Chpater 13: Monarch

Cyril lead Yuuki walked into a large open foyer that acted as the castle’s entrance. Large stone pillars lined either side with guards standing in front of each one. The room was two stories tall and had a walkway positioned about halfway up.

The second story walkway wrapped around three of the four wall, only leaving out the wall that the main entrance was connected to.

Sitting in the center of each wall were staircases that presumably led up to the second story. Surrounding them were a multitude of doors that led to other room and hallways in the castle.

Besides the guards standing next to each pillar, Cyril and Yuuki were the only people in the empty foyer. The emptiness of the room caused an uneasiness to settle in Yuuki’s gut as Cyril led her up the left side stairs to the second floor walkway.

Like the first floor, the second floor felt similarly empty to Yuuki. A couple of banners decorated the walls but that was it. No plants or tables or even chairs could be found near the walls for additional decorations.

“Cyril…?” Yuuki tried not to disturb the silence too much as she whispered to her guide.

Cyril either didn’t hear Yuuki or didn’t care as he continued his walk. They quickly made their way to a third staircase on teh second floor that continued up to even higher floors. This third stairway was on the wall opposite the entrance to the foyer on the first floor.

“Sorry, the foyer always feels weird when there is no one else in there. I get a bit nervous talking when it’s that quiet as well.” It was only once they were halfway up the staircase that Cyril began talking again.

“I see. Where are we going in the castle? I would assume that the one in charge would be in the deepest part with the best protection, and yet we are going up. From the outside it didn’t look like this castle went higher than three, maybe four, floors.” Yuuki had noticed a couple of towers on the castle that went higher than that, but for the most part the castle didn’t go as high.

In fact, the main building of the Sanum University that she had been attending the past year was bigger than the castle. Both in hight and overall footprint.

“That would be the smartest choice, right?” Cyril answered with an exasperated acknowledgement to Yuuki’s thoughts. “Sadly, our queen doesn’t see it that way. She holes herself up at the top of the center tower.”

“Huh?” Yuuki was taken aback by the news. She couldn’t possibly comprehend why that would be better.

“In her own words ‘Everyone just assumes the towers are for lookouts, storage or prisoners. Who would think that the queen would be in one?’ So here we are… climbing countless steps just to get to her.”

It was an insane idea. Everything that Yuuki knew screamed that it was idiotic. But yet, Yuuki couldn’t stop herself from admiring the logic behind it. Clearly she was one of those people that the queen was talking about. This was yet another thing that she could learn more about by coming here.

“You know, if you didn’t spend so much time running around, climbing these stairs wouldn’t be as much of a pain.”

“Oh stop it Tom, you’re being too harsh on Cyril. I’m sure he’s just doing everything he can to keep on her majesty’s good siiiide.”

A pair of new voices from the top of the staircase cut into the conversation that Yuuki and Cyril were having. Even before she looked up, Yuuki knew that the owner of the female voice was going to be a problem for her.

Standing at the top of the stairs were the two newcomers. The first one to speak had been a rugged looking human male. Yuuki scowled slightly as she could instantly tell that the man had been an adventurer before he came to this city.

Worn jeans filled with holes in the lower half covered his legs while a beat up jacket covered his torso. The jacket was old and worn out, though it seemed to have originally been red, which contrasted with the brown shirt underneath it. Neither shirt or jacket had sleeves, leaving the mans arms completely exposed. Scars from countless battles covered the muscles that were most likely needed to lift the massive sword slung across the man’s back. The man had piercing eyes that stood out alongside the tattoo that covered the side of his bald head.

Next to him stood the woman whose voice had already made Yuuki have a distaste for them. Her back had two massive bird wings sprouting from it, revealing her nature as a demi-human. Like the male, her clothes were worn out and faded, but they seemed to be in somewhat better condition and fully covered her arms as well. Yuuki didn’t see a physical weapon on the woman so she assumed that the demi-human primarily used magic or something related to her wings. Her face was lined by short black hair, and while her mouth wasn’t sneering, Yuuki could see the sneer in her red eyes.

“What’re you two doing here?” A hostile tone in Cyril’s voice betrayed his feelings, something that the newcomers eagerly picked up on.

“Well… You see Cyril, you were gone for so long! And when we heard you had been spotted in the city, we just had to come meet you first!” The Demi-human drew out her words, creating what sounded like a seductive tone to Yuuki.

