Oh, you're mad because of me.
Karina looked at David.
"Thank you for saving me. I won't be a burden to you anymore."
David raised one eyebrow and frowned at Karina's words as if he had heard something ridiculous.
"I never thought of it as a burden."
David spoke firmly in a low, hushed voice.
"You're mad at me just now."
"This isn't about getting angry... No. Phew... Yes. This is about getting angry."
He had been denying it, but suddenly he put his hand on his head, sighed, and changed his words to say yes.
"If you couldn't do it, you should have said so in advance! We could have been in big trouble!"
David stared at Karina with a scary face.
"I'm sorry, but you know, earlier there was no other way than jumping into the water."
Karina apologized and made excuses at the same time.
"If I had known that the Grand Duchess couldn't swim, I would have found another way."
"..."
Karina couldn't answer and looked down like she had committed a crime. But what she saw before her eyes was David's upper body. His thin shirt was soaking wet and clung to his body. Because of that, his firm abs, plump chest muscles, and muscular arms were all clearly visible. He had already bent down to examine her, so his wet figure was so close. Startled, Karina slightly pulled back and looked up to see his face again. David frowned as if he was annoyed and swept his hair that had fallen forward with his hand. His darker blond hair gently fell back at his touch. Then, his attractive face was revealed. His moist red lips and deep blue eyes. His high nose bridge, long eyelashes with water droplets, and sharp jawline.
'I can't believe I can see this even in this situation. I'm crazy.'
Anyone would have been captivated by David's handsome looks, but given the circumstances, Karina found herself reflecting on herself. David seemed to have noticed that Karina was not listening to him and was thinking of something else, so he frowned and tilted his head slightly to the side. The sight of the transparent water droplets flowing down his face, reflecting the light, and falling down his slender jawline, was fascinating.
'Wake up!'
Karina squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head, shaking off her distracting thoughts. Seeing Karina like that, David was puzzled and didn't know why she was acting like that all of a sudden.
"Grand Duchess?"
Then, he soon noticed that Karina's body was shivering slightly. It was natural since she had fallen into the icy water and emerged wearing only thin clothes. Upon closer inspection, he saw that her lips were already blue. This was tolerable for someone who usually practiced swordsmanship and built up his physical strength. However, Karina was a noblewoman who rarely lifted anything heavier than a teacup in her daily life. Her physical strength must have already reached its limit. As evidence, she must have been receiving the warming magic of the flame stone, but her body showed no signs of stopping shivering. It seemed that thanks to the protection of the magic stone, she was barely able to avoid the risk of dying from hypothermia.
"Grand Duchess. Are you alright?"
"Ah..."
Karina, who only then realized that she was shaking after David's question, raised her hand as if to say that it was okay.
"I'm fine."
But contrary to Karina's answer, her body began to shiver more and more from the cold. David suppressed his anger, thinking that he couldn't leave Karina shivering so pitifully. He quickly looked around, but there was nothing that could help. David grabbed Karina's hand to help her up.
"...!"
Karina's hands were so cold. And it wasn't just her hands.
"First, let's go to a suitable place where we can light a fire. It would be good to warm up our cold bodies again."
"... Yes."
Karina nodded her head with difficulty, her face pale.
"Excuse me for a moment."
David lifted Karina up before she could even respond.
"Ah....!"
Karina was surprised, but she didn't have the energy to even ask to be let down. Even if she were to be let down, she didn't think she'd be able to walk until she found a suitable place.
"Just lean on me."
Karina hesitated at David's words. She didn't want to be a burden anymore. But if she had no choice, she thought it would be best to at least remain as quiet as possible. She thought that if she insisted on walking herself and fell down in the middle, there would be nothing that would hold her back more than that.
"I'm sorry... I'm sorry. Thank you for your consideration, Your Highness."
After finishing her thoughts, Karina quietly hugged David's arms.
'Warm.'
Even though they had clearly fallen into the water together, his embrace was incredibly warm. Karina's eyes closed in comfort. Because of that, Karina didn't notice David's gaze looking at her with a satisfied smile.
***
David put Karina down on a gentle hill that was relatively sunny.
"What if a monster appears?"
Karina, who had just opened her eyes, looked around the open space and asked worriedly.
"Don't worry. It's safer to be in an open area, where it's easier to notice monsters approaching."
There was a river running around the hill they were settling down on. As David had said, when it came to being on the lookout for monsters, it seemed like they only had to be careful of the area adjacent to the forest.
"And right now, I think it would be better to be in the warm sunlight, even just a little, rather than in the cold shade."
David added, checking Karina's condition.
He quickly gathered some firewood from around him, piled it on the ground, and started a fire. Then he brought Karina to sit in front of the warm fire.
"Thank you, Your Highness. Still, it feels good to be on the ground."
