The Princess

“You won’t hear me say it much, but you are really good at games. It makes me wonder what it would be like if you could get your hands on a video game or something...not that that could ever happen here.”

“Thanks. That means a lot...especially coming from you, Raze.” She shook her hips back and forth profusely as if she had to go to the bathroom and blushed.

Was she that happy that I praised her?

“Anyway,” I cleared my throat, “don’t let that victory go to your head, and I still don't trust this giant machine fuck. He stole our stats and is now conveniently gone, probably off to kill us with some giant weapon.”

Lyra shook her head. “I agree that we should proceed with caution, but judging from his tone, he will let us leave with the princess.”

Komoria tilted her head. “How can you be so sure?”

Lyra gave a calm smile and dropped her hands to her side. “I know because I have seen that face of defeat and heard that tone many many times before. Have you forgotten that as an Azurespine, oaths are the most precious words to be upheld?”

I slightly shivered at the thought of poison living inside me, waiting for me to betray Lyra. I don’t think I will ever be able to get rid of her…

“Well, I hope you are right,” Komoria said with a sad smile. “Us all dying here would kind of suck, you know, after everything. Ha-ha.”

“I am a machine of my word. You have nothing to worry about...even if Eternal will be displeased at me letting you go. A loss is a loss.”

He floated back down to us, a square cage in one hand, a strange metal sheet device in another, and some sort of large laser gun in his third. His other three hands were behind his back.

He landed before us and dropped all three of the items from his grips. “One princess of Floronda, check. Though I must tell you I didn't kidnap her and neither did Elenoira. She simply just came to me out of her own volition—as strange as it is…”

What the hell does that mean?

The square cage had a girl who looked slightly older than myself, napping on the floor of it. She possessed luscious blond hair that fluttered down below the shoulders in small ringlets. She wore a long, flowing white dress with blue highlights. It was the kind that would probably look see-through if she got wet. I could also see her cleavage through the top of it, just a bit though.  Her feet were covered in black heeled boots that went all the way up her legs with white socks sticking out slightly above them to meet the bare thighs.

She seemed around the same height as Komoria who was only slightly shorter than me. There was another thing—or should I say two things—that were similar to Komoria. The point is, the slumbering princess was a pretty hot babe even if I wasn't into that. Objectively, I could see what the hoopla was about. She had that 'princess' air to her, though definitely one that had run from home. And I doubt she would return of her own free will. 

“Done gawking at her? Well then, let me get onto the next two items…”

“I was gawking at that bitch, you oversized piece of trash.”

“Anyway,” he looked past me to set his eyes on Komoria, “these next two items are both for the girl. One is a portable play set of the game we just played so she can introduce more people to it and make it more popular as its reigning champion.”

Reigning champion? I bet he only played them with his animal mechs...

“Reigning champion?” Komoria asked. "M-me?" Her face flushed up like a tomato as she cupped her cheeks in her hands. 

“Yes, since my children never defeated me and you did, you have become the champion.”

And...called it.

“Oh, I see... Well, thanks!”

She didn't sound that enthusiastic, but whatever.

“Uh, what’s the last item you got there?” Komoria pointed to the laser gun thing that he had just set down below her.

“Ah, that one is rather mystifying. It can—”

“Nevermind that, let’s get the fuck outta here. We can leave right?”

The machine weirdo didn’t have eyebrows, but I’m sure he would have raised them at my statement. “You don’t want me to free the other prisoners or something heroic like that…?”

“I don’t care about those thieving scum... You do what you want with them. We are only here for this one.” I pointed down at the sleeping princess.

Komoria turned to me, looking uncomfortable and somewhat annoyed. I knew what she wanted to say, but I didn't want to hear it… She knew what kind of ship I ran. 

"I see... As a ruler, you need to be able to punish invaders, or else it can bring catastrophe. Send a message so that others don't try to do the same. ”

What? Was she agreeing with me?

