Queen's Blade Rebellion Illustrated Stories: Upheaval, chapter 8

Guess who shows up to stop Yuit and the others in this chapter?
Enjoy!

Upheaval, chapter 8: Yuit’s Crisis

The group of Yuit, Vante, Tarnyang and Sainyang had met a young girl called Luna Luna in the jungle, and when they asked her the location of the “Beast Cave”, they had been sent to step deeper inside it.

“Really… since she brought us to the entrance, she could have guided us in too.”

Yuit replied with a wry smile to the complaining Tarnyang.

“Now, now… aren’t you thankful she guided us this far.”

“Even so…”

The moment Tarnyang retorted, the figure of Sainyang, who had been walking nervously, disappeared along with a wild scream.

“Ahyau!”

“Sainyang?”

Then at that moment, Tarnyang’s figure also disappeared.

Yuit rushed over, confused.

“H, h, help meee.”

As expected, she abruptly found the figures of the two people.

A pit was hidden by the cave’s rock surface, and Sainyang had fallen entirely into it. And Tarnyang had been pulled from the string that connected their necks, and fell together with her.

“H, H, Hurry up… hurry up and help me, I, I, I’m going to fall! I’m falling down, I’m falling dooown!”

Sainyang had both arms and legs stretched against the wall, frantically trying not to fall down.

No wonder, set up at the bottom of the hole, many spears were pointing upwards, one of them piercing a skeleton.

“Sainyang, shut up! Despite always whispering in a low voice, you have to shout out at these times, don’t you?”

Tarnyang was quite composed, for someone who also was stretching her arms and legs against the pit’s wall. She was probably an older sister you could rely on in a pinch.

“Vante, please.”

“Gaon!”

After Yuit’s command, Vante extended her hand and grabbed the two people.

“T… Thanks…”

Pinching herself like a kitten, Sainyang sighed as she remained in one piece.

“Really, I told you to be careful where you walked, don’t slack off!”

“Incidentally, didn’t you say you were afraid to get in the cave…?”

As usual, Tarnyang ignored Sainyang’s words of complaint, looked back to Yuit, and asked her once again.

“Are you sure, that there’s a treasure deep inside?”

Yuit replied to the question with an amazed look.

“It’s not that! It’s an inheritance of the “Calibara tribe”, a sacred treasure fortress! For the sake of fighting against the Queen’s Army, we absolutely, absoluutely need it!”

“I, I know that! I was just testing you a little!”

“You definitely forgot…”

“A, anyhow, let’s keep going ahead! We’ve come so far inside, we should be reaching the goal soon!”

Saying that to gloss over it, Tarnyang quickly hurried.

“Hey hey, hurry up and follow me… hihyauu?”

She got caught up in a trap, and let out a strange voice.

---

After being caught in and overcoming many traps, the group finally reached the cave’s deepest  spot.

“A dead end… it can’t be, did we make a mistake?”

“No way… I didn’t make a wrong turn at a fork, did I…?”

“Ah, here… look.”

Sainyang crouched and pointed at her feet, in the semi-darkness of the cave.

There was a small hole, hidden in the darkness indistinguishably.

“Surely, the treasure room’s beyond this point! Let’s go!”

Saying so, Yuit squatted down and plunged half her head in at once.

“Hey hey, hurry up!”

Though Tarnyang also squatted down and urged Yuit, she immediately turned towards the cave and went back, shouting.

“The hole is too small, I can’t fit well! Only Yuit fits!”

“Eeh!  It can’t be helped…  Well then, I’m going alone!”

“Gaoon!”

Vante raised her voice in concern, and leaving Tarnyang, Sainyang and her there, Yuit went back into the thin hole.

---

By the time Yuit returned, 2 hours had gone by.

“Geez, I give up, though there was a small room inside, it didn’t lead anywhere! But! There was a box containing some kind of ancient documents, if I look at them somewhere bright…!”

“Heee, ancient documents? I’m curious, I wonder if you can tell me a little about them?”

Something was thrust in front of the dusty Yuit’s eyes, a sharp claw. Of course, neither Tarnyang, Sainyang nor Vante carried such a dangerous weapon.

