Chapter 47: Emilia Definitely Defeats Priscilla Barielle (Patreon)

"Miss Priscilla Barielle, please stop! The Shopkeeper is a good person!"

Like a stand-in summoned on cue, Emilia surged forward the instant she was called, pulled Subaru Natsuki behind her, and conjured layer upon layer of solid ice shields.

Priscilla's Yang Sword came down and cleanly shattered every shield. But Puck was no pushover. In the sliver of time Emilia's ice had bought, it had already found a way to shift the angle of the slash. Emilia grabbed Subaru, swept him into her arms, and retreated out of the blade's reach.

Subaru Natsuki: "…"

Being saved was great and all, but, um, could we not do the princess carry?

It makes me look so fragile, hey. If possible, he'd really rather they swap, and he'd be the one carrying Emilia like a princess.

"Heh."

The slash had missed and her fun had been interrupted, yet Priscilla, extremely rarely, showed no displeasure or irritation at all. She simply stayed where she stood, sword in hand, watching Emilia and Subaru who had escaped her range, and a smile of utterly delighted arrogance curled across her face.

She tossed the Yang Sword into the air and, in the meantime, whirled the hand holding her fan and covered her mouth with it, striking the perfect pose of a villainess young lady. Her whole voice was bright with joy, the end of each phrase lilting upward.

"Delightful. Truly, you delight me, mortal. First your brimming confidence before the battle, then, cowed by my magnificent strength, a call for outside help, which is to say a roundabout plea for mercy. What a series of turns. Interesting, truly interesting."

"Fools who cannot grasp the gap between themselves and me are not unheard of, but all the amusement they ever gave me, added together, doesn't amount to a fraction of yours. I understand now, mortal. The reason the world holds someone like you, who refuses to be controlled by me, is to give me such a singular and entertaining experience!"

Having said that, the Yang Sword fell from the sky just in time. She caught it in one hand and, on a whim, twirled it into a lovely flourish.

"Lia, you're too soft-hearted. We could have stayed out of this fight entirely. It has nothing to do with us anyway." Puck floated in the air and shot Subaru a resentful glance. "This little girl may be forever talking big, and she's a frog in a well, but she really is a rare master."

"Whether it's four hundred years ago or four hundred years later, unless you compare her to the Divine Dragon or Reinhard, monsters who are completely beyond the norm, cheaters among cheaters, then across the whole world this little girl can absolutely be counted among the few top masters."

An undeniable powerhouse, and what posed the lethal threat was the radiance of the Yang Sword.

Of course, if Puck could release its true form, then with the strength of the strongest of the four great spirits, Priscilla would have no hope of beating it. But it couldn't. Its power was bound by its contract.

In its ordinary state, it and Lia would probably struggle to win. The girl really was strong.

"You shouldn't say that, Puck!"

She hadn't realized Puck was grumbling at Subaru by way of scolding someone else, blaming him for asking her for help and dragging its precious daughter into this mess. Still, Emilia objected to what Puck had said.

"The Shopkeeper is a good person, and the Shopkeeper never meant to fight Miss Priscilla Barielle. Miss Priscilla Barielle made the first move, and she started the provocation too. The Shopkeeper is innocent. How could we just stand by and watch him get hit?"

I'm going to be won over. Seriously.

Holy crap, how can there be such a beautiful, kind-hearted girl in this world? Thank goodness he'd been speaking well of Emilia earlier. If he'd said anything bad about her, Subaru Natsuki would never have forgiven himself.

Even Emilia, in looks, simply couldn't compare to the white-clothed girl he'd glimpsed that morning, the one who could take every girl in the world, pile them up as a stepping stool, and crush them flat. But that was a separate matter.

Overcome with emotion, Subaru grabbed Emilia's small hand and made his guarantee. "Emilia, from now on, if anyone dares look down on you in the Royal Capital, come tell me! I'll find people and settle the score right away!"

To hell with weighing profit against risk! Even if some old geezer from the Council of Wise Men slandered Emilia, Subaru Natsuki would stand up for her!

Of course, standing up had its own art. With so many brothers following him, he couldn't just clash head-on. If anyone from the Council of Wise Men slandered Emilia, he'd send people every night to hurl shit, all kinds of shit, at that old geezer's house, a never-ending stream, every single day.

"Huh? The Shopkeeper is this nice to me?"

Emilia froze, and her little face lit up with surprise. Then she fidgeted a bit and asked in a small, careful voice, "Um, Shopkeeper… it's okay. I don't want anything to happen to anyone, so you don't have to do that. More than that, this, that… Am I, um, a friend of the Shopkeeper's now?"

Normally she would never have dared ask this.

Since waking up, her only family had been Puck, and she had no friends at all. Ram and Rem respected her, but they never came close, and they had no intention of being her friends.

Only the Shopkeeper was different.

So, since the Shopkeeper was willing to stand up for her, then by the definition of friendship Puck had taught her, did that mean she had finally made her very first friend?

Subaru nodded at once. "Friends for life!"

"For life?"

"For life!"

Wow!

If the timing hadn't been so bad, Emilia would have squealed and gone bouncing around, celebrating everywhere.

Even in this situation, of course, she was already moved beyond words.

"Lady Emilia, you are far too easy to fool. Ram also agrees the Shopkeeper is unlikely to be a bad person, but please don't open your heart to other people like this. And if possible, please stop exposing your weaknesses to the Shopkeeper from now on, too."

Ram pressed a hand to her forehead, speechless. If the Shopkeeper had even the slightest tie to any other Royal Selection candidate, this would be a disaster. Fortunately, the Shopkeeper surely had no connections like that.

Well, surely not?

Surely!

"—Jabbering, dawdling, cooing at each other. If you must indulge in the sentimental exchanges of foolish mortals, do it somewhere out of my sight. I am supreme, and my time is the most precious. What kind of friendship games you play is no concern of mine, but since you dare waste my time like this, do you truly wish to die, mortal?"

The anger that had been fading to nothing in her amusement blazed up anew.

Priscilla could hardly believe it. With her standing right here, she was actually being left hanging like some kind of neglect play!

Unimaginable, intolerable, unbelievable!!!