Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Prologue — An Event from the Distant Past
This happened in the distant past—
A young girl gazed up at the face of the man carrying her in his arms.
She worried that he might notice her staring, yet she could not stop watching the person who had taken her out into the wider world.
After a while, the man spoke.
“Let us stop and rest for a moment.”
“All right.”
The hem of her dress settled softly onto the ground.
The warmth of the body that had supported her until then receded as well.
For some reason, she already missed it.
“…How strange.”
The girl known as the Corroding Princess smiled at herself for regretting the loss of something so small.
From atop a great boulder that the man said was a remnant of the mountain, she looked out over a forest that stretched as far as she could see.
Unlike the tiny window of the place where she had been confined, the view showed her just how vast the world truly was.
No walls closed in when she spread her arms. Surrounded only by boundless nature, she was reminded of how small she was.
“So this is what a forest looks like?”
She asked the man standing a few steps away.
Plants were things the girl could never observe from nearby. Anything living that came too close to her was quickly corroded, so she had never seen so many trees before.
She had been confined since she was old enough to remember and had only occasionally glimpsed the green of a lawn.
The man turned toward the Corroding Princess.
“Yes. This region is known as the Forest Sea. Once we cross it, you will be able to see a real sea—the Elfen Great Sea.”
“The sea… I’ve read about it in books. It’s an enormous pool of water, so large that no number of bathtubs placed together would be enough, right?”
“A pool of water… I suppose that is not entirely wrong.”
The man who had brought her this far answered with a wry smile instead of correcting her.
As she stared beyond the vast forest and imagined the sea waiting in the distance, he continued.
“More importantly, we need to decide what to do from here.”
“What do you mean? I’ll stay beside you. Are you talking about something other than that?”
“Of course. We need to decide how we are going to live from now on. Is there anywhere you would like to go? To be honest, I brought you away without thinking beyond getting you out.”
He admitted it without the slightest shame.
The Corroding Princess replied in a somewhat feeble voice, though she could not help smiling at the fact that she did not dislike exchanges like this.
“Y-you had no plan? And you still managed to escape from the people chasing me? What exactly are you?”
“Well, I really was only thinking about getting you out.”
“…Only about me?”
“Yes. Until just recently, the only other things on my mind were gathering the three treasures and asking Mirim Altia to make the magic tools and medicine.”
Learning that she had been his highest priority did not feel unpleasant at all.
She turned her back to him so he would not see the faint flush spreading across her cheeks.
Pretending to admire the distant forest, she composed herself while the pleasant breeze stirred the hem of her dress.
“What kind of place would you like to live in?”
“Somewhere bright and quiet… perhaps. I’ve had more than enough of dark places.”
Her wish for somewhere quiet came simply from personal preference.
The man nodded deeply, clearly agreeing, and stepped up beside her.
The Corroding Princess turned her face away again so he would not see her profile.
She soon learned that the effort was pointless.
“You may be trying to hide it, but I can tell you’re blushing.”
“Wha—!?”
She spun around in alarm.
Still red-faced, she glared at him with an unusually flustered, embarrassed, and endearingly dissatisfied expression.
“Even when you notice something like that, courtesy demands that you keep quiet!”
“I’m sorry. It made me happy, so I couldn’t help myself.”
The man laughed and lifted the Corroding Princess into his arms.
The sudden motion drew a small cry from her, and she looked up at him.
“Why did you pick me up all of a sudden?”
Still trying to hide her embarrassment, she pursed her lips slightly.
“Now that we have decided what to do, let us go buy supplies. We have already had quite enough of sleeping outdoors in the forest.”
“All right. Then are we going to live in the place we’re heading to now?”
“No, we are only going there to shop. It is a fairly large city, so it will not be especially quiet. Besides, dealing with pursuers would be troublesome, and some of their allies are probably there. We should only stay for a few days.”
The man kicked off from the boulder and shot forward.
The Corroding Princess neither flinched at the fierce headwind nor feared their speed. She entrusted herself completely to his arms.
Because the rushing air made their voices difficult to hear, they spoke somewhat louder than before.
“I don’t have any money!”
Her first concern was an innocent and rather adorable one.
“I have enough, so don’t worry!”
“…Are you sure?”
“I was the one who brought you away, so of course! And I should tell you now that I plan to meet a friend of sorts once we arrive!”
“All right! So where are we going?”
The man answered her question.
“To an enormous and beautiful port city!”
This was an age when the Demon King still lived and the Seven Heroes had yet to finish their journey.