Extra S*ave Saves the Crown Prince

“Seth?”

I heard O’Mont’s voice, moving a step closer.

‘No, please don’t call me now. Please, just leave me alone for now.’

‘I would be so grateful if you could just forget about me for a moment, please.’

I closed my eyes desperately, hoping and wishing that he wouldn’t notice me.

“Your Highness, I’ll inspect the damage and give you a report– eh?”

The voice came from an unexpected place. Vaslow had suddenly appeared from the front.

He was carrying a piece of paper with something scribbled on it, and our eyes locked immediately.

“Huh? You?”

I quickly covered my nose and mouth with my arms as if to avoid the smoke. Why did he come from the front?

I was so focused on what was happening behind my back that I was caught off guard.

I felt like my heart was going to jump out of my mouth.

I walked forward, passing by Vaslow’s confused expression.

If I stayed here, I wouldn’t have any nerves left.

I’d have to avoid him first.

“Uh, you.”

I felt my face burn. This is crazy.

I couldn’t see where I was going, so my body moved as it pleased.

You’d even think I was walking directly into the fire.

Luckily, Vaslow didn’t realize I was here, so he was still nervous.

I should take advantage of the opportunity and quickly hide myself.

A part of me wanted to vanish into space and not think about what happened next.

I turned and walked quickly to the side of the demon’s corpse.

“Hey, wait.”

I could feel Vaslow following me from a distance. I must have looked suspicious to anyone.

I should have walked casually, but my head was spinning and I was probably drawing attention to myself even more.

‘This is Crazy, it’s crazy, crazy.’

I continued to walk as fast as I could, covering myself with my arms.

I almost tripped over my own feet every now and then because of the broken remains of the barracks.

I didn’t care if I was embarrassed, just that I needed to get out of here.

“Hah, hah, ha.”

I rounded a bend in the road and entered a barracks with a broken door, which was bolted shut, leaving a very small gap, through which I squeezed myself in.

I’m actually glad that I found that tiny gap in the midst of my stupidity.

Hopefully he’d walk past it without realizing I was in here.

“Ha.”

I hadn’t even run, just a quick walk, and I was already out of breath.

I leaned my back against the wall and sulked for a moment.

I thought I heard footsteps approaching.

I begged Vaslow to look away, just this once.

He must have a good eye, because he recognized my face immediately.

Maybe I should just teleport out of here.

The herb warehouse was most likely empty, but it wasn’t impossible that someone might come in there in case of an emergency.

Where could I move at this hour to be sure that no one was there?

I bit my lip and racked my brain for a place to move.

Maybe the back corner of the herb drawer would be a little less noticeable? Just as I was about to make up my mind.

Boom!

I heard the sound of something breaking violently.

I quickly covered my ears, but it was too late. I slowly turned my head, and the first thing I felt was a sense of dizziness.

The door, which had only a small gap, was completely torn open.

Even if you were a knight, the weight of that door would have been overwhelming, but he actually managed to rip it open and blow it away.

Was it possible with bare hands?

I stared open-mouthed, and dumbfounded.

I looked up.

I then saw someone stepping out through the torn door. It was dark in the barracks, so I couldn’t see the face clearly, but it was definitely not the Knight Vaslow.

“Greetings.”

He said. I was hoping it wasn’t his highness…

I pushed myself up from my slumped position.

“Well.”

And I knew right away— It was indeed not Vaslow. His breathing was labored after all.

I saw a familiar figure standing in the doorway.

His deep golden eyes were staring back at me from inside the dark barracks.

Clank, clank.

The wooden floor clattered as he took another step, and I felt a stabbing pain in my chest as if I were the floor.

He stepped in front of me, while I leaned against the wall.

I’d never felt his presence so strongly in all the time I’d been with him.

I could barely breathe, crushed under the weight of his presence.

“Why, you…”

It wasn’t until he was a foot away that he stopped walking.

I’d never been this close to anyone before, so I clenched my fists and dug my nails into them.

I suddenly had a crazy thought, I felt like reaching out with my arms and hugging him.

Being a slave must have really broken me somewhere.

“Why are you here?”

‘Your fiancé sent me here.’

I wanted to spill the tea, but I didn’t, anyway, I was punished and was told to go to Einfork, but I came because I really wanted to.

‘It’s so nice to see you like this..’

My mind scrambled to figure out where to start and how to explain those words.

“Well I’m here… So you’re here too?”

His voice sounded so dry when he was angry, and I could feel his breathing, as if he was holding something in.

It wasn’t that I’d done anything wrong, but somehow the suffocating feeling made me feel like I shouldn’t be here.

I absentmindedly lowered my gaze and saw that he was clenching his fists as hard as I did, and the sight of them made the lump in my throat rise.

Drip.

