275 - - Art. 275. The Princess Of Japan
"Hot!"
Jumping up, Aujin left me and hid behind Satsuki's back. His body was surprisingly heavy for a child. My legs were going numb by now, so I raised the temperature of my warding.
"You ......"
"Oh, no, I didn't do anything, okay? But it's a bit violent to suddenly turn away a customer who made a reservation. If you do that, the number of customers will decrease. If you're planning to take care of this store forever, that's a different story.
What are you talking about?
"If you have something funny, you should laugh out loud. A snicker is a bad way to laugh. It ruins your beauty. ...... But you are not a person who can laugh at others, are you?"
"What are you talking about, are you crazy?"
The woman is still giving me that same tight, smirking grin. I had already activated my appraisal skill to understand this woman's past. By the way, her skills are like this.
Satsuki (Mage, 21 years old) HP: 121 MP: 295
Fire Magic LV1 Water Magic LV2 Wind Magic LV2 Spatial Magic LV3 Warding LV2 MP Recovery L V2 Winged LV3 Cultivated LV3
These skills are excellent for a 21 year old. He is likely to be a good mage in the future. But she is actually a complex person. In addition to that, she is a lonely person, so being angry or being left out hurts her the most. To avoid such a situation, she has trained herself hard since childhood, but somehow she has turned out to be a proud woman. She believes that her current behavior is right, but in reality, she is disliked by many people. She has become the kind of woman that one can find at school or at work, the kind of woman who just wants to argue with the righteous.
Rico would probably kill such a woman gently in two seconds if I asked him to, but unfortunately, Rico is not here. I have no choice, so I'll do it myself.
"......You say you're good at fire magic, but you're really bad at it, aren't you? When you send a fireball flying, you have to use wind magic at the same time, right?"
The woman's face is frozen. I continue speaking, not letting up.
"...... And you weren't really planning on coming to this Dorky's, were you? But then it hit you. ...... it would be expedient if you could use the power of Doki, the representative of the Kitamachi people, to have him look for the person who kidnapped the princess. Moreover, the princess has expressed her desire to eat at this restaurant, so you are getting your wish, aren't you? I mean, you had a hand in the kidnapping of the princess, didn't you?"
"Nah ...... why ...... no, that's not true! I don't know ...... you!"
The moment the woman stands up, a blue light surrounds me.
"Don't worry, Dawki. I have a customer with an appointment at ......."
With these words, I disappeared from the place.
"...... is surprisingly spacious."
I found myself in a place so vast that I could see the horizon.
"...... you can no longer escape. This is where you will die. Die! Die!"
Voices filled with hatred came out of nowhere. I listen to the voice and activate my magic senses.
"...... as I thought, this spatial magic doesn't seem to be very useful. What's the difference between this and warding magic? I'll have to ask Gon or Hiisama once."
I lean forward, muttering to myself.
"What?
I hear a woman's voice behind me. I slowly turn around, and there is Hagi, the woman who captured me yesterday, with her sword drawn and her eyes wide open, frozen.
"Hagi! Kill him! Kill them! Then I will forgive your blunders! Do it! Do it!
"...... Lady Satsuki, who is this man?"
Hagee mutters to me as he holds up his sword. It seems that he is quite upset because his opponent, who had his back perfectly turned, has lost his sword. Her swordsmanship is not bad, but thanks to my presence detection and magic detection, I can see her movements easily.
"...... Hm? You, you can't be the one from yesterday!
"Ah!"
Without letting him say a word until the end, I unleashed a shockwave using wind magic. Hagee defended himself with his sword, but I was unleashing three shockwaves at the same time. He was able to defend against the first one, but was hit by the second and third at the same time, and his body was blown far away.
"Gghhh ...... gghhhh!"
"He won't be able to move for a while. You should sleep peacefully."
I move closer to Hāgi. Then her body becomes transparent and she disappears.
"...... I see. Because it would be bad if this woman hears me. I guess so. After all, it would be a big problem if she finds out about the kidnapping you've planned.
I mutter with a grin. I expect Satsuki to say something, but I don't hear her voice, and all I see is a huge open space around me.
"Well, ......, we should get out of this space soon."
"Hmph, hmph, hmph. ....... You will never leave this space. I commend you for defeating Hagee. But that wind magic is level 3, isn't it? That level of skill will not get you out of here."
"I guess so. But how about this?"
