The Unicorn Legion: The Golden Capital – Chapter 11

Author: Demon Lord D (D魔王)

Translator: Lylis

Editor: None – Yep, still waiting.

Chapter 11: The Silent Sailor

“First, I want you to take a look at this.”

The knight flipped through the pages for a moment, then passed over Duke Elmond’s journal, but the siren didn’t reach other to take it.

“I can’t read*… What does that have to do with anything?”

The elf received the journal, looked at where the knight had pointed to. It was about a year ago, on the first page of the journal.

“December 23rd, received ‘real mermaid’, supplier: Shark, 30.”

Written in a different colour below was a line, the elf also read that out.

“The sailor’s case caused a large commotion, resulting in unexpected trouble, must be more careful next time.”

“I don’t understand.” The young siren said dully.

“Assuming ‘mermaid’ refers to you. I believe ‘he’ was not ‘Shark’, so that person did not betray you.”

“What difference does that make? If it was not him, how did they find me? How would they know that I would not be able to resist, if they waited a few days?” The youth’s voice rose, his face showing a sharp pain, “Just because he didn’t have the courage to do it himself!”

“It was when I was still a paladin, the winter more than a year ago.” The knight just started to narrate, as if he had not heard the question.

“A corpse was found in an abandoned well in the lower city. This sort of thing was normally dealt with by the local magistrate and his soldiers. But the abandoned well was near the church’s area, the cause of death was also a little unusual, like some sort of strange religious ceremony. The magistrate thought it might be some evil cult’s protest. Therefore, the Paladin Order in the lower city, being us, took over the following investigation.”

“Of course, It wasn’t any sort of religious ritual. Just that the magistrate was from a noble family, having never seen something like that.”

“It was torture, very cruel torture. The victim had whip lashes and knife wounds all over his body, all non life threatening, but would cause the most pain. His nails ripped out, the bones in the fingers and feet were broken one by one, eyes removed, even the ears were cut out.”

“The result of the investigation was, that the victim suffocated in his own blood, he had bit his tongue. that was a very painful way to die, but at that time, he had already lost all ability to move, so that was the only thing he could do.”

“Everyone who participated in the investigation was shocked, and curious at the same time. — What did the torturers wanted to find out from him? He suffered the torture for a long time, when he finally felt he could not withstand anymore, he chose suicide. What was the secret, that was worth it for him to do that?”

“No identification could be found on his body, we could only determine that he had been out at sea for a long period. So, among the paladins, we called him ‘the silent sailor’.

“The case became a tale, spreading far and wide in the marketplace. From then on, having been inspired by that, many fictions and legends appeared. Finally, this even reached the Queen who was still a princess then. Perhaps it was out of recognition for such acts, she ordered the search for the culprit to continue, and especially allocated funds to bury the dead.”

“But, with almost no clues the investigation reached a dead end, with no one recognizing the person, the investigation ended with nothing. He was cremated, his ashes buried in the graveyard behind the church.”

“Only one piece that could be considered as evidence remained. The paladins found, in the stomach of the victim a small accessory, a shell on a chain.”

The siren’s eyes suddenly widened in shock.

“It was very strange, a shell would normally be melted in the stomach acid. But that seemed to be special, when it was taken out, it was still perfectly whole. Upon pressing on the switch it would open. Inside on the wall of the shell, a word was carved.”

“You never told us your name,” the knight said, “but now I know, that was one of the ‘silent sailor”s secrets.”

“– Shelly. Maybe it is as you say, that every human has a price. As long as the price was high enough, anything can be a chip.”

“But, ‘price’, isn’t gold as you had thought. Labor, body, soul, emotions, promise — humans can also use these in exchange for something other than gold.”

“To ‘that person’, your safety was worth him giving up his life in exchange. Even if he couldn’t protect you in the end, but at least, he had already done all that he could.”

The siren stared at the knight not saying a single thing, then large translucent beads of water started to fall from his eyes. Upon being exposed to the air, it glowed a ghostly blue, and quickly evaporated, creating a thin white mist in the room.

“Don’t be like that.” The knight came near a little embarrassed, “I didn’t say that for… oh a hundred gold, it’s not good to waste it.”

Ignoring the knight’s stiff joke, the boy slammed forward, burying his face in his chest, and started to cry loudly with abandonment.

The knight could only place his hand on his head, whispering meaningless comforts.

In the space next to him, a translucent image started to appear.

A young man dressed as a sailor, with a gentle smile he reached his hand out, his hand overlapping with the knight’s.

“Can I go see his grave?”

After a long while, the boy lifted his head, asking with a hoarse voice.

The graveyard behind the lower city’s church, it was not large, liked with graves. The people buried here were not nobles, but in common terms, they were ‘well off’, or, civilians who were somewhat wealthy.

‘The silent sailor”s grave was situated further in, surrounded by dried flower wreaths.

Between the wooden crosses, this humble stone monument was somewhat unexpected.

When they reached it, a pair of lovers were carefully placing a flower wreath on top.

The siren’s eyes brightened, running towards the two people.

“Excuse me, did you know him?”

It seemed that being called out by strangers, caused the two to become flustered, then the woman spoke first.

“No, that’s not it. We just heard that if you prayed here, then you would receive a blessing.”

“It seemed that there are more and more versions of the legend.” Cain shook his head.

“Blessing?”

“We’re about to get married,” this time it was the man dressed as a sailor that replied, “Originally we wanted to ask the bishop to officiate. But… I could not afford the fees. — I, I have no parents, her father thought that I was not suitable for her, so he would not give us his blessing. So I thought, at least…”

“If he knew, he definitely would.” The siren closed his eyes, saying softly, “Wish you happiness.”

“Thank… Thank you.” The man lowered his head to the boy gratefully.

“If you don’t mind, there are other clergy members who could do this.” The elf said suddenly, “Right, mister Holy Knight?”

“Eh?” Cain shook his head on shock, the elf only winked at him smiling.

“Ellen, you want me to officiate their wedding?” The knight was gently pushed forward by the elf, shaking his head desperately while whispering his protest, “First lets not even talk about how I’m no longer a paladin, even if I was I don’t have the –”

But he didn’t finish speaking, because the lovers had already rushed forward to surround him in excitement.

“Thank you! Sir Knight!”

“The legends were true, you must be messengers from God!”

Seeing the enthusiastic gleam in their eyes, the knight couldn’t say anything to refuse anymore.

He froze for a moment, then finally decided to accept his fate.

“Shelly, background.” He coughed officiously, waving a hand at the young siren.

In a moment the small graveyard path became a carpeted marble floor.

The sky above disappeared, looking up it was possible to see a giant white dome.

In the gravestone’s position was now a giant floor to ceiling window, multi-coloured glass joined together to form a cross shining in the sunlight.

The lover’s simple clothing disappeared, replaced by a black tuxedo and pure white wedding gown. The two looked at each other in shock, as if their gazes could no longer leave each other.

The knight thought for a moment, taking something from his pocket to place in the woman’s hands, under the siren’s illusion, it looked like a bouquet of flowers.

“What else? Ah right… ring. — Ellen you still have hat bronze ring, the type for hand protection**.”

The knight asked for their names.

“Paul Garcia, do you accept, Molly Clark, as your wife? Do you swear to hold true to her for poorer or richer, in sickness or health, to love and honor her for all the days of your life?”

“I do.” The man who had been a bit shy up to this point, now looked at the woman with clear eyes. Raising her hands.

“Molly Clark, do you accept this man, Paul Garcia, as your husband? Do you swear to hold true to him for poorer or richer, in sickness or health, to love and honor him for all the days of your life?”

“I do.” The woman smiled gently, eyes welling with tears, watching as the man placed the ring on her finger.

“Then, in the name of God. I pronounce you husband and wife. Groom, you may now kiss the bride.”

---

Translator’s Notes

*If he can’t read, how was he able to read that person’s name on the contract, or that it was a contract that the duke showed him? Then again, I guess it’s just something the duke made up in order to make him lose faith.

**I think he meant a type of thick ring for archers, to protect the fingers that draw the bowstring.

Damn it! Finally I got this one done! I cried three times! Once when reading it through in the original, once when translating and once when typing it out. My god the feels TT^TT

Edit: Some minor spelling mistakes (missing letters) fixed, Sorry, was typing this out directly onto the blog page, I normally do this on word first. But as my home computer doesn’t have word installed…. Sorry about the mistakes. THIS IS WHY I NEED AN EDITOR!! SOMEONE HELP ME! (Hint, hint: you get to read this first :3).

<< Chapter Ten                                                                              Chapter Twelve >>

The Unicorn Legion: The Golden Capital – Chapter 10

Author: Demon Lord D (D魔王)

Translator: Lylis

Editor: None – Yep, still waiting.

Chapter 10: A Human’s Price

“She created man eating sharks, ships attacking us, huge storms, and tsunami. In my eyes, that person also appeared in different forms. A pirate’s hook, a broken mast, giant octopus tentacles… but in the end we stayed in the same position, something holding onto my hand tightly. Whenever I became scared, I would turn to look at him. That was the weakness in illusions, as long as you believed firmly that nothing was real, then the caster would not be able to cause real damage.”

