Chapter 15 – The Cure & Declaration Of War
Queen Elena..
The woman who was loved by the kingdom in the past. Reinhart used to adore her, proud to call her mother but now. But now, the thought of her being his mother, the thought of her blood was running in his vein, sickened Reinhart to the very core as he watched her lips were on the maid's slender neck, sinking her fangs into the skin. He watched how blood ran low and life disappeared from the maid's eyes as it stared at Reinhart's face with horror.
Reinhart could hear the sickening gulping sound as blood running down his mother's throat then before long, she tossed the body aside as if it was nothing but a garbage. Elena stared at him, her pupils had become those of demons and her golden hair had grown longer. A smile, the sickening smile that turned Reinhart's stomach and plagued his night with nightmares appeared on her devilishly beautiful face. Reinhart could see blood trickled down her lips that were dyed crimson.
"Reinhart, My sweet dear son.." Elena spoke in a soft melodic tone, making Reinhart gripping his sword even tighter.
"I have come to save you~"
"…Save Me…?" Reinhart spoke in a trembled voice due to the burning rage he had inside.
'Until when.. will the nightmares continue..?'
'I keep asking that question to myself over and over again..'
'I want it to end.. I want it to disappear.. but at the same time.. I know it's a wishful thinking..'
'Because…'
Reinhart took his sword out, a cruel grin appeared on his face as he pointed the sword at Elena. "…Such ridiculous words coming from a witch who is crazy about immortality.. However thank you for coming all the way here.."
'Those nightmares are the proof of my sins for not being able to stop my parents going down the wrong path!'
"This way I can kill you once and for all!" Reinhart dashed toward Elena and attacked her.
"What a pity," Elena easily dodged Reinhart's attacks "You're still being foolish even now."
"I am being sane! If you think by 'saving me' means I have to abandon my kingdom and people, then you are clearly out of your mind!" Reinhart's attacks being blocked one after another. He was clearly losing himself due to the rage and the one who noticed that was Melody.
"This is bad.." Melody muttered, her eyes seriously stared at Elena's amused expression and Reinhart's raging face.
Zen and his aides turned their faces toward her and Melody continued speaking, "He is going to get killed this way."
Zen was about to ask what did Melody mean by that but the moment he opened his mouth, Melody had dashed toward the fight in fast speed.
"Then you don't need to be in a new kingdom that I will create, sweet Reinhart~" Said Elena. She was about to stab Reinhart with her claws that grew longer during the fight but—
Clang!
Melody's sword intercepted it in the middle and Elena was pushed backward by gust of wind. Reinhart was taken aback, he stared at Melody who stood while facing Elena who glared at her. Her body was surrounded by soft looking whirlwind and Reinhart couldn't comprehend how it could be that way. It as if Melody had control over it.
"Hey, your majesty.." Melody spoke at Reinhart using her usual pirate way, "Stop the fight, you can't defeat that woman on your own."
"What makes you so sure?!" Reinhart growled at her furiously.
A sigh escaped Melody's lips as she turned her head to Reinhart, the wind that was surrounding her body had gone. "You're smart, aren't you? Use your damn brain. You can feel and see that you can't defeat her, right? That woman.."
Melody pointed at Elena with her one sword, "Has completed the transformation.. She.. is what you called a True Demon."
Reinhart stared at Elena who still fixed her eyes at Melody warily, it as if she had met her natural enemy. Frowning, Reinhart finally realized what Melody had just said. True.. his attacks were easily dodged, if Melody didn't come to interfere the fight then.. Reinhart would have been killed. But..
"How did you know?" asked Reinhart, "Have you learned alchemy before?"
Melody rolled her eyes in annoyance, "Do you think I want to learn such complicated subject like your damn alchemy?" she returned her gaze back at Elena, ignoring the scowl on Reinhart's face when Melody insulted alchemy subject.
"The nature.. The world.. has rejected that woman.." Melody said seriously, "She doesn't have a place in this world.."
Zen and the group frowned upon hearing that, Reinhart was also the same. "The nature? The world? Rejects her?"
"You.. who are you..?" asked Elena, hissing at Melody.
"Me? Just a traveling swordsman" answered Melody casually.
"Lies!" Elena growled, "that power is not the power of human! You can control the nature!"
