Chapter 4: Unicorn’s Knight
It was a warm garden, light shining all over it. Sounds from performers could be heard in the distance. An arched corridor supported by countless pillars surrounded the garden in a geometric pattern.
Leina recognized the place she was standing in. It was one of the palaces in a corner of the vast Vance Earldom, now turned into a mausoleum.
“Is this… a dream?”
The busts of the successive castle lords were arranged so as to subject those passing through the corridor to their gazes.
However, that was a decoration that should have been removed from Maria’s palace—maintained as a mausoleum—after her death. At least, back when she left the Earldom, she remembered they had been transferred back to the main palace.
As she looked at the busts, full of emotion, a girl came running towards her.
“Eh?”
She couldn’t contain a surprised voice when she saw her.
Braids hanging on both sides of her hair, long blond hair reaching up to her back, and a thin bluish white dress; the girl running was her young self.
She could still remember the pattern from her favorite dress. She liked it so much, she couldn’t forget how she had had several clothes tailor-made after it.
The girl didn’t seem to notice her, passing right through her side.
“I see, so it IS a dream…”
The warrior muttered, going through the corridor following her younger self.
“Mom, mom, where are you?”
A smile flashed in the girl’s face the moment she recognized a faint lullaby.
“A sleeping child dreams
A sleepless child doesn’t dream
Happy dreams, and beautiful dreams
Are something a sleepless child can’t see
So good night, my dear child
Enjoy a beautiful dream
And when you wake up spirited in the morning
Tell me all about
The wonderful dream you had”
Noticing the girl approaching, a woman with complex braided golden hair stopped singing and put a finger to her lips.
“Shh, quiet now…”
Leina couldn’t help a smile from appearing in her face when she saw the woman. That was who she had always called ‘Mom’, the Master Swordswoman Maria. Different from the appearance she would have when she met her in Fiend Island after being revived by the witch, this was Maria as she had always known her.
She slowly walked up beside her younger self. The other two didn’t seem to pay her any mind though.
[Am I looking at the past as a ghost? Or, is this really a dream?]
Not knowing what conclusion to draw, she kept watching the exchange between her mother and her younger self.
“She’s just fallen asleep. Do be quiet.”
At the point Maria gestured to, there was a tiny sleeping Elina embracing a huge white tiger as a makeshift pillow, breathing in her sleep.
[Would she be like two or three by now?]
In Elina’s peaceful sleeping face she could find no traces of her current ferocity.
“White Blaze, bear with my younger sister for just a while longer.”
When the girl caressed its throat, it made a happy purring sound.
White Blaze was the name of the battle tiger that Maria had brought from her hometown, and the mother of the white tiger Timorf, currently living in Elina’s palace. Three days before her mother would die from a disease, White Blaze died alongside her.
That figure which promised loyalty to her mother until the very end impressed many people, and though after death it would give her owner a beast’s body, it was a famous tiger who had the honor of being granted knighthood.
“So, what’s wrong, Leina?”
With an attitude few would expect from an Earl’s wife, Maria looked at the girl.
“Say, mom, do you know about Queen’s Blade? It’s a tournament where you can become Queen if you win.”
“Ooh my, where did you hear that?”
The woman made a wry smile, which contrasted with her daughter’s serious expression.
“The merchant who brought the weapons to the Imperial Guards was talking about it. He was saying that if the Master Swordswoman joined, she’d definitely win the championship, so are you participating, mom?”
“I won’t.”
Maria answered without hesitation.
“Why?”
“Because it would make your father sad.”
The mother smiled, looking up to the palace, where Earl Vance’s office was.
“Being the wife of your father and the mother of both you and Elina is more important to me than being Queen.”
“Hm~~~.”
The young Leina wasn’t able to see the intent behind those words. However, the grown Leina watching the conversation was able to recall how much Maria loved the Earl. She always lived for his sake.
“But, if you grow up and want to become Queen, you can participate. Of course, I won’t allow the Master Swordswoman’s daughter to lose in an ugly fashion.”
As the woman said so, she grabbed a training wooden sword that was leaning on a corner of the backyard.
“A secret lesson from Father?”
