The knight standing beside my aunt raised his voice.
“By order of Her Imperial Highness, the Crown Princess! Recall everyone who has gone into the hunting grounds! Sound the emergency horn!”
A moment later, the deep, resonant cry of a war horn echoed across the forest.
Bwooooooooom—
Bwooooooooom—
“Knights capable of using aura, engage the wyverns! Everyone else, assist the evacuation of the honored guests!”
My aunt issued another command without the slightest hesitation, and the knight beside her immediately repeated it at the top of his lungs.
“By order of Her Imperial Highness! Knights capable of using aura are to engage the wyverns! All others are to escort the honored guests to safety!”
The scattered knights instantly fell into orderly formations, moving with disciplined precision under her command.
“AAAAAH!”
Kreeeeeee!
The battlefield dissolved into chaos—a storm of battle cries, terrified screams, and the shrill screeches of wyverns.
Yet even amid the pandemonium, my aunt did not so much as blink.
“Nursemaid! Take the child and run!”
The maids and my nursemaid hesitated anxiously.
“Your Highness, what about you?”
“I cannot leave before every guest has been evacuated.”
The dignity of imperial blood resounded in her unwavering voice.
“But—”
“Take the child and follow His Majesty—”
She never finished her sentence.
A wyvern swept low over our heads.
“Ahhh!”
The maids shrieked.
I looked up just in time to see the neck of the same wyvern skewered clean through by my aunt's escort knight.
“It is too dangerous here. Leave this place to us, Your Highness. Please evacuate at once.”
Hot, sticky blood burst from the wyvern's neck like a fountain.
The knight who had pierced it was drenched from head to toe in crimson.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
At the same time, my nursemaid's warm palm gently covered them.
“Carry the child and run.”
At Grandfather's command, the youngest and sturdiest attendant hoisted me onto his back.
I clung tightly to him as he sprinted toward the Imperial Palace, surrounded by my nursemaid and the maids.
Grandfather and my aunt ran alongside us.
Several wyverns gave chase.
One of the escort knights swung his sword toward the pursuing monsters.
SKREEEEE!
A blade of aura shot from his sword and ripped open a wyvern's belly.
Its entrails spilled out in a gruesome torrent.
Before the horrifying sight could fully register, I turned my head away and shut my eyes tightly.
The attendants and maids weren't so fortunate.
They had to keep their eyes open just to run.
Their screams soon gave way to retching.
“Urgh!”
“Blegh—!”
Even I, who had only caught a brief glimpse, knew that grotesque image would haunt my dreams for days.
How much worse must it be for those who had seen it clearly?
Soon the thunder of galloping horses filled the air.
The hunters were returning one after another.
The sounds of people shouting, horses neighing, and wyverns screeching pierced through everything, no matter how tightly I wished I could block my ears.
It felt as though my eardrums might burst.
The wind stirred by the beating of wyvern wings brushed across my back.
Even with my head lowered and my eyes tightly shut, I could vividly picture those monsters circling overhead.
The wind grew stronger.
Closer.
“AAAAAH!”
The attendant carrying me screamed.
He stumbled forward, falling face-first.
I rolled off his back and tumbled across the ground.
The very next instant, a wyvern seized him by the back of the neck.
“AAAGH!”
Dangling helplessly in the air, he flailed wildly as he screamed.
Meanwhile, I continued rolling across the dirt.
“My lady!”
My nursemaid reached desperately toward me.
Her fingertips brushed my arm...
...and missed.
I rolled one last time before stopping with a wet splash, sprawled face-down on the ground.
Looking up, all I could see was a sky covered by black leather.
No—
It was the enormous wing of the wyvern trying to take flight while clutching the attendant in its talons.
Then...
A long sword suddenly burst through the leathery wing.
Startled, I squeezed my eyes shut before opening them again.
The escort knight was standing atop the wyvern's back.
The moment the creature had descended to snatch the attendant, he had leapt onto it, driving his sword deep into the base of its wing before tearing straight through the membrane with sheer force.
I bit my lip hard and planted both hands against the ground.
“Ugh!”
I had to get up.
I had to run.
In this hellish chaos, that was the only thing I could do.
Fight desperately just to stand.
But after being thrown so violently onto the ground and rolling several times, my ankle throbbed with unbearable pain.
Just then...
Another wyvern dived straight toward me.
“Your Highness!”
“AAAH! Your Highness!”
...I'm going to die again.
I shut my eyes and curled into myself.
Before fear came...
Injustice.
So this is how it ends again...
I haven't even had the chance to take my revenge.
Then—
The murderous pressure surrounding me vanished in an instant.
Sunlight suddenly broke through the shadow that had covered me.
“Huh...?”
As I looked up, a heavy impact sounded behind me.
THUD!
The ground trembled ever so slightly, as if from a tiny earthquake.
I turned around.
An Imperial Knight.
Or rather...
Not yet a full knight.
An apprentice.
His black hair, damp with sweat, shimmered blue beneath the sunlight.
"...?"
Strangely enough...
His back looked both unfamiliar and deeply familiar at the same time.
The moment he turned and our eyes met...
My breath caught.
“Ah...”
...Ar.
His name stuck in my throat.
No sound came out.
Can we meet already?
How old is he now? Thirteen?
Weren't we supposed to meet two years from now?
The questions lasted only a moment.
Bathed in sunlight, his figure seemed almost unreal.
Otherwise...
How could I explain the ache filling my chest?
