Chapter 143: As an Imperial Princess

“Ruby, come on, now that Nana isn’t here, tell me—how far have you two gotten?”

On the way to Hedonmar, Tenasha repeatedly asked Ruby the same question. With Mayuna absent, it was a golden opportunity.

“You’re so annoying. Are all royals this nosy?”

Ruby couldn’t be bothered to answer. There really wasn’t much to say anyway. He couldn’t exactly say, “I confessed and got rejected,” could he? Even he needed some pride. Besides, if he told the green-haired princess, she’d probably just burst out laughing with her carefree nature.

“Such a sore loser!”

“Tenasha, why don’t the royal mage saints help fend off the monster waves?”

Since they had time to kill, Ruby decided to bring up one of the questions that had long puzzled him.

“Well, Father said it’s a rule established by previous emperors. Mage saints aren’t allowed to interfere with the monster waves. I don’t know the exact reason, though.”

“Then why was Mayuna sent?”

Ruby furrowed his brow. He sensed there was more to this matter than met the eye, but the clues were too sparse to tell where the problem lay.

“That was Aunt Yula’s decision. She told Father to send Nana once she felt her powers were strong enough.”

“Yula again…”

Listening to Tenasha’s explanation, Ruby couldn’t shake the feeling that Yula’s influence was behind everything Mayuna did. He wondered what the eccentric teacher’s true intentions were.

“Wait, what’s that?”

The group leader, Swort, suddenly stopped. Ruby tore his thoughts away from Yula and looked ahead at the path. There, a white worm about a meter long was slowly wriggling on the ground. Its plump body looked fat-rich, and its pale skin featured only a mouth and two eyes. The mouth had two rows of vertical sharp teeth, and the shiny black eyes bulged, darting around as if gathering intelligence. After spotting humans nearby, it hesitated for a full two seconds…

“Graaah!”

The worm’s mouth suddenly opened wide, stretching into a two-meter diameter circle at a bizarre angle. But what Ruby saw inside was not flesh or organs, but a vibrant, colorful light screen. Almost simultaneously, dozens of brown birds scrambled out from the luminous portal and soared into the sky, followed by several bizarrely shaped monsters emerging one after another.

Leading them was a teal mantis-like creature. Though similar in appearance to Earth’s mantises, it was entirely different. It stood upright on two thick hind legs. Its forelimbs had evolved into blade-sharp arms, glinting metallically under the sun, capable of slicing a person in half without doubt. Two long antennae curved backward like feathers, hanging down its back. Its abdomen was no longer long and broad but had evolved into a shorter, more convenient form for walking.

“General Mantis! How can a level-seven monster be here...”

Swort looked pale and shaken. He felt like he was trapped in a nightmare. The monsters meant to appear before Hedonmar shouldn’t have been here. How could some of them have slipped past Hedonmar’s extensive defenses? Had the lines already been breached? That was even more impossible to believe.

“Bang!”

A thunderous gunshot startled Swort. As he turned, he saw Ruby had somehow moved to the worm’s side, wielding a strange weapon and firing. The sharp crack came from the slender muzzle of the gun.

The bullet struck the worm’s eye with lightning speed, penetrating its unguarded orb and directly hitting its brain, shattering its magical core. The lifeless worm collapsed, clearly beyond saving.

“Teacher Ruby, what are you doing?”

“That’s a spatial worm, an extremely rare monster. They usually come in male-female pairs and can open their mouths to connect their magical powers, enabling instantaneous teleportation over infinite distances. It’s just my hypothesis, but they might be the real masterminds behind this monster wave.”

Ruby retracted the small-caliber sniper rifle he had transformed from Dracon and returned to the group, explaining what the creature was. In truth, by the time he recognized the worm, it was already too late; it had released many monsters. Fortunately, they were caught off guard, allowing him to strike a decisive blow.

“How come I’ve never heard of this monster before?”

Swort, still reeling from recent events, felt like he wasn’t fully awake. As a teacher, his knowledge was less than Ruby’s. Embarrassed yet stunned, he was relieved others had also never heard of this creature.

“I stumbled upon an old book used as a bookrest in the royal library. According to it, humans were lucky enough to capture a pair of spatial worms once and learned the principles of teleportation circles from them.”

“Now’s not the time for this! Run, as fast as you can.”

Ruby shook his head, choosing not to elaborate further. His actions had thoroughly enraged the monsters.

For the General Mantis, today was a glorious day. The spatial worms had tunneled through the passages dug by the earth moles and infiltrated the supply lines behind Hedonmar. Their target was within reach. After transporting nearly fifty thousand monsters, they planned to first seize the nearby city, then scatter throughout the empire to wreak havoc. This was their mission.

But with that gunshot, everything was ruined. The worm never imagined a human could kill it at such a distance. What was that? A new magic? The monsters didn’t understand human magic well, but they knew the wielder must pay a price.

Seeing the spatial worm beyond saving, the General Mantis emitted a shrill screech. The bird-like monsters circling overhead began to dive, while the land monsters charged toward the students.

“Tenasha, you...”

Under Ruby’s urging, the students had already started retreating. But when he looked at the green-haired princess, she stood firmly behind the group, weapon drawn, refusing to withdraw.

“I’m staying to fight. If we all run, we won’t get away. Someone has to cover the retreat.”

Noticing Ruby’s gaze, Tenasha spoke. She wasn’t foolish; she had already sensed Ruby’s intention to stay behind alone.

“You go. I can handle this by myself. With Dracon protecting me, I’ll be fine.”

“Are you crazy? How can I let you stay here alone? What if something happens to you? How do I explain it to Nana? Besides, as a princess, isn’t it your duty to protect the empire’s people?”

Tenasha shook her head stubbornly. There was even something she didn’t realize herself: even without Mayuna’s connection, her feelings for Ruby alone made it impossible for her to leave.