Chapter 136: True Gratitude
"You... you speak the Radagan tongue? How...?"
The princess was shocked when she heard Jason speak her language, and Jason could see how her shoulders fell slightly, showing that she was letting her guard down a little more compared to before. Jason knew that hearing someone speak your language was a certain way to connect you to them, so he was glad that his system allowed him to learn the language so quickly.
Jason spoke again.
"Do you remember what happened before you passed out?"
The princess slowly sat back on her knees and frowned slightly in confusion as she tried to think about what had happened to her. The last thing she remembered was running away from Radagan because the Imperial Guards were chasing her, and then she had to jump through a Dimensional Tear before getting to her actual destination! There was a guard that chased her through the tear, and then he shot at her and almost killed her.
The princess calmly looked up at Jason and told him all of this before she finally asked a question.
"You saved me?"
Jason nodded as he walked over to the bed and took a seat. The princess still didn’t look comfortable around him, so Jason tried to give her some space as he spoke calmly.
"I was clearing out the Orange Gate when you appeared from a Dimensional Tear. I killed the guard that was chasing you, but you were unconscious, so I brought you back here. That was about three days ago."
The princess felt a surge of gratitude rise from her heart when she heard that Jason had saved her life. She looked from Jason over to Gina and bowed to both of them while giving them her most heartfelt thanks. Even though she was still not sure if she could fully trust Jason or Gina, the mere fact that she was alive and there was nothing wrong with her body showed that they had really taken good care of her!
Gina smiled when she saw the princess bow in thanks and shook her head. Gina couldn’t understand a single word that Jason or the princess were saying since they were talking in the Radagan tongue, but she could tell that the princess was thanking them.
Gina came over to sit beside Jason and simply listened as the princess spoke again.
"W-Where am I?"
Jason answered easily.
"A world known as Earth. Have you heard about it?"
The princess’ eyes widened in recognition! She had definitely heard about Earth before.
"I think some of our scholars have spoken about Earth before. They told us that it is one of the newest worlds introduced to Mana and Magic. I also heard you had a lot of diverse non-magic creatures living here. I always wondered how they managed to survive without magic. Do they develop other fighting mechanisms—oh... sorry, I’m rambling."
The princess had somehow lost her composure for the first time since they started the conversation, and the skin around her cheek dusted pink as she blushed in embarrassment while trying to get herself back under control. The princess was a very avid Magic Beast scholar. She had always been interested in healing and how mana affects a body while it was being healed, but as she learned more about organisms, she discovered that her real interest was in Magical Beasts and their biological structures.
When she was still living in Radagan, she learned from the best teachers who taught her everything they knew about every creature that existed in the vast Primordial Expanse. Even the large Moonlight Wolves that had been with her were creatures that she had learned about from her teachers a long time ago! She knew everything about the beasts, from their diet to their lifespan and even where they could be found in every world! That was why she was so shocked to see them when she woke up earlier. She knew that Moonlight Wolves were one of the most difficult animals to domesticate due to their fierce loyalty to their pack. Taking a Moonlight Wolf away from its pack was impossible!
This also told the princess that there was at least one master tamer present in this room, and from what she had felt when Jason and Gina walked into the room, she had a feeling that it was Jason who had managed to make these wolves submit to him.
Jason could sense the desperate thirst for knowledge that the princess had, and he couldn’t help but grin at her embarrassment. She had been so stoic all this time, and he thought that her experiences had made her depressed or reclusive, but he was glad that she was still sane enough to express interest in the things she liked.
Gina bumped Jason’s shoulder with her own, and Jason turned to her with a hum and saw her pouting at him! Gina felt excluded since she had no idea what Jason and the princess were laughing about, and she hadn’t even said a single word to the princess since she didn’t speak the language! Jason smiled at her and pulled her into a one-arm hug while giving an introduction.
"Princess, this here is Gina. She’s my girlfriend, and she was the one who washed you while you were unconscious."
The princess’s face reddened even more when she heard that last part! Someone had washed her!? No wonder she felt so clean! Even though she knew that she wouldn’t be injured because of her special abilities, it was still impossible for her to clean any filth from her body, and the princess wondered who in the world had been cleaning her up! At least it was the woman and not the man who did it! As a princess, she would have been scandalized if she learned that Jason had seen her nakedness! She would never be able to marry another man in her life!
The princess bowed her head to Gina and spoke.
"Thank you for your kindness. My name is Riyala, the first princess of the Dragonborn and heir-consort to the throne. I will never forget what you and your betrothed have done for me."
Riyala’s tone was so formal and neat that Jason couldn’t help but realize that he was really sitting in front of a royal. Jason smiled at her and then spoke to Gina in English.
"She’s thanking us for helping her."
Gina clapped excitedly as she finally got involved in the conversation!
"It’s fine! It was nice to meet someone from another world. If you need anything, then don’t hesitate to ask!"
Jason translated the English back to Radagan tongue for Riyala, and Riyala nodded at Gina in appreciation. It was not every day that you met someone from another world, and Riyala was just happy that the first people she met on Earth were so kind. But even though she was appreciative of their kindness, Riyala still had a lot of questions that she wanted to ask Jason about his origin!
Jason didn’t look like a Dragonborn, but there was no mistaking the Dragon-based mana that she could feel coming off him in waves! It was the same type of mana Riyala could feel coming off every Dragonrider in Radagan, and it made her feel like there was more to Jason than what he was telling her! But even if she was very curious, she didn’t know how rude it would be to ask her saviour something so personal, so she decided that she would hold her tongue for now and ask him only after she got to know him better!