Melody snorted, "Control the nature? What am I? a God?" she shook her head, clearly mocking Elena.
"I really AM just a traveling swordsman, as for controlling nature.. I just borrow it's power just a little bit. Sorry can't tell you any more than that" Melody grinned wickedly at Elena, "I don't mind telling you but that means you will meet your end here and I don't want that. Why? Because to kill you, I have to reveal something that should be kept a secret. After all, I am the first princess, the heir of Yuvenlia Kingdom."
Elena's eyes widened in mixed of both Horror and Surprised. "Yuvenlia.. THAT Yuvenlia kingdom?!"
Melody laughed softly, "Hoo, to have that kind of reaction when I mention Yuvenlia Kingdom means you know something you shouldn't know. But I guess it's not that of a surprise for me. You have been searching a way to immortality then the first thing you searched will be Yuvenlia Kingdom."
"Then… You must be The Crim—"
"I won't speak those words if I were you." Cut Melody, her tone was lethally soft. There was a warning in it, sending Elena to take a step backward.
Elena gained her composure soon after, it as if she had thought of something. A wicked smiled appeared on her face, "Even if you are the one that I thought you are.. You are just one person.. a mere human.. I shall create an army to destroy this kingdom with you in it! That's the only way to create the new kingdom that me and my husband so desire!"
With a wicked laugh, Elena escaped the palace with inhuman speed. Reinahrt gritted his teeth and gripped his sword harder than before. "That witch.." he cursed under his breath but..
SLAP!
Melody had turned around and slapped Reinhart's face hard. Gasps could be heard, followed by anger shouts that came from the guards.
"Our King! How dare you!"
Reinhart raised his hand to stop the guards for coming at Melody. His emerald eyes stared at those golden eyes. "I take it you have a reason to do that to me?"
"Don't lose yourself in rage! I don't know what kind of horrible thing she did but losing yourself in battle means losing your life!" Scolded Melody sternly,
"Keep that in mind the moment you face that woman again later"
To be scolded at this age, it supposed to bring shame to Reinhart but surprisingly it made his heart felt lighter instead. This woman who was older than him, dared to slap him out of worry.
"I will try my best to burn your words into my mind, Princess Melodia." said Reinhart with a grateful smile.
Melody waved her hand, dismissing Reinhart words with dislike clearly shown on her face. "Just call me Melody, Enough with the princess thingy. The reason I revealed my identity is to test that woman anyway. We should focus at the matter at hands first. She said she will create an army, then there will be demons in massive numbers."
"Yes, a declaration of war.." Reinhart said.
"Don't worry, we will win" Melody said with a confident smile.
"Right, just like Melody said, We will win" Zen who walked closer to the two said, "We need to prepare ourselves for the upcoming war."
Reinhart nodded, the upcoming war.. will be the time when he put an end to that woman's life..
.
.
.
Ruthergent Palace, Alchemy Laboratory..
Ryuu and Shirayuki were focusing on extracting some component from Erthias leaves. They filtered and experimenting it with the blood sample of the infected people.
"Looks like.. The cure responds differently to each one of them.."
"Yes, looks like it. Maybe because of the phase of the infected, Ryuu."
"True.."
Both of them were paying attention to the small testing plates that were lined up on the table. Those small plates contained blood samples of the infected people. Each plate came from different phases of infected people. The cure they made from Erthias leaf was still in testing sample and as they put a single drop to each plate, the one that gave reaction right away was the first plate.
"The first plate is from early phase, a single drop of the cure can easily erase the virus."
"Yet the other phase needs time to erase it."
Shirayuki wrote the effects on the medical journal that was on her hand while Ryuu gave pointers to the difference of the cure's effect from each plate. Ryuu added more cure to each plate, testing it whether giving more would make the patient became overdose. Despite the lack of sleep that was clearly shown on both of their faces, both Shirayuki and Ryuu kept pushing forward. Time was the essence this time, they couldn't afford to lose it by taking it leisurely. After all, the lives of many people were at stake here. Both Shirayuki and Ryuu were determined to save as many people as possible.
