The Lord of Death

There was a type of wisdom in following nature’s guiding hand.

Yuzuki questioned it, considering where she was.

It had taken her all day to follow the little moon bunnies (this was what she called them for the lack of actual terminology of the world) to where they wanted to lead her. There were a few stops wherein her new companions dug up some edible roots for them to eat together. Again, Yuzuki was forced into cutting the vegetables into new shapes, but she was glad to have something to eat and felt immensely better with a full stomach, so the cook was happy to arrange whatever was foraged into nice little snacks. Plus they were so adorable to watch while they ate, so the pay off was very much worth it.

But now she had to wonder if she had gotten herself into a worse situation.

Standing tall with several spires reaching high into the sky, made of dark stone and black metal, was a castle. Very much the kind Yuzuki could imagine some vengeful vampire lord out to burn the world for the loss of his wife would live in. Or maybe, in this case, perhaps some evil demon lord known for returning every one hundred years to menace the heroes of legend? After all, there existed a Lord of Death in this world.

Looking down at her feet, the little rabbits seemed to be at ease, looking quite at home in front of the doors of this menacing place. They were not at all bothered by the dark aura of the castle.

I feel like if I blink right now, I will be hallucinating lightning and a raging storm.

However, it was night out now and the only source of shelter was this creepy place.

Yuzuki raised a hand and tried to knock. Her raps on the hardwood were too soft, clearly, most likely from the fact that she was timidly making minimal effort. While the rational side of her said this was the most logical place to stay the night, her irrational side was telling her to run screaming back into the Forest of Spirits. There was going to be no answer, not with how softly she knocked.

“Oh, would you look at that? Nobody home,” Yuzuki said with a laugh, beginning to turn around in order to make a beeline back to the forest.

The rabbits looked at her oddly, though she could have sworn one of them was looking at her judgementally for her cowardice.

However, before she could even take a step back towards the devil she knew, the large door behind her slowly creaked open, the sound resonating loudly in the night in such a way it was almost deafening. Internally crying, Yuzuki turned her gaze back to the entrance, silently asking ‘why?’.

At the urging of her little furry companions, she entered the castle.

“Excuse me…” she half-whispered into the entrance hall.

The doors shut automatically behind her once she passed the threshold, making the deepening feeling of dread in her stomach grow more. Each step she took echoed deeply, just hammering in the hollow emptiness of the place. The only solace she had were the gentle pitter patter of tiny paws following her from behind. Compared to her, the moon rabbits traveled without fear, overtaking her as they led the way.

“Do you guys even know where you’re going?”

One of the rabbits squeaked affirmatively.

Well, that was one of them who knew what they were doing, though the thought did little to calm Yuzuki’s frayed nerves.

Think about something good, she told herself. Think of something yummy, like…soup! Pho, yukgaejang, ramen…with curry! Oh, god I could go for some curry right now. With thick potatoes and carrots and plenty of spice. Enough to burn a hole in the ground…

Many hallways passed while Yuzuki distracted herself with the tasty meals she used to be able to eat after work. Shibuya was a treasure trove for foodies who wanted to experience all kinds of cuisine adventures and one of her favourite things to do at the end of a long week was eating a good meal. Having that one thing to look forward to was how she kept herself going despite how deplenished her spirit got from the daily verbal abuse.

None of that anymore. While maybe Yuzuki could whip those dishes up herself if she reverse engineered them through memory of the taste and texture, it wasn’t guaranteed she could find the ingredients or equipment needed to make them. A depressing state of affairs, honestly. So far, she found carrots, or what resembled them, but she was being cautious in hoping for a one-to-one exact copy of foodstuffs from home in this new world. Everything so far seemed the same, just highly bizarre in others.

For instance, looking around, the period of time here was much more similar to centuries in Europe’s past. At least in the king’s castle the other day and in this one. Other than the extremely gothic atmosphere, Yuzuki would not have been able to tell the two apart in terms of internal decor. She supposed there weren’t many different ways to elegantly decorate large buildings like these.

The rabbits squeaked to get her attention – just in time. In her contemplations, Yuzuki nearly walked right into another set of grand doors. Looked like her food centric thoughts had truly carried her all the way to her final destination rather effectively. Hurray for the power of food!

Gesturing to the door, Yuzuki addressed her little furry friends.

“In here?” she asked, clarifying this was where they meant to bring her.

After getting a sound-off of confirmation from all of them, Yuzuki nodded and knocked on the door again, expecting them to swing open. However, against her expectations, these did not do the same trick as the entrance.

“You open all by yourself – you don’t open by yourself…pick one!” she groused. Wondering if there was someone on the other side, she pressed her ear to the door. Maybe nobody was in the room this time? Or maybe the place really was haunted and the ghosts were now playing pranks on her…

Listening for a bit, Yuzuki heard nothing for the longest time. Straining to hear anything, she eventually picked up muffled voices. Three of them, on the other side. So someone was there!

