Onwards to the Hyperborean Mountains

Sasuke stared at his hands. He didn’t know how much time had passed, but he couldn’t draw his eyes away from the hands that had committed a very dangerous sin. It killed him inside to know that he now owned the hands of a killer. It’s not like he had never killed before, but the fact that he had done this to people whose lives were judged by evil rather than righteousness tortured him.

“Are you still feeling guilty about what you did?” asked Ino with a scoff. And with a mocking laugh, he added the following joke, “You can always cut your hands off if they bother you that much.” Sasuke turned to look at his brother with bewildered eyes. Ino was a little taken aback by Sasuke’s reaction and turned away. “Let’s go,” he said after clearing his throat, “we have to go meet the others.”

“The others?” Sasuke asked him.

“The other Emperors,” replied Ino.

Sasuke knew that Ouroboros was run by the Five Emperors, a bastard alliance between five evil despots that serve as the leaders of this godforsaken organization. And though he now knew that his brother, the Yellow Emperor, was one of them, he had not yet met the other Emperors. He had only heard of rumors about them before and knew their names: the White Emperor, the Red Emperor, the Green Empress, and the Black Empress.

Ino led Sasuke down a very large hall that had columns on each side standing before walls of beautiful artworks of mighty dragons and glorious battles; the domed ceiling was filled with pictures that narrated the founding of this organization. They came upon a large door that was as tall as it was wide. Two guards stood before it with giant poleaxes in their hands. When they saw Ino, they quickly bowed their heads.

“Open the door,” he ordered them. The guards obliged and opened it. When Sasuke tried to follow behind his brother, the guards immediately blocked him with their poleaxes. Ino saw this and said, “Let him in.”

“But, my lord, this place is only open for the Emperors,” said one of the guards. “All outsiders are not allowed entry.”

“Who put in place this rule?” Ino asked them.

“It has been the rule ever since the founding of our glorious organization,” said the other guard.

“I asked who put in place this rule,” Ino repeated.

The guards exchanged glances, a little confused by the Yellow Emperor’s words. The first gulped and found the courage to answer. “The Emperors,” he said.

“And what the Emperors say are absolute, correct?” asked Ino.

“Of course!” both guards answered quickly in unison.

“Then I order you to let him in,” Ino told them.

“But—!” protested the first guard.

“I am an Emperor, am I not?” Ino said with a little growl in his voice. Sasuke could tell that his brother was getting really infuriated and was ready to reduce the guards to cinders.

“Yes sir!” said the first guard quickly.

“Then I order you to let him in,” Ino repeated in a biting tone.

The guards exchanged glances once again before finally dropping their poleaxes and allowing Sasuke to enter. Sasuke quickly did and Ino led him to the draconite table in the center of the room. Ino took a seat and Sasuke simply stood beside him. He saw that there were only five chairs and knew exactly who they belonged to.

From four other corners of the room, Sasuke heard the sound of doors opening. This led him to assume that this room had more than one entrance. The sounds of footsteps came from all directions and then, they arrived. The Emperors took to their seats and Sasuke discovered that they all, like his brother, wore face masks that concealed their identity.

“Ah, who is this?” asked one of the Emperors, referring to Sasuke.

“He is a guest that I have invited,” Ino told them.

“A guest? I wouldn’t expect the Yellow Emperor to have guests over to an important meeting,” said the same Emperor. “Would you mind introducing us?”

“Sheesh, I have enough trouble dealing with all of you on a daily basis to meet our goals already, and now I have to stroke your egos too?” groaned Ino like a little child. “Whatever,” he sighed. “Samson, these guys you see before you are the four lesser Emperors.”

“Talk about a hypocrite!” cried one of the other Emperors. “Now you’re the one stroking your ego!”

“That loud one over there is the Red Emperor,” said Ino. “He’s very feisty and has a strong bite, but he’s small enough to where you can beat him up with a quick lightning spell.” He then moved on to the others and pointed to them while introducing them in turn. “That’s the Green Empress. She’s very dangerous and easily pissed off, but her attention span is worse than an infant’s. Next to her is the White Emperor. He’s the biggest blowhard out of all of us, so you don’t really have to pay attention to anything he says. Listening and nodding along to his words is enough to satisfy his ego. Lastly, that’s the Black Empress. Weird, morbid, creepy, but be careful that you don’t treat her as such or she will curse you in the afterlife.”