Two days had passed and finally the cure was created. Reinhart who heard the report went to the dungeon where many infected people were kept. Aside Shirayuki and Ryuu, Zen also came along with Mitsuhide and Kiki while Obi was scouting the area with palace guards. Though Kiki mentioned how he seemed to be tense as if anticipating something which made Mitsuhide stared at her with puzzled expression. Clearly he didn't understand what Kiki meant by saying those words. Kiki could only sigh knowing how dense her partner was.
The dungeon filled with infected people that couldn't be contained in the laboratory. It was separated by different phases. Those who had reached dangerous phase were kept inside the laboratory while those who still had some sanity intact or still in early phase were kept in the dungeon. The reason for that was simple. The prison inside laboratory was made by orichalcum material while the prison inside the dungeon was made by simple iron. It was for detaining criminals after all, it had different purposes than the one inside Laboratory.
"We start from the early phase." Ryu said
"Yes, I will take this place, Ryu."
Both Ryu and Shirayuki entered different prison room where people infected with early phase disease were placed. Zen helped Shirayuki giving the cure in shape of liquid that was put inside a small tube. The liquid had a glittering golden color that resembled Erthias leaf. Mitsuhide was guarding Zen while Reinhart was helping Ryu at the opposite side of the room while being guarded by Kiki.
After giving the cure to early phase infected people, they moved to the lower dungeon where the second phase and third phase infected were placed. The situation was quite worse than the early phase. The infected people were groaning in pain, screaming like mad, shouting and mumbling something incomprehensible. It as if they tried to maintain their own sanity while the disease corrupting their mind slowly. Shirayuki's heart ached seeing the horrible state of the innocent people.
Seeing the sorrow expression on Shirayuki's face, Zen held her hand. Shirayuki turned her gaze at Zen, a soft smile escaped her lips. Zen seemed to always know what was in her heart and the warmth that spread from his hand seemed telling Shirayuki that everything was going to be alright, telling her that she could save those miserable people and that strengthened Shirayuki's heart.
"Ahem! Now it's not the time you two."
Reinhart cleared his throat and cut the sweet atmosphere that was forming between Zen and Shirayuki. Shirayuki turned red and quickly took her hand away from Zen while Zen cast annoyed glare at Reinhart.
"What? I am being sensible here, unlike a certain prince who can't stop flirting."
"I am NOT flirting!"
"Riiiight, I believe you're not."
"The way you said it sounds like you don't!"
CLAP!
"Enough fooling around, don't we have MORE important things to do here?"
Reinhart who received annoyed gaze from Zen started defending himself and teased Zen. Zen of course retorted by saying that his intention was benign which caused Reinhart to tease him even more. As both men was retorting each other, a clapping sound came from Kiki as she reminded them not to fool around because they had more important matter to do. As expected of Kiki, as she gave icy glare to Reinhart and Zen, both of them folded easily. Shirayuki had bite a smile that was about to appear on her face. Thus, they started entering different prison room and worked hard to give the cure to infected people. It wasn't as easy as the one they dealt in the upper floor, the infected people here were trashing around when they were forced to drink the liquid. Mitsuhide, Kiki, Zen and Reinhart had to pin them down for Ryu and Shirayuki to pour the liquid down their throat.
"Phew! Finally, this is the last person."
"Their strength was quite strong. This disease was really scary huh?"
"Thank you for your hard work."
"Phew.."
Zen leaned on the prison wall while sweat tricking down his face, Mitsuhide was by his side, panting softly while staring at the last person they gave the cure to. Shirayuki slumped to ground, thanking everyone for their hardwork and Ryu heaved a tired sigh while sitting by her side. Kiki and Reinhart wiped the sweat off their faces with the sleeve of their clothes. Everyone really had worked hard.
"The only ones left are the ones in that final phase. Luckily there aren't that many." Reinhart said tiredly.
"I hope the cure works on them, Ryu."
"I hope so too.."
"No, the one that we need to think about is how to make them drink the cure, right?"
"Mitsuhide is right, the final phase infectese will be way harder to deal with than the ones we dealt here. The strength will be in a different scale."
"The only way we can deal with it is by hurting them so bad that they can't move for a short while then pour the liquid down their throat. We can't use needle because of scaly thick skin and the cure had to be drunk after all."
Reinhart mentioned that the last ones they needed to cure were the one in final phase. Hearing his words, Shirayuki mentioned her concern to Ryu and Ryu replied with the same concern. Both of them didn't know about the final phase because they couldn't draw blood from the infected people. All they could do was increasing the dose more than second phase and third phase. They hoped for the cure to work with all their hearts.
