Rakuin no Monshou:Volume1 Prologue

Prologue

“The princess is not there?”

“Indeed,” female Chief Theresia explained with an as bitter look as possible. “Until a while ago, she was having tea with us in the central garden. Then she suddenly stated that she wanted to see the castle in the light of the setting sun from the roofs of Shikou Palace.”

“Shikou Palace… come to think of it, isn’t that where the departure point for airships is?” the head of the western palace guard shouted in dismay.

"My!" Theresia made a face as if she just realized it for the first time as well. “What should we do? The princess is among the best pilots in our country. In the last race too, although she admirably became the runner-up, she flew into a rage, as if there was no meaning to it if she didn’t end up in first place. She was about to throw away the trophy of all things, and we were desperate to stop her.”

“Is that so? N-No… we shouldn’t get into that right now.”

While the captain started getting flustered, his subordinates behind him looked at each other apprehensively.

“What might she be up to?”

“I suppose she is planning on making a casual round of the capital on the airship. She must feel reluctant to leave.”

“No, it’s that princess. I’m sure she suddenly changed her mind about the marriage and decided to get away.”

“Even I don’t like it. It's outrageous that our Vileena, the third daughter of His Royal Highness and princess of Gabrera, a country where we take pride in chivalry, has to consent to a marriage with that monkey from Mephius!”

Some of them snorted through their noses and stamped their feet on the floor,

“No, she is a princess and would not do selfish things like this. We all know how mischievous and incredibly lively Princess Vileena is, but listen to me my friends, she is also someone who loves this country, its people, and its environment more than anybody else. She would not vitiate a contract with Mephius because of her own displeasure.”

While others calmly reproached their comrades.

“This is because we are spineless.”

“Yeah. The Ten Year War with Mephius – what if we could’ve finished it with a victory on our side? If we could’ve raised Garbera’s national flag at Mephius palace, a thing… a thing like this…”

Shaking their heads in frustration, some ended up being moved to tears and sorrow.

All of this was proof that there must be love for her, or so Theresia thought. Garbera’s third princess, Princess Vileena. Only fourteen years old, and after the coming week, she would be married into the Mephius Empire bordering the country in the northwest.

Although Theresia herself would be accompanying the princess in order to look after her surroundings, of course, for many people in Garbera, this would be farewell. Everyone who now met with the princess, although able to congratulate her with her marriage, couldn’t hide from the loneliness, the anger, and the sorrow on her face when they did.

Theresia was standing in a ceilinged corridor facing the garden on her right. On the side of a near pillar, a doodle of herself, which had been drawn by the princess at a younger age, faintly remained. Theresia softly laid her hand on that drawing that depicted her in a devilish manner; the princess must have drawn it right after being scolded by her.

This is your last act of selfishness, isn’t it, princess?

As she clung onto captain of the guard, asking for an honest, desperate search for the princess, Theresia inwardly voiced her true thoughts.

About twenty kilometres southeast of Garbera Kingdom’s capital city Phozon.

In a range of gentle hills, there was a mansion overlooking a wide lake. During the rebellion that took place five years ago, the land was almost about to become the centre of war. But now it was much like its mild climate, at peace, with a relaxed time flowing by.

However, it was just before the sun was about to set when it suddenly became very lively.

“The third air defence fleet, ascend!” the commander of the air defence force yelled, straddled over the his own airship. “The first and second protect all sides of the royal palace. The fourth hastens on to Phozon Capital.”

Just five minutes ago, a flare signal had been raised from the watchtower. It was a sign that meant for unidentified air units approaching. And just now, they confirmed the sighting of a single airship.

As the sky started to blend into the same colour as the surface, the air defence force rose into the air.

With a metal base made of dragonstone, steel, silver, brass, and the like, Garbera’s ornithopter-type single-seated airships were modelled after the large sea eagles that inhabit our Mother Earth. From the bill to the tip of the tail, they were approximately three metres long, and the full span of its high-speed flapping wings was about seven metres. The pilots had their seats shaped where the eagle’s paws would be as they whirled up into the sky.

I doubt a single unit would attack, though.

While the commander of the air defence force raised his suspicions, a deep black shape approached from the other side of the slope. It had a frightening speed. It was the kind of type that let the pilot lie with his belly directly on the hull during flight, and it wasn’t an ornithopter, but had a rear propeller and a rudder controlling its directions instead, and moved forward by propulsion. It was a type of airship that was mainly built for its speed.

Isn’t that our country’s?

The chief looked at it through narrowed eyes. Garbera excelled in the art of purifying dragon fossils into a weightless metal – the so-called dragonstone – and the country’s development of small airships was unmatched by other countries. There were also many variations.

“Stop!”

“Don’t go any further!”

Although the men on the air defence ships raised their shouts unanimously, the approaching unit did not show any signs of lowering its speed. It just passed by the airship of the third fleet’s captain at a hair’s distance and, as he was about to nearly lose its balance because of the near crash, the area suddenly grew tense.

“We told you to stop!”

“We’ll shoot if you don’t follow our warning!”

