If I Can't Have It, I'll Destroy It
If I can't have it, I'll destroy it.
"Open this thing right now! I'm a princess! An elf princess! The Second Princess!! How dare you treat the blood of the king like this!?"
Asir screamed, gripping the wooden bars with both hands and rattling them for all she was worth. Wood ought to have been far weaker than iron — yet no matter how hard she shook, the bars didn't so much as budge.
"Haah… Your Highness. Please just sit quietly. Do you have any idea what you've done?"
"What did I do!?"
Last night, Estel had come to her asking to talk. The entire time they spoke, Estel had a recording magic tool hidden on her person. Completely unaware, Asir had cheerfully spilled everything — why she'd come to the Great Forest, what her relationship with the Empire's prince was, and why she'd forbidden the harvesting of World Tree leaves.
Hooked completely by Estel's leading questions, Asir had handed them everything. The Evergarden family, who had planned to cut the unnecessary parts and keep only the decisive evidence, ended up broadcasting the recording almost entirely unedited to the Council of Elders and the rest of the elves.
Once it came out that a princess of one nation had colluded with the heir of another empire and, with flimsy excuses, sabotaged a plan on which the elves' very survival depended, even a princess couldn't simply walk away.
"Just the charges that come to mind off the top of my head — leaking the elves' most closely guarded secrets, colluding with the human realm… and not just any human, the Empire's heir — that's full-blown treason against the state. The sentence alone would be rotting in an underground dungeon for at least several thousand years. And the more you carry on like this, the heavier the punishment gets."
"S-several thousand years?!"
Asir's face went ashen as she echoed the elf soldier's words. Elves already lived extraordinarily long lives, and no one among them had ever committed a crime of this magnitude — so the projected sentence was staggering. Even for an elf, living that long would leave nothing but crumbled bone. A human would be dead inside a century. An elf would have to spend those thousands of years genuinely locked underground. Just imagining it made death sound preferable.
"You were thrashing around without even understanding your own situation. Honestly, it's almost refreshing."
"You! What's your name!? How dare you talk to me like that?"
"Yes, ma'am. I'm Ruivil Erbilheum, great-grandson of the Ruivil family from the village below. Keep this up and you'll be getting restraints as well."
"Er… what?"
"Anyway, stay quiet until the formal trial. I'm heading off for the shift change."
"What? Hey! Don't you walk away! Hey! Erv— hey!! You pointy-eared bastard!!"
As of yesterday, Asir had still been the noble Second Princess of the elves. In a single stroke she had fallen, and now she was a prisoner in the Great Forest's underground dungeon. Even among the elves, few had ever looked kindly on the Second Princess — and with her facing the extreme penalty, the soldiers treated her with open contempt.
"…This fucking—! That damned brat — or old hag, whatever the hell she is — she tricked me!?"
Once the soldier left, Asir sat alone in the empty underground cell, chewing on her rage. If only she had been even a little wary when a hostile enemy suddenly asked to talk. If only she had searched Estel's clothes before letting her in. If only she had simply kept her mouth shut and hidden the information — none of this would have happened.
The Evergarden family who planned this operation had only intended to snag some scrap of evidence linking her to the Empire during the conversation, enough to give the Council of Elders a pretext for further pressure. If Asir had simply kept her lips sealed, the ones sweating would have been the Evergarden barony — the ones who needed to proceed with potion production. Instead she had gone down to a light jab, and even they were left speechless. The Council of Elders, listening to the recording, had all been so dumbfounded they couldn't finish it and ended up smacking their own foreheads.
"How dare they…! These NPC bastards, how dare they…!"
Even now, Asir felt not a shred of personal fault — only fury at the elves for treating her like a fool.
"…Ah, fuck. But what do I actually do?"
Even so, once she had cooled off a little, her head cleared and the reality of her situation began to sink in.
"I really have to spend thousands of years stuck in here? For real?"
Every tool and weapon Ganix had supplied her had been confiscated. She was left with little more than a single layer of cloth. Even putting her full strength into striking the bars did nothing. Escape was, quite literally, impossible. And unlike the movies she'd seen in the modern world — The Shawshank Redemption and the like — digging through a wall with some improvised tool was out of the question. Her cell was wide open; anything she tried would be spotted by the guards immediately. There wasn't even furniture to hide behind. The place was completely bare.
"Fuck… fuck, wait…! This can't be real…! It's a lie, right…?"
"I-I'm an elf princess…! I'm a transmigrator! This doesn't make any fucking sense!!!"
An inescapable prison. An eternity so long that simply counting from one would leave you breathless. The thought of spending that entire span locked in a cell set her pupils trembling violently.
"No, no wait… when they bring food, if I hide the spoon — or at least a fork — this fucking Prompt!! That dogshit fruit!!!"
Asir had been wringing her brain for one last idea — smuggling a utensil from mealtime, hiding it against her back, and trying to dig a hole — when she remembered what the elves actually ate, and let out a scream of pure despair.
