The Reincarnated Princess Experiences Terror

A loud crash thundered from above. I wasn’t sure how many times that’d happened, but my heart still jumped each time I heard it. I placed a hand on my chest and exhaled.

It’s okay. Klaus will protect me. The sailors are fighting too, and Wolf said he’d help Klaus. I need to trust them and do what I can down here.

After telling myself that, I turned my eyes toward the person lying down in front of me. I’d finished treating Kurt’s fracture...which sounded impressive, but the treatment had been simple; all that I’d done was wrap a bandage around the empty sheath, which was my improvised splint, press it against the injured part of his arm, and affix it there.

No wounds jumped out to me other than the broken arm and some bruising, but I’d left him lying on the floor since I was too scared to move him. I folded up some cloth to use as a makeshift pillow and rested it beneath his head.

Kurt wore an agonized expression. His brows were deeply creased, his cheeks were red, and a thin veil of sweat coated his forehead. He was likely suffering the onset of fever due to the fracture and bruising.

He let out a quiet groan, then shook his head, agony showing on his face. Sweat dripped from his forehead.

With my fingers, I brushed away the hair that’d clung to his skin, and then I wiped his cheeks and forehead with a towel. I shuddered when I saw the scrapes and bruises that covered his body. I would’ve liked to wash the blood and dirt away with a damp towel, but that would have to wait until Big Sis Bianca returned from the kitchen with the water.

I gently wiped the muck from his cheek with the front of my index finger. When I did, Kurt’s tightly closed eyelids quivered, and he started to wake up.

“Kurt?” I called.

His eyelids drifted open in response to my voice. His gaze was glazed over, lacking agency. However, a few seconds later, his eyes began to roam as though searching for something, albeit slowly.

The fingers of his right hand crept across the sheets. When I noticed his searching fingers, I took his hand without thinking. I wrapped mine tightly around his, and he squeezed back weakly.

I called his name once more. “Kurt.”

Guided by my voice, his eyes moved again. I stared into them, and they found mine. His lips moved, but, perhaps because he’d only just awoken, no sound came out.

If he wants anything, then I wanna make it happen. I can’t do very much right now, but even so...

“Say that again,” I requested so that I could hear it properly this time.

However, Kurt’s mouth remained shut. He just stared at me with eyes that were out of focus due to his fever. But then, he gently lifted his right hand and, for some reason, reached it toward my cheek.

I grew flustered, unsure of what he was doing, but then his fingers gently stroked my face. His touch was exceedingly delicate, as though he were checking to see if I was really there. That, or he’s just too enfeebled to put strength into his limbs...

I was unsure of what to do—I certainly couldn’t shake his hand away, but I was beginning to feel awkward leaving it there.

Still staring at me as I contemplated, he put on a gentle smile.

“...ddess...right here all along...” he murmured, but the clamor above deck drowned out his frail voice.

“What did you say?” I asked, but his eyes closed again before he could repeat himself once more. His hand fell away from my cheek, and I could tell from his breathing that he’d fallen asleep.

I wonder what he said? From the look on his face, I don’t think he was complaining about pain or troubled breathing.

I let out a sigh. After pulling the sheets off the bed, I laid them over Kurt.

“Sorry for the wait, Mary!” called Bianca as she rushed inside the cabin. Seeing that Kurt was asleep, she slammed her mouth shut.

“Bianca!” I stood up and took the bucket of water that she’d brought with her.

“Sorry for the noise,” she said.

“It’s fine. More importantly, I’m glad that you made it back safe and sound.”

“No worries there. The pirates don’t seem to have found their way down here yet. But...”

“Hm?”

Unusually for her, Bianca seemed to struggle to express herself as we engaged in a hushed conversation. She broke eye contact with me.

Has something happened...? I almost asked. I felt a wave of anxiety flood over me.

But then...

The door opened behind Bianca. I braced myself, but she waved a hand to stop me.

“Pardon us!” a man said.

“Sorry, Mary!” came a girl’s voice.

“Mia?” I asked.

Several people crowded into the room: first was Mia, then the male chamberlain, and in his arms, Flora.

“Hey, a little quieter, please!” Bianca softly fumed. “There’s an injured person resting in here.”

