Last chapter before new year's. I know I'm getting a bit ahead of myself with this but I will be putting up a pole soon to deal with an important matter in a few days. For those familiar with the series they know that Kaguya(one of the princesses) is the only princess in the series that gets pregnant and gives birth(even though it was a demon baby) so then. Should Kaguya bare Mark's first born child or wait until the war is over(like I intend to do for the rest of the girls)? Also I have a certification exam at the end of March so as I draw closer to it I may not be able to work on or post for a while.
Kuroinu Chapter 9: The Shield Princess Meeting
The courtyard in front of the keep was an amazing sight for first timers especially when one thought about how this place was supposed to be the last line of defense in case fortress Rad fell. It was large enough to hold several different types of celebrations at the same time and had a grand fountain in the center. The fountain had seven statues, one for each of the Shield Princesses, with the statue of Celestine standing in the center as the other statues stood around it. It also possessed a garden that was plentiful with plants and trees that were carefully taken care of.
As Mark, Olga, Chloe, Alicia, and Prim entered this place alongside the others Mark took notice of several other carriages parked on the driveway in front of the large steel doors that one needed to use to enter the keep. Each of the carriages had an interesting design but if he had to pick one that stood out the most was this red and white wooden carriage.
Yes, the other carriages had slight differences between them but this one appeared to have handles and latches on the side of it. Did that mean if the carriage got stock or something they could carry the main part of the carriage? It appeared to be a vehicle from a certain country in the east*. Once the group was close enough to the entrance Mark, Olga, and Chloe dismounted from their horses while Alicia and Prim disembarked from their carriage as the numerous guards had scattered to make way for them.
"I know the way to the meeting room where the meeting is most likely being held. Would it be alright for me to lead the way?" –Mark said turning to the two Shield Princesses.
"Yes, we would be most grateful if you lead the way Sir Mark." –Prim spoke before grabbing her dress' skirt and taking a small bow. Alicia wore an angry face seeing the innocent Prim bowing to a man even if it was the son of one of her colleagues.
"Prim you don't need to bow to him even if he is Claudia's son it's his job to protect us." –Alicia made sure to emphasize the "us" with an annoyed tone in her voice.
"He was only offering to guide us. There is no reason to threaten him simply because your colleague thanked him as one should do. Then again a young, spoiled girl such as yourself probably doesn't even know how to properly thank someone." –Olga said with a look of contempt as she stared at the Shield Princess.
"What was that you Dark Elf bitch?!" –Alicia immediately drew her sword from the gold and brown scabbard on her right while Olga raised her staff that began to glow. The two of them stood there waiting for an excuse to attack the other until Mark and Prim intervened.
"Please stop sister Alicia!" –Prim said with a sad look on her face that made one feel like they had just kicked a newly born puppy. Alicia immediately put her sword away and tried to convince Prim that she was fine now.
"Please lower your staff at once Olga. This is to make peace we can ill afford to begin a fight between an amazing magician like you and a swordswoman like Lady Alicia here." –Mark stepped in front on the staff and looked into Olga's eyes, hoping that some of his logic could convince the Dark Elf queen. A few tense moments past before Olga lowered her staff.
"Very well but only because I am your prisoner." –Olga then shifted her attention to the door and began to walk over to it as Chloe and the maids followed behind. As she walked away however Mark could have sworn that he had seen a small darkening of color on Olga's face. Was she blushing? Rather than waste time thinking about such a question Mark walked over to the door and was joined by Alicia and Prim. The group walked through the halls the walls of the keep as fast as possible yet none of them uttered a word. Finally, after numerous lefts and rights they arrived in a hallway that had several guards with their weapons at the ready standing beside a large ornate white door.
As they approached the guards looked at Mark and silently nodded to him before relaxing the grip on their various arms. Mark approached the door and knocked on it a couple of times before announcing his presence.
"Sir Mark Levantain has arrived with Olga Discordia. I also bring with me Ladies Alicia Arcturus and Prim Fiorire." –Mark stood there quietly waiting for a response from the other side of the door. He did not have to wait very long as a voice he was all too familiar with answered back.
"Enter Sir Levantain." –Claudia's voice echoed from the other side as the doors began to open and reveal the meeting room and its occupants. It was a large room that possessed a large circular table and large stretch of red carpeting. Mark signaled that it was okay to enter to the others before he walked in to hold the door. Alicia and Prim went in first and took the seats closest to each other. Olga looked back for a second and signaled Alexis and the maids to remain outside before entering with Chloe who rushed ahead and pulled out a chair for Olga and chose to remain standing at Olga's side.
Finally, Mark closed the doors and looked at the room's occupants. He saw that his mother was seated next to Celestine's right with a chair open on her right. As Mark moved towards that chair he took in the new faces that were also seated at the table.
