roads, then three, converged on it from all directions.

The destination of the roads gathering from all over the country. That was…

“I can see it now. So that’s the neutral city, Ashitana.”

On the far side of the horizon, an enormous city had come into view, large enough to be seen with the naked eye.

Bathed in dazzling sunlight, that city was Ashitana, the neutral city hosting the winter special practical training. Every road in the country had been laid out to lead towards it.

He could tell even from a distance. The huge structure at the centre of the city was the Ashitana Neutral Library. According to Princess-sama, it was one of the largest libraries in the country. Its holdings were supposedly several hundred, perhaps even several thousand, times greater than the academy library’s.

If it’s there, then maybe…

Beside Kishō, who quietly clenched his fist, Ōka stared at the distant city and let out a breathy little sound of wonder.

“Umm. The winter special practical training was supposed to be survival in an urban area, right?”

“Yeah. All nine hundred students in the school. Apparently it’ll be one big competition with the Upper House and Lower House all thrown together.”

What was fortunate for Kishō was that he wouldn’t be separated from Ōka.

Though even if the Lower House had been assigned a different location, Kishō probably would have thrown his studies aside and stayed by Ōka’s side anyway.

“Hey, did you know? Ashitana has a floating restaurant.”

“You sure know a lot. Did you hear that from Kuroyō?”

“Yeah. There’s a little lake in the city, and there’s a floating island in the middle of it. You get on a covered boat at the pier and go ashore there.”

“That sounds expensive…”

“Jeez! Shō-kun, even on a trip you’re worrying about the price?”

“Sorry, sorry. Yeah, you’re right. Once we get there, want to go check it out right away?”

“Yeah!”

Ōka nodded in a buoyant voice, looking genuinely delighted.

As if straightening her tousled chestnut hair, Kishō ran a hand over it, then shivered all over. It seemed they’d stayed out a little too long. He was chilled to the core.

“Let’s head back soon. You’re cold too, right?”

“Yeah. Let’s.”

Inside the ship, heated by a magical engine, it was warm enough to bring tears to his eyes.

They met up with Princess-sama and had breakfast in the lounge.

Maybe it was consideration on Seiran’s part, but the crew were strangely friendly, and the food was absurdly luxurious too.

Munching on steak, Ōka happily talked about their plans from here on out. She was completely in travel mode.

They returned to their cabin and finished preparing to disembark.

He didn’t put on the Upper House dragon robes he had brought with him. If he alone wore the Lower House uniform, Ōka would stand out. He’d decided that he and Princess-sama would both take part in the practical training in Lower House uniforms.

Once they were done preparing, he met up with Ōka and the others on the deck.

The flying ship had already landed in Ashitana, and from the deck they had a full view of the cityscape. It felt strangely nostalgic. The city had an atmosphere similar to Algant.

First, they had to find Instructor Fūyō and report that they had arrived safely on site. Next, they had to meet up with Kōran and Tsukino.

The three of them headed out into the city together.

As they walked through the streets, they found a trio of female teachers having tea at a cafe. After receiving an explanation of the winter special practical training from Instructor Fūyō, they checked into the inn they’d been introduced to.

Ōka collapsed immediately after that.

◇◇◇◇◇

He had been mocked as someone who had nothing and left to sit alone on a bench in the lonely dusk.

Then there was a girl who smacked him on the back with a loud thwack and flashed white teeth as if blowing his gloom away.

With a smile so innocent it made everything seem ridiculous, and a personality so bottomlessly carefree, she had grabbed his hand and dragged him out onto a sunlit path. Walking ahead of him, she wore a mischievous grin. That dazzling smile had soothed him, and time and again she had given him the strength to keep going. The reason Kishō had been able to recover like this, the reason he had the present he did now, was thanks to her.

When things were truly painful,

Having someone there beside you could be an enormous support to the heart.

Because he understood the value of that so deeply, Kishō had made up his mind.

If Ōka was in trouble, he would help her before anything else.

He had resolved that firmly.

The Curse of Sixteen gnawing away at Ōka’s body.

That was a problem Kishō himself had to solve for her.

He wouldn’t leave it to anyone else. He would do it with his own two hands.

The time had come for him to repay the debt of gratitude he owed Ōka.