I looked at the sword ready to be pulled out at any time. In <The Sage of the Winter Tree> the female lead, Precia, only perfected her powers in the Bastaille mountains where she was exiled to, but that didn’t mean she was weak before that.

No, to be precise, what she perfected in the Bastaille mountains was her mental portion. In terms of her abilities, she was already strong enough to be called a monster. Otherwise, she would have died on the first day she was sent to the mountain range.

It was obvious that a weak person like me would die without even noticing her pulling her sword out.

“Are you going to pull that sword?”

At my calm voice, Precia’s eyes shook.

“If you are planning to kill me then do it at once so that I don’t feel any pain.”

“Your Highness!” she shouted

I calmly put my index finger on my lips. “Shh! The time is late. You will wake the others.”

When I warned her in a low voice, she panicked.

She could not kill me. I was the person whom she regretted not being able to protect. Even if that was something that would not happen anymore, it didn’t mean that the red-haired girl in front of me had changed.

“Your Highness…please answer me. Are you really the Prince Yuan that I know?”

I couldn’t help but laugh at her confused voice. “Haha! Am I Prince Yuan, you ask? If I say no, then are you going to pull that sword out and cut me down? Then go ahead. I will give you the chance to do so.”

I approached Precia and grabbed her hand holding the handle of the sword.

Precia’s blue eyes shook and she stepped back.

Schwing!

I pulled out her sword, held by her hand and put the blade against my neck. When I did, Precia was startled and shook my grip off her and retracted her sword.

“What’s wrong? Did you not put your hand on the handle of sword because you wanted to kill me?”

“No, I was…!”

I frowned watching her in a confusion. “I’m disappointed.”

I truly meant it what I said. I did not want to see her so indecisive. She was supposed to be the most courageous and confident character in the novel. Yes, she may not have gone through the events that made her mature, but this… Maybe my death was the most important motivation behind Precia’s growth.

“You cannot decide whether you should kill me or not. Do you think you can keep protecting me like that?”

This was a very important. It may potentially be a great setback to my future plans.

“If you thought I might be an enemy, then even if you didn’t kill me right away, you must have at least subdued me first before proceeding to interrogate me! Your actions not only endanger yourself, but also the people that you are supposed to protect!”

If she was hesitant just because someone had my face, how was I supposed to trust her with my life?

For a moment, I raised my voice out of anger, but I managed to control myself and end the scolding there.

“Y-Your Highness.” Precia looked frightened after suddenly getting scolded.

How could she be scared of someone that she could kill with just a finger? It was unsightly.

I sighed. “…You asked me if I was the prince you know right? Who is this prince that you are talking about? Are you talking about a weakling you served in the past that couldn’t even kill an ant and that cried every night because he missed his mother? If that’s the case, then the prince you are looking for died the day that assassin came to attack.”

I turned around, and started walking.

“Follow me if you wish to keep protecting me. Otherwise, take your things and leave the palace at sunrise. What I need in my path is a knight who will protect me in any circumstances, not some indecisive coward.”

If she were not to follow me, then things would get very difficult, but that was about it. Not having her around was within my calculations. It would be hard to replace the female lead, but it was not impossible.

However, contrary to my worries, Precia quickly followed me.

* * *

I kept going into places that didn’t have any presences, but it was not difficult to find a way because the moonlight was especially bright tonight.

I kept walking without any hesitation and asked Precia, who was following me.

“Precia, do you know why I almost got assassinated?”

“That…”

She was unable to answer my question. Based on common sense, there was no reason for me to get assassinated. If my life was at risk purely because I was the eldest son, then I should have been killed shortly after the death of Prince Yuan’s mother.

At that time, Precia was not there to protect me, and the only person who could protect Prince Yuan would be the old attendant Herion. Killing Prince Yuan should not have been any difficult even with his presence.

The reason behind Prince Yuan’s death did not simply concern the matter of succeeding the throne.

“I’m sure you don’t. Well, it’s only natural. How could you know the thoughts of someone trying to kill me?”

But I knew: this frail Prince Yuan was assassinated because he had inherited a seal in his blood.

The Founder of this nation—like many others of such founding chronicles—was a great hero. This Founder, however, had sealed something to save this world and the seal was randomly inherited by his descendants in order to keep the seal intact.

It was just that I had unfortunately inherited the seal of blood in this generation. Once I were to die, the seal would become defenseless until another person could be born with it, inheriting the seal of blood.

There were assassins after my life because there were people aiming for the gap where the seal would be transferred to someone else.

“But there’s one thing I can tell.”

“What is it?”

I chuckled when Precia asked me so seriously. “They had the audacity to assassinate me because I am weak.”

Even if they didn’t kill me, there were plenty of other ways to undo the seal. It was just that those methods were tedious and complicated. They simply chose to assassinate me because that was the easiest way.

