Chapter 353: Enter the Cranberry?
"...Haa... The prince already has a fiance, mother will get angry that the engagement proposal was rejected..."
A small seven-year-old girl sighed, looking down and clenching her fists on he knees so hard that her knuckles turned white.
Her shoulder-length hair was darkish red, a not-so-pretty color that inadvertently made others think about blood.
Her face and shoulders, now hidden underneath the red sleeves of a frilly crimson dress her mother picked for her, were covered with freckles.
It was, without a doubt a young lady of the Pride family, Cranberry Pride in her own, tiny person.
"Don't worry about that sweetie. I'm sure that mommy will understand."
Cranberry's father, a handsome bespectacled man, Blackberry Pride, smiled and reassured her in a calm voice.
"She won't. Haa..."
Cranberry's shoulders trembled for just a moment before she breathed out and raised her head with a stern expression.
"Why doesn't she ever listen to what I want?"
She asked while observing the scenery visible out of the carriage's window.
"Sweetie, your mommy only wants the best for you, you are such a smart child, try to understand her."
Lord Blackberry asked with a soft smile, leaning to the side, in an attempt to make eye contact, but his daughter wasn't budging at all.
"Haa..."
She only sighed with a cloudy expression, having realized that she had no allies in her own family - which certainly wasn't a pleasant experience for such a young child and yet that was exactly what the little girl was feeling right now...
All that was left for her was to try to hold back all the emotions by glaring at all the fields they were passing.
Cranberry only wanted for her mother to tell her she loves her, or that she is proud of her, but she never was good enough for such kind words.
Even at such a young age, Cranberry was ready to give up and stop trying to appease her mother and try to walk her own path...
If only she had someone whom she could call her own... like the princess in the novel she was reading before her mother found and confiscated it since Cranberry was already spending too much time reading.
That princess had a knight who always stood by her side no matter what.
The book was taken away, but Cranberry had no doubt that the princess and knight would go hand in hand together on endless adventures... maybe even take over the world!
Ah... such cute childish dreams...
"...!"
A sudden tree passed by the window in a flash, momentarily startling the girl.
"Ha...?"
She blinked and shook her head as if she couldn't believe her eyes.
"What's the matter?"
Her father asked with concern.
"The carriage... isn't it going way too fast? What if we ran into something?"
Cranberry asked, pointing at the outside with a concerned expression.
"Now, it might just look like that, but our coachman would never... umm... huh...?"
Lord Blackberry smiled reassuringly and glanced at the buildings they were passing by rapidly at way too fast speed.
"Blasted horse! GO SLOWER - you darned beast!"
"!!!!"
...and then the two of them heard the voice of the coachman coming from the outside.
"Dear system...! KID! GET OUT OF THE WAY!"
Suddenly the coachman's voice grew more panicked and he started screaming.
"OUT OF THE WAY, KID!"
The coachman screamed in desperation before...
*CRUSH*
*WHAM*
"!!!!!!"
With the sound of the wheels breaking, the whole carriage got launched in the air and toppled over!
Lord Blackberry had barely any time to jump over and grabbed his daughter in a protective embrace - he was level 79 and had no reason to worry but she was just a sheltered child at level 1, such accident as crashing the carriage could easily seriously harm her or worse!
"Dear system...! Sweetie, are you alright?!"
The man with his glasses tilted over in a comical way gasped and asked the child in his arms.
"Y-yes...! Daddy, what happened?!"
Cranberry was shaking her head, trying to get away from her father to try and exit the toppled carriage.
"I don't know... it sounded as if someone got on the road, and our coachman tried to dodge them. We must have been unlucky and hit a stone that launched us or something. Wait here, I'll check what it was exactly."
Lord Blackberry spoke with a worried expression but his daughter was already opening the upside-down door.
"Daddy, the horses are acting weird, and the mister that drove us isn't moving."
Cranberry peeked outside and reported.
"WHAT?! Wait a bit sweetie, I'll see what I can do!"
Lord Blackberry exclaimed in shock and hurriedly passed his daughter and jumped outside.
"...!"
He flinched once he saw the person unconscious coachman bleeding from the head, sprawled on the roadside right under someone's home, as the fallen horses neighed desperately, trying to get up while tied up in the reins.
Lord Blackberry hurriedly fixed his glasses and rushed to the wounded man.
"...ha..."
Meanwhile, Cranberry also got out and dusted off her dress crumpled by her father's embrace.
Then she straightened her back, she noticed how terribly broken the wheels of their carriage were... but there was no trace of any metal beam or a boulder that would explain such damage...
Nothing aside from...
"Ha?!"
She looked around at the site and, searching for any clue when her eyes ended up on a figure laying down in the middle of the road.
"...!"
Cranberry flinched and her eyes widened.
It looked like the kid that the coachman was shouting at didn't dodge in time and got ran over...
"...haa..."
The red-haired girl looked between the damaged wheels and the body and furrowed her brows.
It didn't take long for curiosity to take over and she carefully approached the unmoving shape.
"...!"
Her brows shoot up once she realized that she was standing over a body of a boy that must have been around the same age as she was.
He had short brown hair and his face was really cute, there was no doubt that he would grow up to be a handsome lad... well, or at least he would if not for the carriage that ended his life journey.
"Wait... Ha...? Is that how someone ran over by a carriage should look like? Aren't you a bit too good-looking?"
Cranberry asked out loud in confusion, leaning down over the corpse.
"...ugh..."
"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
A corpse that suddenly let out a pained grunt!
Cranberry jumped away as if she was struck by a lightning, ghastly pale and with a heart rate of a rabbit who just finished a marathon.
The handsome brown-haired boy rolled over on all fours and shook his head like a dog that came out of a bath and then he slowly looked up.
"...Cranberry...?"
He asked in confusion, his mind still foggy.
Then he looked down and saw his hands, still in the color of the living being.
"H-huh...?! HUH?! What the hell?!"
The boy shouted and jumped right back up at his feet.
"What is this supposed to...?!"
"NEIGH!"
He complained but his voice god drowned by the horse's neigh so loud that it must have been heard in the entire village.
Of course, such a loud noise got the attention of everyone present...
And what they saw was the massive jet black horse monster with crimson eyes standing up from over the carcass of the other horse...
Its jaws now filled with sharp fangs were drenched with the blood of its dead brethren and its body was getting covered in rapidly growing horns - two especially big grew straight from its forehead...
...right above the brightly burning mark...
"ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?!"
The boy roared in shock mixed with fury...
"NEIGH!"
...and as if in response, the horse monster snorted back and an unbelievable amount of red and black smoke shot out from its nostrils and formed a dome-like barrier that pushed out the remains of the carriage together with Lord Blackberry and the wounded coachman but encompassed the two children and the horse monster itself.
"NEIGH!"
The beast's voice sounded as if it laughed as it kicked up the ground with its clawed hoof, staring hungrily at the soft defenseless bodies in front of it.