Sasuke could tell by looking at the other Emperors that they were getting really pissed off at his brother’s jokes, which terrified him. He could tell that these people were very powerful and that if an all-out fight broke out, he would be the first one to bite the dust. This only revealed to him just how much stronger his own brother was compared to himself.

As he looked at each of the Emperors in turn, he made mental notes about them for future reference. The Red Emperor was short but lean and he wore a lion mask. The White Emperor was tall and well-built with strong shoulders and he wore a bear mask. Both of them wore very refined clothes and Sasuke inferred that they must be people of political power. The Green Empress wore a hawk mask and her clothing suggested that she belonged to a noble family of sorts. The Black Empress had on a snake mask and her clothing told Sasuke that she came from a more humble background.

“Everyone, this is my brother,” Ino told the other Emperors.

“Your brother? Last time, you told us that you have no time for insects like him,” said the Red Emperor in a teasing voice.

“Have you had a change of heart?” asked the Green Empress with a mocking smile.

“Blame it on a Druk’s dual nature,” said Ino, brushing off their jokes with a wave of his hand.

“Making excuses now, are we?” jabbed the Green Empress.

“I may be two-faced, but at least I prefer being two-faced than being constantly unsatisfied with my miserable life,” shot back Ino. The Green Empress frowned at his response and shuffled in her seat in blatant irritation. “Anyway, I only introduced him honestly. I can’t deny our relationship, but I couldn’t care less about his life,” said Ino honestly. “Once an insect, always an insect.”

The Red Emperor smiled and stood up from his seat. “Then does that mean I can kill him right now?” he asked maniacally. His hands were itching for a fight and he had already gotten himself in a ready stance to literally blow Sasuke away.

“Do that, and I’ll kill you twice over,” threatened Ino lethargically. Despite his tone, the Red Emperor and everyone else around the table knew how serious those words were. The Red Emperor sat back down and scoffed.

“I hate to disturb this little show we have going on, but shall we get on with business?” suggested the White Emperor. Everyone nodded their head in agreement and the real meeting began. “It appears that the Draco tribe has sent representatives to meet with members of the Okami tribe at the Hyperborean Mountains to discuss a peace treaty,” began the White Emperor. “The Okami had received one of the Dragonborns a few days ago and he requested the tribe’s participation in this deal. The king accepted his invitation for peace and agreed to send representatives. It appears that this plan was put forth by the Dragonborn of the human realm.”

“If a deal could be reached between the two tribes, our plan will all be for nothing,” said Ino.

“How do you suggest we stop it?” asked the Green Empress lazily.

“Kill them,” suggested the Black Empress aggressively. “Kill them all! Kill, kill, kill, kill….”

“But that won’t stop the Dragonborns,” said the Red Emperor. “After all, they’ll be there too.”

Hearing this, the Black Empress slowly retreated back inside her shell and became silent. The aggressive aura around her became nonexistent and it was as if she had completely lost interest in the conversation. “Those not welcomed by Hades are despicable,” she despaired quietly to herself.

“We need to disrupt the meeting somehow,” posited the White Emperor.

“You know, the Wyvern princess is going be there to act as witness to the treaty,” said the Red Emperor. “What about we kidnap her and sow discord between the Draco, Okami, and Wyvern tribes?” Everyone around the table seemed to like that idea.

Ino, on the other hand, was deep in his own thoughts about how to keep this treaty from happening. “No,” he finally said. “The main cause of this problem is the one who had suggested it.”

“Oh, you mean the Dragonborn of the human realm?” said the Red Emperor.

‘Tatsu?’ thought Sasuke worriedly to himself.

“We need to find a way to get rid of him,” said Ino with a nod. “If we can cripple him enough to where he can’t continue, or kidnap him and leave him somewhere that no one else will be able to find him for a long time, we can disrupt this treaty and progress with our plan.”

“What do you mean?” asked the Red Emperor, intrigued by the idea. Everyone else also had their ears perked up to listen to the Yellow Emperor’s plan.

“Say that we manage to deal some kind of unstoppable injury to him that has now made it impossible for him to continue further,” began Ino with a cruel smile, “we will be able to cause real strife within the ranks of the Draco tribe. This in turn will ensure that the treaty will never come to fruition.”

