“Hoo-hah!” The king, still under his status effect (likely berserk) and in top form, sliced clean through a monster that came flying at him.
“Ah... The demongas... He cut them into pieces... Think of all the gloves they could’ve made...”
“Let it go, William. It’s way better than the king attacking us or his allies again.” The king made his way deeper into the forest at an alarming speed, killing monsters all the way. George and William had finally managed to catch up to him, with utterly dejected expressions. They were never playing babysitter for the king again.
“Er... Yeah, sorry about all this...” Prince Edward said, sheepishly. The prince hadn’t been splashed in as much monster blood as the king, so he’d come down from his madness already.
“You shouldn’t apologize so easily, Your Highness.” Arthur, who had also come down at the same time, chided the prince.
“I mean, I understand that, but...” Looking at how his father was screaming “hoo-hah” and slaughtering monsters to and fro, apologies were about all he could offer.
“I guess I understand why he’d want to cut loose.” Seeing how crazy he was getting, it really only could be because he was letting out all his pent-up stress from the social season. The social season, when elites from all the other countries would gather in the kingdom, was the only time that the queen told him to fully focus on his government duties rather than any of his usual frivolities. He couldn’t train with the knights, do any of his morning strength training, and was even banned from his routine jog around the castle. To make matters worse...
“None of the envoys or merchants from the Western Empire have ever been all that polite before, but he’d just grin and bear it for the cotton they’d give us. But this year, they couldn’t even provide any good quality cotton.”
He’d been cut off from his beloved sword practice for social reasons. He’d been forced to forgo overseeing the knights so he could get cotton. And at the end of the day, he’d had absolutely nothing to show for it. It was understandable he’d be dying of stress. But then, even after the social season had ended, the nobles were all riled up and demanding he do something because there was so little cotton. What’s more, the whole issue with the supposedly illegitimate child had the queen furious with him, and his concubine (who was meant to be his comfort in trying times) wouldn’t even look his way. When it rained, it poured for the poor man. Arthur couldn’t help but feel sorry for him.
“Whoa there!” George suddenly shot his hand out to catch something near the side of Prince Edward’s face, as the prince was sadly looking toward his father. “You two need to be careful. We’re only a few hundred meters from the barrier, so there are bound to be plenty of monsters around.” In his hand, George was clutching a squirrel-looking creature around twenty centimeters in size—the very same monsters the king had been cutting down.
“S-Sorry.”
Squeeeeak! In George’s grip, the monster was stretching its tiny little hands out toward the prince with all its might.
“It’s so cute...” The tiny fluffy demonga, with its watery eyes and adorable squeaks, seemed more like a pet than a monster.
“Hold up! Don’t get any closer, Your Highness! I know they look cute, but these little guys are after your eyes! You’ll be left with nothing but sockets if you let your guard down around them!” William yanked the prince’s sleeve back as the prince tried to get a closer look. Just then, the creature opened its mouth wide, showing terrifyingly sharp fangs from cheek to cheek. There was no teary-eyed creature to be seen any longer.
“Whoa!”
Squeak! Squeeeeeak! The creature squirmed about in George’s hand, as if it were screaming to get its hands on the prince’s eyes.
“No matter how cute a monster is, you can’t try to coddle them. If you think they’re just scared and try to show you’re not a threat, they’ll eat your eyes right then and there.” George said as he twisted the creature’s neck. Professional hunters would always break demonga’s necks to keep from damaging their fur as much as possible. None of them would cut them in half like the king had. “See? Just look at all the hunters’ expressions. They’re all on edge. Nobody ever comes out this far, after all...”
It wasn’t just the hunters who were nervous; George and William felt the same way. Coming all the way out into the forest without their father, uncle, cats, or spider was completely beyond their expectations. They were very worried about how much fighting they could handle at this rate.
“Man... If only Emma were here.” After all, if Emma had come, Kongming would likely have come along too. Just as George was lamenting this, he heard the grass part behind him.
“Hmm? You rang, George?”
“Mrowr?”
“Yeah, I was just thinking if only Emma and Kongming were here... Wait, huh?! Emma?!” Emma and Kongming had appeared right then, as if waiting for the perfect time to make an entrance.
“Hee hee! It’s like, call me, beep me, if you wanna reach me!”