The first appeared to be a young girl of about 12 or 13 years of age and wore a large green cloak and hat along with white socks that went up to her thighs and brown boots. She had bright orange, curly hair and bright brown eyes. She had dog like ears and a small tail that barely managed to peak out from her cloak. She was a special species of demi-human that had the appearance of children as such she was actually older than she appeared to be. She was considered to have one of the brightest minds among the Shield Princesses and was the "child"-prodigy Luu Luu.
The next had the far most exotic appearance of the Shield Princesses. She wore a see-through like shawl over a red robe like top and a white bikini like bottom that had numerous sigils and symbols on it that he had never seen before yet the bottom appeared to be made from rope and cloth. She appeared to be about Mark's age if not slightly older and had shoulder length black hair with two purple ribbons keeping the hair on the side tied up. Her most striking feature was the crown like object on her head; made of white and gold it stretched to each side of her shoulders and had a bell tied to each side with a gold sun in the center.
She seemed to be examining with her brown eyes with the same level of interest as he did her. This young girl was the Shrine Maiden Kaguya and then there was the final woman of the Shield Princesses.
Her hair was a dark red nearly akin to a rose and wore both a dark headband and choker around her neck. She wore a red unitard like jacket with white fur around her neck and was worn very openly, which nearly exposed her breasts entirely and showed how well trained she was as Mark could see numerous little scar marks, which were so old that they were faded to the point of being easy to miss. She sat cross-legged showing her purple leggings and black boots. Finally, around her waist was a large belt that held a short sword on each side of her body. The brown eyes she looked at Mark with showed much anger and confusion as if trying to understand something. This woman was Maia "The Queen of The Mercenaries" and formerly a Black Dog commander that worked under Vault. Mark quietly took his seat between his mother and Lady Kaguya.
The seating arrangements as of this moment were in counter clockwise fashion; Celestine, Claudia, Mark, Kaguya, Olga (and Chloe who stood at her side), Maia, Prim, Alicia, and Luu Luu. Celestine was the first to break the silence that had fallen over the room.
"Before we begin I would like to express my thanks to you all for coming here to Rad for the meeting. I understand that the journey for many of you was difficult, for some especially so, and for that I would like to also apologize." –Celestine bowed and took a glance over at Mark before raising her head and resuming.
"I have called this summit to discuss very troubling news brought to me by Sir Mark Levantain whom I had asked to bring Olga Discordia here which originally should have ended the war. Unfortunately, it appears that we will now face another." –Celestine turned her head to Mark and nodded to him that it was okay for him to speak before sitting down. Mark stood up from his seat and looked around the room. Here he was in a meeting of the Shield Princesses he couldn't afford to make a fool out of himself, and by extension his mother, in front of them. He shifted his head down and took a deep breath before raising it and speaking.
"Several days ago I was asked by Lady Celestine to bring Olga Discordia here after defeating her in her Black Fort. I was sent there alongside Vault and several of his best men among the Black Dogs. It was after spending sometime there after imprisoning Olga and her subordinates that Vault and his men approached me with an offer. They offered me to join them in a conquest of theirs.
They planned to use the resources in the Black Fort to first rape and enslave Olga and her subordinates…before using them to conquer the lands and form a country where women are forced to pleasure men. A literal cuntry…. pardon my language. I then took Olga and her subordinates with me as I escaped and reported the news to Lady Celestine immediately after Olga activated the Black Fort's self-destruct sequence." –Mark looked around the room. His mother's face was calm which suggested that Celestine had probably informed her of it prior to the meeting. The other's faces ranged from shock to worry, to anger. Maia was the first to respond although her response was something he knew she would do.
"There's no way Vault would do something like that! Vault's a good man and has fought for humanity since as far back as the battle Ravanaugh Ridge*. How do we know this isn't sort of trap by that Dark Elf woman there?" –Maia's voice was full of passion as she tried to defend Vault and shift the blame to Olga as part of a trap but Claudia spoke up before she could try to come up with something.
"I'm afraid that's unlikely. Celestine told me of my son's discovery immediately after she finished speaking with him and I had my best scouts and spies do some searching around. A large number of Black Dog soldiers from various places, including the fortresses, was spotted going into the outlands with the Black Fort as their destination. Furthermore, they attacked various villages and took the women and children with them while killing off all the men. To top it off they…violated the women in front of them." –Claudia's voice was full of rage after relaying the contents of the report she received a couple of days.
"Those monsters! To do that in front of children of all things is unbelievable! Lady Celestine please allow me the honor of going out to hunt these dogs down." –Alicia was livid upon hearing the news and was ready to bust out of the meeting room with her arm on her sword ready to start staining it with Black dog blood.
