Evil Dragon, Without a Princess, I Had to Transform Myself!-Chapter 31 : I'll Do Anything

Watching the princess slowly descend the stairs, Loranhir felt that the necklace in her hand suited her just as well as that white dress did, along with the golden sunlight, gentle breeze, and floating dust motes.
Listening to the Duchess's description, keeping this heirloom wouldn't serve much purpose for her anyway, so it would be better to give it to the princess instead.
It didn't matter much if she lost the Duchess's reward—as long as it made the princess happy.
Besides, for a hero, at worst she could just go back to her old ways of getting free food and drinks from villagers and townspeople.
Wait, could what a hero did really be called freeloading?
Loranhir put away the Duchess's reward, planning to find an appropriate time to give it to the princess.
"It's quite late. It looks like Your Highness overslept again," Loranhir said with a smile. "Isn't Evelyn up yet?"
Patunasankus, with her dandelion-colored long hair sticking up like a hedgehog's spines and wearing a white slip nightgown, froze for a moment upon hearing that name, then sat coldly on the sofa, watching Loranhir drink water straight from the teapot.
"No," Patunasankus said. Just thinking about a certain someone who had clung to her all night like an octopus with both arms and legs made her extremely unhappy, and she couldn't do anything about it either.
Just dealing with Evelyn's increasingly outrageous questions was already stressing her out immensely, and on top of that, she'd been used as a body pillow all night long.
The evil dragon was thoroughly displeased.
If Evelyn wasn't Latifa's important friend, she would have already breathed dragon fire at her.
She had gotten up early specifically to discuss something with Loranhir.
Or rather, both of them had the same thought on their minds.
—It was time to run.
"Actually, I have something I want to discuss with you."
"What is it?"
Loranhir sat down in front of the princess. She glanced at the girl's pale exposed chest, then immediately looked away.
"We've been staying with the Duchess for quite some time now. It wouldn't be good to keep imposing on her like this." Loranhir looked out the window. "We should probably set off soon."
She thought about it again. She had finally managed to give the princess a somewhat comfortable life at the Duchess's place, but now she was asking the princess to wander and suffer with her again, which was indeed rather excessive.
But when she thought about a group of Judgment Knights heading their way, she immediately broke out in a cold sweat, wanting nothing more than to flee quickly.
"Or, Your Highness could stay here," Loranhir added. "The Duchess would surely send people to escort you to the royal capital."
"No."
Patunasankus immediately refused. She knew the hero was definitely thinking about running away again, so she decided to block that option entirely.
She couldn't bear to lose such a useful shield as the hero.
Moreover, Patunasankus didn't want to stay here at all right now.
Just dealing with Evelyn last night had been more than enough for her. If she had to spend several more nights accompanying Evelyn, the evil dragon would really lose control and breathe fire.
"The sense of security that Hero gives me, they can't provide..."
The evil dragon deliberately hugged a cushion, putting on the posture of a fragile young girl, her voice sounding very worried.
"Why would you want me to stay here alone? Are you going to abandon me? Have I done something wrong? ...Please tell me, I'll definitely change."
Sometimes, even Patunasankus felt she was becoming increasingly skilled at this.
"...I'll take you with me then." Loranhir was speechless.
Faced with such a series of attacks from the princess, she really had no way to deal with it.
Since the princess had said this much, she could only bite the bullet and take her along.
Her only worry was that the troubles she might encounter would involve the princess.
But thinking about it carefully, with someone as pure as the princess, even the holy knights of the Layang Empire wouldn't easily harm her.
If the holy knights' so-called Evil Detection spell were cast on the princess, the only possibility would be a pure, flawless white light, and those simple-minded believers of the holy light would absolutely never lay a hand on such a pure girl.
The one in trouble now seemed to be only herself.
Loranhir sighed.
Speaking of which, she hadn't seen Elaphia for quite a while today. Ever since they had brought Evelyn back to the Duchess's mansion together last time, Elaphia's whereabouts had become somewhat mysterious.
Whatever, it didn't matter.
Loranhir didn't really like that white-haired one anyway.
She was just a lying fraud who deserved a beating. It was fine that she was gone now.
Who knew where Elaphia had wandered off to.
Loranhir shrugged, putting the matter out of her mind, and got up to walk toward the mansion's stables. She planned to pack up her luggage and supplies first.
Ever since the two followers died, all these menial tasks had fallen entirely to Loranhir.
Originally, she had thought about recruiting a new follower in a nearby town, but with all the commotion about the ferocious beast, she hadn't had the chance to search carefully. Now it was too late to look for one.
Patunasankus watched Loranhir leave, then began enjoying her breakfast.
Breakfast...
No, or rather lunch was simple.
A small beef steak, a small piece of pan-fried foie gras, a small plate of fancy cheese, paired with some caramel profiterole towers as dessert.
Besides that, there was the evil dragon's favorite roasted squab.
The Duchess's food treatment for the princess was really quite good. Although it couldn't compare to the freshly roasted portions the evil dragon used to have, it was still pretty decent.
If it weren't for Evelyn being excessively enthusiastic, Patunasankus would have been quite happy to freeload at the Duchess's place for a while.
Just for the food alone, the evil dragon was starting to want a dedicated chef.
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Later, Loranhir was walking in the backyard of the Duchess's mansion.
Today's backyard was unexpectedly quiet. Even the usual insect sounds couldn't be heard, as if they were all wary of something. She could also faintly smell a trace of blood in the air.
Loranhir shook her head, dismissing it as her imagination.
She thought that since the ferocious beast incident had come to an end, how could there be more trouble?
Besides, this was the Duchess's mansion, with patrolling guards everywhere. Who would dare cause trouble here?
But when she was almost at the stables, Loranhir stopped at a corner, looking down at a pool of blood in front of her.
In the corner lay a blood-covered person. Just from the silhouette, she found it strangely familiar.
It was Elaphia.
...This was truly seeing a ghost.