Chapter 10
We slipped out of the bright main street and into a dark alley. Edric and I hid inside a small box.
“This way!”
“They went this way! Hurry and find them!”
As soon as we hid, the rough-looking men passed by as if they had been waiting. Edric, who had been watching through a small gap, let out a sigh of relief.
“It seems they didn’t find where we are. You can relax now. It’s fine.”
He smiled at me, as if trying to reassure me.
‘Why are we running away?’
Honestly, I didn’t quite understand.
Those bad men were trying to do something strange, right? There was no reason for us to hide.
I had learned that the ones who should hide were those trying to do bad and shameful things.
And above all, those rough men couldn’t use magic. I didn’t feel any mana from them at all.
There were quite a few of them, but that wasn’t a problem at all. Rather, hiding in a damp place like this was more of a problem.
‘I’m hungry.’
All I’d eaten before coming here was a piece of bread, so hunger was creeping in.
I wanted to hurry back and eat the food left outside my room.
“How long are we going toā”
“Shh- they’re coming.”
The moment I started speaking, Edric cut me off and brought his finger to his lips. I fell silent and just watched.
“Found them?”
“No, they’re not here.”
“Hah, where did those brats go? Hurry and catch them. The boy looks like a noble, and the girl with him wasn’t, right? But she looks very delicate. A premium product. We have to catch her. Hurry!”
I tilted my head at the conversation coming from outside. Premium product?
“Phew… I think they’re gone. You can speak now… why that expression?”
Edric, who had been speaking with a sigh of relief, looked at my expression and blinked in confusion.
I looked at him and pouted.
“…Am I meat? Am I as fat as a pig?”
“What?”
“Earlier you called me an ugly witch… Am I that weird?”
Dad and Uncle Gideon always told me I was pretty. The village people also said I was cute when they saw me.
But ever since I came here, I’ve only been told I’m ugly, chased away, or called meat.
At my question, Edric blinked with a bewildered expression, then urgently shook his head.
“Of course not! What those thugs meant by ‘premium product’ isn’t that kind of meaning!”
“Then what…? I saw it in the city. There were premium and substandard stickers on meat.”
“Th-that’s true, but they’re not trying to eat you. I guarantee it. What those thugs meant by ‘premium product’ is… well… that is…”
“That is…?”
I stared at Edric, who trailed off and rolled his eyes as if pondering.
*Growl-*
Just then, a dragging sound broke through Edric’s contemplation. Edric urgently turned his head back. My gaze followed his.
“Heheh, there you were.”
There stood one of the rough men who had been chasing us earlier. He was grinning from ear to ear, looking at us in a grotesque manner.
“Damn it……!”
“We had a hard time finding you. So, shall we go? I’ll be nice so it doesn’t hurt. Hmm?”
“Shut up! Do you know who I am for you to speak such nonsense!”
“Oh my! What, would it make a difference if you were the emperor of this country? In these slums, blades are stronger than the law.”
As the men smirked and approached, Edric drew the sword at his waist. It was a short sword, not a longsword fit for his body.
Gripping the sword, Edric extended his arm to the side, taking a stance as if to protect me.
“Ilenia. Stay behind me. I’ll protectāIlenia?”
But I ignored his words and stood up.
“I’m not meat.”
“What?”
“What’s this brat saying?”
I walked a step closer to the men, putting strength into my eyes.
“I’m not that fat!”
At the same time as I shouted that, I stretched my arm toward the ground. Energy flowing from my arm covered the ground, and at that moment, the earth rumbled.
“Wh-what!?”
“Is it an earthquake!?”
As the ground shook, the men panicked in confusion. Before the commotion even ended, the ground split and vines grew from the floor.
“What is this!”
“Vines, aren’t they?”
The vines began climbing up the men’s legs.
The men urgently pulled out daggers and cut the vines, but they couldn’t keep up with the speed at which the vines were growing.
“So……”
Some of the men ran away. I reached my arm toward those men and shouted.
“Don’t treat me like meat!!”
“Aaaah!!”
“W-witch!!”
“Help me!!”
At my gesture, the vines flew and bound the fleeing men’s feet. The men thrown to the ground and those wrapped in vines struggled and screamed.
“I’m not a witch! I’m not ugly!”
“H-help!!”
“I’m not ugly! I’m pretty! Dad said I’m cute! And I’m not fat! I’m not meat!! Don’t call me meat!!”
The vines flew and struck the tightly bound men.
