CH 220

EPISODE 220 – JABBERWOCK (1)

Around twenty minutes before Jude and Cordelia entered Princess Leica’s tent.

A storm-like nagging befell Leica Prime, the first in line to the throne.

“Where the hell have you been! You haven’t forgotten that you’re the current leader of the punitive force, right? This isn’t a walk!”

Even among the elves in the Forest of Eternity, there were only three people who could criticize the noble descendant of the high elf royal family – the crown princess, to this point.

The first was King Grave Prime.

The second was Countess Pasier, the mother of the crown princess.

And the last one was Midas Karlov, who was here now.

Princess Leica flinched at his thunderbolt-like angry voice and hurriedly turned to Vanessa, but Vanessa just stared at her as if she saw nothing and only focused on casting the soundproofing magic.

‘Hey! Don’t do that! Please help me!’

‘Yes, Your Highness should be scolded a lot.’

Vanessa responded with a bright smile to Princess Leica’s plea for help, and she completely closed her eyes. Princess Leica bit her lips at her childhood friend’s betrayal and said when she looked back at Midas.

“I-I just went for a little air.”

“That would have been fine since you were riding on Lloyd, but why did you suddenly get off?”

“I just wanted to walk a bit with my feet.”

“Then why didn’t you take Lloyd with you in your walk? Why did you go away from Lloyd?”

“I just wanted to have some time alone.”

“Are you calling that an excuse? Aren’t you the one leading the punitive forces? Why did you have to leave Lloyd standing and then go beyond the bushes?”

“I was just a little curious about something beyond the bushes.”

“Then why did you put Mistilteinn down in the bushes?”

“I just wanted to free my hands for a moment.”

“Your Royal Highness! Do you think this is funny! This isn’t the time for childish jokes!”

“AAAAAGH! I left to pee! I was peeing! Can’t the crown princess even pee! Huh?! I left to get some air and suddenly had the urge to pee!”

Princess Leica jumped from her seat and yelled at his face, and Midas was startled for a moment before he blushed.

And it was the same for Princess Leica.

No, if Midas’ face turned pink, then Princess Leica’s face turned red.

“Ahem, ahem. Ahem, ahem, ahem. You could have just…hinted it a bit.”

“I did! I hinted it to you several times!”

Why else would I get off the horse and then deliberately go over the bush and drop my weapon?!

“Was it a big one?”

“Hey!”

Vanessa quickly shut her mouth when Princess Leica angrily yelled at her, and Midas struggled to regain his composure.

“Haa… Haa… Seriously.”

This is why we need to use soundproofing magic.

Princess Leica panted for a while before she sat down and continued.

“Anyway, I’m letting the humans participate in this subjugation.”

She had suffered embarrassment, but because of that situation, she made a breakthrough.

Princess Leica was about to talk again, but Midas raised his voice.

“Then, Your Highness, what about those humans? Why are there humans in the Forest of Eternity!”

“I’m also curious about that.”

When Vanessa cut in, Princess Leica’s eyes narrowed at her before she furrowed his brows and began her explanation.

And after some time.

Midas said with a frown.

“So you’re saying that these humans are both counts of the Sälen Kingdom, they’re members of the Guardians of the Holy Cross, one’s a successor to the sword of Valencia, the Elf Sword, and they know the secret on how to enter and exit the forest?”

“You’re good at summarizing.”

“It’s all just words!”

He was right.

All of it was just Jude’s words, and there was no evidence that what Jude had said were true.

“No, almost everything that he said are true.”

“Do they have any evidence?”

Princess Leica nodded at Vanessa’s question.

“I think it’s true that he inherited Valencia’s swordsmanship. Because I actually saw them fighting.”

“You knew when you saw?”

“Yes, I knew. Because Valencia is a swordless swordswoman. There aren’t any people who fight like that. Moreover, he was too strong for his age.”

A man who used martial art skills as if they were swordsmanship.

She only saw a few moves, but she was convinced.

“Ahem.”

Midas had spoken rudely because of his temper, but he knew better than anyone else about Princess Leica’s abilities.

From the moment she was born until up to now, he was the one who taught her all kinds of things.

“What about the others?”

“I think it’s true that they know the sign to go in and out of the Forest of Eternity. And I believe that they really are nobles. They’re too pretty and handsome for humans, right? They’re also familiar with etiquette.”

“Hmm.”

It wasn’t a good enough reason to prove their story, but it was believable.

The humans Midas had met in his life were filthy and ugly enough that they were no different from orcs.

“What about the Guardians of the Holy Cross?”

“That… well, I think it’s true? There’s no reason for them to lie. I think they know great uncle Eltharion.”

Princess Leica mumbled in a slightly less confident manner and glanced at Midas.

‘Oh, you’re not mad this time?’

I thought that you’d be angry and say that I don’t have enough evidence.

“Your Royal Highness.”

“Eh? Yes. What is it?”

“Did you try to use your identification?”

“Of course, I did. There was no hostility.”

It was the first time in her life that she had met strange humans, so she talked to them about this and that, but it was also to buy time for her to identify them.

“Because it was blue.”

A color that signified goodwill and the lack of hostility.

Princess Leica was able to identify those who were hostile to her through color.