I was sure Komoria, who was usually a nice and happy person, would be begging for the lives of the thieves to be spared. Maybe that corrupted form of hers messed around in her mind more than I originally thought. Her judgment had become somewhat skewed when it came to others, not in our party...

But it could also be another thing…

If her village was able to deal with their invaders better, they wouldn't have been wiped out. Of course, these situations were widely different, but I could see where she was coming from.

Lyra was the one who looked the most dumbfounded at Komoria’s response. Yet, she was silent

The Machine God King Emperor broke the silence. “Well...I guess beings of flesh were colder than I remembered. I will send you off now and will return your stats to you shortly. Goodbye.”

The ground opened up below us, submerging us within a vast sky. 

Of course, we were in another one of his blue beams of light, so we did not plummet to our deaths, but I wanted to add a little suspense, you feel?

When we were near the ground, something big happened above us. The entire floating country exploded into a massive firework in the night sky, metal scraps soaring all over the place like a plane crash.

“What the fuck?! Did he just self-destruct and take the whole city with him?”

“I believe so. That’s another Lord of Tyranny down, though… Three in under two months.”

Tears welled in Komoria's amethyst eyes, her crestfallen visage looking at Lyra and I. “He committed suicide because he lost to me...oh no…”

Komoria started to cry. She hugged both of the gifts he gave her to her chest.

I guess she and that robot had bonded over that nerdy card game and now she had all that remained of him and his country. I guess it was kind of sad in a sense. Then again, that guy has gotta be the sorest of losers in history. 

We all reached the ground and fell on our asses from the blue ray that had abruptly cut out during the catastrophe. 

I stood up first, dusting off my ass. “We got him and my stats have returned...but think of all that technology and metal. What a waste!”

Lyra was silent while Komoria wept on the ground. Seems I was the only one in the mood for talking. 

Later in the night, we set up camp with the two tents Lyra brought and a fire that Komroia had started. The princess lay next to Lyra on the log, soundly asleep and taking up most of the log for herself. I sat next to Komoria, keeping my hands close to the fire to retain warmth. It was rather cold tonight and wearing armor didn't help in the slightest.

Komroia was tinkering with the laser thing she got from the boss. She had just finished exploring the card set.

“What’s next? Shall we take another break or head out to fight another Lord of Tyranny? I was rearing for a battle, so I must say I am rather disappointed at how our last encounter concluded.”

Lyra hung her head, her ponytail drooping along with her attitude.

I took a bite out of some roasted kobold meat. “I agwee I fink we sood look for another one soon. I need to show off my stwength to some stronk fuck.”

"Mmmm?"

I swallowed and set my gaze toward the awakening princess.

All our eyes turned to her.

“Huh? Oh...I’m free... Yay…”

She didn't sound happy at all.

That was until she set her different colored eyes upon me, who was about to dig into another kobold kabab. “I don't believe it! I-it’s you! I have been waiting for you! I must say, you took quite a long time to reach the Basilisk Queen. I thought maybe you went somewhere else first, so I went to another Lord. I was glad that I was right this time!”

She was nearly jumping out of her seat after she took a proper sitting position on the log. Now that her eyes were open, I could see that one was light blue-white the other was storm grey. What a strange combination of heterochromia. The other thing that I somehow missed before was that she had a white horn like a narwhal or something sticking out above her hair.

Komoria was uncharacteristically engrossed in her work to respond, but Lyra didn’t miss a beat. “How did you know we would come, princess, also why do you have the horn of a unicorn on your head?”

Unicorn? Now that is interesting.

“Oh, this?” She pointed to the thing on her head that seemed as if it would pair well with a shell on the beach. “It’s because I am part unicorn and part human. It's natural for their spawn to have a horn—or so Dad says.”

“””What!”””

She said it so casually, but gauging from Lyra’s reaction and Komoria’s sudden interest in the conversation, this was clearly not normal. So, there are unicorn fuckers in this world. How raw.

“B-but a unicorn is a spirit of nature. H-how can a human and a unicorn give birth to..." Komoria’s voice trailed off like the wind that finally started to settle down.