“I see,” understood the White Emperor. “The tension between the Draco tribe and the Okami tribe is about to burst at the seams. If we are able to take out the Dragonborn of the human realm, the Draco tribe will have no one else to blame but the Okami. They will naturally assume that the Okami had sent assassins to take out one of their own and will spare no thought in engaging their enemy in combat upon meeting each other at the designated place.”

“But there will be other Dragonborns too,” pointed out the Green Empress. “They will have the same authority over the two tribes and will no doubt see to it that the treaty goes through.”

“But you are forgetting one fact,” said Ino.

“And what is that?” asked the Green Empress curiously.

“The Dragonborn of the human realm is betrothed to the Draco princess,” quickly realized the Red Emperor with a laugh. “The Draco king will have no choice but to start a war with the Okami tribe in revenge for the injury of his son-in-law.” With a wide, creepy smile, he added the following statement that secured the plan’s success, “And the Draco princess herself will lead the charge into battle.” He slammed his fists onto the table in joy and exclaimed, “Oh, why didn’t I think of this before?! This plan is way better than what I had in mind before! This will ruin the Draco royal family forever and we can finally realize our goals!”

The entire table erupted in laughter at the ingenuity of their plan and the success that it will bring them. The voices echoed through the room and shook the walls around them. All the while, Sasuke could only look onward with a heavy heart and a heavier conscience.

Light entering from the windows rested on Tatsuya’s eyelids, telling him to wake up. He opened his eyes and yawned. As his mental faculties slowly turned on, he felt a very comforting warmth on his right side. He turned to his right and came face-to-face with the worst surprise he could’ve received in the morning. Sleeping soundly next to him was Kiai. Tatsuya’s eyes widened and he tried to scramble out of bed. His actions shook the Wyvern princess and she slowly opened her eyes. Before Tatsuya could successfully get out of the bed, Kiai, still half-asleep, wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him into her chest. Tatsuya felt flesh touching his own and came to the realization that she was naked under the covers. He tried to fight it and scream, but his voice was muffled and his breath tickled her skin, causing her to giggle and thrash about, which only pushed him deeper and deeper into the crevice of her cleavage. Tatsuya struggled still but quickly surrendered once it was clear that there was no way out.

Kiai’s hands stroked Tatsuya’s hair and she slowly brought him back up. Tatsuya could finally breathe and he took really deep breaths to return some strength to his body. Just when he thought it was over, Kiai wrapped her hands on his face and guided him up until he was just inches away from her lips. That’s when Tatsuya noticed something peculiar about the princess. She had on a very elated smile that was unnatural for someone sleeping to have. In fact, the smile was the kind that one would knowingly wear when things are going their way.

“How long have you been awake?” uttered Tatsuya just a smidgen louder than a whisper.

Kiai lightly opened her eyes and made a ditzy expression. “Looks like you found out,” she said. She rose out of bed and stretched her naked body. As she was doing so, she didn’t seem to mind Tatsuya’s presence one bit—in fact, it appeared as if she was intentionally baring her body for him to see.

Tatsuya couldn’t believe her shameless display and, despite being taken in by it bit by bit due to adolescent circumstances, shielded his eyes. To further retain some dignity for himself and for the princess, he turned his face away in case his urges get the better of him. He had never had this kind of problem before with the other princesses, but Kiai was different…on multiple levels.

Kiai turned to Tatsuya and softly approached him. She placed her hand under his chin and turned his face back to her. “Do you not like me?” she asked him.

“I-I-It’s not like that,” Tatsuya quickly told her in a squeaky high voice. He cleared his throat and added, “It’s rude to you and your integrity as a woman for me to look at you right now.”

She lightly pried his hands away from his eyes, but Tatsuya already had a contingency in place in case something like this happened—his eyes were tightly shut and he had placed them under a strong mental spell to never open until he gives them the OK. Kiai stroked Tatsuya’s cheek with her right hand, sending shivers down his body and giving rise to goosebumps on his neck. Her hand was cool and soft and Tatsuya felt like his skin was being graced by a comforting Spring breeze.

Still, Tatsuya refused to buckle and he put on a very brave face. “Y-Y-You’re trying to get a reaction out of me, aren’t you?” he stuttered. “Well, I-I-I’ll have you know that I’m used to Acchan’s pranks.”

