Chapter 2

Really, I have the worst luck.

I can’t help but think I’m cursed.

Interrupting my thoughts are the numerous roars of monsters coming from outside the carriage. As we progressed through the border forest, we gradually became surrounded by an increasing number of monsters.

I can hear the knights outside, their voices trembling with unease.

Even I, a layman, can tell that this is an irregular and utterly hopeless situation.

Resigned, I stepped out of the carriage. The number of monsters gathered is even more than I expected, and fear makes my legs wobble, but I force myself to take a step forward.

Fortunately, the monsters and our holy beasts are still sizing each other up, and the battle hasn’t started yet.

“H-Hime-sama! Please get back in the carriage!!”

“Even if I go back, I’ll just die, right?”

As I respond to the knight, I assess the situation on the ground.

—Ten knights, ten holy beasts, plus me. Maybe we can make it.

Even without a contract with a holy beast, I can use a certain level of magic. And as a member of the royal family, I carry a special magical artifact that can contain the power of a holy beast, just in case of emergencies.

Using this, I can teleport the people here outside the forest.

But there’s only one chance. If I miss it, there’s no other way.

It’s probably impossible for the knights here to teleport. I think I can do it for myself, but I can’t teleport others. I didn’t think they, as knights, could do such a thing.

“Everyone! Get a little closer, we’re about to teleport out of the forest!”

“““Yes, Hime-sama!”””

They keep their swords pointed at the monsters while slowly retreating.

Once everyone is within the range of the magic circle, I activate the magic—

“Gaaah!!!”

“...Huh?”

My body floats in the air.

Then, with a *poom*, my body is flung into a tree away from the carriage.

“Kah...!”

It hurts. It hurts, it hurts, it hurts.

My mind is overwhelmed by a pain I’ve never felt before. But the sight before my eyes makes the pain vanish in an instant.

—There, the symbol of calamity, a dragon with pitch-black scales, is flapping its wings above us.

The dragon had pinpointed me and sent me flying with its long tail—

—outside the magic circle.

The magic has already been activated. My remaining options are to continue the spell and teleport everyone else out of the forest, or to interrupt the spell and take everyone down with me. If the spell is interrupted, it can’t be reactivated.

I couldn’t choose the latter.

The voice calling out “Hime-sama!” trails off. It seems everyone has successfully teleported.

Left behind are the numerous monsters and the dragon looking down at me from above.

Scary. So scary.

Before I can even think of running, the dragon’s sharp claws tear into me.

I feel my blood flowing out, *drip drip*.

At that moment, my mind is filled with only fear, pain, and the desperate desire to live.

The blood, a mix of many noble lineages, spreads around me.

As my consciousness began to fade from the pain and blood loss, I think that’s when it awakened.

—The ancient blood within me.