Strongest Survival by Otome Game’s Heroine

Twisted Event Third Part

「Er-sama-, look at that-, the mountain is visible even though it’s so far away-」

This time a field trip to observe the exercises of a knight order was being held for the new students of the sorcery academy. The crown prince Ervan received the task to supervise the new students and rode a carriage to head to the destination. A girl was also riding together in his carriage and she turned around toward him with a wide smile.

「Y-yeah……」

The girl was putting her knees on the cushioned seat while peering outside the window and rambling like a little child. Her behavior caused Ervan’s expression to twitch slightly while he replied to her.

Field trip to a national facility was held every year for the new students, but excluding the low ranked nobles, middle ranked nobles and high ranked nobles had the qualification to participate in this event was so they, the students who would become feudal lord or the wife of one in the future could learn what was important for the sake of managing the country and how the tax got used in order to do that.

In Claydale Kingdom, there were more than 6000 noble houses if the knight peerage was included. Among them there were 589 middle ranked noble houses, And then if the 35 high ranked noble houses also got included, there would be more than sixty students from middle ranked noble houses and above in just one grade year.

Just the effort to transport that many noble children was already a large scale undertaking. Because of that the crown prince who was a second year student had to come along as supervisor, but looking at the end result it turned out only around sixty percent of the new students participated in this field trip.

It would be a different matter if it was the usual field trip to an important facility within the capital, but this was a field trip to observe the exercises of a knight order that was carried out far away from the capital. The female students who had no interest in managing a territory tended to pass from participating in such event. In fact the number of female students who participated in the field trip this time was only five.

The students would move and do activity together to some degree when traveling with carriage for three days like this time.

Most of the times the high class noble would travel together with children from noble houses that were their dependent. But in case the number of female students was few like this time, there was an unspoken understanding that the young lady from high ranked noble house who could only bring one attendant with her would bring the young ladies from middle ranked noble houses in her carriage without regard of which region they came from.

But, the young ladies from high ranked noble houses and above who participated in the field trip this time were only the princess Elena and Carla from a house of count. Not a single person wanted to travel together with Carla, so two of the remaining three young ladies from middle ranked noble houses were riding in the princess’s carriage.

And then this girl who was the last female student refused to ride in a carriage that only had female students in it because of her past experience in the orphanage where she got bullied by her fellow female orphans. But even if she rode in a carriage of fellow dependents, she would be the only girl there while she also wouldn’t be allowed to bring any maid with her. There was no way they could do that. So in the end that girl asked to be allowed to ride together in the same carriage of the heir of Melrose House that was her house’s caregiver, which was this carriage.

*Geshi-*

The heir of Dandall House, Rockwell who was riding in the same carriage as a close aide of the crown prince wordlessly kicked the foot of Mihail, the heir of Melrose House who was also his friend who was sitting beside him.

「(What are you doing, Rockwell-)」

「(That girl’s house is a dependent to your house right? Shut her up already)」

「(You too are accompanying his highness the crown prince as his personal bodyguard right? Peel her off from Er already)」

「(I don’t wanna. That girl is troublesome. Besides I’m a bodyguard in case there is danger approaching)」

「(Even I find that girl troublesome. She won’t listen no matter what I say to her……)」

「Misha-sama-, Well-sama-, let’s talk together with us too-!」

「「Tsu!」」

The two who were busy pushing responsibility to each other in small voice also had their expression twitched when that girl──Alicia Mercis called them with “pet name” even though they hadn’t given her permission, just like Ervan. At the corner of their eyes, they saw Ervan sighing in relieve. It seemed that he had stealthily pushed that girl to them.

「Aa~……Lady Alicia?」

「What is it, Misha-sama-! You don’t need to be so formal like that with me, please just call me [Licia]. We are relative after all-」

「……Where did you hear that from?」

Mihail’s eyes narrowed when he heard what Alicia said. Even if noble house like Dandall could possibly learn the information that she was a princess who was directly related to Melrose House thanks to their information gathering capability, it was a matter that middle ranked noble house had no way of learning.

Even Mercis House that adopted her and the apprentice knight of black ops who was assigned as her bodyguard shouldn’t be so foolish to leak that information to her.

Then, who was it that told the girl about that? Mihail lowered his voice as a member of a high ranked noble house that was in charge of the black ops, but Alicia showed no sign of being bothered by that and tilted her head slightly while putting her fingertip on her lips with a natural gesture.

Her figure was like “a single painting” as seen by “someone” that got cut out from the frame and placed in the real world. Coupled with her lovely appearance, even they who didn’t have any interest at her unconsciously held their breath.