The elves' staple food: Prompt. It was a fruit. No utensils required.
"Fuck! Open it! I said open it! Open it right now before I kill every last one of you!!"
Completely unhinged, Asir rattled the bars, punched them, even threw a dropkick — but all she got for it was pain in the parts that hit. The bars remained pristine.
It was over.
"…Should I just die right now? If I die after transmigrating, maybe I'll wake up as a different character? Yeah. Like an alt account. When a character's build is completely fucked, you just make a new one. Right?"
Hope gone, Asir cradled her aching limbs and collapsed face-down on the floor, muttering to herself. She had reached the final stage of grief: acceptance.
And then, just as Asir was thrashing in the depths of despair—
Step— step—
"…!? Hey! Open the door! No — please open it! Please! I'll do anything! I've still got a pretty face, you know! Huh? So please!"
At the sound of footsteps in the distance, Asir's head snapped up. She scrambled to the bars in a single bound, shoved her face through the gap, and shouted. It had to be the relief the previous soldier had mentioned. The same people she had dismissed and looked down on as NPCs — and now she was begging them, ugly and pathetic.
"……"
"Hey, big bro! No — sir! What am I supposed to call you? Anyway, please, just once, show some mercy—"
"…A delivery from His Highness the Prince."
Thud— clatter-rattle…
"…Huh?"
The soldier had already strode right up to her cell. He pulled something from his sleeve and rolled it through the bars.
"This is… a communication crystal orb?"
She recognized it instantly. She had used the same kind of magic tool any number of times to contact Ganix — a device for speaking with people far away.
Crackle— static—
…Ah, ah, can you hear me?
"…!? Ganix! Is that you, Ganix?"
Asir, is that Asir?
"Y-yeah! It's me, it's me!"
She carefully picked up the crystal orb. The connection locked in at once, and a familiar voice filled her ear. She was linked directly to Ganix Obina.
"I-I knew you'd come through! You're going to save—"
…You absolute fucking brain-dead idiot!!!!!!!
"Ghk!?"
Hope had just bloomed at the sound of Ganix's voice; Asir was about to tear up and start talking when a roar erupted from the crystal so loud it shook the underground dungeon.
Is your fucking head just decoration? You went and spilled classified information out in the open? You dense bitch — I could stick a Christmas tree ornament on your shoulders instead of that skull and it'd still be smarter than you!
"Th-that's because… those bastards tricked me…"
I listened to the recording. You just talked and talked and they heard every word. If that's 'getting tricked,' then the steward who manages my schedule must be the greatest con artist alive. They poked you right out in the open and every single poke hit the jackpot — what the fuck was the point of any of this!
Ganix's fury was entirely justified. What he had asked of Asir was simple. Go back to the Great Forest and forbid the harvesting of World Tree leaves until the reserved potion delivery window closed. Literally just bark a couple of firm orders not to do it, then hole up in a room for a few weeks. An extremely easy job.
Tenebrix Nox showing up had been a variable, sure — but in the end, nothing had actually changed. If Asir had at least threatened to cancel the whole thing before Tenebrix Nox blew off a couple of her legs and carved up the rest of her limbs, Ganix would have accepted it. What could anyone do when the legendary Black Flame Dragon herself got involved? You pull back and plan the next move. That would have been fine.
Instead Asir had walked straight into a leading interrogation and spilled every last detail — and Ganix's lid had blown clean off. When the contact he'd planted in the Great Forest had frantically reported the whole mess that morning, Ganix had half-wondered if he was dreaming.
"I-I'm sorry! I'm really sorry! I fucked up so bad!"
To get you out, I have to burn every contact network I planted! You understand that?
Anyway, when you get back, we're continuing this conversation. You're dead.
"Okay! Okay! Just get me out of here first!"
Asir was still too valuable to throw away. Ganix would have loved nothing more than to leave her rotting in that cell for thousands of years — but he had no choice. He would get her out. Of course, springing her from prison meant using the contact network he had spent long years carefully planting in the Great Forest, after which those assets would be burned forever. His blood pressure was through the roof.
Click—
"Haa… I really thought I was fucked. This shitty forest — I'm never coming back here!"
Once free of the cell, Asir recovered her gear first thing. Her own mistakes didn't seem to cross her mind at all; she wore a look of pure relief, as if none of it had ever happened.
Hold on. Finish the job before you leave.
"The job? How? Everything's blown. It's over."
She was about to leave the underground dungeon when Ganix stopped her cold.
"Here. Items His Highness the Prince instructed me to deliver."
"Uh… what's this?"
You know what to do. Before you come back, make sure you get this done.
Ganix's informant rummaged through his clothes again and handed Asir a bundle of scrolls. Every one of them was charged with powerful fire magic.
If we can't have it… then we smash it completely.
The moderate plan — blocking the supply of potion ingredients — had failed. But there were still plenty of ways to keep the Evergarden barony from getting their hands on World Tree leaves. And one of those methods was now sitting in Asir's hands.