Escorting the Princess

"Woah..." Ruka was stunned by how beautiful the five women that stood a good distance away from her were. She never really had a standard for beauty since they were the only people she saw aside from herself, but these women were something else.

With her golden draconic eyes, Ruka carefully observed all five of them and their appearances.

Of the five women, the one that put themselves in front of the other women, with her sword drawn, had short, brunette hair and chestnut-colored eyes. Covering her body was armor made from steel, as well as her sword, which had gold trimmings. She wasn't nearly as tall as Ruka, probably a little over 5 feet, 6 inches tall. With just one glance, Ruka could see that her body was toned and disciplined as a result of her training.

Out of all them, she appeared to have Warrior's aura, while the other four had Magician's aura.

The next two women had put themselves in front of the other two, and they both dressed in a white and black maid's uniform, and they were equipped with wooden magical staffs adorned with blue crystal balls at the top.

One of the maids had long, brunette hair but sky-blue eyes, while the other had shoulder-length black hair and amethyst-purple eyes. The both of them were about the same height, just a little shorter than the swordswoman, but they were certainly gifted in... certain departments.

Finally, the last two women seemed to be of royalty and nobility, with one of them having long, blonde hair and emerald-green eyes while the other had long, snow-white hair and crystal-blue eyes. One had dressed in a pink frilly dress with marble and jewel accessories, while the other dressed in some white uniform belonging to some school or academy, and she too held a magic staff. Once again, these women were around the same height as their maids, and they were certainly gifted in certain departments.

While the five women obviously knew that Ruka was attracted to them, they asked for her intentions. At first, they thought that she was on their side, but after seeing their beauty, perhaps she might change her mind.

The swordswoman pointed her sword further at Ruka and asked, "You, who are you, and what are your intentions?!"

Ruka once again put up her hands and hoped she wouldn't have to attack anyone else, so with politeness, she explained, "I am Ruka, and I do not plan on harming you. Rather, I would like to fix your carriage and help escort you back to wherever you came from."

All of the women looked at each other and frowned. The swordswoman then asked, "Why would you want to do that? Perhaps you are interested in some reward for rescuing Her Highness and Lady Victoria Winterbourne?"

Ruka was about to respond that she did it out of kindness and that she did not want a reward, but Luna advised against it. The five women couldn't see Luna as she hovered next to Ruka, so Luna used this to her advantage. "Tell them that you want the reward. Not only would you get paid for your efforts, but it would put them at ease knowing your intentions. If you were to say that you did it out of kindness, they will suspect that you have some ulterior motive."

Talking to Luna inside her mind, Ruka replied, 'But I don't need the reward. I'm perfectly capable of earning money on my own without taking advantage of people when they are in need.'

Luna replied quickly, "Look, they are not going to trust you unless you say that you're in it for the money. In this world and many others, there are few who are only a tenth as nice of a person as you, Mistress. If you truly don't want the reward, then donate it to some church, establishment, or person in need."

Sighing to herself, Ruka nodded and said to the woman, "Yes, I am interested in a reward. Can you stop pointing your weapon at the person who saved you?"

With hesitation, the swordswoman put down her weapon and sheathed it back into its scabbard. The other four women had, too, calmed down and allowed the woman to come closer to them. Before Ruka did this, she dragged the leader's body by one of his legs before dropping it when she got close.

With the women eyeing Ruka with every move, Ruka carefully observed the carriage. Then, a few moments later, Luna gave some information on how she could fix it, and with it, Ruka realized that, aside from the scratches and holes made from the now deceased bandits, one of its wheels had popped off and was in need of realignment.

Lifting the carriage effortlessly, and to the women's amazement, Ruka had cleaned off the dirt that appeared on the axle before realigning it and popping it back in place. The carriage was now fixed and ready to be pulled by the horses.

Wondering about something, Ruka asked, "Shouldn't there be knights escorting your carriage? How come it's only the five of you?" though after asking, it appeared that Ruka had asked a sensitive question.

The swordswoman shook her head with an embarrassed blush on her face. "I am sorry, but that is classified information that I cannot divulge. If you are interested in escorting us, we are more than happy to pay for your efforts. That is, you stay outside."

"Stay outside?" Ruka didn't know how long it'd take to go back to wherever they came from, but looking at the size of the carriage and the fact that Ruka had towered over it, she thought this request seemed reasonable.

"Sure, I'll stay out and escort you... Do you mind if I ask you some questions along the way?" Ruka wanted to know more about the world, its customs, its history—basically, anything would be helpful. She couldn't gather this information from Luna since this world's history is not recorded in Luna's database.

So, she could only gather more information from the residents of this world. And the five residents in front of her didn't mind; they answered any question she had after entering the carriage and went on their journey back to their kingdom.

...

Along the way, Ruka found out that the world she landed in was Eldoria, but she already knew that from Luna. However, she learned that there are several kingdoms that formed an alliance thousands of years ago and have been strong ever since.

As for why this alliance took place, not even the princess knew, or anyone in the world for that matter. "Weird, but surely it has to be a good thing." Ruka whispered to herself, now thinking more about what she'd learned.

Since the world's nations were in an alliance, humans and demi-humans were allowed practically anywhere, so long as they had the proper paperwork to do so. This was easily accessible by becoming an adventurer in any of the nation's kingdoms.

As for how many nations there were, there were humans, elves, dwarves, beastkin, demons, and monsters, who were a mix of intelligent and unintelligent monsters. Intelligent monsters were allowed to live like any other race, though they do face discrimination a lot of the time, while unintelligent monsters are hunted by nations for resources and money.

