A Gift Arrives
After my unintended run-in with Melia, I returned and continued sticking close to Serena. Yet even as the entire day slipped by, nothing happened at Paradise.
“Nothing’s happening at all.”
“Right… That bastard Bryden has zero patience. He should’ve pulled something the moment we arrived. There’s no way he sent us here out of pure goodwill.”
“Well, we both knew that before we even got here. Since it looks like there are no plans for today, maybe Your Highness should just relax and enjoy the vacation.”
At my suggestion to let go and rest, Serena’s expression turned slightly uncomfortable instead.
“There are more than a few things I should be helping Father with back in the empire… Haah… Sitting here doing absolutely nothing just makes me more anxious.”
“That’s called workaholism. People with workaholism don’t live long. You need to rest when it’s time to rest so you can recharge. Why don’t we head down to the underground casino together?”
“...You really need to learn how to take things more seriously.”
“When you grow up roasting and eating goblin balls on Mt. Ksir, every single day you can actually relax like this feels more precious than gold. Please understand that my upbringing was like that. Come on, let’s head down!”
“Ah, wait a second!”
I grabbed Serena’s hand and dragged her back down to the underground casino facility. Serena was great in every way, but her severe workaholism made her tend to overwork herself. Since dealing with the bad stuff and stopping it was my job anyway, it was better for her to rest whenever she actually could.
When I brought Serena to the casino, Melia’s tarot shop from earlier was still closed, its tent flaps drawn tight. I turned my gaze away from it and led Serena inside the casino, suggesting some light gambling.
Even though it was a casino, the Paradise staff apparently couldn’t bring themselves to make the imperial princess actually wager real money. They simply provided her with some chips as a service so she wouldn’t have to spend anything. I didn’t know how to gamble either, but I just followed the dealer’s explanations and pretended to enjoy myself. Serena, who had no idea what was going on, simply got swept up in it and played along.
“I’m feeling it! I’m going all-in with every chip I have!”
Once the mood had properly heated up and I went all-in, Serena narrowed her eyes and gave me a sidelong glance.
“No matter what you do, pouring every asset or available resource into something uncertain is an absolute taboo. If it succeeds, you get a hundred, but if it fails, you go beyond zero into a terrifying negative.”
And just as Serena predicted, my all-in failed and I went completely broke.
“No!!! Way!!!”
As the round ended, the dealer swept away the chips. Serena, who hadn’t found any real interest in gambling until the end, declared she was done and looked at me with an expression that screamed pathetic.
“You… If you hadn’t become my bodyguard, how on earth were you planning to survive out there?”
“Hmm… When I was still at the imperial palace, I mentioned it to a few people. I might have opened a potion shop, or gone around digging up herbs and ores, or maybe run a bakery… Damn, just talking about a bakery almost made me think the Red Magic Tower Master was about to pop out. If not that, I could’ve been a cook.”
“......Cooking goblin balls?”
“Exactly. I believe the whole world should share in the horrific experience I went through… Wait, what are you even saying? Who would sell something like that as a product? It tastes like absolute shit. Shit.”
When I lightly bantered back, Serena burst into bright laughter.
“Ahahaha! I’ve been thinking it for a while, but you really are such a strange guy. You seem to show proper respect to me as a princess, yet when I look closely you act more like a guardian. Everyone else wears some kind of mask when they deal with me, but you don’t have any of that. You look undignified but never cross the line. Dealing with someone like you is a first for me, so it’s actually pretty fun to watch.”
“Is that a compliment or an insult?”
“Hmm… Both?”
“Ahem. I don’t want any objective criticism or feedback about myself. I only accept thunderous applause and one-sided, biased praise, please.”
Serena looked utterly dumbfounded. She had said no one had ever spoken to her like this in her entire life, and her expression was proving it.
“You really are shameless…”
“When you spend your whole life stuck in the mountains bickering with one crazy old man, this is what happens to a person. I’m living proof of how important early childhood environment is.”
