Ch.46The Escort Knight of the Ugly Princess

“Did you get him?”

“?! Lorensky! Shut up!”

A legendary spell that can resurrect even the dead.

Lorensky, who had been relieved seeing Amaterasu with a huge hole in the center of its chest, quickly realized what he’d said and covered his mouth with both hands.

But it was already too late.

Crack, crunch.

“The tree branches…”

“…are surrounding the wounded area.”

I deliberately aimed for the heart since the enemy had a human form.

No matter how strong the abilities or regenerative powers an opponent has, as long as they’re a living creature, piercing the heart—the source of life—should kill them.

But that…

“Can’t we kill it?”

“No. It’s more like its heart simply wasn’t there.”

“Or perhaps it’s a heart that regenerates simultaneously with destruction…”

Either way, the first surprise attack was a complete failure.

If anything, after this strike, Amaterasu seemed unwilling to view the creatures before it as mere insects any longer.

“I. Will. Kill. You.”

Crack. Crunch.

The void giant tore off its own extending branches and began reducing its size.

Its body shrank until it was barely large enough to be called a giant, becoming almost human-sized, but the three people watching could only swallow hard.

‘The power…’

‘It’s concentrating in one place!’

‘This is dangerous…’

The unnecessarily large body was merely used to instill fear in humans who were nothing but insects.

Conversely, a body roughly the size of a human was truly elite.

This was Amaterasu’s form of acknowledgment, shown only to humans it deemed “worthy of killing.”

Thus, Japan’s historically strongest and most evil monster returned to its more maneuverable demonic form.

Boom! Boom!

Swoosh.

In that brief moment when it was reducing its size by cutting itself down,

Lorensky and Lancelot leaped simultaneously to either side of Amaterasu, preparing to swing their exploding palm and holy sword.

But.

“Nonsense.”

Tree branches suddenly extended from Amaterasu’s body and pierced through both of them before they could slash or explode it.

“Sir Lancelot! Immortal!”

The speed was so fast that neither could even react.

At best, their trained reflexes allowed them to avoid vital spots, but…

“Ugh…?!”

“My strength…”

The tree branches were forest predators capable of devouring all life force from wherever they took root.

Amaterasu’s branches immediately began extracting the life essence from the two people they had pierced.

“You.”

“…!”

“Are. A. Liar.”

“L-Lee Jin-ah!!”

Amaterasu’s eyes met Lee Jin-ah’s, who was moving from behind to rescue the two, as if by coincidence.

After hearing those inexplicable words…

Slash.

“……Huh?”

In the blink of an eye, Lee Jin-ah’s severed head was swimming through the air, cut off by a swiftly swung tree branch.

***

“Please… please put me down now…”

“No way! If I do that, I’ll be killed by Branch Director Lee Jin-ah!”

The amusement park had become blocked off with giant tree branches growing to seal all exits.

Yoo Sihyeon was running with Kurumi on her back, trying to find the best hiding place in this half-jungle.

But that didn’t last long.

“Stop… please stop this!!”

Princess Kurumi, still being carried, leaned backward and deliberately fell to the ground.

“P-Princess?! What are you doing? That’s dangerous!”

“That’s what I should be saying!”

She firmly pushed away Sihyeon’s arms as she tried to carry her again and shouted resolutely.

“Please just leave me alone! I just want to die!!”

“…!”

I can die.

I can finally die.

I can finally escape this life where I suffer in agony, vomiting my guts out whenever I touch people even slightly.

To Kurumi, Sihyeon, who was trying to hold her back from a life without regrets, was nothing but an obstacle.

So she spoke harsh words with sincere feelings, telling her to just go away.

But.

“No.”

“…What?”

“I said no. I’ve decided to make you our company’s advertising model. I boasted about it in front of the executives, so who would consider me worthy of being the next chairman if I brought back a corpse?”

“Th-that’s your problem…”

“Exactly! It’s my problem!”

As if saying “so what?”

Sihyeon picked up Kurumi again, who was too weak to resist, essentially telling her to quietly become a sacrifice for her career advancement.

She continued running through the amusement park looking for a hiding place, continuing her selfish speech.

“And don’t casually talk about dying or whatever!”

“……”

“That might be fine for ordinary extras, but we’re special beings! Special people shouldn’t die pathetic deaths in places like this!”

“I’m… I’m not special… I’m actually a disgrace to my family…”

“That’s absolutely not true! If anything, that makes you even more special!”

Sihyeon was starting to pant, clearly getting tired.

But she didn’t stop talking.

“A disgrace to a Hunter family? What could be more ‘special’ than that?!”

“I’m… special?”

“Yes! Absolutely! You’re far more charming than those ordinary social screws who pretend to be humble and try to make themselves ordinary! You’re unique! That alone is proof that you’re special!”

Mid-sentence, Sihyeon tripped over some rubble from the collapsed amusement park.

“H-Hey!”

Princess Kurumi tried to get off her back, thinking this was truly enough.

But Sihyeon continued carrying her firmly on her back.

“And! And you actually don’t want to die!”

“…!”

“You talk about having no attachments to life, but people who truly want to die don’t usually talk like that!”

Sihyeon struggled to stand up again.

At her accusation of lying, Kurumi felt she needed to refute immediately.

But.

“Good morning, Princess?”

“I only drink alcohol once a week.”

“Actually, my younger sister is a Hunter.”

“Hic… sob…!”

Actually, there were regrets.

Though they were recent, they were numerous—incredibly, immensely numerous.

Enough regrets to fill the entire world.

“Oh… sake!”

“Someone lonely… someone I want to help…”

“I’ll do my best to protect you as much as I can!”

