Chapter 113
So vivid.
The sun scattered warm heat across the skin, but if you tried to look straight at it, it felt like hot needles were slicing at your pupils.
What was it so shy about that it hid itself from everyone else's view? To me it was beautiful; maybe the sun just didn't like how it looked.
Only after draping itself in a single layer of cloud as clothing did it glow softly in a circle, as if saying it was all right to look now.
“The sun is round.”
The spirited chants of the soldiers running across the broad parade ground seemed to put strength back into my wavering legs.
As if cheering each other on. We can do it. We can do it, they shouted at the top of their lungs, running and running on.
“Shouting gives you strength.”
The wind pushed my body away. But that didn't mean the wind was being picky.
If I thought about it differently... maybe the wind just wanted someone to go along with it.
The wind blowing from the east pulled my body westward. The wind from the south made me sway northward.
Could it be that the wind wanted me to move in the same direction as it did?
“The wind is lonely.”
Maybe the wind wasn't trying to shove over everything it touched, but just looking for a companion to set out on the same road with it.
ㅡCrash..!
“Ah.”
“P-Princess..!”
The nameless maid I was meeting for the first time. When she saw my face, she dropped the wooden tray in her hands, along with the glass on top of it.
Then was the wooden tray a thing that had to fall to the floor without a person's hand to hold it?
But unlike the glass, the wooden tray didn't break when it hit the floor.
“The wooden tray is independent.”
Maybe it was trying to prove it could walk on its own.
ㅡThud, thud....
“Y-You can’t be here, Princess..!”
“I can do it. I can do it.”
Like the soldiers on the parade ground, I shouted a chant I'd never used before. Strength surged into my legs, and I found the courage to run like them.
By the time I shook off the maid's hand reaching toward me and passed her, I could see tall trees rising in the distance.
Whenever the lonely wind sometimes tried to coax them along, the trees would reach out as if in pity. They couldn't move because their roots were planted underground, so they said to at least take each other's hands once.
Then they would place a few of their precious leaves into the wind's embrace and bless the path it was headed down.
“Kind trees.”
When I shoved open the heavy door and stepped outside, I saw two soldiers holding spear shafts.
“P-Princess..!”
“Why are you here..?!“
The thick metal armor gleamed in the sunlight. That squint-inducing sensation seemed to be imitating the sun.
“Metal is a copycat.”
By the time I passed the soldiers and walked over the dirt-covered ground, I realized the house slipper I'd been wearing on my right foot had vanished at some point. The somewhat sharp soil left a small sting on my bare foot.
“Dirt is prickly.”
The hem of my pure white skirt soaked up a handful of dirt and changed color. It was different from what I usually saw, pretty in a way I liked.
Shwaaak ㅡ !!
ㅡToong!
“Hic.”
In the wide open space set aside for the archers on one side of the inner fortress, seeing arrows pierce straw targets made my heart lurch.
Even though they weren't aimed at me, they were so fierce that I could feel it all at once.
I passed the stone wall built up piece by piece from rough, coarse rock, and came face to face with something pure white, soft, and a little warm and fluffy.
“You.”
ㅡGrrrr….
A long tongue shot out and swept broadly across my face in one pass.
“Pwah..! What are you doing..?”
As if it didn't care about my objection, it yawned until the corners of its mouth seemed ready to split, then pulled the tongue that had licked me back into its mouth and smacked its lips.
Maybe it was tasting me.
“Huh..?”
What an absurd creature. I timidly reached out with my fingertips and stroked the back of its neck, then carefully left it behind and rubbed my face with my sleeve.
“A peculiar smell….”
I also stood far away for a long time and watched the blast furnace spewing hot flames.
I also saw a large stream of water flowing along a slightly shallow dirt path.
The steep slope of the hill.
The lawn's green melody.
A shadow that had followed me before I knew it.
And then.
ㅡTak….
“Princess..!”
“Ah-ha.”
The drops of sweat gathered into tiny, round beads and hurried across my cheeks. Once they reached the tip of my chin, they hesitated for a moment before carefully pooling together in one place and bravely setting off downward.
“Sweat drops are brave.”
“Princess, you can’t do this..!”
“Ophelia. What do I do?”
Concern had settled on Ophelia's face as she held my wrist.
“I remember everything.”
* * * * *
“Uuuiiiieiiieuyaat ㅡ !!!!.”
I must have rolled half a turn in my sleep, because my head's position had rotated 180 degrees. After doing a super-duper mega-ultimate omega-cyclone stretch and opening my eyes, I found Dangdang in front of me, sleeping with a dorong-dorong snore.
“Look at this little one. The princess is awake and it's still sleeping.”
After crawling out of bed, I tucked the still-sleeping Dangdang under my arm and went into the bathroom, where I sat on the toilet lid.
“Ueeeh….”