Alicia Mercis. She was a girl who possessed a mysterious atmosphere.

She was the only daughter of a lady from Melrose House who eloped with an apprentice knight and gave birth to her at a small city, then she lost both her parents because of an unfortunate accident, and then she spent her childhood in an orphanage that had horrible environment. Mihail’s grandfather, the current margrave of Melrose found her through his search and put her under his protection.

Her education as a noble was insufficient, so she was placed in a viscount house as adopted daughter instead of with a high ranked noble house, but in reality it was in order to ascertain whether she was really had the blood of Melrose House or not.

She didn’t have the “pinkish blond hair” that was the proof of being a direct descendant of Melrose House.

She didn’t look similar with the painting of the eloped lady that was still remaining with Melrose House.

Just those factors were enough for Mihail to doubt this “Alicia”. But behind that doubt was the feeling of idolization that Mihail harbored when he saw the dignified figure of that lady in the painting when he was still just a child.

That lady who was Mihail’s aunt excelled in martial art and horsemanship as a daughter of the family that was in charge of the black ops. When Mihail heard about that, he went as far as proactively learning those things too because of the adoration and ideal that he harbored for that woman and her only daughter.

But, what Mihail felt when he actually laid his eyes on the girl who was said to be his aunt’s daughter, what he felt was discomfort.

He couldn’t feel any dignity or strength of a Melrose from her. That girl had fluffy atmosphere as though she was born only for the sake of being loved. She was different from the image of “Alicia” that Mihail had formed in his mind.

Even Mihail knew that image was him simply him projecting his selfish ideal on someone else. But even so, each time he thought of that image, what came to mind was the 『adventurer girl he encountered at the capital』 who was now appointed to be the princess’s bodyguard.

Her blond hair had pinkish tinge as though she was loved by the rose of the moon(Melrose). Her strength and her dignified beauty were exactly like the picture of “Alicia” that Mihail formed in his mind.

But, the “Alicia” before his eyes was an existence that was the exact opposite of that.

Her speech and action were strange because she hadn’t received sufficient education as noble lady, but from her gesture and behavior, there was “perfected adorableness” as though she had spent many years copying the most commonly seen “perfect model” like how all noble ladies learned etiquette and manner from their instructor.

If there was a child who learned something like that not unconsciously but intentionally, that child must have something that surpassed mere desire, something that was close to an “obsession”.

The girl’s reddish dark blond hair rustled softly. Her appearance was still childish because of her low magic power, while the other three’s appearances had grown to make them looked like seventeen years old. Perhaps that was why she looked even more adorable when surrounded by them. Even Mihail who was feeling suspicious toward the girl had his gaze stolen by her for a moment.

「Nn~……」

Alicia tilted her head with that “perfectly adorable gesture”. Her eyes met Mihail’s and she put on a heartfelt smile that contained no ulterior motive.

「Licia doesn’t get it-」

「……Ha?」

Mihail was taken aback for a moment. Alicia leaned forward to bring her face closer to him.

「Because, any noble must be connected to each other by blood somewhere right? Misha-sama is my house’s caregiver, so I thought it wouldn’t be strange even if there’s familial connection there.」

「That’s……not exactly wrong.」

Certainly Mercis house that had been managing a personal territory of Melrose House was a branch house of Melrose House. There was blood connection between them.

But, this “Alicia” was adopted. Where did she learn that she had noble blood in her vein? If it was just that much then it wouldn’t be strange to hear it from gossip or something, but a discomfort was continuing to prickle Mihail somewhere in his heart.

「Don’t you think so too Well-sa……kyah」

*Gatan-* The carriage shook. Alicia who was looking for Rockwell to agree with her let out a small scream and fell on his chest.

「Oops」

Even so as expected from the heir of Dandall that was a noted martial family. He easily caught the petite girl’s body by simply reaching out his hand. He then warned her with a gentle tone.

「A lady must not move around inside the carriage. It’s also not good for a lady and a gentleman to call each other using pet name when they aren’t even close with each other, so can I ask you to please stop calling me like that?」

In respond to that chiding word, Alicia wrapped the hand that was holding her shoulder with her own small hand while smiling at him right from the front.

「Fufu, you will become a scary mister noble if you keep saying something like that you know? We are still students. There’s no law that say we cannot have fun just because we are noble.」

「I see……」

Rockwell’s gentle smile didn’t fall. Even though inside his mind was in chaos as though he was encountering a monster for the first time, he softly pushed away the shoulder of the girl who was snuggling on him and helped her stood.

But the words from that girl produced a ripple in someone else that those two who those words were directed at.

