Hello there, dear readers! My name is Haru, the half-Dragovian prince of Trodain, one of the members of the Loyal Bodyguards. I'm here to tell you all the tale about my quest. Yes, from start to finish. And let me tell you, before my quest began, I didn't even start off as a prince like I am today. In the beginning, I was working as a low-ranking royal guard of Trodain ever since I was 10, and continued this way until I grew up to my actual age of 18 as of today. I'm sure you're wondering why I started off like that, huh? See, I had my memories of early childhood wiped out somehow. I couldn't remember who my parents were, where I was born, or anything I did before I turned 8 years old, as that was my age when I was taken to Castle Trodain as an orphan. Because of this, I had no idea I was a hybrid, but most importantly, I didn't know I had royal blood, and so I thought I was just an ordinary commoner who had a pet pig-rat, Munchie, who was able to live longer than any other pig-rats out there for some reason.
Anyway, we're starting off in the region of Farebury, and evening is approaching. I had sent Munchie to scout the area in search of the town since I didn't have a map of the region. Fortunately, it didn't take too long as I saw him running back to the grove where I currently was resting in after a long and tiring walk. As Munchie scurried into the clearing, he skidded to a stop right in front of a sleeping green troll-like creature wearing orange robes. Hold up! No need to question why I had a green troll accompanying me. Long story short, he used to be a king before being cursed into this troll you're seeing here.
Anyways… the troll king, whose name was Trode, snapped awake and glanced down at Munchie, shooting him a cruel look with an angry leer. In response, Munchie let out a surprised squeak and immediately hightailed away from him, jumping back into his favorite hiding place: my jacket's pocket.
As I looked down at Munchie tucking cutely in my pocket, I cracked a smile before gently petting the top of his head. He sure was quite a strange mouse, if you ask me. Not only has he lived way longer as I mentioned before, but as far as I'm concerned, any other pet mouse would run for mousy freedom if left outside. But Munchie would always return to me. It had been like that ever since I could remember having him, despite not even knowing how I got him in the first place. Despite that, I let it slide. I always liked having some company with me, after all.
"Oy! Guv!" a voice with a thick Cockney accent called out to me, bringing me out of my thoughts. That voice belonged to Yangus himself, and "guv" is just a nickname that he likes to refer me as (which is short for "guv'nor", by the way).
I lifted myself off the tree stump I was sitting on. "Yes, Yangus?" I replied to him.
"It's gonna get dark if we 'ang about 'ere much longer." Yangus said. "Let's 'ead inta town. There's better places than this to spend an evenin'!"
"You're right." I nodded, then I looked over at the wooden bridge leading out of the grove. "I think we should be minutes away to Farebury Town from here. We should be able to make it there in time before night falls."
"Got it." Yangus nodded. "Ya know, I've prob'ly said it before, but it beats me 'ow you ended up workin' for an old codger like 'im!" he directed to Trode, who went back to sleeping again, at the last sentence. "Not that I can talk, though, eh?! Guess people say the same thing about me workin' for you."
I couldn't help but chuckle lightly in agreement by that. At first glance, Yangus didn't really look to be the type of person you'd want to be friends with due to his strong, tough guy looks. Not gonna lie; when I first met him, I thought he was a scary-looking and intimidating individual, but as we traveled together, he proved himself to me to be a trust-worthy companion.
"Hm? Old codger!? I do hope you're not referring to me!" Trode's high-strung, kingly voice spoke offendedly, as he had woken up from his nap and now had his eyes fixed at Yangus. "What would you know!? A lowlife like you wouldn't recognize nobility if it came up and bit you on the… arrrgh!" he growled, not wanting to finish what he was going to say… and then he and Yangus proceeded to glare daggers at each other while trembling in anger, while I just stood there helplessly in front of them.
"There they go again… " I thought while sighing. Ever since Yangus joined up, he and Trode didn't start off on good terms and would constantly snap at each other whenever they had the chance to do so. Even if I tried to stop them, they would just ignore me and still keep at it.