“Finally, the chief spent too much magic, and had to stop and rest. That was the moment, I used my powers. What I showed them, was the desert. Different from the beach, it was endless desolation. No life, just a dried oasis, animal bones. Sand carried in the wind, along with the scorching sun, ruthlessly removing all the moisture.”

“That was something drawn by the sailor. Something the sirens had never seen before, but perhaps it was the fear of dehydration, that was part of our ingrained instincts. They panicked, faces and skin started to dry and chap, followed by falling scales.”

“The chief – my mother admitted defeat, they unwillingly made a male siren into the new chief. But truthfully at that time if they all came at us together, they would have easily killed us. But perhaps only humans would do something like that without concern.”

“I exiled my tribe. Had them remove the illusion, leaving the island, never to return. Having regained their consciousness the sailors quickly repaired their ship, using the food and water left by the sirens to replenish their supplies. In their eyes I was a local child, when I suggested that I wanted to board the ship to become an apprentice, the captain agreed without suspicion.”

“Even if it was just navigating on the sea, I felt like I had entered a different world. Every day I would climb up the mast, looking at far away islands, imagining the human cities within. The sailors taught me all sorts of sailing techniques, from tying knots to setting cannons. That person also taught me how to draw maps, and to use human tools and not the stars to navigate. When we arrived at the Golden Capital, I could almost be a real sailor’s apprentice.”

“When we entered the city, I knew I had overestimated myself. There were so many beautifully dazzling scenes, in comparison to reality, my illusions were colourless and dull. I complained to that person, why at that time, did he not point out my faults. But he patted my head once again, and replied, ‘Because I believed that one day you would see all this for yourself.’ ”

“We lived near the harbor, giving up sailing, just joining a small boat to the nearby seas to fish. Being familiar with the sea, the ship we boarded always had much better harvest. He said that if we worked for three or five years, we would be able to buy our own ship. Then we could explore the whole country sailing with the tide, even leave the continent to search for the legendary dwelling places of magical creatures.”

“But in truth, just living in the human society, I was satisfied. When not working, we ‘explored’ around the city, finding small excitement in every corner. I like human food, like the rough but free lifestyle of commoners, like the pretentiousness of noble etiquette. I really wished that days like that would last forever, until one day, he told me ‘don’t go out to work anymore.’ ”

“I didn’t understand what he was thinking, the second day he didn’t wake me up, locking the door when he left. On the third day, he moved out of the little house by the harbor, taking me to an inn within the city. – That night he didn’t sleep, just stared at the door, when it became light out, he told me he was going back to get something, and told me not to leave the room.”

“Though I didn’t understand. I did as he told me. I stayed in that room for two, or three days. I was unable to sleep, because of nightmares whenever I closed my eyes. In the dream someone continuously tortured me, I couldn’t see their faces, I just knew that they were sailors. He never came back, the food he left behind were all gone early on.”

“About four days later, the nightmare became reality. A group of men rushed in. I remembered their leader, he looked like someone who worked at one of the other ships. Because my strength was at its limit, I couldn’t even cast my illusions, so I was taken by them.”

“Then I met the duke. He told me, that he bought me from that person. The exchange point was that room. From that point onward, I was his slave. I didn’t believe it at first, but the duke showed me the ‘contract’. His name and fingerprint were on there.”

“ ‘To humans, anything can be sold. The difference is whether the offer was high enough.’ That was what the duke said, ‘It wasn’t that he didn’t treasure you, it was just that in comparison, his own future happiness was more important.’ ”

“I finally gave up, and wept for a long time. The duke promised that if I worked for him, and made 5000 gold, I could leave. The work load was not much, just to provide hallucinogens to nobles once every month. Whatever situation they wanted, I could satisfy their fantasies 100 percent. As long as it was body fluids from a siren it was possible, most of the time, I used my saliva.” The youth laughed lightly, “Spit on their faces, and watch them roll around on the rug intoxicated.”

“At that time I thought, perhaps it was true. In the duke’s ‘brothel’, a few coins can buy a night of wild abandon, 100 gold coins can allow you to do anyone you imagine, if you had 100 thousand, even the Queen would kneel on the ground to kiss your shoes. Humans can sell anything, labor, body, soul, emotions, promises, the only difference is if the offer was high enough.”

The knight shook his head, wanting to deny something. The youth only lifted his head, smiling slightly.

“Cain, you are a good person, that means that to buy you, requires lots, and lots of gold. – But in the end, you still have a price. When the offer is high enough, you would kill me, kill Ellen, even kill your family. So, I’m sorry, I still can’t trust you.”

“So you would rather believe in a vampire that was full of lies, than to trust that that person didn’t betray, right?” the knight finally said, his voice seeming to be suppressing his anger, “Really, such incurable prejudice. – If so, then I also have a story to tell you.”

---

Translator’s Notes

A short chapter, in terms of how much you have to scroll down, but damn that was a lot of words! Prepare yourselves people! (I won’t say more, but onward, to the next chapter!! Full speed ahead!) 

<< Chapter Nine                                                                           Chapter Eleven >>

The Unicorn Legion: The Golden Capital – Chapter 9

Author: Demon Lord D (D魔王)

Translator: Lylis

Editor: None – (Forever searching?!)

Chapter 9: The First Story

When the elf found the siren, he was cowering at the corner of the city walls, seemingly trying to hide himself deeper in. This was one of the places that has the least amount of traffic in the city, it was following this line of thought, that the elf was able to find him.

The young siren seemed to have mostly regained his composer, when he saw the elf, he even gave a forced smile.

At this time it seemed it would be useless to say anything, he could only wait until he decided to speak.

So, the elf sat silently next to him.

“Ellen, I’ve become strange.” After seemingly a century or two had passed by, the siren youth started to speak quietly, “I could hear Duke Elmond speaking. He… he’s not here, right?”

“It’s daylight, vampires won’t appear.” The elf replied with certainty, “Perhaps the effect of the spell he left behind still remains, don’t think too much on it.”

Even though it was a speculation without much evidence, after the young man heard it, he breathed a large sigh of relief, even revealing a small smile.

“I’m fine now, let’s go home.”

He stood up, then stopped, looking at the elf with slight hesitation, “Did I cause a lot of trouble for Cain? … Could you help me apologize?”

“Something like apologies, is only worth it if it’s done by yourself.” The elf smiled and patted him on the head, “If possible, I hope you could tell me the whole story. – Of course, we will wait till you are ready.”

“I can tell it now,” the young man nodded lightly, “If I tell it, would you be able to find the duke?”

“Possibly.”

“But there was another person, would you be able to find him?” The boy reached out his hand, pulling on the elf’s sleeve.

The elf looked at him in surprise.

“I can only ask you,” the youth said, his voice was shaking, but his gaze was steady, “no need for a trial, after you find that person, help me kill him.”

“Don’t believe in humans” the youth continued his tone was as if he had been hypnotized, “don’t fall in love with a human, Ellen, you can’t even if it’s Cain.”

In that moment, the elf felt like he could hear the low murmur of Duke Elmond’s voice.

Upon returning to the Mercenary’s Home, Cain was already waiting inside.

He noticed the slight shift in mood, but didn’t ask anything.

The siren didn’t apologize to him, just sat there, and started telling his story as if he was an observer.

“Most of the time a siren’s diet consists of fishes and crustaceans, except during mating season, the females* will leave there territories, in search for ships. Since it was said that, the child will be more outstanding if they ate a human.”

“I say the females, because sirens are a race with a large female to male ratio. Males are born with two legs, but have almost no hunting abilities, in comparison to females their life span was also much shorter**. Therefore in a tribe, there is normally only one male. So, if more males are born, the weaker ones are abandoned.”

“For myself, the situation was a bit more unexpected. I was one of a pair of twins, and the child of the chief, so in terms of bloodline, it was not possible to distinguish strength. By chance the year I was born in, had an abundance of food, so they decided to raise both of us, to determine which one should remain once we grew up.”

“There was still some time before we were of age, but mating season was about to start. So they decided to start hunting for ships. My sibling was very excited about this – he had already started to reach puberty, in terms of looks he was much stronger than I. But the ability in illusionary magic can’t be determined by outlook, so I was allowed to remain, at least until he had the ability to start reproducing.”

“They found a suitable ship, planning to lead the ship to be stranded on a deserted island. The plan was almost ruined, as one of the sailors could see through the siren’s illusions – but his position was lowly, so he wasn’t able to prevent the captain from making a mistake.”

“Because they needed to wait until the mating season, the sailors were ‘being kept’. They were already seduced, thinking they had drifted onto an island, and saved by the local tribe, they would be able to return once their ship had been repaired. The chief decided that they had uses other than as food, so every day in front of us, with the sailors they would… hoping to teach us how to mate.”

“As for the uncontrollable sailor who could see through their illusions, he was locked up. They believed that a human who was immune to illusions would be good food, so he wasn’t killed immediately.”

“At that time, I didn’t doubt that I would lose to my brother, so I didn’t care much. Just waiting for the mating season to arrive without much thought. At that time it would be my death, as well as the death of the sailor. Probably because of our similar circumstance, I started to develop a sort of familiarity towards him.”

“I went to see him every day. At first he was very cold towards me, thinking that I was just checking on the food. But after I told him about my circumstances, our distance was reduced. He knew a lot, at least to me who had never experienced human society, it seemed like he knew everything. I pestered him, asking him to tell me what the land was like, how humans lived.”

