Read The Rose Princess Online

Authors: Hideyuki Kikuchi

The Rose Princess (5 page)

BOOK: The Rose Princess
9.37Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

“Correct.”

“And if you were ordered to do so, could you stand by and watch as I cut down your
princess and the others?” asked D.

“In that case, I would take my own life after killing you,” the Red Knight replied.
“However, there’s no need to worry on that account.” In a tone of unassailable confidence
he continued, “If you think the princess could be killed by the likes of you—well,
once you’ve met her, you’ll understand.”

Saying no more, he continued on for another five minutes, and the two of them came
to the bottom of a wide slope. At the top of the nearly sixty-degree incline, the
manor and the walls that surrounded it were visible.

“This slope is the last line of defense,” said the Red Knight.

His ordinary voice was enough to make children go pale, but now it had an even stranger
ring to it—that of nostalgia.

“In times past,” he continued, “we came down this incline to meet our foes in battle.
Forces that vastly outnumbered us have pushed in this far. However, not even the mightiest
of foes ever gained the top of this slope. We formed an iron wall where wave after
wave of attackers broke until the enemy eventually retreated. Though, that was all
so very long ago.”

His voice cut out. And when he quickly started speaking again, his tone had changed
once more.

“What we did then and do now has always been prompted by the spirit of our princess,
who defends this solitary outpost. In the world below, they are quick to speak of
the end of the Nobility, but we recognize no such occurrence. We shall not allow such
talk in the domain of our princess, for here the Nobility are still resplendent in
their glory.”

The crimson horse set one hoof on the steep slope. The way it climbed so easily seemed
to defy the laws of gravity.

After ascending roughly a hundred fifty feet, the knight asked, “Having trouble keeping
up?” But when he turned around, what he saw made his eyes go wide within his helmet.

D was less than three paces behind him.

The soil covering the slope would collapse with frightening ease—this was to prevent
foes from advancing any further. Climbing it at a steady pace required equestrian
skills far greater than most possessed.

As they sent black earth sliding downward, the pair finished ascending the slope and
soon came to the gate. The towers that adorned all four corners of the manor, the
passageways linking all of the smaller buildings, and the very manor itself all had
a stately air, but those who beheld this structure were bound to get a far different
impression. Thousands of cracks formed spidery webs in the towering stone walls, the
spires of the towers were on the point of collapse, and the masonry was riddled with
little holes that gaped like vacant eye sockets. And while the crossed antennas for
harnessing both the power of the wind and the electrical energy in the air continued
to turn, they only served to make the rest of this place seem dead by comparison.

These were clearly ruins.

“Open the gate!” the Red Knight bellowed. His voice was loud
enough to blast away the air before his mouth and create a vacuum. “On orders from
the princess, I’ve brought D,” he added. “Open the gate!”

Before the echoes of his voice had faded, there was the sound of iron scraping iron
and a black shadow dropped across them from above. Between the two of them and the
gate lay a deep, bone-dry moat. The door that barred the gate was actually a drawbridge.

While such an accessory was appropriate for a fortress, it hardly suited a manor of
such simple but elegant design. Two thick chains stretched from either side of the
drawbridge to disappear into the castle.

After the bridge touched down with an earth-shaking thud, the pair crossed and entered
the castle.

A desolate sight greeted D. They had entered the front yard of the manor.

The mounds of brush and dead leaves that had accumulated called to mind the random
peaks left by eroding soil. The roof of each and every bower had collapsed, and in
part of the main manor, all that remained were white pillars. When mercilessly exposed
by the sunlight, the scene didn’t have an iota of the grace the term “extinction”
might imply, and the light only served to emphasize the lurid nature of the surroundings
to a spine-chilling degree.

“Don’t let any of this mislead you. This is merely its daylight form,” the Red Knight
told the traveler as his horse advanced toward an outbuilding that was fairly undamaged
by comparison. One room that D passed through seemed to have been maintained by someone,
as it still retained the luxurious gold and crystal appointments from its construction
long ago.

