Chapter 747

Bear-san meets Princess Honoka

The princess appeared before us and we introduced ourselves to each other.

She was the same age as me, or a little older.

Her long hair reached her waist.

Her appearance was a mixture of beautiful and pretty.

I could not believe she had the King’s blood in her.

I am certain she resembled her mother.

And I was glad she didn’t resemble that King.

“So you are the light of hope Sakura was talking about.” (Honoka)

Light of hope, I have not heard that in a while.

There was something embarrassing about being told that by someone I didn’t know.

“Um, well, you know me?” (Yuna)

“A gag order had been given, so the public had not heard about you, but that excluded me, so I do know you.” (Honoka)

It was not surprising that the princess of this country knew a little bit about me.

“For saving my country. Thank you, and also for saving Sakura. Sakura is like a sister to me, and I can’t thank you enough for that.” (Honoka)

“Honoka-sama…” (Sakura)

Princess Honoka looked at Sakura with a smile.

Sakura seemed happy to hear Princess Honoka’s words.

“Well, do you believe in my dream?” (Sakura)

“Father may joke sometimes, but I don’t think he would lie about something so important. I have seen Father and Sakura distressed when they learned about the signs of the serpent’s resurrection.” (Honoka)

Princess Honoka turned her gaze toward Sakura.

She was Sakura’s cousin and a princess, so she would probably know about Sakura’s prophetic dreams.

In other words, she knew about the prophecy that is derived from her dreams and the whole episode of light of hope that would appear.

And from what she had said earlier, it seemed that she also knew that I was that light of hope.

“At first, I was skeptical about the story of a girl dressed as a bear saving our country, but I also had the opportunity to watch your earlier match with Shinobu and Jubei. After seeing that, I don’t think anyone would doubt what you are capable of accomplishing.” (Honoka)

“I am sorry to have shown you my embarrassing side.” (Jubei)

Jubei-san apologized.

He was unaware that Princess Honoka had witnessed his match with Yuna.

If Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear had been around, they might have noticed that someone was nearby, but they were unsummoned because I was afraid that servants and workers at the castle might make a fuss if I brought them to the castle.

“But then again, you are really dressed as a bear.” (Honoka)

Princess Honoka looked at me and smiled.

It was not a wry smile.

“Father said that you are a girl dressed as a bear, so I was surprised at how cute you look.” (Honoka)

“I thought so too when I first saw Yuna.” (Sakura)

“That outfit is one of the reasons why I had to fight with Yuna when we first met.” (Jubei)

“Is that so?” (Noa)

Noa, who was listening to the conversation, asked in interjection.

“You know that Yuna saved our country, right?” (Jubei)

Noa and the others nodded.

“The noble ranks, who didn’t believe that Yuna was really the light of hope because of her outfit, sent me to fight her to find out what she was capable of.” (Jubei)

At that time, I was tricked into fighting Jubei-san as Shinobu’s parent’s avenger.

“The result of that fight was…” (Honoka)

“As you can guess, I lost the previous fight as Yuna blocked my signature move, the three-stage thrust. So this time, I even used a side-strike to counter Yuna, but even that was also blocked. I don’t even know the limit of her strength.” (Jubei)

“But I used magic to block it.” (Yuna)

“That doesn’t matter. The fact that it was blocked is what matters.” (Jubei)

“I didn’t know that was possible.” (Honoka)

Sighing, Princess Honoka said.

“So, why are you here, Honoka-sama? I thought there was a notice that no one was to go near the girls.” (Jubei)

Really?

Well, I did somewhat notice it.

No one approached us, and when they saw us, they seemed to bow their heads and moved away.

I thought it was because Sakura and Shinobu were present, but I was wrong.

“I have not been told directly that I couldn’t interact with them, although I have heard about it from the servants. In other words, there should be no problem for me to meet them.” (Honoka)

“I’m sure Uncle didn’t tell you on purpose.” (Sakura)

“It was intentional.” (Shinobu)

“As expected.” (Jubei)

Sakura, Shinobu, Jubei-san, and the other residents of the Land of Wa seemed to understand what was going on.

“What do you mean?” (Yuna)

“Perhaps, the King wanted Yuna-sama and Honoka-sama to meet coincidentally.” (Sakura)

Sakura spoke her imagination.

“Why go through all that trouble? Why not just introduce us normally?” (Yuna)

“Yuna-sama is on a tour of our country right now. But if we are to officially have you meet the princess of this country, you might be subjected to various things from other places, you know?” (Sakura)

“…?” (Yuna)

I had no idea what that meant.

“In other words, there are some people who know about Yuna’s identity and would demand to meet you, but the King is actively stopping them from being able to do so. And if the King himself were to allow his daughter to meet Yuna, those people would say that it was unfair and would complain.” (Sakura)

“Are there people who want to see me?” (Yuna)

“What, you don’t realize this? Yuna is a hero who saved our country. Everyone would like to make ties with you.” (Honoka)

“Yes, I agree. Many would even want to marry their own sons…” (Sakura)

Sakura said something scary.

I don’t want to hear the word “marriage” uttered from a 10-year-old girl’s mouth.

“No, Yuna-san will never get married!” (Noa)

Noa hugged me.

Then Misa, Fina, and even Shuri grabbed my hands.

“No, no, I’m not getting married.” (Yuna)

I am only 15 years old.

I didn’t know about this world, but no Japanese person would think about marriage at the age of 15. Well, there might be girls who think about marriage if they have a boyfriend or something. But I doubt it was common.