「So it’s also fine to have fun……」

Ervan who was watching the three muttered with a small voice.

The first queen who was a former viscount daughter was living freely experienced the harshness of the queenly education, because of that she raised her child on her own instead of entrusting him to the royal family’s education system. As the result Ervan couldn’t have the mentality of a royalty despite being raised to be the next king and longed for “freedom”.

Even so he kept putting in effort in his own way, but his little sister who should be attached to him was starting to radiate the majesty as a royalty, while the high ranked noble young ladies who became his fiancées consisted of an older young lady who was detached from real world, a stifling young lady who seemed to be constantly at her wits’ end, and a young lady who was dangerous in both appearance and behavior. For him who only had the resolve at the level of the average middle ranked noble, they were girls who he couldn’t comprehend.

Clara who was designated to be the first queen had become weaker mentally since she was bestowed with the Gift. Even Ervan now thought that she was lovely the way she was clinging dependently on him, but as a man Ervan hadn’t grown up to be that mature that he was able to support a woman who brought such heavy burden with her.

If Ervan was born as a heir of a middle ranked noble house instead as a crown prince, then surely he would become a feudal lord who was loved by his subject.

If Ervan who had experienced how it felt for other person to rely on him had ten more years to grow up, then he might become able to face Elena and Clara sincerely.

The love of the first queen who wished for him to be able to live freely could only make Ervan to grow up as a normal youth. The gap of mental age with his surrounding that was slowly widening as time passed was tormenting his mind. That exhausted heart of Ervan was jolted by the words of the girl who was raised as a commoner. Those words seeped into his heart like a sweet poison.

「You, it’s dangerous to stand like that. Sit down over here. Err……Licia?」

「Yes-, Er-sama.」

Ervan called the middle ranked noble girl with a pet name. The girl who got called Licia also noticed that and smiled widely while rushing to his side.

Seeing the crown prince’s action, the two who were accompanying him as [friend] and also [aide] and also [observer] exchanged glance with each other. Then they opened their mouth to chide that action, but before they could the carriage got shook hard and stopped moving.

「What happened!」

Rockwell who had the role of bodyguard stood up with his sword in hand. Then an angry yell came from outside the carriage.

『Get out of the carriage quietly! If not we’re going to set it on fire!』

***

「Get out quietly! If not we’re going to set it──」

In that moment, the carriage’s door was blown up and powerful flame burst out from inside the carriage. The man in leather armor who was speaking and his surrounding were instantly burned to their bones without even any time to scream.

Burning flame. The smell of scorching bone…….

An extravagant black carriage that had gone ahead from the crown prince’s carriage and in a distance about a half hour of travel was also similarly under attack. “A girl(Death)” clad in a mantle shaped uniform and light yellowish green dress appeared from inside.

Her jet black hair fluttered from the flame that was spreading through the forest. She swept up her messy hair with one hand while her sickly pale face with dark circles around her eyes was illuminated by the flame. That young lady picked up a carbonized bone and crushed it with her fingers while smiling like a flower toward the dumbfounded and flustered attackers.

「Did they burn well?」

The attackers were flustered by the flame that suddenly burned their comrades into charcoal instantly.

The flame of the burning carriage was dyeing the surrounding with the color orange. The men in leather armor were surrounding it. They were members of the branch assassin guild at the southern frontier. Their mission was to kidnap the fiancée of the crown prince who was passing through this route.

As long as she was captured alive, even if she lost one or two limbs she could possibly be of aid in negotiating with her father Count Lester──the chief royal sorcerer who was said to have a stance that was leaning to neutral the most among the royal family faction. But the priority for her capture was low. They were told that it was fine even if they killed her in the worst case.

This plan to kidnap Princess Elena and assassinate Crown Prince Ervan was concocted by the nobles of the noble faction and a part of the second knight order.

Originally it should be the central branch’s assassins who received the request about assassinating royalty.

But it became known that the central west district branch that was known as a warlike branch had lost several skilled assassins in these several years. The central branch that had the largest scale information network even through the whole assassin guild hesitated to accept this request considering the possibility that “Ash Crowned Princess” and “Thorn Witch” might be present.

The infamy of these two girls was so high at the north and central of the kingdom that the assassin guild and the thief guild that had deep connection to politic hesitated to accept the request from the nobles.

Of course that infamy had also reached the southern frontier branch, but one of their top brasses with martial disposition volunteered to accept the request due to the intermediation of a certain person.

Their true objective wasn’t something like the assassination of a royalty.

That top brass moved into action because he was in a romantic relationship with that person in the past, and that person wanted to clear up a personal resentment through this request.