Karina nodded and expressed her gratitude.
"I see. At least I don't have to worry about falling to my death."
David chuckled as if he found it amusing.
"Yes. For a while, high places are off-limits."
"Me too."
David, who had been listening to Karina's soft voice, sat up.
"Please wait here while I light the fire. I will contact my entourage and come back shortly. Since we are far from where we were originally held, if we are unlucky, we may miss the search party."
"Oh, don't worry about it and go."
Karina said as she quickly pushed his back. Now that they had escaped from the cave in the stone tower, it was the safest and most ideal way for the two of them to join the search party and escape the Cursed Forest.
'We must never cross paths with the search party'
Karina hoped to meet the search party as soon as possible. She wasn't sure how much longer she could hold out. After being exposed to the fire for a while, her body temperature rose and she felt a little better.
But...
'How much longer can I hold out?'
Karina's mood was sinking. She couldn't stay here for long. Karina knew that it was only thanks to David's consideration and the luck of not encountering any monsters that she was able to at least get some light. It would be difficult for David and Karina to get out of the Cursed Forest without the help of the search party.
'If I encounter a monster in my current state or get lost in the Cursed Forest... In the worst case scenario...'
Perhaps because her body was so exhausted, ominous thoughts kept coming to her. Karina suddenly turned her head.
'Let's not think bad thoughts.'
However, she was able to endure it because David did not escape alone and stayed by her side. That alone was very thankful and gave her great strength. Karina steeled her resolve again. However, contrary to her wishes, her complexion and condition, which had already worsened once, did not improve as much as before.
'I guess there's nothing I can do since I overdid it.'
She had such an obvious thought, but she couldn't help feeling suffocated. Her body felt heavy and limp. She felt like she would collapse if she let her guard down for even a moment.
'No. I have to hold on until I get out of the Cursed Forest. If I fall here, all the hard work I've put into escaping will be meaningless.'
Karina clenched her fist.
'I have to survive here. I didn't come back here to die in vain like this.'
Karina pulled herself together, her will to live burning once again. Then...
Rustling.
"...!"
Karina turned her head in surprise. She heard a rustling sound along with footsteps in the forest.
"Your Highness...?"
Karina asked cautiously. But there was no answer. Instead, the sound grew closer as if something was approaching
***
"Ugh...!"
David's escorts, Levy and Nix, were lost in thought at the sight before their eyes. It wasn't just them. All of the knights Ron, the commander of the Northern Knights, quickly gathered the knights and prepared to go on a search. Then, he fired a few signal flares, saying that he would join the Grand Duke of Colesburg, who continued the search even during the night. When he led them to the place where the Grand Duke's signal flares had been fired, they just thought it was nothing special. However, at some point, a pungent smell of blood and a mountain of monster corpses continued endlessly.
'Could it be... that the Grand Duke of Colesburg alone... could defeat all these monsters?'
At the shocking sight he saw for the first time, he was momentarily confused as to whether this was a dream or reality. The only ones with normal expressions were the Northern Knights. They didn't even change their expressions as if they were so used to it. To be honest, he didn't even need to find the location where the signal flare was fired, he just had to follow the blood trail and the traces of the fight, or rather, the traces of the one-sided slaughter.
'This is the swordsmanship of the Grand Duke of Colesberg, known as the Northern Sword.'
Looking at the corpses of the monsters that had been brutally slaughtered, Levy and Nix felt a secret sense of awe toward Jeremiah as a knight. At the end of the trail, the knights were able to join Jeremiah. Jeremiah was standing in front of a place with countless tall rocky mountains.
"Are you saying that His Highness the Crown Prince is somewhere among those rocks?"
Levy felt a sense of distance and despair creeping in.
"Now... how do I find it here?"
Rondo, the commander of the Northern Knights, spoke with a gloomy expression.
"We have to search through them all, even if it means searching through them all."
Jeremiah spoke with a determined expression. These numerous stones did not seem to be a problem to him at all. Rather, he seemed to be trying to figure out how to inspect all the tall stones in the shortest possible time. However, that was only possible for him, and almost impossible for the other knights.
"..."
The knights' faces darkened as they heard Jeremiah's words. They were told to climb up the rocky mountain and search for them one by one. They might have to risk their lives. However, no one could say they couldn't do it in front of Jeremiah, who was standing there with his sharp blade. The moment they said they couldn't do it, they might die at Jeremiah's hands on the spot. The knights hesitated, not knowing what to do in a situation where they couldn't do anything.
"Ah."
The contact artifact that Levy had was glowing.
"Coordinates have arrived again from His Highness the Crown Prince!"
Levy shouted in an excited and thrilled voice. The knights' expressions brightened at that news as if they had overcome a near-death experience.
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