The Tomboy Princess
King Tollvald, the crown prince Azar, and Marquis Kolkia.
I only remembered the names and faces of these three people at the award ceremony.
If I were to talk about his majesty, it was wonderful that he kept the ceremony simple. Compared to the long, boring, luxurious, grandiose ceremonies of the Ad-Astera Empire, he made it less than half as tiring.
As for Prince Azar, the first thing he said to me was intense. As soon as he saw me, he immediately came up to me and told me “Present your indigo wyvern to me”. The young 13-year-old prince seems to want to make Clau Soras his future dragon mount.
The indigo wyvern is one of the stronger species among wyverns. On top of that, as a wild wyvern, Clau Soras has power on a different level compared to handraised wyverns.
If you ask how much power he has over them…When I brought him to the dragon riders’ stable, all the wyverns there quieted down and put their necks on the ground like they were submitting to him.
It was only natural that the prince would fall in love with him instantly.
Needless to say, there’s no chance in hell that I’m going to give Clau Soras to him.
It’s just that…the prince seemed dead convinced that I’m going to do it.
I didn’t feel like he had any malicious motives inside from the way he was behaving. I could feel that he wanted Clau Soras because he truly liked him.
However, the way he never thought for even a second that I would go against his wishes was nothing but arrogance.
He had the ambition of a young man and the arrogance of royalty. He was a prince who felt like a prince.
By the way, since this prince left in an awkward hurry when he saw Duke Dragunaut and Astrid, I missed my chance to say no to him.
While I was wondering about what happened, the duke explained the situation to me bitterly.
From what he told me, apparently, the crown prince had broken off his engagement with the Duke’s younger daughter, Claudia Dragunaut, the other day.
Although the cancellation of their engagement was handed down to the duke from the king’s mouth, the crown prince did not say anything to the duke. Even towards Claudia, he did not go see her of course, but he did not send her a single letter either.
Yeah, If that’s what happened, he would have a hard time looking at the Duke and Astrid in the eyes.
Lastly, there was Marquis Kolkia. His family is the second most powerful noble family next to Duke Dragunaut’s in the kingdom of Canaria.
He insists on a friendly relationship with the Ad-Astera Empire and he seems to oppose Duke Dragunaut at every opportunity he has since the duke pushes the kingdom to be self-reliant.
「Sora, you’re from the empire, right? Since a banquet is going to be held in the near future, I would like to hear about your hometown and other things then」
Marquis Kolkia’s physique reminded me of the number “1” when he spoke to me with a smile on his face. He was thin as a needle, tall like a tree, and I couldn’t feel the pressure of a fighter from him like I do with Duke Dragunaut.
But on the other hand, his eyes were sharp. The glint in his dark grey eyes was shining sharply like a knife that had just been honed. He’s probably the type of man who is talented as a governing official.
I also heard about the engagement of the prince and Claudia being called off from Marquis Kolkia. I think he told me that to hint to me that the power of the house of Duke Dragunaut is on the decline.
…Even though I have no interest in the political disputes inside the royal palace, the amount of unnecessary knowledge I possess was rapidly increasing.
I also talked to some other earls and captains of the dragon rider corps, but it was hard to even remember them.
◆◆◆
「…And so, I want to go home as soon as possible」
「Even if you tell me that…Ah, but I do agree that the royal palace is a suffocating place!」
The one who was strongly nodding at me even though she was puzzled was none other than the Duke Dragunaut’s daughter, Claudia Dragunaut.
We are at the stable that was specially built for wyverns located next to Duke Dragunaut’s mansion.
After the award ceremony ended, I asked the Duke to let me move Clau Soras here. If I left him at the palace, who knows what that prince would do.
And when I asked why the sick Claudia is at this stable…
「I’m on a stroll because I have been feeling better lately. If I don’t move around while I can, my body will weaken」
…It was because of something like that.
Long blonde hair and light purple eyes. Limbs that were too skinny and white skin that is too pale. She looks like a sick princess, but her personality is very lively.
The way she talks feels more like a boy than a girl too.
That Claudia was staring at Clau Soras with shining eyes.
