Carrying the sleeping girl in my arms I start walking back to the tent where I left Arana, or at least that's what I hope I'm doing... I probably should have realized this sooner, but even if the 'whispers of the forest' can guide me to a place where a murder is taking place, that doesn't mean that they will also guide me back to where I was before, still, all I have to do is go back the way I came, that cannot be such a difficult thing to do, probably...
...
Nevermind, I have no idea where I'm going, I think I've already walked past this fallen tree four times, I need help!
"Excuse me mister pine tree, would you happen to know where my friend is?"
It's not answering, I guess it doesn't work that way...
Well, even if I cannot find my way back, I'm sure that Arana will be able to find me, so I might as well stay in one place and wait for her, she'll probably be waking up soon.
I'll just sit on the fallen tree and read a book, I have not had a lot of chances to read these past few days, I'll place the girl sitting next to me, it shouldn't take much longer for her to wake up either.
...
To my surprise, it seems like the forest is actually a good place to read, the silence despite being out in the open is rather relaxing. But I got to a part of this novel that seems strange, the bad guy was making a very long evil speech until the protagonist interrupted him by impaling him with a spear while saying 'get to the point', but how can he get to the point if you kill him? ... Oh, wait! I get it, it's supposed to be a pun!
"Hahahaha"
"Eeeeeeeek!!!"
Eh? Oh! The girl just woke up, what are the odds of her waking up just when I was laughing? Now she seems to be completely terrified, is my laugh really that creepy?
"I was just laughing at the book! I'm not..."
"Stay away!"
She tries to run away, but being tied up she ends up tripping and falling to the ground.
"Are you alright?"
"Stay away! stay away!"
She's crying and yelling like crazy, it doesn't seem like she's listening to me at all... I probably should just wait until she calms down a little.
...
After a bit of waiting her sobs finally start to subside.
"Will you listen to me now?"
"What are you planning to do with me?"
"I'm not planning anything! I just saw those guys trying to kill you so I went there to help!"
"Then why did you tie me up!?"
"Because you tried killing yourself earlier! I cannot risk letting you do something like that again!"
"You are lying... the way you look at me... is the same way a predator looks at its prey"
If she words it like that people may think that I'm planning to do something indecent...
"I cannot change my eyes... look, just bear with this for a while and I promise that I'll let you go as soon as we reach a town"
She stops to think for a moment, and then she seems to decide to stop trying to fight back.
"It's not like I have a choice, do I? Fine, let's go..."
"..."
"Well, what are you waiting for?"
"Eh, I'm actually waiting for a friend, we'll leave after she arrives"
I don't want to admit that I got lost...
"Waiting for a friend? In this place?"
"We agreed to met here"
"You agreed to met in the middle of nowhere in a forest?"
Uh, I need to change the topic.
"So anyway, are you really a princess? What kingdom are you from?"
"I will not reveal any information to you"
"I don't think either of those things should be a secret..."
"..."
Now that she's calmer, she's acting rather defiant, I suppose that this is how a proud princess is expected to act when kidnapped, not that I kidnapped her.
"Anyway... my name is Luna, would you mind telling me yours?"
"I will not reveal any information to you"
"You won't even tell me your name!?"
It seems like winning her over might be more difficult than I thought...
"You really do not waste any time, do you? It's not even been a week since you became a demon lord and you've already kidnapped a princess"
"I did not kidnap her!"
"Then why is she tied up and why does it look like she has been crying?"
"I only tied her up for her own safety"
"I see, so you are the type of villain that takes away the freedom of people 'for their own good'"
"I'm not a villain of any type!"
As expected, it didn't take Arana long to find us, I wonder how she does it, and of course, as soon as she arrived she started making fun of me.
"That hat... "
But the princess in question seems to be more interested in Arana's hat.
"That's a witch's hat, isn't it? Why are you wearing that?"
"A witch? What's that?"
Is there anything special about that hat? Arana herself doesn't seem to know.
"I don't know what a witch is either..."
"It's a legend that only a few have heard... a witch is a creature that is both a human and a demon, they are able to look into the hearts of people, and whenever they appear they always bring chaos and misfortune"
"Well, that certainly does sound like Arana..."
Still, that legend is probably not true, humans are animals, so no one can be both a human and a demon.
"Ufufu, that's right, with Luna's help I shall bring chaos to the entire world! Now let me take a look at your heart!"
"Nooo!!!"
Arana is approaching the princess while making some creepy gestures with her hands.
"Ara! Stop joking around! You are scaring her even more!"
"Haha, you should learn to have fun every once in a while"
I don't think this is a good time to 'have fun'... but I'm still curious about one thing.
"And you think that Arana one of those 'witches' because of the hat she's wearing? Is there anything special about it?"
"A witch is supposed to be always wearing a pointy hat just like that one"
Is that so? Now that she mentions it, Arana never takes her hat off, not even when she sleeps, I wonder if she's actually bald on the top of her head?
"Luna... did you think something weird about me just now?"
Huh? Can she really look into my heart? Or am I just that easy to read?
