The Targeted Princess
「……Treat……」
After confirming Grave’s death, I left the room that was filled with corrosive poison and immediately detoxified myself.
Originally it was a poison with liquid form. It lost its instant lethality in its gas form, but I had inhaled too much of it into my lungs in order to finish the battle quickly. I leaned on the corridor’s wall and healed my lungs with Cure. Then I wiped the blood on my mouth and ran through the dark corridor.
Grave was an opponent that I had a deep tie with. Originally I wanted to settle things with him through a proper battle but……that guy’s way of life was just too awkward…….
Grave surely had his own thinking but, his feeling couldn’t reach me anymore because he started something unnecessary.
I ran while drinking healing potion and mana recovery potion of my own creation. My mana and stamina had decreased greatly. I was aware that I had been reckless, even so there was something that I obtained from it.
Iron Rose that was specialized for speed. From previously I had been persisting with fighting style that focused on speed which was my defining trait, but after going through many battles where I put my body through the wringer, I was able to obtain a new trump card though it put a great burden on my body and consumed a lot of mana.
Perhaps it was thanks to all those times overdoing it. My <Magic Power Control> skill had reached level 5. It was the limit of human race, a domain that could only be attained by the chosen people. It was just a single step, but I had stepped into such domain.
I used that magic power control to focus the strengthening on my muscle strength and smashed the boards blocking the window at the height of around the fourth floor with my kick. The sun had already set and the sky was becoming dark. I leaped out.
「Nero!!」
I yelled toward the night sky.
『GAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!』
A black gale responded and cut through the night. With a roar it ran up the castle wall and picked me who was fluttering through the sky on its back.
My eyes that had night vision could see the corpses of hundreds of defectives scattered throughout the forest. I patted the back of Nero who had drawn away that many enemies for me. Then I turned my gaze toward the direction where Nero’s whisker was pointing at. There a vampire was dying after Nero ripped him up.
If I remembered correctly, that vampire was one of the vampires that Gostoura was leading. Most likely he stayed behind to fight Nero so Gostoura and the others could go ahead.
It didn’t matter that he was an evil race and a vampire. I felt his resolve in risking his life for the sake of his comrade. I braced myself because I wouldn’t be able to take advantage of the opponent’s arrogance this time like all the times before.
「Nero. We’re chasing the vampires.」
『GAAAAAAAAAAAA!』
***
Normally it would take around three weeks until one month to travel from Marquis Kendra’s territory until the capital. But that was in case the traveler went through territory where humans lived and the safety was guaranteed to a degree, by carriage or on foot. That travel period could be shortened to around one week by using abnormal route of deep forest where wild animals and monsters were living.
That day, in the noble mansion inside the sorcery academy near the capital’s outskirt, the servants were shocked and flustered by the sudden return of the noble daughter who was their master.
「Carla-sama!?」
「You have returned!?」
「Weren’t you heading to Kendras-?」
「That look……」
「I returned just now.」
Carla suddenly appeared at the entrance hall inside the mansion. Her sickly white skin was still entwined by black thorn. She didn’t reply any further to the flustered servants and only told them her demand.
「Rather than that, I want to drink tea with honey. After that I also want to soak in hot water, so can you all prepare them immediately?」
「Y-yes-」
「We shall prepare them right away!」
The mansion’s servants recalled their role and started moving in a hurry. The house of Count Lester was a house that was famous in sorcery and it had produced a lot of royal court sorcerer, but it had few dependents for a high ranked noble house and the number of servant was also few because of their strong paranoia.
Many of the servants also doubled as disciples of the current head of the house who was the head of the royal court sorcerers, but the young Carla once killed more than half of the sorcery disciples.
There was no servant who wanted to follow Carla who was being feared in Lester House. The servants here were outsiders who got brought in by an old butler who was the only person who had ever felt concern for Carla ever since she was little.
People who were sold by their parents because of debt, people who committed crime because they had no choice, people who couldn’t find proper work. The majority of the servants here were people like that, but because of that the position as Carla’s servant became a support for these people who had no other place to run away to because Carla never mistreated anyone as long they weren’t hostile.
「How rushed.」
Carla chuckled cynically seeing her own servants fearing her and went away without even helping her, their master to change her clothes. Carla went to her room at the second floor on her own feet, and there she finally dispelled her Gift, the Soul Thorn.
「……cough」
She coughed a little and a trickle of blood slipped out from the corner of her lips.
Carla was able to return from a place that should be several days away from here because she used the infinite mana of Soul Thorn to cast level 6 darkness magic Teleport.
She didn’t use it to go there because she could only use it to a place that she had visited herself. But that wasn’t all, Carla herself also simply wished to act together with Aria.
「Fufu……」
Carla sat down on a single-seat sofa inside her dark room and smiled in remembrance.