“Really?” (Noa)

“Yes, I’m sure.” (Yuna)

I put my hand on Noa and the others’ heads and pat them.

“Hmm, they are very kind girls, aren’t they?” (Honoka)

Princess Honoka looked at Noa and the others and smiled.

“Don’t worry. That’s why the King has forbidden anyone to approach Yuna by royal order.” (Jubei)

“My Uncle won’t do anything that Yuna-sama doesn’t like.” (Sakura)

“I didn’t think Father would be that considerate, but the situation shows that he is concerned about your welfare.” (Honoka)

Maybe I pushed him too hard yesterday.

Well, it was a gratifying concern, and I appreciate it.

If all sorts of people came to meet me, it would definitely be too depressing to tour the castle.

I might have gone berserk and unleashed some magic.

“Well, perhaps Yuna might have just gotten angry and decided to destroy the castle.” (Shinobu)

“Shinobu, that’s…” (Sakura)

“Yeah, I suppose that’s possible.” (Yuna)

Sakura tried to deny it, but I affirmed it, causing everyone to look at me with dismay.

I doubt I would have seriously destroyed the castle with magic, but I might have at least built a cage to lock up important people.

“So you’re saying that the King wanted her to meet me?” (Yuna)

“I think so.” (Honoka)

“I think Honoka-neesama is likely to come to see Yuna if she hears the word ‘bear’. Besides, since I am with Yuna, Honoka-neesama can say that she came to see me.” (Sakura)

“But why would the King want her to meet me?” (Yuna)

“I don’t think there is any profound meaning. I think he just wanted Honoka-neesama to get along well with you.” (Sakura)

“Also, I think he wanted Honoka-sama to get to know Yuna, not just as the princess of this country.” (Jubei)

Somehow, I see the point.

But what about other children?

“Well, does the King have any other children?” (Yuna)

“I have an older brother, but he is not at the castle, as he is studying to become the next King, and is currently working as an acting lord in another fiefdom.” (Honoka)

Was that why he let me meet Princess Honoka instead?

“If my brother was in the castle, he would probably have met you to thank you. He told me that when the serpent was resurrected, the surrounding towns were also affected, and he was busy dealing with the increased activity of monsters. However, because of your quick defeat of the giant serpent, the pandemonium had calmed down, the residents of the towns were saved, and the damage to the soldiers was kept to a minimum. If there had been a prolonged situation, the damage would have been greater.” (Honoka)

The King did claim that monsters had begun to amass and converge on the island where the giant serpent had once been sealed.

“Yuna, thank you on behalf of my brother. And thank you again from me. Thank you for saving this country.” (Honoka)

Princess Honoka bowed her head.

“I’ve said it many times. Don’t worry, I was just saving a crying girl.” (Yuna)

I turned my attention back to Sakura.

“Yuna-sama…” (Sakura)

Sakura looked happy.

“So why were Shinobu and Jubei having a match with Yuna when they were supposed to be touring the castle?” (Honoka)

Shinobu and Jubei-san explained why they were having a match.

“What are you doing to our guests?” (Honoka)

Upon hearing the story, Princess Honoka looked at Shinobu and Jubei-san with a dumbfounded expression on her face.

Indeed, I wondered what they were thinking.

From Princess Honoka’s point of view, it might look like they were testing their skills against the person who saved their country.

“I’m sorry, I did set up the fight for Shinobu, but I was hoping to have a rematch with Yuna as well.” (Jubei)

Jubei-san looked disappointed as he said so.

“I was so depressed after losing that I prepared some techniques to counter Yuna.” (Jubei)

So he really wanted to test that four-stage attack on me.

Well, I couldn’t help but wonder how Jubei-san felt.

Whenever anyone learned a new magic or technique, they would want to try it out.

The only thing I hated was that I was the opponent.

But….

“Princess Honoka, don’t be too angry. It was fun for me too.” (Yuna)

I was not lying.

It had been a long time since I’d had a fun battle, that’s for sure.

I’ve been so busy with unreasonable things lately.

“Well, if it’s okay with Yuna, it’s fine. If Father finds out about it and gets angry, I don’t know what I’m going to do.” (Honoka)

“No one else is here, so as long as everyone here keeps quiet, it should be fine.” (Yuna)

“That’s why you chose this time, isn’t it?” (Honoka)

“I can’t let the soldiers see Yuna’s fight.” (Jubei)

“That’s a lie. Master, you just didn’t want your men to see you lose, did you?” (Shinobu)

“Is that so?” (Honoka)

“I don’t want them to know about Yuna’s secret…” (Jubei)

“That’s a lie.” (Shinobu)

Shinobu cut in again.

“That’s fine, but I can also understand what he is saying. If it became known that I was the one who defeated the giant serpent, there would be a big fuss. The same could be said if many people witnessed me win against him.” (Yuna)

“That’s right. If they saw you beat the Master, it would be a big deal, wouldn’t it?” (Shinobu)

“That’s why.” (Jubei)

“That doesn’t mean you can have a match with Father’s guest.” (Honoka)

Princess Honoka said something very obvious.

“I am sorry.” (Jubei)

Jubei-san apologized again.

“But you did show something good, so I won’t tell Father. If I had not seen Yuna’s match against Shinobu and Jubei, I would have remained half-convinced about what to tell Father.” (Honoka)

“Honoka-sama…” (Jubei)

“If I had remained skeptical, I might have said or done something disrespectful to Yuna, someone who saved our country.” (Honoka)

Well, it could not be helped. After all, anyone would think it would be a big joke to tell when told that a girl dressed as a bear had defeated a giant serpent.

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Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep