EP.37
Contrary to Wilhelm’s ominous warnings, the road to the Holy Kingdom wasn’t particularly treacherous.
In the first place, the route from the Empire’s Capital to the Holy Kingdom wasn’t a rough one. It wasn’t that the Empire had made special efforts to maintain the road; rather, it was simply the fastest way to reach the Holy Kingdom by using the main road.
And the chances of encountering bandits near the main road were almost non-existent. Though there were occasional surprises in the form of Monsters, those posed no threat to a Level 6 Mage and a Sword Expert.
During this journey, Maria sat quietly in the back of the carriage, stealing glances at Wilhelm.
Perhaps because he was so used to walking on two legs, he wasn’t very skilled at driving the carriage. He managed the horses well enough for a Knight, but this made the carriage bounce quite a bit.
However, Maria didn’t mind. Such minor inconveniences were easily solvable with a spell below Level 3. The duration of the solution didn’t concern her; that was irrelevant.
“Ha! If it weren’t for this borrowed beast, I’d have gobbled it up by now.”
With words so grim they were unimaginable for a member of the Nobility, Maria couldn’t help but chuckle.
‘It’s been a while since I heard something like that.’
Back in the day, when Maria and he first met, there were times like this too. They were still too shy to drop formalities, and Wilhelm would often ramble on about peculiar topics like this.
“Oh, nostalgia.”
“Huh?”
“Nothing. Just talking to myself.”
That was already over two years ago.
——
Now, Maria had earned the nickname “Iron Heart” by executing the Emperor’s orders with precision, but there was a time when she was rather timid while living in the mansion outside the capital.
To be precise, she was extremely terrified of putting herself out there.
Her fears were not unwarranted. After Maria’s mother passed away due to illness, her life had been a rough one.
Though young, Maria struggled to accept the new Empress as her true mother, yet she tried to embrace her as family. Initially, the Empress treated young Maria fairly well.
But everything changed once the Empress bore a son.
With aspirations to crown her son as Emperor, the Empress began to keep a watchful eye on all potential rivals to her son.
Her first targets were the other siblings, those who had already built a foundation and were vying for the position of Crown Prince.
Of course, the Empress well understood that killing royals in the capital would stir up a ruckus, so she first attempted to expel them from the capital.
Unfortunately, young Maria didn’t have the strength to resist. Moreover, even her Nursemaid lacked substantial connections, forcing Maria to flee outside the capital.
“Please don’t leave me, Nursemaid…”
“I’m so sorry, Your Highness…”
Before long, the Nursemaid’s health deteriorated, and soon after escaping the capital, she passed away from illness.
“Matilda, I’m entrusting the Princess to you.”
“…Understood.”
In the end, all that remained for her were Matilda, who had a connection with the Nursemaid, and the maids who had been with her since early childhood.
The problem was that they alone were insufficient to protect Maria. Though her maternal family offered some protection, they focused primarily on the Crown Prince and Maria’s elder siblings in the line of succession.
Maria was left to fend for herself.
And soon, the Empress’s grasp reached even to the mansion where Maria had escaped.
“Cough!”
One day, a maid suspicious of a cake that wasn’t on the original list had a taste and collapsed. She never regained consciousness.
From that point forward, all food intended for Maria underwent strict scrutiny.
“Die!”
“Oh no!”
“Ahhh!”
While taking a stroll around the mansion, an Assassin dove in through an opening the guards had failed to notice. By this time, Maria had already reached Level 4 and could blow the Assassin away with her magic, but her late reaction meant she couldn’t save the maid who shielded her.
From then on, Maria had to remain cooped up in the mansion at all times. Her inability to use magic against humans and her obsessive training in magic both began during this period.
However, the tragedy did not end there.
The dagger aimed at Maria showed no signs of retreating.
As each maid collapsed and the tombstones around the mansion grew in number, Maria began to speak less, and her demeanor towards others grew increasingly cold.
At some point, when the deaths of the maids became something Maria accepted with indifference, Matilda and the remaining maids realized they couldn’t let things continue this way. Their lives were of no concern to them.
After all, those who remained were there out of pity and loyalty to Maria, so they weren’t overly attached to their own fates.
“We need to hire some guards.”
Matilda’s words received nods of agreement from the maids.
“We should be able to deal with the ongoing assassination attempts.”
“To respond to Assassins, we should probably have some strong ones, right?”
They engaged in a vigorous discussion, but when they piled up all the necessary conditions, one significant problem emerged.
“…Is there even a mercenary that meets these conditions?”
“There might be, but…”
Matilda bit her lip.
“It probably won’t pay off.”
Reality was dragging them down. However, they refused to give up. Just because it seemed challenging didn’t mean they could ignore the problem.
They scoured every avenue in hopes of finding even a trace of the former Princess they remembered.
Finally, they were able to find the right candidate.
A capable mercenary, proficient in comprehensive response measures, and inexpensive—a noble who happened to be wandering the Empire. The fact that he was just one person was a drawback, but perhaps that worked in their favor regarding personalized care.
It was the monster hunter, Bill, who had just gained a bit of notoriety.
——
In fact, when Maria and Wilhelm first met, they weren’t in the kind of deep relationship they had now.
That was only natural.
Maria had hidden her true identity when they formed the contract.
“Greetings. I am Wilhelm, and I’ll be escorting you for a while. I look forward to working with you.”
