The Crimson Princess looked away from the flock of crows disappearing into the sunset.
Beside her, Dracula walked beneath the fading light as though weighed down by a heavy burden.
"Dracula, why do you look so worried?"
"Princess, we shouldn't have taken such a risk..."
Dracula, who had left Crimson Castle with her, sighed. "We've already gone. If we return, they'll only mock us, perhaps even force us..."
The Crimson Princess paused. She gently stroked the Crimson Heart, a resolve she had never felt before rising within her. "For Mother, it's all worth it."
Dracula felt both proud and heartsick—proud that the princess had finally grown up, and heartsick that it had cost her something precious...
That night, the carriage, hung with a Magic Lamp, moved slowly along a country road.
"Do people here have a custom of hunting goblins?" Annan asked the ranger riding alongside.
"No."
"Then is it to wipe them out?"
"Wipe out the goblins? What kind of stupid— Of course not." Remembering that the boy was his employer, the ranger swallowed the insult.
He explained that the Rotting Swamplands were the goblins' lair. They had raided the borders of Roxie Province for decades, so the Duchy had announced aid and offered to buy goblin skins to weaken them.
But nobody wanted to wipe them out for good.
"As long as the goblins are around, those lords will keep sending us money and food to stop the filthy things from running onto their land. If the goblins are gone, who'll send us money?"
The ranger really was a local.
"Is there anything I should watch out for in the Rotting Swamplands?"
"Watch out for ratfolk in the Swamplands."
"There are ratfolk in goblin territory too?"
"They're everywhere, all over the place..." The ranger cursed under his