The Prince Is Dead, So Let’s Start Over Everything Again! - Chapter 3.8

Quickly grasping the jewel, he looked us up and down with heightened wariness.

“If you give me what I want, I can offer even better than that.”

“W-what is it that you’re looking for?”

“Think carefully. What do you have that’s worth as much as this?”

The man’s eyes grew sharper.

No matter how I thought about it, this approach seemed wrong.

We had no knight escorts behind us.

To the man’s eyes, the 3rd Prince and I were just weak children.

In this situation, we shouldn’t have shown that we were wealthy.

That was behavior just right for getting into danger.

But the eight-year-old child who had only dealt with nobles all his life didn’t seem to notice this fact at all.

After all, nobles, though they may look polished on the outside, are all frogs in a well when you look closer.

I had to come to my senses in place of the innocent 3rd Prince.

I secretly watched the man’s movements.

He hid the jewel in a box, then made a motion as if grabbing something behind his back.

I also quietly grasped a nearby dirty wooden stick.

“…Looking at you, you seem to be from a noble family. I, humble as I am, have been disrespectful.”

Suddenly, the man raised his speech level.

The 3rd Prince’s face immediately brightened.

It seemed the 3rd Prince mistakenly thought the man had noticed our status and become polite.

No matter how smart a child is, it seems they can’t shake off that noble superiority complex.

Of course, I, having grown up in an era of equality for all, didn’t harbor such hopeful delusions.

What use is status when we’re just kids alone?

The man’s right hand was still hidden behind his back.

I was certain the man was testing us.

“I have no intention of punishing you, so don’t worry. Once I get what I’m looking for, we’ll leave immediately.”

But the 3rd Prince’s head seemed to be as flowery as his face.

Whether innocent or stupid, the 3rd Prince readily admitted to being a noble.

“I will hand over the item. However…”

“However?”

“…How do you plan to return? Forgive my impertinence, but it seems you didn’t bring any knight escorts. As you know, this item shouldn’t fall into other hands.”

“I have my ways. More importantly, how many of these items do you have?”

We’re doomed.

The 3rd Prince didn’t deny not having knight escorts.

Not denying something that should be denied was as good as confirming it.

Oh boy… He’s been acting quite smart lately, but why is he like this today…

The 3rd Prince was always an unpredictable child, but today he seemed especially so.

He was acting hastily as if being chased by something.

What on earth is wrong with him?

Anyway, the 3rd Prince wasn’t helpful. The only one I could rely on was myself.

I gripped the wooden stick I was holding even tighter.

“Well then, let me see…”

The man trailed off, glancing behind him.

It seemed to be getting dangerous.

I grabbed the 3rd Prince’s hand as if snatching it. And at the same time, I threw the wooden stick I was holding at the man.

The stick, flying in an arc, hit the man’s leg precisely.

“Argh!”

The man screamed and fell forward.

Fortunately, things were going according to plan.

I never intended to compete with strength in the first place.

To be honest, how much could a wooden stick wielded by an eight-year-old girl hurt?

Our best option was to escape from here while the man was down.

“M-Miss Lurupel! What are you doing?”

The 3rd Prince was flustered, his eyes wide open like an innocent child.

If I had time, I would have given the 3rd Prince’s head a good smack.

But now wasn’t the time to waste on such useless actions.

“Run away! Quickly! Can’t you see that man has an axe?”

“What? An axe? No, why an axe…?”

“Are you really asking? Your Highness, no, he’s trying to kill you and take the jewel! That’s why you shouldn’t have shown that you don’t have escorts!”

The 3rd Prince, belatedly realizing the axe in the man’s hand, hurriedly started moving.

We turned our backs and started running as fast as we could.

We headed towards the mountain, but we didn’t really know the way.

All mountain paths looked more or less the same.

“You little rats! Stop right there!”

The man hurriedly chased after us.

I turned my head to check how close the man had gotten.

The distance between him and us was about a few dozen steps.

The man was a full-grown adult male, but his pace was slow due to his bad leg. Thanks to that, it didn’t seem like we’d be caught easily.

I let out a sigh of relief and was about to turn my head back.

At that moment, a strong mountain wind blew.

The wind caused the hood of the robe I was wearing to flip back completely.

“Ha, Hariella!”

Huh?

Somehow the man recognized who I was.

How does that person know my name?

Is Hariella famous even among commoners?

It wasn’t the situation to be thinking about this, but various questions bubbled up in my mind.

The man’s pace was so slow that the sense of urgency had faded.

‘Perhaps everyone in the domain knows the face of the lord’s daughter?’

While moving my legs quickly, I tried to recall my previous lives in my mind.

But I couldn’t find a suitable answer.

Of course, it’s not that I hadn’t met commoners in my previous lives.

Count Lurupel occasionally took me out to inspect the domain.

But each time, Count Lurupel was always stuck to my side.

So I couldn’t tell if the domain’s people knew Hariella’s face from the beginning, or if they realized I was the Count’s youngest daughter because I was with members of the Lurupel family.

‘How on earth does he know me?’

The more I thought about it, the more questions arose.

Count Lurupel never took me on domain inspections before I turned ten, saying it was dangerous.

So it wasn’t someone I met during a domain inspection.

The only chance for commoners to see Hariella, even briefly, was at the annual year-end festival.

But even at the festival, the seats for nobles and commoners were separate.

At that distance, Hariella would have looked like a cotton swab. It would have been difficult to recognize her face.

…Anyway, that’s not what’s important right now.

The only important thing now was that since he recognized me as the lord’s daughter, the man would never give up on us.

I wanted to get out of this useless curiosity.

But there was too much dissonance in the man’s words.

“Hariella Lurupel! You insolent brat! I won’t let you off easy!”

It’s as if he has a personal grudge against Hariella, isn’t it?

But what reason could a merchant with a mining background have to hold a grudge against a Count’s daughter?

Whatever resentment he had against Hariella, the man noticeably quickened his pace.

“Your Highness! Hurry! Where is that cave from earlier?”

“Th-that… I don’t know. They all look similar…”

“Oh dear, is it this way?”

We wandered and wandered the mountain paths, but the cave leading to the secret passage was nowhere to be seen.

Gradually, the strength in our legs began to fade.

Although there was still a considerable distance between us and the man, I started to think it might be dangerous if we continued like this.

It felt like we were rabbits being driven into a trap by hunting dogs.

Wheeee—

Suddenly, the man put his fingers in his mouth and whistled.

Then, from all directions, dark figures began to emerge.