“Of course, I would tell him about life at the tribe. But I soon realized, that compared to humans, my experience was too pale. When I tried my hardest to search for an interesting story within the memory of my ten or so years of life, he would always easily respond with a more interesting story.”

“I started to yearn for that sort of life. Secretly using my powers, and according to his descriptions, created endless plains, tall cloud piercing castles, crowded streets. – But no one was able to tell me if my illusions were accurate or not.”

“I told him this. He laughed happily, and reached out a hand from the cage, to pat my head. ‘Then continue to work hard, if your illusions could trap me, then I would be able to see it right?’ was what he said to me.”

“For that reason, I started practicing desperately. They thought that I finally woke to my male instincts, becoming much friendlier towards me. I used this chance, to request for the sailor’s freedom. – The chief agreed, since this was a deserted island, he would not be able to leave, and she was happy that her sons were both determined …to kill each other. In truth there was only a few days left until mating season. I never thought about it, I simply thought, that at least before I died, I could complete this one thing.”

“Finally I succeeded. At first it was something small, followed by transforming my image, finally the surroundings. I created from his description, his hometown, the Golden Capital Elvira. We strolled along the illusion, according to his memory, adjusting and correcting all sorts of details. When I didn’t know what to do, he would draw it for me. It was just a pencil and some paper from the ship, yet it could show me things I had never seen before. I thought it was magical, even more so than illusions.”

“ ‘Then, this is my illusion.’ He said to me. Then took a piece of paper, told me to stay still, and started to draw again. I really didn’t move, until my neck became stiff, before I was able to see his drawing. It was the two of us, hand in hand walking along a human street.”

“ ‘It would be great if it was real.’ I didn’t know why, that I would say that. He smiled and patted me on the head, then suggested something I never considered – to win the tribe’s male position.”

“Of course, not only that. He wished for me to challenge for the position of chief. I had told him that the position could be taken by a strong opponent at any time, but the challenges would always come from females.”

“ ‘But there are no rules preventing males from challenging for chief,’ he said, ‘therefore they cannot refuse. Once you become chief, you could allow them to live.’ “

“Of course I knew that by ‘they’ who he had meant – my brother, my mother and everyone aboard the ship. It was a truly bold plan, but we had nothing to lose. We were originally at the edge of death anyways, so what if we struggled a little more?”

“Most importantly, I didn’t know from when it had started, that I wanted to live. – Perhaps it was a human infection.” The siren gave a small self-deprecating smile, “That person, had been searching for a way to live all along. To save himself, to save his companions, even if it was a small thread of hope.”

“So I did it. When I defeated my brother, he started to cry on the ground in disbelief. – Then I challenged the chief. They discussed it for a long time, before finally agreeing. So I stood on the beach, facing my mother.”

“I was afraid. Really very afraid. She was already 300 years old, her powers were started to wane. But in terms of illusions, experience was more important. She could create unbelievably real, fearful images, causing my mind to break and die.”

“But then, that person came to my side. – He gripped my hand and spoke this in my ear.”

“ ‘Remember, no matter what happens, I am by your side.’ “

---

Translator’s Notes

*她們 – The feminine ‘they’. Strangely enough, you can’t really hear the difference in masculine and feminine when it’s spoken even though he explains that by “they” he means the female members only. (I wonder if I should mention this to the author :P)

**By much shorter, I don’t think it means only a few years of life, but a more human like life expectancy. Since we find out later that sirens can live for a few hundred years.

And so we’re finally getting our mysterious siren’t back story!!

Remind me to scan the character intro page from the novel at some point.

But on a side note, another illustration by Tina! This time it’s our favorite Siren and the Sailor!

<< Chapter Eight                                                                                   Chapter Ten >>

The Unicorn Legion: The Golden Capital – Chapter 8

Author: Demon Lord D (D魔王)

Translator: Lylis

Editor: None – Still looking for one, contact me if interested!

Chapter 8: They Come

When the elf woke up, he didn’t know for how long he had slept.

His head was aching, there was a ringing sound in his hears, his limbs felt heavy, it was as if he had not rested at all.

The lighting in the room was dark – as an inn refurbished from a prison, it was almost impossible to distinguish between day and night inside the rooms of the Mercenary’s Home.

But in this familiar environment, there was a foreign presence.

“You’re awake?” In the darkness, came Cain’s smooth voice, “The door wasn’t locked, so I came in.”

The sound of flint striking, followed by the piercing candlelight.

Ellen instinctively raised his hand to block it, but before that, a piece of cool cloth was placed on his forehead.

“Best not to move,” Cain sat down next to him, “unless you want to feel worse.”

“So this is the so called ‘hang-over’…” Ellen closed his eyes, muttering.

“As the first time drinking, you’re adapting fairly well.”

“How long did I sleep?”

“It’s not even evening.”

Upon hearing the word ‘evening’, the elf struggled to sit up, “Duke Elmond… should apply for a country wide search warrant –“

“It’s done.” The knight reached out to push him back down, “The duke is currently under investigation by the Holy Order of Paladins, for worshiping an evil cult and performing secret rituals in his home. They didn’t find his person, but the evidence of blood magic was really present. Right now the duke’s manor is full of servants from the Queen and the Church. I don’t think he would reveal himself for some time.”

The knight smiled, and continued, “Of course, he’s also charged with murder, child trafficking, and the unsuccessful kidnapping of a noble. – I sent the Queen a letter using your seal, hope you don’t mind”

“Cain?”

“Hm?”

“Goodnight.” The elf speedily fell back onto his pillow, covered his eyes with the cloth; his breath evened out soon afterwards.

The knight watched quietly for a moment, then blew out the candle.

“Goodnight, Ellen.”

When the elf woke up again, it was because of the sound of light cat like scratching at his door.

It seemed his hearing had returned, his head no longer ached.

The elf got up to open the door, sunlight filtered into the room through the windows in the hall.

The young siren crouched in front of the door, he lifted his head after hearing the sound of the door opening, face full of innocence he said, “Cain said not to disturb you, but I was hungry.”

Hearing that, the knight who was standing to one side let out a long sigh of lament.

“You’ve already cleared out all my travel rations.”

“Those were trophies that you should have offered to me as the victor.”

“… I call you out on a duel. No magic allowed, a warrior should solve the problems with a sword honorably!”

“Sword? Foolish human, do you want to compare sizes or stamina?”

“… That’s not what that means! Pull your pants back up!”

“Wait a moment.” The elf closed the door laughingly, leaving the arguing knight and siren outside.

The market of the “Golden Capital” Elvira was situated just outside the boundary between the lower city and the city proper, relying on the nearby harbor to supply a large number of goods, it had reverted back to its prosperous state soon after the civil war.

Here, status and titles do not matter, all the merchants care about was whether the clients could pay the suitable amount. Thus even though the elf’s appearance might attract some curious gazes, it did not cause any sort of commotion. – Exotically dressed travelers were too common, many observers had already automatically considered the pointy ears as some sort of new fashion trend. Enterprising stall owners, had probably already started to consider releasing a series of dwarf or ogre costume sets.

Facing this type of large crowd, the siren was a very nervous at first, but soon he was attracted by the dazzling goods on display, and started to look around without a care.

‘Hello Robin’ was a small modest stall in the corner near the lower city, but the regulars know, that the city’s tastiest buttered bread and honey wine* could be found here.

Ellen frowned when he heard the words honey wine, but Cain immediately guaranteed, that it was basically just a sweet drink, and will definitely not cause a hangover.

Soft bread baked to perfection, paired with melting butter, with just one small bite the warm and rich flavor will spread through mouth. The warmed honey wine was not too sweet, and had an elusive aftertaste of flowers.**

The young siren certainly didn’t have this sort of appreciation for the pursuit of delicious food, in the blink of an eye he had already finished his own breakfast, and was eyeing the basket of a street vender. In the next moment he ran back, carrying the unscaled and un-gutted fish, with its fins still attached, sandwiching it between two pieces of bread, he started eating it with gusto.

“It tastes better cooked.” He said, after swallowing his self-made raw fish sandwich, “Humans do come up with some good ideas once in a while.”

“I thank you for your appreciation on behalf of humanity.” Cain rolled his eyes, pointing to the fountain in the middle of the market, “Underneath the angel statue, there’s a stall that sells grilled fish, remember not to pay more than half his asking price.”

As the siren weaved through the crowd on his way back with a fish kabob in his mouth, a few sailors sat down in front of their table at the ‘Robin’. The knight turned his head, saying something to the elf, the two then looked at each other and laughed together.

The knight’s expression when looking at the elf contained a familiar gentleness.

The young siren vaguely remember, it seemed like a long time ago, that someone also looked at him with the same expression.

“Don’t trust humans.” By the siren’s ears, Duke Elmond’s voice said clearly.

The boy jumped in fright, turning to look around, but he couldn’t find anything.

“Don’t trust humans,” the voice continued, “have you forgotten?”

But Cain saved me.

“So what? The one who took you from the sea, didn’t he save you as well?”

That’s different. Humans and humans are different.

“They’re all the same,” Duke Elmond smiled, “remember, the one who gave you that promise, how he treated you. That sailor –“

Sailor…

It was as if that word had opened a floodgate of fear.