Thankfully, Trode soon broke off from the glaring fit and addressed me, "Enough dilly-dallying! Eight! Where's the Princess? I can't see her anywhere…"
I blinked. "What do you mean? She's right over…" I turned around to where our carriage stood, which is usually where the Princess would always stand by… but found no sign of her. "…there?"
"She's not there anymore!" Trode snapped.
I sighed. "Alright, let's look for her." And thus began our search, with Trode and Yangus running around the grove while I stood in place and looked to the other direction, where I could see a small pond with flowing water. But, the moment I locked eyes with it… I saw something appearing in front of it: some sort of beacon of light or something. "Huh?" my eyes widened.
Apparently, this also caught Trode and Yangus' attention as they ran over to me and eyed at the beacon, which was glowing even brighter now. "Wh-what is this?!" Trode asked.
"I… I don't know…" I breathed, as that's all I could say. I mean, what other words can I say about what's happening in front of us?
Just then, the beacon disappeared with a flash… and eight young girls stood in its place frozen in midair, all of them sporting wide eyes.
"Aah!" It wasn't long until gravity kicked in and they all fell to the ground with a yelp, resulting in them ending up on top of each other in a pile.
"I'm being crushed!"
"Someone get off of me!"
"Someone's pulling on my skirt!"
"Ayayayaya! I can't feel my wings!"
These were some of the main complaints we could hear from them as they were trying to get off the pile all at once.
"Oh… It's just a bunch o' girls." Yangus said, sounding surprisingly casual about this even though these girls came from absolutely out of nowhere. Did I even mention that some of them are a bit funny-looking? For instance, three of them were sporting wings (one's being made out of icicles, another's were resembling a crow's, while the other's are like those of a bat), one had bunny ears and tail (although I just assumed those were accessories), and another had a strange large white… thing floating next to her.
"It's… not that common to see girls popping out from lights out of nowhere…" I sweatdropped.
Eventually, the girls shuffled around on the pile and managed to stand back up on their feet directly in front of us. Then, we and the girls would stare in awe at each other silently for a few seconds… until the girl that was mostly wearing red broke the silence.
"So… do any of you know where the heck are we?" she asked the rest of the girls.
"Umm… no?" the girl with the white floating thing replied.
"You know, I don't think this is anywhere near the Hakurei Shrine…" the girl with crow wings pointed out, looking around.
"I don't even think this is Gensokyo anymore…" the girl with bat wings added.
" Hakurei Shrine? Gensokyo? What are they talking about? " I thought, my eyebrow raised in confusion.
"Hey, maybe one of these guys can answer us!" the girl with icicle wings said while directing to us… before suddenly flying over to my face, as I instinctively backed up slightly. Has she not ever heard of personal space before? "So? Tell us! Where are we?" she asked me.
"U-um…" I stuttered awkwardly, unable to get my gaze away from her blue innocent eyes. Trying to compose myself, I began, "Well, you are in…"
*RUSTLE…*
But I cut myself off when we suddenly heard the noise of rustling bushes, and so we looked around for the source. When we heard the noise again, we would all look back at the bushes on the pond behind the girls… and just then, three Slimes jumped out of the bushes.
"Oh, snap!" I shouted in surprise.
"Uh-oh! Here comes trouble, guv!" Yangus exclaimed, pulling out a crude spiked club from his back. I nodded in response with a determined expression and drew my sword, then I stood in front of the girls as Yangus did the same and joined alongside me.
"What are these things?!" the bunny girl asked.
"Slimes." I replied seriously. "Stand back, girls! We'll handle them!" and with that, I and Yangus got ready to battle.
I quickly started off by making a step towards the closest Slime and slashed it in the middle, cleaving it in half and bringing it to its demise instantly. Yangus followed up, bludgeoning the second Slime flat with one whack. The last remaining Slime attempted to attack me but I simply jumped to the side as Yangus bashed it, but missed as it taunted him… only to get sliced in half by me, and it was history.
"That takes care of them." I said, putting my sword away before folding my arms across my chest looking defiant and proud, even if I knew that the monsters I defeated were weak and harmless.
"… Wow, that was it?" the girl with a doll floating next to her questioned. "Talk about anti-climatic…"
"Well, Slimes are practically the weakest of all monsters, so they're killed off easily." I explained.