Speaking of monsters, the third princess of the Kingdom of Perlington, Princess Fiona Perlington, had asked Ruka something. "Excuse me, Miss. I apologize if I cause an offense, but what exactly race do you hail from? I do not believe I've ever seen your kind before."

The four other women were also interested in discovering this fact, but they dared not say it for fear of offending their savior. However, since their princess was a bit of an airhead, she didn't think of not asking this. However, what was done was already done.

Nodding, Ruka replied without thinking much of it, "I'm half dragon, half orc." And when she said that, they gasped in utter shock and fear. "A-A-A dragon! My goodness! I am truly sorry if I offended you with that question."

Luna saw this and smiled. "Ah, it seems like dragons are feared here. If I had known, I would've advised you against saying that."

Ruka, on the other hand, paid no attention to that since she wasn't ashamed of her race but still responded to Princess Fiona. "It's okay; I'm not easily offended."

The five women thought differently as to how brutally she killed those bandits back there. One captured bandit in particular is currently being dragged by the leg by Ruka, who didn't want to use her rope on him to tie him to the carriage or to the horses. 'I'm not going to taint my precious rope.'

Back to the original question, one of the maids asked Ruka, "I'm sorry, Great Dragon, but what is an orc? I've never heard of one before." And again, like the maid, the other women were interested as well.

Ruka just looked at them in confusion and said, "You don't know what an orc is?" And seeing as though they shook their heads, Ruka just said, "Well, an orc is an orc." She didn't know how else to explain it since she hadn't met another orc, nor did she know their traditions or customs.

Luna never thought to share this information with her for some reason, and Ruka thought about asking her later. But for now, Ruka focused on escorting the women back to the Kingdom of Perlington.

...

Several hours later, Ruka saw that the sun was setting, so they needed to make camp for the night so they could gather their energy to travel again in the morning. The only two people who were experienced in making camps were Ruka and the swordswoman, whose name was Catherine Hastings, who is Princess Fiona's personal knight.

Before they began to make camp, Luna had something important to ask Ruka, "Mistress, you have already revealed your identity to these women. So, I must ask you to decide whether you are willing to hide what you can do or embrace it and show it to the world. Whatever you decide, I will support you with all that I can."

After a few moments of consideration, and especially seeing how Catherine was the only person who could build a camp aside from her, Ruka decided that she would not hide her strength from the world. Doing so would only mean she's either a coward or ashamed of who she is.

Sure, she thought it could've been smart to hide her powers, but that would be too much of a hassle to do. Ruka was the type to deal with whatever came her way whenever the time came.

So, with this in mind, Ruka ordered her nanobots to appear and start building a temporary encampment with the materials she had stored inside her storage unit.

When the five women looked at this, they were very frightened and concerned since they had no idea what this creepy 'living' thing was. "What is that?!" They shouted in unison.

They couldn't sense any aura from it, and it was only until Ruka assured them that it was from her did they calm down, albeit only slightly.

Pointing her sword at the nanobots, Catherine asked, "What the hell is that?! Is that some kind of power orcs are capable of?!" which caused Ruka to laugh and shake her head. "Nope, just me; I'm afraid. Don't worry, they're friendly."

Soon later, a furnished wooden lodge with a stone foundation was built, much to the women's amazement, though they were still afraid of the nanobots. Afterward, Ruka said, "Do any of you have water magic?"

And one of the magicians raised their hands, who came from Lady Victoria Winterbourne, the woman with snow-white hair and blue eyes. Seeing this, Ruka smiled and beckoned her over to where she stood.

Victoria looked over at Princess Fiona and Catherine, along with the two maids, and they all seemed unsure but said that they would protect her if anything went wrong. Peer pressured into this, Victoria cautiously walked over to Ruka, who towered 3 feet over her.

Ruka crouched down and looked at her with a serious expression. "Lady Victoria, I am going to create a large tub so that we can all bathe. Do you think that you can summon water after I build it?"

Hearing such a simple request caused Victoria to frown in confusion, but since it was an easy request, she nodded her head. "Yes," making Ruka nod in return with a beautiful smile. "Wonderful. You don't speak much, but you're pretty nice, you know?"

For some reason, Victoria felt her heart skip a beat, but she shook her head at the thought. She, as well as the other five women, saw the creepy nanobots excavate into the ground before they filled it up with a concrete-like substance that Ruka had made a while ago. The nanobots then dried the substance, so it hardened and was ready for Victoria to pour the water into the tub.

"Go ahead," Ruka instructed, and she watched at how marvelous Victoria had summoned a ball of water from her magic staff. The rate at which the water gets summoned and poured into the tub was less than stellar, but Ruka didn't mind. She was just happy that she could witness magic for the first time.

After the tub was filled, Ruka asked one of them to heat up the water with fire magic, and one of the maids, called Bethany, Princess Fiona's personal maid, walked over and did as instructed. She was able to warm up the water by hovering a fireball over it and allowing it to heat up to a warm temperature.

"Nice, very nice, you two! Now, then. Let's all hop in the bath!" Without thinking too much, Ruka decided to take off her clothing, and the nanobots entered her body, but that's not what terrified the five women.

No, something monstrous, thick, and green had scared them to cover their eyes with their hands, though they couldn't help but take glances at it through the cracks of their fingers. "Eeeek! A man! You didn't say that you were a man!"

"A man...? I'm not a man. I'm a futanari."

...