Her voice lost, stifled by misunderstanding, Ragnor stammers: "Why, Melanie? Why? I thought you were kidnapped... Why are you the one leading these beast-men? What could have happened?"
Suddenly, Ren interjects, speaking in a provocative and biting tone: "Wow, Mr. Grumpy is about to cry. How pathetic."
In a jerky, strangled voice, Ragnor screams: "Shut up, Ren! This isn't the time to annoy me!"
I'm fed up with watching Ragnor and Ren argue without saying anything... While we're supposed to be a team, all they do is fight. So, for the first time, I lose my cool. In a sharp, exasperated tone, I yell: "Stop arguing like children. What am I saying, children are more mature than you. You're certainly powerful and strong, but you cruelly lack maturity." After saying that, I calmed down immediately (it feels good to scream), but suddenly I realize what I said. I realize the weight of my words. I yelled at Ren and Ragnor. REN AND RAGNOR!!!! Oh no. They're going to get angry. I started trembling with fear. How will they react? Ragnor, for his part, remains silent and lowers his eyes to the ground. He is ashamed. Ren prepares to say something, but the princess intervenes and says: "Have you finished your circus? May I take the floor?"
Ragnor, Ren, and I gave a simple nod. Melanie speaks again and says: "Well Ragnor, since we've known each other for a long time, I'm going to try to answer your four questions." Ren says in a bored voice: "Oh no, not a melodramatic flashback. Give us a simple summary." The wolf next to Melanie replies: "Shut up, cat." Ren, offended, says: "I am no mere cat, you stupid wolf. I am handsome, intelligent, powerful, and if I wanted to, I could destroy this forest!" The wolf quips: "Then why haven't you done it already?" Ren replies: "Because crushing insects is boring and I'm lazy." Melanie says: "Stop. Let me finally speak!"
3 months before the arrival of Ren and Yuta (Melanie's POV)
Before your arrival, my relationship with my mother became increasingly cold. She wanted to mold me in her image so that I would be a second version of her and the heir to the throne.
Me: "Mom, why do I have to wear this dress when I don't like it?"
Elena replied: "Because I wore this dress at your age, it was my favorite."
I replied: "But I am not you."
Elena: "You are my daughter, therefore you are me, no discussion."
I got angry and so I went to my room and slammed the door. Elena arrived in front of my door, knocked, and exclaimed in an angry tone: "Open this door, young lady. That's an order." I didn't answer. She was annoyed: "Fine. Since you want to stay locked up so much, I will grant your wish. You are forbidden from going out for the day." Suddenly, she used her power, Dimensional Prison (the room was cut off from the outside world).
1 day later.
She let me out of her prison and said: "I hope you've learned your lesson."
I decided to play along: "Sorry, Mother, for my insolence yesterday. In truth, this dress is cute."
Elena was happy and said: "Finally, you've understood the lesson!"
Day after day, I lied to my mother. I felt bad, but it was the only way.
One day, the king of the beast-men (a lion named King) came to visit my mother for a political negotiation. After he discussed with my mother, I crossed paths with King privately in a hallway by chance. He stopped and said: "You are truly beautiful." I tried to ignore him because my mother was xenophobic (she calls beast-men vulgar barbarians), so if she saw me with him, I was finished. I was about to leave when suddenly he stopped me by the arm. Just as I was about to scream, I suddenly had an idea. I could manipulate King to help me get out of this hell. Since he seemed to be attracted by my beauty. Bingo. Sorry King, but I'm going to manipulate you.
King's POV
If I marry this girl, Elena will be forced to treat me as a son-in-law and she will accept all my requests. Haha.
Me: "Wait, please. I find you truly beautiful and I think we can get along well—will you marry me?"
She replied: "I accept, but in exchange, you help me leave this village without telling my mother. It must be a secret."
What!? She wanted to run away. But, but that went against my plan. What was I supposed to do?
Melanie's POV
Why did he look so confused, as if I had spoiled something? After a few seconds of silence, King said: "Tell me first, why do you want to run away?"
I replied: "It's none of your business. Do you agree to help me, yes or no?"
Suddenly King laughed and said: "You're manipulating me, aren't you? If you truly loved me, you would have agreed to marry me without conditions."
Me: "I remind you that we met barely an hour ago."
King chuckled: "You're right. Fine, I agreed to help you because you truly impressed me. My initial plan fell through a bit, but who cares. I will help you. But after having helped you, I want you to reveal crucial or sensitive information and details about the elven village to me."
Me: "Okay. Deal. Anyway, I don't care about this tribe."
King added: "I will send a henchman named Nox (the wolf) to come get you at night."
I nodded and we shook hands. After that, each went in their own direction.
Night
I was in my room waiting for this Nox to arrive. I wondered how he was going to manage to get me out of here alone? Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. I opened it and it was an elf guard. The guard exclaimed: "Are you Princess Melanie?" I was surprised by his question; normally all the elves knew me. Suddenly he added: "I am Nox. I have come to get you."
