Royal Princess of Blood

We arrived at a small port village, and it seemed quite secluded from the rest of society. Really a good place where illegal shit could take place. But then again, in this kind of place, each small village was basically secluded.

As ‌you’d expect from a village in this archipelago, things were not that beautiful or fancy. There were like a couple dozen or more houses, made of stone, bricks, and wood. It was a small and simple village. It also had a protective wall made of stone, metal, and wood built on the land around it for protection against monsters. And surprisingly, it appeared to be quite sturdy.

There were small wooden boats in the port, which I presumed to be used by the people here for fishing. Man, how lucky of this archipelago that there were still some sort of trees still growing in this place. Wood was basically the most basic foundational building block of civilization. Everyone has used that ever since the beginning of time. Without it, this archipelago would have been fucked. You can’t exactly make a boat made of stones. Metals, on the other hand… but that might bring problems and difficulties of their own.

Looking at the water by the shore was actually quite peaceful, and I liked it. It was way better than the shitty land I had been in for fucking weeks. I missed the beautiful scenery, none of those could be found here. And to be honest, that made things a bit more depressing than they had to be.

At any rate, it was nice that we were finally about to set out. Not immediately though, as they still needed to load the packages, and also have a little rest for everyone, and also maybe some sort of other stuff I didn’t know about. Smuggling things had something more to it than simply sending a boat through the water.

As I stood near our carriage, waiting for something to happen, the criminal supervisor arrived with a middle-aged man along with him. I raised an eyebrow as they approached me.

“This is the village chief. He will be your host for the meantime,” the criminal supervisor said. “There’s a house available for you and your people.”

“Hey there, nice to meet you.” He extended a hand with a wide smile.

I slowly reached out and shook his hand. “Same…”

He glanced down at my hand, a bit surprised at the paleness and‌ softness of it. Thinking about it, even the women here were quite hardworking. Therefore, it must be strange for people here to see a hand without much callous. They could easily tell if I was a rich girl or not from around here with a touch of a hand.

Even so, he said nothing about the matter.

“I hope you’ll find our accommodation satisfactory while you wait,” the village chief said. “It’s not much, but we did what we could.”

“... That’s fine.” Not that I cared much about what kind of accommodation we’d get, as long as it was good enough. I turned towards the criminal supervisor. “How long do we have to wait?”

“It shouldn’t be that long. We have to wait for confirmation from our contact on the navy patrol. After that, we’ll move.”

“So you do have men within their forces.”

“A few… Anyhow, I’ll leave you to the villagers.”

With that, he left to tend to their jobs.

The village chief nodded. “Now then, if you’d follow me.”

“Yes.”

I gestured to my allies, and we followed the village chief. There were children playing on the street, chasing ‌each other. I saw a glimpse of some men sharpening their weapons, grinding and smashing them with hammers. They must have been used for hunting. There were also people slicing up some meat before putting it into some boxes. Must be monster meat, ‘cause what else could it be?

Things looked pretty normal here.

I shifted my gaze towards the port, specifically staring at the transport ship where the products were being loaded. To my curiosity, there were also a few villagers helping with the work. I looked at the village chief.

“You do know who they are, right?” I asked.

“What do you mean? That they’re smugglers?”

“... So you are aware. Are you also part of their organization?”

The village chief smiled with a short chuckle. “We’re just a normal village, for the most part, at least.”

“So you’re not? Just some people willingly helping criminals?”

“... Criminals. What does that even exactly mean out here?”

“...” Perhaps it didn’t mean shit out here. “‌Hm, perhaps I was under the wrong impression. Some things have different meanings in different places.”

“The laws of civilization couldn’t really be applied here.” He must be referring to those within cities. “Besides, who is there to hold us accountable? The government doesn’t care about places like this. So, we made our own order of things.”

“I see.” The law was not being enforced here at all. Well, rules and laws had been pretty loose here from my experience. People casually killing and raiding each other. Therefore, illegal activities, criminals, those didn’t matter much, especially out here. “But you’re willingly helping them, the smugglers. Almost look like they’ve settled in.”

“It’s the usual business. Been doing it for years. Their activities here are not completely ‌free, you know. There are benefits for us villagers.”

“... Such as?”

“Money for starters. They pay us for keeping the port, money helps with trades. And not only that, they also helped set up those ports, the wall, and provided training for the men.”

In short, they were prospering. So that was why the people here didn’t look as miserable as I had expected. The government was not helping them anyway, so they sided with the criminals. This place had been their center of operations for smuggling stuff to Nishinoa. Still, I doubted this was the only one.

“Well, at least they are treating you nicely.”

Treating people nicely was better than treating them badly. Especially if you were going to work with them for a long time. You should always treat the people you work with properly. There have been cases of criminals being caught because they wouldn’t pay the person they hired to do some job. Even though they had the money to pay them. Greed became their undoing.

Pay those you hire, people!

Lest you want to get fucked in more ways than one.

But still, these people were quite despicable themselves for helping them do this type of thing. In a way, they were criminals themselves. If this were in my nation, I’d burn this whole village down to ashes. Also, perhaps execute the people in it. Women, children? We’ll flip a coin.

We arrived at a house. But surprisingly, it was bigger than the rest of the buildings around here. Looked a bit better too, maintained. From the looks of it, it had several rooms. Almost similar to the inns back in the capital city.

