The Liar Knight and the Lonesome Princess It was shortly before Lyrule rang the bell at Azuchi Castle. Over in Fort Steadfast on the other side of the Amagi Pass, the duel between prodigy swordswoman Aoi Ichijou and the samurai Shishi was nearing its conclusion. “Hyah!” “Hrrgh…!” It was impossible to say how many hundreds of times their swords had met. The blades of firefly light and pure-white ore clashed yet again, producing a shower of sparks and causing both combatants to skid backward. Each was the strongest warrior their side had to offer, and they’d spent the past few hours in a stalemate. However…they weren’t evenly matched, and one side was clearly favored over the other. “Holy cow… That samurai lady is something else…” “Master Shishi’s actually short of breath…” Mayoi’s magic had turned the dominion army into frenzied zealots, and as the few Resistance members left in the fort repelled their attacks, they marveled at the angel. Shishi’s shoulders heaved up and down as he panted. His veritable mane of white hair was matted with perspiration, and in contrast, Aoi had spent their entire bout parrying his attacks without shedding so much as a drop of sweat. And that was after having to dispatch a few dozen dominion soldiers who’d rushed in to aid Shishi. She’s strong. Far more so than when we last tried to take each other’s heads. The difference in their skill was obvious, even to onlookers, and it went without saying that Shishi had noticed it as well. I can’t land a hit… In terms of raw physical strength, Shishi had Aoi solidly beat, but when it came to their respective techniques with the blade, he was hopelessly outclassed. The only thing that had changed since their first bout was that Aoi possessed a weapon capable of withstanding her abilities this time, yet she seemed a whole different person to Shishi. The samurai glared at the sword in his enemy’s grip—Shoutou Byakuran. Despite Aoi’s tremendous show of force… “…What are you playing at?” Shishi demanded. “Whatever do you mean?” “Why hold back? This is far from your full strength.” “Oh? Perhaps you overestimate me.” “You think me fool enough to misjudge a foe after conversing with them through steel?” Aoi was winning out over Shishi, yet she wasn’t even giving the fight her all. Their battle had gone on for several hours, and Aoi had been given plenty of opportunities to take her opponent’s head. She hadn’t acted upon any of those chances, however. Shishi was an expert himself, and thus understood that he should have perished multiple times over. So he felt compelled to inquire why. With a carefree look, Aoi replied, “My role was solely to keep you occupied until our main force could take Azuchi, that it was. There was never any need for me to slay you. It brings me no joy to take more lives than necessary.” “You claim you can kill me whenever you like?” “Verily.” “…You would demean me so?” Shishi gritted his teeth and slashed at Aoi using an overhand stance that took full advantage of his bulky frame. It was an attack designed to slay one’s foe by slicing through their head, helmet and all. Thick metal would not have stopped it, yet Aoi raised Byakuran and caught the strike handily. “Were I to insult you as you claim, I would not be alone. I am not the only one failing to use my full strength.” “What…?” “Hyah!” “Hrrrgh?!” Aoi lashed out with one of her long legs and caught Shishi squarely in the gut. The shock from the impact caused him to stagger backward, creating space between the two combatants, and this time, it was Aoi’s turn to close the gap. Her pure-white blade arced through the air. Shishi blocked her strike with his sword, Ounin. As they stood with their weapons locked, each pressing for control, Aoi went on. “I sense hesitation in your blade, and it is not the first time. In our initial duel, and when Shura came to save us and you clashed with her, you never brought your full strength to bear. Had you given it your all, you could have cut down Shura with time enough to chase us down.” “…You mistake me.” “I am no expert when it comes reading into conversations; I shall be the first to admit as much. But I am certainly not fool enough to misjudge an opponent after conversing with them through steel.” Aoi pressed down harder with her sword. The two blades screeched against each other. “Shishi, m’lord, you are unlike the others swindled by magic. Your will is unsullied, and your actions are your own. Why support Mayoi’s system to the point of estranging your daughter? What is it you fight for?!” There was no finesse to the way Aoi pushed her weapon, merely