The Crown Princess's Man (2)

“Ouch, that stings!”

Liris woke with a startle, feeling as if something sharp had pricked her; her left hand, wearing the ring, was painfully tingling. When she looked, the purple gem had been stained pitch black.

“Uh…?!”

Liris sprang up. As a bearer of sacred power, she could precisely sense the unpleasant aura emanating from the ring. It was an evil yet highly pure magical energy.

Now that she thought about it, an extremely unpleasant aura was being felt not far away. With a rising sense of unease, Liris hurried to dress—putting on thick, warm outer garments instead of a dress, fastening her cloak tight. Just in case, she grabbed her magic bag with her own combat items and rushed out of the room. Her response was as fast as a well-trained knight’s.

She ran down the stairs two steps at a time and exited the main building to see knights standing on alert. As she tried to dash across the training ground, Haris grabbed her. He whispered quickly in a low voice, mindful of the knights.

“Crown Princess, where are you going? It’s dangerous. Please remain inside the building.”

“Where is the Duke?”

“The Commander is…”

Haris trailed off; if he said the Commander was outside, she would definitely bolt at once.

Liris narrowed her eyes.

“I order it as the Crown Princess. Take me to the Duke.”

“Th-that… I can’t… I can’t do that…”

“Hurry!”

Haris, staring helplessly at Liris’s firm command, bit his lip.

“I can’t. The Commander is currently confronting a high-rank demon. I can’t put the Crown Princess in danger.”

“Have you forgotten who I am? I am a bearer of sacred power. Besides, the Duke is in danger right now!”

Startled by Liris’s outcry, Haris asked back in alarm.

“The Commander is in danger? How do you know that?”

“There’s no time to explain. Come on! It’s urgent!”

In the end, Haris decided to side with the Crown Princess, risking being struck down by Kaiston, to save him.

“Follow me.”

As Haris took the Crown Princess and began running, a startled Ban ran up.

“What are you doing?! Are you insane?”

“The Commander is in danger according to her words. You go up to the wall and open the gate.”

“What?! How am I supposed to do that?!”

“It’s urgent! If something happens to the Commander, do you want to be held responsible?”

“Ah, fine.”

Seeing Ban dash toward the wall stairs, Haris guided Liris along.

Kaiston’s purple eyes had been stained jet-black by the fierce magical energy that seemed intent on consuming his entire body.

“Stop it already.”

Kaiston clenched his teeth and gripped Astarot’s hand that rested on his shoulder. For a moment, his once-blackened purple eyes shone clearly. Astarot stared at those eyes in wonder.

“The more I see it, the stranger it gets.”

Astarot tightened his grip on Kaiston’s shoulder.

“Ugh…”

Under the violent clash of energies inside him, Kaiston finally moaned. He had endured too much; it was beyond the limit. Just as he worried he might actually die if this continued and prepared to pull away from Astarot—

“Yaaaah!!!”

At the tremendous shout, Astarot startled and looked toward the gate.

“Huh?”

A waddling, bear-like figure was charging this way at terrifying speed. Kaiston’s body froze.

“Take your hand off him right now!!!”

As the distance closed, ‘it’ put a hand into its pocket and began flinging water-balloon-like objects wildly. Astarot was ready to swat them aside without thinking but—

“Eek!”

He recoiled in alarm. When the balloons burst and sprayed droplets everywhere, the drops hit his body and sizzled as if drenched in acid.

“W-what is this? It’s holy water?!”

Only after Astarot let go of Kaiston and stepped back for a long while did the bear-like thing, Liris, stop the water-bomb barrage.

“Liris…”

With a bewildered expression, Kaiston looked at Liris, and at Saik and Haris who stood as if guarding her. Only Liris was bold; the other two couldn’t even meet his eyes. In fact, Saik had been on the wall to restrain her and had leaped down like a madman, but he had missed the moment to take her in because of her furious curses and the water-bomb onslaught.

“Hah, hah… Are you all right? Yes?”

Liris fumbled over Kaiston’s body as the magical energy drained out of him.

“I’m fine… but why did you…”

Fine? He looked pale as if badly injured. Liris glared at Astarot with a sharp look.

“You…”

Astarot looked baffled, peeking at the woman with only his eyes visible.

“What the hell is that unpleasant woman?”

Until Astarot mentioned her, Kaiston had been in a daze. The thought that Liris had been exposed in front of that vicious demon made his vision go dark. He could normally shrug off Astarot’s pranks, but if she were in danger—if Astarot demanded she be handed over—then.

A slow expression returned to Kaiston’s face. He had always had nothing to lose and cared little for his own life, but things were different now. He had to live and protect. With a slightly hardened look, Kaiston spoke to Astarot.

“Don’t speak carelessly. She’s the Crown Princess of the Empire, Astarot.”