She couldn’t see what happen inside the castle, but she had seen from afar the vampires coming out of the castle and fighting the mythical beast Coeurl. From the several available options, they had chosen to attack the royal family……furthermore she guessed that they would target the princess who didn’t have Aria at her side.
The current crown prince Ervan wasn’t an incompetent, but he didn’t have the resolve like her little sister Elena who could be entrusted with the live of the twelve million populaces and cut them off if necessary.
Elena already had such resolve when she was seven years old. Aria and Carla were also able to understand and accept such thing at that age. It wasn’t refutable that the three of them were out of the norm, but it didn’t change the fact that Ervan was clearly inferior compared to them.
If this was a peaceful era then he would still become an ordinary king despite that, but in this situation, if Carla was in the position of the vampires who had the mission of diminishing the national strength of Claydale Kingdom, she would also think that the princess was in the way.
Was Aria able to win against that man? Would Aria be able to protect the princess?
Even though Aria had the strength of an upper rank 4 and could fight evenly even against rank 5 enemy, it should be difficult to accomplish either of those. The possibility of accomplished either of them would jump up if Carla lend a hand, but she had no intention of interfering with Aria’s battle.
「……Because, you will definitely win.」
It would be difficult for Aria to win. Even so Carla didn’t have even the slightest doubt of Aria’s victory.
Aria would become even stronger when this battle ended. Carla’s only interest was in her future fight with Aria. She had no interest in the life of anyone else.
Carla had overworked herself in this battle and she would fall into comatose state for several days after this. Even knowing that a cheerful smile like a little child formed on her sickly face.
「I wonder who will have died when I wake up……」
***
The evil race vampires were sprinting through the dark forest like ghosts. Although they were undead who didn’t need rest, their life force and mana were still limited as long as they existed in this material world. They required “sleep” during noon in order to maintain their regenerative power and high physical parameters.
In vampire’s case, they were maintaining their immortality by absorbing other people’s soul through the intermediary of blood, and obtaining darkness and earth magic particles by sleeping at graveyard, but right now that wasn’t an option for them.
「Gostoura-sama……」
「As expected, with that body」
「……Don’t worry, Restes, Garrey. I won’t perish from just this much. Besides we can’t let our guard down against them. You two just focus on what you have to do.」
「「……Yes-」」
Gostoura’s subordinates could only nod even though they couldn’t accept his words.
A vampire’s body could regenerate from any wound as long as they had time and mana. But, Gostoura’s right arm that was torn off by Carla was still not regenerating. His face that shouldn’t feel any pain was grimacing.
Spirit that had no flesh body in the material world still received around ten percent of damage even from normal weapon because of the power of will like hostility or malice from the attacker. It was said that willpower reacted with mana and left behind some effect.
An undead who couldn’t feel physical pain easily was now feeling agony because the “malice” of Carla who did it was polluting his body and even his soul.
That Carla would pursue them after time passed. The black beast that had massacred the defectives that they created to be their vanguards would also pursue after them sooner or later even though one of them had stayed behind to hold it back.
And then there was also that “Ash Crowned Princess” who possessed such abnormal strength. Grave was a strong warrior even in Gostoura’s eyes, but there was no guarantee that he would be able to stop her.
It was unthinkable that Carla and the ash crowned girl appeared at the same time by coincidence. Even if the two of them were dispatched by the country, there should be someone else who leaked the information about them.
As he thought human couldn’t be trusted. There was Carla from the beginning, and even the nobles who were the employer of Grave and Tabatha, anyone of them could possibly betray Gostoura and his men after making use of them.
(Absolutely unforgivable!)
Gostoura fanned up his hatred toward human race once more.
Even the evil race wasn’t a monolith. It was in a situation where the human extermination faction and the peaceful faction were constantly in quarrel against each other since a long time ago.
But vampire clan was a clan that wasn’t fully trusted because they were monsters despite being a member of the evil race. If the peaceful faction won, there was a fear that one day the vampire clan would be driven out from the evil race.
They would kidnap the princess, then made use of her to deal a blow to the human nations, triggering a new war.
They would fan up the conflict within the evil race using the princess as bait, then they would display the usefulness of vampire race in the war that started against the human race.
(Chief……I’ll definitely play my part in creating a place for our clan to belong.)
In order to not waste the lives of their comrades who had been sacrificed, Gostoura and his men were reluctant to spend time even for regenerating their wounds and kept running through the dark forest day and night. Their only remaining path was to advance while literally shaving off their life for that.
***
Even the sorcery academy had security. It was the alma mater of almost all of the nobles in Claydale Kingdom. This academy that was attended by their own children and relatives drew a lot of donations which were used to form its own private knight order that numbered 200 people.