“Pranks?” asked the princess. The idea made her laugh and her splendorous voice reverberated around the room. “I’m sorry, but we Wyverns are completely different from Quetzalcoatls,” she told him. “You see, we don’t like to play pranks to hide our feelings. Instead, we prefer to express them as they are.” Kiai placed her finger under Tatsuya’s chin and gently pulled him in. The motion startled Tatsuya and his eyes flew open. Kiai looked at Tatsuya’s eyes and her own became really serene and content. “I was right,” she said in a whisper, “You are the one for me after all.” And before Tatsuya could say anything back, she closed her eyes and leaned forward. Their lips touched.

Tatsuya froze, not knowing what to do now. The feeling of her soft lips against his was a familiar feeling, but at the same time, it wasn’t. Tatsuya could smell an enchanting symphony of fresh floral fragrances coming from her—lilacs, roses, gardenias, freesias, azaleas, peonies, hyacinths. The floral symphony brought back nostalgic memories of spending time in his backyard back at home with his mother as she tended to her garden. Oh, how he wished that this feeling would never end…. He suddenly caught himself before he could sink deeper into this trap of nostalgia and returned back to the present. He didn’t know how much time had passed, but it seemed that this kiss had gone on for quite some time. Tatsuya tried to pull himself back, but when he did, Kiai simply leaned forward and their lips remained intact with no breaks in between at all. It got to the point where Tatsuya had his head leaning past his back and Kiai’s continued advancement forced them to fall out of the bed. They both fell to the ground with a loud thud.

Tatsuya rubbed his head and let out a groan. He realized that his lips were finally free, but he now found himself in yet another predicament. With his back to the ground and his body cornered on all sides, he was trapped under Kiai with no way of escaping. The Wyvern princess rose up above him and looked at him with lascivious eyes. “Um, is there any way you can move away so that I can get up?” Tatsuya asked her with a nervous smile.

Kiai ran a finger down Tatsuya’s chest with a playful smile on her face. “Can we stay like this just a little longer?” she asked him seductively. She took her hands and caressed Tatsuya’s face.

“U-U-U-Uh, a-a-a-actually, I-I-I-I…,” stammered Tatsuya. Her touch gave him goosebumps and he couldn’t help but sweat bullets down his forehead. He had never been in this type of intimate situation with another girl before! Kiai lowered herself a bit and blew softly at Tatsuya’s neck, eliciting a high-pitched squeal from him. But what made him the most uncomfortable was the sensation of feeling the Wyvern princess’ bare breasts on his own naked flesh. Is this the ecstasy between a man and a woman that he has heard so much about?

The door to his room immediately swung open and Takara skipped in. “Time to get your plebeian butt moving!” she happily called out. The Lindworm princess immediately stopped in her place once she caught sight of what was going on.

Tatsuya had sweat rushing down his face like waterfalls. “T-T-T-This is not what it looks like!” he quickly told her. He then felt his hand move by itself and come into contact with a mesmerizing softness. The sensation sent a jolt through him and he quickly turned his head to see Kiai’s hand wrapped around his own and forcing him to grope her breast.

The entire time, the Wyvern princess had her face turned to their visitor. “Oopsie,” she said with a ditzy smile.

“Plebeian,” said Takara through gritted teeth as her body shook in anger. She raised her right hand and brought her thumb and middle finger together. Tatsuya knew what she was about to do and scrambled to tell her to stop; but he couldn’t get a sound out when she suddenly let out a snap. The top drawer of the nightstand behind him suddenly flew out and fell down right on top of his face. The pain made his face numb and everything around him went black.

A moment had passed and Tatsuya slowly came to. He opened his eyes and found that he was tightly wrapped inside his own bedding with only his head and his feet free to move about. “What’s going on?!” he shouted in horror. He tried to get out of this predicament but it was almost impossible!

“Divine punishment,” said Takara. She had her arms crossed over her chest and refused to make eye contact with him. It was apparent by her expression that she was really angry with everything that had transpired.

“Get me out of here!” demanded Tatsuya.

“Princess, shouldn’t we get him out now?” agreed Kiai, who was now completely dressed in her princess attire. “I already explained that it was all my fault,” admitted the princess.

“I don’t wanna,” refused Takara. She was acting like a completely spoiled child, which only infuriated Tatsuya even more.

Kiai turned to Tatsuya and bowed her head in apology. “It seemed that I took my joke a little too far. I do apologize for my behavior. I had wanted to get a reaction out of the princess, but it seemed that my method only caused trouble for you. I normally don’t do this, but when you talked about playing pranks earlier, it intrigued me and I wanted to try it out myself. I am deeply sorry for this inconvenience.” She had her head down the entire time and her voice was strong and clear and unwavering.

