To Lydia, the experience of this stretch of time had been like a long, hopeless nightmare.
As the princess of the Kingdom of Chulz, Lydia, from the day she was born, had had the entire Misty Forest calling out her name.
Her noble status had granted her an enviable childhood, and as the years passed, the astonishing beauty inherited from her ancient bloodline gradually blossomed in her.
But all of it came to an abrupt halt on the day of her coming-of-age ceremony.
The kingdom plunged without warning into turmoil and the fires of war. Her uncle launched a coup with no warning at all, and overnight, her homeland was torn apart. Then a band of bounty hunters of unknown origin stormed the royal palace with a single clear objective: to capture her, and her alone.
Mercifully, instinct carried her into a secret passage known only to the royal family. A cold intuition warned her that the moment she fell into those people's hands, something far worse than death would befall her.
For a time after that, she hid her name and identity, leaving the civil-war-stricken country with a merchant caravan from Orario and finally coming to rest in this city hailed as the "center of the world."
But fortune never favors a person forever, even one called the "treasure of the kingdom."
On her second day in Orario, she was abducted in a back alley.
What was more suffocating still, the moment her captor got a clear look at her face, he coolly and decisively resold her to a slave trader.
And now, on the very eve of her sale to the Pleasure Quarter...
The whole city had fallen into war.
This day was also the day her fate took its turn!
...
"Clack."
The cellar's hidden door opened.
Rose and Kureha looked down.
The stone-walled space was unusually tidy, clearly kept with care. But the unspeakable "teaching tools" hanging on the walls cast that tidiness in a shade that sent a chill down the spine.
After taking in the surroundings, the gazes of the two settled at last on the center of the room.
A blonde girl was bound tightly to a chair, the cinched ropes tracing her shapely curves. The black silk blindfold over her eyes lent her a fragile, mysterious kind of beauty instead.
She wore only a thin, daring white gown with a high slit and a deep V neckline, paired with matching lace-trimmed long gloves. Her straight, slender legs, sheathed in sheer white stockings, lay angled to one side, her delicate feet tucked into a pair of white pointed-toe, side-cutout stiletto heels.
From her gagged mouth, faint, broken whimpers escaped with difficulty, trembling under the strain.
"Mm, mmh..."
Rose and Kureha exchanged a glance, then dropped down lightly.
Standing before the princess, the two didn't act at once, but quietly studied the girl in front of them.
Though the princess was blindfolded, her keen senses told her that right now... someone was standing before her, and not anyone she'd sensed before.
She could even feel clearly that the gaze falling on her held none of the clammy, greedy quality that had made her instinctively recoil before. It was more like a calm appraisal, a scrutiny held at a distance.
"Nn... mmh...!"
The princess began to writhe uneasily, trying to struggle.
Rose's red lips curved slightly, her voice soft but clear.
"Lydia Melaelsiorelu Chulz?"
"Mmh..."
"Sorry, I forgot to take this off first."
As she spoke, she reached out and undid the princess's blindfold and ball gag, signaling to Kureha at the same time. The swordswoman stepped up in silent understanding, her blade tracing a light line, and the bindings parted at once.
"Cough, cough... y-you two are...?"
The sudden return of light made Lydia squint. Lucky this was a cellar. Outdoors, her eyes likely couldn't have borne the glare.
After a moment to adjust, she slowly opened her eyes, revealing a pair as clear and beautiful as emeralds.
When this princess's flawless face and soul-stealing eyes were fully revealed, Rose understood at once.
This was a beautiful, holy, worldly-innocent, utterly pure girl.
Truly the treasure of the Kingdom of Chulz.
"Adventurers."
Rose pulled back her gaze, her tone level.
"All right, this isn't the place to talk. Let's get out of here first, and I have some questions for you on the way."
"Th-thank you both for saving me..."
Before she'd finished, Rose had already sprung up first, back into the warehouse. Then Kureha slipped an arm around Lydia's slender waist, bent her knees, and leapt.
Wind rushed past, and the two of them "floated" back up to the level above, light as feathers!
"Eep!"
Lydia let out an involuntary little cry.
As far as she knew, only adventurers who had reached Level 2 or above could leap up two stories' worth of height that easily!
Could it be these two... were both powerhouses at Level 2 or higher?
At that thought, the heartstring that had been pulled taut in Lydia for who knew how long finally eased a little, and her whole body went a touch softer.
Rose glanced back at her, sighing inwardly.
Looks like the original plan, just take the gold coins and hand the person over... isn't going to work.
That womanizer Leon, if he hears what this princess has been through, and then sees a face like hers...
Sigh. He's probably going to bring home another stray for the familia.
Meanwhile, Leon, on his way to reinforce the Astraea Familia, naturally had no idea that Rose, by casually swiping a single underground commission out from under someone, had brought him back a genuine, certified princess.
And neither Leon nor the inwardly exasperated Rose had yet realized...
What this princess possessed went far beyond breathtaking beauty.
The secret hidden deep in her bloodline was the true reason she was called the treasure of the Kingdom of Chulz.
...
Below Babel, the Adventurers' Plaza.
After that round of "deep Baptism" by Leon's blizzard, even with the magic now stopped, the soldiers and believers of Evilus only managed to wrench themselves free of the ice through sheer stubborn willpower. The bone-deep cold had eaten into their bodies and strength, most of their fighting power having melted away along with the ice and snow.
Though the Order Alliance side hadn't been spared either, every one of them receiving this "fair treatment" as well, compared to Evilus's unpredictable "suicide attacks," the blizzard at least bought everyone a precious chance to catch their breath. Through that buffer, the Alliance's combatants were able to regroup and put themselves fully on guard against those crazed enemies.
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