Of course it was impossible to patrol the whole academy that had the same size like the capital with just that number, but the academy was surrounded by a primeval forest, turning it into a natural forest that prevented any horsed or armored troops from approaching.
Other than that, any high ranked noble house would naturally send several guards to come with their children. There were also several hundred guards in addition. So it was thought that the academy had adequate security as long as there was no situation like before where a part of the knight order turned traitor.
But such thinking also caused carelessness. In the princess’s case, the number of noble houses that could be trusted was few, so she could only bring a platoon of royal guard with her. Originally that would be enough, because normally black ops knights and the adventurer girl who was a member of Rainbow Sword would also be guarding the princess, so mere assassin wouldn’t even become a problem.
But now……the figure of the girl who was called “Ash Crowned Princess” and feared by the people of the underworld wasn’t at the side of Princess Elena.
「Aria……please, come back safely.」
Elena appeared on the terrace of her room while still wearing nightclothes. She looked up to the moon floating at the night sky and quietly linked her fingers together and offered a prayer for the girl who was the only one in this world she had bared her heart to.
Without even noticing that the greatest danger was approaching herself…….
***
A black beast and a girl on its back was rushing through a thick forest that was filled with huge trees. It was dark there even during noon.
There was no flat road or clear sight anywhere. Even so the two jumped over a huge stone that spanned several meters without even slowing down at all and rushed through the trees that were grouped in complicated pattern like a labyrinth with zigzagging movement.
The trees that they had passed until this point had the traces of animal claws left on them. The corpses of monsters that were cut down or ripped up at various points were rolling on the ground as though they were guidepost.
『GIGYAAAAAH!』
From above the trees, several things with human silhouette that had wings growing on their body attacked that beast and girl.
They were rank 3 monsters that were called harpy. They had the wings and claws of bird of prey, with upper body that looked like human female. They thought they had overwhelming advantage deep inside the forest and attacked with warped smiles, imagining the pitiful prey that they were going to rip apart after this.
「Annoying.」
The girl’s voice flowed inside the dark forest. A slashing pendulum flew in that moment and cut the neck of one harpy. While blood sprayed up in the air, a scythe pendulum tore the wings of the harpies and they fell down where the claws of the black beast immediately ripped them up. The girl and beast continued running through the dark forest without slowing down for even a moment.
***
「……It’s cold today.」
The season was spring but sometimes the night would still feel chilly. The dusk had passed and the sky of the sorcery academy was starting to become dark. A man wearing the janitor overall slovenly was looking up to the sky while opening the lid of a copper flask and took just a sip from it.
The content of the flask was distilled fruit wine. He was still in the middle of work so it seemed frivolous of him to carry such thing but, distilled alcohol could also be used to sterilize wound and also as restorative. It could also warm the body if it was drunk slightly like this. It could be said as an essential for adventurer who worked solo.
「……Let’s stop.」
He wanted to take another sip because of this out-of-season coldness, even so drinking anymore than this would cause hindrance to his work so Viro held back with a frown.
Viro was a member of adventurer party “Rainbow Sword” that was distinguished through the whole country. He was infiltrating the academy as a janitor because he got assignment to guard the princess who became a student here.
The members of Rainbow Sword who received the assignment this time was only the scout Viro who could blend into anywhere naturally and Aria who wouldn’t be suspected even if she was inside the academy.
Aria was in charge of protecting the princess from nearby seeing that she had the same gender and age with the princess, while Viro was in charge of standing guard at the surrounding and gathering information. Even so the royal guards took over the guard duty after the princess returned to her mansion, but this time Aria was absent from the academy in order to subjugate Grave, so Viro also continued to patrol the surrounding when night came.
Attacker that was hired by middle ranked noble could be taken care of by the royal guard, no problem. In the first place, attacking the academy that was located close to the capital would also bring a lot of political risk to the attacker, so it was something that rarely happened.
Even so, sometimes there were also people who couldn’t read the situation or people who held unjustified resentment who would send their skilled subordinate as assassin. That kind of people had gotten dealt with by Viro and the black ops without ever being able to reach the princess who was guarded by Aria.
(……Something’s odd.)
Viro stored his flask in his pocket and touched his mythril short sword with his finger in exchange. He was grumbling in his heart. This coldness wasn’t because of the weather. Viro’s instinct that he had cultivated in the border of life and death for many years had sensed something out of place in the air. He switched mood from acting as security to preparing for a fight.
The number of personnel from the black ops had also been increased because of the insurrection of the second knight order before. Right now it was still nothing more than a vague warning from Viro’s instinct, but just in case something really happened, Viro left behind instruction to the black ops’ contact network to increase the vigilance while he ran toward the princess’s mansion by himself.
***
「……What’s wrong?」
Two academy knights were patrolling near the forest at the northern side of the academy on horse. One of them stopped his horse and turned toward his colleague.
