Lambert lamented over his life choices.

Whatever he had in mind when he made his plans didn't look like this.

He knew it was a gamble to heal the Ogre and enlist his help, but he didn't expect to be on the march at sword-point.

And it wasn't even the Ogre's sword. Cath was mad.

"What the hell did you think?! Running away during the fight, then healing our enemy first?" She didn't let the matter drop even days later.

And the Court Wizard still didn't have an answer.

"It's because you had a magic-resistant armor on." He tried to shift the blame, but it only made things worse.

The blue-haired paladin's face became beet red, contrasting with her hair.

"And how dare you undress an unconscious maiden in front of a monster like this." She poked her back with the falchion before swinging it around to point it at their new companion.

Calling herself a maiden was too much for Lambert to bear. Even though he was a coward, and knew better not to laugh at the situation, he let out a short giggle.

The paladin was furious.

And why did the Ogre decide to follow them? That was one of the easier questions, they had food.

"That monster has a name, and Bastion carried you up the cliff while also wounded, thanks to you." Lambert attempted to clear things up.

"I wouldn't have had to undress you if you didn't dive into that chasm in that rune armor."

"Oh? The deserter blames me for trying to protect the Princess?" Cath refused to calm down, swinging her sword even wilder.

"I'd like to mention that you almost ended up killing her." The Ogre had a voice that they couldn't match to his looks.

It was too high-pitched, like a kid who was before the big hormonal change. This didn't prevent Cath from fuming at him, but that was nothing new anymore.

"I told you way before we set out on this mission. I couldn't do anything in that fight without offensive spells." Lamber explained for the umpteenth time.

"You were the one boasting that you could protect everyone, and look what happened. You almost tossed the Princess into a deep chasm, then I had to swoop in and save you."

He felt braver than usual, thanks to the Ogre covering his back, but he might have overdone it. The paladin wasn't intimidated by the green giant and didn't take the criticism either.

She still had enough honor to realize, it was only thanks to him she was alive, and thus shouldn't kill him outright.

"Well, your comrades also had to leave on foot, so we can catch up with them if we hurry." She changed the subject instead, staring into the distance. "Why did you kidnap the Princess?"

"Why is the grass green?" The Ogre shrugged. "I never asked the Demon Lord to justify his commands to us. And I'm not smart enough to figure them out on my own. I do what I'm told."

"Nobody told you to follow us though." Cath fumed, not satisfied with the answer.

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***

Unbeknownst to them, ten miles ahead another trio stumbled along the Imperial Road.

Despite being the winners of the clash a few days earlier, they looked way worse than the pursuers.

They were never meant to travel on foot.

Dioneras flew all the way here on Wyvern's back and planned to do the same with the precious cargo on his way home too.

Those beasts carried all their food and after the fight, they also lost most of their weapons.

It was only thanks to Fang that they didn't starve to death yet.

The Beastman couldn't hunt enough for everyone with his bare hands though.

Even if they couldn't travel in the sky, those Wyverns could have been also useful for hunting.

That blue devil had none of it.

She dispatched all three monsters in the blink of an eye.

She kept them all in check with her tremendous power before throwing herself into the chasm.

"You humans are crazy." The Goblin complained to the Princess, who went through many phases since her capture.

First, she was eerie silent, under the spell of her near-death experience.

Then she entered the denial and anger phases.

"I can't believe your filthy kind dared to raise a hand at me." Her creativity in hurling insults at her captors decreased on the last day.

She still wouldn't miss a chance to besmirch them.

"Do you even know who I am? My father is the Duke of Nordhaben." It was why the Demon Lord ordered them to capture her.

Of course, Dioneras couldn't bother answering her usual rants.

"He has the same power as the First Bride." She kept at it, yanking the rope with which the Beastman secured her. What she said was only true in politics.

The Duke became the head of the entire Kingdom in the Demon Lord's absence. He was an aristocrat of the highest human echelons, but still only a mortal.

The First Bride had the power to Seal away his Lord for an entire decade though. There was a hefty bounty on her head after she got excommunicated, but nobody had the guts to collect it.

Of course, he and his men were inside that Seal until now, so they couldn't give it a shot either. But he had a hunch she could hold her own against all his champions.

"How dare you divert me from my important mission?" The Princess didn't care if they reacted to her whining or not.

Still, sometimes she said something interesting that got Dioneras thinking.

"What important mission did you have near the Old Capital?" The Goblin asked, pointing ahead.

"You can already see it from here. The big nothing that remained. What does a fragile little Princess like you have to do here?"

She fell silent at last. Dioneras could almost see the tiny cogwheels turning in her aristocratic head.

He didn't expect her to answer anyway, but the fact that she shut up for a while was already worth it.