“Myaaaaah myah myah myah!”
The two of them were on exactly the same page.
“Why are you here, sis?!”
“Emma?!”
“Emma?! And wait, M-Marion?! Lady Francesca?! Even the twins?! And what the heck is with that cat?! It’s huge!”
William and the prince were shocked by Emma and Kongming’s sudden appearance, and Arthur was even more stunned by the size of the cat.
“Oh, Lord Arthur! This is our kitty, General Kongming.”
“Myaaah!”
“That’s...such a proper greeting... Wha... Huh?!” While he’d initially said the cat was huge, Arthur was now unsure whether it was even okay to call it a cat in the first place.
“Exactly. This is Kongming, the cat. See? Doesn’t it look just like the one Lady Emma embroiders all the time?”
“Myah!”
“M-Marion... What? But... Like... You can’t... A cat? Like...the one she was embroidering? When you make it life-sized, it gets this big?!” The pattern on the beast in front of him did indeed look like one of the four cats Emma often embroidered, but the reality of it wasn’t that easy for Arthur to just accept based on that alone. “I mean... I guess it’s...” The fact that he was the only one surprised by how huge the cat was, despite it being so obviously bizarre, didn’t make much sense to him either. Even Prince Edward, who was standing next to him, was only looking at Emma. Despite the giant cat in their midst.
“Emma, it’s too dangerous here. Why did you come all the way out... Whoa!” When the prince rushed toward her, Kongming hissed and threatened him.
“Oh, Kongming! You can’t hiss at the prince!”
“Myah?”
“That’s right. The prince is a nice person.”
“Myah!”
“I’m so sorry, Your Highness. Poor General Kongming was just remembering when I got hurt during the localized barrier crisis.” Kongming had assumed anyone involved in that incident was out to hurt Emma, so when she smelled the prince again, she hissed to keep him away.
“It’s all right, Kongming. I thank you for protecting us all from the slimes back then.” Edward said sincerely as he bowed his head. If Kongming hadn’t come to save them, Emma, the prince, and George all would have been done for.
“Myah!”
“Kongming says you’re welcome, Your Highness.”
“Why are you bowing to a...cat... Your Highness?! And why is Lady Emma...interpreting for it?” Arthur was the only one who couldn’t figure out what was happening, and he looked to George for some kind of help.
“Oh, I know! Could you help us make the king settle down, Kongming? He’s going berserk over there.” George seemed to have noticed Arthur was looking at him, but he wasn’t perceptive enough to understand what it meant.
“Myah?”
“Wh-Why’s the king freaking out and covered in blood, anyway, George?” Emma’s voice was trembling at the sight of the king cutting down monster after monster with a “hoo-hah!”
“Don’t look, Emma!” It had only been two years since the localized barrier crisis. (The prince assumed her trembling voice was because she was remembering that horrible day.) Yet Emma’s gaze was fixed on the king.
“It’s such a waste of good monsters!”
“Huh?”
“I mean, all these demongas would’ve made such high-quality gloves!”
“Wha?”
“How did you two let it get this bad?! Honestly, the king is just so outrageous... He’s so... Oh, just look at that... It’s just so...” Emma was trembling all over as she watched the king. Oh, all those demongas on the ground are such a waste, but...but... The king looks so good swinging his sword around all covered in blood!
“Sis?” William glared at Emma when he noticed she’d suddenly taken to drooling over the silver fox, as always.
“Hoo-hah!”
“Anyway, could you help us stop the king, Kongming?” George asked as he helped the twins and Emma down from Kongming’s back.
“Myah!” Kongming replied, as though to say, Roger that! She then trotted over to the king.
“Ah, wait! You can’t! George, is that cat thing gonna be okay?!” The king was strong enough to take out monsters far larger than he was, and the great sword in his hand was still just as sharp as he’d always bragged. That bear of a man, with sword in hand, couldn’t possibly be stopped by a cat, even if it was massive. Arthur stretched out his hand to stop them.
“It’s all right. Just watch.” George grinned as he pointed to the king. The cat raised its front paws and smooshed the king onto the ground.
Squish.
“Ah...”
And with that, the king was silent.
“Uh. Did any of the rest of you hear that squish just now?” Arthur asked fearfully, but nobody could look him in the eye when he asked.