I Became a Tyrant’s Maid - Chapter 45

“Griffins are quite intelligent monsters, so even if they’ve gone hunting, there will be sentries left to guard the nest.”

The male lead said, alternately tightening and loosening his grip on our joined hands, seeming anxious.

“There are exactly two paths.”

The male lead’s finger pointed beyond the large rock where we were hiding.

I looked at the male lead in disbelief.

I thought he was talking nonsense in various ways.

‘Saying there are two paths. There’s clearly just one!’

One was a wide-open path that seemed relatively easy to descend.

And the other was a cliff.

“Um, Your Highness. So you’re suggesting we go towards that path guarded by two griffins, right?”

At my words, the male lead shrugged and said.

“Griffins are high-rank monsters. The probability of dying is the same whether we go that way or climb the cliff, isn’t it?”

I looked at the male lead with a sour face, but his expression seemed confident.

“But, I heard that Your Highness is more skilled in martial arts than anyone else…”

At my words, the male lead smirked and replied.

“Of course, I can handle those two easily.”

Then why are you hesitating? When I looked at him with a dumbfounded expression, the male lead clicked his tongue and continued.

“But, if we kill them, and the griffin horde returns after smelling the blood? If they attack en masse, we’ll be in an even more hopeless situation.”

At the male lead’s words, I gaped.

It truly was a hopeless situation, just as he said.

“Then, what if we quickly kill those two and run…”

“Do you think we can survive by running from creatures that fly in the sky?”

I shook my head.

My head felt like it was about to split open.

Why do these terrible situations keep piling up one after another? Even though I wanted to look at the diary out of frustration, I couldn’t open it in front of the male lead.

It’s obvious he would suspect me if I were reading a book at such a critical time. It would look strange to anyone.

“Still, Your Highness, the cliff is a bit…”

I looked around earnestly.

But there didn’t seem to be any noticeable solution.

Ah, there was one thing that caught my eye.

A skeleton with only bones remaining piled up with animal carcasses in the griffin’s nest…?

“Your Highness, Your Highness!”

I shook the male lead’s collar frantically.

“In that skeleton’s hand!”

I pointed to the skeleton’s hand lying alone in a nearby nest.

There was a piece of paper clutched in that hand.

“I think it’s a map!”

I told the male lead in an excited voice.

“The fact that there’s a corpse in this remote place with no people around, doesn’t it mean that person must have been an adventurer?”

The male lead frowned at my words and looked towards where the skeleton was.

“As you can see, the griffin’s nest is overflowing with all sorts of treasures. There’s a high probability that adventurers came here, Your Highness.”

“So what? What meaning does it have even if that’s an adventurer’s corpse? In the end, they couldn’t escape this place either.”

At the male lead’s words, I grasped his hands tightly and said triumphantly.

“They are different from Your Highness. Aren’t you strong, Your Highness?”

The male lead’s expression became subtle.

“What on earth makes you believe that I’m strong?”

Of course, it’s because you’re the protagonist of this world!

And not just any protagonist, but the male lead with all sorts of special attributes!

“I believe in everything about Your Highness.”

At my words, the male lead finally frowned deeply and covered my mouth.

“I think it’s better not to ask.”

***

I almost screamed with joy.

The paper in the skeleton’s hand was indeed a map!

I felt the male lead’s expression noticeably improve.

On the back of the map, there was writing that seemed to be from the original owner, but unfortunately, I couldn’t interpret it as it was in a language I didn’t know.

Judging by the skeleton’s exotic attire, it seemed to be someone from the Desart Empire.

“There’s a secret passage somewhere here that hunters have dug.”

But thanks to the male lead’s buff, interpretation was possible. As expected of a protagonist, he’s good at foreign languages too!

“That’s fortunate, Your Highness!”

As I had expected, this skeleton was indeed an adventurer.

More precisely, a monster hunter.

People who hunt monsters and make money.

It seemed they had prepared thoroughly to enter this place but failed.

“If we find the entrance they dug, we should be able to escape.”

The male lead briefly scanned the surroundings as if concentrating.

Then, after looking at the map once, he immediately began to lead me, moving quickly.

“It’s over there. Run!”

The place the male lead pointed to was full of withered vines.

As we started running after him, the two griffins soon seemed to discover us, making a shrill “Piiiiik-!” sound as they flew quickly towards us.

“Get in!”

As the male lead pushed aside the bushes, a tunnel just big enough for two adult men to enter appeared.

I jumped in without hesitation, and the male lead followed into the tunnel.

“Piiiiiik-!”

Bang!

As the griffin’s beak persistently dug into the tunnel in pursuit, I pulled the male lead towards me with all my strength.

“Your Highness!”

“I’m fine, so stop pulling.”

The male lead, panting, looked at the entrance.

Bang! Bang!

The griffin’s beak kept plunging into the tunnel.

This caused debris of soil to fall around us.

“Fortunately, there’s a path.”

“But if this continues, the griffins…”

As I spoke worriedly, the male lead said as if telling me not to worry.

“Anyway, they can’t pass through further inside because the passage is too narrow. Let’s move quickly.”

The male lead pulled my hand towards the inner part of the tunnel.

Thud! Thud!

As the sound of beaks hitting grew fainter, I finally let out a sigh of relief.

“Your Highness, are you alright?”

I checked the male lead’s complexion.

“I get it, so stop groping?”

“I wasn’t groping, I was checking Your Highness’s noble body…”

“Shut up, and think about how to get out of here instead.”

I was dumbfounded.

He always tells me to be quiet after he makes me speak.

Anyway, he looked fine. That’s a relief.

“Then, Your Highness, the map for a moment…”

I snatched the map from the male lead’s hand for a moment.

“We’re closer to the Desart Empire than I thought?”

Thanks to crossing the sky directly, we had traveled a considerable distance, even more than when we moved by carriage.

The male lead brushed his bangs as if he had a headache.

“The problem is, even if we safely arrive in Desart, we don’t have the diplomatic goods.”

The male lead looked troubled.

His face was full of fatigue.

Things kept going wrong, and his position was getting worse.

If this diplomatic mission fails, the disadvantages the male lead would face were too clear.

Using this incident as an excuse, the First Prince and Second Prince’s factions would question his qualifications as the Crown Prince.

And the male lead would struggle to somehow resolve this.

The male lead’s fingers trembled intermittently, as if anxious.

“But Your Highness, at this point, we have no choice but to somehow get to the Desart Empire.”

“How do you suggest we go? Even if we’re lucky enough to get out of this tunnel, this area is the domain of monsters.”

I quietly looked up at the male lead as he spat out words irritably.

“So, are you going to give up, Your Highness?”

His eyes widened at my question.

“I know you won’t, Your Highness.”

I grabbed both of his hands firmly, as I’d seen in dramas, and spoke with a determined look.

“I’ll devote my entire being to help us escape from here,”

“Damn it, get down!”

It was then.

“Kieeeeek-!”

The stone floor cracked with a ‘crack’ sound.

From beneath it, a cylindrical brown monster with dozens of teeth in its mouth lunged towards us, its maw wide open.

“Kyaaaah!”

The male lead hugged me tightly and rolled forward.

But the giant worm-like monster twisted its body greatly, and in an instant, the ground we had been standing on caved in.

I felt dizzy.

Just a moment ago, I had told the male lead we could survive.

‘Are we going to die like this?’

The male lead’s hand covered my head. And we fell downwards.