Chapter 3

Now that my stomach was full and I was warm, sleep came crashing down on me.

The Hero’s party had just finished a battle, so they were exhausted too, and we all took a short nap. There was a sleeping room next to the room with the sofa. The bed was small, but it was more than enough for one person to lie down and rest.

I fell asleep as if I’d passed out, only to wake up when someone gently shook me.

“Princess. The airship will be landing soon.”

I barely managed to lift my body, which felt as heavy as wet cotton.

I had clearly slept for quite a while, yet my entire body was still overwhelmed by exhaustion.

This was probably a side effect of scraping every last bit of divine power out of myself.

Perhaps my sluggish movements made him worried, because the Hero firmly supported my body with his arms.

“Ugh, I’m dying. Oof, oof.”

I finally managed to swing both legs out of the bed.

As I searched for the military boots I’d taken off earlier and casually tossed aside, the Hero picked up one that had rolled far away and neatly placed it in front of me.

“Oh! Thank you.”

“Please wait a moment.”

The Hero stopped me as I hurriedly tried to put on my shoes.

He picked up the water bottle on the bedside table, poured some water onto a white towel, and slowly wiped my face, hands, and feet.

Seeing the dirt coming off onto the towel, I realized just how grimy I actually was.

Still, he didn’t have to wipe me down himself.

As I wiggled my freshly cleaned fingers, a warm sensation suddenly touched my ankle.

It was obvious that he was about to put my shoes on for me, so I shrieked.

“I can do it myself! Stop right there!”

I wasn’t a two-year-old child, so how far was he planning to take this?

I hurriedly put on my shoes and jumped to my feet.

“Princess, are you able to walk?”

“My arms and legs are perfectly fine. I’m only exhausted because I used so much divine power.”

But it seemed the Hero had heard my words through his nose instead of his ears, because he suddenly scooped me up again.

Had the meaning of “my arms and legs are fine” changed sometime in the last five hundred years?

I flailed around as best I could to demonstrate that my legs were perfectly functional, but the Hero didn’t budge.

Whatever.

Giving up, I stayed still as he carried me out of the room.

There were several small, round windows along the wall of the airship. When I approached one, I could see the scenery outside.

“This is Brookran, the capital of the Groxdel Empire.”

A vast city stretched out beneath the airship, centered around a gigantic castle.

Wide roads extended in every direction, while tall buildings that appeared to be more than ten stories high stood densely packed together.

The unfamiliar scenery continued endlessly.

Then, among it all, I spotted one building I knew.

The Central Great Temple, where the Pope resided.

I had a rough idea of where we were.

This had once been an empty wasteland, and now, hundreds of years later, such an enormous city had been built here.

It felt strange.

I had defeated the Demon King, so the duty of the Princess of Victory was over.

Now I had to live on my own.

But what could I possibly do in this unfamiliar future?

With my thoughts in complete disarray, I simply stared out the window until the airship landed.

“Congratulations on successfully defeating the Demon King!”

The airship landing port was filled with a festive atmosphere.

The moment my feet touched the ground, crowds of people rushed toward us and began scattering flower petals.

Dozens of us slowly made our way forward beneath the flower shower drifting down like snow.

The Hero’s party, which had formed the core of the subjugation army, would enter the Imperial Palace with me immediately.

As for the soldiers and knights, those who had the strength would make a tour around the capital before being dismissed.

The subjugation forces that had come from other countries rather than the empire would rest for several days before returning to their homelands aboard airships.

“Miles, can you teleport us to the Imperial Palace?”

“My mana is completely restored after resting. I’ll get us there comfortably, Princess.”

The mage Miles skillfully swung his staff and drew a magic circle on the floor.

Even the shape of the glowing magic circle was quite different from the teleportation circles I knew.

Well, at least the blinding flash during transportation was the same, so I closed my eyes slightly before opening them again.

The air touching my skin was warm, telling me we were indoors.

Through magic, we had instantly moved to the middle of a vast hall.

Only after we reached the Imperial Palace did the Hero finally put me down.

I gently placed my feet on the soft carpet and looked around.

The hall, decorated in white and gold, was elegant and magnificent in a way befitting the Imperial Palace of a great empire.

Ugh.

This wasn’t good for my heart.

It was overwhelming!

I might have been called a princess, but the only places I’d lived my entire life were a four-room brick house, a school dormitory, and a military barracks.

Those were the only three places I knew.

If this had been the Eterna royal castle, which I had visited several times, I wouldn’t have been nearly this nervous.

I was taking a small breath when people came running out through the passage connected to the hall.

“Licht!”

“Herooooo! I knew you’d succeed!”

“My disciple! You did it!”

“My dear!”

Everyone came running toward us at full speed, completely unconcerned that their immaculate clothes were becoming wrinkled.

So his family had been waiting for him at the Imperial Palace.

The man at the front had his arms spread wide.

His face looked so much like the Hero’s that anyone could confidently declare they were related by blood.

He appeared to be in his early thirties, so I guessed he was probably the Hero’s older brother.

But the Hero looked troubled as he saw his delighted brother running toward him.

“Please maintain your dignity, Your Majesty. The Princess of Victory is here.”

“Gasp!”

Everyone who had been running toward us suddenly turned their attention to me.

Wait.

Didn’t the Hero just call him “Your Majesty”?

And His Majesty had casually called Licht by his first name.

The man who had hastily recovered his lost dignity greeted me.