“Kiai,” said Tatsuya in a gentle voice. There was no way that he could be angry with her after hearing her heartfelt apology. He could tell that each and every word was sincere and her actions conveyed just how serious she was about atoning herself for her wrongdoing.

“Hah! So it is your fault!” accused Takara with a pointed finger.

“What are you talking about?!” screamed Tatsuya in frustration.

“You were the one that put that idea into her head!” Takara shouted back. Tatsuya didn’t know how to respond back to that and his body shook in anger. Takara crossed her arms around her chest and threw him a smug smile. “What? No argument?” she mocked him with her hand placed behind her ear.

“Argh! Let me go already!” Tatsuya demanded in a furious high-pitched voice.

Takara snapped her fingers and a shadow quickly jumped into the room. It revealed itself to be Draupnir, Takara’s butler, and he stood at attention right next to Tatsuya. In his left hand, he carried an iron bat. The butler looked at Tatsuya from the corner of his eye and flashed him a very menacing smile. Tatsuya gulped.

“Draupnir, make sure that Boyfriend doesn’t get out of this room,” Takara instructed her manservant.

“Yes, my princess!” replied Draupnir.

Takara flipped her left twin-tail and turned around. “I’ll be leaving now,” she told the boys. As she did, she grabbed Kiai by the hand and led her out.

“W-W-W-Wait!” pleaded Tatsuya as she opened the door. “Today’s the day that I have to leave for the peace meeting, isn’t it? Isn’t it?!”

“Oh, you’re right,” remembered Takara with a finger to her chin. “Okay then,” she said in a happier tone. “Draupnir!” she called her butler.

“Yes, my princess!” answered the butler.

“Let Boyfriend out after ten minutes,” she instructed her butler.

“T-T-Ten minutes?! I have to stay like this for ten whole minutes?!” screamed Tatsuya.

“Until then, you can do whatever you want to him,” Takara told her butler.

“Very well, my princess,” obliged Draupnir with a bow. Takara and Kiai left the room and the door swung shut behind them. Once they were gone, Draupnir turned to Tatsuya with a very crazed look in his eyes. “You have hurt my princess,” said the butler, shaking his head.

“W-W-Wait a minute!” pleaded Tatsuya, “I know that you will treat me as you see fit, but please have mercy on me! I’m her fiancé, remember?”

“That won’t work on me, Owatatsumi-sama,” said the butler with a deadly glare in his eye and a maniacal smile. He raised the bat over his head. “In the words of my princess, this is divine punishment!”

Walking down the hallway with his shoulder slumped, Tatsuya painfully rubbed the bruises on his face. The Lindworm butler was having too much to be ordered to punish him in a vulnerable position. Tatsuya knew that Takara was mad at him, but didn’t she think that that was taking it too far? Wait, what is he thinking? That princess doesn’t know the meaning of “taking things too far” if it hits her in the face! Unless if it’s a limited edition action figure or some tchotchke that she was conned to buy, she couldn’t care less.

As he was ambling down the hallway, he heard the voices of men coming from a room he was slowly approaching. When he got closer, he realized that there was also a female voice among them. The door opened and a group of soldiers walked out. Tatsuya waited for them all to leave. When the last person exited the room and closed the door, Tatsuya couldn’t believe at all who it was.

“A-Aika?” stuttered Tatsuya.

Aika turned to him and smiled. “Good morning, Darling!” she greeted him cheerfully.

“What were you doing?” he asked her curiously.

“Instilling discipline and boosting morale!” she told him, pumping her hand into the air. “Man, I haven’t done this in a while,” she added with a sigh of nostalgia.

“I didn’t know that you do that,” Tatsuya told her with a little smile.

“It’s not a very feminine thing, especially in the human realm, so I thought that you might be put off by it. That’s why I never mentioned it,” revealed Aika with an embarrassed laugh.

“A girl that can fight and lead an army? The human realm has some people like that in history, and they can give the guys of their time a run for their money,” Tatsuya reassured her. They both laughed. 

“Anyway, we should go meet everyone else in the courtyard,” Aika told him. “We’ll be leaving quite shortly.” The week before, after learning about Tatsuya’s role in the peace treaty conference between the Draco and Okami tribes, Aika had marched all the way down to her father’s office and demanded to be made a part of the retinue. Despite her father’s initial attempts to dissuade her, he finally relented and decided to appoint her as one of the commanders of the accompanying army squad just a few days ago.