“W… who…?”

She raised her look.

Standing there, there was a woman in leather armor with swinging pigtails.

 

“Y… You’re… “Leader of the Fang” Elina…!”

“Oh, you remember me? I’m so happy, “Alchemy Strategist” Yuit!”

“Y, Yuiit.”

“Sorry… we were caught.”

“Ga… gaoon…!”

Behind Elina, many sturdy, half-naked men with strange patterns drawn throughout their bodies were lined up, and they had tied up Vante, Tarnyang and Sainyang.

“That was some perfect timing, lady.”

With a grinning smile, Elina stroke Yuit’s jaw with her claw.

“Now, I’ll have you tell me… what you know, the whereabouts of the “key”…!”

 ---

“Thaat’s why, we don’t know the whereabouts of the key either…!”

The sturdy men wound around them, and came out of the cave carrying Yuit’s party.

“Wait, stop! Get off me!”

“Oh, it’s useless, you have to ask these guys in their language… Kikerakikera, Purimuuho!”

Elina commanded the men in an unfamiliar language, and Tarnyang and the others were tied up harder. Seemed like she completely ruled over the natives somehow. The Leader of the Fang Elina was formidable.

“Ta, Tarnyang… t, that one! Over there!”

As Sainyang was carried on a man’s shoulders like luggage, her eyes opened up in surprise and she called out to Tarnyang.

“What? Can there be anything weirder than this… Ah, eeeh!”

“What is it? What’s going on?”

When Yuit asked, the Twin Taimashi gave a small nod, their faces turning white.

“T, that one there…”

“What?”

Beyond Tainyang’s line of sight, Elina was taking with her the figure of a very young girl.

“Just who, is that? Elina, is she your child?”

Elina looked back, with a look that mocked what Yuit had asked.

“No way. Or rather, it has nothing to do with you. But, I wonder if you’ll soon feel like talking about the key’s whereabouts? “The key serves as the gate”, I’ll make you hand it over.”

“But, I don’t know anything about a key! I’ve been telling you for quite a while!”

Facing the captured Yuit, Elina kept on asking obstinately about the whereabouts of the “key”.

But, even if she asked Yuit, she had no idea about the “key”. In the first place, it was looking for the “key” why they had come to the Beast Cave.

“Really, we don’t know what you mean… right, Tarnyang?”

Turning her neck, Yuit called out to Tarnyang.

“…”

But, both Tarnyang and Sainyang’s faces showed a serious expression, like they were worried about something.

“Tarnyang, Sainyang?”

What’s wrong, Yuit tried to ask them, but before she could, Tarnyang threw a sharp voice at Elina.

“You there, why did you take our, Shai-Fang’s “goshintai”, with you?”

“Eh…? Goshintai? Where?”

Sainyang replied to the puzzled Yuit.

“Um… the girl Elina is leading… That one there, is our, Shai-Fang’s “goshintai”. “Child of the Dragon”… is her name.”

“Eh…? B, But, you said goshintai, isn’t that kind of like the statue of a goddess… eh, she’s a person?”

Yuit was staring in complete confusion, and Tarnyang and Sainyang gathered and nodded.

“Shai-Fang lost its “Child of the Dragon”… we were looking for her, why was she taken by the Queen’s Army…?”

Talking in whispers, Tarnyang and the others shared these details.

The “Child of the Dragon” from Shai-Fang. Properly said, it was “Child of the Fate Chosen by the Dragon”, their national symbol, surely she had a “Living God” in her.

The “Child of the Dragon” was born knowing everything in this world, and with all-seeing eyes, she occasionally gave predictions to the Shai-Fang’s people.

Only such a person exists in Shai-Fang, but if a new “Child of the Dragon” is born, the “Child of the Dragon” until then is said to lose all their power.

As far as the people in Shai-Fang are concerned, the “Child of the Dragon” was an existence that should also be called the actual existence of “God”.

