Chapter : 23
“…Hurry, escort the princess!”
At Del’s belated command, the knights began to move toward them.
Velix grabbed Angela’s wrist and forcibly pulled her back.
“Your Highness. You seem to have exhausted yourself from being worked up—please escape. I will meet you later at the retreat point.”
“I’m the one who caused this mess. If anyone’s going to fight, it should be me.”
“Usually, when a knight says something so determined, the princess swears she won’t forget it and runs away, doesn’t she?”
“That only happens in fairy tales.”
For some reason, even though they were at a disadvantage, Angela seemed unfazed.
“In reality, if a princess wants to survive, she has to rack her brains like crazy.”
At that moment, the stones in her hand began to glow blue.
Then—BOOM!—an explosion went off behind the knights.
It was the sound of the explosive artifacts Angela had diligently planted earlier.
Bang! Boom!
BOOM!
“Damn it! Don’t move—!”
“The trees are falling!”
The knights froze in place at the sudden turn of events.
When the artifacts attached to the base of the trees exploded, the massive trunks fell one by one with deafening crashes.
“What’s the point of them catching me? They won’t even be able to get out of the forest.”
Thud. Thud. Thud!
With each tree crashing to the ground, the earth trembled as if a giant were walking.
“!”
Startled by the tremors, Lulu and Lian tumbled backward onto the ground.
Moments later.
The fallen trees completely blocked the knights’ retreat.
“What in the world….”
Del stared blankly at the trees. Then his face slowly reddened—
“Your Highnesshhhhh!”
He shouted, veins bulging in his neck.
“I knew the princess had a temper, but I never imagined you’d blow down an entire forest! Have you lost your mind?!”
Thump, thump.
With Lian’s help, Lulu dusted off her backside and peeked her face out from behind a tree.
‘Wow. Unni made a giant wall out of trees!’
Where the choking dust storm had passed, a barricade of fallen trees towered up, blocking out the sky.
No matter how strong the knights were, scaling that pile of trees from the entrance would be nearly impossible.
“Do you think serving a princess is easy?”
Angela gazed at the wall of fallen trees with satisfaction.
Then, with only the corner of her mouth curled upward, she brushed past Del.
“I don’t think it’s worth talking to you any further. I’ll be returning to the tower. And don’t even think about following me inside.”
“Y-Your Highness….”
“The tower has even stronger artifacts than the forest.”
“Your Highness! Please, let’s talk—!”
“……”
“Your Highness—!”
Seeing Angela ignore him, Del sighed.
He, too, had realized that even if they caught the princess, they couldn’t get out of the forest.
“…Tch. From now on, clear the trees and open a retreat path.”
“Captain, just speak comfortably in dialect.”
“Do I really have to mind your feelings even about that? Just do it!”
“…Yes, sir!”
The forest had been reduced to an open plain of toppled trees.
‘There’s no way we’ll clear all this in one day… Looks like we’ll be camping here for several days.’
Del swallowed hard, staring at the massive trunks, thicker than his torso.
A little later, inside the tower.
Angela sat in her chair, legs crossed, radiating authority.
And at her feet—
A small bundle of white fluff clung pitifully to the floor.
It was Lulu.
“I’m sorry….”
“What was that?”
“I-I was wrong….”
“Can’t hear you~.”
“L-Lulu went out without telling Unni. It was wrong!”
Her neatly tied twin tails drooped like the ears of a scolded puppy.
‘…Hiiiing.’
She desperately wanted to bury herself in her sister’s arms, but this time the blame clearly lay with her.
So she had raised her chubby arms on her own, without being told.
Her short arms trembled as she held them up toward the sky, but Angela paid her no attention.
‘If only Lulu hadn’t gone to meet her friends, no—if she had just come back right after….’
Her tightly pressed lips quivered with guilt stacking higher and higher.
“Uuuhk. Uhk. Uuuuhk. Whiiine.”
