Harem Castle: Chapter 5 - Forest and Lake
“You saved my life, Ursula.”
Two horses followed a lush green mountain path in the mountains behind the royal palace.
Felix was quite good at horseback riding. His actual skills were only just above average, but his light weight gave the horse more speed and allowed him to ride at the same speed as someone as skilled as Ursula. Cavalry battles were of course a separate matter and she would easily defeat him.
“I did nothing worthy of such praise.”
The female knight followed in her light silver outfit. As a refreshing wind reached her face, the boy smiled her way and narrowed his eyes.
They had only been apart for a week, but it had been a week of great change for both of them. It felt more like they had not met for an entire year.
“There’s no need to be modest. You did an amazing job. If you hadn’t shown up, the rebellion would have succeeded. Even my stepmother praised you.”
The palace’s fighting force had been sent out to extinguish the fire, so they had been left defenseless. Meanwhile, the rebel army had sent in two thousand elite troops with Hilmedes at the lead.
Hilmedes’s strategic talent to create that kind of gap was frightening indeed.
The greatest miscalculation in the coup d’etat plan had been Felix’s adoptive father, Count Gilbert.
Hilmedes’s fanatic support had come from the royal knights and that old man had lived in this world for half a century.
The crown prince’s maternal grandfather had naturally not been invited to rebel, but he had plenty of connections from his long life in human society. He had sensed the rumblings of discontent from the behavior of his old friends.
The honest old knight had known he was too old to do anything himself. He also lacked the talent needed to work behind the scenes to help his adorable grandson. He had therefore decided to rely on someone blessed with much more gorgeous talent than himself.
That person was Ursula. After being given the title of count and more money than he knew what to do with, he had created a Felix faction within the royal knights.
That may have been the trigger that set off the radicals who supported Hilmedes.
Once word arrived that the royal palace was being attacked, the twenty-five knights under Ursula’s direct command had been the first on the scene, but she had not hesitated to charge in immediately.
That had been a product of Ursula’s leadership and the camaraderie created by Felix’s years with the unit. They had fought fiercely enough that not even one of them had failed to shed any blood.
As reckless as the charge had been, it had carried Ursula to the depths of the palace where she slayed Hilmedes just before he finished off Felix.
Everyone could see that the rebellion would have succeeded without her bold decision.
Queen Gloriana had praised Ursula and her knights, awarded them with the kingdom’s traditional Lionheart Medal, and given them money and jewels.
She had also wanted to promote Ursula to general, but that had proved to be too much.
Ursula had insisted she was too young for that rank and Felix had instead suggested she command his bodyguards. Ursula had agreed to that and Gloriana had given her approval.
“I’m relieved to see you are getting along with your stepmother.”
“Oh…yes. She is a good person.”
Felix was not quite sure what to say but still agreed.
The woman did everything she could for the crown prince, she had given him his own knights, and she had handpicked maids to look after him.
On the surface, it was clear that the queen was doting on the crown prince.
“Did something happen?”
“No, it’s just that I was raised without a mother, so her excessive affection feels like a burden. I’m just not sure what to make of it.”
He could not exactly tell anyone about the sexual acts she had performed after their dinner that fist night. And that was doubly true with Ursula.
That had obviously been out of the ordinary.
He was doing his best to convince himself it had been a hallucination brought on by the stress of the extreme change in environment.
Gloriana had done nothing else like that since. She had been the perfect stepmother, but Felix’s doubts sometimes led him to see a raw sexuality enveloping her.
The female knight could tell the crown prince was avoiding something, so she changed the subject for him.
“The palace seems busy dealing with the aftermath of the rebellion.”
Hilmedes’s rebellion had been on a small scale. Even if the castle town had been set ablaze, fewer than one hundred townspeople had died.
The swift and calm leadership and Tiger General Dexel’s command had made sure of that, but it had really come down to the excellent training that the soldiers and guards had originally received from Hilmedes.