They received the location of Count Lester’s daughter as a part of that job.

The top brass of the southern frontier branch was also aware that the girl was feared at the central as the [Thorn Witch].

But they didn’t put any effort to gather information about how strong a mere noble daughter could be. They thought that the reason why the girl was regarded as danger was related to her political influence as noble.

The daughter of Lester House, Carla Lester……the ”Thorn Witch” ──.

Those who were in the know feared the girl in all aspects, whether politically, or internally, or strength-wise. That girl with her sickly pale complexion crushed the carbonized bone in her fingers with a delighted smile like a craftsman who looked fondly at a well made coal that was his work.

「……K-kill herr!!」

One of the assassins raised his voice a bit shrilly.

Even if this girl was actually powerful, it shouldn’t matter seeing that she was a sorcerer and girl. Even her appearance was sickly. Sorcerer in general was estranged with close quarter combat. They would lose most of their means to counterattack once their opponent entered the blade’s distance.

Such common sense caused them to make the wrong judgment.

「Diee!」

They already gave up on kidnapping Carla after realizing that the info about her strength wasn’t exaggerated. Furthermore their instinct was telling them that they would be turned into lifeless corpses if they didn’t face her with the intent to kill.

The blade that was made from magic steel let out a dull glint. The assassin got close to Carla.

But, Carla wasn’t just a mere young lady.

「What-!?」

Carla softly jumped and dodged the assassin’s killing blade with a speed that was unthinkable coming from a person in dress.

Carla was born in Lester House that was a lineage of sorcerer and obtained all elements because of her father’s experiment. She obtained immense power while losing her future at the same time.

What was left for her was only “strength” and the “fearful gaze” of other people that reflected herself. That was why Carla continued to be fixated with strength.

In order to destroy her father and this country that ignored his outrageous act, Carla had pursued strength by continuously going into dungeon solo until now. She had trained her body strengthening and martial art in order to face multiple opponents on her own.

「──Air Curtain Rock Skin──」

She casted two magic simultaneously to deflect the arrows that were fired at her. Then she pointed one hand at the flustered assassin.

「──Ice Lance──」

She fired ice sorcery that was the advanced magic of water element. The assassin noticed that and tried to dodge but the big ice pillar flew at high speed and pierced his stomach.

But, in contrast to the high level difficulty of spell construction and her cruel appearance, the lethality of ice element sorcery wasn’t that high. The ice froze the wound and blood, so the victim wouldn’t die instantly. In some cases the opponent could even counterattack.

Even so high ranked sorcery still used ice element sorcery because the intense chill the ice radiated could be expected to slow the movement of the surrounding.

The movements of the assassins were clearly becoming duller. The temperature of the area was also decreasing. They couldn’t catch up to Carla even though they had the same level of body strengthening.

But there was no way Carla used ice sorcery just for her own safety.

*Crackle!*

Those who were knowledgeable about sorcery twitched in fear seeing the light that sparked out from Carla’s hand.

「──Dig Volt──」

Lightning filled the forest that was tormented by flame and ice with a flash.

The advanced combined sorcery of wind and water, Dig Volt burned the assassin that was stabbed with Ice Lance from within. The electricity then flowed through the frozen ground and paralyzed the other assassins with numbness.

And then Carla immediately produced flame from both her hands. Seeing that made one assassin who was in despair to come to a realization. Carla had no intention of running away from the start. She had no intention of letting even a single one of them left alive.

Her smiling face that hadn’t changed at all from the start told the man that Carla’s only wish was to kill them. Then the flame that was unleashed at the next moment burned his body while words of resentment leaked out from his mouth.

「Cursed devil……」

Why didn’t the attackers retreat at the moment their comrades were killed at the beginning?

From the start……they didn’t run away and attack the girl not because of their pride or even stubbornness as assassin, but because of the “fear” as a weakling encountering an overwhelming predator.

「Human dies. No matter who they are.」

Carla killed someone not because so she could survive. Carla killed because not even his life was important to her.

“Death” was always nearby ever since she was a child. Carla who obtained all elements didn’t think that she would be able to live a long life. Even her investigation from reading many books told her that there was no great person(human) who had all elements who managed to live until 30.

Carla killed human……Carla was trying to destroy this country simply to vent. She would drag this country to hell “together” with her who had lost her future and would die in the not far future.

For Carla who had lived like that since she was little until now, something like the worth of life didn’t even reach one bronze coin, including her own life.

She didn’t care anymore when she would die. But, until that time came she would bring as many humans as possible to accompany her to that world.

But, she wondered since when it started. Her objective that only consisted of killing others changed slightly.