The siren started to shake uncontrollably.

They’re coming they’re here –

Stumbling the young man pushed away the people surrounding him, running towards the elf.

“Ellen!” He shouted “Run! They –“

The youth raised his hand, a cloud of black mist spread out amongst the crowd, the people closest – the sailors fell to the ground, wailing soundlessly.

Following the chaos, the boy disappeared from sight.

“Luckily it’s just a fear spell,” the knight turned the fallen sailor over and lifted his eyelids, sighing, “You go first. I’ll take care of this then meet up with you.”

---

Translator’s Notes

*蜂蜜酒 – Honey wine is also known as mead, but I wasn’t sure if Ellen knew what “mead” means so I’ll stick with honey-wine. It is basically fermented honey with water, historically one of the oldest alcoholic drinks. (There are actually youtube videos on how to make this XD I’m actually interested).

**I felt like I was translating a chapter of Konjiki no Wordmaster.

This was a short chapter. Ideally I would like to release the next 3 chapters at the same time, because the effect would be better if it was read together. So the next release might be a little slower (but then again, considering it’s me, it might come out tomorrow, who knows, but don’t hold your breath).

– The joys of quick editing… on that note, someone please help me edit this! Lol if only just to point out spelling mistakes cause autocorrect sometimes creates weird words and sometimes misspelling slips through the cracks and I end up with something strange.

<< Chapter Seven                                                                                 Chapter Nine >>

The Unicorn Legion: The Golden Capital – Chapter 7

Author: Demon Lord D (D魔王)

Translator: Lylis

Editor: None – Still looking for one, contact me if interested!

Chapter 7: A Study of the Ceremony of Allegiance

“Even though this outfit is a little inappropriate, but having a sword should be enough.”

“What?” Ellen received the sword Cain passed to him in confusion.

“I’m very poor, with nothing I can give, so I hope you can accept this.” The knight said, smiling softly.

“I, Cain · Frank, hereby swear my loyalty to Ellen as master, I am thy sword, thy shield, to always be by thee, until death should take me*.”

The elf looked at the knight kneeling in front of him, his face saying that he was at a loss, “Cain, you saved my life, I’m just repaying that dept. You don’t owe me anything.”

“You cleared my name**, to me, honor is something more important than my life.”

“No, this… is too valuable. Please don’t decide so easily – you should save your oath for someone more worthy.” The elf shook his head, replying, “Besides, I don’t really need protection…”

The knight probably did not expect to be rejected in such a way, he revealed a hurt expression, and as if he just thought of something, smiled slyly at the elf.

“Well said, Lord Viscount of 400 gold.”

The elf was rendered speechless by that comeback, after a while, he picked up the sword smiling wryly, lightly tapping the knight’s shoulders.

“Then I shall gratefully accept.”

The young siren observed everything curiously and silently, then came to a conclusion.

“You sold yourself.”

“It’s not sold, it’s an oath of loyalty, a type of ceremony.” The knight stood up, rebutting seriously.

“What’s a ceremony?”

“When humans form a contract, they show their sincerity through this method.”

“Sincerity, contracts… that means ‘Delivery upon Payment, non-refundable’.” The youth came to a second conclusion, “You sold yourself, and won’t let Ellen return the goods, — that’s so sneaky.”

“… Even though the knight’s creed says that we ‘must never bully those who are weaker’,” the knight replied, gritting his teeth, “but if my master orders it then there’s no problem. So, Ellen, please let me beat him up… Ellen?”

The elf was standing to one side already out of breath from laughing, so the knight would have to decide on his own actions.

When he was about to viciously start building a bun tower*** on the siren’s head, his opponent speedily transformed into a petit girl in an elegant dress.

“Do you think changing into the Queen will save you, you brat!”

“Stand down, knight. Don’t be impertinent.” Aemelian · Grecia said, as she wagged her eyebrows, she raised her skirt.

“Stop! Stop I said!” Cain turned his head away painfully, “You are ruining a noble lady’s reputation! The Queen would never…”

“Please be gentle with Aemelian, it’s my first time.”

“Don’t say such strange lines in the middle of the street! – And don’t pick your nose while saying it! Ahhhh —“

Naturally, this psychological battle concluded in the knight’s complete defeat.

While Ellen was busy arranging a resting place for the Siren in the Mercenary’s Home, the knight was being forced to sign two or three unfair treaties. In summary, the contents were: never to use violence against under-aged endangered magical creatures, which include but are not limited to shouting, threatening and raising a head as if to attack, and so on. In exchange, the young siren promised ‘to the best of his abilities’ not to act in a way that goes against human social norms while in public.

Finally, as the victor, the youth demanded that the knight relinquish his ‘territory’, and upon confirming the success of his capture, he wrapped himself in the blankets and curled up in satisfaction to sleep in the bed. So Cain could only pack up his things, and move into the room originally prepared for the Siren.

Walking into the room, the knight suddenly thought of something, turning to the elf just outside the door, he asked, “I say, can’t we just send the kid do some magical creature protection organization or something…”

“Cain, we’re the ‘Unicorn Legion’, right now in the whole country, or probably the whole continent’s only magical creature protection organization. Plus he might be the only link to finding the duke, I want to keep him near in all possibility.”

“… I should have known, in this day and age how can there still be an organization with the first class recruitment rights.” The knight let put a pained sound.

“That was just an excuse to deal with the pope,” the elf replied patiently, “if you want to quit you can…”

“If you think that…” Cain turned to look at him, his expression complicated.

Ellen immediately knew he said the wrong thing.

A knight’s fealty was not something simple. If this person has already chosen to do this, any suggestions to rescind was equal to an insult.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean it that way.” The elf lowered his head.

“You have no need to lower your head to your servant,” the knight smiled forcefully, “My Lord.”

That title seemed to immediately create a boundary between them.

“Please return to your rest. I shall be awaiting your orders.” The knight bowed slightly. The strange thing was, even armour-less, to Ellen, it seemed he was even more distant than when they first met.

“Cain?”

“Here.”

“I accept Cain · Frank as my knight.” The elf took a deep breath, and continued onwards, “thou shall fight by my side, to be my weapon, my protector. I swear, in the name of God, never to allow thy honor and loyalty to be tarnished, unwavering, till the end of this life.****”

Then he stepped on top of the threshold, holding on to the knight’s shoulders, he placed a light kiss on his forehead.

“That should complete it.” The elf smiled a little embarrassedly, “as I don’t know the modern customs, so I followed the traditions of the Legendary Age. If I’m missing any steps, please tell me.”

“No, it’s enough,” the knight replied after a while, his face a little pale, “My Lord.”

“Call me Ellen.”

“Is that the first order?”

“Use your own judgement,” the elf smiled, turning to leave, “sweet dreams, Cain.”

The knight closed the door, leaning his back against it, he reached a hand to touch his forehead.

It wasn’t that the elf didn’t do enough, he did too much.

Something like “the Kiss of Oath”, was common in the Legendary Age. But now, it was only used when accepting the knight as a lover.

–But something like that, as long as he didn’t accept the allegiance of another knight, there was no need it tell him this.

On the other hand, the elf didn’t think too much.

Under the combined effects of the Siren’s Tears and the remaining alcohol, he didn’t even have time to change upon returning to his room, he simply fell unconscious once his head hit the pillow.

---

Translator’s Notes

*時刻不離，至死方休 – (I hate translating idioms lol) it means: Never to leave one’s side and un-resting till death, or something similar. I might come back to change the text at a later date, since I’m not really satisfied with the translation.

**Technically he didn’t, he just saved you from being executed, but ok.

***在海妖少年的頭上狠狠敲個爆栗 – I don’t really know how else to translate this. XD “Beat him up” doesn’t sound accurate either, so just imagine anime style bun towers.

****終此一生，矢志不渝 – I seriously wanted to write “till death do us part”. Seriously.

Thanks for being patient with me, I am alive and have just returned from my vacation! Hopefully I’ll be back to a more frequent release schedule. Hope you enjoyed this chapter ^^. Poor Cain, he should realize that he will probably never win against in a psychological contest with a siren using illusion magic.

On another note: Here’s an illustration of the Kiss of Oath by Tina! *Squee*

<< Chapter Six                                                                              Chapter Eight >>

The Unicorn Legion: The Golden Capital – Chapter 6

Author: Demon Lord D (D魔王)

Translator: Lylis

Editor: None – Still looking for one, contact me if interested!

Chapter 6: Paladin/Holy Knight*

They hurried through the streets, hoping to reach the Mercenary’s Home before the day lightened anymore.

The elf returned to his usual form, the boy had transformed into a regular human boy, silently following closely behind.

Whenever the knight tried to get close, the boy would turn and glare at him, so the knight could only follow at a distance behind.

“The one that locked you up was a vampire,” when they reached within viewing distance of the Mercenary’s Home, Cain finally couldn’t resist saying, “not humans.”

The young siren didn’t reply.

“At least we…”

“That’s right,” the youth finally stopped, turning to look at the knight, “you saved me, as a reward, I can give you a night of good dreams.”

“I’m not…”

“Just say it, how do you want it? It’s my expertise.” The boy’s expression was mocking, “a nun? Or a female knight? Kneeling in front of the holy statue to service you?”