“What? The Crown Princess? The Crown Princess of Aikadum?”

“Yes.”

“Why on earth is the Crown Princess here?”

“I’m on my honeymoon with him!”

Astarot’s eyes widened at the bold Crown Princess who suddenly linked arms with Kaiston and declared it.

“Oh? You got married?”

Whether he asked or not, Kaiston was busy turning Liris’s words over in his head: ‘I’, ‘him’, ‘honeymoon’—each joined up and made a remarkable statement. He began to feel a little pleased.

“Ah… this is troublesome. I already told my lord about you… but becoming the Empire’s son-in-law…”

“What’s that got to do with anything?”

“Well, naturally… hmm. I don’t know either. I’ll figure it out.”

Liris stared at him like a predator, causing Astarot to scratch the back of his head and take a step or two back.

“Crown Princess. I didn’t really harm your husband. I was just conducting a little experiment.”

His attitude stunned Kaiston, and Saik and Haris as well; it was a servile expression and posture none of them had ever seen from Astarot before.

“If you lay a hand on my husband one more time, I won’t forgive you!”

Liris shouted with a fierce expression. The normally mild and lovely woman was now radiating lethal intent. Whatever she was relying on to be so fierce, it was stranger that the formidable Astarot was actually retreating.

“Alright, alright. I won’t touch him, so stop staring, you crazy Crown Princess.”

Hearing ‘crazy’ from Astarot—whose eyes suited that word best—made it oddly shocking to Kaiston. He pulled Liris behind him and hid her.

“…Anyway, welcome back, Astarot.”

“Hah. Yeah. I came back for nothing; there won’t be much fun left now.”

“Next time, let’s meet at your castle if possible.”

Astarot clicked his tongue at Kaiston’s words, which clearly meant ‘I’ll come, so you don’t have to.’

“As if you’d come to me first.”

“If you keep your promise, I’ll keep mine.”

Kaiston repeated the point, thinking of Astarot coming while he emptied the Red Moon was a terrifying prospect. Astarot looked at him for a moment and nodded.

“All right. I won’t wait.”

Liris squirmed as if trying to slip out from behind, but Kaiston didn’t let her go.

“Please watch the border controls well, Astarot.”

“Alright.”

Astarot waved his hand, turned, and vanished in an instant. Even after he disappeared, Kaiston didn’t let her go for a while.

“Liris.”

As soon as he released her, Liris hurried back and checked him over. Only after confirming his clear, vivid purple eyes did she relax and burrow into his arms.

“What on earth…”

“I was worried about you…”

Thoughts like ‘it wasn’t that dangerous’ or ‘you were the one more at risk’ crossed his mind, but Kaiston stayed silent. The fierce Crown Princess who had just acted so boldly was now trembling in his arms.

How frightened must she have been? How scared? He thought that if their positions were reversed, he might have charged in recklessly too, even if the opponent were the Demon King, if he could save Liris.

So he simply whispered quietly.

“I’m sorry, Liris.”

Only then did her trembling subside. He patted her back.

“Commander.”

Saik cautiously offered him a healing potion. Kaiston’s gaze passed from Saik to Haris, then to Ban on the wall, and to Zik and Nel at the gate in order. Though his overworked body screamed to collapse and rest, Kaiston used the potion to roughly calm his internal injuries.

“Follow me.”

Kaiston took Liris by the wrist and moved first. Saik and Haris glanced at each other, sighed almost simultaneously as if they knew they were doomed, and began following Kaiston toward the fortress.

Back at the fortress, Kaiston summoned Liris, Saik, and the captains to his office. Unable to bear the heavy silence, Liris spoke first.

“I’m sorry for acting on my own. But the captains and Saik aren’t at fault. I ordered them because of my status as the Crown Princess.”

Kaiston looked at her silently. Liris met his gaze calmly and continued, “I went out because I sensed it wasn’t a mere monster but a high-rank demon. I knew high-rank demons close to pureblood are more strongly affected by the blood and sacred power that flows through me.”

It was astonishing that a fragile woman who couldn’t handle a single orc alone was actually a figure of dread to high-rank demons.

“Even if it was the Crown Princess’s order, the truth is that in this fortress, the Commander’s orders take precedence. I disobeyed orders, so I’ll accept any punishment. It is true I caused a dangerous situation without knowing what effect the Crown Princess’s sacred power might have.”

Saik spoke with his head bowed. In truth, he had tried to dissuade the Crown Princess, not for orders or her safety alone. He controlled her and the knights and didn’t intervene because he feared that needlessly provoking Astarot might endanger Kaiston.

If he had even a little power to stop Astarot, he would have rushed out regardless of his commander’s orders. And if there had been even the slightest chance for the Crown Princess, he would have opened the gate despite the risk to her.

Knowing himself well, he confessed to the crime of disobeying orders.