NMP 1.1

Chapter 1. The Princess I Raised With My Own Hands

“…Open up!”

Mikaela tossed and turned, hugging the velvet cushion. She was enjoying a sweet morning sleep, but she heard a constant noise.

She slept late last night, knitting, so she didn’t want to get out of bed until the sun set on top of the castle tower. But the noise from outside was too loud and roaring. The sound of horns signaling the invasion of foreign enemies would not be as loud as that.

Come on, just a little more. Please.

“I am Alfonso, the 7th Prince of the Kingdom of Zermech! I have come to the rescue of Princess Mikaela, who is being held captive by the evil dragon!”

Yes, she knew. Who else was crazy enough to enter the ‘Cursed Forest’ if it wasn’t for that?

Everything was fine.

Mikaela buried her face deep in the sun-dried pillow and fumbled with her fingertips to pick up the cushion as well. And she covered her head with a large one.

Could you please come back in the afternoon?

Last month, she celebrated her 18th birthday. It had been 10 years since she was locked up in the castle, but that didn’t mean she didn’t know what was going on in the world.

Even more so, she could not understand the neighboring princes who visited the old castle in the thick western forest.

Do they all learn from the same teacher? How come the lines were the same, unless they read a book like ‘A must-read for princes who are going to rescue a princess from a neighboring country who is imprisoned in a castle’? From the morning, they’ve been shouting over the moat.

Just at least one.

If only one person had washed his face, brushed his hair, and said in a polite manner, ‘I’m thirsty after coming from a long way, can I ask for a glass of water?’ in the afternoon when she felt better after a satisfying meal.

“The evil dragon with the devil on his back shall be judged by my sword right now!”

“Ahhhhhh!”

Mikaela got up with the momentum of banging her head on the ceiling. The duvet filled with goose hair rolled back. Small, white feet agitatedly threaded through the slippers. Wearing a thick shawl over a light blue nightgown, she walked down the hallway with the momentum to annihilate the princes from all over the continent.

“…All these princes say the same things.”

Her gray-brown hair waving behind her back fluttered in the wind with every step she took.

“They must like Jeno more than me.”

Mikaela turned to the corner, trembling in irritation and anger. It was the staircase to the castle tower. There must be a window open somewhere. A few sparrows who came in to pick up the crumbs and eat them were startled by her appearance. Today, they would be chirping about the princess’ life.

“You say you’re here to save the princess, but you only look for Jeno every time. Do you really want to save me, or do you want to fight a dragon? Which one is first!”

Bang!

She opened the door of the castle tower with the strength of destroying it. Stupid princes. The princess, who had only slept for three hours, was furious and tried to lean out of the wall, but stopped at the last minute. She forgot the rules for a moment.

She must not show herself to outsiders, that is, to the princes.

It was the only promise between young Mikaela and her father. On the outside, she had to be suffering. It was difficult to let her appear freely roaming the castle with rosy cheeks instead of sobbing pitifully tied up in chains.

[I will take good care of your mother’s grave while you are in the castle.]

A father who lived in a palace with a golden roof.

A father who welcomed a dazzlingly enchanting second queen less than a year after the loss of the first queen.

At that time, people looked at the young princess pitifully. He tried to convince her that it was better for her nanny to be her stepmother rather than someone she didn’t know at all.

Mikaela didn’t bother. She didn’t even ask why the stomach of her stepmother, who was in her wedding dress, was already bloated. She just nodded at her father’s words, and quietly packed her belongings and entered the western forest.

10 years have passed since then.

“Are you listening, you evil dragon!”

“You picked the wrong hand, Prince. Did you think if you saved the King’s daughter, you’d be rewarded with something great? Being the 7th Prince, your position in your home country would be small. And it was the king of this country who imprisoned me here in the first place.”

Mikaela tried to stick her head out through a square gap originally made to place the cannon. She wanted to see his stupid face.

Prince Alfonso of the Kingdom of Zermech. Would he still be able to keep his momentum in the face of the flames pouring from the sky?

“He’s a half and a foot smaller than me, and his hair is purple. His physique is good. Compared to the upper body that has built up muscles, the lower body is somewhat weak.”

“You startled me.”

Mikaela was startled by the presence behind her. Jeno. The dragon, who has been living in the castle with her for 10 years, was looking down. To see the prince beyond the moat, Mikaela had to squint her eyes, but as a mysterious heterogeneous man, he could see his face 30 meters away as if he were reading a book in front of him.

“His appearance looks better than the previous princes. But he has sunken eyes and a wine bag on his saddle.”

“I don’t like him.”

Mikaela shook her head, squatting with her back against the wall.

“I don’t like men who drink, Jeno.”

Her father was a man who liked alcohol, people, and entertainment. He always threw parties and invited guests in. At the same time, he called her mother, who spent quiet time in the garden, a boring person. He said that he was just jokingly insulting his wife, but it was said too often to be a simple joke.

“Well then…”

The short conversation ended. Mikaela looked at Jeno as he climbed the wall. He took off the robe he was wearing and dropped it on the inside of the castle wall and threw himself down.

Then a huge red dragon flew into the sky.

The Prince, who had been screaming in high spirits until just before, stiffened up without being able to speak. The next moment, flames hotter than lava erupted from the dragon’s mouth. The prince’s sword, made by a skilled blacksmith, melted in the blink of an eye like a piece of ice in midsummer.

“Uh… Ahhhhhh!”

It was a calculated act that left a retreat. The prince scrambled onto his horse. He didn’t have time to think about face[efn_note]Pride or honor.[/efn_note] or anything. He began to run away with his tail between his legs.

The flame dragon of the cursed western forest drove another prince out of the princess’s daily life just like that today. The half-baked prince, with his hair and clothes burned, would spread the dragon’s notoriety. That was also what Mikaela and her father wanted.

But no one knew if that was also what the dragon wanted.