A Shield for the Youngest
Beneath the Maze Garden at the very heart of the Imperial Palace lurked a demonic beast.
During the reign of the first emperor, the palace had not been an entirely safe sanctuary, and beasts were kept unleashed like fierce guard dogs to protect the imperial bloodline. To the royals of that era, who commanded the Power of Light in abundant overflow, such creatures had posed very little threat. Now, however, the beast had become a complete white elephant—utterly impossible to control.
The only people capable of hunting it down safely were the warriors of the Castrein Duchy, but the imperial family could hardly air their shameful dirty laundry and beg them for aid. Still, because it never strayed into the main living quarters and prowled exclusively within the Underground Maze, there was no real danger so long as no one was reckless enough to wander into its territory.
In fact, after their sacred powers began to fade, the imperial court had buried the truth and simply abandoned the Maze Garden to ruin. After all, unless someone possessed a death wish, no one ever roamed that area anyway.
I had heard the descent was unusual, but I never imagined a trapdoor would just snap open beneath our feet like that. In any case, chasing after Bibi's vanishing figure, I leapt right into the pit.
My vision blurred for a brief moment, and when my senses returned, I was splayed across the cold stone floor. Dusting off the hem of my skirts, I pushed myself up and surveyed the surroundings.
"...I'm scared half to death."
The garden above was simple enough that calling it a maze was almost laughable; the true labyrinth lay buried beneath the earth. Lanterns that must have been installed centuries ago still flickered with a dim, uncanny luminescence, and from somewhere far off drifted the faint, hollow tolling of a bell. The damp, clammy chill sweeping down the stone corridors and the branching paths twisting in every direction looked like a set straight out of a horror film. It felt like the kind of place where a serial killer would drag their victims, set them loose, and gleefully watch them scramble to escape from afar.
Ugh, don't jinx it. Happy thoughts, think happy thoughts.
What on earth had Bibi come down here for, and all by herself at that?
"...Is anyone there...?"
Whoooosh.
Only the eerie howling of the subterranean wind answered back.
Relying on the feeble lamplight, I took one cautious step after another. If someone caught me carrying it, I wouldn't have had a shred of an excuse, so I had left the Emoticon Sword behind. I never should have done that. Damn it all.
Once I forcefully wrestled down my rising dread, the layout of the labyrinth began to make a bit of sense. It wound around in dizzying loops, but stripped down to pure direction...
"...No matter which turn you take, it all converges toward the dead center."
There was indeed an exit there—a door leading back to the surface. The problem was that the demonic beast presumed to be the master of this maze dwelt right in that very center.
Should I stop?
Should I turn back?
My feet froze in place.
Reason whispered coldly in my ear.
Why are you going to find Bibi? Who do you think you are? What can you even do? Improving relations with the Castrein family was only ever supposed to be a means to escape the palace and live a peaceful, comfortable life.
"I have to save Bibi so this world stays at peace, because otherwise the barrier will shatter and plunge the empire into the abyss of ruin..." That was a flimsy excuse to hide behind. If you went, wouldn't you just die a dog's death alongside her?
The belief that the palace's demonic beasts wouldn't harm imperial royalty had expired centuries ago—and even that had relied strictly on the Power of Light. How many generations had passed since the imperial court lost proper control over the bound monster?
Are you really going to throw your life away trying to save someone else all over again?
Even when, this time, not a single soul would mourn your death?
"...She's just a child."
I murmured the words aloud, staring up at the wavering shadows cast against the vaulted ceiling.
"No matter that Bibi is a regressor... No matter that she possesses a mature mind and capabilities far beyond her years, or that she's fated to be loved and adored by everyone in the future..."
She was barely seven years old, wasn't she?
No matter how I looked at it, this was only the very beginning of the original story—a period where Bibi, having just returned to the past, was struggling with every ounce of her small being just to survive. The tragedy where Titania fed Bibi poison and brought about her own ruin lay at the very end of the novel. For now, she would only remember me as the princess from before her regression: the spoiled, wretched Titania who threw relentless tantrums at Young Duke Raymon until her engagement was broken, leaving her a ruined mess.
That was right. Even in the timeline before Bibi's regression, Titania's engagement had ended in abandonment. At this point, fate practically whispered: Hey, you know you two were never meant to be, right?
So, even if Bibi had become everyone's treasure the moment she stepped into the Castrein Duchy, and even if being surrounded by love had begun to heal the scars carved deep into her young heart...
"...After all her desperate efforts to finally taste happiness, dying here would just be too cruel."