I said, surprised: "Why do you have the appearance of an elf?"
He replied: "I used a Metamorphosis Potion that lasts 30 minutes." He pulled a vial out of his pocket and said: "Drink this." I took the vial and I drank it. And it transformed me into a mouse. (Nox, I hate you). He picked me up and put me in his pocket.
We managed to get out of the village and we were in a forest (not the Black Forest, another one). Nox regained his wolf appearance and I regained my original body. Nox said: "We wait here. Another beast-man will come to pick us up on horseback." After a few minutes of waiting, a dog came on horseback. Dog: "Get on." We got on.
The trip lasted 6 hours. Twice as fast as on foot.
6 hours later.
We arrived in the Black Forest. Nox took me to King's room. He knocked and said: "King. Melanie, the elven princess, has arrived."
King replied: "Come in."
Nox and I entered. King, without waiting, said: "Now, reveal the info to me."
This lion was rude. Maybe Mom was right. Beast-men are vulgar. But well, a deal was a deal. I decided to reveal everything I knew. After having revealed everything, Nox took me to a bedroom. Nox: "From today on, this is your room." After those words, he left.
The next day in the elven village. Elena's POV
I was in my office working. I had tons of documents. Suddenly a servant arrived running and cried out: "Majesty, the princess has disappeared!"
I slowly put down my pen and I forced a smile: "You're joking, I hope?!"
The servant replied with a trembling voice: "No... Majesty."
I tried to hide my anger and said: "Okay, okay. You can leave, please, I need a moment to myself."
Servant: "Yes, Majesty."
The servant left my office and went away. I began to think and I reached a conclusion. There were two options: either she had run away, or she had been kidnapped. I chose the kidnapped option. But she had been kidnapped by whom, when, and how?
I called the servant back and said: "You and I are going to play detective, but do not tell anyone in the kingdom that Melanie has disappeared. Say that she is sick and confined to her room. Understood?"
Servant: "Yes, Majesty!"
We started searching for clues and asking questions to the guards and servants about the last person Melanie had spoken to yesterday. They found the question strange and asked: "Why, what happened?"
I replied calmly: "Because she suddenly fell ill. Maybe she was contaminated by a person. I want to find that person to confine them. That way, he/she won't contaminate anyone else."
The lie worked. They believed the lie so easily. How stupid they were, but their idiocy was useful. Suddenly, a servant revealed that when he had passed through the corridor yesterday, he had seen King and Melanie talking. He said he hadn't listened to the conversation because it's rude. Damn. If he had listened to the conversation, we would have moved faster.
I decided to hire a beast-man mercenary (a tiger) who secretly disliked King. Me: "I have a proposal. You capture King and you bring him to my office; in exchange, I pay you 100 gold coins per week."
Tiger replied with an excited voice: "I accept!"
Tiger's POV
Now I had to think about how to capture this king. 400 gold coins a month. That makes 4,800 gold coins a year. I had to succeed in this mission.
I arrived in the Black Forest. It was night. I decided to go to King's bedroom. But the problem was there were guards patrolling everywhere. How annoying. I took a pill and I ate it. This pill created 5 clones of me. I said to the clones: "You take care of the guards and I'll take care of King." The clones nodded and executed the plan. I searched for where King's room was, but nothing; I got lost several times. Why was his palace so damn big?! Okay, I had a plan: I wanted to go through the walls by destroying them. It was going to make noise, but who cared. Just as I was about to destroy a wall, I stopped. No, this plan was too stupid. I opened my hologram to see my stats:
[STATUS]
• Name: Kuma
• Title: Most powerful mercenary of his generation
[STATS]
• Physique: 75
• Mana: 20
• Max Speed: 35
[Ability]
• Absolute Vision: Can see through any material. But if you use this too long, you'll get a severe migraine.
Kuma smiled and said: "Oh yes, that's right. I have this magic. It's been so long since I last used it (I concentrated on hand-to-hand combat) that I had forgotten it existed." I activated my magic and thanks to that, I found the King's room easily and I placed a bomb in front of the door (who said it would be a fair fight?). I moved away and the bomb exploded. BOOM. Suddenly, I remembered that I was supposed to capture the king and not kill him. Oh shit. My pay. Goodbye, my 4,800 gold coins. Well, whatever, I just had to steal this King's treasure and get out of there. I reactivated my magic to locate the treasures. I arrived in the treasure room. I stole as much as I could and then I left.
Melanie's POV (After Kuma's departure)
Nox and I ran to King's room after the explosion. We found him under the rubble in agony. Covered in blood. King said, breathless: "I have... one... last... wish. Melanie... become the leader of my people... Nox... take... care... of Melanie... please." After that, King closed his eyes and died.
Present Moment
Me: "Now you know everything. I'm going to ask you a question: do you want to help me dethrone Elena and unify the beast-men and elves?"