The eyes of the small Leina sparkled. Lately, training with her mother 10 minutes a day was more fun for her than the lessons ordered by Earl Vance.
“An apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, huh?”
The mother smiled wryly when she saw her daughter’s eagerness, and handed her the sword.
“Let’s review what we have seen so far. Show me your basic forms.”
“Yes!”
“The quintessence of the Master Swordswoman: Strong, beautiful and gentle.”
Maria clapped.
“Gentleness is mercy: fight to win without sympathizing with your opponent. Strength is determination: if you cross swords with someone, crush them unrelentingly. Beauty is skill: the power of the sword dwells in a beautiful shape.”
The young Leina recited the frame of mind prompted by her mother.
“You remember them well. Now, put them into practice, or they will become just empty words.”
“Yes, Mother!”
With a blooming smile, the young Leina poised her sword.
[Yeah, that’s how it went.]
Leina understood it from hearing Maria’s words; the feelings of that day, when she was coming back from the ball and ended up crossing blades with Risty… the seeds to challenge the Queen’s Blade had been planted in her by Maria in that courtyard.
***
*Shake!*
With a sudden vibration, Leina’s consciousness was brought back to reality.
The scenery of the warm inner courtyard with light shining all over was drowned out in an instant, and a jet-black sea spread through her sight.
Still feeling unstable, she reflexively tried to lean her foot on the ground, but she ended up kicking the air.
“Eek!”
As she tried to move, the strap around her bit into her body.
“Guh!”
Unable to stand the pressure on her chest, she let out a short groan. One way or another, the strap hadn’t been shaken off, apparently having gotten caught up in some protuberances.
“W-Where, am I?”
She hurried to look around her.
The sea surface under her eyes reflected the huge shadow of a person illuminated by the moonlight. Together with white waves, the whales jumped as if escaping from something.
They were fine, large whales, as big as a small boat. However, the jumping whales never returned to the sea again; before her eyes, they released bodily fluids and wasted away in an instant.
“Wha? What’s going on?”
Even as dark as it was, her eyes noticed the presence of a tentacle—reminiscent of a huge leech—biting into the side of the whales. It was the same meat chunk that had swallowed both Maria and herself.
“Is it absorbing… the whales…?”
[Then, why wasn’t I swallowed?]
Hanging in midair as she was, she tilted her head in confusion. She couldn’t see any trace of the meat lump that had swallowed her mother and her anywhere.
“Hiah.”
A sudden sensation around her waist made her raise her voice.
“I-It can’t be.”
[I didn’t soil my pants while I was out of it… did I.]
She quietly reached out to check.
Her underwear was damp. Cold droplets overflowed from the fabric that had gone past its absorption limit, dripping into her inner thighs.
As her body shook with a chill, Leina smelled the liquid stuck to her fingertip.
“This is…”
When she smelled a clean smell harking back to wild grass, she hung her head and gave a sigh of relief; what had moistened her lower body was the Soul Drop she had brought to treat Fio.
She had placed the small bottle filled with it inside a small pouch stuck to her waist strap, and at some point it had overflowed and began to drip down from there, dampening her underwear.
“I ended up wasting most of it…”
In her current situation where any signs of Fio had disappeared, maybe she no longer had any use for the elixir. Still, wasting it without utilizing it for its original purpose did feel like abusing the elves’ kindness. With a pang of guilt, she couldn’t prevent a sigh from escaping her lips.
“GWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!”
A war cry sounded abruptly, tearing the atmosphere apart.
“Kyah… w-what?”
When she looked back, cautiously, she saw it…
There was the chin of the Golem Warrior there, its back to the moonlight. The fangs extending from the wide open upper jaw wriggled mysteriously, casting a pale light.
The scale of it all was too big for her to get the whole picture, but from the silhouette reflected on the sea surface, she seemed to be somewhere around the shoulder of the golem.
“This is the Golem Warrior from the age of the gods…”
No other words came to mind.
[Will I be able to defeat this?]
When she happened to look towards the other side, she could see the lights of the city a distance away.
[I don’t have the time to worry about that. If this Golem Warrior goes ashore, the people in the city will be preyed upon, just like the whales from earlier.
