ETL – Chapter 6
I approached it quietly but the tentacles of the demon knew the direction I was in and thumped right in front of my eyes.
Crrrrrrr Crrrrrr
The sound of the demon’s teeth grinding echoed throughout the forest.
As I observed the demon, I decided it might be too difficult to grab one of its tentacles. The demon was big but fortunately its tentacles did not extend far.
At that moment, the prince managed to wound the demon’s body. It seemed as if he had miscalculated the tentacles though. As he swung back, the demon grazed his teeth against the bloody prince.
I moved quickly towards them. The tentacles wriggled at the prince. It was disgusting, but I reached out my hand and placed it deeply into the wounds of the demon’s body. I just needed to pour out my energy.
As expected, green-blue blood spilled out of the demon’s mouth, and it soon collapsed.
“He’s dead,” I said in a quiet voice.
The prince’s gaze fell on me. I was covered in the demon’s blood.
I tried to ignore the gaze as my legs trembled. I was about to remove my hand from inside the demon when the prince instead grabbed my arm to help me.
While surprised, the princess also stood up and helped the prince by supporting him by the arm. Rather than saying thank you to me, her attention was all on him. I shook off the blood from my hand wondering if I would get to hear one thank you.
I wanted to rest against the tree but the prince grabbed me by the wrist and dragged me aside.
“Let’s go.”
I blinked my eyes at the remark and nodded my head. I noticed that the prince’s wrist was injured, but he was pretending to be fine.
The princess held the prince’s arm and continued to shed tears. For some reason, the prince, who normally would have wiped those tears off, walked ahead silently instead.
There was a stench of demon blood all over my body. I looked down at my miserable clothes, stained green and blue all over.
I heard groaning coming from somewhere. Since we were still in the mountains, I looked around to find the cause of the noise. I eventually saw someone lying on the floor. He seemed to be a victim of the demon but looked like he only suffered a fall injury.
“Your Highness.”
“….”
“Your Highness, the Crown Prince.”
He stopped and looked at me. I pointed at the person on the ground.
People from the temple knew that the demon could appear today, so they were responding quickly. It still seemed that they did not have enough help to take care of all the people here. It was a miscalculation, so I had to be responsible.
Unlike me, who has a lot of power, general priests have a waiting time until their power comes back after treating a person.
“What’s wrong?”
The prince scanned my entire body. I avoided eye contact by looking at my shawl covering his shoulder instead.
The princess caught him staring and said, “Your Majesty, you have to be treated by the Imperial Palace…”
The princess was unable to hold in her emotions, and her voice trembled.
“My heart aches more when you’re sick. You said you didn’t want me to be troubled! You have to go quickly and get treated.”
In the end, the princess fell to the floor and wept loudly. I thought this was great and waited for the prince’s response.
However I heard the groans of the injured in between the princess’ cries, and a heavy sense of responsibility weighed me down.
I wanted to see the prince’s reaction a little more, but I had a job to do. I turned around and approached the place where two men were lying down.
“Are you alright? First, take a breath and open your mouth.”
There seems to be no outside trauma, so I had to deal with internal injuries. To heal I had to place my hand over the injured area and release my healing energy over it. Therefore, internal injuries were mostly treated using parts such as the mouth, nose, and ears that were connected to the body.
I treated those who were injured one by one.
Actually, the truth was… I liked how people relied on me. Even so, I needed to finish this situation quickly and take a good rest.
Come to think of it, Helio, the sage who came to the hunting contest at the call of the princess, seemed quite angry. The reason was because the princess ran into the forest where the demon was lurking after she heard that the prince was in danger.
While I was healing people, I imagined a fight between the two men. I wonder which side the princess would pick. Even though the situation in front of me was grim, my imagination helped me take my mind off of it.
I also remembered that the princess invited several people, including Reneben and Helio, to the hunting competition. I had to push the thought out of my head for now as I heard a voice calling me.
I noticed that the prince was looking at me but I ignored it and moved farther away to continue to help treat people.
Thankfully we had prepared beforehand so the work was done quickly. Fortunately, no one was killed when we checked the extent of the damage.
I swept my pink hair behind my ears to get it out of my way. I had to gather the nobles together to soothe them and to tell them how truly pleased I was about how the situation ended. I was embarrassed to speak in front of so many people. I had to do it because even Reneben asked me to.
The priests held their hands in greeting one by one and said hello to Reneben, who returned their greetings.
“Quiet.”
I decided to borrow the usual way the crown prince spoke, short and bold. I looked at the nobles and conveyed that I was sincerely glad that there were no casualties.
One man who made eye contact with me was startled and wriggled his forehead to avoid eye contact. Except for that, I was glad they were listening to me.
I was relieved that the damage was not significant. It was a good thing that I happened to be here to help, thanks in part to Princess Ronella.
The respect I see in their eyes made me feel superior. Even though I used my powers, I thought I could accept their gratitude.
It was a success as the nobles were satisfied by my words.
Afterwards, I went to the barracks where the prince was being treated. The prince was lying on a spare bed. There was also the princess, the imperial sage Helio, and Duke Cassan. Lastly Reneben, the high priest who was beside me, completed the group.
The princess slowly rose from her seat and stretched out her arms and came to me as if she could not control herself. The princess seemed to realize that I would not react well to this kind of behavior. Ronella was seemingly looking down at me, as if to say she has the ability to get a good grasp of her opponent.
“It’s all thanks to the saintess that I’m alive. Thank you so much.”
“Nella,” the Duke said in a low voice. “Don’t ever do such a dangerous thing again.”
There was nothing strange about the situation, even if everybody but the prince was angry. It was only because of the prince and no one else, that she would think about jumping into a dangerous forest.
The princess left my side.
“You are always too overprotective of me! I acted that way because I knew that the saintess was there. And how can I stay calm when the prince is in danger?”
I glanced back at the prince on the bed. It was a pity that his face was blocked by Helio.
Duke Cassan became angry at her words.
“You were in a situation that could have been dangerous for you.”
The princess put her hands together and took a step back. The duke swept his hand through his hair and bit his lips.
“. . .”
Instead of getting angier at her, the duke turned to the prince, bowed, and left.
It was hard to criticize Ronella, who jumped to help the crown prince of the country… everyone seemed to be sympathetic, so they stayed quiet.
The princess was crying in the background and Helio asked if she was ok.
I wanted to watch more but I met the gaze of the prince. I missed the timing to turn my head away and after a few seconds of awkwardness I decided to break the silence.
“The wound can be treated quickly if you want but it will be painful. Personally, I think it’s a good idea to get the poison out slowly.”
I had a hunch that my time spent escorting the princess has come to an end.