The Female Knight Who Is Terrible At Writing Letters To Her Boyfriend Is Way Too Cute

“—Looks like we’ve finally reached our destination.”

The next day, despite being tossed around by some rough waves, the ship made steady progress and arrived safely in the 【Republic】 almost exactly on schedule.

As befitted an island located in the south, a humid wave of heat greeted me as soon as I stepped off the ship. Now I understood why Ena and Zena wore such revealing outfits.

Maybe coming here in armor had been a mistake.

“Hey, pack mule. You’re going to meet our princess now. Use that cute face of yours, suck up to her as much as you can, and do your best to get on her good side!”

“Ow…!”

As I wiped the sweat from my forehead, Ena gave me a hard slap on the back.

Ever since I lost our mock battle, her attitude toward me had grown even more disrespectful—or rather, overbearing—and at present, as far as she was concerned, I was nothing more than a pack mule, practically being treated like a slave.

“…Are you okay?”

When the sudden blow from behind made me cough involuntarily, Zena’s clear black eyes peered into my face.

“I’m used to this much. More importantly, are you all right with your luggage?”

“My work tools are in here too… so I’m fine.”

With that, Zena effortlessly hoisted four days’ worth of luggage for the round trip by ship onto her back and stood just ahead of me. Apparently, she intended to serve as my guide through this country.

“…This way. The settlement where Her Highness is staying is deep inside the jungle ahead.”

“Ah, okay.”

After briefly glancing back to check on me, Zena started walking, and I followed behind her.

Unlike Ena and the other female warriors surrounding her, who treated me practically like a slave, Zena alone had acted this way toward me from the very beginning. Even after I had proved completely helpless against Ena’s monstrous strength and humiliated myself.

Perhaps she alone was someone I could trust. Then again, she had also seemed quite accustomed to handling male slaves—so for now, I still couldn’t tell what she was thinking or why she acted the way she did.

“? What’s wrong? Hurry up and follow me.”

“Ah, sorry. I’m coming.”

Readjusting the enormous load packed with women’s clothes and other belongings on my back, I once again took a step toward my new post.

The route leading toward the heart of the Republic could easily have been described as a natural fortress.

A dense jungle growing wildly without order, strange plants and animals of mysterious shapes and colors, and the deafening buzz of insect wings coming from the darkness—for someone like me, whose only memories were of life in the royal capital, it was an entirely different world.

“Amazing… so this is the Republic—”

A butterfly with rainbow-shimmering wings suddenly appeared in front of me, and I reached out toward it—

“…Don’t touch it. Its wing scales are highly poisonous. The instant you touch them, your skin will blister and burn away.”

—only for Zena, walking beside me, to warn me.

“…………”

I obediently withdrew my hand.

“…Watch your footing. That patch over there that looks like weeds is actually a giant carnivorous plant. Step on it and it’ll bite off everything below your knees.”

“Ugh…!?”

When the place Zena was looking at—something that could only have looked like a carpet of ordinary grass—opened an enormous mouth, I instinctively jumped and narrowly avoided being turned into a human scarecrow.

This place was overflowing with things designed to kill unsuspecting newcomers—foreign countries really were terrifying.

“You really know this place well. Do you have to memorize all this stuff to survive here?”

In response to my question, Zena gently shook her head.

“…Not really. There are properly paved roads too. They just take a much longer route.”

“What? There are?!”

When I raised my voice in surprise, Zena nodded with a puzzled expression. Her face practically said, ‘What are you talking about? Of course there are.’

“Ooobviously there are~! If it was nothing but animal trails like this, people from other countries would be in trouble!”

When I looked toward the voice, Ena was nimbly leaping from one dangling vine to another.

“Then why exactly am I being forced to walk through a place with no road at all…?”

And while carrying this enormous load, no less.

“Huh? Isn’t that obvious? You’re a smart little rich boy from the royal capital, aren’t you? You can figure it out.”

“…Well, more or less.”

She was right. I had a pretty good idea.

There was a proper road, but it required quite a detour.