If killing me was as difficult as undoing the seal through other ways, then they wouldn’t have bothered.

“So that is why I have to get stronger. If I cannot get stronger myself then I will have to create a force strong enough that they cannot dare to underestimate me again.”

Honestly, I aimed for the former at first but the more I tried to do something with this body, I realized how impossible it was.

Dammit, my life is miserable.

Precia looked at me with surprise after hearing me.

I found her cute but then I asked her seriously. “So let me ask you again. Precia, do you want to protect me?”

Precia answered my question without a second of hesitation. “Absolutely!”

Her eyes that were full of confusion and anxiety were clear.

I erased the grin from my face. “Then something like what happened just now should not happen again. Cut down anything you find suspicious, even if that thing looks like me.”

“Yes!” Precia replied vigorously.

She wouldn’t try to kill me out of suspicion if we stay apart just a little, would she? Maybe I was too harsh on her? This is quite unnerving.—Swallowing those thoughts in my mind, I looked at the 3rd palace that we arrived at.

“Can you feel any presence of guards on patrol?”

Precia answered my question without any hesitation. “Yes. Two guards 800 meters away from this place are slowly heading this way. Although they are coming in this direction, considering their patrol route I don’t think they will come here right away.”

I looked at where Precia was pointing, but couldn’t see anything because of the outer wall. I was dumbfounded at her superhuman senses

“Were you keeping a watch on me too?”

When I looked at her with discomfort Precia waved her hands in embarrassment.

“Oh, no, that…Just for your safety, Your Highness…”

I sighed seeing her red and stuttering. So, it wasn’t a coincidence that she jumped right after I jumped.

“From next time, tell me when you want to track me. It’d be embarrassing if you track me going into the bathroom..”

“Bath-bathroom… No, I will keep that in mind.” Precia blushed and avoided my gaze.

I was just kidding. She did not really keep a watch on me when I went bathroom, did she?

“But why are you here?” She suddenly changed the subject

I smiled in response. “Business.”

“You should have done your business during your visit in the day, why would you…”

“I came quietly during the night, so obviously I have to do something in secret from others.”

I had informed few things to Herion in advance so he had prepared a bag from which I took out a rope with a hook on one end.

“Of course, you’re with me Precia because you don’t belong to those others.”

I decided to not tell her that I was originally intending on going by myself. I did not think that someone would be keeping an eye on me all day.

“But how are you going to sneak in with that?”

Responding to her question I spun the rope and spoke.

“Like this. Nabi, please.”

—Meow~!

Once I threw the rope up high after spinning it around, Nabi snatched the hook and hung it in the vent on the third floor. Precia noticed the strange trajectory of the rope and looked at me in suspicion. When Nabi came back, I petted the back of its head.

“It is okay, you can show yourself.”

At my words, Nabi revealed itself.

“Wow! So cute!” Precia tried to touch the small cat of the size of my palm carefully in excitement.

But Nabi got on my shoulder, avoiding her hand.

“Nabi is shy to everyone except the owner. Once it gets used to you it won’t run away when you try to pet it.”

“Is that so?” Precia looked disappointed, but still looked as though she wanted an explanation from me.

“Nabi is a wind spirit left by Queen Lizbeth, the wife of the Founder, for future generations. I happen to inherit it”

“Queen Lizbeth?”

“Yes. It doesn’t have much power for a spirit left behind by the legendary spirit contractor but it can handle wind much better than ordinary spirits.”

In the novel, the characters were so freakishly powerful that Nabi rarely played any role other than being a mascot, but the strength I felt after entering a contract was not ordinary.

I lightly pulled the rope looking at the awestruck Precia.

“It hasn’t been long since I met Nabi but it’s my lifesaver that saved me from that assassin.”

“Then…”

“Yes, Nabi saved me.”

All right, it seems sturdy.

“Nabi, support me from below.”

—Meow!

After Nabi’s short cry, a strong wind blew from below, and with its support as well as the rope, I started climbing the wall. The wind made it easier to hold my body parallel to the ground, which in turn, made it easier to climb.

I eventually reached the vent and after struggling for a bit, I finally got inside safely.

“Huu, that was difficult.”

My arm went numb just from that climb. I threw the rope I climbed up on back down for Precia to climb. She looked at the rope once and jumped on the spot to get to the vent without grabbing it..

Wow, this is 3rd floor and each floor is around 4 meters high, she is amazing.

“Are we going inside this?”

“Right. Oh, can you get me the rope?”

After Precia got the rope, I put it in the bag and crawled ahead.

“What are we here for?”

“You’ll find out once we get there.”

I was on my way to get something very interesting. There was a reason why I came here first instead of all other places.