DISCLAIMER: I own nothing. This is a fanfic written for entertainment only.
A/N: Agh. I seriously should do something with my habit of easily getting distracted playing games. OTL But Bakumatsu Renka Shinsengumi's heroine kick butt – I like heroine that posses such traits(I don't really prefer heroine that just sit around, moping and whining while waiting her prince to come save her) so it's hard to put down the game. X"D A-anyway, enough with my rambling. Onwards with the story. English is not my first language. Pardon the bad grammar and stuff. (n.n);
Italic words – Thoughts
DAHLIA
- 10 -
Vaughn pulled out his sword from the corpse lying on the pool of blood in front of him. He waved it twice to remove the blood but it's a useless effort for only small trickles of it flew away from the sword's shining tip. Such a waste of my time. He scanned the view of other knights fighting-there's no longer any masked man coming towards him-and people running in front of him for some seconds before turning his head to where he aimed to be before he was assaulted by the already-dead-man under him. He narrowed his eyebrows at the sight of the brunette princess standing behind the blonde-haired prince, at the item she was holding in her hands.
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Will's eyes widen in surprise when he heard the brunette princess's reply. "Chelsea," he called as he took a peek behind his shoulder, looking at her. "It is not safe for you to be here," he continued as he followed her figure moving and standing exactly next to him. I will never forgive myself if anything happened to you. "There –"
"Will," come the firm voice of the Sunny Kingdom's princess. "I have made up my mind. It is useless to badger me with your words. I will not going to let you face these man alone."
One of the masked men who were wearing a yellow mask decorated with feathers in front of the royalties whistled. "What a brave young lady," he said before burst out laughing. "You do realize that you have no chance of winning against the four of us, do you, Lady?"
I do. But there's no way I'm going to surrender without a fight. Chelsea flashed out a smile to the man who was mocking her. "And good Sir, you do realize that that might change – no one can predict the outcome of this battle before it started, yes? And no one can tell what actually will happen if I were to swing this sword in my hand," she added, gripping tightly on the handler of her sword. "My side being outnumbered does not mean that your side's victory is secured."
Said masked man laughed even louder. "You are a strong-willed woman. I like your type. It is a shame that we meet like this though," he said between laugh. "Hey. How about you drop that dangerous little thing in your hand and come home with me? It will be a waste killing a fine woman such as you."
"You big oaf," another masked man-this one's wearing an orange mask-spoke. "Have you forgotten our mission?"
"Of course not," the man wearing yellow mask answered, still laughing. "I just think that it is hard to come across a woman this spirited. You know I like feisty woman. There is something about them that I found…irresistible," he continued and licked his lips as he stared at the brunette princess-who was shooting him a disgusted look-standing in front of him.
"Hah!" a man wearing brown mask beside the orange masked man butted in the conversation. "You like every type of woman as long as you can get them on your bed. You–"
"Basta! (1)" Will boomed, tearing off his gold-colored mask he's wearing and threw the mask in hand away. "I will not tolerate filthy people such as you who view woman as mere toys that you play and dispose whenever you feel like it! And I absolutely will not tolerate your disrespect towards my fiancée!" he snapped at the three masked men.
The three masked man in question paused their bickering with each other and looked straight at the blonde-haired prince's face as their ears caught said prince's words. They stared at him for some seconds before turning their attention to the brunette princess standing beside him.
"Your fiancée, Your Highness?" the man wearing orange mask asked, his tone indicated that he was surprised to the prince's revelation of the lady in red masked in front of him. "Does that mean that this woman here is the princess of Sunny Kingdom, Princess Chelsea Eve Springfield?"
Chelsea decided that there's no use of hiding her face now that her identity was found out and tore of her mask. "That I am," she answered the masked man's question as she dropped her mask onto the ground and tightened her grip on her sword again. "I would very much loved to say 'It is a pleasure to meet you' but one will be a fool to say so to someone who is going to kill her the next moment she speak or move, yes?"
The three masked man had their eyes on the brunette princess before the one wearing yellow mask burst out laughing. "Oh, praise the Harvest Goddess! This is our lucky night to stumble upon the princess herself! To think that we will be able to complete our two missions in one go!"
"Indeed," the one wearing brown mask joined in the laugh. "The information we have gotten never include this piece of data, that the princess will be attending the ball. We truly are lucky, brothers," he continued as he patted the shoulder of the man wearing orange mask.