strength. She was demanding an answer from Shishi, and her intense gaze made it clear that she wouldn’t permit him to escape without giving one. Shishi strengthened his grip on his sword as well… “I am Yamato’s Samurai General. I have a duty to protect its people.” …and pushed back with great determination as he gave his reply. Aoi was right. Shishi was conflicted. He’d turned his blade on his daughter, the people of Yamato, and even Kaguya, the rightful empress. To claim that he carried a clear conscience would be a lie. However, independence for Yamato was a fool’s dream. The war had left the country drained, and it lacked the power to stand on its own. Even if Mayoi was deposed and Kaguya declared Yamato a sovereign territory, it would last only until Emperor Lindworm and his imperial army returned from their expedition in the New World. Yamato would be driven to near ruin again, an ant beneath the elephant’s foot. Shishi wished to never know those horrors again. Living under the empire’s heel was the only option that Yamato had. “False as our peace may be…!” They were alive, and that was what mattered most. He was making the right choice. “I cannot afford to lose here!” Shishi shouted to encourage himself as he poured more strength into Ounin. The fact that Aoi had locked the two of them into a battle of strength represented an opportunity for him. Aoi’s superior swordsmanship gave her an insurmountable edge when both sides had room to leverage the full breadth of their talent, but when this close, technique meant nothing. Here, Shishi’s superior strength gave him the advantage. Now, he could overpower Aoi, force her back, and cleave through her flank during the brief moment he had her off-axis. Shishi had a clear vision of his path to victory and moved to execute it… “DO NOT HIDE BEHIND SOPHISTRY!!!!” …but the moment he did, Aoi’s enraged thunderclap of a shout rooted him where he stood. Shishi felt like a misbehaving child who’d just been scolded. Aoi shoved her frozen opponent back with all her might. “?!” “What could be peaceful about a tyrant who wields ultimate power and forces her people to die when it suits her whims?! You know better than that, that you do! You know of Mayoi’s rage! You know the hate she bears for the nation of Yamato! Under her reign, your people are mere prisoners lined up before the chopping block! Their heads may roll merely because she desires it that hour! Surely you cannot call that peace!” “I…” Indignation colored Aoi’s face as she pressed in on Shishi with word and blade. Each swing of Byakuran was like a bludgeon strike, and soon, every clang of steel was accompanied by another, duller noise. Ounin yet glowed with a faint, firefly-like light, but cracks were spidering across its blade. The battle had gone on so long that Shishi’s sword was reaching its limit. If this goes on…! His blade was going to break, and with it, his hope of victory. Shishi panicked, but for all his distress, he had no counterattack or counterargument. The thing was… “You know all that and protect Yamato’s status quo regardless! What is that, if not a contradiction?!” …Shishi had already recognized the falsehood Aoi accused him of perpetuating, yet he’d turned his eyes from it all the same. Now that she was throwing it in his face, though, Shishi’s heart was wavering. As he desperately tried to keep his emotions in check, he began plotting a retreat. Knowing that he couldn’t fight with a shattered sword, he decided that distancing himself from Aoi was best. It sounded like a perfectly rational excuse, but an excuse all the same—a reason to flee from Aoi’s questions and his own contradictions. However, Aoi wasn’t about to let him off the hook that easily. “You have a reason, do you not?! A reason you wish to protect this state of Yamato, even if it means sacrificing its citizens! But you falter, unsure if that wish is suitable to harbor, unsure if you can justify acting against your position, and that doubt turns you to sophistry to deceive yourself! ENOUGH OF THIS DITHERING!” “RRGH!” Aoi had foreseen that Shishi would try to back off. The moment he did, she was already upon him. Shishi panicked at the abrupt invasion of his personal space and swung Ounin, hoping to block her attack on reflex alone. It was the pathetic strike of a man already broken. Aoi responded by raising Byakuran aloft… “What is it you hold in your hand?! “What do you think it is we swing?! “A sword is a weapon that steals lives! “A tool for imposing your will on the world through death! “It is not to be taken and wielded with a wavering heart! “To do