One craft blocked the course of the approaching unit that was flying straight ahead, the remainder went up, and took up positions to fire from the left and right. The commander himself was about to place a finger on the trigger that was directly connected to a machine gun, when,

“One’s duties are one’s troubles.”

Suddenly, a voice called out to him. It was a woman’s voice… or more precisely, a girl’s. He lifted his finger from the trigger.

Their airships were about to pass each other, and her's left a platinum trail behind. When he realized that it was the pilot’s long hair streaming in the wind,

“Princess!?” the commander couldn’t help but raise his voice.

“Sorry, I’m in a hurry.”

The rapid words that returned came from the same voice, and then she was gone.

Everybody from the third air defence fleet was put off with an equally flabbergasted expression. Before long, gliding wings appeared from the airship near the small boards by the seat, and he just managed to see that she was steadily descending.

“Commander?”

“At ease.”

The commander of the air defence force was already half into his forties, and had a daughter who recently became fourteen. The same age as Garbera’s third princess Vileena. Fourteen years.

To him, it seemed like not much time had passed since he’d seen the tottering steps of his baby daughter. But the world already saw her as an adult member of society, and even if she got married and started having children at this age, no one would think of it as strange.

“Call back the fourth air defence fleet. Immediately return to your posts, and do not write about this in the journals. Today, we’ve seen nothing but a peaceful sky.”

He was fixedly staring at the moon outside through the window.

He rose up in his bed, and although his features, exposed by the pale light, neared the limits of age, the grace and austerity that seemed to be there by nature was still going strong.

“I thought it was strangely noisy tonight, but I guess it must have been you.”

He spoke the words as he looked up at the moon.

“Yes, it’s me.”

The answer came from the side.

A shadow came in from the room’s entrance. With every step that was brought forward, the figure got gradually overtaken by the moonlight, eventually producing the appearance of a girl.

“My son wouldn’t turn a blind eye if saw you like this. In a certain sense, he is a man older than I.”

The old man laughed, as he looked at the approaching figure clad in an airship riding gear. Although she was still more of a child than a woman, the outfit formed perfectly around her body, and the increasingly dangerous curves seemed to be maturing day by day.

The girl let a smile come onto her face, like a flower in bloom.

“Quite so. That’s why, when I participated in the race, he opposed it until the very end. Although he agreed it was good to humour the people, he said this manner wouldn’t do, and that I should wear clothes more suitable for a member of the Garbera Royal Family, among other things. There was no way I do it, with the cuffs of a long skirt hindering me. That’s why I had to contend myself with a second place.”

“That wasn’t a bad appearance either,” the previous King of Garbera, Jeorg Owell, said, as he smiled at his pouting granddaughter. “Although, because you ended up one point away from victory, I suffered a heavy loss.”

“Did you put a wager on me?”

Jeorg laughed with mirth upon seeing the girl’s eyes open wide.

“With the secretary of financial affairs, Wallace. That bloke… he wanted my favourite horse for a long time already. But while he works at the royal palace, I wasn’t informed that you were participating in a skirt. If I’d known, I would’ve have scolded that son of mine relentlessly for letting you race like that in public.”

“So, what is it that grandfather wanted from Secretary Wallace?”

“Haha… well, what was it again?”

“Secretary Wallace is quite famous for his liquor collection, isn’t he?”

“There’s that too. Hm… that guy has an excellent tastes in women too.”

“Oh?”

“Back when we went to visit Wallace’s mansion, the chamberlain’s daughter who worked there – well, although she is his daughter, she’s already back with her parents at the age of thirty. But, she’s quite a beauty. I figured, if I get the lass to work at this detached place of mine, it was likely my life would become a little bit more worth living for.”

“Oh, grandfather.”

Garbera’s third princess, Vileena, puffed up her cheeks, and although she made sure to give her grandfather a scolding glare, the two of them immediately burst into laughter.

The side of the curtains, filled with the pale moonlight, fluttered slightly in the all but non-existent wind. Suddenly, Vileena crouched down near the bed and firmly took hold of her grandfather’s hand. She pressed her face against it, her small shoulders shaking.

“Vileena, this… what’s the matter? You’re acting like a child.”

“No. No, no…”

She closed her eyelids firmly, repeating her denial, frantically trying to resist the emotions that were welling up inside from whatever was eating at her mind.

She’s become so small

He thought, as Vileena laid her face into his thin, helpless hand.

Her grandfather was known for his bravery in his younger days. Subduing the stronger local clans one by one, he had pushed this country called Garbera up to the point that it wouldn’t lose to the other major powers. In the past, their territories had been invaded by the older nations of either Ende or Mephius time and time again, and their people had tasted hardships and exile under their rule. Now, everyone praised Jeorg Owell’s bravery, despite his short history, for producing a united country that was no longer inferior to these foreign nations.

Ever since she was young, Vileena had become attached to her grandfather. He still had a strong influence, even after withdrawing from the throne, and although his son, namely Vileena’s father, thought he was a shrewish and troublesome existence that he nonetheless couldn’t help but rely on, to Vileena, he was none other than a kind grandfather.