“As you are no doubt aware, you shall have to wait until night.”

And with that final remark, the Red Knight headed toward the door. He then stopped
in his tracks. When he spun around, D was standing right behind him.

“Why, you . . . ,” the knight groaned as the most unearthly aura blasted his face—and
for the first time he realized what the gorgeous young man actually was. “Only once
in the past has anyone ever angered me so,” said the knight. “Are you one of those,
too—a Vampire Hunter?”

“Yes, I am,” said D. “Where can I find the princess and all others?”

As D asked the question, both of his arms hung idly by his sides. He didn’t have a
single muscle tensed, and it was truly disconcerting. This was but one reason why
he was someone to be feared.

“Do you actually think I would tell
you
?” the Red Knight finally replied with a mocking laugh. “Will you cut me down? So
be it. I should love to fight you. However, my princess has ordered me not to raise
a hand against you even if you take your blade to me. At the very least, you will
not pass this way. D, I shall see you again in the next world.”

The knight stood tall in front of the door, his chest thrown out with determination.
He was a veritable Cerberus guarding the entrance to Hades.

“Aren’t you going to run away?” asked D.

The Red Knight roared with laughter. “I don’t believe I’ve ever even heard that expression
before.”

Even if it might mean his own death, he seemed intent on watching every last movement
of D’s blade. But as the knight’s eyes opened wide, their depths reflected a sudden
flash—a flash of black.

Seeing the giant lose consciousness from a thrust into the thinnest part of his armor—the
gorget around his throat—D returned his sheath and the sword it still held to his
back.

“My, but he was a patient fellow,” a low voice said with admiration from the Hunter’s
left hand.

The Red Knight didn’t fall. He’d lost consciousness, yet was still standing there
like a wrathful temple guardian.

“Well, that’s that. Mind if I ask you a question?” said the disembodied voice. “Are
you gonna knock him over, or did you have something else in mind?” The voice cackled,
but its laughter ended in a muffled cry.

Clenching his left hand tightly enough to nearly break his own fingers, D kicked off
the floor. The hem of his coat fluttering like wings, he soared like a mystic bird
to the skylight fifteen feet above him.

ROSE MANOR
CHAPTER 2


I


S
everal minutes later, D stepped into a hall in the manor proper. Even with the Red
Knight unconscious, he still had at least three foes here. And although he had yet
to see the last of the quartet, the fourth knight would be no common opponent if the
skill of the others was any indication. The entranceway had been mostly intact, but
the ceiling was crumbling in places, and pillars of sunlight slid down to the floor.

Needless to say, D’s destination was the grave of the woman everyone referred to as
“the princess.” In many cases, a Noble would have a solitary grave at the edge of
some garden, while it was also common to find such resting places in the basement
of the main building. So it only stood to reason that the Hunter would search the
manor before circling around to the gardens. Looking all around at the hall, D then
proceeded to the door at the far end.

Behind him, a voice like the tinkling of a golden bell said, “I’m so glad you could
come.”

When D turned, his eyes were greeted by a hazy figure that glowed and shimmered. Although
it was clear that it was a woman in a white dress, the flickering light seemed to
be passing through some sort of polarizing prism, and the woman’s face was left indiscernible.
But even before D faced her, he knew what he would find. A hologram. It was unclear
if her face was obscured because she thought this image quality would suffice, or
because she didn’t wish to be recognized. Perhaps it also meant that the princess
was unsure what to make of D.

“I’m the lady of the manor,” she told him. “Call me ‘Princess.’”

Anyone who’d heard the reputation of the lady of the manor from the villagers in Sacri
would’ve been thoroughly perplexed by her voice. Although she had a tone as refined
as any woman in her twenties, she talked like a little girl.

“The Black Knight tells me you didn’t draw the sword from your back, but you still
intimidated the Blue Knight and Red Knight. I like strong men. Be a dear and wait
there a bit until I can meet you in the flesh. You can leave that room if you like,
but even by day, this is a dangerous place to wander. I’ve had another room prepared
for you further in. Go there if you like. Of course, if you’re anything like I heard,
I don’t expect you to behave yourself at all.”

“As you ordered, the Red Knight didn’t draw his weapon,” D told the projected image.
“If I’d taken my sword to him, you’d have lost a valued retainer.”

Laughing haughtily, she replied, “So, you take me for some cold-blooded villain who
doesn’t care a whit about the lives of my subordinates? As I just said, I think I
know you. If you’re the sort of man I think you are, you wouldn’t cut down a defenseless
person.” The glowing image of the woman laughed loudly. “You can look for me, but
you won’t find me. And the Red Knight would die before he’d tell you anything. Walk
around all you like. Soon
our
world will be here. I can hardly wait till then.”

And with her final word, the light winked out of existence.

“Oh, she’s good,” the voice that rose from the Hunter’s left hand said with obvious
interest. “She may talk like a dingbat, but she knew what you really were just from
what her servants told her. She’s a real wolf in sheep’s clothing.” Chortling, the
voice added, “I’m really looking forward to meeting her, too.”

D didn’t reply to that, but headed for the door to the back of the
hall. Apparently he had no intention at all of abandoning his search.

“I thought I told you to quit that!” a voice called out from behind the Hunter, stopping
him.

The light burned a faint shadow of D on the door.

“You’re a bit too insistent for such a good-looking man. Women don’t like you peeking
into their bedrooms. Wait until night. That’s when beds get put to use anyway. But
if you’re going to keep at this—”

Her words became a brief shriek. A small hole had opened in the chest of the glowing
female form, but it immediately closed again. Her light-sculpted face turned and looked
behind her.

Quickly facing D once more, she asked, “What was that?”

Apparently she couldn’t even imagine that D would hurl a wooden needle at her.

Seeming to recompose herself, she added, “To give me such a fright when I’m composed
of no more than electrons, you must be an incredible man. I suppose I could kill you
countless times.”

“You seem quite sure of yourself,” D said when he turned.

“Oh, how sweet. You’re finally speaking to me. I was beginning to wonder if you even
had a tongue.”

“Where’s your grave?”

“Think I’d tell you?”

The light flickered. She’d smiled. Yet only seconds earlier she’d been chilled by
D’s attack.

“Well,” she continued, “since you asked nicely, I’ll tell you. It should be quite
exciting to see if you can get the lid of my coffin open before my time arrives. There.”

A beam of light shined from the tip of one glowing finger. It guided D’s gaze out
to the center of the ruined courtyard. But there was nothing to indicate a grave.

“Go see for yourself. I’ll keep you company,” she said, her tone buoyant. And knowing
as she did what D was capable of, it took incredible audacity to show him her own
resting place in broad daylight. However, there was a sort of innocence in the woman’s
voice that made it seem she was neither arrogant nor stupid.

Standing at the spot she’d indicated, D looked all around.

“You don’t see at all, do you? My coffin is buried in the earth. And you’ll need more
than brute strength to dig it up,” the light figure laughed.

Kneeling without so much as a word, D put his left hand to the ground.

“Fifteen feet, give or take,” the left hand told him after a moment.

Hearing that, the light figure gasped, “Oh, my!”

D raised his left hand high. In the sudden rush of air, the woman’s glowing image
flickered wildly. It was as if the Hunter’s left hand wasn’t sucking in the air, but
rather the very roar of the heavens. But did the glowing woman see the tiny mouth
that’d surfaced in his palm? Did she catch the blue flame blazing deep in its throat
as if fanned by the wind it consumed? Had anyone else been there to see it, they would’ve
surely been left feeling that the Hunter’s hand had swallowed the blue sky itself.

And then, after a few seconds—the sound simply stopped. The mouth had shut. Having
lost its destination, the rush of air tossed D’s hair and slammed into the grassy
ground.

“What in the world was that?” the phantasmal woman asked, making no attempt whatsoever
to hide the astonishment and childlike curiosity that tinged her voice as she leaned
forward.

