Danger in the Royal Garden (2)

My body was already moving when I shouted.

The twins were a bit slow to react, but they still started moving before the worst happened. However, in her panic, Anna stumbled on her feet after only a few steps and fell. Mira stopped and tried to pull her little sister back on her feet.

I stared at the flower in horror, as the two “buds” opened and sprayed out some kind of yellow, powdery substance all around them, including towards the twins.

Fortunately, the girls had made some distance before Anna fell, and I made it to their side before the ominous cloud reached them. Anna was still on her knees, so I grabbed the girls from their waists and dashed away while carrying them both under my arms.

Focusing my energy on my right leg, I covered a few metres in a single leap. After that, I could only run normally, desperately holding on to my burdens.

In the year since I received my past life memories, I had cultivated a thin thread of internal energy. I didn’t have much time to focus on it, but with the knowledge from my past life in Kruaal, I had made pretty amazing progress, considering how little time I had spent on it.

This one thread was only good for one short burst of strength, but in this situation, it may have saved our lives.

There was almost no wind that day, which was, for the most part, a good thing. The cloud of toxic pollen could only spread so fast without the aid of air currents. Had there been wind to direct the pollen away from us, our escape could have been easier, but then again, had there been wind to blow the pollen in our direction, our escape might have been impossible.

“Princesses!”

I saw the maid run towards us, a panicked expression on her face. Soon enough, we met.

“Take them away! The gardeners, too! Don’t let any guards enter the garden, either! Call for mages, just in case!”

“Yes!”

The maid nodded and took the frightened little girls off my arms. She then turned and ran out of the garden, shouting orders to the guards.

I quickly memorised the terrain before me, then turned around. The cloud of pollen was now so thin that I could barely discern its boundaries. Its spreading seemed to have slowed down considerably, but I backed away just in case, chanting a spell.

As I chanted, I felt the heat around me subside. Rapidly, it became so cold that I was almost shivering.

Up in the air, above the red flower, I saw a small but bright speck of light forming. It grew brighter with every word I uttered, until it was almost too dazzling to look at.

As soon as I finished my spell, it exploded in a sea of flames.

It was pure carnage. The flames destroyed almost half of the whole garden. I was cold just a moment ago, but now I was shielding my face from the heat of the flames.

Fortunately, these were magical flames, and unlike natural ones, they went out on their own after a while, leaving behind a huge circle of blackened earth. No plant survived the onslaught, though I suppose some of their roots may have survived.

This was the first and, so far, only combat spell of the ancient magic that my master had imparted to me. It was extremely useful, as it required no sacrifice aside from the heat in the air. It was particularly effective on a hot, sunny day like this, drawing a great amount of energy from the sun’s rays.

Conveniently, it was perfect for destroying that dangerous flower and its pollen.

I hoped the king wouldn’t be upset. Well, I had just saved his daughters’ lives, and I had a good reason for my destructive deed, so I was probably safe.

The gardeners, however, would probably be devastated.

* * *

“I see. So that’s what happened. Thank you very much for saving our children.”

The royal couple went as far as to bow to me, to show the depth of their gratitude. It was no small matter for a king to bow to a commoner child, so my good impression of them as parents deepened considerably.

The twins were sitting on their mother’s lap, clinging to her, uncharacteristically quiet and serious. No doubt they were shaken, after hearing that they had almost lost their lives.

I vaguely remembered the flower from the verdant world where I spent my life before the life in Kruaal. Its name was, as expected, something difficult to pronounce with a human mouth, and it was probably known as something else in this world, anyway, so I came up with the excuse that I had read somewhere about the flower, but that I didn’t remember its name.

It was a flower that liked to draw nutrients from corpses. Its pollen, if inhaled, was toxic enough to kill most mammals within five minutes, and it contained spores that could take root within the corpse and grow into new flowers. It could also take root in the ground, if certain nutrients were present, but it would never have the kind of vitality that the flower in the garden showed.

“I recommend that you dig up the location where the flower bloomed. There might be a corpse buried under that flowerbed. I probably don’t need to tell you this, but it’s possible someone planted the flower there on purpose, knowing how dangerous it is.”

King Albert nodded, his expression grave.

“We will investigate this thoroughly.”

“Mira, Anna. You should thank Edwin as well.”

The girls, who had been rather unresponsive to everything so far, finally woke up when hearing their mother’s words. They jumped down from her lap and quickly ran to me, their little feet making pitter-pattering sounds.

Mira jumped up and wrapped her arms around my neck, while Anna hit my chest at equal force. I almost fell down.

“Thank you, Ed! You saved us!”

“Un! Thank you so much, Ed! You’re our best friend!”

I couldn’t see their faces, as one was tightly hugging my neck and the other was pressing her face against my chest, but I could hear the sniffling and sense their small bodies trembling. It seemed as though the shock had made them unresponsive at first, and only now did they snap out of it and feel the full brunt of their scare.

I bent my body forward a bit, so Mira could get her feet on the ground and didn’t need to hang on to my neck. Slowly stroking their heads, I spoke softly, trying to calm them down.

“You’re very welcome. It’s only natural to help when a friend is in danger. I promise you, as long as I’m here, I won’t let anything bad happen to you two. It’s fine now, the danger is over.”

I kept caressing their heads for a while, then hugged the little girls tightly but gently, all the while whispering soothing words, until they calmed down.

As the royal couple watched us, I thought I spotted admiration in their eyes. After all, in their eyes I was just an 8-year-old kid, yet not only had I resolved the situation, I was completely calm afterwards, able to become a pillar of support for the other victims of the incident.

That was how I became friends with Mira and Anna, and why we became so close so quickly. After this incident, the little princesses took every opportunity to invite me to play with them, and while I had to sometimes refuse due to my studies, I never refused them if I did have the time. The two of them also became rather physically clingy with me, apparently addicted to my headpats and hugs.

One of the gardeners went missing that day, and no matter how the king’s men searched, they never found the culprit of this incident, the person behind him, or the exact motive for the misdeed.