“How can anyone even do that? Is it really nothing to you?”

She realized that drawing a bowstring toward a living creature required far more courage than she’d thought.

“...Give up, give up!”

Dozens of times she had raised her bow toward rabbits or small birds only to lower it again. In the end, Camilla decided cleanly to give up on hunting.

[How curious.]

“What is?”

Ghost Zeno tilted his head as he watched Camilla set her bow down on the ground altogether.

[You’ve got guts enough not to so much as blink when you’re dealing with a ghost like me, and you can’t kill that kind of thing?]

“Facing something already dead and killing something living are completely different.”

Imagine handing knives or bows to ordinary, average people and ordering them to kill a chicken or some small living thing.

How many would actually carry it out on the spot?

She didn’t know about this world, but in the modern society where she had lived for a long time, the typical reaction would be to shudder and back away.

[Is that so?]

“It is.”

“...I’d heard a rumor that the Duke’s daughter of Sorpel had lost her mind, and it seems it was true.”

“When did I ever lose my—!”

At the voice that came just then, Camilla snapped as she swung around—and then her body froze as it was.

“...I did lose it. At times like now, I occasionally lose my mind.”

“......”

Her fierce look vanished; in an instant Camilla changed both her expression and tone.

The Crown Prince Edsen’s face showed bafflement at that, but she was unruffled.

‘What? Isn’t this obvious?’

Embarrassing? Embarrassment is something you feel while you’re alive. First you stay alive—isn’t that what matters?

Camilla bowed her head even more politely.

“What brings Your Highness here......?”

This was, quite literally, the novices’ zone.

If one had any real intention of participating in the hunting tournament, it was the sort of place one should pass without a backward glance.

“Weren’t you the one who said it? That I had no hope of winning this time.”

“You believe that......?”

“Then are you saying you lied to me?”

“No!”

Seeing his eyes change in an instant, Camilla shook her head quickly.

“Your Highness absolutely will not win. Let alone win, you will be badly hurt......!”

“......”

...Damn.

His madman’s expression cooled, and she flinched for no reason and ended up saying what she didn’t need to say.

“Hurt? Me?”

“Please consider it the nonsense blurted by someone who’d lost her mind—”

“So I get hurt, do I......”

You bastard! Since when have you ever listened to me so well? I said it was nonsense!

“Amusing.”

I’m not amused at all!

Crown Prince or whatever—she decided she had to get out of here for now.

If she said she’d felt unwell and committed a discourtesy, what was he going to do about it. I’m the Duke of Sorpel’s daughter!

With an awkward smile, she began to back away bit by bit—when Edsen grinned and closed the distance.

Don’t come, don’t come!

“What is it that injures me?”

“It was nonsense—”

KWA-RAAANG!

Just then, a tremendous blast sounded. Camilla and Edsen turned at the same time toward where the sound had come from.

BANG! KWA-ANG!

Even as they did, the explosions did not stop.

“That direction is.......”

The middle sector of the hunting grounds. The place where the most people would be gathered!

Camilla and Edsen looked at each other—and without either one going first, both started running toward it.

BANG!

“Uwaaaah!”

“Guh!”

Explosions continued to sound here and there. It seemed as if charges had been planted in advance; great and small blasts kept going off without pause.

Swept up in the explosions, people screamed in pain; others shouted themselves hoarse trying to get things under control. In an instant, the hunting grounds turned into something that might as well have been a battlefield.

‘Where?’

Pushing through the people, Camilla ran and ran.

‘Where are you!’

She didn’t know. Why was she running like this?

She should be fleeing—she should be getting far away from here—but strangely, she couldn’t do it.

Only one person’s face, who would be here on this scene, kept flashing through her mind.

“Ravi!”

Camilla shouted his name with all her might. She prayed an answer would come from somewhere.

The normal thing would be to not care whether that guy lived or died, but the moment she heard the blasts, she couldn’t think at all.

There—there where the explosions had occurred—recognizing that Ravi was there, her body moved first.

“Ravi!”

She called his name again.

His damnably real-brother name!

“Ravi! Ravi!”

Camilla screamed herself hoarse, calling him again and again.

“Camilla?”

“......!”

And then she heard his voice.

Spotting Ravi healing the wounded with magic, Camilla stopped in her tracks.

“Why are you here? Why did you come here!”

The instant he saw her he started by shouting, but Camilla strode straight up to him.

“Are you out of your mind! When you hear explosions, you run first—how dare you crawl into—!” 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

GRAB!

Ravi’s voice, full of irritability as he scolded her, cut off. Camilla, running straight in, had thrown her arms around him.

“Hey.”

Ravi called to her carefully as Camilla clutched the hem of his clothes and let out breath after breath of relief.

“What’s wrong with you? What hap—”

“I don’t want it.”

“What?”

“I said I don’t want it.......”

“......”

“I don’t want to be an orphan again.......”

“What are you talking about? When were you ever an or—”

“You know if you die I really do become an orphan, right?”

“......”