"I was just wondering... Ara, could it be that you cannot take off that hat?"
"Eh!? Of course I can! I just don't want to!"
Why is she getting so worked up over this? This is suspicious.
"Then why don't you take off your hat right now?"
"What!? Why do you want me to take it off?"
"I see, so you really are bald at the top..."
"No, I'm not... hey! Why don't you show the princess those imps of yours? If she sees how weak they are maybe she'll be less scared of you"
"Don't try to change the topic..."
She's trying her best to appear calm, but as I keep staring at her with eyes full of suspicion, she cannot help looking at the sides.
"Alright! You win! I'll take it off!"
She lifts her hat for less than a second and then quickly puts it back in place, but it's enough for me to check that the top of her head looks normal, that's a bit disappointing.
"There, happy now?"
"Sure..."
She's breathing heavily for some reason, huh, there's no way I can just let it go like that, I need to find out what this is all about!
As soon as it seems like she's dropped her guard, I swipe her hat with all the swiftness that my speed stat grants me, when she realizes what I've done, a look of despair appears on her face.
"Luna! Give me back my hat!"
With me holding it as high as I can, she cannot reach it, no matter how much she tries to jump.
"This is not funny! Give it back!"
The Arana I know would be able to think of a way to get her hat back, but instead, she just crouches on the ground and places her hands on top of her head with a pitiful look on her face.
Don't tell me...
Did I finally discover Arana's weakness!?
"Luna... please..."
She looks like she's about to cry... I've never seen Arana crying, now I feel like a bully.
"Uh... here"
As soon as she gets the hat back she puts it on in a rush, now she looks angry... and the princess looks confused at everything going on here.
"Forget what just happened! And never do that again!"
How am I supposed to know not to do it again if I forget it?
Not that I want to forget anyway, I should probably keep this new information in mind for the future...
Luna is an unreliable narrator anyway. Something coming out of nowhere is par for the course.
Even if you didn't say that she had a hat, I 100% imagined her with a witch hat the entire time
It was said earlier that her spider pet had the same hat as hers. I don't know why but I originally imagined the spider with a white fedora and there's no way I'm imagining it with any other hat
Luna now knows what to threaten Arana with if she gets too mischievous for her own good. Well, she’ll just being saying it to remind Arana while Arana will take it as a dire threat
i think worst one is luna.
always resorted to beat up, bad guy-good guy, kidnap, invade bodies without consent, take always freedom.
I remember commenting earlier about what kind of hat it is and how you not describing it made me think of top hat, baseball hat or witches hat. Of course you gave the reason that witches aren’t well known and mentioned it in full here so it’s fine. Wonder why she has the hat though (could just be it looks cool) but even more want to know why she insists on keeping it on? Is she actually the hat itself (it is her body or core) and the “body” is just a physical projection or something (mana given form like a demon but she was a human until her soul was put in the hat and so is technically human and demon)? Or maybe the hat stabilizes her body? Or maybe she was teased for some reason (does she have animal ears hidden with magic of hat?) as a kid and so seeks comfort in the coolness of a white pointy hat that Longleg also wears (Longleg has a tiny witches hat too)? Could also be someone cursed her to have anxiety without the hat (or she projects confidence, mischievousness and such with the hat but her shy self without it is her inner self?). Arana with hat is who she wants to be and it ended up being a pillar for her personality.
Wonder if a witch is a child of human and demon. Though that seems difficult considering that demons shouldn’t be able to breed in the same ways humans and other animals do.
Hard to believe I wrote so much and did a character analysis and theory’s based on a hat. In any case, she probably has that skill cat girl has that lets you remember and keep track of certain people by mana and follow them. Finally, I called it that she wouldn’t be able to find her way back.
If you can write all of that stuff based on so little maybe you should try writing your own story!
Also, if you really want to know how Arana can keep finding Luna, maybe you should try rereading the start of chapter 3.
@forli Eh, I'm specialized in reading (and I have read a lot over my life starting from like 4 to 20-something) and have gotten pretty good at analyzing and plot guessing. Probably not cut out for writing though maybe it's just that I need to actually practice. Well it would probably be a hobby in any case which isn't bad.
In any case, I guess you are implying that Longleg found her as a spider was on her shoulder in chapter 3 (is Longleg the spider king where all lesser spiders are his to command and that is how he knows where things and people are)? Is Longleg the secret protagonist and captain that is on a journey to find the All Web and become the true spider king (gotta love One piece)? Longleg is the only other way I can think of Arana finding her without using that tracking skill or magic I don't know about.
Thank you for the chapter.<3
Oh, so you really are bald huh...
you know i kinda read luna as kinda attention deposit ... ohh shiny. so yeah her not regestering a witch hat is kinda ... understandable i mean her answer to being told about is "is that special". i mean this is the girl that goes "but forbidden magic is useful" .
Plus it seems stories of witches in general is rare knowledge. She would probably only know if there happened to be a book in the library for her to read (but since there didn't seem to be one, or if there was it didn't interest her to remember which I don't believe it wouldn't, I guess it could be limited to more a local area like this princesses kingdom).