Chapter 107
I leapt clear over Arden’s head and up to the second floor.
“Ghk!”
Seeing me jump over him while wearing a skirt, Arden covered his eyes with his hand.
“You commit sins as easily as breathing!”
“Sir Arden! Please take care of the High Priest!”
He looks like he’s awake now, so keep an eye on him! I shouted as I landed on the second floor.
“Move!”
When I raised my fist, the capital guards hurriedly stepped aside.
Crash!
No time to open the door. I smashed straight through it and burst into the hallway.
I chased down the divine beast cat that had already fled far ahead and grabbed it by the scruff of the neck.
“Meowk!”
The divine beast instantly reverted to its cat form in my grip.
Rustle rustle rustle!
“Meow!”
Oh?
“Give it up.”
I held the cat at arm’s length to keep away from its claws as it struggled. Then I stooped down and gathered up the discarded cat outfit from the floor.
“If people come out and see this, they’ll think you stripped naked and ran away.”
Arden would absolutely lose his mind.
One pervert in this area is more than enough—and that’s me.
“Let’s get out of here first. We’ll leave and talk somewhere else, the Grand Temple or wherever.”
And the little brother you dote on so much—Cassian will be bringing him soon.
“And you trashed Cassian’s office pretty badly, you know? You’re cleaning that up yourself.”
Don’t turn human—clean it with cat paws. Got it?
“Hisss!”
“Hmph!”
I bared my teeth back at the hissing cat just as I was about to leave—
“Chase them! Capture her! If you let her escape, you’ll pay for it!”
…by my authority as the fiancée!
A woman’s voice spilled out from behind the door I’d smashed.
Unlike before, there was no composure in it at all.
Soon, a swarm of capital guards poured into the hallway.
In an instant, I was surrounded from both sides.
“……”
What, do you all want to get hit?
Aren’t your lives precious?
Can you spare a thought for my desire not to hit innocent people?!
As I stood there flustered, a woman slowly walked forward, smiling sweetly as she pointed at me.
“She is a villain who dared to attempt kidnapping a princess. Arrest her and bring her before me.”
“No, I mean….”
Who are you, seriously…?
A real princess?!
Not our kind of princess, right?!
“Stop! Don’t fire!”
Didn’t you hear what Sir Arden just said?! The capital guard commander who followed after him tried to stop them, but—
“What are you doing?! Why aren’t you obeying the princess’s orders at once?!”
The unit captain—a man in his forties whose face I’d memorized while shapeshifting last time—was just as relentless.
“Captain! This is an abuse of authority! Get a grip!”
“Commander, you’re the one who needs to get a grip! Sir Arden is merely a royal knight, but this person is—!”
“That ‘mere’ royal knight is acting under the Crown Prince’s authority!”
“So what if he is?! He’s not the real Crown Prince! He has no right to order us around! But this person does!”
You need to decide who outranks whom! the captain shouted.
“Do you really think His Highness the Crown Prince would personally punish us just because we didn’t listen to Sir Arden?! Nothing will happen! Use your head!”
At the open insubordination unfolding in front of dozens of soldiers, not only I but the guards themselves gaped in shock.
“What are you waiting for?! Fire!”
Acting as if he were already the commander, the captain snatched a gun from a subordinate beside him.
Bang!
“Ah!”
I threw myself aside on instinct.
The wall struck by the bullet exploded with a dull crack—no ordinary damage.
That’s not a standard firearm.
Even the cat that had been clawing at me nonstop froze in fear.
A small cat like this would be completely obliterated if even grazed by that bullet.
If the cat suddenly bolts, this will turn into a disaster.
Escaping alone wouldn’t be a problem—but the cat’s safety was the variable.
I kept my guard up front and back, inching backward.
Arden is… still on the first floor.
No matter what that captain thought of a “mere” royal knight, the other guards respected Arden.
Once Arden finished dealing with Cassian and came up to the second floor, the captain and that so-called princess wouldn’t stand a chance.
Lower the gun. One word from Arden would end this.
And technically, the commander wasn’t wrong about Arden acting under the Crown Prince’s authority.
Arden just needed to come up.
The princess must have reached the same conclusion.
“Princess, it’s dangerous!”
“That’s enough.”
She brushed aside the commander (honestly, the brown-nosing—tsk) and stepped forward.
“Sorry about this, Saintess of Magic, Sena.”
Her face didn’t look apologetic at all.
“But now I really do have to capture you.”