*Slap- Slap-*
“…Scary.”
I heard Edric muttering something from behind me. But I was so absorbed in venting my anger that I couldn’t even hear his voice.
“Don’t think about eating me!!”
Late at night.
*Slap- Slap-*
The desolate alley echoed with slapping sounds and screams.
—
The commotion didn’t last long before it subsided.
Nearby shop owners, alerted by the disturbance, reported it, and the guards came. The guards seemed surprised to see the men unconscious and bound in vines.
Before I could answer their questions about what happened, Edric stepped forward.
When Edric showed them something, the guard men were startled. They treated Edric with the utmost respect and, following his instructions, apprehended and took away the men bound in vines.
No one asked what I had done during the process.
The situation was resolved in an instant, and Edric approached me.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
“Nuh-uh. I’m just mad that those men treated me like meat.”
“…As I said before, that wasn’t treating you as meat… haa, never mind. It’s probably better for you to think of it that way.”
“……?”
I tilted my head, not understanding, and Edric shook his head. Then he glanced at the vines scattered on the ground.
“More importantly, how did you do this? It looked like you used vines to climb the wall earlier too.”
“Huh? You saw that? I thought no one was watching.”
My eyes widened, and Edric chuckled. I shrugged my shoulders.
“It’s nothing special. I just grew the vines quickly.”
“Grew them quickly? Is that possible on bare ground with nothing?”
“It is. Vitality energy can germinate seeds on bare ground without water or soil. Making them grow this fast is something only me and Dad can do. Huhuh-!”
Proud of my skill, I puffed out my chest. Edric silently stared at me, then bent down and grabbed a vine.
“The ability to germinate seeds on bare ground…”
Edric, who had been fiddling with the moist vine, looked up.
“At first I thought it was a trick. That there must be some other method. But it seems I was wrong.”
“What do you mean?”
I tilted my head sideways. Edric tossed the vine to the ground and looked at me. Then he reached out and held both my hands tightly.
“Ilenia.”
“Uh…?!”
Startled by the sudden action, my eyes widened. Edric, who had come close, sparkled his blue eyes as he gazed into mine.
“Become my person!”
“……?”
At Edric’s words as he looked at me, I tilted my head. He seemed to be saying something important, then suddenly asked me to become his person. What does that…
‘Ah!’
Come to think of it, there was a story like this in the fairy tales Dad read to me.
A story where a prince rescues a princess in danger. In those stories, the prince asks the princess to become his own princess.
‘This must be that kind of meaning, right?’
I thought that someday I’d have a future like that, but I never expected it to be now.
“Hmhmhm…!”
“…Ilenia?”
“Ahem- You’re asking me to become your person, Edric?”
“Huh? Uh… yeah.”
I looked at Edric, who tilted his head at my question, raised my chin high, and puffed out my chest.
“I understand your feelings, Edric, but that’s a bit difficult.”
“What? Why?”
“I’m going to marry a prince.”
“…Huh?”
When I was little, I read fairy tales and made a decision. That I would marry a wonderful prince when I grew up.
Even from my young perspective, Edric standing before me was handsome and impressive.
But he’s not a prince. Where in the world is a prince who doesn’t have a single escort knight?
“Ahem-! I politely decline your confession, Edric.”
“So… huh? Ilenia. Um… that’s not what I… wait a moment.”
“Thank you for helping me today. Well then.”
I let go of his hands and bowed my head. After looking at the bewildered Edric with sympathetic eyes, I turned around.
And headed toward the castle. Leaving Edric frozen behind me.
—
Edric, watching the retreating Ilenia, couldn’t bring himself to stop her.
“…Did I just get rejected?”
Edric tried to find another answer. But it was impossible to find one.
“Haha… hahaha!”
Edric, who had been letting out a dry laugh, eventually burst into hollow laughter.
He had never imagined being rejected in such a way. Was this that famous “zero confessions, first rejection” thing?
He couldn’t believe he had been rejected by someone younger than himāan eight-year-old.
“Ilenia…”
It was simply the unprecedented drought that had broken out from the southern part of the empire. He had made the offer thinking she could be the solution to this drought.
But to think she would take his offer as a love confession. And from an eight-year-old?
“…She said she’ll only marry a prince?”
Before him stood not a prince, but an imperial prince. Someone who would become the emperor of the empire, yet she rejected him.
“I’ll never marry you.”
Edric Witherun Kalium.
Aged 12.
It was the day his pride was wounded by his first-ever rejection.
