Encounter
“Looks like Shiho is the last to arrive yet again.” Said Tsukasa, who was looking at the grandfather clock. The clock struck 17:00 exactly, and the door soon cracked open.
“Sorry that I’m late.” Shiho said as she peeked through the door.
“You’re late by 4 seconds, if we were on the battlefield, you’d be dead by now.” Akito scolded, to which he had no say. He came late to a meeting by 5 minutes once, and Mizuki got to dress him up all pretty like a little girl as punishment.
“Geez, I said I’m sorry.”
“You two, stop fighting.” Tsukasa stopped, with Mizuki agreeing with him. “Let’s get down to business.”
And so, the meeting started. This patrol was mainly to follow the trails of the sleeping dragon, since it was a full moon tonight.
The plan was simple: They would leave the main town at 20:00, three hours from now, and they would lead their troops into the forest, and get rid of any bandits. From then on, the 4 Rose Knights will join together in one unit, with all of their troops as a support. They will reach the Cave of Melodies at around 22:00, 2 hours before the full moon reaches its peak. By then, the dragon should awaken, and the Rose Knights will use all of their powers to defeat it.
Defeating it successfully would mean that the chances of the largest threat in the Otori Kingdom would lessen. This operation was necessary for the survival of the kingdom, and the Knights weren’t going to make it go to waste.
An hour passed, and the Rose Knights memorized the operation by heart. In 45 minutes, they would meet up again with a number of knights.
Thoughts were rushing past through Akito’s head, he was going to venture in the forest for the first time in years. He grew up in the forest area, so he knows his way around. I know I trust Tsukasa and the others, but I have a feeling this operation won’t turn out well. I grew up in the forest area, but going out during a full moon is never a good choice.
Akito felt like this because there was a myth that spread where he was living.
“A long time ago, there would be a little girl that came out during the full moon. The little girl was a friend among wolves, befriending them all. Every year or so, she would come into town, and grab one of the little children. The little kid would then go missing, leaving the parents horrified. The next full moon, the parents would awaken to their little kid at their front door, but something changed. Their heads were stuffed into the mouth of a dead wolf, with their eyes and head ripped open. There would be bruises on the kids head, and scars everywhere. Plus, there would be a little note written on the wolf’s back. “Hoc non erit in novissimo tempore.” And ever since then, the adults and elderly would never let a kid outside during the night of a full moon again.”
Akito’s parents would always tell him that story, even though he never believed it. In fact, he knew a girl who was so obsessed with that fairytale, that she herself went into the woods to befriend the wolves. After thinking heavily about the old fairytale, Akito realized that he was dawdling, so he sped up and ran faster.
In a blink of an eye, he was already at the town’s gate. Getting ready to leave into the forests. Tsukasa, Shiho, and Mizuki were all there, with Tsukasa standing at the front of the formation. He unsheathed his sword, and rose it high up into the air. There were townspeople gathered up near the streets, all shouting “good luck”, or “return victorious”. Before long, Tsukasa shouted out, “For the glory of the Otori!”, and as he finished, every knight, and every horse, started to run.
At 19:00 of the same day, the three Dark ‘magicians’ were getting ready to leave the mansion. They had just finished preparing, and were ready to leave. They were wearing their usual knight outfits, but with a black coat over to conceal their identities.
“Are you all ready to go?” Toya asked while putting on his hood, which covered his entire face, so you couldn’t tell who he was from up close or afar.
“All ready to go, we’re only waiting for Rui!” Saki exclaimed, as she finished re-tying her hair into her pigtails.
The two waited for a few more minutes, before Rui stepped out of the house, carrying various potions in his arms.
“These should be enough, right?” Rui asked, to which Toya nodded.
“What are they for?” Saki questioned. Every time they were out on an expedition, Rui never brought any potions with him, but since they were bound to meet the Rose Knights, Rui knew that he had to bring some for safety measure.
“Well~ If we were to meet the Rose Knights, which we probably are, we’ll need to pull some tricks on them, won't we?”
“I get that… but at the same time I don’t think we need them.” Toya jokes, “What if they’re not as strong as they say they are?”
“And who told you that, Toya?”
“I’m just saying..”
Just then, Saki interrupted, “It’s already 19:05, we should get going.” So the three then walked out of the barrier, and into the forest they went.
As expected, since it was already night time, it would be nearly impossible to see through the darkness of the forest. But luckily for the trio, they could light up red flames because of their dark magic. The flames grew a brilliant bright red, as they all whispered, “rubrum. ardebit. lux.”
Now with the flame, it was much easier to see in the dark. The trio avoided venomous vines at any cost, but Rui decided to take a sample just for fun. It was for experimental purposes, he said. Seriously, he can’t even control his urge to experiment, even in a do-or-die situation.