And then there was a shortcut where one wrong step could leave you in serious trouble.

Judging from how they were treating me now, I was probably going to be placed in a position resembling a slave to ‘Her Highness,’ the leader of this country. Ena’s remarks about me being a new toy or whatever made that obvious enough.

Which meant, in other words—

“…You’re telling me, 【Don’t think you can easily escape from us】?”

“See? You do get it. That’s exactly what it means. Well, as long as you obediently submit, we’ll at least make sure you stay alive.”

Ena looked down at me condescendingly. Hmm. Since we were going to be working together as comrades from now on, I would have liked to get along with her, but apparently she completely disliked me.

“…Incidentally, the previous guy escaped, and no one knows what happened to him.”

The instant Zena muttered those words, a sound somewhere between a scream and a shriek echoed through the evening gloom.

The previous guy—in other words, the knight from the royal capital who had become ‘the princess’s slave’ before me.

Either I could allow myself to be used however she pleased as a toy, or I could resist, escape, and eventually become part of the soil of this country…

The only way to break out of that situation was to accomplish my 【mission】, but—was I the only one who felt like I was already somewhat doomed?

Afterward, with Ena and Zena guiding me, I somehow managed to make it through the dangerous shortcut and finally arrived at our destination.

Beyond the jungle, where my field of vision finally opened up, there was a single settlement. Calling it a slightly large village might have been more appropriate.

Given the late hour, the surroundings were utterly silent. Only the lights leaking from small houses and the torches in the center of the village illuminated the area.

“…Lilia-sama is over there.”

“Lilia—that’s the princess’s name?”

Zena gave a small nod and pointed ahead—and beyond the flickering torchlight stood what looked like a stone shrine.

“…What is that?”

At first glance, it should have been an ordinary, simple structure—but what I saw was nothing short of bizarre.

Even the entrance was strange. I had wondered why it was so dazzling, only to realize that the areas behind the guards standing on either side were completely covered in all kinds of jewels.

When I moved a little closer, I saw that most of them weren’t raw gemstones, but already-crafted accessories such as rings, necklaces, brooches, and all sorts of other ornaments.

“That’s in terrible taste. The one who did that was, of course—”

“Mm.”

That reaction was enough for me to understand that it had been Lilia-sama’s doing.

Even Ena, who was presumably one of her direct subordinates, wore a bitter expression, so apparently she felt the same way.

That alone told me plenty about the emotional immaturity of the person I was about to meet.

This was clearly the work of a child—and one who was particularly childish mentally as well.

—Of course, at the same time, that only made me feel like she was going to be even more troublesome.

“Anyway, let’s go. We arrived a little late because of you, so Lilia-sama is probably furious… Ena here, Lilia-sama! I’m back!”

As if responding to Ena’s especially loud shout after we entered, there was a heavy clunk, and a staircase leading underground appeared beneath the altar inside the shrine.

Apparently, the girl who was the target of my mission was waiting impatiently somewhere down there.

“Zena, take him to the waiting room. I’m going to help prepare the ritual.”

“…Mm.”

After watching Ena run down the stairs underground, Zena grabbed my arm.

“…You’re coming this way.”

“She said something about a ritual. What exactly are you planning to make me do?”

Frankly, I had nothing but a terrible feeling about this—

“You’ll find out soon… Follow me.”

Without giving me any room to argue, Zena pulled me along toward another staircase beside the altar.

We slowly made our way through the dark underground passage without knowing where it led, and before long we came to an old stone door.

Apparently, this was what they called the waiting room, but—

“This is a prison cell…?”

When I entered the small room at Zena’s urging, the first thing I noticed was the iron bars in front of me. A thick curtain-like cloth had currently been lowered over them from the outside, so I couldn’t see what lay beyond, but I could clearly hear an unusual amount of commotion outside.

“…I’ll let you see a little of what they’re doing.”

Zena sliced the cloth with a knife she had concealed on her person and widened the opening enough for me to see through it, revealing the source of the commotion beyond.

“That’s horrible…”

The moment I saw the scene, those words escaped my lips reflexively.

