Extra: Songstress 1 (1/2)

This is a story without much relation to the main plot. It is my hope you enjoy it as a side story where dragoon characters make an appearance.

Down a path buried up by droves of people passed the caravan of gorgeous carriages.

The sky was blue. The scenery colored by fluttering confetti was one to sing praise of a single princess in the largest carriage.

Inside that carriage rode only that single beautiful girl, alongside the young knight that served as her guard.

The cheers buried up the surrounding noises. From inside the carriage, the white dress-clad young girl waved her hand. Her skin was pale and her frail, slender body gave off the impression it might snap in two. And then was her curling blue hair, that could be called her most notable feature.

Her waving, gleaming blue hair grew to around her lower back. As she waved from the window, her hidden left hand gripped her pendant… the item that proved she was of the royal line, a small gold egg-shaped item engraved with the cursed seal of Celestia.

Everyone celebrated the birth of a new shrine maiden, rejoicing as they offered up Princess Cleo Celestia of the Celestia royal line.

With this they’d be safe. They’d be at peace for another few decades. Cleo understood what was on everyone’s minds.

In the first place, these cheers and the smiles on the peoples’ faces, all of it… was delight over her own sacrifice.

The green-eyed Cleo, under her smile, she wasn’t able to think anything. She had been born to do so. Her role had finally come, nothing more, nothing left.

It would be too pitiful for her young little sister. Her brothers wouldn’t be able to fulfill the role.

The clan raised as sacrifices would regularly offer up a woman every few decades. The people would think of them as maidens offered to their guardian god.

Cleo was royalty. But for the peace of the country, she would offer her very life to the protector… How tragic. From the eyes of the people who knew nothing, it looked as if the royal family was fulfilling their obligation.

In truth, royal blood did flow through Cleo’s veins. But that blood had been carefully prepared outside the current royalty. Cleo’s family was merely being kept alive, a clan of sacrifices royal in name alone. The energy supply of the ancient weapon, that demanded life every few tens of years.

In order to replenish it, Cleo was henceforth set to die.

She would continue on the carriage, making for a mountain on the edge of the continent. She would enter the ruins on that active volcano of a mountain, offer her life to the weapon, and that would be the end of it. Right, that’s where it was supposed to end.

Cleo first thought it strange when the carriage stopped at a spot it wasn’t planned to stop. When she thought they had run upon some trouble, in the next instant, the surrounding knights acting as guards started charging straight ahead.

And knights gathered around them as well. Wearing white, ceremonial armor, those elites of Celestia bragged that their training and devotion fell not short of the high knights of the large power of Courtois.

“Protect the princess!”

“No matter what, we have to protect her from these bandits.”

“Dammit! They were hiding in the crowd!”

Things did not seem to be going very well outside.

“Why did it come to this…”

While Cleo was the surprised, the young knight hung over her.

“Princess, get down! It will be dangerous if an arrow flies our way!”

Even if they tried to run, they were unable to go out into the main street crowded with people. They could only trust in the carriage, built not only pomp, but sturdy as well.

So following the words of her guard… no, the knight keeping watch over her, Cleo had no choice but to meekly quiver.

The young knight’s name was Emilio Balhart. His green hair grew long, and he was a fair knight of Celestia. Called the wonder child of Celestia, once in knight school, he easily changed that name to genius.

Even after enlisting in a brigade, his rumors would all extol him. His service only covered a few year, but it was said he was on the way to becoming knight captain and he was stipulated to be the country’s strongest knight.

Many women would envy a position of being protected by him. But thinking to the contrary, that meant there was a need for strong enough surveillance to dispatch such an elite knight.

(Mother…)

Cleo felt the sounds of battle outside gradually grow in intensity, too scared to help it. But while she had lived for nothing more than to be a sacrifice, she hated the thought of dying without fulfilling her role. Otherwise, her young little sister would be offered in her place.

(Just to the ruins… we just had to make it to the altar.Why won’t they just let us be?)

To protect the girl on the verge of tears, Emilio, who’d been keeping watch of the outside, let out his voice. Cleo required just a bit of time before she realized that.

“It’s dangerous here, princess! We need to withdraw.”