Cain’s eyes were wide, speechlessly staring at the boy.

“Even if you want the Queen it’s possible.” The boy continued briskly, “Just a few days ago someone requested it.”

“Don’t be that way.” Ellen sighed, reaching out to rest a hand on the young boy’s shoulder, turning him towards himself, “Cain didn’t mean to pressure you.”

The boy snorted, not saying anything more.

Therefore, the group continued forward with an awkward air.

Upon reaching the inside of the walls of the Mercenary’s Home, the door to the inn just opened, two people dressed as paladins stepped out.

Cain drew a shocked breath, making as if to hide. But the gaze of the two had already landed on him.

“Damn it!” One of the paladins turned around fiercely closing the door, the other one rushed towards Cain, lowered his voice, and said in a urgent tone, ‘Felix, you idiot! You should have ran months ago, why did you stay in the city!?”

“I –“

“They have the Pope’s arrest warrant, and they’re about to start a countrywide manhunt! – run! As fast as possible!”

“Carl” Cain said faintly as the other pressed a bag of coins into his hand, “I didn’t…”

“I know, we all know” the knight called Carl pulled him into a strong hug, then pushed him away, “Leave quickly! Before we find out the truth, don’t die!”

“Such a touching reunion.” Clapping sound came from behind them, “Carl Turner, conspiring to assist a fugitive and his accomplices, you are guilty of malfeasance, you will be sentenced to the whip and your name struck from the Order**. – Knott, what are you standing around for, arrest him.”

The elf turned around, to stare silently at the owner of the clapping sound, fingers lightly brushing the hilt of his dagger. The young siren hid behind him, watching everything with a hint of fear.

The knight who closed the door came forward very unwillingly, grasping his companion’s wrist, pulling him to one side.

“The others are still inside?”

“…yes.”

“Let them continue searching, there could be other criminals hiding inside.” The owner of the applause, the bishop of the lower city church Charles Wrede, ordered the team behind him in a self-satisfactory manner, “surround them, kill any who runs.”

A sound of unenthusiastic footsteps, the paladins behind him formed a circle full of holes, surrounding Cain and his companions.

The bishop searched his pockets for a moment, fishing out a piece of document, wiped his monocle, coughed loudly, and started to read aloud.

“Former knight of the holy order***, Felix Paladin****. For severe misconduct and sacrilege, and harming…”

Before he could finish reading, the document in his hands were snatched away.

The bishop lifted his head in rage, only to have another piece of paper thrust in his face.

“Please finish reading this first.”

“You you you –“ the bishop pulled down the piece of paper from his face, pointing a shaking finger at the elf, “how dare you to God’s servant –“

“God’s servant, the Queen’s citizen.” The elf pointed to the paper in the bishop’s hands, at the end was Queen Gracia’s elegant signature.

The bishop’s eyes widened, then angrily looked down to read the document.

As his eyes scanned downwards, his face became red.

“What is this! Outrageous!”

“If you are dissatisfied, you can always go ask the Queen.” The elf balled up the arrest warrant, throwing it away behind him, “The Pope’s orders are no longer valid, I am exercising first class recruitment rights on this man.”

“Absurd! I refuse to acknowledge this!”

“Also, please rescind Carl Turner’s punishment, he was assisting the Queen’s immediate subordinate, not a criminal.”

“You shameless liar –“

“The newly appointed Viscount of Soloris Valley, at your service.” The elf bowed slightly, watching as the bishop’s face slowly changed from red to purple.

The paladin’s surrounding them started talking in small voices, just loud enough for the bishop to hear.

“I heard that the former Archduke Crane was on very good terms with the Pope…”

“Lately, it seems the Queen wants to remove members of the clergy from all over.”

“No matter what, the Pope wouldn’t want to go against the Royal house…”

Normally, the bishop would have already scolded them for their rude actions, but hearing those words now, his face turned pale.

One insignificant lower city bishop, and a new noble, if there was to be any argument with the one said to be the Queen’s favored, the Pope would definitely not stand on his side.

The bishop finally withdrew.

He forcefully arranged his face into a smile that looked worse than if he was crying, humbly returned the document, “Please… please forgive this humble, humble servant’s rude behavior, Lord Viscount. Everything will be as you say, I’ll… take my leave now. May God’s protection be with you. Please… don’t mention this to the Queen.”

Following the bishop’s retreat, the paladin’s also started to leave.

When they passed by the elf, each of them nodded in respect, and when they passed Cain, they patted his shoulder, pushed him, or made all sorts of strange faces.

“Good luck.”

“May God protect you.”

“Long live the Queen.”

“Now you can openly drink wine.”

“Now you can wolf whistle the nuns.”

“Now you can go seduce noble ladies.”

Cain stood in place, listening to those well wishes that were gradually groing more ridiculous, working hard to maintain a smile.

Because if he didn’t do that, tears would start leaking.

“You’re smiling like an idiot.” The siren observed.

But when he looked at the knight, there was no longer any antagonism in his eyes.

“If you wish, you could return” the elf said softly, “Cai… no… Mr. Paladin?”

“Cain is fine,” the knight turned his gaze, no longer looking in the direction of his retreating peers.

“Felix Paladin was a name given by the Church, I no longer need it.”

---

Translator’s Notes

*圣殿骑士 – I couldn’t decide between Paladin and Holy Knight (basically the same thing lol) but they both work? Google actually translates it to the Knights Templar but it didn’t seem suitable for this.

**He means that Carl’s will basically be dishonorably discharged and be disgraced in history because his name is removed from the records – something along those lines

***This time in particular, I’m using Holy Knight instead of Paladin because his last name is Paladin and it would be so confusing T^T

****菲尼克斯 帕拉丁 – Paladin was the actual phonetic translation, don’t look at me.

Sorry, there will be a delay in the translation this week, I’m currently on holiday in Taiwan and will be spending most of my time sightseeing and shopping. But hopefully I’ll still be getting some things done in the evening, it just won’t be coming out as fast. XD

<< Chapter Five                                                                             Chapter Seven >>

The Unicorn Legion: The Golden Capital – Chapter 5

Chapter 5: The Duke’s Collection

Just because he ‘didn’t want to draw too much attention” and didn’t bring his bow and arrows along, it was really a fatal miss.

If he knew the Golden Capital was like this, even if he was in danger of being stared at, he would make a habit of bringing along his weapon.

Perhaps 300 years of sleep was too long, so long that he had lost the ability to scent danger.

To not realize Duke Elmond’s true identity, worse yet, to let him escape.

To this type of undead creature with such strong regenerative abilities, heavy injuries would only force it to be dormant for a few months, then it would return to causing harm to humanity.

The him from the past, would never make such a mistake.

Ellen gritted his teeth bitterly, picking up his dagger from the floor.

When he looked up, he found Cain examining the clothes the duke had left behind.

The scent of blood in the room was getting stronger, but Cain seemed indifferent to it.

Then the knight extended his hand, picking up something from the pool of blood. — It was a small key.

“What do you think this opens?” eyeing his companion, he asked.

“Probably a trap door somewhere.” Ellen thought for a moment, replying.

He surveyed his surroundings, lifted his hand, he started cutting away at the tapestries on the wall.

After a moment those probably priceless decorations, were already reduced to scraps in a corner of the wall.

Who knows if the duke would spit out another mouth full of blood, after seeing this.

There was not a single crack on the walls, the elf shook his head in disappointment.

Cain was unwilling to give up though, and cast another spell on himself.

“What is that?”

“Holy Eye. If there is any magic traps in the area then — ah there it is.”

Cain inserted the key into an invisible keyhole on the wall, reached his hand forward to push, a slab sunk inwards, and at the same time a section underneath popped out.

Within was a notebook and…

“Another key?” the knight frowned, “What is this some sort of twisted treasure hunt?”

The elf took the notebook from his hands, flipping to a random page.

Inside was full of dates and simple notes. On the latest entry was the following ledger.

January 15th, Received “Curse Heart”, supplier: Shark, 10

January 18th, Delivered “Male Dog”, recipient: L.M, 100

February 1st, Delivered “Witch burned at stake, with stake”, recipient: T.P, 100

February 21st, Received “Young Werewolf (?)”, supplier: their father, 30 — February 15th, confirmed to be fake, disposed of*

May 5th, Delivered “Siren’s Tears”, recipient: Shark, 0

May 7th, Delivered “Girl on Golden Seat”, recipient: A.R.C, 100

“The ledger is more disgusting than I thought…”Cain read over Ellen’s shoulders, but turned away immediately.

“Let’s hand it over to the Queen. She’ll know how to deal with it.” Ellen hastily read a little more of the contents, putting the notebook away, he turned to ask “About that second key, any luck?”

Cain led him to another wall, a section of the wall was darker, under a closer inspection it was smoother than the rest of the sections.

“Probably a secret room” said the knight “but I feel it shouldn’t be opened.”

“Did the Holy Eye tell you that?”

“Mother always said a vampire’s secret room is never going to be hiding something good.” Cain shrugged “And the Holy Shield can’t be used again for some time. — If I’m controlled by some mental magic, please come at me here.”

He pointed to his temple, then inserted the key into the hidden lock, pushing open the door.