“Hold hands? Of course!”

“If I’m with you, Princess, it’s actually my honor.”

“I do have them… I do…”

“See? When you’re actually facing death, you don’t want to die after all, right?”

“Yes… yes! I want to live…! I want to live! To survive! There’s someone I really want to meet…!”

I know I’m being a burden, but I wish he would stay by my side until the moment I die.

I wish he would mourn my death with me.

I wish he would marry me even knowing I have a terminal illness, and create the fruit of our love in my womb.

I want to be with Shinwoo until the moment I close my eyes.

But.

BOOM!

“Eek?!”

“Amaterasu…!”

Why do people call wishes “wishes” rather than goals?

The reason is simple.

People call their true desires “wishes” rather than goals because they want them but cannot achieve them.

As if exemplifying this, Amaterasu—the evil god of nature with deer-like wooden antlers—dropped down in front of Kurumi and Sihyeon as they poured out their frustrations.

Blood dripped from the tips of branches extending from various parts of its body, evidence of battle, and its skull-like head showed slight traces of explosion.

Even so, it appeared completely undamaged.

“…! Pink-haired person! Hurry and abandon me while you still can!”

“I-I… even if I wanted to… m-my legs…!”

When this being of a different caliber revealed its true form, Sihyeon, a mere mortal, could only tremble.

Then, struck by a casually swung arm, she flew away alone, bouncing on the ground several times before going limp as if dead.

“N-No! Amaterasu…!!”

“As. Per. Our. Contract. I. Will. Take. All. Your. Remaining. Life.”

“Why… why are you doing this to me?! What did I do wrong?!!”

She hated this being that was about to kill her.

So Kurumi, for the first time in her life, expressed her anger without restraint toward the god she had served within herself.

The one who stole her normal life.

The one who had created victims like her for over 2,000 long years.

Why was it doing this?

What wrong did our ancestors commit that it continues to be sealed within our family through the complex condition of parasitizing one descendant’s body?

When she asked the reason through her outburst:

“Because. Humans. Are. Fun.”

“…What?”

“And. Delicious.”

The reason was remarkably trivial.

Though once worshipped as a god, a monster is still a monster.

“You. All. Are. Being. Raised. By. Me. For. Your. Entire. Lives.”

Truly a reason befitting a monster.

“Shinwoo, I…”

As death finally approached, the princess, unable to do anything, was about to end her story here…

“UOOOOOH!!”

…or so she thought.

“Huh, what?!”

Just as Amaterasu was about to embrace Kurumi to absorb her,

Someone rushed past the untouchable being, hugged Princess Kurumi, and then tripped and fell.

“…?”

Amaterasu tilted its head, feeling déjà vu.

Meanwhile, when her eyes met his as he fell on top of her, Princess Kurumi’s eye patch had come off, and tears began streaming endlessly from her eyes.

No wonder—the person above her was the only attachment she had left in this world, whom she thought she would never meet again.

“Shinwoo…”

Why did he come to this dangerous place?

Coming here would only let him see terrible things rather than help.

He was an utterly ordinary human, bleeding from a slightly scraped forehead just from falling earlier.

A normal human who couldn’t even match an E-rank Hunter, let alone our Hunter families.

Yet he…

“Princess. I’ve come to save you!”

He says to me with a bright smile.

“Why… did you come… I’m going to… die soon anyway…”

The answer she thought she would never hear from anyone.

At those words—”I’ve come to save you”—which were what she had wanted to hear most, Kurumi couldn’t stop her tears.

Even knowing that Shinwoo’s presence wouldn’t change the situation at all, why did she become so selfish whenever she was with him?

“Save… me…!”

“Yes.”

“Save… me! Save me! Save me save me save me save me!! I don’t want to die! I want to live longer! With you, Shinwoo! This is the first time I’ve had a friend! The first time I’ve drunk with someone!”

“I know.”

“There’s so much I still want to do! I want to get married! I want to have children! I want to live… live in a happy home with someone I love!!”

Kurumi finally revealed all the feelings she had been hiding.

Like a princess from a fairy tale throwing a tantrum to her only knight.

She should be telling him to run away.

She should be telling him to use her as bait and escape quickly.

But as soon as she saw him, she wanted so desperately to live that she ended up revealing her true feelings.

And then, a warm hand came to rest on the princess’s head.

“Princess.”

“Sob… hic…”

“Please make one promise with me now.”

“Pro-promise…?”

“Yes. A promise.”

Behind them, the void giant was approaching again to play with its prey.

But regardless, Shinwoo focused on the present.

“Everything you’re about to see is completely secret. Understand?”

“Secret…?”

“Then I’ll save you. I’ll defeat that bad guy and make him spit out all the lifespan he stole from you.”

“!? How can you do that, Shinwoo…?”

“Die.”

Meanwhile, right behind Shinwoo.

Amaterasu had arrived directly above Kurumi, raising one arm high like an executioner’s axe, ready to crush the insect before it.

The princess shouted that it was dangerous.

She was even trying to push Shinwoo away to die in his place.

But the next moment.

“UOOOOOOOOOOHHH!!”

A black storm erupted from his body.

“…Huh?!”

Simultaneously.

CRACK!

Amaterasu’s main body was pierced by a jet-black fist, splitting its upper and lower body in half and sending it flying backward.

What stood before the ancient evil god was no longer a mere insect not worth knowing about.

It was at least an equal being capable of competing with itself.

Truly serving the ugly princess of illegitimate birth.

Equally ugly.

“RAAAAAAAAAHHH!!”

A knight of pitch-black, not even human but monstrous origin.