A young girl with long, silky black hair and azure eyes roaming through the royal forest without worries could only be the princess of the Kainesh Kingdom.

That was unexpected, to say the least, but it wasn’t advantageous.

If she tells someone that I’ve entered the royal forest without permission, they’ll execute me…right? Or will the king have mercy because I helped his daughter? I don’t really feel like playing with my life on the line.

Percy cleared his throat and smiled at the princess, “Are you fine, little one?”

He had no idea if it would be better to be overly formal with the princess or to speak to her in a light tone. If she had been older, Percy would have chosen the former, but he couldn't be certain since she was roughly seven years old.

The princess tilted her head and looked around but Percy covered her eyes before she could see the monster carcasses.

“What?” She mumbled but didn’t make a move to remove his hands.

“Please wait a second. I will bring you away from the clearing. Your lion was having fun with some friends, and the clearing looks a little bit ‘unorganized.'”

“Okay,” The princess responded lightly and squealed when Percy lifted her from the ground. He picked her up and carried the princess out of the clearing,

“You can open your eyes again.” He told the princess, who’d closed her eyes after Percy covered them.

She probably knows what I meant when I told her that her summoned Monster ‘had some fun’.

The princess’ eyes lingered on him even after he let her down again. She studied him from head to toe, almost like she was trying to imprint the faintest details in her mind.

“Do you think it’s possible if we keep all of this a secret?” Percy thus asked. It worried her that the princess studied him this intently. It felt like she was trying to remember him under any circumstances. As for why… Percy hoped it was unrelated to executions and torture instruments.

“Hmm?” The princess tilted her head at his question.

She looks so naive.

Percy smiled, seeing her like that. The princess didn’t seem like a bad girl. If anything, she looked like a playful, simple-minded child, which was probably good.

“I don’t want to be in trouble because I entered the royal forest. I…was deep in thought and had to escape the capital for a few hours. That’s how I ended up in here,” Percy explained quietly, “How about we keep this as our little secret? In exchange…”

He had no idea what to offer to a princess. What did she need in the first place?

“I understand. I feel the same,” The princess nodded seriously. But it was the kind of seriousness that shouldn’t be accounted to a seven year old child, “Everyone expects me to be perfect, to grow up strong, and to be even better than my father has been. But at the same time, everyone wants something from me. They want to be close to me but nobody is actually there for me. I can only trust my parents…”

That is definitely not what I expected to hear. She must be lonely if everyone is only out for her political status. If she, as a seven-year-old child, doesn’t know whom to trust and rely on…

Percy shuddered and only relaxed slightly when the princess’ sadness was replaced with a smile.

“Play with me!”

The seriousness escaped her features, and she acted like she had never been injured or had never slept in the royal forest. The princess was also not worried that he would do something to her or that something could happen to her in the royal forest.

She was a weird mixture of naivety, kindness, seriousness, and sadness. Until today, Percy didn’t know that was possible in the first place. But apparently, it was.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“You want to play with me?” Percy responded stupefied.

“Yes! The Kainesh Lion is injured and too exhausted to come out and play. And I don’t want to go back yet. It’s the first time I’ve escaped my classes. Please don’t force me to go back to the etiquette and dance classes!” The princess pleaded to him with puppy eyes.

They were destructive and shattered Percy’s doubts and hesitation instantly.

“Alright. Let’s play something…”

***

Is she a monster in human skin? How in the seven hells is it possible for a child to have so much energy?

Percy cursed in his mind.

After playing with the young princess for how long, he was exhausted. The afternoon sun was already setting, yet the princess didn’t even think about stopping. Percy requested to stop playing several times, but the princess clung onto him, embracing his legs tightly while pleading to stay. Unfortunately, Percy couldn’t win against the princess. He might be stronger than her, but her puppy eyes had something Percy couldn’t win against.

It was almost like her puppy eyes were a mental attack, which crushed his defenses easily.

Percy gave in to the princess’ requests and kept playing with her, realizing two grave mistakes only when it was too late.

Fuck…I missed the meeting with the Reeze Duke… Well, maybe that’s for the best. I don’t think I’m ready to meet anyone from my family or their acquaintances just yet…

If that had been his only ‘grave’ mistake, Percy would have been fine. Unfortunately, the other mistake was truly problematic. It was only obvious, but people had been searching for the princess. Percy should have expected that, yet he had been too busy playing with the princess. Playing with the little girl helped Percy switch off and enjoy the moment. It was also the first time he could play proper games for children. Old Greg played a lot with him, but the games were different. Old Greg created the games to train him in a ‘fun’ way. It had been fun, but children’s games were different nonetheless.

But Percy had to put aside the fun he had playing with the princess. It had been a nice time, but the Blueflame Hawk informed Percy that people were everywhere, spreading across the royal forest. They’d circled the royal forest to search it thoroughly and would find Percy and the princess soon enough.

Percy closed his eyes and channeled mana through his ears, enhancing his hearing sense.

Yep. There are voices. Everywhere.

Could he run? Was that option still valid? Probably not, given that the voices came from everywhere. The Blueflame Hawk also informed Percy that some powerful Gifted were in the search group. There were even monsters like Igor’s Dachshund with a tracking Augmentation.

Why did they come only now if they had the means to track the princess? Wait. That’s not important right now. They have summoned monsters with good noses. They can smell me even if I were to flee. So what if the princess wouldn’t say anything about me? Everyone would know she’s hiding something.

Percy cursed and paled a little.

I sure hope nobody is going to beat the shit out of me for this one.

A tiny hand reached out for his hand. The princess’ hand coiled around three fingers and squinched them tightly.

“Don’t worry,” She said when Percy looked down at her. The princess held him tightly, trying to give him some of her strength.

At least someone is on my side.

He chuckled inwardly, but the chuckle was stuck in his throat as another thought flashed into his mind.

They will not execute me, right? The princess would be sad if they executed me. They wouldn’t want to make her sad…probably.

“Let’s face the dragon head-on!” Percy declared, which was apparently something exciting to say because Sophia Kain, the young princess, exclaimed loudly, “Face the dragon!”

The duo walked slowly through the densely grown undergrowth and headed to one of the large clearings in the forest. The Blueflame Hawk informed him that most ‘enemies’ were located over there. Thus they walked straight to the clearing.

“Careful,” Percy mumbled to the princess as he pulled a bush aside to make enough space for them to enter the clearing. The last rays of sunlight were about to be swallowed by the horizon, but the clearing was brighter than it would be during midday. Unfortunately, he couldn’t check where the light came from because he felt hundreds of pair of eyes turn to them.

He instinctively activated [Hawk Eyes] to analyze the scene ahead of him and circulated mana through his body to prepare for the worst.

But what he saw confused him quite a bit. It didn’t make any sense.

“What are the Reeze Duke and his Glacia Knights doing here?” Percy mumbled in disbelief, his eyes flicking left and right.

“Even Melissa and her mother are present. What is going on?”