So the details about Chelsea being here missed 'him'. But what kind of mission related to Chelsea that they're talking about? The crease on Will's forehead deepened as he continued watching the three laughing masked man in front of him. He loathed their kind and feels nothing but disgust towards their attitude to other people. He kept his eyes on them for some seconds before noticing something odd about the group of masked man. He noticed that the fourth person in the group, one who was wearing a blue mask kept still on his position – his arms were crossed over his chest and he did not show any expression or laughing along with his three partners. He noticed that the blue-masked man was now standing paces away from the other three and that even his face was hidden by the blue mask he's wearing Will can tell that said man is clearly not interested in his partners' conversation about woman and all. That's weird. I sense no killing intention coming from him and he looked like he's irritated by the behaviour of his fellow partners. Come to think of it, I never heard him speak since the beginning.
"Well then," a voice from one of the masked man was heard as the sound of laughter toned down caught Will's attention and he switched his focus back to the group of three men. "We have spent quite some time dilly-dallying. I say that we start and get this mission of ours done before the reinforcement come, brothers," the owner of the voice, the man in yellow mask said as he fixed his grip on his sword.
The other two masked man nodded and imitated the yellow-masked man's action of tightening their grip on their sword. "Agree," they chorused and grinned at the royalties in front of them.
"Hmm? Are you going to spend your time standing there or participate in this fight?" the yellow-masked man asked as he noticed the blue-masked man's arms still crossed over his chest and that he no longer have his sword in his hand.
The blue-masked man shrugged and replies nothing in return.
"Bah," the brown-masked man interjected, shaking his head at the other man's silent reply. "There is no need for your participation anyway. Us three can handle this," he snickered at the silent blue-masked man.
"Well," the yellow-masked man glanced at the brunette princess. "I will have my dance with this lovely princess over here," he grinned at her.
Chelsea bit her lower lip. Calm down, Chelsea. You can do this. "The pleasure is all mine, Sir. I hope you will not disgrace yourself stepping on my foot while we are dancing," she grinned back, hoping that her bluff will cover up the nervousness she was feeling.
The yellow-masked man cracked up hearing her words. "Damn woman turning me on," he said between laughs. "Lady, you seriously should come along with me. Ditch that prince of yours. After all, he is going to die in a moment," he smirked at the blonde-haired prince.
"We shall see who will fall in this fight," Will scowled at the yellow-masked man and switched to a fighting stance.
"Of course," the orange-masked man replied before lunging forward and with a loud scream of 'Die!' swing his sword at the blonde-haired prince.
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"Take that!"
"Argh!" the masked man fall backwards and hit a table, falling onto the floor along with it.
Danny grinned as his opponent stand up, staggered for some seconds and fell to his knees, dropped the weapon in hand and with a hand on the bleeding wound on his stomach glared angrily through his thorn mask at the tanned knight standing in front of him. Danny kept his grin on his face as he approached the masked man.
"Well, well, well. Look who is kneeling like a sore loser he is," Danny smirked as he pointed the tip of his sword in front of the masked man's neck. "Did you not say that I am going to end up like my fellow dead knight over there before we started?" he nodded once towards dead body not far from him – said body once was a Knight of Sunshine just like Danny. "But I see that I am free from any scratch while you, like a pathetic being you are, clutching on your wound, gritting your teeth like a child losing his candy to a bully. You are just a dog whose bark is louder than its bite. How does it feel when your pride is trampled over, thanks to your own arrogance traitor?"
"Shut up!" the kneeling masked man shouted. "I have hated you ever since I saw you, Danny," he continued, trying to reach out his sword using his free hand. "I swear to Harvest Goddess that if I–"
The rest of his words never left his mouth as Danny slashed across his neck. Blood spurt out from the wound and the masked man fall down onto the floor with his eyes still wide open. "The feeling is mutual, Llyod (2). I hate you as well. You have signed your own death warrant the day you decided to turn your back against Prince William," the tanned man muttered, staring coldly at the dead body underneath him.
