Ch.7271. The Imperial Princess (15)
by fnovelpia
# 71. The Imperial Princess (15)
“What are you two doing here?”
“Sparring.”
“From Saturday morning? You’re getting along well.”
Reina’s tone suggested she was making some unnecessary misunderstanding.
It was just a coincidental morning meeting.
But then Rachel said something meaningful to Reina.
“We do get along well, don’t we?”
“Uh… y-yes…?”
Rachel’s expression while saying that was somewhat frightening, so I had no choice but to agree.
It felt like she was threatening me with her expression saying, ‘Say yes.’ As I fumbled with my words, Reina watched me and said incredulously:
“Are you really getting along? He doesn’t seem to think so.”
“No… we get along well…”
“Did she get some dirt on you?”
“That’s not it.”
Reina seemed relieved by my return to a normal tone and changed the subject.
“Well… that’s good then, but weren’t you supposed to have that melee combat with the Imperial Princess yesterday?”
“We’re doing it Monday, since the survival game ended too late.”
Honestly, I didn’t care when we did it, but Monday definitely felt more comfortable.
Yesterday, I wasn’t in any condition to engage in melee combat with her.
“That makes sense. Yesterday was too exhausting.”
“Right.”
“So how do you feel? Confident?”
“Well…”
If I had to be blunt, I’d say I’ll probably lose, but it wasn’t like there was absolutely no chance.
After all, we hadn’t fought since I obtained [Sword of the Distant Abyss].
“I’m not sure yet, but I think I won’t lose one-sidedly at least.”
Originally, when fighting her, I would lose one-sidedly, but things were quite different now compared to then.
And it seemed Rachel and Reina were thinking the same thing.
“Honestly, you have a chance. You might even win if you do well.”
“Yeah, that pressure aura gives you an advantage, right?”
“That doesn’t work on the Imperial Princess.”
Hearing this, Reina looked surprised, and I asked:
“It doesn’t work? Why?”
“It’s blocked by [Michael’s Blessing].”
“That can be blocked?”
“Yeah, but only by top-tier mental defense skills like the gods’ blessings. Unless there’s a huge rank difference.”
Hearing this, Reina stared into space and spoke.
She was probably looking at her status window.
“That really is a cheat skill… It makes mine look so inferior in comparison.”
“Your skill is plenty good too. In terms of pure killing power, it’s arguably the best among all unique skills.”
“But yours is considered the best without having to focus on just one aspect.”
Hearing that, I suddenly found myself at a loss for words.
I wanted to say something nice, but the words just wouldn’t come to mind.
I couldn’t exactly say, ‘Don’t worry too much, you’ll learn [Stealth] later anyway.’
“That’s true.”
And it was true that my skill was overpowered, so I had to acknowledge it.
“But she’s strong even without skills. We just fought without skills, and I almost lost.”
“You almost lost without using skills?”
“Yeah.”
Hearing this, Reina looked at me with sparkling eyes.
However, those shining eyes were too much pressure for me.
“Not now, let’s rest a bit.”
“That’s too bad.”
“Besides, if I fought you without skills, I’d just lose. How could I react to [Lightning Strike] without skills?”
“You did it yesterday.”
“Yesterday?”
As I tilted my head in confusion, Reina explained what happened yesterday.
“Yesterday you dodged it even though your hair wasn’t red, and you were even using that greatsword.”
“How did you know that summoning the greatsword increases strength instead of agility?”
“I could just feel it? When you hold the greatsword, you become incredibly strong, and with the dagger, you become insanely fast.”
It was certainly an impressive deduction.
“But my agility does increase even with the greatsword. Without it, it would be hard to dodge. It could be dangerous if I mess up.”
Difficulty dodging aside, if I got hit by mistake, I could die.
[Lightning Strike] was a skill with enough killing power for that.
And I had low defense to begin with.
“I understand, but is this skill really that dangerous?”
“Yes, enough to kill me if I get hit right now.”
Clearly, Reina wasn’t properly aware of the danger of [Lightning Strike].
Despite having a common name like Lightning Strike, not many people actually possessed it, so data was limited, and it was a skill she had just learned yesterday.