Mia apologized to her. The chamberlain looked at me, bowed his head, and then passed in front of me. He gently laid Flora down on the bed in the rear of the cabin. Flora was deathly pale and shivering. She was hugging her knees, which made her appear smaller than her actual size.

“They were hiding in a recess in the kitchen,” Bianca explained, “and they sorta, uh, tagged along... Sorry, Mary.”

The chamberlain, a man nearing old age, spoke up. “Forgive us. We were hoping to find something we could use as a weapon or a shield in the kitchen, but everything useful had already been taken... I’m ashamed to admit that we’ve brought nothing with us.” He hung his head.

“Where’s your guard?” I asked. I’m pretty sure that Flora had a personal guard with her.

The chamberlain opened his mouth to respond to my question, but Flora screamed and drowned his voice out. “He’s up there! He left me on my own to go fight above deck!”

“Lady Flora,” Mia said, “please, not so loudly.”

Flora had been trembling in fright moments ago, but her anger appeared to have momentarily eclipsed her fear. She rattled on through tears of frustration, deaf to Mia’s plea for quiet. “He’s supposed to be my guard! He thinks he can leave my side at a time like this?! My father will hear about this on our return, make no mistake about that!”

“Flora,” I said, walking over to her.

“What?!” She glared at me with tearful eyes.

“Quiet.”

“Who do you think you—”

“The more noise you make, the more you signal that we’re in here.” I appealed to her senses matter-of-factly. “You might draw the attention of the pirates.”

She’d been trying to argue, but after hearing me speak, she relented.

Although, by the look on her face, I know she isn’t happy about it.

“But this isn’t right...” Flora murmured quietly.

Her head sank, and, obeying the law of gravity, the tears that had welled in the corners of her eyes fell. I wasn’t sure whether she was crying because she was disappointed in her guard for not behaving as she’d hoped, or because she was frustrated by the prospect of her own death. Perhaps it was both.

She was shedding tears in silence, not quite sobbing, but I couldn’t find the right words to console her because, frankly, I was barely managing to control my own anger at the outrageous situation we’d been placed in.

Why would they steal from us? my heart screamed. Why are they trying to hurt us? What the hell did we ever do to them?! The rational part of me understood that this was simply what pirates did, but my emotions fell short of that understanding. I was in no fit state to reassure anyone.

An awkward silence shrouded the room. However, a moment later, there was a noise loud enough to break the quiet.

The door flew open.

Bianca was the first to react. She stood in front of me and drew her knife from its sheath.

However, the new arrival was a sailor, not a pirate.

“Oof.” He propped himself up against the wall. “Oh, this is your hiding spot?” he asked, wearing a troubled smile. “Sorry, I’ll find somewhere else.” But I noticed that his face was contorted with pain, and blood dripped through the gaps between his fingers, which were clutching his arm. The seeping blood was beginning to collect into a red puddle on the floor.

“You’re hurt!” Bianca cried out, stopping the sailor as he tried to stagger out of the cabin.

“I’m fine. It’s nothing serious—”

“Yes, it is!” Bianca exclaimed irritably, although she kept her voice low. She pushed him into the cabin and then looked at me.

I nodded in response and pulled an unused cloth from my hand luggage. “I’ll treat your wound,” I said. “Sit down.”

“Uhhh, miss?” the sailor said, confused.

I looked at his injury. The affected area seemed to be his right forearm. There was a clean cut there, and blood was gushing from it. The artery might’ve been sliced through. I need to stop the bleeding as quickly as I can.

I was surprised at how oddly calm I felt. I must’ve gotten all of the panic out of my system when Kurt came in.

I’ll need to thank Wolf for setting me straight. But right now, I need to focus my attention on treating this wound.

I first rubbed the blood-stanching medicine into the opening of the wound, and then I placed a cloth over the top of it and applied pressure. The cloth immediately reddened. I piled another cloth on top of the first.

“Bianca, can you hold this down for me?” I requested.

“Sure,” she replied.

While Bianca was applying pressure to the wound with the cloth, I quickly pulled some sheets from the bed to use as a bandage.

“I’m going to wrap it up tightly, so this may hurt,” I warned.

“O...kay?” said the sailor.

