Royal Princess of Blood

The crew started running, and fortunately, it would seem they still didn’t have the demons up their trail. Well, they had a lot of ground to cover. And those two who found them in the cave just happened to come across the cave entrance and went to check it out. Which was not too surprising. But for now, as they had eliminated those two, no other demons yet knew where the crew was.

That being said, they had to move out in a rush. They were basically running, just to get as much distance away from the demon’s search area as possible. Thankfully, the mountains also provided a bit of ‌cover. They only had a few hours of rest, especially crucial for Hartwin and Velar, but they were doing fine. Velar, as a soldier, might have better endurance and stamina than Hartwin, so he was fine running while carrying the princess.

And it had been several hours since the sun had risen, and they had traversed quite a distance. They stopped for a while and pulled out a map of the island that they had received from Miyako and Satomi.

Taneva and Hartwin in particular were reading the map.

“We should be around here.” Taneva pointed at the map. “If we keep heading west, we’ll be out of the mountains soon. If we keep running, that is.”

Hartwin took a deep breath, or rather he was panting, tired from the hours of moving. “Can we at least eat and rest a bit? I’m so hungry, to be honest.”

“We’ll use magic to cook the meat again, so there’s no visible smoke.”

“I’ll leave that up to you.”

They gently placed the princess on a thick mat on the ground. Velar touched the back of his palm on her forehead. “Still hot, but at least it doesn’t seem to be getting worse.”

Taneva then walked up to her and checked her arm. “We need to minimize the leak of her divinity.” He grabbed a cloth and wrapped it on top of the cloth that was already on the leak. “Divinity is a big deal, it’s best to keep its presence at a minimum right now. We don’t know what it might attract.” He tightened the cloth.

“Doesn’t look like it got bigger,” Hartwin said.

“For now. But with divinity just coming out like that, I can imagine it will grow bigger. Unless she uses magic, the growth will be minimal. Just keep trying to lower her fever.”

Hartwin looked around. “If only there were any herbal medicine here, but nothing.” This was a barren archipelago, it was even unlikely that any of the surviving plants could be used as medicine. Hartwin could imagine they might even make it worse.

As a traveler, Hartwin knew of some herbs that could remedy fever or wounds. It was essential that he knew about such things. Although, considering that he could use healing magic, most herbs would be used for colds, coughs, or general fever — those were things healing magic couldn’t heal. He could have helped cure her faster, but there was just nothing here at all to use or that he was familiar with.

“Don’t you have any medicine or herbs in your inventory dimension or something?” Hartwin asked Taneva. He seemed to have a lot of things inside it, so he hoped he had some herb or anything that could help.

Taneva shook his head. “I don’t keep those. I don’t get sick.”

“How unfortunate. It would appear all we can do for now is make her as comfortable as we can. Let’s prepare the food so we can move out early.”

***

It felt like I was floating on water, the water crushing me all over. Painful, suffocating. I was asleep, but I could feel the discomfort. It was an uncomfortable sleep — was it because I was sick? Or because I wasn’t lying on a comfortable bed? Hard to tell, perhaps it was both. Dammit, why did I have to be this sickly and weak?

I hated it, I hated it so much. I never felt so vulnerable. I wanted to stay strong, for weakness comes hardship, and hardship brings suffering. And in weakness could come death. I hated being weak. And here I was, nothing to do but rely on others. They were reliable, but I pretty much preferred that I could still rely on myself. That was how I always lived, that was how I survived back then. Relying on myself… and to be strong.

But now, I was on the brink of death. It felt that with a slight push… I’d shatter to pieces. Which may not be far from the truth.

I felt cold and so weak. And with this discomfort, or perhaps I had already slept enough… my eyes slowly opened. In the past, back home, I might have been asleep for a few days. But this time, I was uncomfortable and had a sense of urgency, so I wondered how long I had been out.

I looked around… It was daytime. I felt a wet cloth on my forehead. So I was suffering from a fever. Not surprising. I slowly removed the sheet covering me — I wanted to get up.

“Princess.”

I heard Velar’s voice, and he rushed to my side. I saw that everyone else was eating. Now I was feeling hungry… and thirsty. I winced when a headache struck, still feeling dizzy. Velar helped me ‌sit up.

I closed my eyes for a moment, just trying to collect myself. “Water…” I weakly said.

Velar quickly handed me a pouch of water, and I chugged a good amount. The amount of relief I felt as the cold water flowed down my mouth and throat was indescribable. I let out a good sigh. I removed the wet cloth stuck to my forehead.

“... How long was I out?”

“A day,” Velar answered. “I’m surprised you’re awake now.”

“Hm…” I looked around. “Where are we?”