so is an affront to the sanctity of life, that it is!!!!” “……………!!!!” …and brought it down. Her blade brimmed with her rage at Shishi for having lost his resolve as a warrior, and her furious slash caught Ounin on the side, shattering the weapon. Aoi’s attack continued through, cutting deep into Shishi’s abdomen. I… The wound was grievous, and Shishi dropped to his knees. Then, not a moment later…the sound of a bell echoed over the mountains from Azuchi. It was the sound of Lyrule’s emancipation spell. Now, all the dominion soldiers still in Fort Steadfast were free from Mayoi’s malice. Aoi watched as the people of Yamato wailed in agony over having all their sealed memories and real emotions flood back at once. “It is decided, that it is.” Her side was victorious. It was time for their pointless battle to end. Lyrule’s magic freed the citizens of Yamato from the false truth they’d been living in, and when they regained their hatred of the empire, the first thing they did was turn on the imperial soldiers. The dominion army crumpled in the blink of an eye as the Yamato warriors began hunting down their former imperial comrades. It went without saying that the army’s leader, Jade von Saint-Germain, was also a target of their fury. “Hey, do you see that bastard administrator?!” “No, he’s not over here! Dammit, where’d he go?!” Jade had left his imperial underlings behind to cross the Amagi Pass and flee to the safety of the Azuchi side. Newly lucid Yamato samurai were searching for him, their eyes bloodshot with rage. “Shit, we got careless! I thought he was just some silver spoon rich kid, but that guy’s got some legs on him!” “Don’t let him get away! He’s got to be around here somewhere! Once we find him, we’ll string him up atop a pile of Freyjagard skulls and stick him full of spears so those invaders know exactly how Yamato feels about them!” “““Yeah!””” The samurai breathed heavily in anticipation as they spread out across the mountain road to continue their search. Once they were gone, Jade breathed a sigh of relief from his spot in the bushes. “Shit! What the hell’s going on?! How’d this happen, dammit?!” As he spat and cursed in a voice that was just about on the verge of tears, Jade made his way through the dense, concealing thicket and resumed his escape. Everything had changed so abruptly. The bell’s first toll had released the Yamato soldiers from his control, and by the time it rang a second time, the once mind-controlled masses were already at the imperial soldiers’ throats. Jade could barely even make sense of it. “What happened in Azuchi…and what does that woman think she’s doing?!” It was a bullshit question, and he knew it. Given the situation, it wasn’t hard to tell exactly what had happened. However, Jade refused to dignify that horrible possibility by speaking it aloud. The only way to protect himself psychologically was to reject reality. However, that all ended when the bushes and trees thinned out as he reached the cliffside. His view from that height made the situation he’d been trying to ignore impossible to deny. “No………” The night sky was starting to brighten, but it was still plenty dark out—enough so that Jade saw Azuchi glowing. Dawn hadn’t yet crept above the mountains. No, Azuchi was awash in the light of flame. Azuchi Castle’s main castle tower was ablaze. “Ahhhhh!” Mayoi’s castle tower was burning. When Jade saw that, he sank to his knees and screamed. “Rrrrgh… FUUUUUUUCK!” He’d lost. There was no mistaking it anymore. His foes had taken Azuchi, and the spell Mayoi had cast over Yamato was broken. Mayoi was very likely dead…and even if she’d survived, she certainly wasn’t in any state to ring the bell again. The jaws of defeat had well and truly clamped shut. There was no victory to be salvaged from them. All Jade’s successes from the past several years had evaporated as though they’d never existed at all. Jade began tearing at his hair… “Shit! Where’d that little bastard disappear to?! Just give it up and show yourself already!” “Eep!” …but when he heard his pursuers angrily shouting as they searched through the brush behind him, his entire body shook. F-first things first—I gotta get out of here… After Mayoi’s magic got lifted and the Yamato samurai returned to their senses, the remaining Freyjagard forces met a grisly fate. The samurai were so profoundly enraged at being dominated and having their nation destroyed by the very person who sold them out that they gouged out the eyes and cut off the noses and ears of any imperials they came across before beheading them. Jade shuddered in fear as he