The Knight from the Fairytales

Chapter 3: Promises

But the frog shook its head and said: "Thank you, kind knight, but I cannot leave this well. An evil witch placed a curse on me—only the little princess can rescue me from this well."

Beihai wasn't surprised. After all, whether you want my help or not, I have to help anyway.

"So, cursed prince, how may I assist you?"

The frog thought for a moment. Logically speaking, no help was actually needed—in fact, unnecessary assistance might even cause problems. After all, if the little princess's golden ball fell into the well, who she would ask for help between a nearby knight and an ugly frog was already obvious. But this knight was so kind-hearted—how could I disappoint him?

"The princess will arrive here soon. I need you to serve as a witness. But when the little princess comes, I hope the kind knight will hide behind the tree."

"I will hide behind the tree, cursed prince. Rest assured, I will do everything in my power to help you as much as possible."

Beihai naturally didn't hesitate and swiftly hid behind the tree to serve as a witness. Although Beihai was kind-hearted, he knew exactly why he was being kind.

So Beihai hid behind the tree. Just sitting behind the large tree provided perfect concealment—quite comfortable, actually.

After waiting only a short while, the little princess indeed arrived as expected.

When the sun rose and the weather became somewhat stuffy, she would walk alone out of the castle to the small forest, sitting by the well under the linden tree to enjoy the cool shade.When bored, she would play with a small golden ball, tossing it high into the air and then catching it steadily.

Beihai crouched behind the large tree, secretly observing. He had to admit she was truly beautiful.

If you asked how beautiful, just as described in the story: the king had many daughters, all very beautiful, but only the youngest daughter—the little princess—was so exceptionally beautiful that even the well-traveled sun would be astonished when its rays fell upon the girl's face.

Perhaps in these stories, princesses could never be ugly.

Beihai marveled at her beauty in his heart, secretly thinking that he would definitely marry a princess someday. There was nothing to despise about this—after all, in Beihai's original world, to say nothing of other things, many claimed to be gentlemen but were actually in their sage mode, with browsers they dared not show others. Even ordinary content no longer satisfied people's needs—everyone loved seeking out something bizarre.

Without going into further details, just take gaming as an example: people would look for inappropriate elements in proper games, while playing proper aspects in inappropriate games, all while demanding playability.

Even in this world, many people dreamed of marrying a beautiful princess.

Beihai took out a cloth to cover his face, then placed two leaves over his eyes.

Meanwhile, the little princess, while bored, tossed her golden ball high into the air, but unexpectedly this time she didn't catch it steadily as usual. Instead, she accidentally let it fall into the well.

The princess panicked, her gaze closely following where the golden ball fell as it slid straight into the ancient well.

Facing the ancient well before her, the little princess became momentarily helpless, even sitting directly on the ground and crying. Her pitiful appearance looked so sorrowful, so helpless.

One could tell at a glance that this little princess was very spoiled. The environment inside the well was dark and dirty—as a noble princess, she couldn't and shouldn't lower herself to go down there.

But she truly loved that little golden ball, so she refused to leave, crying on the spot for a while. At this point, the king should have come to comfort the little princess, or perhaps a servant should have appeared.

This was probably something the little princess often did, but unfortunately, every time she came here, she came alone without any guards nearby.

Just as the little princess was crying uncontrollably, a voice suddenly came from the well: "Who is crying outside? This sound is so sorrowful that even the clouds at the horizon couldn't bear to hear it. The sun would hide behind the clouds, unable to bear witnessing this scene. Then the sky wouldn't clear—it would rain, as the clouds in the sky would join in the sorrow and crying."

Hearing the voice from the well, the little princess stopped her crying. She looked into the well and immediately saw the frog—that large, ugly, round head.

"It's you, you old fellow who's always stirring up trouble in the water. I'm grieving for my golden ball—I accidentally dropped it into the well."

Soon, just as the story developed, the frog could retrieve the golden ball, but the princess had to agree to his conditions.

The princess naturally agreed. For the golden ball, she would exchange anything she possessed, whatever she could give.

The frog didn't want wealth, nor splendid clothing, not even the golden crown the princess wore on her head at that moment. What he wanted was simple: to eat with the princess, sleep with her, and wherever she went, she needed to bring him along.

And this was the promise. Only this princess could break the curse, so her promise was effective.

The beautiful little princess thus agreed to the frog's terms. As the promise was made, the frog naturally had to keep his part of the bargain, retrieving the golden ball from the well and tossing it to the princess.

The next moment, when the little princess caught the golden ball, she immediately broke into a smile and turned to run away.

The frog watched this scene from behind, somewhat anxious, shouting loudly, but it was no use.

Beihai gripped his sword hilt and jumped out directly from his hiding spot behind the tree, casually scooping the frog out from the well. With the princess's promise, he could leave the well and come to the princess's side.

Arriving in front of the little princess, Beihai held his sword horizontally before him, blocking the princess's only path.

While running, the little princess, caught off guard, crashed directly into the sword hilt. She only felt some pain in her forehead—probably some redness and swelling had already appeared there.

However, this didn't damage the little princess's beauty—in fact, it made her inexplicably somewhat cute.

Beihai handed the frog in his hand forward. "Princess, the frog has fulfilled his promise, but you haven't fulfilled yours."

"Mysterious knight, he's just a frog. No matter what beautiful dreams he has in his head, he's just a frog—a stupid frog that only croaks randomly."

The princess spoke as if it were perfectly natural—this frog was simply too ugly, and calling it a frog was actually giving it too much credit.

"While that may be true, you made a promise. You could have refused at the time, but you agreed. Even your father would be angry if he knew."

"Step aside, knight! You shouldn't block my path. I'm not a monster, nor an evil dragon, and I'm not the princess you're supposed to protect—I don't need to heed your advice."

The little princess didn't want to pay attention to this knight, simply veering to the side and running out from beside him.

Beihai really couldn't do anything at this point. First of all, this matter would proceed the same with or without Beihai—even if Beihai didn't appear, the frog would directly knock on the door tomorrow.

So Beihai was just here to get familiar. No matter what, I've helped with this task—just getting a reward would be fine, not being picky.

Plus, she made it very clear—this wasn't something he could interfere with.

Moreover, Beihai was a knight without a master—becoming this little princess's knight wasn't something he wanted.

The key wasn't really about helping or not—both parties had their reasons. In this world, humans and frogs weren't equals anyway.

If he revealed that the frog in his hand was actually a prince—legends like this, once exposed, especially if the princess found out—the curse would become completely unbreakable.

And the one before him wasn't a wolf—Beihai couldn't simply punch her to sleep.

But it didn't matter—after all, Beihai just wanted to mix in and get involved.

"Cursed prince, it seems the little princess hasn't kept her promise. If it weren't for the curse issue, I think..."

Somewhat unreliable. No matter what, she should have symbolically given something, but instead she gave nothing and just ran off like that.

"Yes, but I fell in love with her at first sight. She's so beautiful—when she cried, my heart almost shattered along with hers."

"Ah?"

The prince's words suddenly reminded Beihai of a timeless truth: Is that really liking? That's called lusting after her body—you're despicable!

But then, thinking about how at the end of the story, when the prince regained his appearance and the princess saw the prince's handsome face, she also fell in love at first sight, Beihai suddenly felt relieved.