The sight of him standing there with sword in hand felt so reassuring—as though he alone could protect me from everything in the world.
Looking at the loyal knight who had remained beside me until the very end of my previous life, my heart overflowed with indescribable tenderness.
Had I ever actually seen him draw his sword like this before?
I never realized...
...that it could be so breathtaking.
Then it struck me.
...I was the one destroying his talent.
I'd heard countless knights remark that Ar possessed extraordinary natural ability.
Yet I had never once witnessed him truly fight.
It made sense.
A princess confined within the Imperial Palace rarely needed a sword-bearing bodyguard.
Though I'd always lived under the threat of death in my previous life, that danger had never come from assassins.
It had come from politics.
Thinking about it now, it was obvious.
My uncle had never sent assassins after me.
I hadn't died by force.
I had been killed by politics.
Branded a traitor...
Given poisoned wine...
Forced to drink it with my own hands.
That was how I died.
Throughout that entire tragedy...
Ar had never once needed to draw his sword.
How could a knight serving such a princess ever have the opportunity to fight with all his strength?
Perhaps...
This time...
Shouldn't I let him go instead of binding him to my side?
I bit my lower lip until it hurt and slowly closed my eyes.
I knew it was the right thing to do.
Then why...
Why were tears threatening to fall?
My chest felt as though it were being torn apart.
I had to give him up.
I couldn't drag him into the blood-soaked center of political conflict simply because of my own selfish desires.
After all...
I had once abandoned everything, deciding to die alone rather than burden him.
How could I shamelessly exploit his unwavering loyalty now?
Wouldn't that make me unbearably selfish?
Unable to bear looking at his back any longer...
I turned away.
In the distance, the Imperial Knights, nobles, and the great noble houses' private knight orders finally appeared.
Having heard the emergency horn, they had all returned to base camp.
The tide of battle reversed instantly.
The once-rampaging wyverns began falling from the sky like autumn leaves.
As I searched for something to grab so I could stand without looking back at Ar, someone suddenly seized my shoulders.
It was Grandfather.
“Melly! Melly!”
His face was pale with terror.
“Are you all right? This old man is so sorry... I never should have brought you to such a pointless event... Are you hurt anywhere?”
I was still lying on the ground, my ankle throbbing.
Grandfather grabbed my shoulders and actually crawled on his knees until he was shielding me with his own body.
Everyone around us gasped.
“Y-Your Majesty! Your sacred body...! At least... your dignity...!”
“My dignity?”
He shot them a furious glare.
“Is that what matters right now?”
Ignoring everyone else, he hurriedly examined me from head to toe.
“Her ankle is swollen! Fetch the Imperial Physician immediately!”
He looked at me anxiously.
“Melly... did you sprain your ankle? Hurry! Why isn't the physician here yet?!”
Grandfather's frantic fuss completely blocked my view.
Ar disappeared behind him.
Perhaps...
That was for the best.
After enduring it as long as I could, I finally leaned sideways to peek toward where he had been standing.
He was already gone.
The imperial hunting event ended in complete disaster after the wyvern attack.
The base camp itself had been established in an area where monsters almost never descended.
It had served as the hunting camp every single year.
Not once had an accident like this ever occurred.
Furthermore, wyverns were territorial monsters.
They rarely left their own domains.
Everything about the incident was unprecedented.
In truth...
Even now, no one knew why the wyverns had abandoned their territory.
As for me...
A different mystery weighed just as heavily on my mind.
Originally, Grandfather was supposed to patrol the outskirts of the hunting grounds with five guards and be attacked by the wyverns there...
Then why...
Why did they attack the base camp this time instead of Voltaire, who was inspecting the outer perimeter?
Perhaps...
The wyverns' appearance hadn't been a coincidence after all.
If it had merely been chance, they would have attacked Voltaire's group on the outskirts just as they had before my regression.
But if this had been deliberate...
What had their true purpose been?
No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn't find an answer.
My head began to pound.
Eventually I gave up trying to unravel it.
For now...
I simply wanted dinner.
And rest.
That evening, before bed, I sat quietly beside my nursemaid.
She knitted calmly while I pretended to read a fairy-tale book, absentmindedly turning page after page.
In reality...
I wasn't reading a single word.
My thoughts kept wandering.
Her knitting needles moved steadily before my eyes.
Swish.
Swish.
“Hm? Nursemaid?”
“Your Highness,” she said without looking up, “you are reading, aren't you?”
“O-Of course!”
I nodded vigorously.
She still looked unconvinced.
Running the yarn lightly across the back of her hand, she let out a small hum.
“Really?”
“Yes! Want me to tell you everything I've read so far? I was getting bored anyway.”
I needed to talk.
Anything.
If I stayed silent, my thoughts would drift back to Ar.
His image from earlier refused to leave my mind.
Gratitude.
Guilt.
Affection.
They tangled together until I could hardly breathe.
If I could just distract myself for a while...
But my nursemaid merely smiled with the indulgent expression adults reserved for children insisting on their innocence.
“No, no. Just keep reading. There's no need.”
Honestly...
She could have quizzed me all she wanted.
I'd memorized every story in this entire fairy-tale collection during my previous life.
Not just the plots.
I could probably recite the color of every protagonist's clothes in every illustration.
Reciting them from memory might even have chased these thoughts away.
But my nursemaid had already returned to her knitting.
With no other choice, I turned another page.
Even as I did...
My mind drifted back, half consciously and half unconsciously, to everything that had happened during the hunt.