Everyone waited for Aika and Tatsuya in the courtyard. Preparations were done and everyone had made sure to double-check everything before setting off. The duo finally arrived and they took their positions. Aika went over to General Alekso and joined him in commanding the army squads. Tatsuya walked to where Shen was standing and stood next to him.

“What took you so long?” Shen asked Tatsuya.

“Haha, I was just caught up in stuff,” Tatsuya replied with a nervous laugh.

“What is that supposed to mean?” said Shen with an unamused frown.

Once everyone was here, they took their positions. As per the plan, the party consisted of three main parts: the front was led by a two squads under Alekso’s command and the carriage carrying Minister Dex Lector and Prince Nobi; the middle consisted of the carriage carrying Kiai, flanked by Tatsuya and Shen and members of the United Front; the tail will be protected by the last three squads under Aika’s command.

Tatsuya looked around his position and took notice of the United Front members that were chosen by the prince. Among the members were Jeroji, the organization’s vice-president; Zarc, the Quetzalcoatl councilman; Regalos, the Bakunawa councilman; Mr. Urushihara and two agents. Seeing Mr. Urushihara there surprised Tatsuya at first, especially to see him so focused and professional compared to his rather lax and childlike regular-self. The fact that Mr. Urushihara was a member of the United Front had also almost slipped his mind. But seeing a familiar face really calmed him a bit and made him feel a bit more confident now in this undertaking.

After one last quick check, the party marched out of the castle’s gate and made its way straight for the entrance gate of the Pyroignis Empire. Once they passed through the gate, they entered the forests of the dragon realm. The journey to the Hyperborean Mountains is now underway.

Time passed by and there didn’t seem to be any trouble at all along the way. After about another hour or so, the group stopped at an open field. They settled among the soft grass and took a lunch break. As they ate, they took the moment to relax and unwind a bit.

As they were finishing up, Nobi announced to the group that they would rest halfway on their journey. The journey to the Hyperborean Mountains from the Pyroignis Empire was a two-day trip and the path they were taking went around Jaculus City. This meant that their trip wouldn’t be hindered by the hustle and bustle of the capital, which would allow them to consistently move at a moderate pace, but they would have to take extra precautions against the wilderness for beast attacks and the like.

The trip went on without any problem at all and the sun was beginning to set as the group set up camp in a clearing. This was the end of the first day. After the sleeping tents were propped up and the steeds were taken care of, dinner was served. Everyone ate and talked and laughed, creating a very open and cheery atmosphere that was completely different from when they were traveling on the road.

When it came time to go to sleep, the soldiers were divided into squads of three to four and were assigned sentry duty in shifts. Two squads at a time would be awake and take watch for two hours before switching off with the next two squads. Once the first two squads took to their positions, everyone else crawled into their tents and went to sleep.

Tatsuya was sleeping in the same tent as Shen, Nobi, Mr. Urushihara, and Jeroji. The guys all promptly went to sleep and the entire camp became silent except for the soft marching of the guards on sentry duty. The night was calm and there didn’t seem to be any problems at all. Two hours passed and the squads switched off and the night remained the same.

Tatsuya slowly rose from his sleeping bag and stepped outside of the tent. His bladder had woken him up and he desperately needed to relieve it. As he rubbed his eyes to wake himself up a little so that he could walk without much trouble, one of the guards rushed up to him.

“Sir, what are you doing outside of the tent?” asked the guard.

“I need to use the restroom,” Tatsuya told the guard straightforwardly. He yawned and then began to make his way to the forest area right behind the camp.

“Please wait! I will get someone to assist you!” the guard told him.

“I’ll be fine,” Tatsuya replied with a wave of his hand. He came upon a tree a little deep in the forest and began to drop his pants. He didn’t really care at all about what he was doing out in a public space like this. Embarrassment or shame didn’t process in his mind at all—at least in this state. The only thing running through his mind right now was how badly he really needed to empty his bladder before it exploded.

He let out a very satisfying sigh as his body became lighter. He finished his business and had just pulled up his pants when the sound of something cutting through the air caught his ear. He raised his head in reaction to suddenly finding a blade buried deep into the tree he had already tainted with his business. The distance between his face and the weapon wasn’t even an inch apart. It was clear that whoever threw the blade had intended to truly cause him bodily harm.