In what appeared to be an arena, a man one or two sizes larger than me—probably a slave of the Republic—was being beaten down by several female warriors.

While dangerous cries of ‘Get him!’ and ‘Kill him!’ flew from the surrounding crowd, the slave desperately fought back. However, he was up against the Republic’s female warriors and their special physiology, something that could practically be called a 【supernatural ability】—and because of the overwhelming difference in physical ability, his resistance was futile as they continued to brutalize him.

Calling it a ritual might have made it sound respectable—but by ordinary standards, there was no way something like this could be permitted.

“You’re supposed to end up like that too… or at least, that idiot—Ena would probably say so…”

As she spoke, Zena pulled a sheet of letter paper from the slight cleavage of her chest and handed it to me.

“This is the seal of the royal capital—which means…”

When I checked the sender—it was Karen-san, just as I expected. The date showed that it had been sent on the day I departed, so she had probably written and sent it immediately after seeing me off.

“While we were traveling here… a carrier pigeon brought it.”

“Uh… may I read it?”

Instead of answering, she simply looked away from me. Apparently, she intended to pretend she hadn’t seen anything. I had absolutely no idea why she had chosen this particular moment to give it to me, though—

Well, for now, I decided to hurry up and read the letter.

‘To Haru,

These things happened today.

・Our pet Cerberus suddenly breathed fire while I was taking it for a walk.
Its other head breathed ice.
It was hot and cold.

・Mulberry was being far more considerate toward me than necessary.
It made me feel somewhat pathetic.

・Madeleine was the same piece of sh—she did an excellent job as always.
As expected of my dependable best friend. She possesses a wonderful personality.

××△◆◆〇△◇×××b
－－－－－＊＊＠～＾￥
From Karen’

“……………………”

—Um, where exactly was I supposed to begin with this?

Actually, I felt like this was the first time I had ever seen someone write such a completely disjointed letter. Karen-san, you were terrible at writing letters. Listing the things that happened that day in bullet points made this look like an elementary school child’s summer vacation diary, you know?

And right before her name, it looked like she had made some kind of mistake and scribbled all over the words—

“! Wait, this scribbled-out part… maybe—”

I touched the ink-smudged section and carefully traced the faint grooves that remained, trying to decipher what she had erased.

‘I love you do your best I love you precious my boyfriend’

That was what had been written there.

“…………You could’ve just written this in the letter…”

Karen-san was unbelievably awkward, to the point that she couldn’t even put her honest feelings into a letter.

Between this and yesterday’s telepathy, why did Karen-san have to be so adorable? I couldn’t get enough of it.

“…Feeling motivated now?”

At Zena’s words, I nodded firmly.

Right now, I felt like I could probably give it everything I had.

“…Zena. Why are you doing so much for me? Don’t you want me to become the princess of the Republic’s slave?”

The question I had been wondering about from the beginning only grew stronger. She also seemed to know that I hadn’t been fighting seriously—

“Not really. I just—”

Just as Zena started to say something, a voice like a rumbling earthquake and the loud screech of the iron bars opening greeted me.

“…Well, I’ll leave you here.”

Before I could hear her answer, she leaped toward what appeared to be a throne on the opposite side from where I stood, decorated in an excessively gaudy fashion.

For the first time, my eyes met those of the small girl sitting arrogantly on the throne, with Ena and Zena standing on either side of her.

“…You must be Lilia-sama.”

“Indeed. This one is Lilia, representative of this nation and supreme commander of this female knight order.”

Her arrogant attitude and manner of speech were exactly what I had expected from a child.

“Lilia-sama—no, Lilia.”

“…………!!”

Ignoring the way Lilia’s face instantly twisted with rage, I deliberately addressed her disrespectfully and walked toward the center of the arena.

“—As the acting commander dispatched from the royal capital, I’m going to beat that rotten attitude out of you. Get down here.”

Now then, I really didn’t want to do something like this to such a little girl, but—

Karen-san had told me to do my best, so I suppose I had no choice but to see this through.