(Miku's POV)
"Mikuuuu, Miku! Where are you?"
I raised my head, spying Ryuu racing towards me. "Ooh, fancy," I teased, referring to the elegant dress she wore.
"It's not my fault, Father was going on a formal visit and I had to go too," she grumbled. Under her breath, she complained, "I don't understand why, it's just the Inugamis."
Huffing indignantly, Ryuu changed out of her dress into a more comfortable attire. As if Kotaro could sense when was the worst time to come in, he burst into the room. "Hey, I've been waiting for ages. How long-" And then he realized.
The reaction was immediate. Kotaro's hands flew up to shield his eyes as Ryuu opened her mouth to scream. With lightning speed, I clamped my hand over her mouth, muffling the shout.
We managed to go out into the field to play with minimal disasters, which I counted as a win.
As I watched them play, giggling, a woman plopped herself down next to me. She resembled Ryuu from her sharp faintly kind eyes down to her voice's musical accent.
"They are cute together, aren't they?" she asked fondly.
"They have a hard path ahead of them." We watched Ryuu pin Kotaro down, only for him to roll over.
"Really? My little Ryuu having a hard time in her love life?" she wondered, amused.
"Yes. For Ryuu Entheopysia, the third princess of Ostia, daughter of Lilianne Entheopysia, second heir to the throne of Vespertatia to fall in love with Kotaro Inugami, the only son of the royal family of the Inugamis would resulted in some kind of major havoc. Don't you think?" I rattled off titles unnecessarily, but I think I got my point across.
Lilianne laughed, "Fair enough. I feel sorry for Arika. All that pressure of being the crown princess. It truly makes Hidenori and I feel grateful you're here for the kids."
I looked startled at the figure sitting next to me and her soft look of gratitude. "Lili, you and I both know I'm Ryuu's guardian, and that I would never forgive myself if something happened to Ryuu or Kotaro."
"I know, I know." She smiled softly.
A man from the village approached us, panting from the run. We sat up straight, regaining stately composure. After all, Lilianne was the second princess of the kingdom.
"Yes?" she asked, voice steely and clipped.
"Hordes of...demons...attacking...hurry...away," he choked out. We shared similar looks of horror.
"The children! Ryuu, Kotaro!" Lilianne called. "Hurry! There's no time to lose!" Finding the whole village huddled in the center of the town, Lilianne took charge.
"Miku! Take the children and the elderly and evacuate!" A large group congregated, Ryuu and Kotaro included. I watched as Ryuu's parents worked to make sure everyone stayed safe. Soon we were divided into two groups. Those who would fight using combat magic and those who Ryuu, Kotaro, and I quickly transported into Ostia.
The royal children were to be guarded at all cost. So the plan had been that as soon as the regular magic folks had gone I was to set a transportation circle for my hometown. It was going so smoothly when a flock of eagle demons surrounded us.
Stupid eagle demons, ruining plans all the time.
I knew from body language that Kotaro was itching to go. "No. You can't," I warned.
"What? Why not?" came the indignant reply. He was silenced with a look. "No. Besides you have a job," I bent on one knee. "That job is to protect the civilians of this country. Right now, that's Ryuu. Okay?"
I looked at Ryuu, wondering why she had made noise in the entire conversation. Normally, Ryuu would have objected to any boy protecting her, and I know from experience that Ryuu saved riots just for Kotaro.
She had worry written on her face, clearer than day. "They'll be fine," I said, meaning her parents. "They always are. Now give me a hug." I held out my arms. All three of us hugged and I turned to face things that were...definitely not as nice as hugs. I laughed in their face.
"Hey! What's to laugh about?" the leader demanded. "You find us funny or something?"
"No." I tried to maintain a straight face. "It's just you are the sorriest bunch of birds I have ever seen." I watched his face turn murderous in embarrassment. Well, he did walk right into that. No guilt on my part.
"Don't tell me. You're here for the kids," I went on, rolling my eyes. Honestly, I couldn't count the number of times slave traders had come for the two. It happened almost like clockwork.
I defeated most of the hoard before stopping to check if Ryuu and Kotaro had been transported yet. The spell was slow and inefficient, but it was quick and had been all I could do in such short time. They'd been slowly disappearing, bit by bit, but it wasn't fast enough.
The leader of the eagle demons made a desparate swipe into the transparent bodies, screwing up the spell. With the interference, who knows where they were going to end up. I felt a little annoyance; goodness knows what I was going to have to do to track them down.
My various wounds ignored, I snarled, charging at him with a war cry.
I risked a peek back and the last thing I saw were worried, flickering faces as they reached out for me.