“… Eh? We can’t, Emilio. The ceremony can’t start without me. What’s more, if we return come so far, the palace’s standing will…”

“Right now, your life is more important, princess! We’ll withdraw and reorganize our formation. The carriage ahead’s been attacked, so we can’t go further in this. We have to go outside.”

The carriage in front carried the ceremonial tools. It took quite some time to prepare them. While she didn’t want to cast them aside, she saw there was some sense in Emilio’s words and jumped down from the carriage.

Emilio pulled her by the hand, and as they left the carriage, the street buried in cheers had changed to the intense sounds of battle. Outside, she could hear even more noises that rung through her ears. Alongside the din of clashing metal, the sensation of magic being fired off.

Cleo wanted to hurry from the spot. She didn’t feel sorry for the surrounding knights, for this was their job. And her own job meant for her to offer her life.

She told herself so as she fled with Emilio who pulled her down the way. In their way, a man who had likely slipped into the crowd held a weapon in hand as he came at them. Emilio pulled his sword to knock it from his hand.

“Stand down, ruffian!”

For now, perhaps prioritizing their escape, Emilio sprinted into the gap between buildings on the main road without landing the finishing blow. Cleo had never been somewhere like that before. Unlike the main streets, an unpleasant smell wafted about.

At the same time, there was trash littered around the place making it difficult to run.

“Princess, just a little further.”

“I’m sorry, Emilio. I’ve caused you nothing but trouble…”

As Emilio continued running through the small spaces between buildings, he looked to Cleo like a reliable knight. When she had no idea where she was and she had even started to forget which way they’d gone, Emilio continued proceeding on.

He turned a right, and next a left. He ran down the stairs.

Once the left the narrow path, a small river was flowing. A different terrible smell came from there. It was the smell of a drain.

“This might be harsh on you, princess, but this is all to get away.”

“I know. I don’t intend to fixate on these trivial matters.”

Thinking Leo’s hand would let her get away, as the sounds of battle grew distance, Cleo found a little of her composure. If an ally appeared here, she would have more peace of mind. But it seemed the ones who appeared were no allies.

“It’s a dead end this way.”

Just as they tried to cross the bridge, they were pincered in the front and back. Unlike the ones who had slipped in with the people, the men this time wore robes with swords hung at their waists. From the leisure with which they held themselves, they likely thought they would win if they pressed through with numbers.

Three in the front, and two in the back.

Cleo gave Emilio’s hand one strong squeeze before letting go. Emilio shifted the sword he held in one hand to a two-handed grip.

“Princess, leave this to me.”

“I’m counting on you, Emilio.”

If it was Emilio, even called Celestia’s strongest knight, then he would be able to break through this dilemma. Cleo believed so.

The robed men drew their swords. Emilio took a stance as well. Protecting Cleo in the center of the bridge, he kept wary of foes on both sides.

… It was at that moment.

“Princessss!”

It wasn’t elite knights but soldiers who rushed to their aid. The robed men clicked their tongues before running away.

“We’re saved, Emilio.”

Relieved, Cleo called over to Emilio. But Emilio didn’t look so optimistic. His grip on his sword remained firm as he glared at the soldiers rushing over.

(Has the enemy donned a disguise?)

She felt awkward, doubting the soldiers who rushed to their aid, but if Emilia didn’t let his guard down, she thought she would imitate.

The soldiers noticed they were being suspected and hurriedly stowed their weapons.

“We’re, um… we’ve been assigned to guard the small gate beyond this point. We’re on break right now, and we’d gone to the main road. Wanted to catch a glimpse of the princess off to the ritual. So anyway, we saw the princess and companion running and hurriedly rushed to your aid. My apologies.”

The city was surrounded by walls, and apart from the main gate for standard use, there were other gates one could pass through. The sluice gate to let in the river water fit that description. There were a number of small gates, and in order to protect them, there were usually soldiers permanently stationed.

But it wasn’t the sort place knights were deployed. If anything happened, they could seal the gates at a moment’s notice, so such places were occupied by hired soldiers.

Cleo looked over their equipment and saw the plating the gatekeepers wore around their waists.

The large leaderish man boasted an unshaven face and looked especially wild. The slender man with the spear looked to be in ill health and somewhat unreliable. For the small fat man, a portion of his stomach even stuck out of the provided equipment.