Danny kept his eyes on the body, staring silently and coldly at the dead man. The tanned knight is known to be a cheerful, happy-go-lucky man whose smile seemed to be 24/7 plastered on his face and although he's usually partnered up with Vaughn during missions and that the silver-haired knight is his best friend, he's not as cold as him – it's hard to see him with an expression like the one he's wearing now. He, however, will turn serious and possibly be even colder than Vaughn when it comes to matters related to traitors. Traitors reminded him of the happy times he had gone through before he lost them, courtesy to the doing of a traitor. His hands balled into fists on both side as he recalled the greenery of his village, the view of the orange-with-purple hue sunset one can see on the beach, the smell of the fresh fish caught by his father and the laughter shared between him and his parents and with everyone else in the village. He closed his eyes, brushing away the memories of his past life-one that he will never forget no matter how old said memories will be-and opened his eyes back after regaining his composure. He nodded once, reminding himself the purpose of his life after he was spared from being victim of said traitor – he needs to protect his current life and people who are precious to him; his wife, his friends, the Prince, the King and Queen and the kingdom. I will do everything I can to make sure that Happiness will not leave me. Not this time. With that in mind, Danny turned around to the shouting behind his back. He grinned at the view of the pink-haired violinist who was shouting angrily and swinging her sword at a black-masked man – it was obvious by the reaction of said masked man that he's afraid of the woman on rampage in front of him. The tanned knight made his way to the violinist and laughed as he heard, on his way to her, her loud yell regarding to her beloved violin that was smashed into pieces when the attack started as well as the price they-the masked men-have to pay for destroying her precious treasure.
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Chelsea ducked as low as she could to avoid the sword of the yellow-masked man. She slide to her left, to the yellow-masked man's right and swings her sword towards him. Said masked man deflected her attack easily and grinned mockingly at her. Chelsea grunted and took a step backwards, positioning herself in yet another fighting stance Mark showed her during their training sessions back in Sunny Kingdom. The yellow-masked man charged forward and Chelsea brace herself for the upcoming attack – she managed to prevent the sword hitting her as she shielded herself with her own and quickly spiralled around, wanting to hack the back of her opponent.
"Not bad, Lady, but you need to be faster than that!" her opponent barked as he turned around as well and took the shocked brunette princess down onto the marble floor by hitting her incoming attack with all his might.
Chelsea groaned in pain as she hit the floor with a loud thud – the sword in hand fall somewhere onto the ground with her. She clicked her tongue and telling herself that the fight is not over yet, sat up and searched frantically for her sword.
"Looking for this?" she paused from her search when she heard her opponent's voice and lifted her face to the owner of said voice. "First rule of the game, Your Highness; never let go of your weapon," smirked down at her as he waved playfully her sword in his hand.
The brunette princess gulped and she clutched tightly on her skirt as she watched her opponent taunting her with her sword. She took a peek at Will who was shouting out to her but unable to go to her for he was surrounded by the brown and orange-masked men. She turned back to her opponent when she feels some of her hair being lifted.
"Pretty hair," the yellow-masked man said as he used his sword-the brunette princess's was thrown away behind his back-lifting up some strands of Chelsea's hair. "Such a pity to waste it on a corpse, do you not think so? Although I am a male, I can name various kinds of hairstyles that will no doubt match you, Your Highness. Will you not consider my offer earlier? I still think that it is a waste killing a fine woman such as yourself."
Chelsea shot him a fierce look. She finally understands why Will snapped earlier; these masked men are nothing but greedy pigs whose lusts will never be satiated by one woman, who think women are only toys to play with and free to dispose however they want after getting tired playing. "I rather die than being touched by your dirty fingers, asshole," she spat angrily, burning holes in his eyes with her glare.
The yellow-masked man shook his head at her reply. "Tch, tch, tch. This is why I hated royalties such as you and Prince William – you people think that the world revolved around you, that you own it and that you are free to say whatever you wanted without considering others' feelings."
"Do not compare your disgusting self to Will – he is nothing like you and he will never be like you. It is you and your friends who are twisted; I see nothing wrong in the way the Sunshine royalties govern over Sunshine Kingdom. You and your friends who are consumed by Greed will never see the wonderful things bestowed upon you and the sin you carry will make you forever blind to such facts. Your wrath towards the royalties unleashed through the attack on these innocent people in this ball tonight is a pathetic excuse of rebelling – the attack is merely for your own entertainment, to slay those people who worship the royalties and who were able to see the joy the royalties brought down to them, to destroy their happiness that you carved for but failed to get."
"Silence!" the yellow-masked man raved. "Keep your mouth shut and your comments to yourself!" he continued as he glowered down at Chelsea. "Say more of them and I will cut open your throat!"
