Ch.6362. The Imperial Princess (6)

# 62. The Princess (6)

“Conditions?”

“Yes, conditions.”

Elin’s brightened expression began to darken once again.

“What kind of conditions…?”

“An alliance where we can betray each other at any time, how does that sound?”

I asked her while deactivating [Mortal’s End].

“Is that really an alliance?”

“Of course, just with a bit more thrill. Is that alright with you, Albert?”

“Yes… I don’t particularly mind.”

I thought it wouldn’t make much difference whether we formed an alliance or not, and she seemed to be thinking the same thing.

That no matter when betrayal might come, we could still win.

Elin observed us carefully before reluctantly saying:

“Fine… let’s form an alliance…”

“Just to be clear, you can betray us anytime.”

“Yes…”

She seemed to be saying, “No matter when you betray us, we’ll still win.”

That confidence of hers was dazzling.

“Elin, do you have some kind of plan?”

Elin responded as if she had been waiting for that question and began explaining.

“If you look at the map, teams 24 and 35 are facing off in the forest ahead of our current position. We were planning to strike when those two teams fight each other.”

“So we just need to eliminate everyone except team 11 in that fight, right?”

“Um… yes, that’s right…”

Elin was visibly flustered by her proactive attitude.

I scolded Elin for her lukewarm response.

“What’s with that half-hearted reaction? Our team leader is being so considerate.”

“Th-thank you…”

Elin gritted her teeth and bowed her head.

Clearly, with her beside me, Elin couldn’t act as cocky as usual.

“We’ll help, but you need to work hard too.”

“I got it…”

I gave a mischievous smile to the teeth-gritting Elin before following her into the forest.

As I approached, she whispered to me in a voice only I could hear.

“Don’t you think Elin seems really intimidated by me?”

“Almost everyone in the academy is intimidated by you, Your Highness. That’s normal.”

“But Albert isn’t particularly intimidated by me…”

“That’s because you’re my girlfriend, so I’m comfortable around you.”

“But you’ve always treated me that way…”

I said while cutting through the dense forest branches with my sword.

“That’s true.”

“By the way, how long are you going to keep using that ‘Your Highness’ title?”

I was quite taken aback by her sudden question.

With a blank expression, I asked her:

“Can I change it?”

“Ah… no!? I was just asking.”

“What should I change it to?”

Even before becoming her lover, I had been contemplating about how to address her.

I still used “Your Highness,” but it felt very formal, and everyone called her that.

“What? Are you really going to change it?”

“How about ‘Elli’?”

Her face flushed red at the mention of ‘Elli,’ and she replied with an excited voice:

“Maybe something else… don’t you think?”

“So you’re saying I can change it.”

She realized her slip of the tongue and tried to change the subject, but it was too late.

“By the way, how does Leo address Your Highness?”

“Usually just ‘hey’ or ‘you’.”

Hearing those casual terms reminded me of that person watching us from behind.

I tried to push that thought away and asked her:

“Then I’ll call you ‘noona’.”

“What..!?”

She became shy at the word “noona.”

“Do you like being called ‘noona’?”

“I do like it… but no one’s ever called me that before.”

All of the Emperor’s children except Leo were female, so there was hardly anyone who would call her “noona.”

And the person who should call her that doesn’t…

“Then I’ll call you that, noona.”

To be honest, I just wanted to speak casually to her, but I didn’t have that much “courage” yet.

And since it was only our second day, there was no need to rush.

“Okay… but please call me ‘Your Highness’ when others are around… it’s a bit embarrassing.”

“Yes, understood.”

Seeing her shy like this made me want to be more courageous, but now wasn’t the time.

“Can you detect them from here?”

“Yes, they’re about 500 meters northeast from here.”

As the enemy entered her detection range, she became surprisingly serious and calm.

“How many?”

“They seem to be fighting. The numbers are gradually decreasing.”

“Then I’ll go ahead.”

-Woong!-

I summoned [Sword of the Distant Abyss] in dagger form and activated [Mortal’s End] as well.

