Volume 3, Chapter 3: I Turned Eight Years Old, Part 1

I finally turned eight years old.

Has anything changed? Well I might just be imagining it, but the difference in feeling between being a [Little Girl] and a [Young Lady] is very important.

Though I’m growing normally, I wonder how my body’s doing.

Well… although I had the customary birthday party, I spent it in the royal capital. It wasn’t split into multiple events and was neatly resolved in one place… very normally.

I didn’t want to have it in the castle, but thinking about it, given the [Rumors] that have been going around about the Duke’s daughter and all that, it would have been impossible to accommodate all the guests just in the Ducal Villa that we had in the capital.

Anyways, the Archbishop of the main religion in this country made an unusual display of coming in with his entourage of priests in tow.

Are you trying to win me over or do you want to maintain your distance, what do you want me to do?

Since I was thinking those types of thoughts, I decided that it was best to end the party in the castle early.

After all, with that guy, I don’t know how to present myself as I talk to him…

A few days later, I used my authority as the [Princess] and left the royal capital.

Before you say anything, I wasn’t playing hooky.

Father is often invited to many other countries on his diplomatic missions, but this time, the schedules clashed. Moreover, it was a wedding and a funeral.

So, even though Father was worried about me, I felt like I needed to play my role as the [Princess] and volunteered to go.

I-I’m not running off, okay?

Naturally, since I’m the [Princess] who is the diplomatic face of the Holy Kingdom, the school waived my absence. They’re treating it like I’m away for a holiday break.

What about the school arc? Haven’t you already had enough of that?

Anyways, since His Majesty the King bestowed the title of [Princess] purely so that he could spoil his grandchild as a Grandfather, he and Father both opposed it.

Still, I made my cute grand-daughter’s sweetness appeal to Grandfather-sama. Also, according to Grandmother and Elea-sama’s advice, if I sat on Father’s lap and earnestly [Persuaded] him, he would do what I said.

Now that Father has finally yielded, I’m travelling to the neighboring country Shiguresu where Aunt-sama lives to attend the wedding of my younger cousin.

“Princess-sama! The mercenary company is approaching!”

On the day we departed, Sara-chan, who has become the vice-captain of my escort knight corps, reported to me.

Before I knew it, Sara-chan had become the vice-captain… by winning a fist-fight.

Don’t pick that role with a process like that…

Why is it that the only female knight corps in the whole Kingdom is so hot-blooded…?

Mercenaries, the so-called [Jack-of-all-trades] of roughness.

I must regretfully say, there is no such profession as [Adventurer] in this world.

When a monster appears in a village, the feudal lord will usually send out their soldiers, and a convenient thing like a dungeon doesn’t exist… what a dream-crusher.

Instead of adventurers, we have [Mercenary Companies], who are people who undertake nobles’ requests or guard travelling merchants.

There were a few mercenary companies in the capital, and as one of the conditions for going to Shiguresu, Father insisted that I should be accompanied by one of the mercenary companies that he trusts.

In the end, the guards accompanying me to the wedding are as follows: Female escort knights: 15 members. Kingdom soldiers: 20 members. Cooks and Caretakers: 8 members. Mercenaries: 18 members. And with the inclusion of my 4 attendants, the total rounds off to 65 people.

… that’s a lot, you know.

No, even as a representative of the country, isn’t that too many?

Among the caretakers, Vio is accompanying us at Mother’s request.

An impeccable choice. No matter how capable, Noa and Tina are still children.

As for Bree-chan and Sara-chan, for the sake of [Showing off] to the Shiguresu knights, they’ve been practicing their flashiest drills……

Yup. I can see why Father and Mother would be worried.

Well, whatever. For now, let’s just greet the representatives from the mercenary company who will be with us.

To tell the truth, I’m looking forward to what kind of dandy uncle would I meet.

It’s a Bear… (TL: There’s a pun here, his name basically means bear-man and he looks like a bear)

“Princess-san, we’ve arrived. Please leave it to us to get you there safely.”

“I’ll be in your care, Bear-san.”

I gave away my thoughts when I replied too quickly, but the mercenary troop leader, contrary to what I thought would happen, seemed rather pleased that I had addressed him as plainly as [Bear-san].

It seems that god hasn’t abandoned me.

I’m a Demon who prayed to god, and at last salvation has come.

“Lucy!” (Note: A kindly reminder from last volume: Yurushia -> Rushia -> Lucia -> Lucy)

“Noel?”