I tapped Dangdang's butt to wake him up, then after getting up I closed the toilet lid and set Dangdang on top of it.
“Dangdang, three minutes.”
ㅡBeep....
“Hmph, and you go to bed before me? You sleep like eighteen hours a day.”
Dangdang claimed he didn't get enough sleep. What an absolutely ridiculous little creature. When he woke up, he'd flip over the feed bin and eat until his belly was round, and when he wasn't doing that, he just slept. He wasn't just carefree; he was carefree to the ten-thousandth power.
ㅡGurgle-gurgle
After giving my mouth a nice clean brushing, I picked up the phone on the nightstand and headed to the living room. Today was the day I was going to go see the soldier golems Minyum had assigned to the unit fight in person.
I needed to see just how well our super-duper ultra-strong mechanical legion's soldiers fought, so I'd know the timing when I gave them buffs later.
Of course Ophelia would help me in all sorts of ways, but I should have some knowledge too, right? I’m the commander-in-chief, after all.
“Ophelia! I’m all ready!”
“Princess, you’re still in your pajamas.”
“Yep.”
“You should eat breakfast too.”
“I’m not really that hungry.”
“You’ll get hungry inside the gate.”
“I guess so.”
But then again, once I came out to the living room and smelled Ophelia cooking, I felt like I was getting a little hungry.
Lately Minyum and Suri have been working incredibly hard... well, there aren't any golems that aren't working hard, really. Ophelia too, and even Grandpa Galahad....
ㅡBeep!
“Whoa, there it is.”
ㅡBeep..?“
“What have you been doing that you’re eating? You’re on a diet starting today!”
ㅡBleep, bleep-byu-bibit..!!
Well, to be honest, Dangdang's very existence is already doing work. It's just that being with him makes things a little more comfortable, like a real pet, you know? A dog you keep at home doesn't do a job to earn its food, right?
But he does eat a little too much.
“Oh dear, why did I wake up so early when I don't even have school?”
“It’s a good sign. Through establishing a repeated wake-up time, your body is acquiring an appropriate biological rhythm.”
“Hmmmm….”
Anyway, I'm not going to school today. I told Aegis it was the preparation period for the advance survey team, and that's actually true, because if I go into the expedition and don't want to be a drag, I need to do this right.
I ate, put on comfortable clothes, and packed my phone and everything else I needed.
“Hehe, the golems. They’ll be so happy when I get there!”
* * * * *
ㅡClack!!
“Minyum!!”
Minyum, whom I was meeting after a long time, had little scratches all over it. It wasn't anything that seemed like a real problem, but it was usually so neat that seeing it like this made me feel terribly sorry.
ㅡCreak....
“Suri too! You’re working so hard!!”
Suri was a little worse than Minyum. Maybe because it had fought by going all-out in close combat? It also seemed to smell a little off.
“And the golem soldiers!”
ㅡClack..!
“Mm! You’re all fully disciplined!”
They were still the youngest ones, soldiers who fought according to Minyum's orders and worked hard at their tasks.
“But listen closely, you’re all going to be commander-class golems someday!”
ㅡClack..!?“
“From now on, golems will keep being born, and then they’ll all be your little siblings, right?!”
ㅡNod, nod..!“
“Then you guys?? You’ll all become the grand old veterans of the golems! So you need to work hard and be able to make lots and lots of golems!!!”
ㅡNod, nod!!!
Boosting morale is one of the things a princess has to do. The soldiers are working so hard for me; I can't just sit in a corner and gobble up dujjonku.
Even though we left early in the morning, it took four hours to get to the gate. It's 1 p.m. now, so we must have left around nine o'clock.
“Ophelia, is it okay if I go inside the gate?”
“Yes, I’ve mostly identified the internal hazards and terrain.”
“Woooah.”
Maxing a gate out at 100 percent, squeezing every last bit from it—something a normal gate owner could never do.
ㅡWooooom....
When I pushed my body into the circular portal rippling with navy light, everyone followed in not long after. Well, not everyone, since Grandpa Galahad was working at the forge.
I should definitely drop by and cheer on the house sprites later too. But I do see them a lot, since I visit the forge from time to time.
“Woooah..!”
“Right now, we’re working on installing tracks mainly in areas that produce a lot of useful minerals.”
“I see..!”
Like a mine cart, right? Now we can load up a ton of ore and make it easier to haul it to the front of the gate. Of course, if we run into monsters along the way, we'll go shush-sha and pick up some mana stones too.
“Princess, I thought this might be useful, so I brought it.”
“Huh? What is it?”
Ophelia yanked open the zipper of the suitcase with a long riiiip, then took something out from inside.
It was yellow all over, and somehow looked like something I'd seen somewhere before....
“Eh..?”
“It’s a cheerleader outfit.”
Oh my God.