With tearful puppy eyes, Lulu waited endlessly for her sister’s forgiveness.
And who could resist such a pitiful sight?
In the end, Angela gave in.
“…You won’t do it again, right?”
“I won’t…”
“What if something interesting happens again?”
“I’ll leave and come straight back to Unni!”
“Good girl.”
At last Angela spread her arms, and Lulu, hugging her sore arms to her chest, launched herself into her embrace.
“Whiiine. Whiiiine.”
“Are you a dragon or a puppy?”
“Lulu’s arms hurt. I stood with them raised too long.”
“Want me to massage your arms so they don’t hurt?”
“Mm-hm.”
As the warm little body squirmed in her arms, Angela’s cold expression softened.
Even so, her fingers fiddled with the tracking artifact.
“…But why didn’t this thing respond earlier? It’s working fine now. Lulu, what did you do outside?”
“It wasn’t running away. It was a walk.”
“Whatever. What did you do?”
“Mm… Met my friends at the Black Lake….”
“And then?”
Something praiseworthy—something Lulu had done well.
Rolling her eyes upward, she thought of Chase.
“And… I saved a person.”
“You saved someone?”
“Yeah! His name is Chase!”
“…?”
But instead of praise, Angela’s expression hardened strangely.
“Are you sure his name is really Chase?”
“Mm? Mm-hm!”
Suddenly cutting off the conversation, Angela opened the tower window.
It was true.
Just as Lulu had said, a blond boy stood among the knights.
“…Ah. So that’s why the tracking artifact failed.”
It must have malfunctioned because a flood of magical power had overwhelmed it.
After all, Chase was a boy born with an absurd amount of mana.
“……”
But that didn’t answer her bigger question.
Why had Chase come all the way into the Shadow Forest?
Though illegitimate by birth, his mana reserves were so great that even the king treasured him—despite Benevra’s religious leaders strictly forbidding illegitimate children.
They hadn’t even allowed him into that underground chamber.
“…What happened while I wasn’t looking? That boy who used to shine so brightly now has no light in his eyes.”
Clicking her tongue, Angela frowned.
Whatever brought him here, it was surely connected to his power.
Then—
“Unni!”
A chubby white finger poked Angela’s nose.
“But hey… what does ‘hostage’ mean?”
“A hostage is someone captured by bad villains. Why do you ask?”
Angela finally lowered her gaze.
Lulu, eyes wide and sparkling, answered while munching her words.
“Chase said the knights are hostages.”
“…Hostages?”
Knights, hostages?
What nonsense.
They were brutes trying to drag the princess away by force—how could they be hostages?
Angela let out a scoffing laugh.
“If they were hostages, it’d mean they’re being forced by the king under threat… but don’t they seem a bit too eager for that?”
“Ohhh?”
“I don’t know, Lulu. Even if those knights are hostages, first and foremost, we have to survive. Right?”
“Yeah! Right! Lulu, Unni, the jewels, Lian, and the knights—we all gotta live together!”
“Of course, of course.”
Yaaawn.
Maybe it was all the excitement, but after hearing Angela’s reply, Lulu quickly drifted into sleep.
“You’re the prettiest when you’re sleeping.”
Her soft, doughy cheeks squished against Angela’s chest.
Chuckling, Angela carried her back to her room.
She had no idea.
That in her dreams, the little baby dragon was busy—
Fighting off bad villains.
“Because Lulu is a hero!”
And rescuing the hostages captured by evil.
The ambitious plan of the Third Knight Order—to rescue the princess and capture the dragon—
was thwarted by nothing more than trees.
Of course, not just any trees.
The trees of the Shadow Forest had evolved to withstand the violent natures of monsters, making them far thicker and sturdier than ordinary ones.
Without axes, all the knights could do was hack away with their swords until the trees gave way.
“Damn it! How are we supposed to cut through this?!”
But their blades dulled before the trunks even budged, making the task nearly impossible.
And there was yet another problem.