“Then tell me about Mt. Ksir. Last time you only gave me bits and pieces. I was curious and wanted to hear more. Since we suddenly have all this time, why don’t you tell me the rest now?”
“Hmm, this is going to be a really long story to tell in a casino. Let’s head back up first.”
After that, I opened the sliding door and combined my room with Serena’s. We sat together gazing out at the snow-covered plains outside while I spilled every story I had. I had once told Serena a bit about surviving on Mt. Ksir before, but as she said, it had only been fragments. Today I finally went into full detail about everything that had happened back then.
The bizarre monsters that roamed the mountain, my desperate struggles against them, the tearful tales of my failed assassination attempts on that damn old man… Serena listened like a child hearing old bedtime stories, sometimes gasping in awe, sometimes laughing. When I told her how I had survived thirty days of solo survival at age eight, she actually clapped. When I described failing to smash the old man’s skull and getting my wrist twisted instead, she roared with laughter.
It seemed she thought my assassination attempts on the crazy old man were just some kind of playful master-disciple hijinks. As we talked for a long while, at some point we had spread a table in Serena’s room. We sat with our legs tucked together under the blanket beneath the table. To anyone looking, it was clearly a Japanese-style kotatsu… but here it was known as Eastern Continent culture, so no one found it strange.
“Ahahaha, you really grew up in such harsh conditions. Mt. Ksir is famous for being dangerous, so if you lived there like that, it makes sense that you use those weird techniques and have such uncontrollable strength!”
“It’s not really something to laugh about.”
“Anyway, that was really fun to hear. By the way, I’m getting hungry now… What about you? You must be starving after talking so much.”
Only then did I feel the hunger hit me. Just as she said, we had been chatting for so long that my throat was dry, and the only thing I’d drunk was tea. My stomach was rumbling quite loudly.
“Yeah, I think I hear my stomach growling too…”
“I should call a staff member. Hello? Is anyone outside?”
At Serena’s call, one of the maids immediately opened the door and appeared.
“Did you call, Your Highness?”
“I’m hungry. Could you tell the staff to bring us some food? I heard they do Eastern Continent cuisine really well here. Oh, Aran. What do you want to eat?”
“I’ll eat anything. Just order whatever Your Highness wants.”
Apparently pleased with my answer, Serena grinned and showed the maid the menu.
“Then tell the staff to bring two servings of the Eastern Continent Winter Special Course! Oh, if any of you want something too, feel free to order it to your rooms. The treasury is handling the bill separately anyway.”
“Th-thank you, Your Highness! But the staff members have gone down the mountain to receive some goods… so we can’t take orders right now. Judging by the time they left, they should be back soon. I’ll let you know as soon as they arrive!”
“Alright, then let me know when the order is ready.”
The clock on the wall read four-thirty in the afternoon. It wasn’t exactly mealtime, and everyone was either resting or preparing for dinner service, so it wasn’t that strange that no one was around… or so I thought.
‘But the imperial family rented out this entire place for several days. For a resort of this scale, wouldn’t they have prepared backup supplies? And it’s not just anyone—it’s the imperial family of the empire, with the princess’s party arriving. Yet they left not a single staff member to attend us and all went down the mountain to receive deliveries? That’s…’
As I tilted my head in suspicion, I suddenly sensed several strangely twisted mana signatures approaching from afar. They weren’t as blatantly unpleasant as the assassins who had tried to kill me in the imperial palace, but the mana felt somewhat distant from ordinary people. And their approach speed was something no normal person could possibly manage.
‘They’re not walking or running. They don’t seem like monsters either, but they’re definitely people… Could this be… a vehicle?’
I couldn’t see them with my eyes yet because of the distance, but judging by their speed, it was exactly the right pace if they were riding in a carriage.
‘Looks like the trap is finally activating.’
I immediately went to my adjacent room and picked up my sword. Serena’s eyes widened in shock when she saw me suddenly preparing for battle.
“What’s wrong? What is it?”
“Your Highness, lock every door leading into this room and do not come out under any circumstances. It seems… Bryden’s gift has arrived.”