I have to defeat it while we’re still at sea, or we won’t be able to escape catastrophe.
It might be impossible, but I still have to try. First, I must break free from this suspended state.]
She tried to loosen the strap biting into her body.
“Kuh…”
The rivets driven into the leather strap had caused her chafing, leaving red marks on her white skin. Slowly but surely, her suspended body went down.
“I think I can go… little by little.”
She talked as if convincing herself, then started moving her legs like a swing.
If she made a mistake in the timing, she’d be thrown out into the ocean under her. And it didn’t matter how much she had trained her body, she wouldn’t be surviving a fall from that height.
She took a deep breath, and waited for the moment when her body would be the closest to the golem’s.
[One… two…]
The shaking kept getting stronger.
“Now!”
Leina jumped, her body dancing through the air.
The loosened strap stretched to its limit, cutting into her breast, so she quickly unfastened it; she no longer needed a lifeline.
Her heavy breasts, released from the bondage, were set free against the night air.
[Now, a few centimeters…]
She firmly stretched her hand.
*Hit!*
Her fingertip touched a hard protrusion, and her little flight—that seemed like it would go on forever—ended.
“Gah!”
Her full body weight was applied to her fingertip… yet, she couldn’t let go. Both of her feet dig into the golem’s body.
At that moment, a drop spilled from her pouch into a part of its body, which disappeared in a puff of steam.
“What happened?”
She carefully studied what she was touching: both what her hand was grabbing and what her feet were resting on, were undeniably human bones.
The Golem Warrior absorbed all the creatures residing in Fiend Island, and after configuring its flesh, it had expelled the skeleton soldiers and such it had absorbed along, making them into an armor.
When she saw how that skeleton crumbled away after receiving a drop of the elixir, she finally understood why she hadn’t been absorbed: it was all thanks to the protection of the Soul Drop.
[However, that protection won’t last long. Most of the Soul Drop has been used up. I will need the rest to kill the Golem Warrior. It made that skeleton disappear a while ago, so it should work to inflict a mortal wound.]
After having lost both the Sword of the Unicorn and her own long sword, the only weapon she had left was the Soul Drop.
Now that she had avoided falling somehow, she tried to calm her agitated breath:
“Haa… haa… haa…”
Her breasts, no longer bound, moved up and down, matching her breathing.
Imagining how she must look, her cheeks were tinged in red.
[Still, I have no time to writh in shame.]
For them not to interfere with her movement, she tied up her breasts with a part of the leather belt that remained in her waist.
“Oh my?”
A stinging pain ran through her cleavage. It was around the area she used to carry the Sword of the Unicorn in.
“It’s just my imagination… isn’t it.”
When she regained her breathing, she began to move slowly, clinging to the golem’s body. Fortunately, there were many protrusions on the creature’s surface, covered as it was by skeletons.
With it being that huge, she couldn’t very well get a sense of its weak point, but since it was imitating a person’s shape, she might be able to defeat it by wounding it from its neck to the base of its head.
Leina put her body’s strength into her limbs and climbed over the creature’s body, as it advanced over the sea towards the city.
***
His body felt heavy after waking up from a long sleep.
He slowly stood up.
He stretched out his spine, and looked at his limbs. And what he saw wasn’t the delicate limbs of a girl, but a powerful, thick hoof covered in a brilliant, white fur.
He understood then that he had returned to his original form. He had run out of all the power he could use in the human form he had borrowed from the diva Saria a long time ago, and his consciousness had returned to its original body.
[What’s going on? In this body I just can’t go down to the earth, now can I?]
“I-I-It moved~~~~~!”
When an angel’s voice sounded unexpectedly, he turned to look at her. It was a blue-haired one, looking up at him, stunned.
[No, she’s not a full-fledged angel. Judging from the small bottle hanging by her waist, she must be on probation.]
He recognized the mismatch in the wing sizes. If he remembered correctly, that would be Nanael.
“What’s the situation like?”
He asked her without hesitation.
“T-The situation?”
She was flustered.
[I guess she wasn’t expecting to be asked something out of the blue? Probably, she didn’t know I can speak the angel’s language either.
