A.N. (1/21/21) - Here's another chapter, since I'm in the mood.

Early Days (2) - Time Passes

An assassin tried to kill the princess earlier today.

Everything was a mess as people ran around trying to get things under control. Elliot wasn't there when the incident happened, but apparently, one of the guards-maids was injured while protecting the newly-born princess.

Something about that felt familiar to Elliot, so he found himself headed towards the castle to check on things.

"It is a pleasure to meet you." The woman was unable to move from the bed since it was her leg that was injured. Even though she was bedridden, she kept a professional air about her. "My name is Lilia. It is an honor to greet the famous guardian knight of the newest princess."

"Some guardian knight I am if you're the one who had to do my job," he grumbled. Taking a seat on the edge of the bed, he gestured to her leg. "May I take a look? I'm pretty good with healing magic, so I might be able to fix this."

"Go ahead, but I've been told that the poison was quite powerful. Several healers had already told me that it was untreatable."

He grunted at that and gently grabbed the leg with his hand. He used his magic to inspect the damages.

"...damn, my detoxification magic isn't up to snuff. If this was just a regular trauma wound, I'd probably be able to fix it. But the poison seems to still have some lingering amounts in your body."

She looked curiously at him. "Did you just cast without an incantation?"

He waved his hand at that. "Yup, I'm special like that. So here's the good news and bad news."

She began to pay attention to him, and he gave the news to her bluntly.

"There's almost no doubt that you're gonna be sacked after this. Even though you've managed to protect the princess, you've crippled yourself in return. While you'll be able to walk once you've healed, anything rougher than that is gonna be almost impossible."

She didn't bat an eye at that. She probably already knew about her future prospects.

"You've saved the princess, so I doubt that they'll repay that with too large of an injustice. But that's only to the extent that they won't kill you for knowing the palace's secrets. Most likely, they'll just kick you out of the capital."

Her face didn't change, and Elliot found himself starting to feel embarrassed at taking up most of the conversation.

"The good news is that I'm supposed to go on an errand around the Fedoa region. Usually, I travel alone since it's faster. But if you want, I can offer you a lift there. It's probably far enough from the capital that you don't have to worry about any danger there."

"Why are you doing this?" she questioned him.

He awkwardly scratched his cheek. "Well… this was kinda my fault in the first place. It's usually my job to look over the princess. Most likely, someone found out that I wasn't gonna be here today and took that opportunity to get at the princess."

It couldn't be helped that he wasn't here. Elliot had to leave the city to practice a large-scale spell without causing damages to his surroundings. He already told Derrick about it, so he figured that it would be okay to miss one day of being the brat's babysitter.

Not that he was bragging, but Elliot had a pretty scary reputation as a competent magician. There was a reason he was accepted so easily as one of the royalty's guardian knights despite his appearance.

Lilia stared at him for a few moments, before giving him a small bow.

"That is acceptable. Thank you for the generous offer."

"Ahahaha, don't be so stiff. We're gonna be traveling buddies for a while after you heal. And I'll make sure to get a proper replacement this time while I'm gone. Don't want today's incident to repeat itself."

But seriously, wasn't Derrick supposed to protect the princess while he was gone? Something must have happened if a maid of all things had to get involved. Maybe he'll investigate a few things for the next few days while Lilia recovers.

After all, he didn't want to later come back home to find the brat dead.

}-{

It wasn't until a few weeks later that Lilia was finally ready to leave.

During that time, Elliot and Derrick were busy with their investigation on who was responsible. They found a few suspects during that time, but no one really stood out.

Elliot later asked Derrick where was he during the incident, and found that he was kept busy with another group of assassins that acted as a distraction.

Without any big leads, Elliot had no choice but to trust Derrick in figuring out who was responsible while he was gone. Since his last failure, Derrick seemed to possess a newfound sense of duty towards the infant princess and vowed that no harm would come to her while Elliot was gone.

"Alright Lilia, let's go!"

She looked at the young boy cheering before her, then peered over his shoulders to look for something. She didn't seem to be happy with the fact that there was nothing there.

"...are we not taking a stagecoach?"

He scoffed at that. "Please, I have a waaay better form of transportation."

She gave him a confused look, which only grew further as he suddenly lifted her up in a princess carry. Which was already strange, considering the differences in size between the two of them.

She gave him a suspicious look. "What are you doing?"

A torrent of air suddenly appeared from beneath him, and something grew from Elliot's back. Before she could process everything, she felt a powerful lurch as the two quickly shot up into the air.

She didn't scream like a damsel in distress, no matter what the citizens of the capital later said they heard.

"Don't worry, we're fine."

Despite his words, Lilia took a few seconds to finally open her eyes. The moment she did, they widened dramatically at what was happening.

The two of them were flying in the air, the ground beneath them extremely far away for her tastes. Spouting from the young boy's back were two gigantic cloth-like scarves that seemed to act as wings. The wind seemed to push underneath them, and Lilia discovered that they were traveling at a speed comparable to the fastest of stagecoaches.

"I'm using a magic tool that I managed to find in a dungeon a couple of years back," the boy began to explain. "At first, it was just a strange cloth that grew or shrank when you poured magic power into it. I managed to fix it so that it was able to transform between a scarf and a glider."

His voice barely made it over the wind passing them, but she was able to hear him. The shock at what was happening was finally fading away.

"I'm controlling our flight using a mix of several magics. Some wind magic to control the currents and all of the basic gravity magic I was able to learn to decrease our weights. Plus a couple of other things."

Wind magic and gravity magic? And all of this was without incantations too!

The boy laughed at her dumbfounded face. "But forget the magic jargon. This is the first time I've ever had someone else with me when I flew. So what do you think? Is it amazing?"

She looked at his excited face and peered at the scenery of the passing lands below them.

Well, maybe she was just dreaming. Or the world really did turn crazy. So she figured being honest might as well fit the situation.

"It's beautiful," she told him. "It's the most incredible thing that I've ever experienced."

He laughed at that. "Glad you think so. Otherwise, this is gonna be an awkward couple of hours."

Yes, he is completely a Gary Stu. I can't really put much effort into things like character development or gradual progression into this fic. This is just something I do on the side after all.

The gliding is based a little bit on Genshin Impact since I've figured that it was kinda possible to use with Mushoku Tensei magic. And the magic tool is just to rationalize how he can have a glider on him.