That “Child of the Dragon” had suddenly disappeared from the Shai-Fang’s village. So, the guardians of Shai-Fang, the “Taimashi” Tarnyang and Sainyang had left the village, on a trip to search for the “goshintai”, that is, the “Child of the Dragon”.

“So, the child you girls were looking for, was with the Queen’s Army?”

“That’s what I want to hear!”

“Want me to tell you?”

What should have been a conversation in whispers must have gotten louder as they got more passionate, and it seemed it had reached the ears of Elina in front of them.

A somewhat demonic smile was reflected on Elina’s facial expression, but even as she felt a strong premonition that she shouldn’t hear it, Yuit nodded involuntarily.

“Yuit, you were relying on a memo written by Cyan, is that how you came here?”

“I, I don’t know what you mean…”

“It’s okay, you don’t need to hide it. I know that much. Because… the one who entered the Little Elves’ forest and left the memo in your mother’s workshop, forcing you to get your hands on it… it was me.”

“!”

Yuit’s eyes opened wide in astonishment.

Yuit’s hometown, the Little Elves forest, had been burned to nothing by the Queen’s Army.

Her mother Cyan had set up an alchemy workshop there.

For Yuit, the place where she had helped with her mother’s research, studied, and witnessed the creation of Vante, that had been her home, the place where she was born.

“Uhn… so…!”

“Yes. So, the contents of your memo, I know all about them. Ymir solved the riddle. Say, did you know? “Peach Tree”, if you transpose it with the language the Calibara Tribe used a long time ago, it’s pronounced like… “Shai-Fang”.”

“W, what… in that case!”

 “Indeed, the “Child of the Peach Tree” is, in other words… this brat that won’t say a thing. And though locating Shai-Fang is difficult, with my intel gathering abilities it was no trouble.”

“Then… so, you took the “Child of the Dragon” from our village like that?”

“Eeh, even if I’d say it was severely guarded, it was easy for me to take her. I didn’t hurt anybody, I wasn’t even found out.”

Saying so proudly, Elina poked the “Child of the Dragon” ‘s head with the tip of her claw.

Although her head swung like a pendulum doll, the “Child of the Dragon” remained expressionless and stared into space, somehow not even noticing.

“You there! I won’t let you be rude to the “Child of the Dragon”!”

“Oh, you won’t let me, what do you plan to do while you can’t even move? Scary.”

Giggling after making a fool of her, Elina continued.

“This child was taken in front of Queen Claudette, was asked about the whereabouts of the ancient civilization’s legacy, and predicted this.”

“Southern lands. The gate serves as the key, the key serves as the gate. Holding the key, a small, wise person. The steel servant, the protectors of the dragon, the gate will be opened, and then closed.”

“At first, we didn’t know what that meant! But I thought, the “small wise person” would surely be you. In spite of being a pipsqueak, you’re Annelotte’s strategist, we’ve had a hard time with you, and you’re the alchemist Cyan’s daughter.”

“T, those people… why are they cooperating with you?”

“Aah, the Calibara tribe? I just suggested to them, “If your God is resurrected, you’ll recover the glory of the olden days”, and they easily ate it up.”

“Damn…! Open your eyes! You’re being tricked by this person!”

“Ahaha, it’s useless, no matter what you tell them. They only speak the Calibara language.”

Elina stated, and bringing her face close to Yuit’s, she said with triumph.

“”Alchemy Strategist” Yuit, seems like this contest of wits it’s been my victory. Now, realize this, resign yourself and hand me the key.”

“!”

Elina’s claws stroke Yuit’s cheek, running down a faint scar.

There was pain, and a single line of fresh blood went along Yuit’s white cheek.

Seeing that, Vante, who so far had remained inactive since Yuit’s commands had been cut off, roared greatly.

 “Gaoooooon!”

-To be continued-

A few mysteries of Rebellion are slowly being revealed...

The first time I saw Elina speaking that strange language, I thought it might be her "cursing words" she inherited from her mom, but no, it's just that Ymir has gotten really clever.

And I'm changing the "gate becomes the key" hint to "gate serves as the key", since that'd kinda make more sense, unless there are strange transformations going on.

Next chapter, can Yuit's group get out of this pinch?