“So don’t die.”

Camilla gripped his hem even tighter.

“If you die I’ll resent you for the rest of my life. I’ll curse you. I’ll make you regret it even in death, so act accordingly.”

“...Lay on the ill wishes, why don’t you.”

For a moment Ravi wore a look of disbelief, then let out a hollow laugh.

His gaze dropped to Camilla’s hand, gripping his hem tight, trembling ever so slightly.

“Don’t worry. I’ll live far longer than you.”

“Huh? That’s not right.”

“What?”

“I’m the younger one, so I’ll live long—aaagh!”

Ravi stretched Camilla’s cheek out. As she glared at him through the pain, he gave her head a light tap and turned back to the wounded.

“Get down. It’s dangerous.”

Even as the two of them did that, explosions continued to erupt throughout the hunting grounds. There was no way to tell how many charges had been planted.

“What if I go down alone and get caught in an explosion?”

“...Just stay here.”

“Okay.”

Camilla scurried to Ravi’s side, rolled up her sleeves, and helped while he treated the wounded.

“Hm.”

The Crown Prince Edsen, who had run here with her, looked on at the two of them with an expression that said he was entertained.

****

‘So this was it?’

There had been talk that the Crown Prince Edsen had been badly injured at the hunting tournament, but she’d never imagined circumstances like these.

‘This wasn’t something that would end with only the Crown Prince being hurt, was it?’

In the first place, even the talk that the Crown Prince Edsen had been badly injured was something she’d heard by chance... tsk.

‘So I really was ostracized to a ridiculous degree.’

Well, if she’d had even one close friend, she would at least have heard this and that.

The servants and maids alike had all treated Camilla like a nuisance; how would proper news ever have reached her ears.

“Brother, I think the explosions have stopped.”

“Do they.”

No more blasts could be heard.

Camilla stood up and scanned the area. All around, people lay groaning.

“Lord Sorpel.”

Then the Crown Prince Edsen approached the two. His golden eyes had sunk low, unlike before.

“It would be best to leave healing... entirely to you. I’m asking a favor.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“The wounded are to go to the younger Lord Sorpel. Those uninjured, or injured but with all limbs sound enough to move, everyone outside. First we assess the situation.”

The wounded clustered to Ravi, who was casting healing magic; those not swept up in the blasts scattered in all directions to gather survivors in one place.

Ludville and Petro, and even Arsian, lent a hand.

Arsian could use healing magic, so as he brought patients in he also treated them.

“It’s strange.”

Watching that for a moment, Camilla knit her brows.

“What is?”

“Why is no one coming?”

“What?”

“There’s been an explosion this big, and no one’s coming.”

Down at the lower end of the hunting grounds, numerous soldiers and mages, as well as healers, had been on standby from early morning against various accidents.

Some of those uninjured had even run toward the entrance area in a panic. Even if they were to carry news, it should already have been delivered by now......

[Grrrr—]

“King?”

At the sound she heard just then, Camilla’s gaze dropped to the bag she was wearing.

A moment earlier, the Guardian King, who had seemed so quiet as to be almost absent, bared sharp teeth and let out a savage growl.

Sssk.

At the same time, someone stepped in to block her front.

“Brother Ludville?”

Ludville, who had just been helping search for survivors, suddenly took up a guard in front of Camilla and slowly drew his sword.

Those nearby °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° stopped what they were doing and tensed their bodies.

“What is it?”

“You should draw your sword, Your Highness.”

No sooner had Ludville spoken than numerous figures revealed themselves.

A bizarre sight: all wearing identical black trousers and white tops, their whole bodies already stained red.

Something red fell from the blades they held and soaked the soil. A bloody stench hovered at the tip of the nose.

‘What is that?’

Unaware, Camilla stepped back a pace.

Faced with blood-smeared figures whose faces showed no emotion at all, it would have been stranger not to feel fear.

“What are those things?”

Arsian had drawn close to Camilla’s side—she didn’t know when he’d come.

“They don’t look like they’re here to help us.”

Even in this situation, Petro’s voice still held its smile.

“Ravi, stay by Camilla.”

With that, Ludville was the first to charge. Arsian and Petro followed after him.

‘What in the world is happening right now?’

The fighting began.

Camilla stared blankly.

Seeing killing and being killed right before her eyes, her heart thrashed madly.

She wanted to run away that instant, but her feet wouldn’t move at all, as if nailed to the ground.

“Hey, are you okay?”

Ravi, who was occasionally unleashing attack magic as he helped people, asked in a worried voice.

But she truly couldn’t answer a word. At the horrific scene unfolding before her eyes, her whole body had frozen solid.

The reek of blood spread in an instant and made her head swim.

[Hrm... those guys are a bit strange.......]

Just then, Ghost Zeno’s voice drilled into her ear. With effort she turned her head to look where he was.

“...What is strange about them?”

[There’s no reaction.]

“Reaction?”

Camilla’s gaze swung back to where the fighting was taking place. And she could understand what he meant.