「But still, he’s very pretty, don’t you think? These blue scales…I can see why my father likes indigo wyverns so much…Um, is it okay if I touch him for a little bit?」
「That’s not up to me, you should ask that guy yourself」
「Ah, you’re right! Um um, Clau Soras, I’m sorry but would you let me touch your body for a little bit?」
「*Pugii*!」
「Please! Ah, my name is Claudia. People close to me call me Clau」
「*Pui*?」
「You’re called Clau and I’m called Clau too. We can already be called friends!」
「…*Pugiu*?」
Clau Soras looked like he’s troubled about something, but to wyverns that value their names heavily, her pulling out the card of having the “same name” seems to have an effect.
He hit the ground once with his tail as if he’s saying “Ahh fine, it can’t be helped”.
「Thank you!」
After she thanked him, Claudia reached out to touch his scales.
The distance that took Ciel many many days to close up was turned to zero in this short amount of time by this girl.
…Is there something in the blood of dragon riders that let them talk with wyverns naturally?
Speaking of which, her older sister Astrid was also touching Clau Soras at Ishka’s stable.
The wyverns that dragon riders ride basically belong to the kingdom, but as one can see from the stable at their home, the house of Dragunaut owns two wyverns of their own.
Clau Soras might feel something about these two sisters too since they grew up in a house like this.
「By the way, Sora」
「What is it?」
「Aza…I mean, his highness…did he say something about this dragon?」
「The first thing he said to me when he opened his mouth was telling me to offer it to him」
「I knew it…Um, I don’t think his highness had any bad intentions. Sometimes he doesn’t watch what he says, he gets carried away easily, and he’s weak to flattery. But other than that, he’s a good person. Since he has always loved dragons, he always says that he’s going to become a dragon rider, so I think he just couldn’t contain himself after seeing an indigo wyvern」
After she said that, Claudia noticed that I didn’t give her any followup, then she continued to talk in a hurry.
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「I don’t think he’s going to abuse his power to force you to offer the wyvern to him, so don’t worry」
「Ohh? Is that so?」
It’s true that he didn’t feel like a person who has a forceful personality like “I can do whatever I want!” from the fact that he was avoiding Duke Dragunaut because he broke the engagement.
If he was an impudent person like that, he would probably have greeted the duke without caring about breaking the engagement.
「Yes, that’s right! If he gets persuaded by Marquis Kolkia to do something bad, I will stop him! Even though I look like this, my swordsmanship is better than his highness’s, you know? And I can handle dragons better than him too!」
It looks like Claudia was quite a tomboy princess in the past.
While I was thinking about that, the duke’s daughter continued in a slightly sad tone,
「That’s why…his highness didn’t really like me. He prefers girls who are gentle. Although I grew my hair out, paid attention to the way I talk and put in all kinds of effort, I could not really change myself inside after all…」
After she said that, Claudia suddenly came to a realization.
She looked left and right in a panic. Her dark, golden-colored hair swayed left and right like a tail in response to her movements.
「Ah, sorry, I started to talk about things that had nothing to do with you」
「No,no, I was relieved after you told me about prince Azar’s personality. To be honest, I was just feeling troubled over what I should do if the royal family tried to force me to offer Clau Soras to them. I’ll be relying on you to stop the greedy crown prince if that happens, Lady Claudia」
「Ah…Y-yes, please leave it to me!」
After a second of embarrassment, Claudia’s expression brightened up.
When I see her like this, a smile naturally forms on my face as well.
Her older sister Astrid was like this too, but even though Claudia is the duke’s daughter, she does not act high and mighty.
I guess she could be feeling indebted because of the Jiraiaooks’ fruits, but her behaviors that I have seen so far are probably her true nature.
Their social status is above me, their power is above me, yet they still treated me nicely as equals. I’m not good against people like them.
I mean, after all, most of the people I met until now did not have any good intentions towards me.
That’s why I can’t help but want to be friendly to people like those two.
…If possible, I would like to do something about the curse that had been eating away at this young girl before me.
Her abnormality was being reflected in my eyes. Her soul had become extremely thin.
