Volume 1 - CH 9

“Ugh…”

In a dim room, Colette woke from a horrible feeling, groaning weakly.

She had not slept well, with her injuries keeping her fatigued. Her mind in a haze, she vaguely thought back on the events that brought her here.

She had skipped class after learning her close friend had fallen victim to narcotics that had been circulating through town. From there, she had tracked and followed a man in a hooded robe, discovering the warehouse of the organization behind the drug’s distribution…

There, she was defeated and taken prisoner. She had overestimated her strength and lost, but worst of all, she had done so after grandstanding and turning down her best friend’s offer to help, only to find herself in this situation. Colette clicked her tongue in annoyance as she thought back on her failings.

“You’re finally awake. Did you sleep well?”

“…Sleeping? In a place like this? Please, your hospitality is simply wasted on the likes of me.”

A man sat in a chair before her and, having heard Colette click her tongue, casually offered a joke, though his voice lacked emotion.

And Colette responded with sarcasm, but the man, paying no heed to her snide response, continued speaking.

“Oh, Colette, oh foolish princess of Colhoun. Never would I have expected you of all people to act so foolishly. And yet, it is because of your ridiculous antics that our plans have run afoul.”

A faint but visible shade of anger colored the otherwise unfeeling cold of his voice.

Colette remained tight-lipped under the man’s harsh rebuke.

A long chain locked her in place, snaking around her and along the ground with its end link on the chair the muttering, creepy man was sitting on.

The dim lighting of the room made it impossible for Colette to see the man’s face through the darkness of his hood, but she nonetheless fixed her glare at where his eyes should have been.

“High Priest, sir, we have finished our inspection of the Ludus.”

“…Good work. Once your other tasks are complete, stand guard outside and keep watch for any further intruders.”

After a moment, another man appeared, with a group behind him. He addressed the hooded man as ‘High Priest’ and respectfully reported his message.

It seemed there was some sort of hierarchy among these hooded men.

Colette looked away from the man sitting before her and instead focused on his conversation.

But the newcomer noticed her attention, and his lips twisted upward to make a nasty smirk.

“Is this… that imperial princess from Colhoun? She may be young, but already she looks to be a fine woman. Ahh, the thought of sullying her face, of dirtying her noble blood..!”

At the sound of the man’s words, Colette frowned in disgust.

How absolutely vile. Even if she were not the target of such filthy words, Colette would still feel the same disgust. And it seemed she was not the only one to feel that way, though the newcomer and his group seemed not to notice.

“Hey, if we’re going to just kill her, couldn’t we have some fun with her before that? It’d be a waste not to, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, you’re right… Such a sinful body; what kind of brat would have such magnificent, bountiful, mounds…”

The men oggled Colette with open lust, their eyes tracing the exposed skin showing from the rips and tears of her uniform as though they were licking the bare surface.

Colette’s face flushed with indignant rage. She glared at the men with deadly hate, as though to will them into death, but nothing she did could stop the vulgar desires that leaked from these brutes.

“Cease your nonsense at once”

But with one thunderous order, the man called the High Priest silenced them.

It had been but a single command, yet the men’s faces paled before it.

The eerie leader stood and carefully walked to the man at the head of the group; the sound of his leather boots touching the ground emphasized his every step.

“Pl-please excuse our indiscretion..!”

“You need only give your report, yet you would dare spout such vile, base desire in my presence? It seems that mouth of yours requires better discipline.”

“Pl-please forgiv–..?!”

The High Priest spoke with clear irritation as he reached out and grabbed the man’s face, holding shut the man’s mouth.

And then…

“Nnn..?! Nnnngh!!”

The man began giving muffled screams from behind the High Priest’s hand. Colette’s eyes widened as she realized what was happening: a layer of frost bloomed from the man’s mouth and began spreading across his cheeks, growing until the ice covered his entire face.

The man called the High Priest released his grip, and the iced-over man fell over, writhing and screaming in muffled pain as his frozen mouth refused to open.

Terror and tension rippled through the group as they saw the example made of their leader. On the other hand, the High Priest let out of a great huff, as though indicating he was not to be crossed again.

His cruelty left Colette speechless; this High Priest thought nothing of his men’s lives. It was as though they were but pebbles on the roadside to him.

(Does this man even see his followers as humans?!)

Though the man’s face was still hidden under his hood, the eyes he looked out with from under that darkness were as cold as the ice he just made. It had taken this act of brutality for Colette to understand just how dangerous he was.

The air suddenly felt much colder, and every breath she took seemed to send chilling spikes into her lungs.

For the first time in her life, Colette was afraid of something.

…No, maybe it was better to say that it was the forgotten natural instinct that only children were aware of.

It was something they felt when faced with such a mysterious and absolute concept, like the terror of death.

Having finished with the man whose mouth was now frozen shut, the High Priest turned his emotionless gaze back to Colette.

From where the High Priest now stood, the dim light was enough to reveal the irritated sneer twisting the wrinkle of his lip.

“Truly deplorable, these ones… As I was saying, our carefully-laid plans have now gone to waste. How utterly vexing. But who could have predicted it would be the king, not its pawn, that crossed the board, and all on its own?”

Colette hesitatingly turned to look up at the High Priest’s face; from beneath the hood’s darkness gleamed an icy pair of eyes.

This time it was the High Priest who clicked his tongue in annoyance as he eyed her with his cold, unflinching gaze.

“But whatever shall we do with you? We cannot kill you and be done with your meddling, yet neither can we allow you to simply leave… Ahh, how very, very vexing indeed..!”

The magical power radiating from the High Priest’s body suddenly swelled with great force; red-black ropes of energy swirled about the man like rivers of blood and gave off a faint purple smog. It was obvious from a single glance that something wicked was afoot.

Colette felt a nervous lump in her throat as the overwhelming pressure of such ominous, powerful magic bore down on her.

She could sense waves of rage behind it all, a fiery indignation against some higher power… Even the normally courageous Colette could not help but cower before such raw fury.

But what scared her the most wasn’t that display of might; no, what scared her the most was those eyes that stared at her. Those eyes stared at her, bored into her, and yet they were not looking at her in the least.

Colette had never before encountered such naked madness in a person. The very existence of this aberrant being in human form went against anything and everything she knew of the world around her.

At least, if the High Priest’s words were true, he would not allow Colette to be killed.

And yet these people were clearly not sound of mind; the man who said she wasn’t to be killed was, himself, even further gone than the rest of them. It didn’t matter if Colette believed his words when there was no way to guarantee them.

In the first place, if this man felt like it, he could so very easily end her life. If there was nothing else, Colette at least knew that much.

After all, she knew firsthand how extraordinarily powerful this man was; it was by his hand, through his power, that she was chained up as she was.

And reflected now in the cold, unfeeling eyes of this man called the High Priest was Colette.

A sudden chill ran down Colette’s spine; this was most likely the end of the line for her. She closed her eyes in quiet resignation.

But in that very moment…

The door leading into the warehouse slammed open, crashing loudly against the adjacent wall before falling over. All eyes gathered on the sudden intrusion.

In walked a certain girl whose shining silver hair flashed brilliant vermillion.

The golden rays of the glorious sunshine cast the girl’s figure in a divine glow, leaving Colette absolutely starstruck.

After a tense pause, the girl said simply:

“Yo! I’m here for my princess!”

And with that arrogant declaration, she raised her hand, seemingly grabbed a brilliant sphere from the sunlight, and slammed it into the ground.

A dazzling flash of light and the deafening boom of an explosion filled the room…