"Oh."
Trode then walked up to us. "Well… they certainly took us by surprise. But nothing we couldn't handle, eh!?"
"Um, you didn't actually do anything… " I thought, shooting Trode a weird look.
He began freaking out again. "Now, where's the Princess!? Where's my Medea!? My precious one and only daughter!?" Luckily, it wasn't too long until she finally showed up from the bridge, gracefully trotting her way into the grove. Yes, you read that right: trotting. Even Medea wasn't free from the curse, as she was turned into a beautiful white horse. So, good news: her cursed transformation wasn't into something hideous. Bad news: she's unable to speak in this form.
"Ah! There you are!" Trode's face lit up with relief. "Thank goodness you're safe, Medea!" he immediately ran over to her and hugged as much of her as he could. I watched their reunion with a slight smile crossing my face.
"Aye-aye, the 'orse-princess is back…" Yangus said to me. "That's a relief."
"Hold up…" the last girl spoke up from behind us as I and Yangus looked back at her. "The princess… is a horse?" the one who spoke to us; a girl dressed like a witch, questioned while tilting her head with an expression clearly showing that she thinks we're delusional.
"Oh, it's… kind of a long story." I replied, turning around completely to face the girls along with Yangus. "But before I get to that point… Maybe it's best if you introduce yourselves to us first."
"Yeah, I guess that's fair enough." the girl in red agreed. "Well, I'm Reimu Hakurei and I'm a shrine maiden."
The witch girl stepped forth cheerfully. "I'm Marisa Kirisame, and I'm just an ordinary witch!"
"Remilia Scarlet." the girl with bat wings said. "And I'm a vampire, enough said."
"Wait, you're a vampire?" I asked in surprise.
"Yeah. What, never seen one before?"
"No… I read about them in a book. I just never thought I would see one with my own eyes one day."
"Ah." she simply replied. Despite her seemingly young appearance, I could tell that she has a flair of charisma on her, which I guess it's a fitting personality for a vampire like her.
"Me next!" the girl with icicle wings exclaimed while raising an arm and saying out loud, "I'm Cirno the ice fairy, and I'm the strongest from Gensokyo!"
"Yeah, right…" I heard Marisa mutter under her breath, so maybe what Cirno said was a lie?
"Say, wot's this 'Gensokyo' y'all talkin' about?" Yangus asked.
"It's the name of the world we came from." Reimu answered.
"Oh…" When I thought about it, that name did sound other worldly… and judging by their different clothing, these girls did seem to be from another world.
Anyway… Next, the girl with the white thing approached. "I'm Youmu Konpaku. Nice to meet you!"
"Same, but what's with that white thing floating around next to you?" I asked. I've been dying to ask that to her since that's what caught my attention the most.
"This is my phantom half." Youmu answered while directing to it. "You see, I'm half-human and half-phantom, so I exist with a human body and a phantom body at the same time. Despite this, we both act as one person and share what we experience together."
"Interesting…" By her explanation, it looks like that she is a literal hybrid, existing as what both of her species represent at the same time. Quite astonishing, if you ask me.
"I'm Reisen Udongein Inaba!" the bunny girl said next. "But just call me Reisen!" and then… Yangus would lean in closer to her with a very analytic stare. "Uh… What are you looking at…?" she asked nervously.
"Oh, nothin'…" Yangus replied, stepping back. "I just thought ya were a Bunny Girl fer a sec." Oh, of course he would think about those Bunny Girls…
"What's a…bunny girl?"
"It's best if you don't know." I said with an unpleasant look on my face.
"Okay…"
"Anyways, are those bunny ears your actual ears or just an accessory?"
"They're my real ears. I'm a moon rabbit, see."
"Huh…" Then I guess that confirms that the silhouette seen on the moon really is that of a rabbit. Who would've thought?
Then, the girl with crow wings suddenly walked up to me and Yangus. "I'm Aya Shameimaru! I'm a tengu crow, and I work as a news reporter!" she took out a camera. "Hey, may I take a picture of you?" and before we could even reply, she immediately flashed the camera on us as our eyes involuntarily squinted by the flash. "Thank you!" she thanked cheerfully before walking back.