She quietly laughed at how palpable the air on the stairs were at that moment.

“Oh really, Narissa? If that is the only reason you’re here, then you can go ahead and leave. Your “greeting” has been noted.” Cyril grabbed Yuuki’s hand and tried to force his way past the two, only to be blocked by the burly human.

The human, Yuuki believed that the demi-human had called him Tom earlier, pointed towards Yuuki with a grin growing on his face.

“She the one who you want to replace me with? She’s just a kid!”

Yuuki realized why there was bad blood between the two in an instant. If she hazard a guess it would be that Cyril doesn’t think that Tom was teaching their defense force well enough. That in turn made Tom angry, so he was trying to prove himself.

Well…

Yuuki wasn’t going to say it aloud but she thought Cyril was in the right.

She hadn’t met many Adventurers in her life. Yet she had learned about them all the same. And there was one thing she knew. Their style of fighting was great for the randomness that came from monsters. It also excelled when being used against enemies without weapons of their own.

It’s biggest shortcoming was that it failed miserably when pitted against those with weapons.

If the people of Crystalia really were planning on defending against an armed enemy force, then having their defenders be taught by an adventurer was the worst outcome.

“So what if she is younger?! She’s a far better swordsman than you will ever be.” Cyril made sure he was in between Tom and Yuuki as he shot back at the former adventurer.

Clearly he had seen Yuuki fight before at some point, most likely a competition she had joined that had used only wooden weapons. But for him to put her on such a pedastel was making Yuuki a tad nervous.

“Better?! Hmph! I doubt it!”

As if on queue, the adventurer took the bait and swung his arm at Cyril. Seemingly used to this sort of behavior, Cyril leaned to the side to dodge it.

It was only once the fist pased Cyril’s face that both Cyril and Yuuki realized that by dodging, Cyril had left a clear path to Yuuki herself.

Yuuki quickly moved to the right herself. As she did, she grabbed the man’s wrist and pulled. The extra force caught Tom offguard and caused him to tumble forward. Capitalizing on the situation, Cyril stuck out one of his legs, causing Tom to fully trip.

“Hey!” The demi-human woman grabbed Tom by his collar before pulling him back up. As he finally stood back up fully, Tom and the woman sent daggers towards Yuuki.

“Hmph. It seems you have some strength to you after all.” Tom patted down his pants like he was brushing off non-existant dust. When he was done he did a couple of light stretches before stepping back and letting Cyril and Yuuki past.

“You’re… letting us through? Just like that? What’s going on?” Cyril looked at the former adventurer dubiously. He had clearly been expecting more resistance from the duo in front of them.

“Her majesty also heard of your return… If we hold you up for too long, then it might be our heads on the chopping block.” Narissa took over for Tom as he childishly refused to speak anymore to Cyril.

Yuuki and Cyril were about to continue on their way when a clear female voice cut everyone off. Cyril, Tom and Narissa all froze the second they heard the new woman.

“Welcome back, Cyril.”

“Your Majesty!” In an instant, all three of them were on the ground kneeling towards the fifth person.

Yuuki finally got a good look and felt her own heart skip a beat.

Beautiful was the only word Yuuki could think to describe her.

The newcomer was only slightly taller than Yuuki, and yet it felt like Yuuki was staring straight up when looking at her. A slim body was pronounced thanks to the stark red dress that matched the womans iris’. A white coat hung over her shoulders, blending into the long silver hair that hung freely. Her skin seemed to glow softly, magnifying the well defined shape of her face.

She had seen this woman before. In fact she had seen it many times. After all, statues of the woman could be found in a number of places in Sanum.

The woman standing before her had a pair of related titles; “The Blood Queen” and “Blood Elf”.

Yuuki was standing before the woman who had rekindled civilization after the first Irradiated Winter.

She tried to kneel herself but was stopped when the Blood Elf motioned for her to stay standing.

“You don’t belong to this city, nor have you pledged your allegiance to me. Kneeling is not necessary.” A soft smile was on the Blood Elf’s lips. She was telling Yuuki that it was fine for her to stand.

“But I want to!” Yuuki blurted out her answer before she had even realized it. “I want to pledge my allegiance to your cause! Cyril already told me what is going to happen… If I can help you… I’ll do whatever I can.”

Yuuki layed out her own convictions, She would be a better instructor for their defense forces. Far better than a washed up adventurer, no matter how good he had been in his prime.

The response she got was a small sigh from the Blood Elf.

