Chapter 3
Chapter 3
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 3
Chapter Title: The Barbarian Princess
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"Let me go-!"
A red-haired woman trapped in the prison screamed at the top of her lungs. The guard watching her clicked his tongue and glared fiercely at the barbarian woman. She didn't even seem to get hoarse. She'd been yelling all day long.
He couldn't even whip her for being noisy because the prisoner screaming her lungs out was actually someone of considerable status.
"Do you even know who I am?! You have no respect for a warrior—!"
The daughter of the barbarian chieftain. The barbarian princess. Batura.
She was one of the barbarian great warriors, though no one knew how she'd been captured.
If it hadn't been the most famous knight in the duchy who brought her in, the guard would have thought he'd just grabbed some random barbarian woman and was bragging.
"Are you listening!? If you have ears, listen, and if you have a mouth—."
'She's annoyingly loud...'
But no matter what status the woman in front of him had, the fact that she was deafeningly noisy didn't change.
As the guard tried to tune out the noise and look away...
The prison door opened, and a green-haired knight entered. Spotting that distinctive hair, the guard hurriedly saluted.
"Sir! All clear on guard duty!"
"Ah... yeah. The prisoner's doing well?"
"Yes, sir! More than well—she's healthy—."
"—Youuuu!"
At that moment, Batura bellowed upon seeing the face of the man who had entered the prison.
"You green devil! Why did you drag me all the way here?!"
"Oh, that."
Enri scratched his cheek as if troubled by Batura's words, then murmured cautiously with an apologetic tone.
"Truth is, I wanted to raise a barbarian for once, so I brought you along. But the lady said no."
"What? R-Raise? What do you...?"
"Sorry. Looks like we can't keep barbarians at our house."
Batura gaped in shock at the way he treated her like a pet. Meanwhile, Enri recalled the conversation he'd just had with the duke's lady and spoke up.
"So, we're sending you up for adoption."
"What the hell does that even—."
"You gotta live well there, okay?"
The conversation wasn't connecting. Realizing this, Batura decided to try a different approach. After all, she wasn't just some brute barbarian. Despite being captured like this, she was a properly acknowledged warrior.
"...Where are you sending me?"
"The royal palace."
"What?"
However...
She wasn't mature enough to stay calm upon hearing Enri's answer.
"His Majesty the King asked for the barbarian princess."
Woooosh-!
A massive steel train lurched into motion with a harsh horn blast. Medieval folk seeing it for the first time jumped in fright, at a loss for words. They stared at the moving train with eyes like they'd spotted a dragon.
In contrast, the capital residents familiar with it brushed it off nonchalantly. What mattered to them wasn't the train's mystery or mechanics, but surviving the cramped cabin where seats had been forcibly added for profitability.
Of course, this only applied to penniless, powerless commoners.
"Haa..."
"Why the sigh, my lady?"
"Does it look like I have a choice? That damn old coot keeps summoning me periodically to chew me out."
"Can't be helped, can it? After all, you are—."
Eve Claudia.
She was a being who couldn't be described merely as "exceptional."
Using her knowledge and experience as a regressor, she'd swallowed up the ducal house, purged the uncle who'd tried to trap her, and turned the family head—the duke—into a figurehead.
In her teens, she'd seized a house's power through sheer force—a tyrannical feat worthy of a heavenly emperor.
To others unaware she was a regressor, she looked like a iron-blooded empress who executed family and all without batting an eye, mad with power.
It was only natural for the king to summon the young girl periodically to check her loyalty.
"I'd refuse this shitty kingdom even if they handed it to me."
"If anyone else hears that, won't it be a purge?"
"Who's listening?"
"Hm... true."
Enri nodded while munching on sugar-coated sweet potatoes bought from the train's shop. He noticed the barbarian princess at his feet glaring daggers at him and cautiously offered her one.
He'd realized the prisoner he'd caught a couple days ago hadn't eaten a thing in jail.
"Sorry, you must be hungry?"
"...You madman. Who'd want that crap?"
"It's good. Say no if you don't want it."
Batura gnashed her teeth at Enri, who treated her neither as a person nor a warrior. Though bound in handcuffs and treated as a prisoner—she was undeniably a warrior.
A warrior among warriors. A great warrior.
One of the rare few even among the belittled Jin'a tribe.
She wasn't stupid for charging the front lines despite being the chieftain's daughter and princess. She had that much confidence in her skills.
Even now. Her wrists were shackled, but she could still kill in this state. The green-haired devil might be impossible, but the frail-looking noble lady right in front of her... easy pickings...
'To insult me like this, how dare she—.'
This was her chance while they were off guard. Batura vowed to make these two who dismissed her regret it. She might not kill them, but shattering that delicate face and nose bridge was doable.
She'd ruin the master this devil served. The moment she resolved that, Batura locked eyes with Eve looking down at her indifferently. She flinched and shuddered.
The duke's lady's eyes held no emotion. A gaze that unconsciously affirmed the one before her couldn't harm her—like looking at a bug wriggling on the floor.
A gaze viewing something utterly insignificant that a single kick could crush.
Under that gaze, Batura's fighting spirit slowly ebbed. She turned her head to look behind her.
The moment she saw the green devil snacking noisily, an image flashed in her mind.
The image of that tiny toothpick in his hand piercing, prodding, and slicing her—
The terror that a needle-sized twig, unbelievable as a weapon, could kill seeped into her. In the end, Batura gave up resistance and slumped down.
"Oh, right. Aren't you hungry, my lady?"
"...You ask that now? No thanks. I don't eat stuff like this."
"Ooh, as expected of the villainess lady. Such refined tastes."
"Villainess? Wanna die?"
"Spare me."
Their banter soon drowned in the train's horn blasts.
Two people and one beast arrived at the capital that way.
"Splendid!"
In the opulently decorated royal chamber.
King Paragail Gracia, seated on a gem-encrusted golden throne, looked down at the bound red-haired woman before him and exclaimed in admiration.
"To subdue the barbarian princess! That's great merit! Lady Claudia!"
"Your words overwhelm me, Your Majesty."
Eve Claudia bowed before the king, exuding grace without a hint of flinching even before a kingdom's sovereign.
Of course, her mind wasn't calm. It was entirely fixed on her guard standing behind her.
'Please don't screw this up please don't screw this up please don't screw this up.'
Unaware or not of her thoughts, Enri casually chased the carpet patterns on the floor with pattering steps.
Mid-chase, Enri felt a gaze upon him and slyly rolled his eyes.
The instant he met the eyes of the opponent radiating intense pressure, as if to bore holes through him—Enri startled and looked away.
'Ah, damn.'
At the end of that gaze was Gracia Kingdom's Captain of the Guard.
The man who also served as commander of the Royal Knights.
Theodor Balheim.
Enri just didn't mesh with him. And for good reason...
"—Your Majesty."
"Hm? Speak, Sir Theodor."
"I've heard the barbarian princess is an incredible warrior."
"Ooh, yes. I've heard as much."
"Then—aren't you curious just how outstanding a warrior the knight from Claudia Duchy is, to capture her alone?"
Enri stuck out his tongue at the knight commander boldly proposing a duel in court. He was a battle maniac, a lunatic who didn't pick opponents or situations.
A suggestion to draw swords before the king—rude, one might say.
"A duel? Excellent!"
Yet the king accepted.
In this world devoid of entertainment, knightly duels were one of the few amusements.
"En, ri...!"
Enri shrugged innocently at the duke's lady glaring at him. Honestly, he bore no fault in this situation. Establishing merit wasn't a crime, right?
But with no chance to defend himself, Enri stepped forward.