Imperial Princess: The Wilds

Meanwhile, inside the palace.

While Dmitri saw the guests to safety, Tasili went to investigate the dull, heavy thuds that kept rolling through the hall. Had the party still been in full roar, no one would ever have noticed them. It was only the commotion of Emelin's intrusion that had made the sound audible at all — a cunning little ploy, timed for the moment when the festivities reached their height.

Tasili thought of the moat ringing the prime minister's residence. The cult's newest weapons, its experimental subjects, did not breathe. If they wished it, they could slip in along the water whenever they pleased. Reinforce the guard with the knight order all you like; there is still nothing to be done about enemies bursting suddenly out of the water.

We were a hair from walking into it. Don't tell me it's Klein.

Massacre the nobles, and the country falls into chaos of its own accord. Seize the Holy Ark in that opening, lock the defenses down tight, and the Rounds would be forced to move. And once the Rounds moved, something else would go off in the seats they left empty. Today's party might well be the fuse for a chain of explosions.

A short while later, when Tasili reached the mouth of the northern underground waterway, unease hardened into certainty.

"...So I was a step too late after all."

Nothing remained on the floor but a broad, glistening pool of blood. His hand clenched white around his staff. It might be a strike of retaliation, aimed at Lupin for wrecking their plans. Or perhaps they had judged that now — with the republic's only member of the Rounds away on leave in the Dragon Kingdom of Drachenfels — was precisely their chance.

Even so, the cult's luck was not entirely good. The raid had been exposed. Unless they managed to take the guests hostage, they held no particular advantage.

Thud. Thud.

He stared into the waterway, toward the source of that heavy sound, and found himself at a fork. Follow the channel and hit the enemy from behind? Or tear his disciple and the imperial princess apart with his own hands and build the battle plan over from nothing?

"...I'll have to trust her."

The choice made, Tasili stepped softly into the dark channel. He had chosen to believe in Lupin — the one to whom he had passed his sword.

The knight captain recognized the blade in Lupin's hand at a glance and shouted.

"So it really was the Lightning Sword...!"

"The Lightning Sword? What's that?"

A few of the soldiers blinked as if they'd never heard the name. The knight captain nearly jumped out of his skin.

"You're in the Rurik Knight Order and you don't know the Lightning Sword? The living testament of the Rostov adventurer! The single-edged blade of the Sword Emperor himself — the man who made even the old ten seats of the Rounds shake in their boots, back before the republic's Rounds ever existed!"

"We're sorry, sir!!"

"Sorry ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠doesn't fix it! Anyone who doesn't know, drop! On one, Sword Emperor! On two, Lightning Sword! One!"

"Sword Emperor!"

"Two!"

"Lightning Sword!"

Meanwhile the knights who had slipped clear of the punishment drill muttered among themselves.

"So it was true they built the frame out of mana-steel."

"That's why the aura blade bounced off? Guess mana-steel really does resist aura."

The Lightning Sword was a blade of layered alloys laid over a frame of mana-steel, a metal that could be taken from magical beasts only in the tiniest quantities. The monstrous thing was twice as thick as an ordinary sword and at least five times as heavy. Tasili had a habit, whenever he grew bored, of folding his enemies over its flat, and some people called it a club in the shape of a sword. He had pursued the utmost extreme of speed — the Shadowless Sword Style — with a weapon like that. The title of Sword Emperor had not been given to him for nothing.

And the disciple of that great man was Lupin?

Emelin was struck dumb.

"You're lying...? You... you're the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠head disciple the Sword Emperor took in?!"

Lupin shook her head, perfectly firm.

"I'm not his head disciple."

"Are you making fun of me? The Lightning Sword belongs to the Sword Emperor. He taught you the Shadowless Sword Style and even bestowed the sword on you, and you're telling me you're not his head disciple?"

Tasili had, in fact, said something quite definite on the subject. It was only that Lupin had already forgotten the conversation she'd had with him a few weeks prior.

It had been a quiet, sideways question. Didn't she want to try becoming his head disciple in truth? Tasili had tossed it out because she handled the Lightning Sword more freely than any student he'd ever had. Great mastery of the Shadowless Sword Style was something anyone might reach. But to touch the profound essence of the Shadowless with the Lightning Sword itself — that meant one could well inherit the title of Sword Emperor. And of all the many disciples who had passed through his hands, only Lupin had ever shown that possibility.

Even so, knowing her temperament, he taught her only so much and otherwise left her be, however much he might have wanted to keep hold of her. In practice, Lupin thought of the Holy Ark, and of nothing but the Holy Ark.

"I was just passing by, he offered to show me a sword art, and I picked up a few forms. That's all. How does that make me a head disciple? I'm just the brat who hangs around under him being a nuisance. I'm sure the real head disciple is somebody else."

Emelin glared at her. Why deny it? The Sword Emperor's head disciple was an extraordinarily honorable seat. She turned it over, then asked, just in case.

"You. Do you think you're ashamed of yourself?"

The answer snapped back like a spinal reflex.

"No?"

Emelin's confusion only deepened. There wasn't just one thing she was dying to know.

"Look, there are so many things I want to ask right now. Mind if I ask all of them?"

"If you submit quietly to arrest, I'll answer your questions."

"Arrest?! What arrest! I'm not a criminal!"

"And yet you've smashed that much of the palace, and you're not a criminal."

Emelin planted her left hand as a fulcrum and drove her right in hard. Lupin tucked in nothing but her neck and slipped the axe-head that sprang up. A little of her bangs sheared off against the steel. That was all.

"Jumping me out of nowhere like this — is that even allowed? Keep it up and I'll have no choice but to get serious, you know?"

