A Single Mother's Farm of the Gods
Chapter 58: Circumstances of the Princess

Chapter 58: Circumstances of the Princess

With the help of Julia and the guidance of Princess Margaux, the deer that they are hunting are dealt with and Elaina deals the final attack, killing the deer cleanly, and preserving the quality of the skin that they need to get after. Although it’s not as big of a haul, the deer has a lot of meat, not by a large margin but not small either. The fat is very minimal and the skin is not something that can be used for winter clothing. They can use it for leather, but that’s about it.

They managed to hunt two deer after Julia ensnared one of the deer while Elaina chased and killed the other. But after that hunt, no more animals are seen around anymore.

"I am sorry that you only managed to find two deer for the hunt. My abilities are still inadequate to some extent so I can’t be as reliable as I can be," Princess Margaux apologizes.

"Don’t be. Two deers in one hunt are already big. We would be more lucky to find a small rabbit during our hunt right now especially with the Kobolds roaming around," Elaina consoled Princess Margaux.

"Yeah. I heard Kobolds hunt a lot of animals in the forest once they are around, causing a bit of scarcity of animals to hunt. Sadly, we can’t use the meat of the kobold as natural meat to eat since they are bad, but at least, we can sell them for money if we turn them into the guild."

"Is that how people usually do to get meat? By hunting? Me and Zaza can ask for our chef to get us a quality meat dish and we would get it right away," Princess Margaux asked while also saying how easy they would get meat.

"This is one of the ways to procure meat. But we could choose not to do this and just buy in the market. But we prefer doing this as we can get bigger games like this without spending any money while also getting something extra for us to sell. The rich people won’t understand much the struggle of doing this but it’s not that bad, to be honest," Elaina explained as she proceeded to bleed the deer and drain the blood for her to keep.

Princess Margaux did not seem to understand how it was but she just shrugged off what Elaina said and waited for them to be done with their tasks since she was too tired to go on and Zaza was wounded. It didn’t take them long as Elaina and Julia are skilled in this aspect by now. After putting them in the portable storage that Elaina got from her brother, Elaina looked at the sky and shook her head.

"We can’t hunt anymore with the night slowly creeping on us. The longer we stay here after dark, it will be more dangerous for all of us to remain here, especially with the Kobolds. Let’s head back."

Hearing Elaina say it, Princess Margaux sighed in relief, and together with her bear, Zaza, they followed Elaina and Julia back to the farm.

...

...

Elaina and the rest returned from their trip to the forest back to the farm. Shardu who is currently staying at the entrance noticed them, yawned, and stretched for a bit, before taking a glance at Princess Margaux and Zaza for a bit before ignoring them and returning to the dog house.

"Was that a cat? I am quite sure that was a cat...but am I seeing things that it has wings?" Princess Margaux rubbed her eyes a few times to ensure that she was not just mistaken.

"Don’t worry about it. Anyways, we need to treat Zaza’s wounds," Elaina sighed in relief. She was thankful the door was big enough for Zaza to enter the house. She doesn’t know what to do if Zaza won’t fit and the princess might stay outside the house instead since her pet can’t get inside. With how royalty behaves, Elaina keeps herself calm and deals with them as much as possible. As a former empress, this is nothing new to her.

"Ooh, this is the first time I would be entering a shabby house. But strangely enough, I like the feeling here. It feels...very homely," Princess Margaux said as she looked around the place. Elaina is not offended as what she said is right. The house has yet to enter its restoration phase so, normally, anyone would say it is shabby.

Julia carries the medical kit containing the potions and some other medical items that they store in case they will need to use it. This is especially necessary for Elaina as she might need some medicine though luckily enough, she hasn’t consumed a single one of them in any way.

Zaza is pretty calm as Julia treats his wounds properly. Elaina also helped fully remove the poison from Zaza’s wounds as the antidote herbs might have stopped the spread but they needed to ensure that it wouldn’t further spread and rot the flesh that was affected. After Elaina and Julia fully inspected the wounds on the bear, it must’ve fought hard as some of the wounds are purely painful and it is nasty as well. The Kobolds did try to bring down the poor bear to the best of their abilities and if not for our timely arrival, the bear would have died as a result which would endanger the life of the princess.

"Done, Zaza would only need proper rest and lots of sleep. You shouldn’t worry about the bear if you notice it sleeping a lot these following days as we applied a healing medicine that would help fully heal the wounds but would cause extreme dizziness most of the time. It won’t affect his meal time and whatever things it might do that requires a short amount of time, but he would need lots of sleep until he is fully recovered," Elaina explained as she patted the sleeping Zaza.

"Thank you very much. I really can’t express my gratitude like this but I don’t have the resources to fully thank you though."

"It’s fine. We only did what was right and since you and Zaza are both in danger, we don’t want to have you dying on us," Julia nodded in satisfaction. She then leaves both Elaina and Princess Margaux in the living room as she heads to the kitchen and starts preparing for dinner. Elaina also reminded Julia to make a portion for Shardu as well as a way to honor the promise.

As Julia is now busy, Elaina decides to talk to Princess Margaux about her circumstances.

"Princess. Now that we are currently safe and no longer in a constant threat area, can I ask why you are in the forest? The castle of Darcero Kingdom should be very far from here so I can’t understand why you are currently present here in the first place."

The princess was silent for a bit before she started to talk about her circumstances.

"I know I may sound like just petty enough but I have decided to run away from home. I don’t want to meet them and tell me things I don’t want to do," Princess Margaux sighed.

"Things you wanted to do? Do the king and queen stop you from doing something you love?" Elaina pried further.

"No. But they decided to assign a fiancee to me to ensure that connections are established and to ensure that those perks they got with this fiancee-thing business would get implemented and everyone would feel the effects. I hated how they didn’t consult me with this thing and just rolled with it. The next thing I knew, my fiancee was already assigned to me and it was some guy I heard to be some fat guy!"

"I see... so after you learned about this matter, you decided to run away then?"

"No. I didn’t run away just yet. I instead confronted my father and mother about this matter and as soon as I tried to voice out my dissatisfaction and refusal on this matter, they immediately scolded me and tried to make me understand that this marriage, comes with those perks that would strengthen the kingdom and the royal family’s connection. That’s when I decided to run away with Zaza. Using some methods, I managed to escape undetected and traveled with Zaza as far from the castle as possible. That’s when we soon arrived here. We avoided towns to ensure that no one recognized us and told my whereabouts after.

After hearing her reasons, Elaina immediately sympathizes with Princess Margaux. After all, she also experienced this matter as well. The only thing different is that she accepted the offer and they ended up loving each other...well, until now. Without the intervention of Elaina’s parents, she wouldn’t be married to Alfred at all.

"Alright. I can see why now. However, I can’t let you go back to the forest and stay there to camp especially with the Kobolds attacking the forest. Instead, I can offer you this place of mine and stay here to hide. Besides that this place is secluded, anyone looking for you would have a harder time looking for you. You will be fine here for a few days straight," Elaina offered.

Princess Margaux looked around at first before nodding. "It may take me time to get comfortable at first, but please take good care of me and Zaza. And sorry for inconveniencing you two."