Whoosh!
Luna nimbly dodged an arrow flying toward her and continued sprinting forward.
"Damn it! Mercenaries are already chasing me? It hasn't even been that long! How did the wanted notice spread this quickly?!"
Luna spun around.
With a sweep of the spear in her hands, she knocked another incoming arrow aside.
She didn't stop for even a second.
She immediately turned and continued running.
Deep down, Luna already knew her chances of escaping were extremely low.
One glance at the symbols worn by the mercenaries had been enough to tell her who was pursuing her.
It was the Owl Wolf Mercenary Group, infamous throughout the kingdom.
The Owl Wolf Mercenary Group wasn't particularly large, with fewer than a hundred members.
But every single one of them was a Fourth-Rank Warrior just like her.
In a one-on-one fight, Luna might still have had a chance.
But if several of them surrounded her at once...
Her chances of surviving would become almost nonexistent.
"Damn it!!!"
Luna desperately avoided attack after attack while running with everything she had.
Even though she knew she probably couldn't escape, the determination to rescue the Princess still burned inside her heart.
That belief refused to let her give up.
Then, while sprinting through the forest, two figures suddenly appeared within Luna's field of vision.
A young man with black hair and black eyes.
And beside him...
A breathtakingly beautiful girl with purple hair and purple eyes.
Luna froze.
Without even realizing it, she stopped running.
Because...
In all sixteen years she had lived in the kingdom, Luna had never seen anyone as beautiful as the purple-haired girl before her.
That single moment of hesitation was enough.
The Owl Wolf Mercenary Group pursuing her immediately caught up.
Afraid that Luna might escape again, the mercenaries quickly spread out and surrounded her.
But soon...
The mercenaries also noticed the purple-haired, purple-eyed girl.
And they froze as well.
At that moment, Toma and Tohka finally recovered from their own surprise.
Toma looked at the scene unfolding before him.
His eyebrows twitched violently.
What the hell?!
The very first time I meet other people, I immediately run into something this dramatic?!
And why is it exactly like something straight out of a novel?!
Don't tell me that girl surrounded in the middle is secretly the princess of some country or something?!
Sure, I used to fantasize about running into cliché situations like this...
But did it really have to happen this suddenly?!
Couldn't you at least give me a little time to mentally prepare myself?!
Toma furiously complained inside his head.
The scene before him was so ridiculously similar to something straight out of a fantasy novel that his inner desire to roast everything simply refused to calm down.
…
While the mercenaries were still standing there in a daze, an angry shout suddenly rang out.
"What the hell is going on? Did you catch that girl or not?!"
Derken's voice seemed to snap the mercenaries back to their senses. They hurriedly raised their weapons and surrounded Luna.
However, their eyes kept drifting toward Tohka from time to time, making their thoughts painfully obvious...
Derken, who had just walked over, also noticed something strange about his men.
Following their gazes, he looked in the same direction...
And then Derken froze too.
'What an incredibly beautiful girl...'
'If I could have a girl this beautiful, then what would money or status even matter anymore?'
Yes.
Not long ago, Derken had confidently declared that money and status were more important than women.
But now, he suddenly realized something.
No matter how much money or status he obtained, there was no guarantee he could ever find a woman this beautiful.
Compared to money and status, Derken now wanted this dreamlike beauty far more.
And so...
"Fuck! What the hell are you idiots standing around for?! Surround that woman! Capture her!!!"
Derken pointed directly at Tohka and roared at his men.
"Boss, isn't our target supposed to be this one?"
Bart pointed at Luna with a confused expression.
He genuinely couldn't understand why they were suddenly abandoning their original target to capture someone else.
Sure, that woman was incredibly beautiful, but with Bart's limited brainpower, understanding his leader's thoughts was apparently asking too much...
Bart might not have understood, but Zafei and the other mercenaries certainly did.
Whoosh!
The mercenaries immediately abandoned Luna, their actual target, and instead surrounded Toma and Tohka.
Luna stared at the bizarre scene in complete confusion.
Weren't they here to capture her?
Why did they suddenly stop?!
Luna couldn't understand what was happening.
Toma, on the other hand, understood perfectly.
And right now, he was screaming internally.
Hey!
What the hell is this?!
This was supposed to be the classic heroic scene where I save a beauty!
How the hell did it suddenly turn into 'me' getting dragged into trouble?!
What kind of bullshit plot development is this?!
While Toma furiously complained inside his head, Tohka had already stepped protectively in front of him.
Sandalphon was in her hand, its blade pointed directly at Derken and his men.
"What do you want? Why are you surrounding us?"
Tohka didn't understand why they had surrounded her and Toma, but the hostility she sensed from them was more than enough to tell her that these people were looking for trouble.
Derken seemed to notice that Toma didn't look like someone capable of fighting, so he completely ignored him and spoke directly to Tohka.
"Who are you people? Which kingdom are you from? Or perhaps... which family?"
Derken had worked as a mercenary for far too long to completely abandon caution, even when lust had gone straight to his head.
If he accidentally offended someone from a powerful kingdom or influential family, the price could very well be his life.