"Yeesh, ya didn't even let us speak fer permission…" Yangus muttered as he and I were rubbing our eyes.
Lastly, the girl with the doll introduced herself. "I am Alice Margatroid." she simply said. "I'm a magician and my hobby is making dolls." she then directs to the doll next to her. "This here is Shanghai, a doll that I made and animated using magic." I watched in awe as Shanghai floated over to me to greet me with a bow.
"Wow…" I breathed in amazement. "You animate dolls without the use of strings? That's insane!"
"Actually, I do control them via strings of magic. But these are so transparent that you almost can't see them."
"I see." So she's pretty much like an illusionary puppeteer, I assumed.
"Anyways, that's all of us." Reimu said. "And what about you?"
"Oh, right." I cleaned my throat. "Call me Haru. I'm a guardsman of Trodain Castle, but I now became a refugee due to the recent fiasco that happened back then." I directed over to Yangus. "This is my travelling companion, Yangus."
"Sup, ladies?"
Next, I directed to Munchie in my pocket. "This is my pet mouse, Munchie." Munchie would then greet the girls by waving a tiny paw at them.
"Aw! It's so cute!" Aya cooed, immediately snapping a photo of him.
"Heh, thanks…" I replied sheepishly, before directing over to Trode and Medea. "The troll over there is Trode, while the horse is Medea. And that's it."
"Okay, got it." Reimu said with a nod. "Hey, Haru?" she addressed me.
"Yes?"
"Since our introductions are done, how about we go back to you answering what we've been wondering this whole time?"
"Sure." … I paused. "Um… what was I answering to you again?"
"About the place we're in."
"Ah, this is the region of Farebury. It's one of the many different regions of this world. And speaking of which… How exactly did you girls end up here anyways?"
"We… have no idea, actually." Reimu shrugged. "We were all just peacefully enjoying a flower-viewing party at the shrine along with all our other friends, until Marisa came over to us with a book that she got from Kosuzu titled 'The Sky, the Ocean, the Earth, and the Cursed Princess'. And the moment after she read the first paragraphs of the book… it suddenly started glowing on us, and the next thing we knew, we just found ourselves in this place, and the rest is history."
I cupped my chin in thought. "Well, based on what you're saying… Then I guess that book might've been a magical book, which transported you all here."
"That's probably it." Alice agreed.
"Yeah, but problem is… I don't see any way we can get back home from here." Youmu said uneasily. "So we might be stuck here…"
"Hey, that doesn't sound so bad if ya think about it." Marisa said. "Because we now get the rare opportunity to see new places!"
"Exactly!" Aya threw in. "I am going to have so much fun taking pictures and writing articles about this new world!"
"While that sounds exciting… What if we cannot go back to our world anymore?!" Reimu questioned worriedly.
I sighed sadly. "Gee, I'm really sorry for what happened to you, and I'm afraid I won't be of much help either…"
Then, Yangus patted my shoulder to get my attention. "Guv, I 'ate to interrupt a conversation like this, but I say we make a move now, before it gets dark." And by his statement, I looked up at the sky and I could see that it was already evening. Man, time sure flies when you're interacting with others a lot, huh? We both started to walk over to Trode and Medea…
"Hey, if we may ask…" but then Reisen spoke up, stopping me and Yangus on our tracks as we looked back at the girls. "Can we also come along with you guys? We don't really have anywhere else to go, so…"
I already had a clear answer for that, and for a good reason. Since these girls came from another world, obviously they don't know anything about my world and will likely get lost and be attacked by monsters, in which I heard that when night falls, more dangerous monsters tend to appear. There was no way I was going to let some little, innocent girls get into danger. With a sweet smile, I replied to them, "Very well. You girls can come along."
Later, we were all walking down the road leading to Farebury Town. Trode was driving the carriage that was being pulled by Medea, while I was walking beside it on one side and Yangus on the other. Meanwhile, the girls walked next to me… well, all except for Cirno, who was just running around the field with her arms spread out like a cheerful child. I didn't mind that, though. Little kids like her tend to be energetic while exploring new places, after all.
