Chapter 106

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Lucy continued to follow the footprints.

Footprints leading deep into the forest.

Two kinds of traces, large and small.

The small footprints seemed to belong to Camilla, and the larger ones beside them were suspicious, whoever they belonged to.

Then, suddenly.

“…?”

A single flower blooming between the rocks caught her eye.

Lucy narrowed her eyes and looked at the flower.

Three light purple petals.

At the center, a sparkling liquid like clear dew was gathered.

Suddenly, something she read in a book came to mind.

———

-What does it look like?

Three light purple petals, with sparkling dew at the center!

———

‘Could this be that flower…?’

Lucy carefully plucked the flower.

“…Let’s take it for now.”

A goblin skeleton behind her clicked its bones and tilted its head.

Lucy nonchalantly patted its head and continued on her way.

◈

Continuing to follow the footprints, she soon saw a fence hidden behind a rock.

A suspicious flag was waving there.

It looked like a bandit’s hideout to anyone.

Lucy opened the fence and went inside.

Thump, thump.

“What is it, kid?”

Several men came out from inside and blocked Lucy’s path.

Grim-looking faces.

They held swords and axes in their hands.

They were clearly bandits.

“To come here without any fear. Did you get lost or something?”

“Heh heh, it looks like we’re in luck today. Two cute little girls have come to us on their own.”

At that moment,

Click, click.

Something moved behind Lucy.

The bandits’ eyes turned behind Lucy.

“…?”

Gleaming blue eyes.

Creaking sounds.

Nearly twenty goblin skeletons were lined up behind Lucy.

“Hey, look at this. The kid is carrying around bones.”

“What is this… magic?”

“Evil magic. A spell used by witches.”

“So, is this kid a witch?”

“Who knows? Doesn’t matter anyway. They’re just bones. Small ones. We can just smash them.”

One of the bandits scoffed and said.

“Haha! Kid, you have an interesting talent. Leave your bone friends behind and come here. We’ll treat you nicely.”

Lucy didn’t respond to the bandit’s words.

She simply turned her head and said softly to the goblin skeletons.

“Get rid of them.”

Rattle, rattle!

The goblin skeletons rushed at the bandits.

“How dare you, insignificant bones!”

The bandits swung their weapons to fight back.

Clang! Bang! Swish!

The goblin skeletons darted through the bandits with small, nimble movements.

If an arm fell off, another goblin skeleton would reattach it, and if a leg broke, two would support it as they fought diligently.

But as more bandits came out from inside and joined in, the goblin skeletons were soon all broken and scattered on the ground.

“That’s it! We got them all!”

“Puhaha, they were a little nimble, but in the end, bones are just bones. They’re weak.”

One of the bandits kicked a bone and said.

“Hey kid, come over here now. Playtime’s over.”

It was then.

Lucy said in a low voice.

“Again.”

Click, click, click…

The bones scattered on the ground began to reassemble with a clicking sound.

Blue eyes flared up again.

The goblin skeletons, restored to their original state, glared at the bandits with more fierce eyes than before.

As if to say they wouldn’t lose this time.

“What…”

“Weren’t they dead?”

“They were dead! But why are they coming back to life!”

Lucy tilted her head slightly and said.

“Bones, don’t die.”

◈

“Again.”

Click, click, click.

Bone fragments reassembled with a clicking sound.

And then, the battle began again.

It was repeating endlessly.

She had lost count of how many times it had happened.

The bandits, who had initially laughed leisurely as they faced the goblin skeletons, gradually became breathless and spoke less. Now, they were just silently swinging their weapons.

They were exhausted.

“Huk… huk….”

Now, the bandits’ clothes were torn, their faces were bruised, and blood was flowing from their shoulders.

Meanwhile, Lucy was sitting gracefully on a chair made of bones, reading a book.

『Your Body Temperature』

Having graduated from the Button series, she was reading whatever she could get her hands on.

Sounds like “Bang! Crack! Squeak!” could be heard around her, but Lucy didn’t pay attention and focused only on her book.

“Y-You evil witch!”

Finally, one of the bandits gritted his teeth and charged at Lucy.

“Don’t you dare act up, you little brat!”

At that moment.

Whirr!

A black shadow soared from around Lucy and knocked the bandit away.

“Keuk!”

The bandit flew in an arc and crashed violently into a rock.

“…”

In the end, the bandits couldn’t even approach Lucy and had to keep fighting the goblin skeletons.

There was no end in sight.

Even if they cut them down and smashed them, they would come back to life with Lucy’s single word and attack the bandits again.

Fear began to fill the bandits’ eyes.

“H-Hey…!”

A blood-soaked bandit shouted at Lucy.

“What the hell are you…!”

His breath heaved, and the axe he was holding had already fallen to the ground.

The other bandits also opened their mouths towards Lucy.

“Tell us what your purpose is…!”

“Please, just stop now…!”

Lucy didn’t answer.

She just kept her eyes fixed on the book, quietly turning the pages.

“You won’t talk when we ask what your purpose is…!”

“What the hell is that book…”

Someone cautiously approached to peek at the book, but the goblin skeletons creaked and pounced on them.

