Chapter 03
‘Strange. Why don’t I know this?’
This place, where he had stationed his troops and essentially occupied, belonged to the princess before him.
She was the rightful heir of the kingdom and the sum of all the world’s mages.
At the very least, it would be normal for him to know something about her.
Yet he didn’t even know the princess’s name. Worse, he had assumed it was natural not to know.
Impossible… His mind felt like a blank sheet of white paper, flustered.
“Princess.”
“Who… pr… Oh, me?”
“I know it may seem rude, but… may I ask?”
“For what?”
“I wish to know your name.”
The protagonist’s eyes flickered with an unnerving intensity, as if insisting he must know, and Taeri hesitated.
Should she even tell him? She couldn’t simply make something up to cover for it.
Rather than fumbling through a half-baked lie, she chose to give an honest answer.
“My name is Taeri.”
“Taeri.”
Taeri Sonettine? That sounded… strange.
Claude silently practiced the awkward pronunciation in his mouth, then, as if nothing had happened, resumed his respectful posture.
“My apologies for having offended you multiple times.”
“That’s fine.”
“My visit was to pay my respects. If you find anything inconvenient during your stay, please let me know at any time. The Emperor would surely be concerned to know the princess has returned.”
If Taeri were truly the princess, she might have been furious and thrown water in his face.
He had entered her empty home, managing it as he pleased, yet his demeanor suggested he was the rightful master and she the guest.
But Taeri didn’t get angry.
The protagonist, in a way, was a preordained victor. That was the path to the ending—and it allowed her to figure out a way back home.
The hero destined to save the world.
She was grateful he had casually prepared the ground, telling her to speak freely if she needed anything.
“Alright. I’ll be sure to tell you if I need help.”
“You don’t need to clench your fists like that to say it…”
“Then can I ask you something right away?”
“…Go ahead.”
“How’s the situation here? Has anything… changed?”
What she really wanted to ask was, ‘Have you seen a dragon? Or any traces?’ But asking that outright would have made her seem odd.
“I arrived here only yesterday.”
So she had to approach it cautiously. Fortunately, Claude responded naturally.
“Ah. You must be shocked at the changes.”
Returning to her hometown after years, she would find it completely destroyed, with even foreign troops causing havoc—no wonder it felt unfamiliar.
Claude, finally finding a point of empathy with the princess, decided to regain the subtle influence she had over him earlier.
Now, he could act as the enemy commander he was.
“When I arrived, most of the city’s civilization had already been destroyed. Only the final line of defense between the village and the forest remained intact.”
To stop waves of monsters pouring from the forest, the mages had burned their life energy and mana to create a massive barrier.
Even the knights of Valoran, who looked down on magic, had been awestruck.
“Of course, it must have come at great cost. But thanks to buying that time, those who fled survived. Princess, you survived in the same way, didn’t you?”
Once a proud magical kingdom, it had now become a monster-infested ruin, a test of courage for overconfident adventurers.
Claude, observing it, still found it remarkable that it had endured this long without collapsing entirely.
“Security will be strictly enforced going forward, so there’s little to worry about… Are you listening?”
But something felt off.
The princess, who had been speaking freely just moments ago, gave no response.
Her eyelids drooped, looking gloomy or perhaps on the verge of tears. He straightened up from the chair he had been leaning back in.
‘Did I speak too harshly?’
No, that wasn’t it. He had only tried to appear slightly like an enemy—not to hurt her.
Absolutely not.
He immediately lowered the defensive posture he had assumed in a vain attempt at authority.
“It’s… alright.”
Claude instinctively reached out his hand.
Just as his fingers were about to touch her, in the fleeting moment when her bowed face lifted, he noticed a faint, misty aura.
Her expression was blank, yet a deep sadness seemed layered beneath it like a background, making his heart skip a beat.
The princess, noticing her arm reaching toward him, slightly widened her eyes.
“Were you worried?”
“No.”
Worried? Not at all.
It was just an uneasy feeling. That’s all.
Claude denied it faster than light, but Taeri shook her head gently.
“You must have been worried. Afraid I’d get hurt. It’s all written on your face.”
“Forgive me, but you’re quite mistaken.”
“I’m fine. I’m already a grown-up, used to not taking offense at everything.”
Fine? What a lie. He had seen everything earlier.
The princess’s face was expressionless, but she was far from dry.