Once more, D brought his left hand down to the ground. His arm easily slipped into
the dirt up to the elbow. Moving it to another spot, he did the same thing again.
After repeating the strange action a number of times, he’d made a hole roughly three
feet in diameter. If D were to get into the hole and continue what he was doing, he’d
be able to burrow down fifteen feet in less than five minutes.

“You’re tricky,” said the glowing woman. “I didn’t think you had anything like that
up your sleeve. How
handy
.”

“You’re a regular comedienne,” the hand in question spat.

“But I can’t bear to see you reach my resting place so easily. I’m afraid I’m going
to have to interfere. Come out, I say!” she cried in a voice as clear as crystal.

But even though the woman spoke, nothing appeared. Stillness settled once more over
the desolate ruin of a garden where the sunlight shared its blessings with the Noblewoman
without prejudice.

D stood up straight once more. He alone could sense something coalescing in the stillness.
It had no lust for killing. In fact, it didn’t seem to have any emotions at all.

“Holograms?” he said as almost a dozen figures surrounded him. Each was about twelve
feet away. Warriors. And all of them were clad in lightweight metal alloy armor. With
finlike blades shielding their shoulders and underarms, their armor was a style used
exclusively by the Nobility in the northern Frontier. Furthermore, every one of the
warriors was translucent. Although no more than black outlines could be seen through
their chests and thicker parts of their faces, stone pillars and trees showed quite
clearly through places like their abdomens and shins. These warriors were not flesh
and blood, but were mere conglomerations of electrons.

“Behold my castle guards! Cut them and they won’t die. But they can kill their opponents
well enough. See for yourself.”

And as the glowing figure spoke, her armored knights passed right through her and
bounded for D. The two-handed great swords they swung down at the Hunter had blades
of more than six feet. Originally, the weapons had been intended for use against armored
chargers and tanks.

Waiting until the whining swords were just about sink into the top of his head, D
drew his blade. Although he definitely bisected the knight’s torso, a pale line ran
through the area in question and there were two or three ripples of what seemed to
be electromagnetic waves, before even that faded away.

Watching as her henchman rose effortlessly from the spot where he’d landed, the woman
gave a haughty laugh and said, “I don’t care if you are a Vampire Hunter, you can’t
very well cut down a collection of electrons. But
they
can cut
you
!” the mocking figure said, pointing to D’s feet and a white stone that had been hewn
in two—the work of a blade also composed of electrons.

The hazy figures had grown clearer, for they’d just tightened the circle around him.
But how was D supposed to destroy opponents he couldn’t even cut?

“Whatever will you do now, Hunter?” the woman asked, throwing her head back with another
haughty laugh.

“Just this!” a hoarse voice replied, but it was unclear if the words reached the princess’s
ears.

Getting inside the wide swath the same armored knight cut with his great sword, D
made a diagonal slash through the phantom warrior from the left side of his neck to
his right hip. Once again, a pale glow indicated the path of the blade through him.
And the woman was laughing, just like before. But suddenly, she stopped.

Although the blue line flickered as it had before, it didn’t fade, and the upper half
of the warrior’s body slowly slipped off the lower half. Even after the torso hit
the ground, the legs remained standing. Flecks of blue light then spread from the
wound, throwing a more vivid light on the scenery behind the warrior before his body
broke into a millions fragments and vanished.

“Do my eyes deceive me? You really are good,” the woman said, her voice tinged with
excitement. What was she thinking? “Get him!” she cried. “Kill him already!”

At her command, her guards made a deadly charge, their great swords and spears glinting
in the sunlight.

D met them head-on. Supposedly impervious spears were hewn in two, and swords that
had met only empty space sailed through the air with both arms still attached to them.
Perhaps it would’ve been foolish to inquire just what technique allowed the Hunter
to cut through conglomerations of electrons.

In a scant three seconds, D had dispatched the phantasmal attackers. A few streaks
of pale blue lightning zipped around the garden, and then peace reigned once more.