「No, something……」
The thick forest that was surrounding the academy was like a barrier that refused entry. But the tree grouping at the northern side was especially thick, so it was dark even at noon. It was really rare but sometimes wolf or stray dog could also appear from there, so the academy knights often patrolled this area. The knight who stopped his horse was feeling something like a chill from inside that forest.
He turned his face toward his colleague who was asking him question in order to tell him about that feeling, but right in that instant, that colleague got assaulted by a black shadow that shot out from the forest.
「What-!?」
The knight raised a shocked voice. In front of him, his comrade got his neck bitten without him being able to even make a voice. Then his comrade’s body crumbled down like a withered tree while he was looking. The attacking black shadow showed crimson eyes and fangs that glistened from blood inside the thin darkness. The moment the knight realized the attacker’s true identity, two shadows shot out once more from the dark forest and bit him. He lost his life in an instant.
「Let’s go.」
One of the shadows raised his voice. The other two who were slurping blood greedily raised their faces.
They knew the location where their target was staying. They had even postponed sucking blood until they arrived here but, there should be nobody who could stop them after coming this far.
The vampires were sure of that and started moving like ghosts into the academy that had gotten dark after the sun set.
.
「Gyah!?」
The evil race vampires, Gostoura and his subordinates ran into an academy knight on the way. They didn’t hide and killed him as they passed by.
Their parameters had gone down somewhat because of their forced march until here, but rank 2 knight still wouldn’t even be a hindrance against them. And more than that, the information that they obtained from Tabatha’s master also included the academy’s security which was useful to shorten their traveling time.
That master……Clara didn’t have the intention of leaking that much information, but Tabatha felt humiliation from getting [pitied] by her as a fellow woman and did this as revenge.
Like that the vampires sprinted through the academy. In that short time they had bared their fangs on six academy knights and several unfortunate students with bad behavior who were still out at this hour. Then they finally arrived at the princess’s mansion.
The princess was guarded by a platoon of royal guards, ten knights and several soldiers who served as their attendants. Other than them there were only the black ops’ bodyguard maid and butler at the princess’s side. This number wasn’t even half of the crown prince’s guard, but that was just how few people that the princess could trust because so many were trying to make use of her.
But, there was no point in number that was just for appearance. After all the girl who was called the “Ash Crowned Princess” and be thought as the most troublesome factor inside this academy other than also being the princess’s bodyguard was currently absent.
At this time, there were only two knights and two soldiers of the royal guards standing guard outside the mansion.
The fence surrounding the mansion had magical protection and breaking through to jump over it would take time, so Gostoura and his men decided to make use of their ability to “bulldoze” through.
「Gah!?」
The chakram that was thrown by a vampire who looked like someone around the age of thirty split the head of one soldier, killing him instantly.
「Wha-」
「E-enemy attack-!」
The remaining soldier ran into the mansion to call for reinforcement. The knights immediately readied their shield and blocked the chakram that was thrown to that soldier’s back.
「You bastards!」
「Black skin……no way, evil race-!」
Gostoura bared his fangs in a grin at the knights’ reaction.
「I won’t tell you two to move aside. Go ahead to that world from your effort in protecting the princess.」
「Screw you! You won’t reach her highness!」
「Wait!」
The young knight ran toward Gostoura with his sword and shield at the ready. The other knight couldn’t stop him in time. A female vampire holding two kukuri knives that looked like hatchet slipped beside the shield and slashed open the young knight’s side.
「Guah」
「What a sweet smell……it’s too bad that we have no time to suck your blood.」
「Those fangs, don’t tell me!?」
The vampires here were specially chosen from among the vampire clan. Every one of them had rank 4 strength even before becoming vampire. Their combat strength then got doubled from becoming vampire.
「Now, die. We will also follow behind you sooner or later.」
The knights felt extraordinary resolve from the female vampire’s words.
She raised her kukuri knife without the other knight unable to even approach closer, but Gostoura suddenly moved and swung his sword.
*Clang!*
A throwing knife got deflected and stabbed into the ground. A man appeared from the darkness at the other side.
「Are you alright guys!?」
「Sir Viro!」
The expressions of the knights were lit up with hope seeing a high ranked adventurer like Viro showing up. At the same time several other knights also appeared from the mansion. The female vampire clicked her tongue in annoyance seeing the situation changed drastically.
「Gostoura-sama, Garrey. Leave this place to me and go ahead.」
「……Take care.」
Gostoura spoke briefly to the female vampire, then the other vampire called Garrey nodded deeply and the two of them jumped over the head of the approaching knights to head toward the mansion.
「What’s with that physical ability!?」
「Sir Viro, they might be vampire!」
「Tsk!」
*Clang!*
Viro tri
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