That’s right. The one who bravely defended me, my lovely and cute Noel-kun.

We meet again after two years. Noel-kun, who has turned ten years old, seems to have gotten taller, though it doesn’t seem like he’s gotten manlier.

“Finally… I was able to meet you again.”

“Ye… yeah”

Noel ran up to me like a puppy, and cupped my hands in his with a lovely smile on his face.

Wha-what? This skinship is intense…

“Hey, Noel!”

*Gochin*, a fist landed squarely painfully on Noel’s head, looking rather painful.

“~~~”

“Suddenly grabbing the Princess-san’s hands, what’s wrong with you!?”

Bear-san has gotten angry.

In this case, Bear-san was correct, but the instant that he brought down his fist again, I had already unwittingly thrust out my hand in response.

“Tei!”

“DuooooOOOOOOOOOH!?”

“Hee!”

After my forehead poke, Bear-san and Tina both clasped their foreheads and squatted down.

Since Noel was holding my hands, Tina approached with a strange look on her face, so I gave her a forehead poke too.

By the way, the difference in magical power put into the forehead poke between Tina and Bear-san was about 500 times in magnitude.

How dangerous, how dangerous, it would have been a huge disaster if I’d made a mistake between my right and left hands.

“Bear-san, Noel is a friend of mine, can you forgive him?”

Even though I asked so modestly, Bear-san and Tina both didn’t move from their crouching positions, and Bree-chan and Sara-chan were grasping each other’s hands in fear, it seems nobody listened to me

“Wow, as expected of Saint-sama! I haven’t received a good strike like that in ten years!”

Bear-san, who resurrected unexpectedly early, let out a hearty laugh.

Viva la Saint-sama. Thanks to that common-sense defying phrase: ‘As expected of Saint-sama,’ it was ignored.

“But, Noel, even as a friend of the [Princess] that’s no good. I apologize; this fellow is still a newbie.”

“I- I’m sorry, Lucy…sama.”

He got scolded… that look on Noel is cute.

It was an unexpected surprise, but as this mercenary troop captain, Ba-Bar…na…bas……… as Bear-san said, Noel was a newbie that joined one year ago and they had high expectations of him.

Well, that’s natural given Noel’s absurd talent.

“By the way, Noel, why did you join a mercenary company…?”

“Uh, well… I wanted… to become strong.”

Noel said while stealing glances at me.

“What’s the matter…? As a boy, I don’t think it’s shameful for you to want [Strength], do you?”

“Ah… no.”

As Noel was fidgeting shyly like a small animal, Bear-san gave a broad grin and violently pat him on the back.

“Men ought to be like that. Make sure to support Princess-san.”

“Yeah, got it. Do your best, Noel.”

“Y-Yes!”

Noel answered my encouragement with a smile, his cheeks flushing bright red.

Yep, Noel is cute. ……… I wonder if I can get him to work for me instead.

＊

Thus, our journey began.

Travelling to the neighboring country Shiguresu usually took about two weeks. But so as to not have me endure sleeping outside, the journey took three weeks as we went to the various inns on the way there.

Although I thought that it would be a smooth and peaceful journey, around the tenth day of our travels, our travelling party finally encountered a [Monster].

*Guboh*

“It’s a [Hippo], be careful!”

Said Bear-san, as he took the mercenary troops out ahead of us while the escort knights formed a protective line around me.

Even though Noel didn’t head out to the front lines, Bear-san had him use his support magic on the swords of the middle line of guards.

Vio had been teaching Noel holy magic and household magic during the journey.

Incidentally, I couldn’t teach him. My explanations were overly vague, and he couldn’t understand it at all… *sniffle*

The yellow hippopotamus was reasonably strong, but somehow or another they managed to repel it.

Still… it really was a hippo. I really didn’t think one would attack a traveler.

“I wonder if it was driven out by the elves of the forest…”

“……Eh?”

According to Bear-san, there’s a village of Elves in the nearby forest, and it seems they’ve been cutting down large parts of the forest for agricultural land.

We technically rule their land. Are you okay with that, people of the forest? Cut it out, you Salt Daifukus. (TL: See early chapters for reference)

They’re so different from the elves of my imagination…

Well, after another three weeks we safely arrived in Shiguresu.

It’s my first time in a foreign country. I wonder what kind of country Shiguresu is?

By the end, I wasn’t able to talk much with Noel…