This room was similar to the one outside with an elegant but ominous atmosphere. The difference was that there were no windows, nor was there an altar.

On the floor was a large magic circle, glowing a faint red, lighting up the entire room.

In the center of the circle, was a small sleeping figure.

Perhaps it was the sound of the door opening, the figure shifted a little, rose up, rubbed their eyes, looking at the uninvited guests in confusion. Then the figure moved, the clanking of chains followed.

“A little nun?” Cain exclaimed in shock.

The elf shook his head, pulling the knight who was about to step forward, “no, take a closer look.”

The little girl wearing a nun’s outfit disappeared, at the same place sat a boy. A youthful face, he was without any clothes on, the top half of his body was no different from another human’s, but from the waist downwards, a layer of scales covered him. Iron Cuffs were attached to his wrists and ankles, chains connected to the cuffs were secured to pins hammered into the floor, the length of the chains was not enough to allow him to stand.

After observing the situation, the knight’s frown deepened. Unhesitatingly he raised his sword, bright white light broke through the magic circle’s barrier. The red glow immediately disappeared.

“Don’t move, I’ll get you out right away.”

But the youth was unwilling to accept his help. He lifted his head, face full of hate saying in a clear voice, “Don’t come near me, human.”

Cain froze, looking pleadingly at the elf.

The elf sighed, saying to the boy, “Then can I help?”

The boy glanced over his face, upon seeing the pointed ears, his expression softened, and he nodded once silently.

The elf tried inserting the point of his dagger into the keyhole of the cuffs, opening the chains on the boy’s hands and feet. There were wounds on his wrists, many of the scales on his ankle had already fallen off, his condition didn’t seem to be good. But the youth didn’t seem to care, once he had regained his freedom, he looked curiously into the elf’s face asking, “Why were you able to see through my illusions?”

“You should be saying thank you.” The knight said from the side.

The boy completely ignored the interruption, and reached out his hand, to lightly touch the corner of the elf’s eye.

“Ah… then, they used my tears on you… I’m sorry.”

“Nothing to be sorry about,” the elf helped him up, “thanks to you, I had a good dream.”

The boy shook his head, and replied seriously, “Good dream, but not a good ending… or else, you wouldn’t be awake.”

The elf smiled bitterly in silence.

Naturally it was not a good ending. When he woke up in that dark coffin, there was truly a moment, that he wanted to continue sleeping forever.

“Let’s go” said Cain, “After that loud commotion a moment ago, I fear someone will come soon.”

Even before he finished speaking, knocking came from the outside. Cain and Ellen both grasped their weapons.

The boy waved his hand, signalling them to remain in the hidden room. Then went to open the door outside.

The butler stood uncomfortably outside the doorway, seeing ‘the duke’ answer the door, he let out a breath in relief.

“Apologies for disturbing you. The guard’s body has been disposed of. But, why did you suddenly…”

“His footsteps were too loud, it was audible even from above.” The disheveled duke smiled at the butler, “Norman, you know I hate it when people disturb my ‘fun’.”

The butler glanced into the room using the faint light.

Everything was normal, the elf remained unconscious, his naked arm hung listlessly from the altar, the servant lay in the corner of the room covered in blood.

“The one inside… shall I remove it?”

“Leave it.” The duke smiled again, revealing sharp teeth, “You’ve worked hard today, return to your rest. Come back to wake me in the evening.”

So the butler bowed again, and retreated.

He decided that once he returned to his room, he would drink a glass of the manor’s private wine, then get a good sleep, to bring an end to this hectic night.

“In a moment I’ll change you to look like the butler, we can leave by the front door.”

The young Siren closed the door, and said looking back at the elf.

— He still did not spare the knight a single glance, naturally not offering to help disguise him.

Thus, near dawn, the night watches guarding the front door, stared in fear as the duke and the butler left the manor, following behind closely was a servant covered in blood.**

---

Translator’s Notes

*I realized that the dates are a little strange (receiving the werewolf on the 21st of February and realizing it was a fake on the 15th of February). And it can’t be that it was the following year’s February since the page was supposed to be the latest log in the ledger. The mistake was in both the web AND the published novel, I assume no one checked.  (I think that the dates were probably switched, that would make more sense.)

**Lol Poor Cain, he’s hated.

<< Chapter Four                                                                                       Chapter Six >>

The Unicorn Legion: The Golden Capital – Chapter 4

Author: Demon Lord D (D魔王)

Translator: Lylis

Editor: None – Still looking for one, contact me if interested!

Chapter 4: Duke Elmond

At the end of the secret passage was an ascending stone staircase.

Near the top of the stone stairs, a thread of light appeared overhead.

–Someone knew they were coming, and opened the door.

–After adjusting to the blinding light, Cain observed his surroundings.

The place looked to be a storage room, the trap door underfoot was carefully concealed in a shadowed corner.

“I don’t remember calling you.” The one who opened the door was a person dressed in trim butler outfit, he asked in a tone full of arrogance and distain, “Where’s Locke?”

“Edward? Toilet. Seems e’ ate s’thing bad.” Facing the questioning, the ‘servant’ replied with rough words.

“…Follow me.” Norman · George · Walt, the man referred to as ‘Master Butler’ in the Duke’s Manor, snorted coldly, turning around to leave with long strides.

The butler was in a very bad mood. Even though he hated Golden Tooth Shark, now he would be forced to personally go and make nice with more new mercenaries, this really was unpleasant.

And the situation in the duke’s manor wasn’t any less worrying. Before the war a third of the servants resigned and left the capital to escape, and the new replacements from the countryside, were brainless, and have never been through any etiquette training to ‘make them seem smarter’.

Like this new guy here, looking around all the while.

If this was before the war, even some of the picker merchants won’t want someone so coarse, for him to wear a uniform with the insignia so blatantly, walking on the carpet of the duke’s manor with dirty shoes. –It was an insult to the noble house.

“We’re here” the butler stopped, knocking on the door.

The door was made of thick wood with metal strips framing the four sides, once closed, no matter how loud the screams or cries, it probably wouldn’t reach the outside.

Even though it’s the middle of the night, the door still opened quickly.

The room was wide and elegant, filled with the scent of incense. The tapestries on the four walls were complicated and delicate, if she sees it perhaps even Queen Gracia would jealously scold “luxurious”.

There was only one window, very small, with bars along it, like a cage.

In the center was a marble altar, its design no different from those seen in the Holy Temples. But underneath the atmosphere of the environment, it gave off an ominous feeling.

The one to open the door was probably Duke Elmond. Very young, in comparison to his name and status, too young.

Long black hair, framing a thin face, carrying an uncaring expression common to the noble fops.

Pale face and dark bangs under the eyes fully indicated that this was an over-indulgent individual.

When he saw the servant behind the butler, and the elf in the servant’s arms, the duke revealed a smile like that of a child looking at his new toy, and even deigned to interact with the servant himself, ordering him to place the elf on the altar.

“My Lord,” the butler sighed softly, “though I have no rights to dictate your hobby, I still wish that during these unusual times you can…”

“Norman, my dear old Norman,” the duke laughed lightly, “you never could understand how to enjoy the finer things. – 400 gold was trivial, not even a month of the ‘Mermaid’s’ income, compared to this priceless treasure, what significance was that?”

“Money isn’t the problem, my Lord” the butler shook his head “Compared to the old King, the new Queen is…”

At this time the duke’s expression turned impatient, the butler could only hold his tongue helplessly.

“You can leave. – As for you, stay.” The duke pointed to the servant.

The butler bowed silently, left the room, closing the door behind him.

As the duke and the butler talked, ignoring his existence, Cain naturally sensed the reason. – They never planned for this ‘servant’ to continue living. Purposefully leaving him here was surprising, could it be that the duke had the habit of getting his own hands dirty, regarding silencing someone?

But afterwards, all of the duke’s attention was focused on his new toy.

He stretched his hand out, gently caressing the elf’s hair, saying in a tone reserved for lovers, “They call you Ellen. In the elven tongue it means ‘star’, right? – Such a good name.”

Cain cursed in his mind, reaching a hand for the sword hidden in his jacket. Even if the duke had some sort of strange tastes, like having an audience during the deed or threesome, he was looking at the wrong person.

“Then, let me teach you, a pleasure your celibate race doesn’t know.”

Cain’s heart froze, the sword that was drawn stopped.

The duke’s voice had a mesmerizing power*, of course it wasn’t the so-called ‘charisma’, but magic, very strong magic.

At that moment, the duke shuddered, stumbling backwards.

Cain immediately felt the power freezing him in place disappear.

“If the one making the ‘Siren’s Tears’ was truly a master illusionist, you might have gotten your wish.” The elf released the dagger, jumping down from the altar, “but, you were over confident about your magical abilities.”

The duke looked down at his own chest, the blade was already all the way into his heart, leaving only the hilt visible. Fresh blood rushed out continuously from the wound, staining the delicate silk shirt red.

Then, the duke laughed lightly.

“As expected, prey that struggles, is better.” He reached out his hand to pull out the dagger, dropping it uncaringly at his feet. “It’s been a long… long time since I’ve been this excited.”

The elf paled.

On the duke’s chest, the wound visibly started to heal, blood no longer came out.

“But, however disobedient the kitten, once it’s claws were removed, it’s no longer a threat.”