“We haven’t even introduced ourselves, and this is what you say?”

Yuuki froze over.

Why had she assumed that the Blood Elf would know someone like her based solely on her appearance? Why did she think that her name would be known like that?

Her stomach began to churn as she realized just how embarrassed she felt.

“M-m-m-my name is Yuuki!” Each stammer caused Yuuki to bow her head lower and lower as she strived to fix her mistake.

She seemingly accomplished her attempt when she heard pure laughter coming from the queen in front of her. Yuuki stood up as the queen clutched her sides as she continued to laugh.

“I’m sorry! You froze up so dramatically there and then! Pfft! It was so forced that I couldn’t stop myself! Hahahahaha!” The queen stammered out her apology.

Yuuki looked down at the still kneeling Cyril who could do nothing but shake his head as a small apology.

“Ahhh! I haven’t laughed that good in a while. Thank you for that, Yuuki. Now it’s my turn. Crystal Serilo. Queen of this Rad-Town, and also known by quite a few names, but I feel like you probably know those already yourself.” Crystal extended one of her hands out towards Yuuki.

Surprised by the gesture, Yuuki reached out herself but paused as she realized something. She looked at Crystal’s face again only to find herself questioning her own thoughts.

Something about the woman in front of her felt oddly familiar. She couldn’t quite place what it was, but she seemed similar to Nic, to the point that they had very similar last names as well.

“Is something wrong?” Crystal posed the question, forcing Yuuki out of her own brain. Realizing that she had left Crystal’s arm hanging, Yuuki quickly grabbed it and gave it a firm shake.

“Sorry, nothing’s wrong. You just feel… familiar to someone I know.”

“Oh? Well now that we have gotten introductions out of the way, let’s get back to what you said. You want to help this city in it’s defense of the attack we know is coming?” Yuuki nodded. “I see. I’ll be honest here, Yuuki. I don’t know you. I don’t know what you’re capable of. Cyril here claims you to be a great swordswoman, yet all I see before me is a young girl. Why should I accept you’re help?”

Crystal’s reasonings were simple. Yuuki was, overall, a no one in the grand stage that was the world. She had not made enough of a name for herself in order to be recognized by most people.

This was her chance to prove herself.

To prove that her skills were real.

“I’m a swordswoman. I’ve trained with this sword for the better part of my two decades of living. And my sword skills are actually focused on facing those with weapons. When compared to your current instructor, a former adventurer, my instruction for your forces would be far more effective.”

Yuuki rebuttled the queen with her own arguments. Stating them in front of the three others gave Tom his chance at reaction.

“What was that?!” Tom stomped over to Yuuki and grabbed her by the collar. Yuuki stayed calm as Tom’s jade eyes scanned her face. “Are you vying for a fight?”

The second question was barely a whisper. Yuuki wasn’t sure if Tom actually wanted her to hear him. She responded with a small grin.

“I’ll gladly beat you in a duel if it will let me prove myself.”

As she said it, Tom shoved her away from him and turned to Crystal behind him.

“Your majesty, you can’t possibly be considering this?!”

“I am. I think that is an interesting idea, Yuuki.”

“What?!”

Tom’s voice was growing louder and louder. Yuuki thought she saw the veins on his head nearly burst from anger.

“How about this? We all head down to the training field and you two have a duel. Whoever wins will get the rights to train our troops until the day of the attack. The loser will become someone elses assistant. I think that is fair, no?”

Crystal laid out her rules for the duel and the reward for winning. Upon hearing the terms, Yuuki immediately nodded. She was fine with them, unlike her opponent who was visibly seething in anger.

“If I win, I want her out of this town, not some lackey working under Cyril or someone else.” Tom laid out his one change that he required.

“That’s-”

“Im fine with it, your highness.” Yuuki cut Crystal off. She was completely fine with Tom adding that addendum. It wouldn’t matter to her in the end.

Yuuki was going to win.

Crystal lofted a heavy sigh. With no other additional terms being thrown out, the five of them soon found themselves in a large field situated behind the castle, yet still within the walls of the town.

The grass was well kept with little shrubbery obstructing the space to fight in.

A mixture of humans and demi-humans all wearing varying types of armor were practicing their swordskills with each other. It didn’t take long for them to notice their instructor getting ready to fight a much younger girl in the center of the field. Before the duel even began, Yuuki and Tom had garnered a crowd.