So many times had she come to visit him at this mansion, going to the river for to fish or swim together, and when the days got dark, they spent all evening simulating war campaigns at the board table.

Unlike her father, her grandfather did not get angry when Vileena played with a wooden sword and shield, allowed her to scuffle together with children for play, let her ride horses, and cultivated her interest in airships. Rather than scold her, he instructed her carefully about these things in detail.

But above all, during the winter, her grandfather would sit near the hearth, lift her up to his knee, and tell her stories about war, about negotiating with other countries, about the many powerful clans in Garbera, and how to prevent the sparks of dispute in the country from breaking out into a tinderbox of civil wars – Vileena became addicted to these stories.

And the evening she heard such a tale, when Vileena set to bed, she would always have a dream.

Dressed in shining armour, standing there on top of an airship, overlooking the valiant knights arrayed before her, and giving them her orders. Her young heart was coloured with excitement as she imagined herself standing on the battlefield one day, fighting at her grandfather’s side.

However, ever since the winter her once robust grandfather got injured, he had become bedridden.

Whenever Vileena came to visit, he had a smile on his face that was not different from before, but they were no longer able to ride horses or fly airships together. And then, five years ago, something happened that had given her grandfather the final blow.

“Raise your head.”

Urged by her grandfather’s words, a startled Vileena did as she was told. Trying to fight back the tears, her eyes were brightly sparkling in the moonlight’s glow. Jeorg’s face crumpled.

“I see. I, too, am getting old. Aren’t you the springy, tomboyish girl that will be getting married within the week? The same girl that needed so very little time to trample down my garden and destroy my prized flowerbed like some wicked, untamed dragon?”

“G-Grandfather...”

“But I was even more surprised back in the day. Although I think you may have already heard this one, since the story travelled all across the country. It was five years ago, when the rebels had usurped this same mansion. To protect me, while I was lying injured in bed, you did not even put one step back and magnificently tried to fight them off. Everybody here wondered whether you were a boy. However, I didn’t think so. You are a fine lady – the pride of Garbera. No champion, no dragon, not anything that can be bought with gold can compare to you. You are my pride.”

Jeorg gently held her Vileena’s blushing cheeks in both his hands.

“That granddaughter is about to marry. What kind of child will she give birth to, I wonder? I try not to have any regrets in this life of mine, and it is something that I proudly boast of. But if there is one regret, there is only one – that I won’t be able to see the sight of you holding a baby with my own eyes.”

“What are you saying? This evening doesn’t have to be a farewell,” Vileena said, forcing a bright tone and a smile.

However, she already knew the truth. Her grandfather had been bedridden for a long time now, and he no longer left his mansion. Within several days, she would leave the country on her own, so she had actually come here to say her final goodbye.

Her smile immediately fell apart, and Vileena brought down her face again. Lowering her eyebrows, anger clouded her beautiful face.

“Grandfather. I don’t want to go and become someone’s wife. I don’t want to leave your side grandfather, I hate it. But even so… Why does it have to be Mephius, of all places!?”

Although the tomboyish princess was loved from all over the country, and although it seemed like an ordinary marriage amongst the commoners, it looked like she would only end up in serious grief.

“That country of barbarians. It is obvious the rebellion that led grandfather to be injured by those traitors, was staged by Mephius. You should best warn father, for, at the bridal night, I’ll scratch open the sleeping head of my husband to be.”

“Oh, hey now…”

Even the undaunted Jeorg reflexively had a jagged coughing fit. While it also resulted in a personality brusque enough to visit her grandfather like this, she had, somewhere in her way of thinking, been influenced by the out-dated, old-fashioned portion of her grandfather’s upbringing all this time.

“You do not always draw blood during battles. And victory is not only gained over the opponent’s corpse. You have a gentle heart, so you’ve realised this a long time ago. Even the common people wage constant battles in their everyday lives. Although it may seem nothing compared to the majestic days of old, bringing us a time of peace also counts as a victory.”

“……”

“Mephius is an old country and may seem a bit strict – much, much more than your father – but if it’s you, it’ll be fine. Because, wherever you are, you are my Vileena.”

“I understand.”

Vileena raised her head a second time, the tears were already gone. The moon gently lighting the outlines of her smiling face invited her grandfather to smile as well.

“Indeed. This battle is not yet over. It’s not only soldiers that pick up swords and lances. I too, am one such soldier, right?” His granddaughter’s eyes were sparkling, and he felt the hint of something unpleasant.

“I understand. I will not shed blood, nor will I ask the people of Garbera to do the unreasonable. For this new battle, I – Vileena – will take up the challenge. I’ll probe Mephius’s true state of affairs, find out its weaknesses – I will use any means necessary, so please wait for me to bring us the glad tidings of victory!”

His fourteen-year-old granddaughter stood up in an instant, leaving Jeorg agape.

This young girl who was soon to be married off, had suddenly become like a single knight on the battlefield before he realized it. Rather than boiling with excitement, a surging feeling rose in his cheeks as his blood was set afire. In a sense, she truly seemed to be his granddaughter.

Back to Illustrations

Return to Main Page

Forward to Chapter 1