Chapter 29
The Male Lead Went Crazy for the Troublesome Villainess — Episode 29
I steadied my breathing and spoke.
"The poison can go on arrowheads and spear tips, and the carapaces could reinforce shields. As for the thread those venomous spiders sprayed, I think it might work for bowstrings."
Several knights nearby stirred. One of them cut in with a sour face.
"You mean to coat our weapons with monster venom? That is no deed for a knight. You can only say such things because you've lived a sheltered life, my lady, and know nothing of the world."
I let out a small sigh. That kind of prejudice was exactly what made an easy path difficult. Did honor put food on the table? Did that damned honor save lives? How could anyone be this out of touch with reality?
If anything, the one who'd grown up in a greenhouse wasn't me—it was that knight.
That was when Kael opened his mouth.
"You there. What are you wearing under your plate?"
"Pardon?"
"Wyvern hide, I'd wager. The same as me."
The knight's face flushed red.
"When His Majesty called it vulgar, I did not obey. Your head is still attached to your neck thanks to that. Do you deny it?"
As if he could. Kael was the Crown Prince, and it was also true that the wyvern armor beneath their plate armor was proving its worth. While the knight hemmed and hawed, Kael continued.
"If you wish to deny it, then you need not follow my orders."
Kael glanced once at the pile of corpses, then once at me. Then he gave the command.
"Stop burning the monsters."
I trotted along behind Kael and kept talking. This was the most important part. Right now, smooth, high-quality monster carapace was selling for a very high price on the black market. The people with the sharpest sense of reality might just be black-market mercenaries.
"If there's any left over after we use what we need, we should sell it, Your Highness. There are buyers for monster hide everywhere. If we go to the black market......"
Kael cut me off and turned to look at me. His cool gaze held a subtle hint of goodwill as he asked in an amused voice.
"The black market?"
"Money is always important."
Since I was already at it, I tacked on one more thing.
Kael took a step toward me.
"You mean to sell goods on the black market? Do you know that the black market is an illegal market?"
"Uh......"
No, I didn't expect him to call that out here. As if he hadn't bought this and that from the black market himself! But I couldn't exactly throw that in his face. I shrank a little and said quietly.
"I heard there's a black market in Greystone, too. And that mercenaries run wild there."
"That is true."
Kael waved everyone else away with a gesture.
Then he continued in a low voice.
"The wyvern armor came out of Greystone as well."
Kael smiled faintly as he let me in on the truth.
"Though I don't know why I never thought of selling it myself."
You'll get there eventually. Right now, he's just too overwhelmed by leading an expedition full of people who can't even fight to think that far ahead. I knew that better than anyone.
"That's a good suggestion. Thank you, my lady."
"Think nothing of it."
"While we're at it, let me make one thing clear."
"Please do, Your Highness!"
"......If you ever sneak into a black market alone again and get caught."
"If I get caught?"
I swallowed hard. Kael's eyes flashed.
"Then from now on, you will be sharing a barracks with me."
"Th-that, I absolutely refuse!!"
What are you saying? Don't ruin his romance with the heroine!
* * *
Kael barely managed to swallow a laugh. When Rosana's short shriek drew the eyes of everyone around them, the corners of his mouth twitched. He was relieved by that reaction, and yet at the same time he wondered—was it really something to recoil from that much? Kael, who had briefly pressed his lips shut because he didn't know how to respond, said in a low voice.
"Then you simply must not sneak off to the black market again."
At that, Rosana pressed her lips firmly together. She stared wide-eyed, her gaze darting around in a way that made it obvious she did not agree at all.
Kael glanced around. He could feel eyes darting toward them from all sides. They seemed curious about what was being discussed, but no one dared approach while watching Kael's mood. Kael let out a sigh.
"It will be different from the black markets you've wandered through so far."
Rosana's eyes went round.
"Getting fleeced is the least of your worries there. You could get your throat cut. The place is crawling with dangerous people."
Kael leaned toward Rosana. He was close enough to see the soft down on her cheek. Kael said quietly.
"You'll have to be careful. You need to make it back alive if you want to have a cup of coffee at the coffeehouse."
Rosana listened with bated breath, then swallowed.
"Coffee...... I do want to drink it."
"If you keep your promise, I'll buy you that coffee."
Rosana laughed awkwardly and stepped back. Kael still did not trust her to behave, but what else could he do? He let her go without resistance.
* * *
Dismantling the corpses turned out to be a far bigger job than expected. Just removing the carapace required four grown men per corpse, and the smell was beyond words. Even with cloth wrapped over their noses, everyone came away with red, stinging eyes.
As one group pried pieces off at the front, another received them at the back and hauled them to the carts, and the stripped shells were shoved down the slope. Clearing them one by one, the blocked road slowly began to open. Of course, there were grumblers.
"I wonder if any of this is actually useful."
But Kael's orders were no different from the Emperor's here. The children were put in charge of collecting the webbing the Spider Clan had sprayed and winding it into skeins. I was quietly watching them when Lillia lifted up a long strand of the thread.
"Can't we use this for our slingshot strings?"
A boy tilted his head and said.
"Our stablehand Tom says you can catch even really big birds with a slingshot."
"......Huh?"
I paused for a moment.
I looked back at the children. That was an idea I'd never considered. A slingshot was something even Lillia could shoot. It would be enough to buy a brief opening in a moment of crisis.
And a slingshot was a weapon that wasn't dangerous for children to carry. On top of that, a slingshot made from Spider Clan webbing? Say no more. Make them right now.
"All right. Who wants to see how to make a slingshot?"
"Me!"
"I want to do it too!"
The children swarmed over. I taught them how to pick suitable branches and how to tie the cord onto them. Seraphine, who joined late, helped tie the strings on tight.
The children giggled as they learned to shoot slingshots.
Lillia drew back her slingshot at a dead monster's corpse. The stone she loosed punched through the monster's eye.
Lillia grinned and looked back at me.
"That's how you do it, right?"
Oh.......
"Later, I want to learn to shoot a bow, too."
Lillia had grown another step. The child's gaze had become a little steadier.
* * *
As soon as the road was cleared, we moved without delay.
As the sun was sinking, we crossed a hill and looked down on a village nestled inside a basin. It was a fairly large village, but about half of it was empty houses with no smoke rising from their chimneys.
Still, smoke was rising from the other half.
"It's called Saltvale," a scout who had gone ahead informed us. The name, he said, came from its old days as a way station along the salt road.
At the sight of human habitation after days, everyone's faces brightened. Mine did too. At that size, it looked like we'd be able to buy something, at least.
But as I looked down over the basin, my gaze stopped at one spot. A stream flowing down from the western hill passed the village's flank and ran out to the south, and the waterway looked unusually narrow.
If that gets blocked, this whole basin will turn into a water bowl.
I soon shook my head, dismissing it as a useless thought.