“Alright! Let’s settle the full rules. One hit, must draw blood. Oh! And no magic. Are you both fine with that?” Tom grunted his agreement to Crystal while Yuuki simply nodded her head.

The format of the battle was one that Yuuki was quite familiar with. She had only just gone through another duel using the same format just a few weeks earlier. That time she had been facing one of her students, and in the end had failed because she had held back trying not to hurt him.

Yuuki wouldn’t make that mistake this time. She was going ot use every ounce of strength she had.

The sun shone directly overhead as Yuuki and Tom faced each other.

Tom had drawn the massive blade on his back, resting it on his shoulder as he waited for the duel to start.

Yuuki did a small motion with her right arm, hopping to shake the slight numbness out of it, but was unsuccessful.

It wouldn’t affect her that much. Just a slight annoyance. If anything, it would be a small handicap on her that still wouldn’t be enough to allow Tom to beat her.

Yuuki put her hand on the hilt of her blade on her waist. With a sharp shting the curved blade left it’s sheath and became an extension of Yuuki.

She grabbed its hilt with both hands and lowered her center of gravity. As soon as Tom moved, Yuuki would lunge forward. She should have the speed advantage, given the size of the sword that Tom was using.

The two stared at each other, remaining still as they waited for each other to move.

Yuuki moved first.

She speed towards Tom with a speed that should be too much for the former adventurer to stop. She would end the match in a single hit.

She swung her sword… And it hit nothing but the air were Tom had been just a second before.

Yuuki was facing an adventurer with a speed she could not fathom. Tom’s sword was coming down from above. There was not enough time for Yuuki to swing herself. She bounded to the right while throwing her sword up diagonally so that Tom’s sword would deflect off of it.

CLANG

The two swords met in a clash of sparks. While Yuuki’s positioning had led to Tom’s sword missing her, as she landed from her rightward bound, she found her arm’s shaking from the impact.

Without any delay, Tom had another swing, just as fast, coming at Yuuki.

There was no time for rest or to catch her breath.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

Tom was relentless with his strikes. Each one shook Yuuki’s arms just a little bit more. With each hit, she took a step back. Tom, a former adventurer, using tactics meant for monsters, was pushing Yuuki back.

Every time she tried to counter attack Tom with a riposte, her right arm would cause her to move just slowly enough that Tom would then block her attacks.

Yuuki had to find an opening. A way to attack.

Tom had another swing coming at Yuuki, but this time, instead of redirecting the attack, Yuuki jumped backwards, just barely dodging the tip of the sword. The crowd that had formed around them at the beginning was getting ever and ever closer.

The next time that Tom lunged at Yuuki, she moved to the right, circling around to his backside. Remembering her fight with Nic, Yuuki found herself moving her arms into the same position she had then.

She angled the sword behind her as she prepared to lunge at Tom. If her arm was causing her to be just barely too slow on her normal swings, then she just had to go fast enough that the slowdown wouldn’t matter.

As soon as Yuuki saw Tom turn around, she lunged.

When he turned around, Tom saw no one. His questioned his own eyes knowing that his opponent should have been there. It was only when he heard gasps from the ones watching the duel that he put a finger up to his cheek. When he pulled it away, it was lightly covered in blood.

Shtick

She had pushed herself to her absolute limit in terms of speed. Yuuki still won.

“I’ll admit this, you are probably the strongest adventurer I have ever seen or heard of. But your swings are still too wild. They will never beat someone who was trained to fight others with weapons.” Yuuki stared down the wild eyes of the man in front of her. Tom was holding himself back, yet it was clear that he wanted to dispute the outcome of the match. He was too proud to admit defeat like this.

“Tom, don’t try to start anything. You lost. Accept it.” Cyril could also see the writing on the wall and stepped in between Yuuki and Tom.

Hearing Cyril’s voice seemed to make Tom even madder yet he quietly headed the man’s advice and sulked off the field. Narissa ran after him, leaving just Yuuki, Cyril, Crystal and the rest of the troops around the field.

As soon as Narissa and Tom were out of earshot, nearly unanimous applause erupted from the crowd.

“You beat Tom?!” “Can you teach me to move like that?!” “Are you going to be instructing us from now on?” “Can you do that again!?”

Yuuki had quickly become a favorite among the rank and file people that had signed up to defend the town. It seemed that she would be readily accepted as their new instructor, as long as the queen of the town accepted it.

