The princess speaks up while I’m too stunned to. “You are the honorable maiden who turned me back, yes?”
“Ah, uh, um… You have the right idea, Princess Highness.”
I’m dealing with a princess. Being overly conscious of that fact made me so nervous I word-vomited.
The princess drops her gaze to the ground and lowers her head to me as I’m internally agonizing over my stupid, embarrassing mistake. “How can I ever thank you enough? Truly, thank you. Thank you so very much…”
“D-Don’t mention it. I only touched you with my right hand—” I pause as I feel the blood drain from my face.
Lex told me before that he has a vague memory of what happened while he was a zombie. That means there’s a painfully high chance the princess remembers my Iron Claw slap to her face. What the heck did I do to royalty?! My left cheek twitches as I stare at my right hand.
“Um, please don’t let what happened during the purification process bother you. I am nothing but grateful for what you did! I absolutely won’t blame you for it!” the princess frantically declares as she balls her hands into fists.
She’s so grown-up for her age. She’s just like the pure and virtuous princesses in picture books.
While I’m moved by her maturity, the princess rubs her forehead and nose as she quietly mutters, “Y-You certainly pack quite the punch, though…”
“Ah! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!”
She does remember! And vividly at that!
“My ‘purification’ was painfully intense as well… I believe the strength you put behind it increased significantly since the first time.”
“I’m not apologizing to you, Lex.” I glare daggers at him and he guiltily looks away.
The princess glances from me to Lex and says, “You seem like good friends.”
“Not in particular,” I flatly declare.
“L-Lady Mizuha!” Lex turns a pair of imploring eyes on me.
It’s not like I’ve said anything bad. I mean—
“We only just met several hours ago…”
“You did? I was completely under the impression you had spent far more time together.”
It’s true that I no longer hold back around Lex. Mostly because he has a few screws loose. He’s undeniably a serious and good guy, too, though.
“Lex, can you introduce us?”
“Yes, Your Highness!” Lex introduces me per the princess’s orders. “There is nothing to hide here, for the Goddess has sent this fair maiden to save our world as the holy—”
“Okay, stop right there.”
“Is something the matter, Lady Mizuha?”
“Yes! Don’t give me that look like you’ve done nothing wrong. You were about to say a word that starts with pr, weren’t you?”
“Yes, m’lady. Next would be ie, then st, finally followed by—” Lex says, giving hints in order, to which the princess cheerfully raises her right hand.
“I know the answer! Does that not spell priestess?!”
“Correct!”
“Hey! How did this turn into a spelling bee?! And she even got the right answer!”
The princess is all for Lex’s games. My head is killing me. I get the feeling I’m going to be introduced as the holy priestess to every person I purify as long as I’m traveling with Lex. Maybe I should just let him stay as a zombie forever? Of course, that’s just a joke. It’s only a joke…
“Lex likes to call me that, but I’m not someone so important as a priestess.”
“I understand, Lady Mizuha. We shall leave it at that.”
She seems to have accepted my opinion because she caught on to how I’m feeling. It makes me wonder if she really understands… You know what, I don’t think she does. She’s smiling away like she’s in on a secret. This has gotta be one of those times when someone thinks they just have to play along! I have to set it straight right now!
I open my mouth to say something, when violent winds carrying a black fog hit me smack in the face. Surprise wins out at first because of how abruptly it happens, but then revulsion almost suffocates me once I realize how bizarre that fog is. The lukewarm wind feels like someone’s hands running over my skin. I shudder as all the hair on my body stands up. Disgusting. Creepy.
The wind blows by in a matter of seconds. The thick fog rushes past us at lightning speed. The sickening sensation I felt a second ago is gone.
“Wh-What was that?!” I shout, and I hear a thud right behind me. I look toward the sound and find the princess has fallen on her bottom. “A-Are you all right?!”
“Lady Mizuha… Yes, I am all right. Thank you.”
She must’ve been affected by the black fog. It made me feel nauseated, too, but not bad enough to knock me to the ground. But that’s me. Princess Cia is still a child. She may be mature for her age, but it makes sense she couldn’t endure the overwhelming fear brought with the wind.
“Please be quiet.” Lex touches his index finger to his lips as he grimly locks his eyes on what’s ahead of us.
“What’s gotten into you all of a sudden?”
“Can’t you hear it?”
I incline my head to the side. I don’t hear anything that sounds out of the ordinary. Following Lex’s lead, I look ahead while straining my ears, and I pick up on a faint noise. It sounds like the commotion out on a school field. The sound grows louder with the passage of time.
“…What is that sound?”
“Ladies, hurry and hide over there!” Lex points to the trees beside the road. Seeing how panicked he is tells me this is no ordinary situation. I step forward to move where he pointed but then stop when I see the princess still sitting on the ground.
“Princess!”
The situation being what it is, I think she’ll forgive me being a little rough with her. With that in mind, I tug on the princess’s hand and head for cover behind the trees. Per Lex’s advice, I hide with my back pressed against the largest tree in the vicinity. Lex hides elsewhere because the princess and I take up a lot of space together.
Not long after we hide, the noises I’d been hearing sound closer than ever. It’s the rumbling, pounding sound of lots of feet chaotically stomping and dragging across the ground to the chorus of “Bwah bwah.” That proves it—zombies are here. In droves.
I took shelter without knowing why, but now I want to know what in the zombie apocalypse is going on now. Maybe this is a case of curiosity overcoming fear. I carefully peek around the big tree trunk for a look at the road.
Zombies are walking this way as I suspected. But the number is leaps and bounds beyond what I expected. There aren’t just ten or twenty. Fifty? …No, it looks closer to a hundred. It’s the end of the line for us if that horde finds us. I have to touch them to purify them, and I don’t have that many hands!
I suddenly feel my right hand shaking. I’m in a hellish situation, so it’s not wrong for me to be scared. Or so I tell myself, until I realize the shaking is coming from the princess, not me. She had peeked out at the road as well. The shock had been too much for her; her face is paler than a sheet, and she’s shaking harder than the vibrations in the ground.
“Don’t worry. I’m here with you.” My subconscious awareness of being older has me instinctively embrace the princess from behind with both arms. I drop all formalities and hug her close. I’m worried I’ve angered her, but that concern seems unnecessary. The princess leans into me as if reassured by my actions.