The princess clasped her hands together and smiled before letting out a small sigh. There was no ill will in her gaze, but something about her seemed rather strange… She had already been spouting weird shit since the second she stirred. 

She said she was expecting me.

“I guess Dad lied about that as well. It is not a normal occurrence?”

We all shook our heads.

“I thought so. Well, I will start from the beginning…”

So, basically, it all started back when her father, the king of Floronda, went deep into the Enchanted Woods in the south of his kingdom. He was looking for a certain relic, but, instead, found himself something to love instead.

He was a lonely king, one without a queen or offspring to carry out his legacy. So when he saw this beautiful snow-white-skinned maiden in the middle of a group of unicorns, he just couldn't resist.

She seemed to be interested in him as well (so the story goes) and they fooled around. She looked different to him after the first time they met, but he was still able to enjoy his time with her, away from everyone else.

The next day he woke up as someone who looked half his age. He was young, barely over 20. It was a side effect of being in contact with a divine spirit for so long.

He went back there every few nights to see her and after a few months, he discovered that not only was she pregnant, but she was the Queen of the Unicorns.

That’s right. This man had knocked up a unicorn and got her pregnant.

She told him that he must take care of the child since the Queen of the Unicorns could not raise a misfit and the king readily agreed. He always wanted a kid to take his place so you could say it was a win-win.

The unicorn queen also told him that he needed to keep her away from the populace for her power would reveal the king’s sin as well as expose her to the dangers of people who would want to use her unique magic for their own benefit.

So he locked her in a tower behind his castle for nearly her whole life, only sending a servant to take care of her and protect her from the world.

When she turned 18, she finally had a good grasp on her magic and wanted to be free of her father's control.

She left her kingdom, looking for a man to make her happy, one that would take care of her and live up to her expectations.

This of course caused the king to pronounce her as ‘missing’ and assumed she was kidnapped for her great magic and beautiful features.

“Wait…” I interrupted her story. “What does this have to do with me and what is this so-called ‘strong magic’?”

She sat upright and smiled whimsically. “I am glad you asked! For starters, I have two ancient types of magic as well as a special ability…”

She placed a hand over her blue eye. Her grey eye seemed to glow, giving off a faint light in the murky night. A ghostly projection appeared in front of her, right where the fire was. It showed a projection of Komoria tinkering with the card game board while I was chopping away on my first kobold kabab.

This all looked pretty familiar…

“This is a projection of one hour ago, exactly where I am looking. My right eye allows me to perceive anything that occurred at a specific location in the past, while my right shows me exactly what will happen in a spot in the future. That was how I knew you were coming to free me from the Machine God King Emperor’s grasp and why I stayed put.”

Woah, that’s a pretty crazy power.

“My two magics consist of Temporal Manipulation and Spatial Magic, leading me to have access to some powerful Skills.”

She demonstrated the first one by erecting a large blue sphere around Lyra.

Two minutes went by and she canceled it out, leaving Lyra, wide-eyed and stunned.

“That was… Well, it felt like it was quiet for an hour or two.”

The princess gave her the thumbs up. “Correct! Anything inside my magic bubble will have time slowed down for them. That means two minutes for us, and two hours for you. I apologize. It must have been rather boring to sit there for that long.”

Lyra shrugged. “I do not mind.”

“I see,” She turned her focus back to me. “Here's my other magic. Raze, name something in the Floronda that you can only get there.”

I couldn't quite understand what she wanted, but I named something that came to mind. “One of those virgin wizard hats that they have at the transportation circles.”

The princess nodded as if she understood and held out her right hand. A sky-blue oval opened up in front of her.

She stepped into it and quickly came back, holding the hat I requested.

I was flabbergasted.

“Woah…,” Komoria said, her eyes wide with shock.

She tossed it back in and closed the portal as someone yelled from the other side. Some princess, she was.

“I can open a portal to anywhere I have been before or seen in accurate and detailed portraits. It’s quite useful for travel.”