This is fruitless. I guess she isn’t on probation for nothing…]
He snorted, a sigh mixed in there, and decided to ask a little more clearly.
“What happened to the Golem Warrior?”
“E-Err, the battle angels are waiting right now, but there’s an order from the Head Angel prohibiting to intervene on ground matters, effective until further notice.”
She might have been nervous, for she spoke using a totally different tone than the times she had seen him in human form.
“And the surface?”
“Maybe it’s faster if I show you?”
She snapped her finger, and a view of the surface spread to their feet.
The Golem Warrior was slowly moving towards the Continent, its apparent destination a coastal city. Fleets were starting to gather offshore to protect the city.
“Only a weapon from the age of the gods can defeat *it*, and yet…”
He lightly shook his head.
[It might be possible to destroy or cut away part of its body, but one basically can’t defeat the golem with just ordinary weapons. If no one takes measures and intervenes, the people on the surface will be wiped out, Leina included. That’s something I have to avoid at all costs.
However, I can’t descend to earth with this body, if I’m to preserve balance. Due to my failure, the humans I love might perish.]
His hooves shook in frustration.
“Excuse me, o’ Great Unicorn.”
Nanael’s voice interrupted his train of thought, bringing him back from his reverie.
“What is it?”
“Since you’re a unicorn, you should have a horn, shouldn’t you? What happened… to your horn?”
It was only after Nanael mentioned it that he noticed for the first time that the elegant horn extending from his forehead was gone.
[I see… it didn’t come back to me when I left the surface… Still, this should be a good enough excuse for me to intervene on the surface.
I just have to wait for the other side to call me.]
“Do you remember our conversation, how I said to call out for me…? That’s the only way the surface will be saved… my dear Partner, the Exiled Warrior.”
He kept looking at the surface as he felt the soft feeling transmitted from the serenading blade, that was half of his body.
***
“So slow…”
The golem’s advance was slower than driftwood floating through the sea.
It was no wonder, though: without its feet, its balance was poor, plus it was moving at the same time it repaired itself. She should count herself lucky for not sinking into the sea.
“The Golem Warrior sinking into the sea… that wouldn’t even work as a joke.”
Airi muttered, a bored expression on her face.
“Shall we go underwater?”
Maria was quick to react to that.
“No, let’s keep moving forward this way for the moment.”
The Golem Warrior didn’t breathe, so it didn’t really matter if it actually sank, but if they had to move along the ocean floor—definitely more affected by water pressure than the sea—, she didn’t have a clue of how many years it would take to reach the Continent.
“We’re slow enough as is.”
She whispered so that Maria wouldn’t hear, and unable to hide her frustration, she moved her toes once and again.
In these cases, normally she’d try to forget her woes by talking to Melona, but unfortunately the connection with her had been cut off ever since the golem had stood up.
“Sigh… it’s worse than a slug.”
The sailing ship strolling around Fiend Island had disappeared beyond the horizon a long time ago, and the moon rising above the sky was about to sink in the west.
At that rate, they would arrive in Sheldan in the morning. Although sunlight wasn’t a threat to Airi—who had substance despite being a wraith—, it still wasn’t desirable.
[If possible, I’d have liked to land at night, but at this speed, there are zero chances of that happening.]
“If we had something like a projectile or magic, we could blow away the hindrances in our way.”
The golem might have heard her, for it made a low growl.
“That way we wouldn’t be just a huge good-for-nothing.”
“Do you want to activate the wide destruction weapon?”
Maria asked, devoid of any intonation.
“Use it.”
The maid gave her permission without giving it too much thought. Since she couldn’t contact Melona, who knew all about the golem’s detailed functions, her only option was to try and see what stuck.
Following her orders, the golem’s ribs overstretched, as if it had torn off its chest.
“Wha?”
*Ba-dump, ba-dump*, light began to gather at the pulsating heart of the creature.
“Ah… aah… kuuh!”
As the brilliance increased, Maria moaned, her body wriggling.
She had been inserted into the Golem Warrior from her waist down. Every time the creature used powerful magic, a fierce electrical current would run through her lower body. Her slightly wavy hair stuck to her sweaty face, giving off such a sex appeal that even a woman like Airi felt her heart skip a beat.