During our journey to the town, I proceeded to tell the girls about my quest of hunting an evil jester named Dhoulmagus in order to break the curse on Trode, Medea and all of Trodain, and when I was done, they then told me about the world of Gensokyo in general. I was left fascinated by their explanation: from what they told me, Gensokyo is a hidden mystical land and is populated mainly by youkai, which are demons from folklore, but there's also a decent number of humans living there as well. In fact, out of all the girls accompanying me, only Reimu and Marisa were humans, much to my surprise since the rest of them looked very human-like for being literal demons. Reimu told me that apparently, all youkai in Gensokyo resemble young girls varying between child to mid-teens ages in terms of appearance, despite many of them being over a hundred years old. It's… quite unusual, don't you think?
Soon enough, as we were nearing our destination, I saw Yangus running up to the top of a hill and catching a glimpse of the town… but then I noticed that there was smoke rising out of it. Is someone over there starting off a fire or something? Well, we walked across the bridge, and the gates instantly opened for us to head in. The town itself was something to look at: it had neat houses and merchants' booths were lining the cobblestone street we took. There were also high walls surrounding it, which was meant to keep monsters out.
We passed by the marketplace as the residents stared at us as we went past them, but I could notice that they took double and triple takes of Trode's appearance as they stared at him with looks of wary and animosity, making me feel a bit unnerved. And at first, I was surprised that the townsfolk didn't stare at the girls the same way with Trode considering that most of them were sporting wings (though I noticed that Aya somehow made hers disappear…?) and other strange stuff on them… but then I realized that it might be because they look more human-like compared to Trode, and they probably just passed these off as mere fancy accessories on them like I assumed before.
As we left the marketplace area, we eventually passed by the source of the smoke I'd seen before we entered the town: a burnt down house. Oh dear… I hope whoever owned this house wasn't killed in the fire and managed to escape safely. From the looks of it, that house appeared to be incinerated just recently. And before I could even ponder further about it, we were already at the town square, where we finally stopped.
I, Yangus and the girls watched as Medea let out a loud and dulcet neigh, and then Trode jumped off the driver's seat to land directly in front of us. "Yes. Yes! Here we are. If my memory serves me correctly, this is the place." he said while taking in the sights. "This is the town where Master Rylus lives."
"Hold yer 'orses, Grandad!" Yangus perked up in confusion. "I thought it was Dhoulmagus we was after."
"I AM NOT YOUR GRANDAD!" Trode retorted. "And of course Dhoulmagus is our man! He's the one who turned Medea and I into such laughing stocks! But that dastardly magician can't hide from us forever! We must track him down and lift this confounded curse!" he then glanced sadly at Medea and grieved, "Oh! Just look at my poor Medea! And we'd only just settled on her engagement to the Prince of Argonia… Oh, that despicable Dhoulmagus!"
Oh yeah… there's also an arranged marriage involved. Basically, Trode made a marriage pact with Argonia generations ago in order to fully establish peace between the two already friendly kingdoms. Now this is just between me and all of you, but I've felt quite upset and heartbroken about this arranged marriage for Medea because… I happen to have a crush on her ever since I first met her. She and I were childhood friends, and we grew up together. I really wanted to be on her side forever. She would always make me happy whenever she's around. But… because I assumed that I was just a commoner, and you know that it's hard for one to be married into royalty, that dream of mine to be with her might possibly not happen, and having an arranged marriage only made this situation worse. But if that's what Medea wants in order to fulfill the pact… then I won't stand in her way, even if it'll hurt my feelings.
"Even so, you owe us a better explanation." Remilia interjected. "Why exactly are we locating this Master Rylus anyway?"
"Ah, silly me. I should've made it more clear to you." Trode replied. "You see, Rylus is the very man who taught Dhoulmagus his meddlesome magic!"
"Oh… So he's Dhoulmagus' teacher, then." Alice concluded.
"Mmhmm. There's every chance he'll be able to give us a clue as to the whereabouts of that evil rogue. That's why you all must find him. I'll be waiting for you here."
"Alright." I nodded. "Yangus, girls, let's get going!"
And so, our quest begins…