As I was tightly wrapping the bandage around the sailor’s arm, Flora snapped out of the daze she’d been in. She raised her voice, sounding confused. “H-Hey! What do you all think you’re doing?!”

However, I had more pressing concerns to deal with than putting up with her, so I ignored her.

“That man might attract the pirates if he stays here!!!” Flora continued.

“Lady Flora, please, not so loud,” cautioned Mia.

“Shut up, shut up, shut up!!! Just kick him out of here alrea—?!” Flora began to make a great fuss, but Mia covered her mistress’s mouth with the palm of her hand.

“Please pardon me, Lady Flora!” Mia then turned to me, and upon seeing my confused reaction, said, “Please, don’t mind us, Mary. Help him.”

I need to get the treatment finished quickly, both for the sailor and so that Mia’s assistance won’t be in vain. I put more strength into my hands as I wrapped the bandage, then tied it up tightly so that it wouldn’t easily come undone.

“Raise your arm higher than your heart...” I instructed the sailor. “Yes, about there. It might feel uncomfortable, but hold that pose for now.”

“I can handle it. And miss...” he said.

“Yes?” I answered while wiping away the blood with a damp hand towel.

“You’re amazing.”

I raised my head. His complexion was far from healthy, but his eyes were shining.

“You’re so tiny,” he continued, “and your face is as pretty as a doll’s, but you’ve got more guts than some grown men do.”

“I, uhhh...” Is that a compliment, or...?

The sailor smiled, apparently not offended by my noncommittal response. Judging from the look on his face, he didn’t mean it in a bad way.

“I...don’t have guts,” I murmured to myself.

All I ever do is let other people protect and mollycoddle me. I’m only where I am now thanks to the support and encouragement of the people around me, especially those who told me to pull myself together.

I felt like I was kicking as hard as I could to stay afloat in the deep end of a pool, and I was scared—the slightest nudge, and I felt like I’d sink.

Flora pried Mia’s hands away from her mouth. “Let go of me!” She slapped the maid’s hands away when Mia tried to cover her mouth again, and the sound echoed throughout the room.

“Do you remember who I am?!” Flora screeched. “Your insolence has gone too far!!!”

“Forgive me...but Lady Flora, please keep your voice down,” Mia replied with composure.

“You...impudent little...!!!” Flora’s cheeks flushed red with anger.

What should I do? I thought. I want her to be quiet, but she’s not in the right frame of mind to listen. I’d just be adding fuel to the fire. I glanced to my side, and my eyes met Bianca’s.

“Put her to sleep?” Bianca mouthed without speaking, and she performed a chopping gesture with her hand.

A violent approach...but letting her throw her noisy tantrum could get us into more trouble.

While I was still considering my options, Flora pointed at me. “Everybody’s so obsessed with her!!! Nobody stops to listen to what I have to say...!!!”

My eyes grew round. I couldn’t conceal my bewilderment at suddenly finding myself the target of her tantrum.

“Lady Flora...” the chamberlain said, extending his hand toward her.

“Don’t touch me!!!” Flora shook his hand away, large teardrops trickling down her face. She suddenly stood up and headed toward the doorway.

“Hold on, where are you going?!” Bianca called out, trying to hold her back.

“Don’t touch me, I said!!!” Flora shouted, casting Bianca’s hand away, and then she opened the door.

This was more than I could stomach to sit back and observe. Frenzied, I grabbed Flora’s arm. “No, stay here!”

“Don’t order me around!!!”

She must be seeing red, I thought. She surely knew that it was dangerous out there, but she ignored our warnings. Because I was clinging to her arm, I ended up being dragged into the hallway with her.

The tumult that had been partially muffled by the walls of the cabin now sounded more real.

Raising my head, I spotted a large shadow cast on the stairs behind Flora. I gasped. A pair of feet came into sight next as the man ran down the stairs, and the next thing I saw was a bloodstained saber in his right hand.

Hurry up and hide, my brain ordered, but my body wouldn’t move as I wanted.

I tugged Flora’s hand, but she huffed and shook my grasp away. She hadn’t yet noticed the figure behind her.

“That hurts!” she said. “It’s past time you let go of me!”

The man looked up in reaction to Flora’s voice. The hairs on the back of my neck pricked up when I saw the fiery, beast-like glisten in his eyes.