Bear-san meets Princess Honoka
The princess appeared before us and we introduced ourselves to each other.
She was the same age as me, or a little older.
Her long hair reached her waist.
Her appearance was a mixture of beautiful and pretty.
I could not believe she had the King’s blood in her.
I am certain she resembled her mother.
And I was glad she didn’t resemble that King.
“So you are the light of hope Sakura was talking about.” (Honoka)
Light of hope, I have not heard that in a while.
There was something embarrassing about being told that by someone I didn’t know.
“Um, well, you know me?” (Yuna)
“A gag order had been given, so the public had not heard about you, but that excluded me, so I do know you.” (Honoka)
It was not surprising that the princess of this country knew a little bit about me.
“For saving my country. Thank you, and also for saving Sakura. Sakura is like a sister to me, and I can’t thank you enough for that.” (Honoka)
“Honoka-sama…” (Sakura)
Princess Honoka looked at Sakura with a smile.
Sakura seemed happy to hear Princess Honoka’s words.
“Well, do you believe in my dream?” (Sakura)
“Father may joke sometimes, but I don’t think he would lie about something so important. I have seen Father and Sakura distressed when they learned about the signs of the serpent’s resurrection.” (Honoka)
Princess Honoka turned her gaze toward Sakura.
She was Sakura’s cousin and a princess, so she would probably know about Sakura’s prophetic dreams.
In other words, she knew about the prophecy that is derived from her dreams and the whole episode of light of hope that would appear.
And from what she had said earlier, it seemed that she also knew that I was that light of hope.
“At first, I was skeptical about the story of a girl dressed as a bear saving our country, but I also had the opportunity to watch your earlier match with Shinobu and Jubei. After seeing that, I don’t think anyone would doubt what you are capable of accomplishing.” (Honoka)
“I am sorry to have shown you my embarrassing side.” (Jubei)
Jubei-san apologized.
He was unaware that Princess Honoka had witnessed his match with Yuna.
If Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear had been around, they might have noticed that someone was nearby, but they were unsummoned because I was afraid that servants and workers at the castle might make a fuss if I brought them to the castle.
“But then again, you are really dressed as a bear.” (Honoka)
Princess Honoka looked at me and smiled.
It was not a wry smile.
“Father said that you are a girl dressed as a bear, so I was surprised at how cute you look.” (Honoka)
“I thought so too when I first saw Yuna.” (Sakura)
“That outfit is one of the reasons why I had to fight with Yuna when we first met.” (Jubei)
“Is that so?” (Noa)
Noa, who was listening to the conversation, asked in interjection.
“You know that Yuna saved our country, right?” (Jubei)
Noa and the others nodded.
“The noble ranks, who didn’t believe that Yuna was really the light of hope because of her outfit, sent me to fight her to find out what she was capable of.” (Jubei)
At that time, I was tricked into fighting Jubei-san as Shinobu’s parent’s avenger.
“The result of that fight was…” (Honoka)
“As you can guess, I lost the previous fight as Yuna blocked my signature move, the three-stage thrust. So this time, I even used a side-strike to counter Yuna, but even that was also blocked. I don’t even know the limit of her strength.” (Jubei)
“But I used magic to block it.” (Yuna)
“That doesn’t matter. The fact that it was blocked is what matters.” (Jubei)
“I didn’t know that was possible.” (Honoka)
Sighing, Princess Honoka said.
“So, why are you here, Honoka-sama? I thought there was a notice that no one was to go near the girls.” (Jubei)
Really?
Well, I did somewhat notice it.