With my agility maximized and [Haste] activated, I sprinted northeast as she had indicated.

“What? Wait…”

She seemed to say something, but unfortunately, I couldn’t hear it.

I arrived at the battlefield in an instant.

As she had said, a battle between two teams was taking place.

Magic spells flew from all directions, precisely targeting the opposing team, while warriors engaged in close combat were eliminated by those spells before they could even use their weapons.

“Magic really is overpowered when you’re young.”

Of course, even as skills increase and stats rise, magic remains an excellent weapon.

Especially in large-scale battles like wars.

However, in one-on-one, high-level combat, warriors overwhelm mages.

“Though that’s not the case right now…”

I said to those looking at me with trembling eyes:

“I’m sorry.”

With those words, I charged at them, and they were swept away by my sword without resistance.

-Slash! Slash!-

I eliminated more people while feeling the cool sensation at my fingertips.

‘It’s fortunate that life force doesn’t drop below 5%…’

Otherwise, this would have truly become a massacre.

‘It must have been difficult to apply conditional invincibility magic over such a wide area…’

It showed how much the academy professors cared for their students.

By now, they would be treating the students who had been teleported away after their life force hit bottom.

Thinking about that made me feel guilty, but it couldn’t be helped.

As I raised my sword to eliminate one more person, some swift object flew toward my head.

“W-wait! If you spare me just once…”

-Bang! Slash!-

I split the bullet flying toward me in two with my raised sword.

Then I asked the person collapsed on the ground begging for his life:

“Do you have any alliances?”

“A-alliance!?”

“Yes, alliance. If you tell me properly, I’ll spare you just once.”

“Really!?”

When I nodded, he revealed the information readily, either out of innocence or stupidity.

“Our team formed an alliance with team 2, the one with the princess from the Orion Kingdom and that gunslinger named Eve. They said they’d support us from the rear while we fight…”

“What team number are you?”

“U-us? We’re team 24… Now that I’ve told you, can I go…?”

I said to him as he looked at me pitifully with an anxious expression:

“Just tell me one more thing. Where is team 2 hiding right now?”

“Where are they hiding? Come here.”

He showed me the map on his watch and pointed to a hill.

“They should be hiding on this hill… so now…”

“Yes, go. I’ll spare you.”

“Th-thank you so much…”

He ran forward without a hint of suspicion.

Seeing his innocent demeanor made me want to spare him, but this was a battlefield, even if it was called a survival game.

I threw my sword at the back of his head as he ran without looking back.

-Thud!-

The sword flew straight and embedded itself in his back.

I watched expressionlessly as he was teleported away.

“You psychopath.”

“How long have you been watching?”

When I turned around, Elin and her were looking at me with contrasting gazes.

She spoke to Elin, who was glaring at me with contempt:

“I just arrived. Don’t be too harsh on him. That’s the right thing to do.”

There’s nothing more foolish than showing mercy to an enemy on the battlefield.

Of course, Elin probably knows that too.

“Even so…”

“You’re planning to betray us at the first opportunity anyway, so what’s the issue?”

“That’s… not true.”

“No? That’s good then.”

Her momentary hesitation suggested she wasn’t entirely against the idea of betrayal.

Of course, we were the ones who said betrayal was allowed anytime.

I pointed east and said:

“Anyway, team 2 is supposedly on that hill over there… though it might not be true. What do you want to do?”

“Let’s go. It didn’t seem like he was lying.”

There was no guarantee the information was true, but there was also no guarantee it wasn’t.

And as she said, judging by his reaction earlier, he didn’t seem to be lying.

He had begged for his life so innocently, without even considering the possibility of being betrayed.

As we headed toward the hill following her, she said with an incredulous expression:

“By the way, what was with that speed earlier?”

“What do you mean?”

“When you came here. Albert, it seemed like you took less than two seconds… Were you always that fast?”

“It’s thanks to [Haste].”

When I responded nonchalantly, she looked at the sword in my hand and said:

“Then what’s that sword? It looks different from what I remember.”