The brunette princess smirked at her opponent who started breathing heavily from his shout earlier. "Did I hit the right spot, Sir? Was it fun to feed Greed who was growing rapidly inside of you the blood, dreams and lives of innocent people that you killed? Was it fun to pick on people who are weaker than you, to see them cowered in fear as they see you cackle like a mad man you are thrusting your sword into someone's chest in front of them? Do you not think that whoever you are serving might order someone to do the same to you as soon as you are rendered useless by said superior of yours?"
"I told you to keep quiet, you bitch!" the yellow-masked man exclaimed as he swing his sword, cutting some strands of Chelsea's hair. "I see that you wanted to badly to die, Your Highness," he said as he pointed the tip of his sword right between the eyes of the brunette princess. "Be grateful that I am willing to grant you your wish. I am supposed to take you back to 'him' alive and well but," he flashed out an evil smirk as he paused for a dramatic effect. "I can always find an excuse for your death. Say, how about you died trying to protect your beloved Prince over there?" he added and gestured a nod at the blonde-haired prince who fall on his knees onto the ground. "It looks like he needs more training – distraction costs you your life in this kind of game, Your Highness. Keep that in your mind."
Chelsea gasped as she saw Will clutched hard on the wound on his chest. Blood started running out through the gaps of his fingers and his white outfit started to turned red, smeared by the red liquid gushing out from his wound. The pain shown on his face clearly tell the brunette princess that the wound inflicted on him is a severe one – he will die if nothing is done to stop the blood and treat said wound. Oh, Harvest Goddess. Please! Please don't let him die! Please! Please! Please!
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Will bit his lip as he feels the pounding pain on his chest. He started panting hard and he cursed silently his clumsiness that leads to his state now. How did I miss the sword of the orange-masked man? But Chelsea… He lifted his face from the marble floor and looked straight at the brunette princess. She stared back at him with a horrified and worried look and although she was sitting quite a few paces from him, he can see the tears pooling inside her aquamarine eyes. Thank the Harvest Goddess you are okay. He tried smiling at her to assure her that he is fine but as soon as he did so, the pain on his chest stung even more and he started coughing blood.
"Oh dear," the orange-masked man faked a gasp as he saw the blonde-haired prince struggled to breathe properly. "My apology, Your Highness. Did I hit you on a vital part?" he proceeded to laugh at Will. "And here I thought you are a skilled swordsman, Prince William. It seemed that rumours about your swordplay being one of the best in Sunshine are nothing but lies."
"No, no," the brown-masked man waved a finger at the orange-masked man. "The stories about His Highness's skills are indeed true, brother. I think you managed to hit him because something distracted him – that feisty Princess over there, perhaps?" he used the same finger pointing at Chelsea who're now covering her mouth with a hand as she stared in disbelief the current condition of the blonde-haired prince. "You love her so much that her life weighs more than your own, Your Highness?"
The orange-masked man burst out laughing at his partner's mockery towards the blonde-haired prince. "Ah, the joy of being young," he said, wiping away the tears from his laughs. "It is great to be in love, yes?"
"Pfft. Do not make me laugh," the brown-masked man huffed, clearly not interested in the topic his partner brought up. "Love is stupid and only fools will believe in it. I am not a fool, therefore there is no need for me to suck in anything related to love and believe in them."
The brown-masked man's partner grinned at his answer. "I sensed jealousy," he said to him.
"Ridiculous," the brown-masked man waved a hand at the yellow-masked man who grinned at his gesture. "Let us just get this over with. I am starting to get sleepy."
The orange-masked man nodded. "Right," he agreed and looked down at the blonde-haired prince. "Have no fear, Your Highness," he told the coughing prince. "You will be relieved from your pain soon. But first, allow us to present you one last gift – consider it as thanks for entertaining us tonight."
Will looked up at the orange-masked man with a confused expression plastered on his already-twisted-with-pain face. "What are you–"
The orange-masked man smirked at the expression he received from Sunshine Kingdom's prince. "You will be given the privilege to watch your dear Princess die."
(1) Enough!
(2) Lanna's self-proclaimed superfan in IoH. Lol. XD
A/N: Another long yet fun to write chapter. X"D By the way, if you see names not belong to the main characters in the games, they belong to the games' subsidiary characters unless stated as original characters. XD