“Ahem, ahem! Welcome back, Princess of Victory. My name is Payton Groxdel.”

Only royalty or members of an imperial family used the name of their country as their surname.

Unless I was an idiot, there was no way I could fail to understand who this man was.

The Emperor of this empire.

And if his older brother was the Emperor, then the Hero was obviously a member of the imperial family too.

Oh, this is bad.

I’m doomed.

I’m soooo doomed!

“We are cousins. My father, the late Emperor, was the First Prince, while Licht’s father, the Grand Duke, was the Second Prince.”

According to Emperor Payton’s explanation, the Hero Licht’s full name was Licht Groxdel.

Although he belonged to a collateral branch of the family, the current imperial family had so few descendants that he was actually third in line for the throne.

An incredibly high status.

“His Majesty has a five-year-old son, so I have nothing to do with the succession. Another imperial grandchild is also expected to be born sometime this year.”

“The Empress is pregnant with our second child.”

Oh.

But even if the baby was born safely, wouldn’t that simply move him from third place to fourth?

His position in the line of succession would drop by one, but that wouldn’t change the fact that he was still a member of the imperial family.

Moreover, if the Hero Licht was directly behind the Crown Prince in the line of succession, that meant his father, the Grand Duke, had also passed away.

I didn’t want to ask.

I really didn’t.

But I didn’t want to end up in prison for committing an act of disrespect either, so I had no choice but to ask now.

“Um, Hero… Are you perhaps His Highness the Grand Duke?”

“Yes. I was my parents’ only son, so I inherited the title.”

Aaaaaaaaah!

Kyaaaaaaaaah!

Ugh, I wanted to smash my head against that pillar over there and knock myself unconscious.

Seriously, how could someone be a member of the imperial family and a Grand Duke, yet his knees were so ridiculously easy to bend in front of me?

How many times had he knelt already?

And why had he personally wiped my feet?!

He had an extremely high status and a perfectly handsome face on top of that.

This Hero definitely had a fiancée or was married.

It had to be one of the two.

I would’ve preferred to walk on my own two feet even if it meant setting the soles of my feet on fire, but it was already too late.

From now on, I would just have to be careful.

If his noble fiancée or Grand Duchess got upset, I’d explain that he’d only carried me because it was a matter of saving a person’s life.

For now, though, he was still sitting right next to me.

I should move a little farther away.

I slightly lifted my hips and shifted over without making it obvious.

Good!

Done!

Honestly, sitting on another sofa would probably have been much better for my peace of mind, but I couldn’t exactly do that.

So I’d just stay like this.

“Well, Princess. Looking at you, it seems Licht only gave you his three-letter name and nothing else. Am I correct?”

That’s right!

I nodded enthusiastically.

Emperor Payton placed a hand over his forehead and let out a long sigh.

“There is quite a lot you need to hear, Princess. But first, let’s arrange another meeting after you’ve rested for a few days.”

“They say it’s better to get the bad news over with first. Can’t you just tell me now?”

“I don’t think today is the right time. You probably weren’t able to get proper rest aboard the airship.”

He said that eating, washing up, and sleeping soundly beneath a soft blanket should come first.

I agreed.

Everything he said made sense.

For three days, I rested comfortably while being cared for by the kind imperial palace maids and the Hero.

I ate delicious food at every meal, bathed in warm water, and slept soundly beneath blankets that smelled of sunlight.

It was a happy time.

Actually, during the first two days, I had a slight fever and was practically forbidden from getting out of bed at all.

Except when I went to the bathroom, the Hero stayed glued to my side to take care of me.

Good grief.

I appreciated him placing a cold, wet towel on my forehead, but I couldn’t exactly feel at ease with him hovering over me like that.

Eventually, I cautiously suggested that perhaps I should go see my family.

Instead, I learned the unfortunate truth that both of my parents had already passed away.

My mother was gone too.

On top of that, I learned that because the Hero had been expected to have a high chance of dying while fighting the Demon King, he had deliberately avoided both engagement and marriage.

After seeing that my condition hadn’t improved much for two days, he contacted the Central Great Temple and brought His Holiness the Pope himself.

Thanks to the treatment provided by Celestia, the Pope of this era, I was finally able to get out of bed.

“Thank you, Your Holiness.”

“I’m glad to see you’ve recovered, Princess. I should have come to see you sooner. I was delayed because I had so much work to do. That damn Demon King just wouldn’t die quietly…”

For the record, this Pope had an incredibly foul mouth.

According to him, he’d spent thirty years fighting the Demon King’s army, which was how he’d ended up talking like this.

The High Priest who came with him casually added that His Holiness had been famous for his talent at cursing since he was a low-ranking priest.

So the truth became apparent pretty quickly.

The Pope and the High Priest.

The reason two of the highest-ranking priests had come was to accurately diagnose my condition.

Then I heard the result I had vaguely suspected.

“Princess, you must not use divine power as you did before. If you use a powerful technique, your life will be in danger.”

“Between beginner and intermediate level. That’s about where I am now, right?”

“Yes. However, we couldn’t find a completely identical case to yours even in the records. Since we don’t know what might happen, it would be best if you avoided using divine power altogether for the time being.”

The amount of divine power remaining in my body was exactly the same as what I had possessed before becoming the Princess of Victory.

In other words, I had lost the overflowing power I’d once possessed and returned to my old state.

Everyone except the two priests and me turned deathly pale.