I manipulate water magic to lower the temperature in this space. I use the Absolute Zero water magic level 5. As I look at the space, the inside of the space freezes.
"......Tsuki......Tsuki! Satsky! Satsky!"
For a moment, my eyes went blank, and then I noticed that Satsuki was in front of me, her lower body and hands frozen, and Hagi was beside her, trying to move but unable to do so. And the little princess was moving around, frantically calling Satsuki's name.
"Too bad. Your spatial magic may be able to contain its power up to lvl. 3, but it seems to be impossible to do so for skills higher than that."
"Hiii! Hi! Hi! Hi! My arm! My leg! My leg!"
With a terrible look on her face, the woman desperately tries to move her iced-over body. However, ice made by water magic level 5 does not melt so easily. At that moment, the princess, who had been in a panic, changed her expression and approached me.
"You! Help Satsuki right away!"
"What?"
If you don't listen to Kochi, this place will go out of business!
"What do you mean?"
Satsuki and Hagi are not the only servants of Kochi. There are many servants. If Kochi commands it, the lives of this store and Doki are at stake. ...... What? What? What are you doing!"
I silently held the princess up in my arms. Then I swung my right hand and slammed it down on her little ass with great force.
Paaan, paaan, paaan!
"Giaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
A desperate scream echoed through the room. I had set up a ward in advance so that no one would hear the sound, just in case something like this happened.
"I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I ~~~~~"
The princess was thrown away from me, spun around and fell on her bottom on the floor. She immediately got up and stared at me with tearful eyes while holding her bottom. Watching her, Chi-wan rushed to my side and opened his mouth.
"Mr. Linos, ....... You are trembling. Isn't that a bit much ......?"
"No, it's okay, Zhuang. He's f*cking with me. A child who f*cks with me has to be beaten as hard as he can."
The princess's voice trembled as she spoke these words, and she began to speak rapidly.
"Yu-yu-yu, I won't forgive you. ....... Kochi, Kochi ...... will not tolerate ...... this kind of ...... capture them all ...... They all ...... hurt, they all hurt ...... my ass ...... ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!"
Oh, shut up! What a volume you still have, even for a kid! The noise was so loud that I put up a ward against all sound in Auzin.
"Mr. Rinos, Mr. Rinos, please run away! Mr. Zhuang, once ......"
Dorky is opening his mouth with a shudder. I open my mouth without letting him tell everyone.
"The real culprit behind this princess's kidnapping is someone else. Satsuki here is only helping them. I'm about to be framed as the kidnapper. I'd punish her myself, but unfortunately, this is not my country. ......Where should I hand him over to?"
"Um, ...... um, ......"
"What is it, Dawki?"
"In Satsuki-sama's case, it will be the ...... emperor."
"What? The king himself?"
"Yes. ....... Since the last war, the townspeople have been taking care of disputes and troubles in the town, and the emperor is in charge of the nobles' affairs. In Satsuki-sama's case, it is the Kwanpak family, so he is the ...... emperor."
"Then let's take him to the emperor. How can we do that?
"The first thing to do is to inform the palace of this and ask the OWARA people who guard the palace to come and pick you up. I understand. I'll close the store and go to the palace myself.
"Oh, no, you already have a customer with a reservation, don't you? If you suddenly ask them to leave while they are eating, they will indeed get angry, won't they? The restaurant finishes at ...... in the evening? Okay. Doki, when you're done, we'll go to the palace. Take me with you."
"What?"
"This Satsuki woman's got some crazy ideas, but that's okay. I'm sure we'll have to talk to her about it, and more importantly, won't things get lost in the shuffle if Doki's alone?
"I don't think that's true only for the emperor. ....... I think it would be better if you came with us, Rinos-sama. Yes, I think it would be better if you come with us, Mr. Rinos. I will contact the emperor. I'm really, really sorry, Linos-sama.
"It's okay. Don't apologize so much. You're making it sound like it's my fault.
I look at the woman whose lower half is on ice with a smirk on my face. She looks at me with hatred and continues to tremble.
"You were going to go after the princess, weren't you, while you let her be kidnapped and put the blame on your guards? But it's just bad luck that you ran into me at a time like that. The plan failed, but it seems that he was trying to cover up the matter by ordering me to find the culprit, but unfortunately for him, too.
As I spoke, Satsuki looked away, still trembling. Then the Princess stared at Satsuki with a surprised expression on her face.