When they first met, Wilhelm spoke politely to Maria, quite unlike how he was now. Those who had seen him shift to casual speech as soon as he felt comfortable had trouble imagining he would use formalities when hired.
For someone who had lived through the capitalist era, treating a client with utmost respect was sometimes more crucial than the class system that governed society.
Yet, Maria, already burdened with various traumas and wounds, kept her heart tightly locked and maintained a consistent demeanor towards Wilhelm—a complete disregard.
“…Ahaha, it seems the young lady grew up pampered, making it awkward for her to interact with others.”
“Oh, really?”
Fortunately, the maids, with all their efforts directed toward soothing her, managed to keep Wilhelm’s complaints at bay for a while. However, that couldn’t last forever.
About a month into their arrangement, around the time Wilhelm had thwarted three assassination attempts (mostly poisoning), his frustrations finally spilled over.
“Hey, can we not do this? I don’t know who you think you are, but I’m a duke’s son, you know?”
At that point, Wilhelm hadn’t yet honed his instincts as a noble in this world, so he didn’t realize who Maria was.
“…A duke’s son?”
“Yeah, my full name is Wilhelm von Brandenburg. Now, let’s hear your name.”
Maria couldn’t help but be surprised by that statement. How could she have predicted that someone of that lineage would be gallivanting about in the first place? She cast a bewildered glance at Matilda.
Of course, Maria knew. Though he usually introduced himself simply as Bill, he had written his full name on the contract. He had no choice if he wanted to get paid into his account. Matilda had been just as shocked when making the introduction.
Yet she deliberately chose not to pass that information on to Maria.
That was part of her plan.
She had never socialized with peers before. To open the tightly shut door of her heart as it was now, perhaps some petty emotional skirmish with someone her age (even if the parties involved wouldn’t see it that way, a person’s range of peers tends to expand as they grow older) was exactly what she needed in her calculations.
Wilhelm, clearly riled by the ongoing disregard, was practically hopping up and down demanding to have Maria’s identity revealed. However, Matilda resolutely shook her head at Maria’s glance.
No matter what happened, Maria’s identity could not be exposed. Although it was unfortunate that their plans had gone awry, Matilda figured that continued interaction with peers might eventually bear fruit. She thought that way.
Ultimately, the quarrel of that day only served to widen the gap between Maria and Wilhelm.
“Fine. I won’t bother anymore. I’ll just stick to my job of escorting you and then leave. Unbelievable.”
Wilhelm said this as he crossed his arms.
A change in their relationship occurred several days later.
The Empress, who had refrained from directly dispatching assassins for a while, decided to hire another assassin to commission Maria’s assassination.
Of course, the assassins’ skills weren’t enough to outmatch a Sword Expert and kill Maria.
But then again, assassins were not trained to face knights in a fair fight.
They waited for the moment when both Maria and Wilhelm were most vulnerable.
That is, during the early hours of the morning when both were fast asleep.
However, they overlooked one crucial detail.
The maids, who had long protected Maria from the threat of death, found it hard to sleep even at night.
“Ahhh!”
The scream of a maid patrolling the mansion at night jolted Wilhelm awake. He immediately rushed out of his room. At that moment, their rooms were right next to each other. The only difference was that the soundproofing was better than at the summer palace.
He quickly grabbed the sword he had set beside him and bolted out the door. A regular sword was more suitable for maneuvering in such cramped quarters.
And there, he caught sight of the assassins—likely covered in blood that belonged to the maids—attempting to enter Maria’s room.
“Where do you think you’re scurrying off to, rats?!”
Clang!
He swung his sword with all his might. One assassin tried to parry, but was sent flying against the wall from the overwhelming strength of the Sword Expert.
“Damn it, hurry!”
The remaining assassins began to dash toward Maria, thinking that as long as they accomplished their goal, they could easily escape. They believed they could kill the Princess; after all, their target was so close.
In most cases, that was the right judgment.
The reason they were mistaken, however, was that they had never encountered a Sword Expert before, leaving them with no accurate estimation of his combat abilities.
“…Ha, for goodness’ sake.”
Realizing he had been disrespected, Wilhelm scoffed and dove in.
“Grah!”
“Gah!”
“Ahhhh!”
In an instant, heads of several assassins took flight. The few that moved separately managed to reach Maria’s doorstep and attempted to strike, but by then, it was already too late.
Whoosh!
The remaining assassins turned into headless phantoms, and the last assassin lost their arm from the torso. Wilhelm knew all too well how vicious assassins could be.
To eliminate any potential risks, he severed the assassin’s arm and thrust his other hand outward. Of course, it was charged with magical energy.
Boom!
“Guh… huff…”
Wilhelm’s arm erupted from the assassin’s chest.
He had dispatched all the assassins. Just as he was about to breathe a sigh of relief,
“Hi, hiik.”
“…Huh?”
An ominous sound caught his attention as he leaned around the assassin’s shoulder.
“Oh.”
Maria, wide-eyed, was staring at Wilhelm’s hand—his palm stained with blood and bits of flesh.
From the flickering candlelight, it was clear that Maria’s face had turned pale. Wilhelm had seen that expression a few times before.
That was the look one had just before fainting.
“Grrrkk.”
“Is, is the maid alright?!”
Maria gasped and collapsed backward.
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