Red for animosity, yellow for hostility, green for indifference, blue for goodwill, and pink for utmost goodwill.

It would naturally be inconvenient if the world always looked like that, so she usually sealed that ability of hers, but it took some time to reactivate it.

“Haa… We still need to investigate. And…do they have the skills to join the punitive force? They look very young.”

Princess Leica slightly frowned and replied when Midas pointed it out.

“They seemed to be skilled. Because they defeated seven Shades in an instant.”

“Wait, you were attacked by the Shades?!”

“Oh, that’s because the cursed land was near.”

“Your Royal Highness! Are you saying that your life was in danger then!”

“Yes, that’s right. So they’re the people who saved my life. I can’t treat my benefactors badly, right?”

Princess Leica slyly replied and spoke again.

“Moving on, I’m certain of their skills. And if necessary, we can leave it to them to finish it.”

“Do you think the legend is true?”

The legend that only humans could destroy Jabberwock.

“Maybe it’s true? We’ve never been able to completely kill it. Whenever we kill it, it will resurrect after a while.”

In fact, this wasn’t the first time they killed Jabberwock.

It was like a regular event that was held every few decades at the shortest, and hundreds of years at the longest.

“Anyway… I think they’re about 40 years old?”

“Humans get old quickly, Your Highness. If they’re 40 years old, they can’t look like that.”

“Is that so? Then how old do you think they are?”

“Aren’t they around thirty?”

“Hmm, that seems to be true.”

For Princess Leica and Vanessa, they had only known humans from storybooks.

So it was almost impossible for them to correctly guess the age of the two.

“Anyway, you’re saying that we should let them join the punitive force.”

“Yes, we can investigate them after that, right?”

Their story was quite sketchy, but it was not like it didn’t make any sense.

They were already quite close to the cursed land, and Princess Leica identified the two as having no hostility, so the elves could believe the two for now.

“Haa… Only for this time.”

“Don’t worry. I won’t act like a child who picked up a puppy on a rainy day. They’re humans.”

“…So you’re aware of your own actions.”

Midas had a gloomy face as he muttered and sighed before speaking again.

“Moving on, let’s talk to them. I don’t like them but…they’re also the benefactors of Your Royal Highness, so an appropriate reward should be given.”

“Oh, that’s fair enough. As expected of my teacher.”

“Haa…”

Why did I accept Countess Pasier’s request at that time?

Midas regretted that day several decades ago before he glanced at Vanessa.

“Vanessa, release the soundproofing magic.”

“Yes, Master.”

When Vanessa released the soundproofing magic, Princess Leica straightened her posture, and Midas raised his voice so that it could be heard outside the tent.

“Summon the humans!”

***

Having actively defended them against Midas, Princess Leica looked at Jude and Cordelia with a favorable gaze.

That was until now though.

‘What is this? Why are they smiling so much?’

What happened?

It looks quite pretty, but it somehow looks evil too?

The word ‘dark’ seems to be a perfect description of their smiles.

‘Is it because of the lake?’

A lake where spring fairies lived.

But it was only a story that was passed down from her ancestors.

‘After all, I took a bath there when I was young and nothing happened.’

I was just scolded for going out to play near the cursed land.

Princess Leica recalled her childhood before she looked in front of her again and said.

“Jude and Cordelia. Let’s go back to our discussion. We’re going to fight Jabberwock tomorrow morning. As both of you have seen, the Shades have already appeared. So we don’t have any more time to lose.”

During the times when Jabberwock was about to revive, the shadow monsters called Shades would appear near the cursed land.

Since the monsters already went around in groups, Jabberwock would be completely revived by tomorrow at the latest, or perhaps by the day after tomorrow.

“When it has just revived, it would still be out of its mind, so we need to finish it by then. I’d like to entrust to the two of you the task of killing it.”

Her explanation was a bit lacking, perhaps because Jude had already said that they knew about Jabberwock, so the two nodded her heads.

“We understand.”

The battle is tomorrow.

It’s currently afternoon.

Then, shouldn’t we go to the lake after sunset?

It was the moment when Jude and Cordelia thought of the same thing and had dark smiles again.

———————–!

A bizarre and indescribable scream shook the tent. Jude and Cordelia had only heard of it for the first time in their lives, but their intuition felt it.

‘Jabberwock!’

They weren’t wrong.

Having participated in the subjugation of Jabberwock in the past, Midas hurriedly turned to Princess Leica and said.

“It’s waking up. I think it’s going to wake up earlier than expected this time.”

“Let’s hurry! We have to attack it right now!”

Jabberwock was the weakest right after its resurrection.

They had to quickly get there as fast as they could.

“It has woken up a total of 13 times. If we leave right now, we can be on time!”

Midas hurriedly finished the explanation and ran out of the tent while Princess Leica and Vanessa also did the same.

“Jude! Cordelia! Follow us!”

As Princess Leica carried a huge white bow and went out of the tent, knights who were ready to leave greeted her sight.

“Vanessa! Give your horse to the two. You’ll go with me!”

“Yes! Your Highness!”

Vanessa handed over an Elven Steed that had longer and leaner legs than human horses, and she climbed onto the unicorn with Princess Leica. And at that moment, the second waking-up scream was heard.