This girl was beyond useful. I know we were supposed to bring the princess back, but maybe…

“And now that I have shown you all this. Will you allow me to join you on your journey and allow me to marry Raze?”

…

“””What!?”””

I put my hand on my forehead like a troubled parent and let out an exasperated sigh. “So let me get this straight. You left your home to find a man that would be worthy of you.” She nodded as if what I said was common sense. “You want him to be strong, treat you well, and show you the world?”

“Naturally. The books Dad read me as a child said I could find a prince or even a strong knight just like that.” She snapped her fingers. 

“Uh huh, “Komoria chimed in. “So….”

“What makes you think I fit anything like that? I don’t even know your name, lady. I saved you to appease my stupid goddess.”

She jumped when my icy tone reached her ears and clasped her arms to her chest. “Did you not defeat three Lords of Tyranny? My name is Fionelliana Bracka Floronda, for your information, you can call me Fione.”

I was taken aback by her overwhelming interest in my personal affairs as well as how eager she was to get with me. Some people would dive right in when a hottie has eyes for only you.

I should set a few things straight.

“To be painfully honest, I haven't exactly killed any of them.” I shifted the blame onto the tinkering bat to my right. "She set the fat imp ablaze which eventually killed him, exploded the basilisk bitch from the inside, and bested the machine guy in a game which ultimately ended up in him taking his own life. If you are asking who is strong, well the busty, emotional chick to my right must be just what you are looking for."

“Hey! What a sec!” She shouted. “I have no interest in girls. Don’t just foist her onto me! Besides...." she trailed off, upturned eyes locked on me. Is this a seduction attempt? Stop giving such a cute look, dammit!

I ignored her yelling and tantalizing look for the time being and turned back to Fione. “As you can see, I am not the one you desire and I don’t have time for this shit. You should just go home.”

She furrowed her brow and spoke in a brash and ill-tempered voice that I didn’t expect from a princess in a million years. “Go. Home? Is that what you said?! Ha-ha-ha… NO! I REFUSE!” She stuck her hand into the gap in her exposed cleavage and pulled out a small brown notebook.

What the fuck?

“Here, right here!” She pointed to a page in the book that had a detailed drawing of me, carrying her like a princess through a beautiful meadow. “You and me! This is supposed to be us. Us! Then we will live together for the rest of our days and have many children. Wouldn't any man want to be with a stunning beauty like me?”

Wow. She's...something. Something crazy. And you never stick your dick in crazy!

“I know you are mad, but your life will be a lot better if you don’t get mixed up with a man like Raze. He cares little for how women feel and swears like a hooligan, not to mention he uses me like a human shield.”

"You're not even a human, so why do you care?" I turned to Lyra, our resident tank, giving off a stare that could freeze the sea. Plus, you are the one with fuck ton of defense! Why should I put myself at risk?

“He once threw me into a group of imps while he squashed them to death with his boots. I thought I was gonna get...defiled."

I faced Komoria who was especially sensitive about her body for some reason and gave her the same look that I gave Lyra.

Is it just ‘Shit on Raze Day’ now?

Fione shook her head and smiled, returning to her calm and cheerful facade. “Everyone has their flaws, out of everyone should know that.”

So she has a lot of flaws, huh? 

“...Because I have no flaws whatsoever.” She slid the small notebook back into the gap between her breasts as if she had her own storage area in there. Since she could open up portals, that may have actually been the case.

What?

“Dad said I was the perfect child and because of it, I would need to spend my whole life in solitude or else any man that took one look at me would be overcome with lust.”

“””........”””

Our eyes were all dead as we looked upon this troubled girl with a mix of disgust and pity.

“W-why are you three all giving me that face? I-it’s true! I bet Raze is having trouble holding himself back from me right now. He wants to have his way with me, I can tell!”

“”What the fuck are you even saying?!”” Komoria and I shout in tandem.

After a few more minutes of trivial discussion, I rubbed my temples and sat in silence. How can this crazy chick actually be interested in me? Did she see something in the future that she’s not telling us? There’s no way she can be interested in me for those reasons that she gave. I have nearly none of those qualities!

