Free Record of the Blood Battle by Hideyuki Kikuchi Page B

really? She’s that beloved, is she?” asked the hoarse voice.
    “Not just her. Her husband was also an outstanding person. He laid the foundation for development in this town, and led us through the hardest times. And as soon as the town had settled down, he gave up all his powers and positions of honor, and went back to living like an ordinary citizen. Even now, the whole town is pulling for the lady, and we won’t let her be ridiculed.”
    “Well, I’ll be—gyaaaah!”
    Stifling the hoarse voice’s mocking remark, D turned to leave. “Sorry to bother you.”
    Beauty’s spell over the sheriff was finally broken.
    “What did you come here for? Where are you going? If you try anything funny with that lady, I’ll—”
    The door closed.
    Growing pale, the sheriff raced over to the cage where they kept the carrier pigeons.
    —
    Alighting from the carriage and looking up intently at her manse, the baron gasped with surprise and turned a somersault.
    That was close! the Nobleman thought. If anyone from town had been with him and could have read his mind, they’d have cocked their head to one side and wondered what had been close.
    Awaiting the baron there in the sunlight was a fashionable chateau hemmed in by greenery. Uniformed butlers greeted them in the foyer, and the row of maidservants lined up in the grand hall bowed in unison while the baron walked proudly in the fore, head high and shoulders back as he strode down the corridor. In that regard, he was a Noble through and through.
    At the end of a long corridor, he was given a guest room that was also opulently furnished. Almost everything in the house seemed to be made of glass and crystal. He excitedly looked all around, examined the furnishings, stuck his head out the window and shouted a greeting, and was jumping up and down on his bed when the lady and Totem came in.
    Sipping from the glass the man brought him, the baron licked his lips and said, “It’s blood, isn’t it?”
    “I thought our Noble guest should have only our finest hospitality.”
    The baron was finally convinced the woman was crazy. She’d invited a Noble to her home, and offered him the thing he loved best. These were hardly the hallmarks of sanity. A smile naturally rose on his lips—the malicious grin of a Noble.
    Setting down the glass, he asked, “And in return for this hospitality, you desire something?”
    “Yes,” the lady said, nodding. “Please, save my husband.”
    “Ah!”
    The lady stood up. “Rather than tell you, I should first let you see him. My humble request can wait until after that.”
    —
    “We’re lost,” the left hand told the Hunter soon after they started down the road that led from town to Lady Millian’s chateau. They had crossed the brook and the bridge that were visible up ahead only a few minutes earlier. “If we keep going like this, it’ll just be more of the same. Could be something the Nobility set up, or a natural occurrence, or even some trick the humans are pulling—so, what do we do?”
    “Don’t you know?”
    “Hmph. Getting out’s easy enough, but I don’t think there’s any chance our short, bald Noble is having himself a grand old time. Serves him right. Why don’t we let things run their course for a while? It’d teach the little bastard a lesson for never listening.”
    “If it only taught him a lesson, it wouldn’t be a problem.”
    “Okay, okay! I’ll make us a path now.”
    Taking his left hand from the reins, D let it fall by his side, where it opened naturally. A tiny face appeared in the palm.
    “It’s one of the Nobility’s mazes, sure enough, but probably only for residential use. Wind alone should do, I suppose.”
    Before it could finish speaking, the air started to howl. The trees to either side of the road shook, their branches and leaves all bending in unison toward the Hunter’s left hand. Toward the tiny face in the palm of his hand—and its even tinier mouth. It was sucking in air with