Former village girl and the Flag Crusher Prince

Chapter 11: Headbutts

Thanks to Kuro, we didn't encounter any savage beasts on the way down the mountain.
I patted my chest in relief when we reached the village, thanking being able to send everyone back home safely.
But the village was in a terrible state because of the attack of the monsters.
Crumbling houses, fields destroyed, bloodstains and broken farm tools scattered everywhere.

I was able to see it from far away because I was riding on Kuro, who is twice a normal adult human height.
In the middle of the fields, there were a few persons, some were trying to collect the things still edibles and some others were trying to arrange the field to cultivate on it again.
Even when we were still far from them, they saw our silhouette and started pointing at us and shouted with all their strength.
Then, from the rubble of the fallen houses and those still standing, started emerging more and more people one after another.
Some of those started running in our direction and in response, the villagers, in special the children that belonged to this village ran to meet their families' arms.

Watching them hug their father, mother, husband and children with tears in their eyes, I was unexpectedly relieved and smiled.

"Lady Azalea!"

I turned around as I heard Mr. Conda calling me, an older man was standing next to him.
As I approached them, Mr. Conda introduced the man next him to me.

"Azalea-sama, thank you so much for what you did today. This is our village-- the chief of Ebone Village, Sir Koume."

"I've heard the story from Mister Konda. Thank you so much for saving our children, Miss Azalea. You and His Royal Highness Lord Lotus are the saviors of this village. It is a poor village, but please at least allow me to offer you hospitality tonight."

The man called Mr. Koume lowered his head, which was already white, to me.

"No, no! Please raise your head"

I said and smiled at Mr. Koume.

"I was only doing my duty as a noblewoman."

"I can't thank you enough."

I looked at his eyes, Mister Koume was polite in both his attitude and language, but his eyes were somehow filled with fear as he looked at me.
It wasn't the fear of talking with someone of higher nobility status, it was something more simple, and violent...

"I appreciate the thought but I've to go"

"Oh, no. We can't leave the benefactor of the village go without doing something for her. Please, at least, let us offer you a cup of tea...."

I was about to shake my head again, but Mr. Conda interjected.

"Miss Azalea... Well, it's not as good as what you guys usually eat, I'm sure, but the pie of Rozuka berries my wife prepares is excellent. Please, would you accept a piece of it?"

Mr. Conda's expression made my conscience ache.
I understood that I should leave early, but I didn't want to spoil the mood of the village.
Defeated I said.
"Well, if it's just cup of tea"

********

As it turns out, the Rokuza's pie prepared by Mister Conda wife was very tasty, indeed.
Oh, my!
I've eaten very delicious treats all my previous and actual life but I can't help but feel delight at the first bite....

The truth is, it was so good I could have eaten it complete, but the kids of the village were looking at the pie and me with obvious envy.
So, I acted like an adult and said.
"It's so good, but I can't eat it all by myself. Can you please help me?"

Giving all the rest of it to the kids, I thought of myself.
I'm an all grown up!
Yes, I'm very proud of myself.

Putting that aside, I was treated to tea at the village chief's house.
Earlier, Mister Conda and his wife had been the ones talking with me, but both of them had been called out by Mister Koume and haven't return yet.

I don't think I stayed long, but it seems like it's been a reasonable amount of time, uhm?
Thinking it's time for me to leave, I watched the sunset through the window and set my teacup over the table again.

It's a small village, but the village chief seems to be making a good living, compared to the other houses and Mister Condas' one...
The house and furnishings, it's hard to believe he's "the chief of a poor village".
As I tilted my head with a sense of discomfort, heard more and more sounds coming from the window.

"What ...uh, Kuro?"

At the window, I saw Kuro tapping on the glass, opened the window and asked the rude dragon what was she doing.

"What is it, what is it?　Do you want me to go back to the castle right now?　I'll be done with my tea soon, so wait until then--"

As soon as I put my head out the window, Kuro took me by the collar of my shirt with her mouth.
Then, with unbelievable force, she pulled me out of the house without making a sound.

"What, hey, it hurts!"

I was thrown out of the window, and I fell on my knees, complaining to Kuro.
But as soon as I stood up, she bit the collar of my shirt again.