The biggest blow had been some of the specific people lost: the nobles and high-ranking bureaucrats such as Prime Minister Canberra.
For Felix himself, the hardest part had been telling Carol that her grandfather was dead.
But at her young age, she had not entirely understood what he meant. She had only tilted her head quizzically.
“We lost some important civil officials, but the military officials were an even greater loss.”
Hilmedes’s fanatic support had come from the military. The officers who had supported the rebellion had all been heroes who represented the Ishtar Kingdom.
The leaders who ruled the kingdom and the skilled warriors who protected it had been stripped away in one fell swoop. That was a serious loss for the kingdom.
No one expected Queen Gloriana to do any real work, but she held the most powerful regardless. She had been trapped in her office trying to deal with it all. General Dexel had temporarily left his duties protecting the crown prince to lead the remaining army as they called for the rebels to surrender or cut them down.
Everyone who normally educated the crown prince was out assisting him.
“Should you really have left the palace while all that is going on?”
“It’s fine. I’d just be in the way there. And Dexel said it would be more worthwhile to ride around a lot and train my body while I could.”
He was still a child, so there was no room for him to speak up in that vortex of busy people.
With nothing to do, he had invited a familiar female knight to leave the palace with him and go riding.
Neither of them had any real power to control the current situation, so they entered the forest while discussing it all as someone else’s problem.
It was a bright green forest opened up for the nobles. Instead of searching for food and fearing beasts in the dark, it was meant for taking a stroll while laughing with a friend or lover.
But today, it contained a beast wielding a blade.
“Wait, Your Highness!”
Ursula raised a sharp voice.
A line of flashing silver crossed with a crimson flame.
Ursula’s drawn magic sword had sliced through some fire magic sent from within the forest. The female knight rode forward and swung her blade to fell a tree trunk as thick as a human arm.
Even with a magical sword, a normal person could not have pulled off that feat. She truly was the fierce woman who had slain Hilmedes.
The magic user fell from the treetop. They wore a blue robe and did not seem to have expected the tree to be taken out so easily. They fell hard on the ground and a third sword strike fell toward their head.
“You scoundrel!”
“Wait, Ursula! Don’t kill them!”
Felix’s voice reached her at the last second, so her midsized sword stopped right in front of the assassin’s throat.
Even that was a testament to her dreadful skill. Plenty of warriors could best her as a power fighter, but not one in the kingdom could best her as a light fighter.
“You’re loyal to Lord Hilmedes, aren’t you?”
Felix’s question was relatively meaningless. No one but a member of Hilmedes’s faction would be attacking now.
He spied a young female face inside the robe, but that was not surprising. Men had an advantage in muscular strength, so woman often became experts in magic which lacked that handicap.
“Let me tell you what he said in his final words. We cannot continue fighting amongst ourselves. We need to work together to build up the Ishtar Kingdom.”
He was not trying to lie. The man had not said it in so many words, but that was how Felix interpreted his last words.
“Fortunately, I wasn’t hurt and no one died, so I won’t ask your name. Let’s pretend this never happened. Leave this place and do everything you can to help the Ishtar Kingdom.”
On the crown prince’s bidding, his head bodyguard pulled back her sword and swept it to the side as if driving off an animal. The assassin seemed to realize she was outmatched here, so she rolled out of the way and left.
The boy watched her leave from horseback and then he hesitantly looked to the female knight.
“Sorry, Ursula. I just robbed you of having saved my life again.”
“I do not mind.”
“Thanks. Everyone knows you saved me during that rebellion and this would have been a small deed compared to that, but I’ll always remember that you saved me again.”
Felix scratched his cheek.
“Do you think I’m too naïve?”
“No, you did a wonderful job.”
Ursula bowed happily. She had believed the boy she had known since he was a child would make an excellent king, but now she was confident that belief was based more in personal favoritism.