“Anyway,” I said while trying to keep my composure, “go home tomorrow. I can’t be who you want me to be nor do I want someone like you in our party.”

She looked at me, longingly. Her multi-colored eyes reflect off the campfire. She kept her mouth shut as if she swallowed down the words she was about to say.

What a strange one she was.

This girl was like an ocean. She was cool and kind at times, but also able to be harsh and destructive out of seemingly nowhere, even if there were small hints of the change in the forecast.

Even with her strong magic, I can see she will be a lot more problematic than the goody-goody scorpion or the helpful, yet corrupt bat. Not to mention the possibility that she was telling the truth about men flocking to her. Then I would have to crush lots and lots of balls, and I didn’t have time for that!

I clenched my fist with anger but thought let me ease up a bit. Wait… Every other Lord of Tyranny is a dude, right? She would be the perfect bai—I mean, companion for those fights. I would need her to prove that, though…

“Ok, look, “ We locked eyes. She looked at me, expectantly and smirked. I continued. “I will give you a trial run, but you gotta prove yourself.”

She nearly jumped out of her seat with joy.

 “But stop with this marriage shit, it's kinda creepy. You have three days.”

She settled down after that. I could tell she was keeping a well of emotions inside of her, but there was no way I was opening that shit up.

She nodded. “Understood. I will stop my pursuit…” She looked away from me. "For now..."

That doesn't sound very convincing!

Lyra was curled up as a scorpion on the right of the log, while Komoria was laser-focused on that strange gun in her hands once more. They probably heard my declaration, but I’m sure they would be fine with it, anyway. The leader made the calls after all.

You know, she’s pretty smoking hot, but I got a feeling that her personality is a lot more than anyone can take. If I was locked in a tower for 18 years, I would probably go insane as well.

I unconsciously gulped a little louder than I expected, resulting in a loving gaze from Fione. Her eyes twinkled in the moonlight, but something about her grin was unnerving…

It seemed for just a brief moment, she was eyeing me like food. I had a similar traumatizing experience before, so I would know. She was eying me like a tiger who just found some tasty grass-eater.

I did not like that feral gleam in her eyes.

“Here.” I threw her one of our spare blankets from Lyra’s bag. “That should be enough, right?”

Since when was I such a gentleman? I can’t believe I stooped this low!

She tossed the blankets back to me, much to my surprise. “I don’t need them, but thank you.”

She opened up a blue portal, reached in, and pulled out a large sleeping bag with an even large blanket.

That magic sure is useful.

She plopped it onto the ground and started to strip…

“Woah! Woah! Woah!” I screamed, my voice a few octaves too high. “What are you doing?”

She brushed some wispy hair past her shoulders and smirked. “I can’t sleep in these travel clothes. I was going to slip into something a little more comfortable.”

I thought she would show me some pajamas or something fitting of a princess, but instead, she showed me sky-blue lingerie and panties of the same color.

She’s getting into...that? And why am I getting so flustered? I am not into women in the first place (No, I’m not gay, but these options are kinda meh…) and I shouldn’t be getting hot-headed over a weird woman I just met!

Then, my partner betrayed me once more for the second time since I came to this world.

“I see. That makes me happy. It seems I have made a rather favorable impression with you. I can sleep knowing that today was my win. Goodnight, then.”

That horny bitch! She was totally eying my crotch!

Fione opened up another portal, stepped in, and came out a minute later, most likely in the get-up she was holding before.

I wouldn't know, though. I was already sleeping in my little bag behind the log, feeling too warm in the chilly weather.

I looked past the log to see Fione in her bed, snoozing away. I caught sight of a bat girl before I resumed my slumber. It seemed like Komoria was the only one still up. She must have been really determined to get that thing working, enough so that she didn't blow a gasket from all the seductive glances Fine had been throwing my way since she first woke up.

My eyelids started to feel heavy, even though I barely did shit today but get mad and watch Komoria get us the win. Feeling dissatisfied once more, I passed into a deep slumber.