“It’s an extremely dangerous skill, so don’t use it carelessly. There’s a reason it’s the wannabe skill of every assassin in this world.”
“The wannabe skill of assassins…?”
“Yeah.”
In fact, Reina with [Stealth] was famous as the Empire’s top assassin.
But judging by her current expression, she originally had no intention of becoming an assassin.
‘Her expression is really dark.’
It was probably due to her aversion to the word “assassin.”
In reality, assassins were often portrayed as criminals in the news, so they had a very negative image.
But of course, not all assassins were like that.
“You don’t have to assassinate people to be an assassin. In fact, assassins are essential for high-difficulty dungeon raids.”
In dungeons with high difficulty, priest-type monsters that heal their allies or ranged combatants like archers and mages often appear.
Therefore, assassins who could easily take out such monsters positioned in the back line were not optional but essential.
Reina’s face began to regain its original brightness after hearing this positive perspective.
“Besides, assassins are few in number, so they’re popular, and they’re basically cool, right?”
Perhaps because of this, many famous party assassins had thick fan bases and were quite popular.
Of course, Reina was one of those people.
“Really…?”
“Of course. The assassin in the number one party is super popular too. They appear on TV often.”
“Now that I think about it, that’s true…”
Reina seemed to be starting to view the assassin profession more positively.
And there was one person watching us with a face full of discontent.
“You’re being really nice to Reina, huh?”
“Am I…? I thought I was treating everyone the same?”
“Really? Then I guess it’s just my imagination…”
Somehow, Rachel seemed to have a lot she wanted to say.
However, Rachel didn’t say anything else and ended the conversation there.
‘Why is she acting like that? Did I do something wrong?’
I couldn’t understand why Rachel was reacting that way.
I wanted to know the reason, but it didn’t seem right to ask in the current situation.
So I just stayed quiet like Rachel, saying nothing.
Just as the atmosphere was about to become awkward and suffocating, Reina spoke first.
“Are you feeling better now?”
“Yeah, I’m feeling better now. Let’s do it.”
To be honest, my left arm was still burning, but I thought it was better than staying still in this awkward atmosphere.
I quickly summoned a normal-sized sword and got up.
“You can use that. I’ll dodge it.”
***
At that time.
Unlike yesterday, the Imperial Palace was somewhat peaceful today, and the people of the palace were exchanging friendly morning greetings in the peaceful corridors.
And one of those people was heading toward the First Imperial Princess’s bedroom.
It was a modest visit that didn’t quite match the descriptor “Imperial Princess of the Empire,” and that person entered the room without even knocking on the door, without hesitation.
Entering the room somewhat rudely, Riel gently shook the princess who was still sleeping soundly to wake her up.
“It’s breakfast time, please wake up.”
The Imperial Princess of the Empire heard her maid Riel’s words and woke up from her sleep with a yawn.
Then, in a half-asleep state, she asked Riel:
“…Yawn~ What time is it? It feels really late…”
“It’s 8 o’clock. Let’s go straight to the dining room. Everyone is waiting.”
She took her phone and headed straight to the dining room with Riel.
In the dining room, the Emperor, the Empress, and her younger brother Leo were waiting for her, and the Emperor spoke to her as soon as he saw her.
“You must have been very tired? Sleeping until now, unlike usual.”
“Yes, it was a bit tough. Unlike before, our team only had two people…”
“Two people? Why?”
“Ah… they said it was necessary to balance things out.”
The Emperor said to her as she spoke calmly:
“Who could it have been…?”
“It’s someone you know, Father.”
“Someone I know…? Don’t tell me it was that person we saw before.”
“Yes, it was him. A friend named Albert Veros.”
Hearing his name, the Emperor frowned and said:
“You must be getting along well with him? Like that time too.”
“Of course.”
She spoke in a calm tone that would surely surprise her father if he heard what she was about to say.
“He’s also my boyfriend.”
Perhaps because she said it so casually, everyone was silent for a moment.
But when that moment ended, everyone showed different reactions.
Riel and the Empress were speechless, Leo had an expression like he’d bitten into something foul, and the Emperor looked incredulous as he asked his daughter:
“W-what did you just say?”
Hearing the question, she answered with a very bright voice and expression:
“He’s also my boyfriend.”
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