From what I can tell, I’ve fallen into someone’s trap.
“The man used as bait was the High Priest, then some woman suddenly appears firing guns… looking at how things are unfolding, it seems there’s a faction in this empire trying to frame me.”
The princess pouted.
“If this continues, Arden is really going to scold me. So I’ll capture you and tell him I caught Sena—then maybe he’ll let it slide just once. You understand, right?”
“……”
Wouldn’t a normal person think, ‘The Saintess of Magic was trapped, and I was used’?
What is this overwhelming self-centeredness, and where do I even start correcting it…?
“Oh no, Arden’s already gone! Looks like he’s coming up!”
The princess craned her neck toward the front, stamping her foot.
She glanced irritably at the commander, who was telling the guards to lower their guns.
“From this moment on, by the authority of Sabrina, niece of His Majesty the Emperor, I hereby dismiss the capital guard commander.”
“…….”
“Captain, from now on, you are the commander.”
“…….”
“Bring me the Saintess of Magic.”
Silence fell.
“…….”
“…….”
Yeah. You’re all dumbfounded, right?
This makes no sense, right? Feels forced, right?
Same here.
Not just me—even the guards stared at one another in disbelief.
Is this actually allowed? Seriously?
Can the emperor’s niece replace the commander of the capital guard?
No idea… this has never happened before.
But she was a princess, and the guards didn’t know for sure whether this was legitimate or not—so they hesitated.
Seizing the opportunity, the captain—no, now the commander—shouted:
“What are you waiting for?! Obey the princess’s command!”
Bang!
As if to set an example, he fired.
“Eek!”
I deflected the bullet by a hair’s breadth.
“It’s fake.”
I whispered to the cat in my arms, whose ears were pinned back as if it might leap away.
“I think we’re screwed.”
Bang!
Another bullet whizzed past us dangerously close.
I swung my toy hammer wildly as I retreated, but—
There were guards behind me too.
This is insane.
At this rate, I might survive, but this one definitely won’t.
“Meow…”
I looked down at the trembling cat.
Ah… damn it. I’m getting soft again.
“Go.”
I whispered into its ear.
“Turn that corner—there’s an emergency staircase right there. I’ll draw their attention. You escape through the window.”
If you’re not confident, hide somewhere first and leave later.
“You can do it, right?”
The cat stared up at me with wide eyes.
Seriously.
You should be grateful you were born a cat.
“Why did you have to drag humans like that into this… this is all your karma, got it?”
“Meow…”
“I’ve got your sibling. They’re asleep, but completely safe—nothing’s wrong, so don’t worry.”
So next time, don’t kidnap innocent people—come properly and ask. At my scolding, the cat whispered back:
“…How am I supposed to believe that, meow?”
“Well, because unlike you or your owner, I’m not a villain?”
Once I finished talking, I threw the cat between the legs of the assembled guards.
Boing!
Wrapped in a bubble, the cat slipped through the startled guards in an instant.
Just before disappearing, it shouted back:
“All the bombs are fake, meow!”
I don’t have the knowledge to make bombs, meow…
“If you don’t believe me, you can put my sibling in a carriage and drive them around Luare city, meow!”
Oh dear.
Divine beasts really are useless.
Cute is their only skill.
Muttering to myself, I ran while dodging bullets.
To draw as much attention as possible, I didn’t knock out the guards—just fled honestly.
“Stop right there!”
And so I—
“Stop, Saintess of Magic!”
“Agh.”
While avoiding the capital guards chasing me—and Arden—
“Gunner! What are you doing?! Fire!”
“But Commander, that’s a large-caliber rifle for monsters!”
“Just fire!”
To be precise—
I was avoiding the capital guard commander (newly appointed) chasing me,
“Enough, Saintess of Magic.”
And also Arden, who was chasing me to capture me alive before that commander’s gun could seriously injure me.
Dong… dong… crack.
I ran all the way to the clock tower—where I’d broken the minute hand.
“Got her—!”
“We caught her!”
“Sir Arden caught the Saintess of Magic!”
“Huh? But wait—”
“Was the Saintess’s hair color always…?”
My combat skirt had been torn to shreds……
“What? What’s going on?”
The guards who had arrived beneath the clock tower murmured among themselves.
My hair fluttered in the wind, gradually returning from the ends to its original black.
Up close, Arden’s eyes widened as he looked at me.
“You…”
I’m doomed.
God.
Am I going to prison like this?
I even saved the High Priest!
Is this really my reward?!