Every time she wriggled her body, her breasts shook, spraying beads of sweat.
“Aaaaaaah!”
Coinciding with her scream, a small sun was released from the golem’s chest.
“Kuh!”
The light orb flew, changing the night into daytime in an instant.
“W-What, was that now?”
“The light orb for large-scale destruction… aah… was released successfully…”
The revived woman answered, her body lingering in the afterglow.
Meanwhile, the light orb flew towards the Continent at a tremendous speed, evaporating the sea surface in its wake.
“That won’t hit Sheldan directly, will it!?”
The people in the city were necessary for restoring the Golem’s body. If the projectile annihilated them, there would be no point to it.
“The impact point is 20 kilometers to the east of Sheldan…”
The eastern sky burned red, as if overlapping Maria’s words.
“Such power.”
Airi gasped, staring at the point of impact; even from there she could see clearly how the mountain had completely disappeared, turning into red lava that was now flowing down.
“With this, no matter what force comes after us, they just won’t be a match.”
A roaring sound interrupted her whisper. The clouds in the night sky were blown off by a terrible shock wave, changing into a beautiful starry sky. A night sky filled with a dreadful quietness.
***
The sun had risen in the middle of the night.
Leina—clinging to the golem desperately so as to not be shaken off—hadn’t missed any of it.
In the distance, smoke was coming from a mountain of flames that burned the sky red.
[If that thing were to hit Sheldan directly…
I must hurry.]
Before the golem could change its posture, she ran from the neck to the back of its head. Her target: the top of its head.
[If I throw the Soul Drops into that spot, I might be able to stop its movements, even if I can’t beat it.]
*Throb!*
After resolving herself anew, something pulsed suddenly on her chest.
“Wha?”
The prickly pain gradually turned into a warm and gentle sensation. In a panic, she checked the breasts pressed down by the leather chest.
“I can’t… believe this…”
She couldn’t help but crack a smile when she saw what popped out of her cleavage, slowly crawling out of it.
(After this, even if you and I get separated, I can be at ease since the Sword will always be by your side.)
She vividly recalled Fio’s words.
The Sword of the Unicorn, which seemed to have disappeared, had been with her all along.
“I should have listened to him seriously.”
Muttering in self-deprecation, she looked up at the night sky.
[If this is here, Fio should also be safe. I can’t beat this creature alone, but if I’m with Fio…!]
Hope filled her face.
“Fight with me.”
She whispered, holding the weapon by her chest.
***
“What’s that now?”
Ymir, who was the first to return to Sheldan’s port, looked up at the shooting star passing overhead in amazement. She somehow felt that it was too huge and brilliant for it to be a shooting star.
The eastern sky, towards where the shooting star had flown away, turned red like dawn.
“Princess, get down, please!”
At the same time Stin shouted, a gust of wind and a roar shook Sheldan. During the earth tremor, the lighthouse—with a height Sheldan boasted of—collapsed.
“W-What!”
Clinging as she was to a street light, the dwarven princess saw how a mountain became red molten rock, which then flowed down.
“The mountain! Our Mountain! How could this happen!”
She screamed; there was no hope left for a mountain that had become like that, and even the Iron Mountain was no exception. She could only stay rooted on the spot, sobbing.
“Calm down, Princess! The Iron Mountain is in the opposite direction!”
“Eh?”
She regained her wits when he heard Stin’s voice, who approached with rough footsteps.
The Iron Mountain was to the west of Sheldan. The burning mountain right now was to the east. Apparently, her sense of direction had become funny during the sea voyage.
“E-Ehem… I knew that. I didn’t think that the Iron Mountain had been blown off, I only felt sad because all the minerals of that mountain were ours!”
She explained herself, blushing. However, Stin had a good intuition, maybe he didn’t fall for it.
“Anyway, hurry back to the company and remove all the goods! This will become a battlefield soon!”
“If it’s a battlefield, won’t it be a good chance for our business?”
“See here, Stin, do you think you can win when you look at *that*?”