After a while of running, the trio reached one of the largest trees in the entire forest. Literally, it was huge. The tree in question was a large tree, where roses grew. It contained a large amount of mana, perfect for repowering their dark magic. But just then, they heard the sounds of running, and horses galloping towards them. And a familiar voice spoke –
“Who’s there!?”
–
The 4 Rose Knights and their troops were wandering in the forest, and they had been doing so for the past hour. They couldn’t see well in the dark, and their torches were about to be blown over by the strong wind.
Tsukasa, who had the strongest sense of detecting mana, could tell that something was wrong, since he never thought that the wind would be this strong. He’d always heard that the winds in the forest were strong during the winter, but this was already nearing fall, so why?
Even Shiho, someone without the most mana, could tell something was off. “Hey…” Shiho whispered, “Something feels off.. Doesn’t it? Like I know it’s night time, but uh… should the moon really be a bright red?”
“Huh?” Tsukasa paused. He looked up towards the sky… and holy shit the moon was a bright red?
“What the fuck… it shouldn’t be time for the blood moon yet. That’s in another 3 months.” Akito swore. Tonight was only supposed to be a full moon, not a blood moon? That’s not surprising to say the least, since for the past 3 years, the kingdom has faced random inconsistencies in weather. One time, on a sunny winter day, the forest started to snow for some reason. Even in the heat, the snow didn’t melt for a solid 6 hours. What a strange phenomenon.
“Isn’t that interesting~” Mizuki spoke, as they caught up with the rest of the group. “Oh? What’s that over there?”
In the distance, was a large rose tree.
“Oh that? That’s said to be the birthplace of our great Rose Witch, An.” Shiho answered. Pointing up her sword in the direction of the tree.
“It’s.. a lot bigger than I imagined.” Akito spoke as he gestured to his soldiers to turn right, while he continued straight ahead with the other 3 Rose Knights.
“Right….” Mizuki added. “What’s wrong, Tsukasa? You’ve been acting a bit quiet.”
“Huh? Oh! Sorry.” Tsukasa replied, just as he said that, he saw 3 faint figures in the distance.
“Who’s there?!” He shouted out.
Saki, who immediately recognized the voice, quickly put her hood back on. “Both of you, put on your hood, quickly!” She shouted, her voice was a lot deeper than it was 3 years ago, so there shouldn’t be a problem about her voice being recognized. Toya and Rui reacted quickly, and followed what Saki ordered. The three Dark Knights were now covered in black cloth, making their appearances unable to be seen. We
As they wore their hood ups, they saw four faint figures emerging from the forest.
“Who’s there?!” Tsukasa shouted once more, finally seeing the 3 figures hooded in black. As he ran towards them, Akito quickly caught up, leaving Shiho and Mizuki behind.
As he stood still, Akito drew out his sword from his sheath. “I don’t care who you are, but to mess with the rose tree is unforgivable.” He cursed, “If you do something bad to it, I won’t show any mercy.”
Just as he said that, Shiho and Mizuki caught up.
“Oh~ Who are these people?” Mizuki asked, as they finished tying their hair back up.
“Well, we don’t know yet.” Shiho joined in, “But it looks like they’re refilling their mana using the rose tree.”
The atmosphere was tense, as these were the four Rose Knights after all. But, they didn’t know who they were facing.
“You’re wondering who we are?” Toya spoke, his voice didn’t change much, so he drank a voice changing potion a few minutes prior. So when he spoke out, his voice appeared more intimidating than it should be. “Why don’t you find out yourself?”
Akito clipped his tongue, as he was the knight who would get pissed the easiest. “One more word, one more word and I’ll slice your throat open.”
“Jeesh, don’t have to be so violent with them, lil bro~” Mizuki teased. ‘Lil bro’ has been Akito’s nickname ever since Mizuki learned that he was Ena’s younger brother. They’ve teased Akito with this name a total of… 254 times. Akito counted all of them.
“Woah woah woah~ I swear we won’t do anything suspicious~” Rui spoke, to which Tsukasa flinched as he was familiar with this tone, but he couldn’t figure out why it sounded so familiar. Meanwhile, Saki stayed silent the whole time, at the sight of seeing Shiho. Back in the palace, Saki, Ichika, Honami, and Shiho were the closest friends. But after Saki got disowned and left, Shiho became a Rose Knight and grew apart from Ichika and Honami.
Rui continued, “Well, you four are eager to find out who we are, isn’t that right?”
“Well yeah..” Tsukasa spoke while signaling Akito to put his sword away, to which Akito obliged.