Tatsuya turned around and shouted out, “Who’s there? Come on out!” There was no answer. Furious at his enemy’s cowardice, he grabbed the blade and pulled it out of the tree. With the blade now in his hand, he gripped it tightly and held it in front of him menacingly. “There better be a reason why you want to stab me in the back of my head,” he called out into the black night.

Again, silence. He was getting really infuriated and did a quick turn around to see if he could catch a glimpse of the enemy among his surroundings. It was too dark for him to see and the moonlight up above only provided light for a small area. Thinking that he must’ve scared the enemy off somehow, Tatsuya decided to go back to his tent. He was about to take his leave when the ground around him began to shake. Almost too quick for him to respond, three hands on either side of him popped up from the dirt and grabbed onto his legs. Their grip was tight and Tatsuya couldn’t escape from them at all! He looked down, and what he saw horrified him. The hands that were restricting his movements weren’t just any hands—they were skeletal hands! He caught glimpses of their true nature from the slivers of moonlight that illuminated his frontal field of vision.

‘What the hell is this?!’ he wondered horrifyingly to himself. It was like he was in some sort of horror movie! The hands refused to budge no matter how hard he tried to pull away and he could feel them beginning to dig into his skin. While he was focused on the skeletal hands below, another blade sliced through the air for his head. At the very last moment, thanks to his enhanced sense of hearing, Tatsuya managed to duck under the blade’s trajectory, getting only a small clump of his hair shorn off in the process. The blade buried itself into the same tree as its predecessor. There was no doubt about it—whoever this was, they were after him.

Tatsuya took out his pen and unsheathed his sword. He swung the blade and cut down all of the skeletal hands that were holding onto him. Now that he was free, he ran out to search for his assailant. Judging from the trajectory the blades were thrown, it was likely that the assailant was hidden somewhere in the direction of the camp. Tatsuya had almost reached the camp when the subtle sound of footsteps running to his side made him turn around. The sound immediately stopped and Tatsuya scanned the area before him. Through the branches of a tree, he could make out a silhouette. He raised his sword and ran towards it. The speed with which he ran had apparently surprised his enemy and they became sitting ducks. Tatsuya swung his sword and slashed through the branches. His action forced the enemy to jump out of the way at the last second and they somersaulted above him and landed right where the moonlight illuminated their face.

The assailant revealed themself to be a young woman with purplish-pale skin and ghostlike gray eyes with subtle bags under them. Her hair was jet black and silky and tied up in a bun. Her attire was hidden in the darkness save for a black cloth collar covering her neck.

“What do you want with me?” Tatsuya asked her.

The woman didn’t say anything in reply and just scowled at him. She touched her wrist and brought out her Dragon Regalia. It was the same throwing knives as before. Without a word, she raised her three knives and threw them all at Tatsuya. The attack was very quick and Tatsuya couldn’t help but admire at how smooth it was. But his instincts finally kicked in and he effortlessly swung them away with his sword—another few seconds and he would’ve had holes in his body in three vital areas. Tatsuya then ran up to the woman with his sword drawn and prepared to unleash a powerful attack on her when he suddenly froze. His body had frozen, his mind had frozen, his blood had frozen, his breathing had frozen—his entire being was on pause!

“Let’s go! The plan failed,” called out a man’s voice. He was none other than the woman’s partner and he had been hiding among the bushes all this time in order to provide support. The woman turned to her partner and followed his advice.

After the assailants had run away for some distance, Tatsuya, who was unaware at all of what had happened, finally unfroze. His sword dropped to the ground and he realized that the enemy had somehow vanished. He scanned his surroundings to make sure that the enemy wasn’t hiding. Once he was sure that he was indeed alone, he walked back to the camp.

When he got back, he noticed Mr. Urushihara leaning against a tree waiting for him. “Hey,” called out the teacher, “out for a midnight stroll?”

“I just had to use the bathroom,” Tatsuya told him with an embarrassed smile. “Anyway, talk to you in the morning,” he told the teacher as he made his way to the tent.

Mr. Urushihara watched as Tatsuya slipped back inside the tent. He then looked out at the guards and saw that they were doing their job and patrolling the area. And then he turned to look out into the dark forest. His expression turned grim. ‘Who were they and what were they after?’ he wondered to himself.