"While I appreciate your enthusiasm Lady Alicia it would be best if we remained as we have with the Black fort. These men were in each of the fortresses at one time or another and as such we don't know how much information on each of the fortresses they currently possess. We are already taking a large gamble with this meeting as it is and to send you out again would place fortress Feoh in even greater danger. But I am working on a way to help us move around better.
To help with the defense of the fortresses I have sent numerous magicians and priests to each of the fortresses to create a special platform. These platforms will allow us to transport troops from one fortress to another instantly. In this way, should a fortress be in danger of falling another fortress can send troops to aid. There will also be personal platforms for the Shield Princesses to so that we don't have to worry about being attacked while on transport to another fortress." –Celestine
"Excellent with this we will need to cooperate with each other more. The more united we are the harder it will be for those Black dogs to pick us off. How long will it take for these platforms to be made? I'd like to see the process myself." –Luu Luu was an intelligent young girl and knew that they would stand a better chance together. She was also quite the curious child as she always wanted to take something a part or see how something was made from the beginning.
"Now, now Luu Luu-chan there is no need to be impatient as I'm sure it will take some time." –Kaguya spoke up trying to calm the most child-ish of the princesses.
"Lady Kaguya is right Lady Luu Luu the platforms will take about a month's time to create and become useful." –Celestine
"A month?! That's way too long!" –Luu Luu leaned back in her chair groaning. Mark inadvertently let out a chuckle upon seeing the young princess' actions. Claudia was the first to respond.
"Young man this is a meeting and that's rude behavior apologize to Lady Luu Luu at once." –Claudia
"Yes sorry. I apologize Lady Luu Luu that was rude of me." –Mark made a quick bow to the little princess. Luu Luu stood up and walked over to the young knight. Once she was close enough she began to sniff him before pulling back.
"You smell nice." –Luu Luu
"Thank you Lady Luu Luu?" –Mark was confused by Luu Luu's comment. He hadn't had a chance to get changed or get cleaned yet so to hear her say he smelt nice instead of sweaty and dirty was odd.
"Move the chair back please?" –Luu Luu flashed mark the most adorable puppy eyes when she asked. Mark did so quietly and the instant he was far enough she jumped into his lap and sat there after removing her hat.
"I'll forgive you if you pet me." –Luu Luu leaned back into the knight, waiting for him to begin. Mark looked at his mother who only sighed and nodded her head. Mark then slowly put his hand on her head and began to pet the young girl's head. He felt her tail begin to wag and speed up as he slowly ran his hands through her soft hair eliciting some content yips from the demi-human.
"Good, good. You got some really good hands. Move'em a little towards the ears." –Luu Luu said after having forgotten she was in a meeting.
"Lady Luu Luu kindly remove yourself from my son. We are still in a meeting." –Claudia's voice broke the little girl from her daze. Luu Luu got her hat and went back to her chair although she made sure her ass swayed like her tail did. Mark quickly looked away only for his eyes to land on the only person in the room who had yet to talk, Olga.
Olga's eyes made contact with Mark's but as soon as she did she looked away in a humph, she didn't like seeing Mark being so close with another girl especially one she didn't approve of. Well then again she was only a child and there was no way a child could measure up to her. Finally, Celestine turned the discussion to her.
"Finally we must decide what we must do with Olga Discordia." –Celestine's voice was like a reset button and all eyes in the room were upon the Dark Elf queen.
"I say we imprison her for a while before we execute her with the horses." –Alicia said slamming a fist down on the table. Prim tried to calm Alicia down as best she could. While yes Olga was essentially a criminal she couldn't bring herself to say anything like the girls were suggesting.
"There are a number of rituals that require a sacrifice for the spirits to lend my home their strength." –Kaguya said holding her arm above her mouth.
"Sky burial." –Luu Luu kept her suggestion short. As the Princesses, minus Maia who was still trying to figure out what Vault was doing with this and Prim who was too kind to suggest a form of punishment, Mark's voice caught everyone's attention.
"Actually I believe that Olga can help us." –Mark's words caused all sound in the room to cease. Each of the princesses eyed the young knight as if he had grown two more heads. Claudia on the other hand sat there eyeing her son, he wasn't the kind of person to say something outrageous like suggesting having Olga Discordia give aide to the alliance without some reason. Before Alicia could speak out against his apparent insanity Celestine spoke first.
"Would you care to explain your reasoning Sir Mark?" –Celestine said as she placed her finger on her chin in a confused manor.
"Lady Celestine as well as Shield Princesses of the alliance I believe Olga could be of great help to us. She has knowledge of the outlands that we tragically lack and knows the terrors of the Black fort that we have yet to see. To just have her rot in prison or execute her without a chance at redemption would make us no better than the monster that will soon be upon us." –Mark's argument had a few valid points but he was only a knight and as such his words held little persuasive power here. Fortunately, another voice spoke up.
