◇

"What"s wrong Master?"
"--The princess of this country has been kidnapped, or so I heard."

I briefly answered Arisa who asked.

"Oh no! Then I"ll go rescue her. Where"s she now?"
"Oh no oh no~?"
"Pochi will also go rescuing nodesu."
"Protecting young organisms is indispensable and a must so I tell."

Hikaru stood up as if it was natural to go help.
As if pulled by her, Tama, Pochi and Nana also stood up.

Pochi and Tama are still holding their forks stuck with meat dish.

It"s not like the princess is particularly our acquaintance and I think she should be saved by this country, but it appears such a thing is irrelevant for Hikaru and the others.

"I"ll check it for a bit, wait--"

I told so to everyone and opened the map.
We don"t know if she"s really kidnapped just from a rumor.

The rumor said that Princess Rumia was kidnapped, but the one who rode the float was her little sister Princess Rimia.
I"ll search for [Princess] instead of a specific person.

I ignore the luminous points of the princesses in the Royal Capital--there are two outside the city.

Looks like Princess Rimia is near the border of a different map where the Shadow Castle is.
There were several crime guild people close to her, but I don"t know the exact number since they immediately went to a different map with Princess Rimia.

The other luminous point is in the middle of the mountain path between the Royal Capital and the Shadow Castle, moving at a speed faster than a horse.
This one seems to be Princess Rumia.

There"s a luminous point with a marker near Princess Rumia.

Apparently, she"s together with the female adventurer who contacted the weaselkin.
Her marker was in the Royal Capital when I checked it earlier, so she must have taken Princess Rumia from the Royal Capital after that.

I check the present situation of the princess by invoking the s.p.a.ce magic [Clairvoyance].

The female explorer is moving in a golem together with princess Rumia in the c.o.c.kpit.
The princess is desperately clinging to the female explorer while shutting her eyes, there"s no trace of her being violently restrained.
She probably sought the female explorer"s help in order to save Princess Rimia.

"--How is it?"
"Princess Rimia has been kidnapped by the crime guild people, they"re in the Shadow Forest. Princess Rumia seems to be chasing them."

Even if I said the princesses" names, it didn"t really mean anything to everyone besides Hikaru and Arisa who had the personal appraisal skills, since the names weren"t that important, I summarized the explanation.

"I"ll help them out a bit."

It"s not really our problem, but in order to enjoy the festival cuisine, I declared to save the princesses quickly.

"Wait."
"Please wait, Master."

Arisa and Liza controlled me who stood up.

"Although Master can probably do it alone, isn"t it easier if we divide the work?"
"That"s right. At lease please take Tama along."

I agreed to Arisa and Liza and it"s decided that Hikaru and Arisa will go help Princess Rumia"s side while I will go to Princess Rimia"s side along with Tama.
The reason why Arisa is working with Hikaru is in order to secure the way to do teleportation for them.

--Putting that aside, Liza.

Please don"t lift up Tama who"s holding a venison in her mouth, presenting her to me like she"s a stuffed toy.

"Don"t worry be happy~"

◇

"Then, I"ll leave this side to you."
"OK."
"Un, don"t let your guard down okay."

I brought Hikaru and Arisa ahead of the place Princess Rumia is heading with s.p.a.ce magic [Teleport Gate].
Hikaru is in Nanas.h.i.+"s disguise and Arisa is wearing the golden armor.

Afterward I opened a [Teleport Gate] in front of the Shadow Forest and moved with Tama there.
The Shadow Forest map is a teleportation-prohibited area just like the castle of Ban the True Ancestor in the labyrinth"s lower layer so I couldn"t directly teleport inside.

"The castle pitch black~?"

Tama pointed at a spire of a jet black castle that looks like a silhouette on top of the forest.
As one might expect of something called Shadow Castle, it"s swaying like I"m looking at a mirage.

I hid a carved seal board to be the landmark for Arisa"s teleportation.

"Now then, let"s go Tama."
"Aye aye~"

"Pyon", Tama jumped and landed on my shoulder, she then took the pose to ride on it.
Since Tama is wearing the golden armor, it feels slightly painful.

It became a different map once we walked a bit in the forest, so I used [All Map Exploration] magic to get the details of the blank area.
Hikaru said that the shadow sentries were protecting it, but there"s no one inside the castle that occupies half of the forest.
Princess Rimia and the crime guild people are stranded in front of the barrier protecting the castle.

According to Hikaru, the barrier should be dissolved if there"s a royalty carrying an item called [Necklace of the Treasured Key], it seems there"s some kind of problem there.

"--A fake?"
"I"m not a fake."

I could hear such conversations when we I landed on a pitch black tree branch surrounding them.
The crime guild boss is holding a pink-colored wig, Princess Rimia"s hair color has changed to golden.
Looks like she doesn"t have the pink hair peculiar to Rumooku royalty.

"There"s no point if a royalty doesn"t have colored hair! You d.a.m.n fake."

The enraged crime guild boss complained unreasonably and swung his curved sword.

--Oops, that"s bad.

"Utsusemi no jutsu~?"

Ninja Tama replaced the princess with a log while camouflaging it with a white smoke.
Retorting, "Isn"t that [Switching] jutsu", here would be boorish of me, so I used this chance to wear Nanas.h.i.+ mask.

"--Who the!"
"h.e.l.lo, nice to meet you. Although I think our acquaintance will be short, best regards okay."

While feeling nostalgic with Nanas.h.i.+"s way of talking that I haven"t used for a while, I knocked down the crime guild people with the anti-personal [Remote Stun] magic.
Some screamed, some tried to ran away, and some used their friends or trees as a s.h.i.+eld, but I gained total control in about 10 seconds.
Ninja Tama skilfully collected the torches they had before they fell.

"Are you injured anywhere?"

Even though I asked her that, the princess only keeps s.h.i.+vering with a pale face without answering.

"Is it painful somewhere~?"

The princess shook her head to Tama"s question and asked back with a trembling voice.

"Are you shadow sentry-sama who"s going to punish Rimia for entering the forest?"
"We"re not."

Once she understood that she was mistaken, she looked relieved and fainted.

Well, I can"t blame her.
This sheltered princess was kidnapped by these evil looking people after all.

I let the little girl to sleep nearby, asked Tama to capture the kidnappers, and then I went around to collect the horses that have dispersed in the forest.
I met Arisa and the others who are together with Princess Rumia"s party when I had collected the last horse.

I"ve made a bonfire reclyed from the thieves" torches as a mark.

Moving differently from Arisa and the others, it seem this country"s second prince and his troops are coming toward here.
Let"s push the duty to take the princesses back to them.

"Rimiaaaaaa"
"Princess-chan, running is dangerous."

Princess Rumia who found Princess Rimia ran toward her while screaming loudly.
The female adventurer supported her when it looked like she was going to fall.

Behind the female adventurer, two of her friends in manned golems are following.
Judging from Hikaru"s and Arisa"s expressions who are accompanying them, it seems the adventurers didn"t kidnap Princess Rimia.

It wouldn"t be an emotional reunion if she were still unconscious, so I woke Princess Rimia with wakening magic.

"--Ane-sama?"
"Rimiaaaaaa"

Little girls who don"t look different besides their hair color are crying in relief.

"Quick as always~"
"The opponents were just some common criminals after all."

Arisa talked to me while looking at the little girls.

"Isn"t fine, peace is the best."

Hikaru finished with a smile while putting her hand on Arisa"s head.
Right right, no incident is the best.

I looked up at the sky while confirming a luminous point moving at high speed reflected on the radar.