Despite any possibility of danger or thought of self-preservation, Yuzuki didn’t hesitate to grab onto the handle and give a big tug to open the door. Again, these have a loud groaning noise, as if they were hardly ever used to begin with.

The room beyond the doors could be more accurately described as a large hall with a high ceiling. Windows opened near the ceiling, letting in light and air into the huge chamber. Moonlight streamed in to play alongside flickering torchlight, giving the room a sombre, but strangely welcoming atmosphere. Old banners lined the walls and a long carpet stretched towards a set of stairs leading up to a seat with moonlight streaming through the large circular window behind it.

Someone stood there at the top, their form only seemed like a silhouette from where Yuzuki was. Whoever was there was engrossed in a conversation that was holding all of their attention, as voices shot back and forth in rapid succession. Though the voices were louder, they were not clearer.

Little heads pushed at the back of her legs, so Yuzuki had no choice, but to enter the chamber, trying to make as little noise as possible. Whatever this person was speaking about seemed important.

“...it can’t be done…”

“...you don’t know that…”

“...just think how much trouble she’s in…”

“...this is no place for a human…”

“...there is no place among the humans…”

“...no reason…”

The voices above overlapped, telling Yuzuki there should be more than one person, yet she only saw one. However, with each step drawing her closer, Yuzuki came to realize who – rather, what – was speaking.

Standing beside a silver throne, was a man with two glowing orbs, much like the ones Yuzuki had encountered the previous night. One glowing red and another blue; they floated around his head, somehow emoting as they spoke to the man who had to be the one in charge of this castle. The red one was flashing and zipping around in a circle, while the blue one floated calmly, drawing in closer and then pulling away gently as it spoke. Meanwhile, the third person in this conversation…

The moonlight caught in his long, lustrous, silvery hair, as did the colourful shine of the orbs. His simple robes of black were not ostentatious, yet they somehow made him look all the more regal with how they draped his body. His skin was pale, but not sickly or resembled death. Rather, he was fair, as if the sun had not kissed his skin in a long while. His features were handsome, like something sculpted and almost unreal – like something out of a dream. And when he finally turned to look at her, realizing he had company, she could see the glint of violet eyes.

“Well, unfortunately for you, Kerron, she’s already here,” said the blue orb. It had a soft, gentle voice; it belonged to a woman.

“There she is, Kerron,” said the other orb, a deep red in contrast to the blue one. It had a steady voice. A deeper voice; probably a man’s.

Kerron, the man whom the orbs referred to, simply stared at Yuzuki.

Yuzuki in turn, stared right back. A little slackjawed, if she had to be honest, unsure of the situation she had walked into. The next time she blinked, he was coming down to her, almost gliding gracefully down, his robes billowing behind him almost in slow motion. It was like all of him was mist and he was simply rolling in quietly. It was otherworldly and a little daunting, as Yuzuki couldn’t make heads or tails of his movements.

Seeing how close he got, she took a step back warily.

Kerron stopped his approach, just simply looking at her with an unreadable face. The cook couldn’t tell if he was shocked, scared, angry or any combination of those emotions. It was unnerving, to say the least.

However, the little bunnies that followed her in, happily, came around this strange, dark man with naught a lick of fear in their tiny little bodies. And despite his imposing figure, he actually knelt down to listen to them. The words came out in unintelligible squeaks that Yuzuki did not understand, but could only hope were good things being said about her. Especially as Kerron was looking up at her now.

“S-sorry for intruding,” Yuzuki immediately blurted out. “I probably look like a wreck and I barged in without really asking and these little guys brought me here after I asked them for a safe place to go and – oh, I should start from the beginning. There was this king and –”

A hand came up to stop her, the man’s face grave and silent. Yuzuki was quick to shut up, remembering how blabbering too much last time had gotten her exiled. As she only just got here, she did not want a repeat of that incident.

However the silence that dragged on just made her nervous, especially as Kerron studied her so intently. From the top of her head, to her feet, he looked at her critically. It wasn’t an unpleasant stare, but it was definitely a gaze that was too unyielding in how it took all of her in.

“What is your name?” he asked, at length.

“Y…Yuzuki Fujik-k-kawa,” the cook managed to stammer out without panicking.

There was a look on his face that looked between recognition and disappointment. It was a bit strange, but it soon was replaced by a more neutral expression as he nodded to her, standing up now to his full height again in order to sketch a small greeting bow.

“Well met, Yuzuki Fujikawa. Welcome to my home beyond the Forest of Spirits. I am Kerron Mallacht…better known through these lands as the Lord of Death.”