"What are you doing? Stop! It hurts!"

But she didn't care about my protests, she was still dragging me by the collar of my shirt and trying to carry me somewhere else.
"All right, all right. Where should we go? Release me and I'll follow you!"

She finally released my shirt's collar then, as if to say, "Look" she indicated forward with her chin.

"...what's over there?"

I was hurried by Kuro as we approached the corner of a house.
Since it was in the opposite direction from the door where I entered, this corner was probably near the back door or the backyard of the village chief's house.
Just as I was wondering if it was something of her imagination, I heard someone talking.

It was Mister Koume.
He seemed to be having a conversation with someone.
I felt bad about eavesdropping, so I turned on my heel, but Kouro poked me on the back and told me to keep hearing.
"Kuro. Stop! What do you want me to do? I cannot understand you!"

In a low voice, I mumbled to Kuro when suddenly heard Mr. Koume words and, chills run down my spine.

"Oh, no! I did what you asked me for! The sacrifice was prepared correctly and you got it!"

I looked back thoughtlessly after hearing the disgusting words coming from him.
He was arguing with someone, but we couldn't see who it was because he was covered by Mr Kouma's back.
I couldn't see the person he was arguing with, but I managed to listen their conversation clearly.

"It's true that you offered the sacrifices, but it's also true that they escaped.
And it was one of your villagers who led that young boy to our base.
Then it's your fault for not managing your villagers as we expected you to."

"However, if you demand me another sacrifices now... the persons will think it's unnatural and there's a secret reason of why the monsters focus so much on kidnapping the women and children of this specific village!"

"I don't care! And another thing that bothers me is, didn't you say earlier that you would take care of disposing of that duke's daughter alone, why are you requesting my help now?!"

"I beg your pardon? I never said that!!"

The voice came from the village chief, so he knew in advance that the monsters were going to attack this village?　
No, in the first place, he was offering them as... a sacrifice!

"Shut up. Do you, a human, dare to argue with me, an ogre?"

Then, the person who was hidden and unseen by the village chief's back started growing and swelling to the point where even I could see him.
It was about the size of a human, but later swelled to more than double, and gripped Mister Koume's head with its giant right hand.

The demon - the ogre - laughed at the screaming village chief, then threw him noisily.

"You will offer us a sacrifice! As a reward, we'll share the gold and silver with you.... My master makes a deal with you and you dare to think you're one of us!"

"Ah, ah... "

"It's too late to ask for forgiveness now..."

A moment later, Kuro flew to him.
Raising dust, ran in a straight line to the ogre with terrifying force.
He hadn't finished raising the weapon on his hand completely to crush Mr. Kouma in the ground, when Kuro bite to the ogre's neck and began to devour him.

I looked away from the blood stained ground and grabbed the village's chief, who was frozen in fear, by his collar.

"Chief! What the *** is going on? You were offering the villagers you were supposed to protect to the demons!"

As I yelled at him for an explanation, Mister Koume began to cry in terror.

"The earl Jeter, was involved in this too? Wasn't he?"

Mr. Koume looked at me and nodded his head.

"My Lord is no longer... a human being."

After seeing them again, I understood.
So, the frightened eyes were not because of me....
Mr. Koume said, turning pale.

"He was turned into a demon - a vampire!"

********.

"C'mon! We cannot go back to the castle! We have to go to join His Highness Lotus! Hey! You have to listen to me!"

I was trying to fly Kuro to the east where earl Jeter's mansion was located.
However, no matter how many times I said it to her, she turned her body towards the west, in direction to the Royal Castle.

She didn't flinch when I tried to push her head to get Kuro to change direction to the east.

I hit and shouted at Kuro.

"Don't you dare! It's almost nighttime! We don't have time! Just do what I say!"

I was impatient as I listened to the village chief's story.

Mr.　Koume said that earl Jeter's starting acting strange since two or three years ago.
There were minor changes, such as not going outside during the day and being unusually reluctant to cross the river to visit his domains.
But, it was six months ago...
When he went to the mansion to plead for a tax cut, he witnessed earl Jeter drinking the blood of his maids, as the damage to the crops caused by the demons was getting worse.
In exchange for saving his life... and receiving money, he escaped death accepting send the village's people as a sacrifice to his goblins army.

