Chapter 15 - Mochi vs. the Saski Swarm

Milly awoke with a yawn and pushed her limbs outwards from her body, arching her back.

“Biiiig stretch! Good morning Princess.”

Milly blinked slowly as her eyes adjusted to the sunlight flickering in through the treetops. When she realized she was seeing treetops she jolted away and floated out of Nao’s arms, looking around. They were deep in a thicket and surrounded by trees on all sides.

“W-w-what is happening?! Where are we?!”

“We’re in the Ita Woods, Princess.”

“Ita Woods?! In the East?! We’re going east?!”

“The Demon Lord isn’t in the West, Evuli.”

Zen deftly swung his sword back and forth through the thicket, clearing a path through the dense brush for them.

“What happened to the addressment?!”

“You fell asleep, and the brat told the kingdom she was going to ‘bite the Demon Lord’. It was pretty funny.”

Milly stopped floating alongside everyone and stared blankly at Mochi, who was preoccupied with jumping to snap at Saskis, small bloodsucking insects.

“I’m sorry we didn’t consult you Princess, but you slept for almost a whole day. The events of the addressment yesterday weren’t ideal, so we decided to make haste out of the kingdom before things could get any worse.”

“Yesterday…?!”

Floating herself high enough to break the treeline, Milly looked back in the direction that were walking away from, and saw her castle far in the distance. She swirled herself back down to the group like a soap bubble washing down the drain and pulled on her ears, sobbing quietly.

“Don’t worry Princess, I bought some spellbooks for you so you can practice on the way.”

Nao swatted at a Saski that buzzed around her face.

“Perhaps you could do something about these bugs?”

Groaning all the while, Milly had Nao pull out a book for her to look at, and she begrudgingly tried out small fire spells on the pesky insects.

The crown seemed to still be working as Oppi had claimed, and Milly was successfully using magic with ease, casting spell after spell without any issue. Elemental spells required a little more oomph than the projection spell, but now that Milly had a full days rest the Saskis were no match for the powerful pup.

As they progressed through the woods, Zen noticed the branches getting thicker, and the roots pushing up from the ground, making traversing a little harder. Small twigs stuck out from all angles, and they were sharp enough to scratch cheeks and hands. Mochi had lost interest in trying to catch Saski and was becoming more and more annoyed by the crisscrossing trees. It certainly didn’t help that she wasn’t sure-footed yet and would occasionally lose her balance, causing her to fall right into a sharp twig here and there.

“Hey! Do a better job cutting trees! I don’t like this!”

“Do you see how many trees there are here, you brat? Cutting any more than what’s directly in front of us would be a waste of my stamina, and we don’t know what else is out here.”

Mochi pouted and grabbed for Nao’s hand. She had started to do this more frequently since the last training session, using Nao as both a walking support and object of comfort. Nao certainly didn’t mind and had a twisted smile as Mochi intertwined her fingers into Nao’s.

“W-what is that look for, Nao?”

“I’m simply enjoying this precious intimacy with your body Princess. You would never let me hold hands with you before. Or cuddle with you.”

With a quick and fluid movement, Nao scooped up Mochi into a proper princess carry, and nuzzled her hair and face. Mochi laughed and licked Nao’s cheek. Nao froze on the path and her face went dark. Zen turned back to look just in time to see the lick, and a shade of pink spread across his face as his eyes widened, but he quickly turned back ahead and swung his sword with more vigor than before.

Milly became a bit flustered herself, but peered around Mochi to see what had happened to Nao. Tears were streaming down her face, and her twisted smile had somehow become even bigger than before, until she suddenly burst out.

“Oh Princess! Thank you for this gift!”

She squeezed Mochi and wriggled around, having completely lost her usual composure. Milly’s jaw dropped at the sight.

“W-what do you mean ‘thank you princess’?! That isn’t me!”

Zen coldly shot a look back at them.

“Ditch the Dirt Pervert, Evuli. We need to find a clearing to camp at before nightfall.”

“...Dirt Pervert?”

Mulling over what Zen meant, Milly absent mindedly floated along behind him, leaving Nao and Mochi behind.

Before long Zen and Milly had made their way through the worst of the thicket, and could see a clearing just ahead, but they heard a scream and turned back to find they had lost sight of Nao and Mochi.

Zen leapt into action and darted past Milly back into the brush, and Milly pushed herself to float as fast as she could, dodging branches and not noticing some were simply passing through her.

They arrived back to the girls, who were swarmed by Saskis.

“I hate this! Get away! I’ll kill you!”

Nao and Zen were doing their best to kill the tiny bugs, but Zen’s sword was too large to hit them, and Nao’s sewing needles were precise but not able to kill many at once, and there were thousands. Mochi tried to snap her jaw and take chunks out of the swarm, but she realized she didn’t care for the taste and instead cowered low to the ground, covering her head.

Milly hesitated. If she used fire magic, she could hurt the twins and Mochi. She racked her puppy brain as best she could, but her panic made her thoughts jumbled until Nao called out.

“I’m sorry, Princess!”

In that moment she remembered those as the last words Oppi had said before pushing them out of the room with a spell. She focused herself and took a breath to calm her mind, and flicked her little paw in a circle like Oppi had done with his finger.

Instantly the Saskis were pushed back from the others, and bounced off an invisible bubble if they tried to get close.

“This is amazing Princess! Wonderful job!”

The compliment shook her confidence for a moment, and the ‘bubble’ burst, allowing the insects to descend on the group once more.

“Ahh! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

She flicked her paw again and the bug barrier returned, allowing Milly to see everyone’s very swollen and annoyed faces.

Milly: 1

Saskis: 0