“Then let’s go. There’s a place I want to show you up ahead.”
As they continued riding, the trees obscuring their vision vanished and a glaring brightness surrounded them instead.
“Wow…”
An impressed sigh escaped Ursula’s lips.
They had reached a lake.
The water’s surface absorbed the early summer sunlight and glowed brightly like a giant mirror.
“Isn’t it a beautiful lake?”
Satisfied with the dignified knight’s surprised look, the boy got down from his horse.
He let the horse drink from the lake as he left the saddle and took the reins.
Ursula did the same.
The riders drank the lake water as well. It was a sweet dew that pleasantly permeated their weary bodies.
The two of them sat side by side on the green grass and took a break to view the pristine scenery.
The lake contained a mystic beauty as it reflected the green of the surrounding trees and the blue of the sky.
And the transparent beauty of Ursula’s face seemed like a solidified form of that lake water.
The royal palace was filled with beautiful women and each of the maids who looked after him was quite attractive, but Felix’s eyes felt the most beauty in that frightening young woman who wore no makeup.
He could feel his cheeks flushing just from looking at her from so close, so he quickly tried to find something to say.
“Um, you know what? I really wanted to see you.”
“As did I.”
Ursula’s legs were casually sprawled out in front of her and the lake breeze gently swept through her dark brown hair.
“We’re alone, so let’s treat each other like we used to, Urs.”
Felix leaned in like a cat begging for attention. The strict knight did not seem to know what to do, but she finally embraced his shoulders and replied in a more casual tone of voice.
“I wanted to see you too, Feli Boy.”
They had not done this in the past, but the two of them felt an odd yearning for company and could not help but move in close.
The boy looked up at the warrior maiden’s face and hesitantly brought his own face in close. When Ursula realized what he wanted, she gave a somewhat hesitant look before closing her eyes with a slight smile and offering him her lips.
Her cheeks had seemed as transparent as crystal, but a faint red hue had entered them.
They had a significant height difference even while sitting, so the boy stretched up from below to kiss her.
Unlike Louise, Ursula wore no makeup and possibly not even any lipstick, but her thin lips were smooth and soft.
Simply touching her lips filled him with a happiness that rose from his chest.
Her breasts bumped into his chest while still encased in her breastplate. He focused on that sensation while shaking his head to rub their lips together.
He even extended his tongue to lick her thin lips. He then parted her lips, stuck his tongue inside, and licked her pearl-like front teeth and gums.
Ursula opened her eyes in confusion, but a mischievous smile eventually appeared in her eyes. She opened her mouth, wrapped her own tongue around the boy’s, and sucked on it.
She had the exterior of a cool beauty, but she had the warmth of a fierce warrior on the inside.
They both lost themselves in intertwining their tongues and exchanging their sweet, melting saliva. After the long kiss came to an end, Ursula’s beautiful angled eyes were damp.
“Urs, do you remember the promise you made?”
“Yes…”
He had asked her to teach him about sex and she had put off her answer.
Ursula must have sensed what Felix was hoping for because she only gave a short answer.
“But you wouldn’t want to sleep with me anymore. You have four beautiful maidens around you, don’t you?”
“I-is that the rumor?”
The former apprentice gave the fearful look of a baby rabbit as the former master looked down at him with a composed look of contempt.
“The kingdom’s most beautiful girls were gathered and only the top candidates were chosen as the crown prince’s personal maids. How could word not get around? Hilmedes’s faction claimed you were sleeping with a different beautiful woman or girl every day. They said it showed all anyone needed to know about your upbringing.”
“I wasn’t doing that.”
“But you did do it, didn’t you?”
Felix could not lie when those lovely eyes stared at him.
“…Only with one of them.”
“Oh? And who was that?”
Ursula’s voice and expression were kind, but the unnatural kindness actually frightened him.
Held in her arms, he was essentially a mouse captured by a cat.
“Head Maid…Louise.”