With all of my attention on him, the small sound became even more obvious.

There was a thick stream of blood running down his left fist and onto the floor.

“Uh, blood, blood.”

I leaned over to his fist, the blood seemed to be dripping from inside his clothes, and I realized that he must have been hurt somewhere.

Everything else faded right away, and the scene of the dripping blood zoomed in my mind.

“Are you hurt?”

He leaned in and grabbed my arm, jerking me back to my feet. He then ran his eyes up and down my body.

His golden eyes flickered with an urgency I’d never seen before.

His gaze swept from my toes to the top of my head again and again, searching for any injury.

I choked and swallowed hard, then something suddenly came over me.

“No, not me,” I said, “You’re the one that’s bleeding now, look at your arm.”

He followed my gaze to his fist and saw a long gash on his forearm. It looked like it had been cut with something sharp.

Blood was gurgling and spitting out of it, it was running down the length of his arm.

“Ha.”

He let out a long breath. He didn’t even look at his injury. It sounded like he was relieved, which only made me feel even more impatient.

Now was not the time for relief— He needed medical attention, and fast.

I fumbled for the palm-sized cloth pouch I always wore and opened it, revealing a Novenium herb, a white cloth, and a small dagger.

I took out the cloth first and placed it on the wound in front of me. I glanced up at him to see if it would hurt, but he was looking at my face, not even paying attention to his injury.

I put the cloth on top of his wound because I needed to stop the bleeding.

But to no avail, the white cloth quickly turned red.

“Your Highness, hurry up and get treat—”

“Seth.”

A shiver ran down the back of my neck as he called my name in a low voice. He reached out to me with his other hand.

His fingers grazed the tip of my eyebrow, then the tip of my ear, and finally the wall behind me. I could feel his fingers trembling, and my breathing shook along with them.

“I thought I made it clear that you didn’t have to take this risk.”

“Well, I–I didn’t come here on my own initiative. There was a reason behind it. Anyways it doesn’t matter right now, I think you should get some medical treatment first, and I’ll tell you all about it later.”

He met my eyes, glanced at the arm, where my gaze was resting, and looked away for a moment.

He took a long breath and briefly covered the corners of his eyes.

My throat burned and my body felt heavy from all the pressure emanating in the air.

“That means someone sent you here. They dared.”

My skin tingled a little and the air seemed to thicken. All he did was say a few words, but it felt like something heavy was weighing me down from the top of my head.

I felt like I was less than an ant in an instant.

“Ugh.”

A strange sound escaped my lips, and at the same time, I heard the sound of wood breaking somewhere in the barracks.

Snap.

The hand covering his eyes dropped in an instant, and he took a step back. The corners of his eyes were crinkled, making him look sick, angry, and impatient.

Tap.

He touched my lips lightly with his finger, and I realized I was biting it tightly.

He took two more steps back and used his other arm to grab the cloth I was holding. The cloth, which had already lost its white color, looked very sorry.

“First, come out.”

Thump, thump.

After looking me up and down, he turned and walked out of the barracks.

A rush of air came in immediately after he left. It was like a breath of fresh air.

“Ha, ha.”

The pressure, or whatever it was, was gone, and I could see a dark stain of blood on the ground where I’d been standing.

“You’re hurt.”

“You’re the one who’s hurt.”

I wiped the corner of my eye futilely.

The urgency in his gaze burned in the back of my mind. I breathed in as hard as I could, slapped my cheeks together as if nothing had happened, and followed him out.

“Oh, God. It’s true!”

Vaslow’s eyes widened in surprise as I walked out. Ricks was standing beside him, looking at me thoughtfully.

“Hello.”

“There’s blood on your face, are you hurt?”

Vaslow took a step toward me, but Ricks blocked him with his arm.

“No!”

I forgot that I put the cloth over his injury earlier, and my hands were still covered by blood.

I slapped my cheek with both my hands to calm myself, and quickly lifted my arm to rub it.

I hope it didn’t leave a mark.

This is a historically stupid day for me.

“I hope this is not where you live…”

Ricks gestured to the barracks we’d just exited, which didn’t look too bad except for the broken door.

“Oh, no.”

The crown prince let out another long breath as he looked at me.

In fact, I was so preoccupied with everything about him that I could tell if he took a small breath through his nose or not.

“Your Highness, I think you should seek medical treatment first.”

That was what I wanted to say.

I couldn’t have been more pleased to hear the words come out of Rick’s mouth as he bent slightly at the waist.

How long has he been bleeding like that?

I stared at the wound, full of sympathy and worry. He should definitely get medical treatment now, not follow me around.

He stared at me, exhaled, and finally turned and trudged away. Ricks and Vaslow followed.

I took a few steps cautiously, while crouching low.

My heart then started to ache again at the sight of the blood dripping onto the dirt.