But Emelin did not feel she had lost outright. She hadn't even drawn her hidden card.

"You seem convinced that if you got serious, you could kill me."

"Of course. Once I get started, nobody can stop me. Wait, no. Can someone stop me these days? Anyway, I've been matching you at a comfortable level. The one holding back wasn't you, Emelin. It was me."

That set Emelin off again. This time the halberd head, lifted toward the sky, came down with a boom and stamped the very spot where Lupin had been standing. Lupin stepped aside, naturally. She wasn't a fool.

"Holding back? You already look worn out to me."

"Wow. Just saying a lie so obvious nobody alive would fall for it, right to my face. Look. Emelin, your face is already beaded with sweat—"

"Kyaa?! What was that!"

Lupin had closed in for ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠an instant. Her fingertips swept Emelin's cheek from below and were gone. Emelin hadn't even felt her coming. A shiver raced the length of her body.

"Y-you! You dare lay a hand on imperial blood so casually?!"

"Ah. Was I not supposed to? Does that violate some law or other? Am I looking at a death sentence?"

"I-it's not like that!"

Suit yourself, then. Lupin went on with what she'd meant to say.

"Anyway. Emelin's skin is this dewy, but what about my cheek? Go on. Touch it."

"......"

Before she knew it, Lupin was under her nose again, shamelessly offering up her face. It smelled of the powder used for makeup. Emelin wiped at it lightly with a fingertip, and all that came away was the powder itself, smearing and lifting off. That was the end of it. And yet the skin beneath the makeup was whiter still. She had deliberately dropped the shade to look more grown-up.

How old is this girl, anyway? Her skin really is good, though. Next to mine it's incredibly soft... ah.

Emelin caught herself absently fondling the cheek, and Lupin slid back out of reach.

"Nice and dry, right? Not a single drop of sweat, right?"

Ahem. Emelin cleared her throat, loud and pitched high.

"...Fine. I'll admit it. Just as you said, I've burned through quite a lot of aura. But aren't you taking an Aura Master a little too lightly? Even so, I haven't used half. Which is to say I still have more than enough left to deal with you."

"Oh? So from here on, you can take my attacks however many times I throw them?"

"Obviously!"

The word had barely left her mouth before Lupin drew. Nothing is as dangerous as Swift Advance unleashed at point-blank range.

Clang!

Emelin blocked, but there was a limit.

"Kya...!"

Her body was driven back, leaving two parallel tracks scored in the dirt.

"Well then. Let's see you do it."

Lupin was already used to a match shaped like this. Maze Rat had been every bit as confident, and hadn't he lost in the end to simple aura exhaustion? Unlike Maze Rat, worn thin with age and short on stamina, Emelin was still in the full flush of her years — thirty — but aura was finite all the same. Lupin, for her part, wore the Jade of Spontaneous Life. And she hadn't even used the pigeons yet.

"If you're the type who only understands once you've felt it in your own body, then I'll let you feel it. The explanation can wait until after you've surrendered."

"W-wait!"

Kang!

"Ghk...!"

Clang!

The Lightning Sword spat fire. Draw, sheathe, and draw again — the whole cycle took less than a few seconds. Each blow was heavy enough that a simple block would send her flying, and because she had to reinforce the meeting of the edges with aura, that aura was shaved away at a frightening pace.

What kind of brainless attack is this...!

Emelin had seen pressure applied through a chain of different forms. Pressure applied by hammering the identical form, over and over — that was a first. And it was working. The tempo was so fast she had no room to do anything but defend. She was someone who had always toyed with her opponents from inside a spiderweb of aura, and Lupin was wrecking the place from within that web. At this rate the web itself was going to be torn to shreds.

"Tch. If it's come to this...!"

But being driven into a corner was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠precisely the moment for a hidden card. Emelin had no intention of losing to someone who treated a duel as a joke — to someone as crude as the past she herself had left behind.

The instant Lupin slid the Lightning Sword back into its sheath for the next draw, Emelin drove her halberd straight down into the earth with a tremendous roar.

"Yaaaaaah——!!"

Around the planted halberd, aura blades surged upward as if a world-tree were growing. Lupin didn't know what technique it was, but in that moment even she felt a chill. The ground around them shook wildly as the blades climbed. One look at the roof ornaments of the palace she was supposed to be protecting, crashing down around her, and — ack, the house is coming down!

But then something came flying out of the sky. A killing intent Lupin knew very well.

"Would you please just stop already!"

Yegor arced through the air, wrapped himself tight in a spherical aura shield, and slammed diagonally down onto Emelin's still-growing aura blades. Tree and sphere collided, flinging shards of light in every direction — clang! — and then both shattered completely, dissolving into a mist shot through with radiance. The impact hurled Emelin and Yegor in opposite directions. At the same moment, the ominous pressure bearing down on them vanished.

Lupin, watching, was not in a particularly good mood.

Yegor, that bastard. He was a last-hit leech!

"Hey! I had it won, so where do you get off stealing it!"

But Yegor, too, had only burst out after choosing his moment with agonizing care. If the palace was to be saved, there had been no other way.

"Unbelievable. I come to help and I get an earful."

"Help, my ass! You sure popped out early!"

Lupin kept a promise like the edge of a blade. To honor the one she had made with Dmitri, she herself had to be the one to put Emelin down. At once she reversed the Lightning Sword in her grip, edge and spine flipped, and Swift Advance.

Struck by the flat, Emelin folded in half and went flying — crash! She smashed through the wall at the edge of the garden and slumped there, limp.

Yegor, his face uncharacteristically flustered, muttered.

"Hey. Just now... there really wasn't any need to go that far, was there?"