“This building seems special,” I said.

“Once in a while, some higher-ups of their organization come to visit. This is the lodging we use for them.”

“I see.” I turned towards my team. “Well, we’re using this building until it’s time to move. You can go ahead and settle inside.”

“Are you going somewhere?” Miyako asked.

“Just to the beach.” Just checking out the area. Like one of those times you just want to see the view when you’re at a beach. Just walk on the sand and touch the water.

“In that case, I’m also gonna walk around,” Taneva casually said, and he walked away.

I turned to Velar. “You can rest if you want.”

“I’m coming with you.”

“You don’t have to force yourself.”

“It’s fine, Princess.”

“... Alright. Hartwin?”

“I’m beat. I’m taking a nap.”

“Same for me,” Miyako said.

With that, Velar and I walked over to the beach. I sat down on the rock and removed my boots and socks. Once I was barefoot, I walked on the sand, my feet slightly sinking into it. Pulling my pants upward, I dipped my feet in the splashing water, the coolness spreading up my legs. And it was refreshing to experience.

I let out a relieved sigh.

I stared at the horizon. “Now this is a preferable view.” It was then that I heard a scolding shout from the port. I turned my gaze and saw the slaves being brought onto the ship. “... The people here act as if they do this for their needs. But allowing such a thing is kind of heartless of them.”

I personally didn’t care much, but commonly, people would find it hard to see people being abused. But this village just let it be, and in fact, they were involved themselves.

“Sacrifice others for your own sake, I guess,” I added.

Survival of the fittest type shit.

“... Sometimes this island is a bit too much,” Velar said. “I am not compatible with their ways.”

“‌Hm. None of us from the continent are.”

“If we freed slaves back on the continent, we might be lauded as heroes. But here, I do not know.”

“Do you refer to the people in general? The government? Perhaps if you do something like that, you’d be branded a criminal by either.”

“Indeed.”

“But you will be a hero to those you have saved. Which sentiment matters to you more?”

Velar fell silent for a moment before smiling. “... To the ones that I saved, I suppose.”

“Hm. Of course, but that only applies if you’re alone, and no one else bears the consequences of your actions. Our actions will affect those around us.”

“... I know. I want to save them, but that might bring trouble to us all. And we have our own goal.”

Ultimately, he was my knight. He was not allowed to do something drastic, such as freeing slaves, which would also affect me. He must follow my orders like a good soldier.

“Besides, I feel like they will have their hero soon enough.”

“... Miss Miyako?”

“If she succeeds, she will be remembered as the person who changed Shinoroa.”

“... I sense you are leading her down a path of heroism. It would seem you do care, Princess.”

“About what?”

“About the state of this island.”

I blinked my eyes. “I do find some things horrendous. But what I’m doing is helping a friend achieve her wish.”

Velar chuckled. “It seems like you’re already acting like a bona-fide goddess. Leading people to the righteous path.”

I frowned. “I am a goddess.”

It would seem people were misunderstanding my actions as being on the side of good, as usual. Hm, my actions could just boil down to my dislike of this archipelago. It would be nice to see it change for the better.

***

A ship docked on the island of Tobunoa. Several people, if you could even call them that, jumped off the ship. A young woman grinned widely and spread out her arms, her face full of excitement.

“Finally! We’re ashore! Ugh, water is terrible. Get all floaty and stuff.”

“Simmer down, Arashia. We have to find another ship to Minainoa,” Venzus pushed down Arashia’s arms.

“Hope it’s easier to find one than on the continent,” the other imp, in human form, Droz, said with a frustrated tone.

“It was never easy to find a ship heading to Shinoroa anyway,” Venzus said. “If we can’t find a ship from here, we might need to go down south, to a port bordering Minainoa.”

Arashia moaned. “A whole lot of walking again?”

“Stop complaining!” He grinded his finger down her head aggressively. “We already arrived later than we'd hoped.”

“Ow!” she rubbed her head with a pout. “You think Rytus has reached the homeland?”

Droz scoffed. “I fucking hope so. Would be one hell of a fuck-up if he didn’t.”

A group of humans suddenly went in between them, passing through.

Droz clicked his tongue. “Can’t even give a respectful excuse.”

“Humans on the continent are a lot nicer,” Arashia casually said. “I’m going to miss their food too. Ah, right, I’m hungry. Let’s find some food.”

“Does your gluttony know no bounds?! You glutton!” Venzus pushed his finger into her cheek. “You used up most of the money we robbed on damn food!”

“Moh! They can’t all be gone!”

“Idiot, we paid them for the ship! And we still need them for the next one!”

“Oh come on, Venzus, just a little bit. We can rob some people again if we have to!”

“You say that as if it’s easy to find people to rob! Especially in this shithole.”

“Please!” Arashia clasped her hands together.

Droz groaned in annoyance. “Just give her a fruit or something. I don’t want to hear her constant begging on the way.”

Venzus sighed. “... Fine.”

“Yehey!” Arashia jumped in joy.

And thus, they went on to find some food to eat. But Arashia felt immense disappointment seeing how shitty the food was here compared to the continent.

“Can we just go back there?” Arashia casually remarked.

Venzus smacked the back of her head, of course.