"He does have a valid point. Whatever intel Olga possesses would be lost if we executed her and having her sit in jail where we can't keep an eye on her would prove too dangerous if she decided to take advantage of our focus being on the Black dogs." –Claudia could tell there was more to Mark's defense of Olga than the logical points he said earlier but she would question him about it later. Right now, they really did need whatever information on what the Black dogs had in their possession now that they controlled the Black Fort.
"You can't be serious?! IT'S OLGA FUCKING DISCORDIA! This woman is the reason why so many innocent people are dead! Sorry if I scared you Prim." –Alicia's anger was like that of a volcano erupting and not even Prim would be able to calm her down like this.
"Enough!" –Celestine's angry voice stopped whatever further argument that Alicia was about to say. The other princesses fell silent as they had never seen or heard Celestine raise her voice like that, even Mark felt like speaking up would result in getting a stern talking to from her. Celestine took a deep breath before looking at Olga who had been silent throughout the entirety of the meeting so far.
"Is there anything you would like to say Olga?" –Celestine's voice had returned to the kind tone that the others were more accustomed to. Olga closed her eyes and leaned back in her chair as she took a few moments to think about what she was going to say. After what felt like hours Olga opened her eyes and spoke with a confident tone in her voice.
"I think…you're going to die if you stay there." –Olga's statement drew many confused looks from everyone before she shot up from her chair, staff in hand, and started to cast lightning magic. The others snapped out of their confusion and prepared themselves to intercept the attack. All the while Mark was trying to understand what was going on. Why was Olga behaving this way and what did she mean that Celestine would die?
Mark turned his head to Celestine and saw something. A mass of shadow started to form behind Celestine followed by the appearance of several red eyes. Mark moved from his seat and ran towards the mass with his hand drawing out his sword and in doing so got the other's attention.
"What is he doing?!" –Alicia
"Has he gone mad?" –Kaguya
"Mark stop this instant!" –Claudia tried to move to intercept her son but was too slow. Mark already had his sword drawn and raised appearing to be ready to drop down on Celestine.
"I'm sorry Lady Celestine!" –Mark said as he unleashed his attack. Celestine looked into Mark's eyes as the sword came down and noticed that it wasn't coming directly at her and that his eyes seemed to be focused on something next to her. At that moment a part of the mass of darkness took shape in the form of a claw and tried to stab Celestine's throat but Mark's sword cut through the appendage before it could get anywhere near it.
"GROOAAH!" –The mass of darkness roared before taking the shape of a large green monster with several red eyes on its head and body. It was nursing the wound it got from Mark's attack and was about to strike again when a bolt of lightning struck its body with enough energy that it's skeleton was briefly visible. The creature fell down in a smoldering heap dead. All but two people in the room looked at the creature's corpse confused how to how it got in here. Olga walked over to the fallen body first.
"A shadow ghoul. Useful for spying but overall not too bright as they tend to get… ambitious when given an order. I prefer gazers though much more manageable than this disobedient waste of undead flesh and bones." –Olga stomped on the shadow ghoul's head and looked over its body, noticing a scroll was stitched into the ghoul's body.
"Chloe." –Olga
"Yes, Lady Olga." –Chloe without so much as Olga having to say it pulled out a dagger and began to cut the scroll free the corpse before handing it to Olga's waiting hand. Olga placed the scroll on the table and opened it the contents were as follows.
We of the Black Dog mercenary group hereby declare war upon the countries that form the alliance of the Shield Princesses. No longer will men live under the rule of women in the country we will establish. It will be women who shall serve and pleasure the men that rule over them. We will return control of this world to its former glory when men ruled and to do that our Cuntry will built upon the cum covered bodies of the great Shield Princesses and the Black Queen Olga Discordia.
–Vault, King of Cuntry and leader of the Black Dog Mercenaries.
P.S. To Mark Levantain when I get my hands on you I'll make you watch as I personally fuck and mind break every single one of those soon-to-be bitches in heat before I end your life.
The room was quiet after reading the proclamation from Vault who had apparently survived the Black Fort's self-destruct function. Olga turned to Celestine whose face was filled with dread as she would have to tell her people that they would be going to war once more.
"You asked me before what I had to say. This human and his group of men cannot be allowed to do as they please. We must set aside all past differences and hostilities now if any of us wish to have a tomorrow worth living in." –Olga held her hand up and waited for Celestine to respond. Celestine stood up and took Olga's hand and shook it. On this day Olga Discordia was pardoned for all crimes she had committed for the sake of saving the world.
