The Princess and the Axe
Around noon the next day, Maru sent a servant to Audrite with an offer to meet, only to be turned away.
"Her Highness says she has commitments this afternoon and finds it difficult to spare the time."
"I see. You may go."
"Yes, my lord."
Once the servant had departed, Maru sank into deep thought. Audrite had grown up on tales of her mother's glorious exploits, and by now she revered the woman outright, all but calling her an idol. It was her lifelong dream to visit the Ra Iskandaria Empire—and now, out of nowhere, a chance to go there had landed right in her lap. For a girl so sympathetic to the Empire, was she perhaps weighing that sweet offer against him?
If she chose the Empire, he became nothing more than an obstacle in her path. If she chose him, she would have to abandon her dream.
Was Audrite avoiding their meeting right now because she was wrestling with exactly these questions?
"I hope she doesn't go."
Nothing had been decided yet, and he hadn't heard a definite answer from her either, but already a sense of loss was creeping in, slow and insidious. He had Kiera to thank for that—the trauma of being dumped so unilaterally. Surely he wouldn't get burned twice.
Audrite, for her part, had no idea she was on the very edge of a trap. Her mother had dangled the bait with every intention of pulling the two of them apart. If she snapped it up, unhappiness would follow. There was no way the Empress would look kindly on a woman who abandoned her son for another man.
He wanted to tell her the truth of it—but Kiera's face flashed through his mind, and in the end he decided to simply watch and wait. Kiera had wanted money and power, and she had thrown him away without a second thought. Even a girl he'd believed would never do such a thing had changed her mind the moment a dream dangled in front of her. What, then, would Audrite do?
Honestly, he was curious.
His mother was truly something else. From that far-off distance, she had engineered this entire situation just to test the true nature of the young woman living close to her son's side. It was as if she were saying: Now watch. The women you meet are always like this. The only woman in this world you can trust is your mother.
Maru let out a long sigh, cut the thought short, and sprang up from his seat. He had enough sense to know that any energy spent agonizing over Princess Audrite was better invested in himself. That was the end of his princess worries.
Sliding yesterday's gift—a one-handed axe—into his back harness, he left his room. He stopped by the royal library to borrow a training manual on axe techniques, then headed straight for the training grounds. The thrill of hunting gargoyles with a one-handed axe had been so good he wanted to experience it again. He was hooked on the satisfaction of bringing an axe down, one might say—the same feeling as stumbling onto a delicious little restaurant and going back again and again until you were a regular.
"Hah!"
"Haah!"
When he arrived at the training grounds, he could see several people doing solo drills in the vast indoor hall. He exchanged a few simple greetings with them and walked over to where the training dummies stood. Planting himself before one, he spread the manual open in his left hand and gripped the one-handed axe in his right. Watching the pages, he studied what axe technique actually meant—what attacks existed, how to place his steps—and memorized each motion with his eyes before imitating it with his body.
Determined to burn through every ounce of stamina he had for the day, he swung the axe at the training dummy for hours on end. By evening, the dummy had been smashed to pieces.
The next morning, Maru was meeting with Mrs. Ozmund.
"Her Highness is busy again today and cannot receive you."
She offered a sorrowful smile.
"I understand."
Maru nodded and turned away without lingering. He had planned to speak with the princess in person and, if possible, steer things in a direction that would help her—but this had the distinct feel of a meeting being deliberately avoided.
It pained him. Was her heart already far away, back in the Empire? He prayed it wasn't so. He didn't want to lose her. And yet, if it was what she wanted, he had resolved to let her go.
Back in his room, he changed into light armor—the kind worn by unaffiliated freelance adventurers, its affiliation impossible to place. It was fitted with numerous pouches along the arms and thighs, sized to hold a row of small potion vials.
"Maru!"
In front of the stables, Prince Edward came jogging over, waving cheerfully. He, too, was dressed in a long cloak of indeterminate origin over light armor.
"Feels like ages since we last met, doesn't it?"
"Officially, yes, it's been a while. Though unofficially, we've apparently been meeting often when no one's watching."
"Hmm, is that so? Very well. If that's the official story, I'll play along! So, where are we off to today! With the Hero gone, I finally have time on my hands!"
Maru took the two hats he'd been carrying, put one on, and handed the other to Edward.
"What's this?"
"We're going somewhere crowded to practice my axe work. If our identities get out, it becomes a hassle—so let's cover our faces."
"Oho, so today's outing isn't about rooting out a bandit gang, I take it?"
Edward immediately plopped the hat on. Perhaps because it was an ear-flap cap with a chin strap, he looked every bit a roasted-chestnut vendor.
Before long, Maru was riding out with Edward toward the military barracks. Watching their receding backs from her window was Audrite. As she gazed at Maru's back, a faintly bitter smile stole across her face.