“Impressive. I’ve never seen anyone so incredible,” the glowing figure remarked with
genuine regret. “If you can cut down illusions, there’s no way to stop you. I wonder
if I’m as good as finished now? Of course, I do still have
other
guards,” she said, turning her glowing face to the heavens.

A speck of black appeared in the blue sky, quickly separating into a few smaller parts
that came drifting down around D in the space of two breaths.

One of the most fearsome phrases that’d been passed down from the distant reign of
the Nobility was “the guardians from above.” A prime example of those defenses had
been seen in the southern Frontier, in the domain of a Noble family known as the Brockdens.
Their territory covered thousands of square miles, and everything necessary for its
defense came from the sky—bolts of steel-melting lightning, ground-devouring storms
of acid rain, and even monstrous beasts that could chew their way through mechanical
troops.

And now, D was surrounded by a pack of gigantic spiders. They were three feet high,
had bodies more than six feet long, and would’ve measured more than thirty feet across
from the end of one leg to the other with their limbs fully extended. The sight of
them snipping their exposed fangs together like metallic blades while a yellow fluid
dripped from their maws was chilling enough to freeze even the most vicious of beasts
in horror.

Though several theories attempted to account for the sudden appearance of such creatures
from the sky, the most probable of them suggested that the monsters were released
from “arsenals” flying hundreds of miles above the earth. Several decades earlier,
one such craft had crashed. In addition to the large-caliber particle beam cannons
and weather disrupters, investigators on the scene were also amazed to find the remains
of a variety of monstrosities, each covered with a simple form of heat-shielding armor
and strapped to a braking rocket. The armor must have been to protect the creatures
from air friction during their descent.

The six spiders bent all of their legs in unison, and darkness enveloped D. The spiders’
sudden leap had hidden the sun. But
this was no ordinary darkness—there wasn’t a speck of light
anywhere. D’s vision had been taken from him in an instant.

As the glowing woman watched the black forms of the spiders raining down on the gorgeous
young man, she heaved a sigh. She was sure that this was the end of him. But before
she could hear meat and bones being devoured, the light returned. And different sounds
rang out—those of steel severing flesh and the agonized screams that spilled from
the mutilated creatures. That’s what the woman heard.

When the glowing figure turned around, D was standing there. Three of the six spiders
lay at his feet, while the other three had returned to their original positions and
were staring now at the twitching bodies of their compatriots and the beautiful butcher.

“You’ve gone and done it again, haven’t you?” the dumbfounded figure of light remarked.
“I’ve had quite enough of this. I’m running out of pawns. You other three—do something
about him already!”

But the woman’s impassioned cry wasn’t enough to move the survivors into action. It
was as if the sight of the Hunter gripping a gore-soaked blade but personally unsullied
by a single spot of blood had utterly robbed them of their nerve.

“Do it! You know, that thing you do!” the woman cried.

The spiders seemed to understand what she had in mind. Their black bodies began to
bulge in places, giving way to conical protuberances that sent yellowish streams of
fluid into the air without a sound. For all their resemblance to giant spiders, these
monsters were actually something else, and what they launched was no doubt some bodily
excretion.

As soon as the liquid settled like a mist on them, the marble pillars and ground all
began to give off a white smoke.

“Yes! That’s it!” the jubilant figure of light exclaimed, but then she gasped aloud
and froze in place.

The young man in black appeared to be enveloped by the deadly yellow rain, but a split
second later, he came down right in front of the woman. The spot he’d leapt to was
the safest place imaginable. Although she was merely an illusion, the creatures didn’t
let their deadly rain fall on their mistress.

BOOK: The Rose Princess
9.37Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

Desolation by Mark Campbell
Emily's Quest by L.M. Montgomery
The Midnight Guardian by Sarah Jane Stratford
Redefining Realness by Janet Mock
Friends of a Feather by Lauren Myracle
Sin Undone by Ione, Larissa
Simply Pleasure by Kate Pearce
La llamada de los muertos by Laura Gallego García