She pointed to the eastern sky; the mountain had changed shape in a moment, and now melted as lava. The night sky over the mountain was now red like daybreak.
“I think that’s already beyond what you can sort out with a sword or an ax.”
“Right? That’s why we’re relocating temporarily!”
As soon as she said so, Ymir jumped into the streets of Sheldan—that had begun to collapse—towards their firm.
***
“It’s dreadful…”
The Thundercloud General murmured, gazing at the flames illuminating the night sky in a bright red.
[If that attack just now hit us, we’d have vanished without even leaving any bones behind.]
Even as she thought so, she never once considered withdrawing.
She was sitting at the command post of the Glorious—flagship of the northern Earl territory navy that gathered at the Sheldan offshore.
Looking at a chart illuminated by the light of the lanterns, Claudette silently pointed to the position the fleet gathered at. In defiance of the night’s darkness, a military fleet consisting of dozens of vessels were advancing to protect Sheldan.
Since Sheldan was within the Queen’s territory, originally they shouldn’t have needed to protect it. Despite that, the naval force was putting in their best efforts, and that was all due to the shrewd diplomatic strategy of the Sheldan’s ruler, Baron Weir. Since the Earl gained wealth with trade under the agreement struck with the Baron in order to stabilize the maritime trade, they couldn’t forsake that city.
However, there was yet another reason why Claudette herself had gotten involved in an unfamiliar sea battle…
“Older sister, is the Golem Warrior visible yet?”
Elina came up to the command post, her clothes fixed.
She was the reason why the redhead was facing that marine war. As soon as she heard that Elina had boarded the prototype ship Erebus to head towards Fiend Island, she made use of the fleet at once. Her intentions had been to surround Fiend Island so as to corner and capture Leina. All in order to support Elina.
And yet, neither Elina nor the crew of the fleet had realized the purpose driving her strategy. Everybody had admired her quick thinking, and nobody had noticed her real intention.
“Hm… haven’t you pushed yourself enough?”
“I can’t go to sleep until I have confirmed Sister’s safety.”
“However, resting one’s body is an important job.”
“Before a crisis, a noble can’t go to rest any sooner than a soldier can.”
Elina answered in a resolute tone, standing as she was beside Claudette.
“Captain! Fire shots are effective against the Golem Warrior’s flesh. Get all the ships prepared as soon as possible.”
Captain Davy heard Elina’s observations, then turned to look at Claudette. After all, the commander of the fleet was the older sister; he couldn’t do anything without her permission.
In turn, Claudette nodded silently to her sister’s instructions.
“Understood.”
He quickly moved his arms, relaying the instructions through hand signals. No matter how loud one got, in the middle of the sea one’s voice would be drowned out by the waves and the wind. That’s why the most reliable way to give instructions to the fleet was through smoke or hand signals.
“Older sister, give some words of encouragement for the soldiers.”
“H-Hm.”
The redhead hid her joy at being together with Elina and stood before the command post.
“Gentlemen of our brave naval force! We shall be facing a huge enemy soon. We are not tools of the Queen, just out to protect the world. Let us remind the people of the Continent that we are the descendants of the rightful rulers!”
The squad raised a rallying cry when they heard her. When it came to military affairs of Earl Vance, the navy had a story of being treated like the black sheep, if anything.
But today was different. The Captain of the Royal Guards—a direct descendant of the Vance house—and the Thundercloud General were on board. It was impossible for morale not to go up.
Claudette slowly fluttered her cape and went back beside Elina, who was looking at the distance with binoculars.
“Do you believe Leina will be safe?”
“But of course! The princess Ymir said Sister would be fine.”
“What evidence is there?”
“According to her, Sister’s body had some sort of divine protection due to some Soul Drop.”
“Still, let’s be ready for the worst case scenario.”
In that case, Elina would inherit the Vance house. Whatever the outcome of this battle was, protecting her sister was an important objective for Claudette either way.
“I’ll have none of that!”
The blonde raised her voice. Claudette’s chest tightened when she saw the tears in her sister’s eyes.
“Forgive me…”
Her voice was so soft, it was most likely drowned out by the waves.
***
No comments:
Post a Comment