Rather, like someone submerged in the deep, her emotions rippled beneath the surface.
Unable to be completely honest, she only made herself suffer. Claude tried to hide his expression while drinking the cold juice.
“I didn’t think so, but you’re actually nicer than I expected. According to the story, you couldn’t be bad anyway—”
He almost spat it out in frustration. Damn it!
If he didn’t need to cover his mouth with his hand, he might have cursed.
‘Why isn’t there even a single tissue in this place!’
Frantically covering his mouth with one hand and searching for something to wipe with the other, the princess suddenly stood, removed the glass, and lifted the entire tablecloth toward him.
“Clean your clothes before they get wet.”
She wanted him to wipe with… a brightly colored checkered cloth?
Even more surprisingly, she wasn’t worried about his face but about his white clothes.
“…Alright. Thank you.”
Following her instructions, he rubbed the stains on his clothes first. She, frustrated, even gave him advice.
“You shouldn’t rub it like that. Press it down to absorb it.”
He gritted his teeth but followed her directions.
After roughly cleaning the clothes, he wiped the splashes off his face.
Taeri, propping her chin on her hand across the table, watched him carefully, as if he were a flustered little bird scrubbing the cloth like her own chin. She muttered, ‘He really listens.’
‘As expected, the protagonist is born a protagonist. No matter how you try to make him bad, he ends up being good. How can someone so naïve be so utterly sincere?’
The little provocation he had made earlier… honestly, it had hit at her heart.
Someone had risked their life to save her.
He had no idea how much that pierced her chest. Had he pushed further, it could have been lethal.
So she had braced herself for a minor retaliation, but when she looked up, she saw his bewildered, apologetic expression.
Biting his lips, rolling his eyes, constantly checking her reaction—his silly expression ruined her intended frustration.
‘No use getting angry.’
Even if she wanted to fuel the fire, her feelings were already too worn out to ignite anything more.
Her thoughts drifted while he fidgeted, and she sank deeper into the back of the chair.
― Thanks to them, you survived too, didn’t you, Princess?
― If you weren’t here, would your mother have turned out that way? She sacrificed herself for you!
Muttering patterns repeating perfectly, she whispered to herself:
“Then everyone here will blame me too.”
Hearing her small murmur, Claude hesitated mid-motion, as if to throw the tablecloth to the floor.
‘She’s clearly not fine.’
Staring at the empty space, she gave off the same feeling as before. Expressionless, like someone submerged under the sea. Calm face, voice even and unremarkable.
‘I can’t handle this.’
A single slip of the tongue caused him to feel guilty. He bit his tongue, wishing he had been more considerate.
“You meant to throw that?”
Her gaze, returning from the void, pointed at the cloth with her chin.
“…I don’t do childish things like that.”
Technically, he had been about to toss it sharply, but he acted as if not, holding it naturally in his fist.
“It feels awkward.”
“….”
“Really, I’m not angry. Relax.”
Who’s relaxed? Not him.
Yet, her words made his fist loosen, and the cloth fell.
Claude cleared his throat and spoke in a serious, polite tone, picking up on the words she had almost let slip.
Even if it was uncomfortable, it was necessary to apologize.
“Blame? Do you mean that people regretted sacrificing themselves for you?”
“See, you’re so blunt again.”
“….”
“I was joking.”
Damn it… His loosened fist wanted to tighten again.
Unable to respond, he just pressed his lips together, while the princess tried to suppress a crooked, apologetic smile.
Claude spoke with a hint of irritation:
“To blame is to shift responsibility. Saying it’s your fault, now fix it—ridiculous.”
“Why?”
“Why? If someone risks their life to save another, they could get hurt, or if unlucky, they could die. That’s one possibility. If you didn’t like that, you shouldn’t have stepped in.”
And regret? She had no idea how much the remaining villagers despised her.
Claude snorted lightly.
She really knew nothing, despite having just arrived yesterday.
He finally understood why she had asked about the situation here.
“And that’s not the case.”
“What isn’t?”
“Those who stayed until the end did not do it out of regret. They hoped those they saved would escape safely and live happily. Even the dead, if there were any, would have thought the same.”
How did he know? He had seen it firsthand.
The villagers, otherwise eager to harm her, had not spoken a single harsh word about the princess.
Those outside shouting weren’t the people of Izaris—not a single one.