recalled the agonized screams of his soldiers while they were hacked to pieces. He had no desire to go out like that. It was no decent way for any human being to die. Escape was Jade’s only option. He needed a chance to slip away. A thought crossed his mind, and upon looking over the cliff edge to see how far of a drop it was… “I-is that what I think it is?!” …his eyes gleamed. Jade had spotted something at the bottom of the thirty-foot-tall cliff: a horse. It had been fitted with a Freyjagardian saddle, and it munched idly on some grass. Originally, the steed had belonged to one of the imperial soldiers who’d obeyed Jade’s rash order to come up the pass from Azuchi but had gotten struck down by Tsukasa and the main Resistance forces on their way there. That horse was salvation in Jade’s hour of need, a gift from the heavens, sent to deliver him from despair. With the dexterity he’d cultivated in his youth, Jade was able to climb down without issue, and the horse was his. He wasted no time mounting the beast and taking its reins. It was a fine, well-trained steed, and with its help, he would finally be able to shake those Yamato samurai. Luckily for Jade, he’d pulled in Yamato soldiers from all across the nation to stamp out the Resistance, and all of them were still concentrated in or around Azuchi. The road checkpoints were practically unmanned, and border security was paltry. Finding an opening and slipping through it would be child’s play. Jade was going to make it. He was going to get away. Yamato samurai wouldn’t chase him beyond the Freyjagard Empire’s border. All he had to do was cross it. “You’d do well to remember who it is that’s letting you live in this house, kid.” All he had to do was go back… “Say, little mongrel, don’t you think Charlotte’s earrings would look so much better on me? Run on over to her mansion and snag them for me.” Back to the empire… “Hey, Jade, what’s the big idea, scoring better than me on that test?! You’ve got a lot of nerve for a filthy whoreson! You’re gonna pay for this, big time!” “…I’m such an idiot,” Jade mumbled self-derisively. “I can go back…but there’s nothing for me there…” As images from his past flickered through his mind, Jade hung his head. Fleeing to the empire would leave him nothing but his life. No one waited to help him. He had no family that would offer shelter. I’ve always had nothing. That’s the whole damn reason I tried to get my hands on everything. It all happened in a flash. As soon as Lyrule’s spell freed the Yamato members of the dominion army, wails of rage erupted from all over. Their anger spread to the Resistance as well, and it wasn’t long before all semblance of order broke down, and they became an enraged mob. Carried by their wrath, they stampeded toward the castle tower where the enemy ringleader, Mayoi, was holed up. Once they had the tower surrounded, they set it alight. With the proper battle over, the act was nothing more than vigilante justice. Naturally, Tsukasa had some objections. However, the people of Yamato were in no mood to hear him out… “Tsu…kasa…” “Everything’s going to be okay, Ringo. Just stay behind me.” …and a group of Yamato samurai had encircled him and the rest of the delegation from Elm with their weapons drawn. As Ringo and Lyrule cowered in fear, Tsukasa stepped in front of them and glared at the samurai with his heterochromatic eyes. “I can’t say I much appreciate being treated this way. We’ve been nothing but friendly to you all, and we played a sizable role in your retaking the country. The way I see it, you have no justification whatsoever for turning your swords on us.” One of the samurai gave him a deep nod. “You’re absolutely right. And as such, if any of us should so much as graze your skin with our steel, the guilty party will sever their own head on the spot.” “What?!” “We owe you a great debt, and if we were to do you harm, we would have no way to atone but with our lives. Admittedly, we would rather things never come to that. So please, turn a blind eye here. We have no desire to attack you.” “” The look in the samurai’s eyes was dead serious. If Tsukasa tried to push through by force and ended up letting their blades so much as nick him, they had every intention of slashing their own throats to atone for repaying the Prodigies’ goodwill with violence. “Shura…” “…Forgive me, Shinobu. But the younger princess took everything from us, and we cannot allow her to live. Until her head rolls, our war will never end, and we can’t prepare for the next fight while amid this one. This is the way things are…”
Chapter 103
17 min read