Before leaving the palace, Maru had made a point of stopping by the barracks first. He intended to gather intelligence on where monsters were currently nesting. He could have gotten the same information from the guild in the city, but that would have meant joining that guild or paying a fee. The barracks, by contrast, required nothing more than a visit to the command office and a glimpse of Edward's face.
"A Devil Rift opened near Zagohni a week ago. Demons came pouring out of the enormous hole that tore open in the ground, and the whole region was thrown into absolute chaos. Things are gradually stabilizing now thanks to the efforts of our knights and the adventurers hired through the mercenaries' guild, but extra hands are always welcome. How would you like to go take a look?"
A place where monsters spilled out without end—for building axe proficiency, there could be no better training ground. Maru rose from his seat without a moment's hesitation.
He was on his way out with Edward when the knight commander stopped them.
"Just the two of you, then? Shall I attach some knights to escort you?"
"Maru, what do you think?"
"No, the two of us are plenty."
"That's dangerous. Monsters keep surging out—with only two of you, you'll be overwhelmed. You'll need at least four more people to rotate through, so three fight while three rest. That's the only way to run it safely."
"His Highness the Prince prefers to travel light, it seems. One porter will do."
Maru tossed off the quip lightly and left the barracks. The reason he insisted on going somewhere so dangerous with Edward and no one else wasn't arrogance born of faith in his own strength. It was simply that the memory of being kicked out of the Hero's party had made him averse to joining anyone's party—or forming one of his own.
"Woah, woah there."
When they finally arrived at a place called Zagohni, dozens of tents stood arrayed in a wide ring around one colossal central tent. From somewhere far off came the unending screams of monsters. Perhaps because battles flared up here at all hours, even the smell of the air was different—faintly coppery, faintly raw.
"Just the two of you?"
The man who appeared to be the site supervisor asked it skeptically. Maru and Edward pulled their hats down low and presented the dispatch papers the knight commander had drawn up for them. The man read them over and spat into the dirt.
"Sending two people—either they've lost their minds, or you two are the real deal. Well, follow me. Since the Royal Knight Order sent you, no separate pay, I take it. Monster carcasses are free for the taking, so grab whatever you need."
He led the two of them to a spot near the Devil Rift.
"Hey! You lot, clear out! These two are taking over!"
"Reinforcements? Finally, we can rest? *huff*... *huff*..."
"Finally! Reinforcements!"
The six people guarding the passage trudged past Maru and Edward looking thoroughly exhausted.
"Good work out there!"
"Isn't that way too few people, though?"
"That's it?"
They grumbled among themselves as they went, and the site supervisor looked back and forth between Maru and Edward.
"Hold that position for about three hours. You absolutely cannot let anything through. If it gets desperate, call the party over there for help."
Roughly fifty meters away stood a party of adventurers—five in all.
"I'm off then. Don't die!"
Once the supervisor had gone, Maru quietly drew the axe at his back. Edward scanned their surroundings.
"Look over there. Those monsters are charging in three and four at a time. Ohh, that man's about to di—... thankfully his comrade saved him."
He glanced back at Maru with just a flicker of fear in his eyes.
"Our party has no priest. Are we going to be alright?"
"Trust me. I won't let a single one of them get anywhere near you."
"And what am I supposed to do while you're swinging that thing?"
"Sweep anything useful out of the monster carcasses into a sack. And chat with me."
Before the words had even left his mouth, three tentacled monstrosities came scuttling in to attack. Maru reacted like lightning and brought the axe down.
The single blow burst one creature's head apart, and Maru yanked the axe free in the same motion, driving it again and again into the belly of the next without mercy.
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack-thwack!
Every strike was precise and powerful. The monster's torso was gouged open so brutally that no one could bear to watch. Once he'd dealt with the two of them easily, he turned to the last one. He'd already pinned its tentacle firmly under his foot so it couldn't flee elsewhere.
"Come here."
Maru hauled the tentacle up with all his strength, and as the creature came dragging toward him, he brought the axe down on it too, without the slightest hesitation.
Thwack-thwack-thwack!
The sight of blood spraying in every direction was so grisly that Edward's jaw dropped open of its own accord.
"You're the demon here..."
After finishing off the last monster, Maru turned back to Edward with a smile.
"That really melted the stress away. I'm in a great mood."
And so began Maru's slaughter. Before long, rumors about him were spreading like wildfire through the region. They said two madmen had come to the Devil Rift with no one else. That one of them was felling monsters with an axe, and his skill was no joke. That in the mere blink of time since he'd arrived, monster carcasses had already piled up like a mountain. That they'd come without even a priest.
Drawn by these rumors, people kept flocking over to gawk at Maru and Edward from every side.