The duke moved towards the elf who no longer had his weapon, hand raised, nails long and sharp.

He smiled at his prey, revealing sharp fangs.

Suddenly a shadow entered his vision.

Almost at the same time, the duke once again felt a chill on his chest.

“A cat has nine lives,” the knight said, standing in front of the elf** “how many does a vampire have?”

He gripped the sword firmly, pulled out, and trust into the duke’s body once again.

Even without armor, a faint white light surrounded the knight’s body. It was a holy shield that blocked all magic.

The duke wiped away the blood at the corner of his mouth, revealing a slightly annoyed expression, but only slightly.

“That’s why, I hate knights, especially paladins. Even their blood stinks of holy water.”

The knight didn’t reply, only pulled the sword out once again, and thrust forward again.

But this time, his sword hit empty air.

The duke’s body had disappeared.

In its place, a bat flew up, through the bars and disappeared into the night.

Afterwards, a shocked cry came from outside the window, which quickly turned into a blood curling scream.

The elf rushed towards the window to look down.

In the duke’s garden, a night guard lay on the ground.

A large hole gaped in the guard’s chest, there was an emptiness, where the heart was supposed to be.

---

Translator’s Notes

*勾魂攝魄 – Technically means “to grab and capture someone’s soul”.  But I went with ‘mesmerizing’, google translate says ‘erotic’ though :3 I guess a vampires powers could be considered that? A little random trivia: 魂魄 means soul and in Chinese belief, a person has 3魂 7魄, which is the composition of the soul. They stand for the 3 spirits (life, memory and intelligence/reason) and 7 emotions (joy, anger, sorrow, fear, love, evil and desire). In death, the 7 emotions disperse, of the 3 spirits, one goes to heaven, one to the grave and one to reincarnation.

**Cain to the rescue! Woot! (Sorry, I couldn’t resist)

Wow, two in one day ;). Here’s proof that waking up early will result in more work done than staying up late at night. (Plus the fact that I only ever type out my translations during the day/work hours. *Whistles innocently* yay to procrastinating during office hours? — I do hope that no one at my work place ever sees this.)

<< Chapter Three                                                                             Chapter Five >>

The Unicorn Legion: The Golden Capital – Chapter 3

Author: Demon Lord D (D魔王)

Translator: Lylis

Editor: None – Still looking for one, contact me if interested!

Chapter 3: To Coffins

Carrying a large bag over his shoulder, the mercenary knocked on the back door of the “Mermaid Brothel”, someone looked out.

“I’m here to see ‘that’ person.”

“I’ll go look.”

Golden Tooth Shark leaned against the wall, his mind filled with images of gold, several long minutes was spent like that.

After a while, someone finally came to lead him in, they finally arrived at a door at the end after walking through a long winding corridor.

“You’re finally here” In the room, the man wearing a mask placed down his cup of tea, he said lightly, “only you?”

Golden Tooth Shark cursed in his mind, but he remained respectful on the surface, even revealing a speck of sorrow, “Very sorry. The elf was more difficult to deal with that imagined. His resistance was fierce, my companions…were not so fortunate.”

The man made a non-committal humming sound, pointing at the floor, “Put it down.”

Golden Tooth Shark carefully lifted the bag down from his shoulder, as if placing down some priceless antique. At the same time his gaze had shifted to the wooden box at the corner by the wall several times.

“It’s in the box”

“Hem, other than the agreed upon amount, I need to give pensions for their families…”

“A total of four hundred gold. Take it and leave.”

Not waiting for the man to finish, the mercenary was already by the box, displaying his agility as a bandit fully. Opening the box, he knelt in an almost pious position, plunging both hands into the golden coins. Then taking a handful out, kissed at it repeatedly.

Then he fell over in that blissful position, started to twitch, his eyes rolled back, lips turning an unnatural shade of black.

The man watched this scene silently, after a while, he pulled on the summoning bell.

An hour later, the back door of the Mermaid Brothel opened again, two coffins were pushed out one after the other. Four of the brothel’s employees walked sleepily alongside, because this type of job paid well, so no one complained about their sleep being disrupted.

The destination was two streets away, one of the places where bodies were gathered for incineration in the city. As to who died, they didn’t know, nor did they care to know.

The morgue was not large, there was no one inside, just a few oil lamps releasing a dim light. The employees put down the coffins, their minds already on the warmth of the bed, they left at the same speed they came.

Soon after, a shadowed figure silently drifted in.

It was a young man around twenty, carrying a sword. After he investigated the area, he came up to one of the coffins, lifting the lid.

A stench blew into his face.

In the coffin, Golden Tooth Shark’s body was already changing colour.

The young man grimaced, closed the lid, and turned to the other one.

The moment the lid opened, a hand reached out, grasped the young man’s wrist, and twisted it to one side extremely fast. In order to prevent from having his wrist dislocated, the youth could only follow along by falling down. Incidentally the coffin’s owner didn’t plan to let him go, immediately leaping out to straddle him, the other hand trapping the young man’s throat.

“Really Ellen, this sort of greeting, isn’t it a little too exciting.” Looking at the elf’s angry expression, the young man said helplessly.

The elf was black for a moment, “Who are you?”

He had never see this person before, but the voice was indeed strangely familiar. Unless…

“…Cain?!”

“At your service, Sir” Cain replied happily, “now can you get off of me, sir?”

“How were you able to find this place?” Ellen hesitated for a moment, pulling Cain up.

“That,” Cain nursed his wrist, “Because when I returned to the Mercenary’s Home, I saw Golden Tooth Shark asking around for your location.”

“This man?” Ellen pointed to the coffin.

Cain nodded, “Anyways, I didn’t think you would lose to those small fry so I didn’t interfere. Finally when I didn’t see either of you by late night, I figured it strange so went to take a look – that group mostly deals in the flesh trade, even an idiot would know where they would conduct the trade-off – sorry if I offend you – how much did you drink?”

“Quite a bit” the elf admitted, “But it’s not because of alcohol.”

”A woman?… No? … A man?”

“… Siren’s Tears. They used it.”

Cain’s brows rose, “When did Golden Tooth Shark become so generous? For him to be willing to spend a hundred gold, the reward would at least be two hundred. – Congratulations, even the most wanted criminal in the country is only worth fifty gold at most.”

It was difficult to reconcile the Cain without his armor with the armored warrior.

Like removing the skin from a mysterious and solitary wolf, for a large dog to emerge in its wake.*

Now that dog stood to one side, looking around with a casual expression. Completely changing the dark and frightening atmosphere of the morgue into something picnic like.

The elf opened Golden Tooth Shark’s coffin to search for a moment, retrieving his dagger and documents. Then used two fingers to pull at his cloak from under the body. – A dead person will lose control of their facilities, so the cloak was already smeared with unmentionable things, even if the person wasn’t a neat freak, seeing this, no one would want to wear it again.

The elf sighed, dropped the cloak, and closed the lid.

–Turning around, he found Cain staring at the wall in a daze.

“What…”

“Shh.” The knight turned his head, there was no smile on his face, “hear that?”

The elf immediately realized what he was saying.

A set of heavy footsteps could be heard drawing near, from the other side of the wall.

The two immediately hid to either side of the room.

On the wall, an area of bricks suddenly sunk in, revealing a dark hold.

Then, the owner of the footsteps came into the room.

It was a man about 30 years of age, wearing a servant’s long jacket, with the insignia of a certain noble.

The first to make a move was Cain, sword already resting against the man’s neck.

The man let out an involuntary shout of fright, but his mouth was immediately covered, only a muffled sound emerged.

“Name?” Cain asked the man with threatening eyes, signifying he was not to shout for help, then removed his hand slightly.

“Ed…Edward…Locke.”

“Were you sent by Duke Elmond?”

“Nev, never saw the duke. It was the but, butler.”**

“To do what?”

“Said, said a group of mercenaries stole, stole the duke’s money, was, was punished. Asked, asked me to come check, if one was still a, alive, to bring, bring them back for questioning.”

The man felt the sharp edge of the blade moving against his neck, and almost passed out in fear.

Cain asked a few more questions, confirming that the man knew nothing at all, and swiftly knocked him out, then removed his uniform jacked, and stuffed him in the elf’s coffin.

Seeing Cain change into the servant’s jacket, while returning the sword to its sheath without any expression, Ellen felt the knight behind the iron bucket was back.

But then the knight lifted his head, asked using a tone that suggested “let’s go shopping”, “This path should lead to the duke’s residence. Want to take a look?”

The elf nodded, unbalanced.

Then the knight did something unpredictable – he came over, bent, picked the elf up over his shoulder, and walked towards the secret passage.

“What are you doing, I’ll fall!” The flustered elf struggled on his shoulder.

“If you don’t mind, we can change positions to a princess carry as well.” Cain continued forward without much care.

“I can walk by myself!”

“Please pretend to be an honest unconscious elf, who knows how long the path is, what would happen if someone finds out?”

“No one will find out when it’s this dark! At least wait till we’re there!”

The secret passage was indeed longer than imagined. Dark and small, the stone walls were moist with condensation, the floor beneath the feet was uneven.

Cain continued forward carry the servant’s lamp, his footsteps echoing in the passage. Though the path was long, there were no divisions, soon they reached the end.