Crystal motioned for Yuuki to follow her with a slight movement of her head.

It took Yuuki a second to push through the crowd, but once she did, everyone knew to keep their distance thanks to Crystal’s presence.

Crystal and Yuuki walked through the halls of the castle. News of Yuuki’s victory had spread fast as they even heard the guards in the many halls whispering about it. One of them must have seen the match from a window and had spread the news.

For her own part, Yuuki didn’t mind the extra attention. She knew from the beginning that she would win. Even if Tom had been stronger than she had originally assumed, her victory had always been certain.

It wasn’t until the point that the two of them reached the hallway where Yuuki had originally met Crystal in person, that the queen spoke again.

“You know, when you introduced yourself, you never said your last name.”

Yuuki was surprised. The thought of using her last name in the first introduction was something she actively avoided.

The Ito family line was widely known by a lot of people. If they weren’t aware of them as the former shogun family in Kyoku, then they were known for the sword skills they had trained in the centuries since they left the seat of Shogun.

“I’m sorry about that… I’m actually-”

“It’s fine.” Crystal cut Yuuki off. “You’re the eldest child of Kyouya Ito, aren’t you?”

Yuuki’s own skills with the sword had revealed her name to Crystal. And seeing as she was able to name Yuuki’s father correctly, she must have seen him fight at least once in person.

“You know dad?”

“Seems I was right. And yes. I met him nearly two centuries ago when I travelled to burgeoning nation that was Kyoku in the aftermath of the Irradiated Winter.”

Crystal smirked as she answered.

“I see…”

“Your fighting style is nearly a one to one copy of how his was in those days. Of course, I’m sure his has evolved in the two centuries since then. I just find it fascinating how close yours was after training it on your own for nearly an entire decade without any input from your father.”

Crystal stopped in front of a staircase near the end of the hall. She turned and looked back at Yuuki.

“Up these stairs is the tower that use as my own personal space. If you ever have any questions, or need to find me, please check here first. And over here…” Crystal walked to the wall opposite of the staircase. Situated there was a simple wooden door. Crystal put her hand on the door and gently pushed it open. “This will be your room while you stay in Crystalia.”

Yuuki looked at Crystal with a confused look. “Huh?”

A hand extended towards Yuuki.

“I look forward to seeing what the defenders of Crystalia become with you as their instructor, Miss Ito.”

Yuuki looked down at the hand, then back at Crystal’s face, then again at her hand. She reached out and gently shook the hand.

“Yuuki, thank you for coming all this way to support this city.”

“Huh?”

“As someone who has lived in Sanum for a decade, you’ve probably heard the stories of my saving that place back after the first Irradiated Winter. I hear even the name was chosen because of my involvement with it’s founding as the first City-State. But, this town… It’s something else. I want it to be a beacon. To bring together people from all walks of life. Humans, Demi-humans, Mages, Swordsmen, Adventurers… The one thing I learned in my travels around Kronul was that there are a lot of different people out there. Crystalia will become a shining beacon to bring them all together. But… There is someone who wants to change the world for the worse.”

“And that is the person who will attack this city?” Yuuki could tell where Crystal was going without her needing to say anything. “Then I’ll do everything I can to make sure the town’s guards are up to par. By the time this attack comes, the enemies of this town won’t know what hit them.”

Crystal smiled at Yuuki, her convictions empowering the queen herself.

“In that case, you can start tomorrow. For now, get some rest. I’m sure the journey here was tiring, and then you had to face Tom on top of it. Your body surely needs that rest.” With a final goodbye, Crystal headed up the stairs to her own quarters.

The room that Crystal had given Yuuki claim of was fairly basic. A single bed was nestled in one corner with a desk next to the end of it. On the wall next to the door was a small wardrobe with a mirror attached to it. Yuuki slung her travelling sack over the edge of it while closing the door to her room.

She walked over to the bed and sat down on it. The mattress itself was fairly firm, barely giving any leeway to Yuuki’s lighter body. She laid back fully letting her mind wander as she stared at the ceiling.

“Sarman…”

The only thing, the only person that Yuuki could think of was the man who she had spent the last decade by his side. Her chest hurt as she realized how long she was going to be gone. Should she send him another letter, saying that she had gotten to the town safely?

Would he even want to know that?

Maybe she should bring him here after the attack, so he can see the town for himself. She could introduce him to Queen Crystal and Cyril… and even Tom and Narissa.

That would be nice… right?