Nateaser: Reborn As My Love Interest

Cath - Ch. 108

"Aoi Sama, only two scouts returned."

The blue-robed princess waved the veteran gladiator's report off and wouldn't take her eyes off Elizabeth, except when I felt her hostile glances burning holes into my skin instead. Things didn't go as planned, but she was still more occupied with us than the mission.

"How are you, your Highness?" I asked the Princess who thrashed all night in our makeshift camp. It was hard to call it a camp in the first place, but difficult to say night as well, when the sun never set in this strange place. There was no sun at all, just the permanently purple sky.

"Tired, Cath." She answered simply, swimming in her sweat. "I had nightmares after nightmares when I could even sleep."

"It's hard to fall asleep when it never gets dark and the air is filled with strange creature's cries." I nodded, trying to comfort her, but I knew that her main issue was the goddess that occupied her mind.

The undersized uncomfortable sleeping bags probably didn't help either. All my joints hurt after a night on the cliff and I didn't feel rested. Like an old man, even though I got used to camp out with the other knights, or the Princess in the last months.

But it was different when I couldn't trust the penal squad with the guarding duties, or the blue-robed princess and her gladiators. Most of the time, we watched each other's backs instead of our surroundings.

Everyone seemed tense and tired. I don't know how the Sea People planned to integrate all the different races with force when nobody trusted their comrades, and I could have sworn, our numbers kept shrinking even without sustaining losses in a fight.

"Geddu wants me to trust her, but I can barely keep her in check. Do you think some kind of magic could help me with this?" The Princess asked, and no matter how bad I felt for her, the answer eluded me. Besides, the wizards didn't return since yesterday. Only two scouts did, and the blue-robed royalty made the mistake of sending out her best troops.

Or at the very least, the most loyal ones. Only a few tired veterans from the arena remained, and a dozen foreigners were forced to serve in the penal squad. They also keep their eyes on the two princesses and me, rather than looking out for the dangers.

"I don't know how we could ask for help, your Highness." I shook my head, glancing at the people slowly packing up the camp.

I was sure they'd try to run away or even stab us in the back the first chance they would get, and given how things turned out so far, that chance was already here. Aoi was either completely blind to the situation or confident enough to ignore it and focus only on us.

But she was the last person that would aid Elizabeth. It was written all over her face. I doubted that she ever considered letting us go in the first place, but once it became clear that Gadurien attempted to possess my companion, she acted even more hostile towards her.

It's not like we begged her to send us into the dungeon, and she decided to join this team at the last second. But it seemed like she considered the Princess the biggest threat. Or rather, Gadurien who could wrestle control from Elizabeth at any moment and use her body to wipe us all out. Yes, this seemed likely, but I trusted the Last Princess to hold on to her body longer.

"All right, send out a pair of scouts this time, and make sure they avoid danger and cover each other's backs." The blue-robed leader gave her orders, turning towards the rest of us next. "We will set out in an hour whether they returned or not, and follow the wizard's tracks."

"Did you receive telepathic messages from them?" I asked curiously, hoping she had an actual plan, but she shook her head.

"Nothing since we set up camp, but I can still detect their mana," Aoi explained and pointed in a seemingly random direction. "They left that way after the fairies, and about five miles ahead I detected a strong concentration of mana. They probably went too far ahead and set up camp for the night instead of returning."