CH 147

Chapter 147 – She was a princess!?

“Iris, what are you doing here? And why were you called Ylis…”

I got off of the boat and onto the walkway of the subterranean sewer.

“Th-that’s…”

Iris hesitated awkwardly. In the meantime, I used a rope to tie the ship to one of the pillars.

“…You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. And I will just call you Ylis. In any case, will you let the children rest?”

“Ye-yes. Could you send them down?”

Ylis said, and then Mette lowered the gangplank.

“Alright, it’s safe now. Go and follow that woman.”

“Okay!”

And then the children descended from the boat.

But when they saw Ylis they all looked surprised.

“It’s Princess Ylis!”

“Princess?”

I turned to her in confusion.

These would be children of the Toria kingdom.

And if they were calling her a princess, that meant that Ylis was the Toria Kingdom’s princess.

Huh? But the Iris that I knew was merely the daughter of a knight.

She had joined the Shwartz Knights Order just as we were starting to become well known. I believe it was shortly after Solm joined. Her skill with the sword could nearly match that of Captain Royg, and so she was one of the best knights in the order.

She would occasionally come to me and make orders for various equipment.

I remembered how detail oriented she was, and would tell me how to make the joints of the armor. And even if she wasn’t as polite as Solm, she would always thank me, and even send me food once in a while.

I had also fought alongside her at the frontlines a few times. My impression of her was definitely not a bad one.

However, Royg had hated her.

In the first place, he was not amused at the idea that anyone should be able to match him with the sword, when he was the captain. On top of that, she would occasionally voice her opinions to Royg when it came to the way he fought against the Demon King Army. Eventually, she decided that there was no point in staying, as the Knights Order had stopped fighting completely. And so she quit.

Perhaps she had joined while hiding her true identity as a princess… Her real name was Ylis, but she had gone by Iris.

“Iris… So you were a princess?”

To my question Ylis replied quietly, ‘Yes.’

“I-I will tell you about it, so… Ah.”

Just then, about ten soldiers in armor came out from the back of the sewer.

Ylis turned to them and said,

“Let the children rest.”

“…Certainly.”

They nodded with conflicted expressions, but then took the children to the back.

But some of them stayed, and said to her,

“Th-they…are not human!?”

And then the other soldiers frantically drew out their weapons.

Ylis stretched out her hand and made them stop.

“Do not! These are the people who saved our children!”

“B-but!”

“Joshua. Now it’s your turn to tell me. Why did you come here? And with these demihumans no less.”

And so I decided to tell her about what had happened and what brought us here.

That I had quit the Knights Order.

That I lived with demihumans now.

About Solm’s fortress and how I learned about what was happening in this city.

“I think… That this is the work of the Demon King’s servants. And if the Demon King Army takes the north and south, it would put us in a difficult position as well. And so we came to put an end to this.”

“I see…”

Ylis nodded, and her expression brightened.

“You haven’t changed at all, Joshua.”

“Huh?”

“I’m sure that what you have just told me is true. If you were only thinking about the demihumans, then you would have headed to the temple at once. But…you stopped to save the children.”

“Th-that’s…because we could not leave them. It wasn’t just me, but everyone felt that way.”

Even if it was just Iria and the others, they would have done the same.

If anything, I was the one who hesitated, as I considered the risk it was to the alliance.

“…In any case, we will all welcome you. This place is under the royal palace district. You can go up and rest. And perhaps we can think of a plan to get you to the temple.”

Ylis said as she pointed to a nearby staircase.

For now, I decided to go with her, while taking Iria and Melk, who was in her human form.

The others would stay and protect the boat.

While I could trust Ylis, I didn’t know about the others yet.

But I told them that if something happened, they should destroy the sewer door and return back to the island.

And like that, we went up the steps of the underground sewer.