That's how he passed on information about the neighboring villages to the ogre we saw earlier and also for capturing the children of his own village too.

"The reason my village was attacked this time was simply because there were no more people in the other villages to sacrifice."

Feeling the blood boiling on my head and ignoring his hypocrite petition of letting him go, I slapped him on the face with all my strength.
After he fainted because of it, the villagers tied him up.
Even so, I decided to explain the whole true only to Mr. Conda and asked him to keep watching the chief until the situation is over.

"If he dare to run away, I'll catch him and beat him to pulp!"

Leaving the matter of Mr. Koume aside for the moment, the problem is His Highness Lotus's safety.

His Highness can defeat an assassin or an ogre on his own.
He can also use force or magic like he did today.

But it's a different story when it comes to vampires.
It is the second strongest of all the existing monsters, second only to the Demon King.
It is said that his skills and magical abilities will be sharper at night.
Moreover, His Highness does not know that earl Jeter has become a vampire.
Even His Highness will be in danger if he is attacked unexpectedly.

I hit Kouro's back, regretting not have followed him, even sneaking behind him if needed.
Still, she only glanced at me condescendingly and didn't make a single move to change of direction.

"Please, Kuro. Fly to His Highness Lotus..."

With my blurred vision, I asked again to Kuro to go find His Highness Lotus, with no result at all.
I rested my forehead against her back, and wet her scales with tears.

"I know... you're nothing but a nuisance, uhm? He probably thinks so too "

I say this not to Kuro, but to myself.

"I'm good at nothing.* sob * * sob * A useless person is a useless person, so it's better not to do anything because you'll ruin everything you do...."

What comes to mind is Mee, a girl from my previous life.
In a palace full of enemies, she was the only friend I could trust.
When she was nearly killed by assassins sent by her political opponents, I tried to defend her without a second thought.
But...
The horrible wounds products of the attack...
The Emperor's decision? Without his favor, she was descended to the status of vassal.
I had heard that she entered the Emperor's court with the expectations of her clan upon her shoulders.
I knew that she was happy being of help for her father and mother.
As a result, the Emperor's decision made her unhappy....

I can still vividly remember the sight of her back as she left the palace with a sad smile on her face and said to me, "Goodbye"
She wasn't the only one.
There were so many things I've failed to protect...
Even, if true I didn't cause it I couldn't stop it from happening and when I tried I did it without thinking enough.

"You're incompetent and stupid, so you should do nothing! I know! I'm aware of that...."

"........but....."

Three months ago, on a spring night. There was someone who needed me.
There was someone holding my hand.

"For the first time in my life, I could ...."

I was happy.
I was on the verge of tears.
If I can do something, even if he doesn't know I did it...
Even if it means leaving him someday.
Until that moment, I want to help him if he needs me.

--So...

I looked up, putting all my strength into my clenched fist.

"I hate myself most of all for being so cowardly and not trying to help the people I care about!"

I slapped her back with all my strength.
You can see that Kuro, who was looking down in disbelief, stiffened his body in surprise.
She moved her neck as she lurched in protest.
Without missing the balance, Kuro's face was lifted and her chin turned upwards looking at me angrily.

"Don't be an asshole and obey me!"

As my last option, I head-butted Kuro.

* Gong! *
The sound of hard objects colliding with each other echoed.
Kuro screamed "Gaa" and I came aware of her hostility, but I didn't flinch and looking at her head again, yelled.

"I told you, your master is dangerous! Now fly!"

Ignoring my aching forehead, I commanded Kuro, who glared at me with killing intent.
But defeated, she glared at my pointing finger to the east.
After a moment, Kuro sighed and turned to the east, flapping her wings.

"Kuro!......"

As I shed tears of gratitude, a grin on appeared on Kuro's face.

"Hmm?　"
And just as I had a bad feeling about that grin of her, Kuro, who had risen to a certain height, began to fly at full speed without any previous signal.

--Well, It's a lot faster than when we were coming here with His Highness Lotus. Spinning in circles and swaying from side to side.

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