“Good, starting now, you can play dead.”

In the darkness, the knight declared somberly.

---

Translator’s Notes

*So, a pic of doggy Cain 😉 from the author’s facebook page, go and check out the art by Tina!

**It’s always the butler!

On a side note, we finally meet Cain (under the iron bucket of an armor), and he’s nothing like Ellen thought XD. Poor Ellen.

<< Chapter Two                                                                              Chapter Four >>

The Unicorn Legion: The Golden Capital – Chapter 2

Author: Demon Lord D (D魔王)

Translator: Lylis

Editor: MeeBoo

Chapter 2: Siren’s Tears

When Ellen walked out of the bar, it couldn’t be said that his condition was good, but at least he walked out by himself. In comparison to those that were carried out, or like the drunkards leaning against the wall vomiting, he could be considered relatively sober.

The door to the pub closed behind him, with a deep clanking sound. Then everything was silent.

The curfew during the wartime had already be lifted early on, but during the late night, the lower city belonged to the burglars, thieves, murderers and black market dealers, normal people would not want to be wandering about here.

Moonlight came down gently, spilling on the ancient streets. But the small alleyway on either side seemed as if to reject the light, hiding themselves completely in the darkness, even the elf with his night vision, could not see completely within.

Don’t come near – it was as if it was giving out a silent warning.

Then in that darkness, something seemed to move. Ellen rested his hand on his dagger and looked in that direction.

In threes and twos, a group of people came out. The elf released his breath.

They were mercenaries. Although more than half were unknown to him, most of them could be considered familiar faces. A few of them, Ellen even joined in on missions together.

The leader was a bandit, seemingly recognizing Ellen. He nodded, as if in greeting, then turned in another direction.

Probably returning to the Inn after a mission, the elf thought, silently following ten paces or so behind them.

The Inn was simply “The Inn”, there was no name on the signboard. But since that was the only place in the lower city that accepted mercenary boarders, there was a silent consensus, to call it “The Mercenary’s Home”. The story was that the owner was saved by a mercenary in his youth, so he was happy to accept people who were considered vagrants and thugs in the normal people’s eyes – as long as they were willing to pay a room fee higher than that of a normal person’s.

“The Mercenary’s Home” was located at the edge of the lower city, it was a group of buildings surrounded by high walls. The story goes that it was refitted from a jailing facility, thus it was far away from the civilian quarters and in the center is a large empty field.

That field had been used to house refugees from all over, but since the war was over, they had all been sent back.

Now all that was left were all sorts of crudely shaped lean-tos, which had yet to be dismantled.

Between the various tents, was a small well-worn path, which was just manageable to pass through.

Since stepping onto that field, Ellen had felt a strange atmosphere. Perhaps it was simply the effect of alcohol, or perhaps it was because this is the first time he had ever returned this late, or perhaps it was because…

Yes, it was the silence.

A group of mercenaries just returning from a mission, in full gear, needn’t worry about someone purposefully causing trouble, so there was absolutely no reason for them to be discreet. This should be when they are laughing and joking loudly, but not one of them could be heard talking.

–As if they were not on their way home, but in the middle of a mission.

Ellen lifted his head, finally confirming the source of his suspicion.

–The numbers were different.

A group that started off with around ten or so people; now there was only four, walking in front of him: a warrior, two bandits*, and an archer.

Ellen could almost be certain, that the ones who were missing, were mostly archers.

Naturally they aren’t really missing, just hidden, preparing to sneak behind; prevent the prey from escaping.

Not a bad trap. Unfortunately once the “prey” realizes this, it would be pointless.

The elf’s lips lifted in a mocking smile, silently bent down, and disappeared behind one of the tents.

The first to notice something was wrong, was one of the bandits.

When he looked back, he found that the elf was no longer following behind them like before, he immediately alerted the other three urgently.

From afar Ellen watched as the four stopped, talked for a moment, then turned around, carefully returning the way they came.

Too bad they were not stupid enough to search separately, Ellen thought with a little regret. –Since one versus four is still a little tiring.

As the four painfully searched for their prey, Ellen had already found two of the hidden archers, and dealt with them. Following that he successfully snuck behind the four.

The last member of the four man group was a warrior. He felt like cursing. They spent the whole day searching the streets for that damned bastard, and he was actually leisurely hiding in the bar, and now…

The warrior threw down his helmet in frustration, looking around himself, hoping to find the drunk elf passed out on some roadside.

“Looking for me?”

Reflexively the warrior turned his head around, what welcomed him was the hilt of a dagger. Hitting him across the nose, the pain made his eyes water. It was followed by another blow, to the back of his head. He dropped, armor and all, lying in the muddy road.

The two bandits and the remaining archer got into battle formation, forming a straight line, facing their opponent.

Thus the few archers still in hiding, even if they wanted to help, they would find the only barrier between them and the target would be their three comrades. They would have to abandon their advantage of ranged attacks and run to the front to help, or choose the easy way out: casually release an arrow or two, then pretend to die to one side.

–They chose the latter option.

The elf’s fist struck out randomly, hitting the upper torso of the archer unprotected by armor, and so, the expert they called “The one who could hit a running boar 100 paces away (aka Running Boar)”, writhed on the ground like a dying boar.

At that moment, one of the bandits finally managed to sneak behind the elf, preparing to stab at the unprotected back. But just as he was about to thrust forward, his face ate an elbow soundly, and so he went to join his other comrades.

The one remaining bandit was undoubtedly the leader.

Facing this type of raid, he didn’t panic, just drew his dagger, blocking the elf’s own short knife.

They were basically evenly matched, but the bandit was relieved.

The elf in front of him was not good at close quarter combat, just relying on agility and night vision, gaining quite a bit of an advantage in this setting. Plus the elf was not wearing any protective gear, even a little nick could decrease his energy by a lot.

In comparison, his own light armor had already blocked several threatening attacks by the dagger. As time drags on, becoming an endurance match, victory would undoubtedly be his.

But at that moment, the hidden archer made his move as if waking from a dream. Arrows flew towards them one after another, at a low angle, clearing aiming for the lower body. – As long as they were lucky enough to hit the target, it would be fine even if a team mate got a little hurt accidentally.

The bandit immediately began to feel the pressure. It was as if the elf was dancing, casually strolling through the rain of arrows, at the same time leading his opponent into the path of the archer. Cold breeze following the path of the arrows, brushed against the leg of the pants, and again.

Until one arrow sliced across the bandit’s body, the cloth near his thigh – or rather the side of his buttocks – was left with a hole. The wound wasn’t deep, but it burned a little painfully. The bandit finally couldn’t stand it, and opened his mouth to shout angrily.

“Can you fuckers stop shooting! You bunch of idiotic –“

Who knows if the following words were “pigs” or “asses”, the sensation of a cold strip of hardness against his throat stopped him.

The elf’s green orbs reflected the moonlight, looking at him calmly.

“Though I don’t expect to get an answer, but to be polite I should still ask – who sent you?”

The bandit finally made his decision, when he felt the sharp point of the dagger pressed against his throat, closing his eyes, he scratched at an indentation at the hilt of the dagger.

A cloud of purple gas silently spread from between the two of them.

Poisoned gas.

The elf jumped back reflexively, holding his breath at the same time.

But still he miscalculated, the gas didn’t target the lungs.

The ground at night, turned into a forest shadowed by trees.

The sun shone through the treetops, leaving spots of light on the ground.

Amongst the sound of the cicadas, the elf lifted his head, faintly he say “them” standing under the trees, waving in his direction.

“Siren’s Tears”. A hallucinogen created using the tears of the magical creature Siren, along with strong mental magic. Non-lethal, due to its high cost, it was almost never used in real battles.

300 years ago, it was a popular drug in the black market.

–People say that, in the tears of a Siren, you can see heaven.

The elf swayed and fell.

The bandit – a veteran mercenary called “Golden Toothed Shark” – sighed with heartfelt pain, putting away his dagger.

The tool given by the employer was used just like that.

Although he originally wanted to save it for emergencies, not planning to trade it for money.

But, it was still regrettable: the current asking price for “Siren’s Tears” in the black market was one hundred gold coins, and it was in a long term state of shortage.

However, compared to the reward this time, who cares if it was used.

Golden Tooth Shark sighed again, and started to kneel down to check on his team mates.

It seemed that the elf had been merciful, they were all breathing. That was unfortunate, but he would remedy that mistake quickly.

Golden Tooth Shark picked up the elf’s dagger, and drew a line across the warrior [Shield]’s throat, followed by the archer [Running Boar], and finally his peer [Shadow].

The archers hidden around the clearing were already up, and heading in this direction.

The idiots.

Golden Tooth Shark laughed coldly and silently at the bottom of his heart.

The elf was light, not requiring two people to carry.

Therefore, only one person can leave this field alive to collect the reward.

---

Translator’s Notes

Wow, I’m churning these out fairly fast, but don’t get used to it! It’s only because this is the first few chapters and everything is new XD. Eventually, it’ll taper off to one chapter every few days. I’m currently staying up crazy late to get these done and I do like my sleep.

*盜賊 – I couldn’t decide whether to use “Rogue” or “Bandit” for the job title, but in the end i decided to use ‘bandit’. (Google translation says bandit or robber lol)

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