chapter 7

"Please calm down first. It seems that you won't listen to my honest advice unless I give this to you first…"

Erica, who was claiming to be Mirabelle's mother's assistant, brought out some bandages from her waist. Erica's hand trembled as she then handed the bandages to Mirabelle.

Mirabelle nervously accepted the bandages, and then—

"These are medical supplies that every member of the guards can receive for emergency situations. I'm giving these bandages to you so you can use them…"

"But, if you're giving these to me, what about your injury?"

Mirabelle relaxed her guard since Erica didn't seem like a bad person.

"It's fine, since I won't be able to live for much longer. I might as well give everything useful over to you. Here's a cape that's enchanted with a small amount of elven ore. There's an elven barrier upon this cape that can make you invisible. You should take this since you want to go outside. You should also take this city's map that your mother is carrying…"

Erica took off her cape and handed it to Mirabelle as she said all this.

"A map? That my mother is carrying?"

Mirabelle slowly walked over to her mother who was still collapsed in a pool of blood. She began to search for a map on her mother's body. Although Mirabelle often took showers together with her mother, she still found it rather embarrassing to touch her mother's body like this. Not to mention, this was her adoptive mother, not her birth mother.

Still, maybe she would have fallen in love if her adoptive mother was as beautiful as her birth mother. Anyways, Mirabelle consoled herself—

'I'm only searching for a map, I'm only searching for a map.'

She used this as an excuse to console and distract herself. She finally found some type of parchment in her mother's shirt pocket.

Mirabelle used her special ability – [Data Analysis].

She then opened up the parchment. On this parchment was a drawing of a map of the entire city. She directly recorded this entire map into her analysis ability. This meant that Mirabelle simply had to think about the name of a location that she knew. That would cause the entire map to appear in her vision.

This really was quite a convenient ability. It was basically like having a recorded minimap like in an RPG game. (Coach, just how does this work? I want to learn as well!)

After that, Mirabelle glanced at the large cape that Erica had handed to her.

"By the way, can this really make me invisible?"

Mirabelle was still feeling quite uneasy about this. Without a doubt, the vampires would capture her if they noticed any hint of her aura.

"Ah, rest assured, this cape is truly useful, even though it looks like this. Now then, allow me to explain things to you. About why your mother is so seriously injured. We originally intended on taking you out of this city after you reached adult age. This is because… with the current rate of magic crystal consumption, our invisibility barrier can only be maintained for at most another two to three months. We had to hurry and send you – the last remaining member of the elven royal bloodline – away from here before the vampires discovered this location. As for you – our captain originally didn't want to tell you, since she didn't want to burden you with the feeling responsible. However, since our lives are ending, I intend on telling you about all this. The remaining elven royal guards and army members intended on creating an escape route for you like this. However, we never expected that our remaining guard members who haven't been bitten by vampires would be ambushed by our enemies. We then suffered serious losses. Even our captain was…"

"—!?"

Mirabelle silently lowered her head after hearing this astonishing information. She felt as if she was an outsider among her own kind. She was living in a safe greenhouse, while her adoptive mother and the other elves were all working their hardest. The other elves were even risking their lives.

Was she nothing more than a burden on everyone?

Mirabelle was naturally a bit angry at her mother and the other elves who treated her like an outsider while doing what they pleased. Still, Mirabelle was also happy inside as well, since she knew this city was filled with danger.

—She still had companions.

"Why didn't anyone tell me about the current situation? I can be useful as well! Don't treat me like a little child!"

"S… sorry… that was the captain's decision. She didn't want you to be in any danger, so – cough cough cough cough!"

"Hey… Hey, what's the matter!?"

Mirabelle used her special ability again as Erica was now constantly coughing up blood. She analyzed Erica's body. What Mirabelle saw was that the demonization percentage after the HP bar was constantly increasing.

It went from 50% to 60%, then 70%. It increased by 10% each time, once every 10 seconds.

"Every single member of us royal guards have sworn loyalty to you, Princess. No matter what, I won't become a vampire's slave. So—"

Erica supported herself against the house's wall as she stood up. Bright red blood was dripping down the wall as Erica slowly walked behind the house. Mirabelle chased after her.

"You… what are you doing?"

"After this, I'm going to act upon my loyalty to you, Princess. However, you really shouldn't follow me for your own good."

Mirabelle looked at the direction that Erica was heading towards— There was a small patch of graves there. This was the first time that Mirabelle was learning about these graves.

Erica Felim. She was heading there for the purpose of—

It was obvious what she was going to do.

"May you obtain true rest—"

Mirabelle no longer tried to stop Erica after learning of the latter's determination. Mirabelle had lived in this world for 15 years now. Adding on the 15 years that she lived in her previous world, she was around 30 years old.

This was her first time seeing someone who was willing to give up their life for the sake of promises, glory, and loyalty. Although this was only an RPG game that she had designed, this game felt incredibly deep and heavy. Only Mirabelle Brillana could feel this as she was personally in such a situation.

—This was probably what the so-called stubbornness was.

Just as Mirabelle clasped her hands and prayed for Erica… Mirabelle noticed that she was still holding on to the bandages that Erica had given to her.

"That's right, mother—"

Mirabelle anxiously returned to her home. She looked at her mother who was on the verge of death on the ground. Luckily, she had returned in time to check up on her mother. Otherwise, her mother would have almost lost her life for the cause of loyalty as well.