Toya lightly tapped Rui on the shoulders, and whispered in his ears. “Switch positions with me.” He whispered. Rui was currently standing in the middle, and now Toya was instead.
“Listen, you four over there.” Toya said, directing it towards the 4 Rose Knights. “Have you ever heard of the former Rose Knights?”
At first, Tsukasa hesitated to speak, but he eventually spoke these words. “You mean… Kamishiro the Scientist and Aoyagi the Prince?”
“That’s right. Do you know what happened to them three years ago?” Saki spoke, pushing down her hood even more.
“Uhm.. They were found using dark magic and got exiled from the Kingdom… right?” Shiho only remembered these events the first year that Saki was exiled. After a while, she didn’t want to remember those events anymore, so she just didn’t.
As the wind grew stronger as the time passed, the hoods covering the trio’s faces started to blow away. The silence in the woods grew stronger and stronger, and one of Saki’s hair strands was exposed out of her hood.
Tsukasa quickly took notice of the young girl’s exposed hair, but he didn’t yet notice how similar it was to his own. Not until Shiho brought it up, that is.*
“You… doesn’t that hair color remind you of someone, Tsukasa?” Shiho brought up, to which Tsukasa carefully observed for a few long seconds.
His mouth gaped wide open. “You’re right!! That does indeed look a lot like my younger sister…” His mind suddenly started to fill up with questions, some that Tsukasa believed could never be answered. “Could it be….”
A silence filled the air as Tsukasa carefully thought over his next words.
“Could it be that you three are the former Rose Knights?” He confirmed, the silence the three hinted at was obvious.
Bingo. The trio composed of Toya, Rui, and Saki had no intention to hide it any longer.
Just as the wind started to calm, the three quickly – yet dramatically took off their hoods in unison, revealing their faces, hair, and identity. The aura coming out from all three.. It was overwhelming to say the least. Not even Akito – nor Tsukasa, who were considered the bravest, could even utter a word at the sight that they were witnessing.
Rui smirked. He had come up with a plan. Without hesitation, he took a step forward.
“My, my~ Aren’t they the new Rose Knights! It seems like a few of you are still not yet used to this role huh?” He joked, receiving a bitter frown from Akito, who was a few seconds from leashing out. “You’re supposed to be protecting the Otori Family aren’t you? Who would’ve thought the Rose Knights who are so highly praised, would be stunned in a moment like this. You’re just seeing the faces of your predecessors? That much is a shock to you already?”
Akito’s balloon bursted. “You… I can’t stand your temper for any longer.”
Saki, who had been staring elsewhere this entire time, spoke up. “Do you really think that you could beat these two? Even if I’m useless, I’m sure my seniors would be more than happy to put up a fight with you right now.”
Never in Tsukasa’s nor Shiho’s life would they believe to be hearing such cruel words coming from Saki’s mouth. To believe that the young girl, who was once so full of sunshine had turned into someone so bitter, even after just a few years of being exiled.
“Saki… has the dark magic corrupted you or something? This is unlike you..” Shiho asked out of concern, she wouldn’t know what to say to Ichika or Honami once she got back.
“You three… I don’t think we should stay here for much longer…” Mizuki suggested, they never really had a connection with any of their current enemies, so they chose to remain silent. Akito on the other hand… was close to running up to the trio. Mizuki took a glance at him, and realized he was mainly keeping an eye on Toya, who was also silent this entire time. It looked as if he was waiting for something.
The endless back and forth bantering between Saki and Shiho lasted for a while, until Akito finally had enough and decided to shut the two up.
“You two… If you’re going to argue for any longer, then I’d rather for you to take it to the Royal Court. I’m done with this. It’s about time we move on.” He angrily yelled.
Tsukasa couldn’t have agreed more, whispering “stop” to Shiho as Akito had finished saying his speech.
After being in a long while of silence, Toya finally spoke up. “So, what brings your business here?” He asked. His voice was silky smooth, like a lullaby that you’d hear when your mother would sing it. Tsukasa hadn’t seen or heard him in years, so the maturity in his voice sent shivers down his spine.
“We’re… uh… here for the dragon! Yep, the dragon.” Hesitated Mizuki. Rui used to be a dear friend of theirs, but they hadn’t heard of them for years.
“Oh – well, in that case you seem to be far too late.” Toya added, leaving all the Rose Knights confused. What did he mean by too late? On the other hand, Rui and Saki seemed to be grinning. Saki’s grin felt like a child excited to show their parents what score they got on a test, while Rui’s grin seemed more like a mad scientist showing off his latest invention.
Toya continued, “The dragon has already awakened. One minute ago.”
…what?