Mitsuhide mentioned another concern of how to make the final phase infected to drink the cure. Zen agreed and stated the reason behind Mitsuhide's concern, after all it took all of them to pin down one third phase infected, the final phase might be more dangerous. However Reinhart's suggestion made the rest frowned in disapproval, they thought it was rather cruel to do. Seeing the frown cast on him, Reinhart sighed softly.
"That's the only way I know, at least the safer way rather than killing them with my blade. If you all want it that way then I will do it. I have killed some final phase people after all." Reinhart said and looked away with a bitter smile faintly shown on his face.
"Ray.." Shirayuki stared at Reinhart in concern, Katherina's words flashed in her mind.
"By being cruel and cold to us.. Ray was punishing himself, he thought he can't be forgiven"
Yes, Reinhart was drowned in guilt..
The heavy sin he carried made him unapproachable, distant..
He thought he didn't deserve to be happy..
But Shirayuki wanted him to be happy. Even if she couldn't accept his love, she wanted him to be free from the guilt that was eating his soul slowly even now. It was a selfish wish but Shirayuki wanted it to happen. Curling her fingers into a fist, Shirayuki made her decision.
"Let's do that, Ray!"
"Huh?" Reinhart was taken aback.
"I don't want them to be killed. IF wounding them is the only way then let's do it." Shirayuki said, her eyes filled with determination.
"Shirayuki, are you sure?" Zen stared at her, worried that she was forcing herself.
"Yes, Zen! Ryu, are you okay with it?" Shirayuki replied to Zen question before turning her gaze to Ryu who was staring at her face from the moment she made her decision.
"..Un.. Let's do it.." Ryu smiled faintly, knowing that if Shirayuki was determined to do something, she would see it to the end.
"Guess we are going to work harder, huh?" Zen muttered with a smile.
"But you look happy, Zen." Kiki retorted coolly and Mitsuhide chuckled softly.
"Shut it." Zen scowled at the cool beauty while blushing softly.
"Well, now that we decided, better use more people. I will call some of the special army that was still in the palace. The ones that had been sent outside still searching the whereabouts of that witch after all." Reinhart said in dark tone.
They exited the prison room after checking the infectees' progress. Seemed like the cure was working splendidly as the people stopped shouting and screaming. As the group walked to the stairs, heavy drapping sound could be heard and soon, Yue came with obi and Nikki.
"Your majesty! Horrible news!"
"What is it now?" Reinhart asked Yue who came to him with horror expression on his face.
"Three villages near at the corner of our kingdom were attacked and-.." Nikki stopped talking as her face turned grim.
"And?" Reinhart pressed Nikki to continue.
"They have been turned into demons, Sire.."
Reinhart's face turned dark and full of hatred. He gripped the sword on his side tightly as his mother's words once again rang in his mind.
"I shall create an army to destroy this kingdom with you in it! That's the only way to create the new kingdom that me and my husband so desire!"
"That witch…" Reinhart growled in low dangerous tone. Rage was seething from him made the people turned silent.
'How many people you need to sacrifice to quench the greed you have for immortality?'
'How many life you need to destroy just so you can walk on your deluded path?'
'How many?!'
Screaming such words in his heart, Reinhart gritted his teeth. "Nikki, tell the guards to evacuate all people of the kingdom to the palace!"
"Your majesty, the palace won't be enough to contain that many people." Yue said,
"Then bring the rest to Castle town! If that witch wants a war, then she will get it. I won't let her destroy people's life any more than this!"
Nikki bowed slightly with a smile and replied, "Your wish is my command."
"Obi, help her out." Zen ordered and Nikki glanced at him before turning around and headed to the stairs.
"Yes, master." Obi followed behind her.
The war between demon and human finally arrived. Reinhart closed his eyes, hoping that he could save his kingdom and its people from the madness his parents had created. Deep in his heart, he truly hoped so.
A/N : Thank you for reading this story! Sorry for the late chapter, I had an accident. A hit an run T_T
Well I can finally continue this story after taking caring many things after the accident, I hope I can make you guys happy with this (n_n)
IF not, well I am sorry. TT_TT
See you in the next chapter! :D