“Still at the mountains,” Taneva said as he bit on a piece of meat.

Nira suddenly rushed at me and leaned close to my face, clinging to my right arm. “Goddess! Are you going to be okay?!”

She was hugging close, and she glanced up at my face, I noticed the moisture in her eyes. This girl…

“... I’m going to be fine.” I shifted my gaze back to the crew. “How do I look?”

“Haggard,” Hartwin casually commented.

I frowned and combed my hair using my hand. “I meant my condition.”

“How are you feeling, anyway?” Taneva asked.

“Bad.”

“Then you’re not looking good.”

I glanced down at my left arm, and there were now two cloths wrapped on it, the golden light faintly visible through it. I placed a hand on it. “It’s… not closing up?”

Taneva shook his head. “I suspect it won’t close up anymore. And if you push yourself further, things will get worse.”

“... I see… At least we lost the demons for now… I’m hungry.”

Hartwin handed me a big slice. “Here, eat plenty. It’s a good thing you woke up, you’ll need to eat.”

I received the cooked meat and immediately took a bite. And as I chewed, my jaw felt a bit painful. Even eating was a pain, I hated it. But this was nothing I couldn’t bear. “How much further are we still?”

“A few days away.”

I groaned. It was still that far? This sucked. But I imagined that in a couple of days I should get better. Well, I hoped at least. “Ah, too bad I missed the entire cave adventure. How was it?”

“The monsters were ugly,” Hartwin said. “Hideous. You wouldn’t like being awake in there.”

“Huh, to be honest, I’m quite curious. But okay.” I bit my meat jerky.

Taneva drank some water from his water pouch. “We’ll try to move as quickly as we can. It will be rough, but we’ll do what we have to.”

A small smile lifted on my lips. “Thank you, everyone. I’m sorry I’m such a burden.”

“Yeah, for a goddess, you’re quite useless,” Taneva teased. “Useless goddess.”

I frowned in displeasure. “Not a useless goddess…! Hmph, you’ll see how great I am once I’m restored.”

Everyone briefly laughed at me. It was good the vibe was getting some playfulness.

“Yeah, yeah, keep telling yourself that.”

I moaned in annoyance. “By the way, how did you find that place, anyway?” I asked Taneva.

“Quite a historical place, you know. Hard to find at first. But when you’re immortal, you have all the time in the world.”

“Let me guess, you were hoping something there could kill you?”

“... Yeah… But it was a waste of time.”

“And the Cursed Children also know where to find the place because they hoped it would lift the curse?”

“Yes. It is the goddess’s grave. It's natural they'll try to visit it.”

“I see… I hope it’s going to be smooth sailing once we get there.”

“Well, not like you’ll have any other choice but to be straightforward about it. Besides, I don’t think anyone will be stopping you once we’re there. By the way, do you feel pain in your left arm?”

“... No, it’s just weird. I don’t feel anything on this crack.” I wouldn’t be surprised if there were any pain, but it turned out there was none. Surprising, but a relief nonetheless. The less pain I suffered, the better. “I’m going to explode if my body gets destroyed, aren’t I?”

“It’s looking to be that way,” Taneva answered.

I sighed and continued eating. This was a frustrating situation indeed. Good thing I had allies — you truly just can’t do everything alone. Which was the point why I brought them along. If I were alone, perhaps I wouldn’t have made it. I was not one to be so arrogant that I’d be confident to do everything by myself. It is always safer to have allies, even if you yourself are powerful.

The food tasted a bit better than I expected, by the way. Satomi included a few spices in our pack, which was nice. Beats eating something bland again. I was so hungry that I ate a few more slices and drank a lot of water again. This condition of mine was putting me to the edge.

Once I was done eating, I lay back on my ‘bed’ to continue my rest. “I don’t know when I’ll wake up again,” that was true. They must be fighting hard in that cave, and even the chaos could not wake me. I was going through a heavy sleep and rest. “So be gentle with me when you go.”

And with that, I closed my eyes. Man, it would be pretty nice to have some music playing. A phone would have been nice, with its countless music options. But alas, we’ll do with what we have. “Hartwin…”

“Yeah?”

“Can you play some music? It helps calm me down.”

“Of course.” He picked up his lute and started strumming. “Apologies, but I won’t be able to play as loud as usual, as you know…”

“That’s fine, just play something soft. Something fitting. Like a lullaby.”

“Alright.”

And he started gently plucking the lute’s strings. The music gradually put me at ease. It had been a stressful time. It was good to have some peace, even for just a moment.

A moment later, I drifted off to sleep.

After they were done eating and resting, the journey continued. All the while I was asleep. Not even a dream or a nightmare. Just this terrible and uncomfortable feeling in my deteriorating body.