[The time is nigh, soon we will meet...soon]

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I woke up as I heard the birds chirping around me. The morning sun's ray of light softly shone upon my face, it feels warm and comfortable, like a light that takes away your worries, paired with the pure lush greeneries around me and the pleasing sound of the river water's flow coming from the west. It feels like you're becoming one with nature.

"Again, that pink haired woman..." I said to myself as I recalled my dream last night. I noticed that there was a warm blanket covering me, the sound of the river feels pleasant along with the small chatterings of the knights.

I sat up to see that they were already warming up, some were returning from a hunt while Heize was preparing the ingredients and utensils.

I got down from the roof of the carriage with a jump and I stretched out my limbs.

"Oh? prince, you woke up?" One of the knights came up to me and asked.

"Yeah, when will we depart?"

"A few minutes after breakfast, at our current pace, we will arrive at Elune kingdom tomorrow morning."

"I see, do you need my help with something?"

"Ah, you don't need to bother yourself with this, prince, we can handle this."

I looked around and saw that everyone was busy, so I walked around and left the camp to wash my face at the river nearby. When I arrived, I saw a river with a calm current, fishes would occasionally jump.

Seeing a peaceful and calming scene like this brings comfort to my mind whose former environment was full of wars and corruption. I can't help but admire the pleasant and vibrant view before me.

As I was sitting by the riverbank and taking in the beautiful scenery around me, I sensed something approaching me from behind slowly on all four limbs.

"hmm, a predator?"

However, in the face of such a situation, I still remained calm as if the creature didn't exist.

At that moment, the creature pounced at me with great speed. I raised my arm and punched in the air precisely hitting the creature's jaw with a force that knocked it out.

I glanced at it and saw that it was a huge jet black leopard with purple spots. I was surprised for a second as its color was not supposed to exist, until I remembered that I am in another world. The other thing that surprised me was that it was 10 feet in height, 6 meters in length, and that it gives off an unfamiliar and sinister aura.

"Well, it's not like it's not waking up anytime soon." I said to myself as I lifted it up using one hand with ease as if I'm just picking up a paper. After finding a location, I threw it at the other side of the river, letting out a loud sound as it hit the ground.

...

"Heize-dono, the food is about to be finished, please come and check it out"

"Hmm, let me take a look."

As the knights were chatting with each other, Airi, who just woke up came out of the carriage and greeted everyone with a good morning.

"Everyone, Good morning." She said

"Oh, the princess is awake."

"Good morning to you too, Airi-sama" the knights around her greeted her back with a smile.

"Ojousama, please take a seat, the food will be prepared soon." Heize said as he pointed at the tree stump where he used to sit.

"thank you, by the way, where's Nii-sama?" Airi asked as she looked around.

"The prince? I think I saw him walking to the river over there."

"Thank you Sier, I'll go and take a lo-" Before the girl could finished her words, she heard a roar as monster pounced at her from behind.

Heize, who quickly saw the scene, dashed to protect the girl, the fangs that should've killed the girl was deflected by Heize's dagger.

"Isn't that a Dark panther!?"

"What is an A class monster like this, doing here in the forest of Felia!?"

"Prepare your attack and support magic!"

"Defend the princess at all costs!"

The knights quickly positioned themselves and surrounded the monster. However, the monster easily escaped the encirclement by jumping and running to the riverbank.

The knights were relieved when they saw that the monster ran away. However, the relief didn't last long when they realized something.

"Wait, isn't the prince at the river right now!?"

"That monster is a strong one, even a royal knight will take a minute to kill it, the prince may not be able to handle such a monster, kill it quickly!" Ordered heize.

"F*ck! Chase after that monster, now!!"

16 knights quickly ran to catch the fleeing monster.

...

"L-L-Lucas-sama! are you alright!?" Asked Sier as he approached me from the bushes. Their faces showed fear and panic which they didn't show when faced with the ambush

"Hmm? what do you mean?"

"Just now, there was a Dark panther that ran to this direction, did the prince not encounter it?"

"Dark panther?" I asked myself

Ahh, it must be that black leopard earlier with purple spots.

"You mean that one over there?" I asked them as I pointed my finger to the opposite of the river bank where one could see a huge black cat lying unconscious.

"Y-Yes, that's the monster we're chasing, but... How did it get there? moreover, it's also unconscious" Asked Sier as he wondered how the monster got to the other side.

"Ahhh, it was preying on me and pounced on me, so I just gave it a light punch to the jaw. Although it's stronger than the normal one, it's still too weak. So after knocking it out, I threw it to the other side to prevent it from causing more problems." I explained to them what happened. After listening to my explanation, they shouted in unison.

""""EEEEHHHHH!!??""""

They were pretty much surprised by my explanation.

"H-He defeated it in one punch?"

"H-How the hell did he do it?"

"For him to defeat an A class monster that would normally take 15 knights and a mage to succesfully defeat... It looks like the prince is one hell of a powerhouse"

It looks like that creature called 'Dark panther' is a rather high class monster that would take many people to subdue.

At that moment I heard a shout as a girl came at me running.

"Nii-sama!! are you alright!? are you injured!?" asked airi as she checked my body for injuries.

"Don't worry, I'm not injured." I said to her as I patted her head.

"Thank goodness, I don't what I would have done if you were gravely injured by that monster."

"Hahaha, thank you for worrying about me."

It felt good to have someone worry for you like this. My former subordinates also worried about me...but in a different way. Their worries and care for me are genuine, but it seems as if they're obssessed with me. Tanya would even go as far as to request me to strip naked to prove to her that I'm not injured. To be honest, the crazed look in her eyes at those moments sent a chill down my spine, of course, I refused to do so since it would be troublesome if I were to do her crazy and lustful requests.

"It's a good thing you're safe Lucas-sama, but you need to bring a guard with you from now on in order to avoid accidents... But still, to think that a high ranked monster from the demon country of Gehenna would be here..." said Heize as he pondered over the matter.

"It must be the doings of the mages from Jahal kingdom, because earlier, I saw the mark of slavery at its forehead." Said one of the soldiers.

"That may be true, only the Jahal kingdom would want to target the princess directly, and when they failed to target princess, they went for the prince instead."

"They really are a bunch of cunning bastards."

"We need to do something about the lack of manpower, or else we will lose this war."

All of them voiced out their hates for the Jahal kingdom. As I listened to them, I realized that this kingdom has already subjugated two countries and added the fallen countries' army to their own, so even if the qualities of the soldiers from Elune and Jahal are the same, we would still be defeated in quantities if we don't get any support from the other neighboring countries.

"This is pretty troublesome" I muttered to myself.

"Anyways, since this matter is solved for now, let's go back to the camp and eat. After a few minutes of rest, we'll continue traveling." Said Heize as he walked back.

All of us followed him with Airi beside me. Holding the hem of my blazer.

After eating and chatting for 6 minutes, we took a rest of 5 minutes. After resting, the knights put away their things into the second carriage and we rode the carriage and continued our travel.