“I-I can’t take it anymore… I’m really going to die. Let’s run away.”

“Yeah, let’s run away…!”

“Everyone, run away!”

The bandits began to run towards the fence, knocking away the attacking goblin skeletons.

However,

Thump!

Bang!

Thwack!

Thud!

“Ugh, what is this!”

“A wall…?”

A black, translucent barrier was stretched out in front of the fence.

“Th-This…”

Someone said with a dark face.

“It looks like a barrier…! It’s that kid’s doing…!”

The bandits turned their heads in despair.

Where they were looking, Lucy was still fixated on her book.

Lucy turned a page with a serene expression.

Rustle.

One of the bandits standing in front of the fence lost strength in his legs and collapsed.

“We’re… done for….”

There was no escape, and the fighting never ended.

Then, one of the bandits had a sudden thought.

‘Oh, maybe, that kid came to rescue the girl in the prison…!’

He was usually quite intuitive.

‘Let’s take that girl hostage. Then we can survive…!’

He ran towards the prison, dodging the attacking goblin skeletons.

‘I knew something was strange… She didn’t say what her purpose was, so it’s obvious. She definitely came to save that girl!’

When he arrived in front of the prison, the iron bars were open for some reason.

He was momentarily flustered, but when he looked inside, thankfully, the girl was standing blankly in a corner.

“You, get out here! You damn girl! Because of your friend, I’m now…”

The bandit stopped talking and looked up.

Now that he looked, there was something in the prison.

Something with a huge build…

It was shining red eyes as it looked down at him.

“Amon, punish this guy. He was yelling at me in a scary way earlier.”

“Really?”

Crack!

The bandit’s head disappeared.

◈

A while later, Lucy closed her book and stood up.

Now, the bandits were surrendering and kneeling in front of Lucy.

The goblin skeletons were guarding them, hitting the heads of any bandit who moved even slightly.

“P-Please spare us….”

“We were wrong….”

Lucy glanced at the bandits, who had completely lost their will to fight, and walked towards the prison.

Inside the prison, Amon, whom Lucy had summoned in advance, was guarding Camilla.

As if one of the bandits had entered in the meantime, there was a headless corpse lying on the floor.

“Ke ke, Lucy, I like this girl. She’s as cute as Elly and Estelle.”

Amon said.

He was currently giving Camilla a piggyback ride.

Camilla was smiling and stroking Amon’s head.

“She strokes my head well too, she’s very cute.”

“You’ve worked hard, Amon. You can go back now.”

Lucy sent Amon back and looked at Camilla.

Camilla looked slightly flustered when she saw Lucy.

“…So, the master Amon was talking about was the Princess.”

“Yeah.”

“Did you come to save me?”

“That’s right.”

“Thank you….”

Camilla said with an awkward expression.

All she could remember was being mean to Lucy.

In Camilla’s eyes, Lucy was very cute, and she was wary of her in case she stole Alex away.

But even so, she came to save her, and an unknown emotion welled up inside her.

“Oh, right, this.”

Then, Lucy took something out of her arms and handed it to Camilla.

It was the flower she had picked up on the way.

She didn’t know if it was a Lumiella’s Tear, but it looked similar.

“You came to the forest to find this flower, right?”

“…”

Camilla received the flower Lucy handed her with trembling hands.

“I-I think so… How did you…”

“I saw it on the way. I wanted to give it to you.”

Camilla’s face gradually turned red.

“T-Thank you, Princess…!”

Camilla hugged Lucy tightly.

Lucy smiled slightly and hugged Camilla back.

Camilla said in a trembling voice.

“Thank you so much, Princess… I’m really sorry for being rude to you all this time… I’ll never do that again… And this flower is so, so beautiful. I’m so touched that you got it for me…!”

“Let’s be friends from now on, Camilla. I actually wanted to be friends with you all along.”

“With me? Why? I’ve only been mean to you…”

“Because you’re cute.”

“…!”

Camilla’s eyes shook greatly.

“P-Princess…!”

Camilla twitched for a moment and then suddenly kissed Lucy.

Peck.

Then, she covered her face with her hands, embarrassed, and turned away.

“S-Sorry… I just couldn’t help it….”

Lucy blinked.

An unexpected situation.

She didn’t dislike it, but she was quite embarrassed.

‘Could it be…’

Lucy’s gaze turned to the flower in Camilla’s hand.

The flower that could make someone fall in love just by giving it to them, Lumiella’s Tear.

‘It’s working…?’

She thought it was nonsense after reading the book, but maybe it wasn’t necessarily so.

Anyway, it was a relief.

It seemed like she would be able to dote on Camilla a lot in the future.

Author Note

A/N (Author’s note):
Thank you for reading~~!

Translator Note

T/N (Translator’s note):
Oh yeah, I didn’t say it before, but it seems that everyone is believing the princess thing. Guess Godwin has way more influence than expected… or that the parents just don’t exist? (Also the matter of how easily they accepted Billy’s departure, smh.)

But not like that matters since I don’t think any of you came reading this with the expectations that things will make sense.

So uh, happy reading…?