Miroslav’s condition was exactly like this after she had her soul eaten by me.
That’s why at first, I suspected that there might be someone around Claudia that has the same ability as me.
But from what I could see, there wasn’t anyone like that in the duke’s home. In the first place, since she’s under the constant protection of her family and their vassals, there’s no way anyone could eat her soul.
Claudia’s soul shouldn’t have gotten eaten by anyone.
Then why has her soul reduced this much?
That’s because the container of her soul was failing.
It would probably be easier to understand if you picture a bowl that has a hole at the bottom.
The soul of a person recovers even if they lose part of it for some reason. That’s what I confirmed at the time with Miroslav. No matter how many times I ate her, she would recover after some time.
That’s why Claudia’s soul should be recovering every day too.
However, if the amount leaking out is greater than the amount she’s recovering, it would mean that the capacity of her soul container is getting smaller.
That is probably what the curse that is eating away at her is really doing. Everything else is just the aftermath of her soul drying up. This will also explain why even though miracles and full healing elixirs had a momentarily effect on her, the symptoms would resurface again shortly.
At this rate, her soul will dry up soon. The hole at the bottom of her container needs to be filled up in order for her to be cured…but I can’t do it.
I don’t know how to do it
All I can do is devour. I can’t cure someone.
I should ask other people for advice in this situation, but all this talk about souls is just my theory in the first place. I am just putting how I feel into words.
How do I explain something like this to other people? I can’t tell them I experimented on eating people’s souls.
Besides, there’s the incident I heard from Lunamaria when we were on our way here as well. Even with a mythical species as my “anima”, I have to keep things a secret if it concerns my blood and flesh.
Otherwise, I will surely end up as a guinea pig.
But with that said, I don’t want to ignore Claudia’s abnormal condition for that reason either.
Ahhh, mann, what should I do?!
Should I mix my blood and my “extract” in a high potion and have her drink it? It might turn out to be surprisingly effective.
Lunamaria and Ciel said that after they slept with me, their body capabilities spiked up.
Since those two didn’t level from it, I don’t think it had an impact on their soul, but that potion could probably substitute for full healing elixirs.
However, that won’t really solve the problem.
What’s important is how to stop her soul from leaking out.
…If I can’t come up with a solution, I’ll have no option than to infuse some of my soul into her.
Of course, I have never done that before. I never even thought of trying that.
That’s why I don’t know if it’s possible, and even if I could do it, I have no idea what would happen to her.
If I give her a large amount of soul, the container might break instead.
Moreover, our lips would need to touch for me to inject my soul into her, it isn’t something that I can just try. If I suggest something like that, Duke Dragunaut will surely kill me.
Oh yeah. Here’s an idea…I can try it on Luna…no, let’s try it on Miroslav once I’m back at Ishka.
If it works on Miroslav, I can return to the capital and convince the duke…and if I don’t think I will be able to do that, I can just sneak in at night and ambush his daughter when she’s asleep. If that’s the route I’m going to take, I’ll need to establish the invasion path I’m going to use soon while I still can.
…Ah, what I’m trying to do is to sneak into a girl’s bed.
As I thought about such things, I returned to the mansion together with Claudia. There was an army of maids welcoming us back with worried looks on their faces.
The reason why Claudia didn’t take any attendants with her seems to be because she didn’t want to upset Clau Soras. Yeah, she’s a good girl after all.
I should return to Ishka as soon as I can. Judging from how Claudia looks right now, I thought she would at least have that much time.
…It was later that day that I found out that it was just my baseless optimism.
TLN: King Tollvaldo > Tollvald.
Also just to clear up/refresh people on some terminologies so far,
Anima– A second being (Soul) that resides deep in a person’s soul. The people who come from the Mitsurugi family or from the same school (phantom blade-style users for example) can link up with them. Finding their “Anima” gives them tons of “life force” that can be used as mana and boosts their kei arts etc.
Soul equipment- Anima manifested in weapon form.
Some examples of mythical species Animas– dragons, giants, demons, etc
Kei– another term for life force. Kei arts are skills that use life force as energy instead of mana