Free The Rose Princess by Hideyuki Kikuchi Page A

taste.
     It may be a bit too mature for our young miss, though.”
    “What, this crap?!” Elena sneered, and she was about to drain the cup when D put his
     hand across the top of it.
    “Let’s hear what you have to say. Before anyone drinks anything.”
    “Are you trying to tell me the battle will be on as soon as we’re done drinking? Well,
     don’t worry on that account. I’ll gladly indulge you. Are you incapable of taking
     a simple invitation to tea at face value?”
    “Yes.”
    “How unfortunate that you’ve had such a poor upbringing,” the princess remarked with
     a wink at Elena, but the biker turned away in disgust. Nonchalantly taking a sip from
     her cup, the enchanting princess let out a sad sigh and said, “There’s something I’d
     like you to do for me.” Her words were directed at D. “It’s about my four guardians—although
     you’ve only seen three of them so far. I don’t suppose you’d be so kind as to dispose
     of them?”
    Silence fell.
    Still in the process of bringing the cup to her lips, Elena had her eyes open as wide
     as they would go. She looked extremely uncomfortable. Born and raised in the village,
     she was all too familiar with the four knights and their relationship with the princess.
     If the princess was the moon, then the four knights were the darkness that allowed
     her radiance to reach the earth. At her bidding, the knights would gallop out like
     thunder on their chargers, racing off to trample all those who would oppose her.
    Ironically enough, it also meant that at times the knights defended the village of
     Sacri. Elena herself knew of more than a dozen times when various monsters or bands
     of well-armed brigands had attacked, trying to get at their rich supply of grain.
     And it was said there’d been countless other attempts in the past. Burn, pillage,
     and kill—this was the standard under which their villainous attackers gathered, but
     they’d always been repelled by a hair’s breadth and then made the victims of their
     very own motto by the four knights acting on the princess’s orders.
    And it was the four knights who boldly thundered out across the plains to challenge
     the gigantic “earth devourer” that could swallow a whole hill in the course of a night,
     eventually slaying the beast after a fierce and bloody conflict.
    And when the land tsunami that unavoidably crushed everything in its path and churned
     the debris high into the air was bearing down on the village, it was the knights who
     arrived like a four-colored wind and used the Nobility’s civil engineering equipment
     and advanced technology to temporarily hide the entire community deep in the earth
     to keep it safe.
    The skillful Hunters who’d come to dispose of the lovely princess residing in this
     lonely outpost had never managed to breach the doors to her fortress before being
     cut down amid the whistling blows of her guardians’ swords and lances.
    The strange thing was, Elena had never actually seen the princess in the flesh before—nor
     had the mayor or any of the other village elders. When they’d been born, the lady
     of the manor was already the stuff of legend. The only reason she remained painfully
     carved into the hearts of the people was because when the knights occasionally called
     on the village, they often mentioned the princess and delivered her edicts.
    Just how old was this woman they called their princess? What were these knights who
     could walk in the light of the sun? These questions were always on the tips of the
     people’s tongues, but ultimately sank back into the dark recesses of their brains
     unanswered. Living as she did in a manor far older than the village, there was no
     point in asking her age. Most likely, several generations of knights had fought from
     beneath that immutable armor. After all, it only stood to reason the Noblewoman would
     need someone of human blood to guard her coffin by day. Needless to say, the Nobility