Swallowing my terror, I broke into a run. Panting hard, my chronically unexercised body gave out almost immediately. A bitter, metallic tang rose in the back of my throat, but ahead in the distance, a commotion echoed off the stone walls.
Clang, crash, thud... A low, guttural snarl reverberated through the corridor, followed by a faint, terrified sob.
Only then did the scene come into view.
At the far end of the passageway, backed against a dead end, cowered a petrified little girl. And stepping forward inch by agonizing inch, as if deliberately mocking her before delivering the fatal blow, was a demonic beast—a hideous creature with the snarling head of a wolf grafted onto the hulking torso of a bull.
I gritted my teeth.
"...Hey! You ugly beast over there! Look at me!"
Hurdling forward, I hurled the thick book I had been clutching under my arm with everything I had.
Whoosh—thud.
"..."
...Far from striking the beast, the book fell pathetically to the floor right in front of its forepaws.
Damn it. How humiliating.
Still, it succeeded in diverting the creature's attention, which was the entire point anyway. The beast glared at me with puzzled eyes, then began clawing the flagstones in foul irritation, as though regarding prey it was forbidden from devouring.
I could tell instinctively. The way it looked at Bibi and the way it regarded me were completely different. It felt as though its default directives were fundamentally mismatched. Toward Bibi, its instructions were something like 'annihilate', 'torment', and 'slaughter'. Toward me, they seemed closer to 'observe', 'wary', and 'expel'.
Bibi, trembling with fright, looked up at me with wide, shocked eyes.
Haha, hey there, Bibi.
I would have loved to offer a cheerful greeting, but at this stage, I couldn't openly act like I knew her. I simply locked eyes with the monster in a tense standoff, desperate to buy even a few precious seconds.
After glaring at me as if I were a minor nuisance, the beast whipped its head back toward Bibi and surged forward. Its maw peeled back, baring rows of jagged teeth.
"No!"
Damn it all! I threw myself in front of Bibi, grabbed her small hand, and ran. Seeing its quarry snatched from right under its nose, the beast's yellow eyes flared viciously.
Grrrrrr!
Ah, it's furious! I sprinted with every ounce of strength left in my legs. For a child paralyzed with terror moments ago, Bibi kept pace remarkably well. Yet both Bibi and I knew this flight was a fleeting reprieve at best. There were no obstacles in the stone corridors to slow our pursuer down. The only exit lay behind the monster, and even if we reached it, we had no way of unsealing the door. The paths ran straight and open, and our stamina would give out long before the beast ever tired.
Grrrr-aaaagh!
The second our pace slackened, the beast vaulted into the air, snapping its jaws straight toward Bibi. Gasping in horror, I yanked Bibi behind me. In the process, the monster's fangs grazed across my arm.
"Gh...!"
Bark, roar, snarl!
The beast howled in pure outrage. From the looks of it, it was thoroughly enraged that I kept sticking my nose where it didn't belong. Incensed, it swung a massive foreleg and struck me. The impact launched my body clean into the air.
"Agh!"
"S-Sister!"
...There was no other way. We couldn't run any further.
Gritting my teeth, I threw myself over Bibi just as the beast lunged to tear her apart now that I was out of the way.
CRUNCH!
A sickening sound tore right beside my ear. Turning pale as a corpse, I crushed Bibi into my chest as she shook uncontrollably in my embrace. A searing, agonizing pain ripped through my back.
"S-Sister, what... what are you doing..."
"Shh. Sweetheart. It's... all..."
ROAAARRRR!
"...Not okay, but it's going to be... agh!"
The beast had completely flown into a frenzy. Even if Bibi was small for a seven-year-old, having been starved before arriving at the duchy, I was still only fifteen and far from large myself. No matter how tightly I curled around her, my body wasn't big enough to shield every inch of her frame.
Furious, the creature clawed and snapped, searching for any exposed opening. It seemed determined to rip me away, clawing and biting at my back, waist, and limbs until blood poured in sickening torrents. Seeing the crimson stains, Bibi's face turned completely bloodless. Her sapphire eyes brimmed with tears that threatened to spill at any second, trembling as she stared up at me.
"D-Don't do this, Sister! You're going to die like this!"
If I let go of you right now, you'll be the one who dies.
Instead of voicing the thought, I managed a faint, reassuring smile.
"It's okay, it's alright... Someone... someone will come soon. Don't cry..."
They might not care about Titania, whom the imperial family had long since discarded, but the almighty Castrein Duchy had sent Bibi to the palace; they wouldn't take long to realize she was missing. They would tear the entire Imperial Palace inside out to save her.
As long as I held out and protected her here, she would be safe.
So everything was going to be alright.