It was since that day……when she met “her”.

The girl whose hair was dirtied with gray ash, who continued to fight against fate with the thick smell of “death” wafting around her just like Carla.

If she was going to die, she wished it would be by “her” hand.

That was why Carla didn’t wish to be killed by anyone else than “her”.

She would become strong in order to get killed. If it was for the sake of that, she would even accept a Gift that a few years ago she would laugh off as worthless and. And even then she still sought for even more power.

Carla had a dream. The two would fight to the death on a glamorous stage where many people gathered as audiences and flame was enveloping the whole place. There she would kill “her” and get killed by “her”.

Since that time, her wish to destroy this country and kill her father gruesomely on the worst stage was reduced into nothing more than extra content in order to make the girl get serious.

That was why right now, she was even considering seriously to ruin this country.

Everything was for the sake of making the girl became serious so they could seriously kill(love) each other…….

「Fufu……cough」

Perhaps because she obtained a Gift, just laughing caused her tiny stamina to decrease even more. Her hand that covered her mouth when she coughed had blood on it.

But everything including this was just what she wished for. She would decide on her own how to use her own life.

These assailants who tried to take her life too, if they were targeting Carla because she was a fiancée of the prince even though Carla herself didn’t really think much about it, then surely the royalties were also getting attacked. That was Carla’s guess.

In that case “she” would definitely appear. She would surely appear in order to kill everything that got in the way of her destiny

Carla looked back at the path where the crown prince and the princess should pass through after this. She seemed to sense something and inhaled slowly. Then she began walking toward that direction with footsteps that were skipping in joy.

「Aa……”death(Aria)” is going to come……」

***

「Who’s behind this!?」

Rockwell and Mihail stepped forward in order to protect the crown prince Ervan and Alicia who was hanging on his arm.

The attackers who stopped the carriage that was boarded by the crown prince’s group ordered them to get out and lined up in front of it. The royal guards that the crown prince brought and the black ops knight that Mihail brought were already killed.

Other than the royal guards, there was also a platoon of knights from the second knight order that was holding the exercise this time. But Rockwell who was the son of the supreme knight commander realized that this platoon was working together with the attackers and glared at the platoon leader while shaking.

「Rockwell-sama, I don’t have any grudge toward you and the supreme commander but, everything is for the sake of a just cause.」

「What kind of just cause can there be from something like this-! This country will fall into chaos once more if his highness disappear.」

「That too is a necessary pain. We can’t stop anymore.」

「You can say that only because it won’t be you who feel the pain but the people……」

In the first place their standing was too different from each other so there was no point to have this kind of argument. The end result that they were seeing was different from each other so they would never change their opinion.

「…………」

Mihail was thinking like that and left it to Rockwell to converse with the platoon leader while groping for a way to save at least Ervan from this predicament.

Ervan was standing in front of the girl called Licia to protect her, but from Mihail’s perspective, he wished the crown prince had the tenacity to survive even if he had to use the girl as shield.

That Licia too looked like she was scared in a glance, but there was no sign of fear in her face. He even suspected whether she really understood the situation or not.

「Allow me to give this offer for the last time, we won’t take the life of Rockwell-sama and the son of Melrose if the two of you side with us. We will need to restrict your freedom to some degree though. So what is your answer?」

「Both Mihail and I will never agree to that kind of offer-!」

Ervan turned pale and held his breath when he heard the platoon leader’s words, but Rockwell immediately refused the offer without even a pause. The platoon leader seemed to have expected that answer and raised one hand. The assassins who were wearing leather armor stepped forward.

「How unfortunate. Then I shall at least kill the two of you painlessly.」

The assassins drew out blades that were painted black at the same time with those words from the platoon leader. It was then──

*Rustle……-*

The animals inside the forest started making noises at the same time. Then something broke through the green curtain of the forest’s vegetation. A pink haired girl riding on a huge black beast appeared and lightly jumped over the head of everyone there who was looking up with astonishment while the girl muttered in a low voice.

「Nero, go wild.」

***

『GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!』

The black beast’s roar reverberated through the highway. Then Nero immediately assaulted the knights that were scattered at the surrounding.

「What is this monster!?」

「Calm down-, raise your shield!」

The knights immediately responded with their weapons and shields raised. But although it might helped if they were wearing full plate armor, their current light equipment couldn’t stop Nero’s attack and they were blown off their feet.

Because of its big body, Nero aimed at the knights at the outer circumference instead at the center where there was little space. From its back I confirmed crown prince Ervan’s safety and jumped down smoothly stabbing two assassins with the dagger and knife in my hands.

「Wha-, gah!?」

A man