Dantalian no Shoka:Volume1 Chapter2

The housekeeper that lived at the mansion was the first to notice the abnormality.

Stench could be smelled within the darkness.

The fishy stench of blood mixed with the special smell of an animal.

The first that came to mind were the stray cats around the mansion.

One of them, an old crafty black cat, once sneaked into the mansion and eated the Lady's parrot in a grotesk manner.

The fury of the Lady the time wasn't normal so it was even a great bother to all the servants. An event one gets fed up just by remembering.

That's why she reluctantly left her bed and went to the main wing in the moon light.

The time was still deep night.

The town was silent and the lightless inner of the mansion dark. It felt like the stagnated dark air was filled with a strong abnormal stench.

"...Lord?"

The housekeeper called out because she heard something while climbing the stairs.

A clanking sound rehalled below her.

Glass splitters were all over the carpet. The corridor window had been wrenched open so the glass broke.

And the landlord was lying collapsed in the bedroom right in front of it.

"Are you alright, Lord? What happened here...?"

The housekeeper was surprised and wanted to go to aid but stopped her movements when she entered the room.

Then she took a breath out of fear.

What was lying collapsed there wasn't her master anymore, but a lump of meat with a human shape.

His throat was torn up and the blood that had spurt from it dyed the room in black.

His clothes ragged by sharp claws. His expression had freezed in a state of distress.

The young lady was also in the room and so her mother lying upside-down like to guard her.

"S-Someone..."

The housekeeper slowly stepped backwards and unconsciously averted her gaze from the corpses.

Then she noticed. Something was moving inside the room.

Something, that had hidden itself behind the corpses, raised its upper body.

It looked like an beast and was about two head taller than an adult man. It was big and seemed to easily weight multiple times as much as the short-built housekeeper.

Raising its wolf-like head, it starred at her.

A body covered with black hair.

A sharp nose and a widely opened mouth. Golden eyes.

Lastly, unusual strongly developed muscles at the limbs.

"Hya! ....HYAAAAAAAAAAH!!"

The housekeeper screamed out.

Maybe the beast was surprised by her voice, maybe not. But it turned around with unbelievable agility and broke through the window to the outside.

It landed on the wall surrouding the mansion and then, for one moment, looked up to the sky with the blood on its hairs sparkling.

Then the beast disappeared like to melt into the darkness---

Episode 02: Crossbreed

1

A pub near the railstation was currently crowded with people wanting lunch.

Dishes, of which only the portions were good, were lined up on the counter and the bearded host was busy moving around.

Almost all the guests were wearing plain clothes and seemed like workers.

Many of them looked rude and there were also ones within the mass that already smelled of alcohol.

In the corner of this pub, there was a party of two with another atmosphere than the rest.

A young man about 20 years old, and a little girl with long black hairs.

The young man was wearing a leather frock coat and a small sized bag.

His sincer features implied a good upbringing, but interestingly he didn't seem ignorant of the ways of the world. One could feel the atmosphere of a well trained soldier in every of his movements.

"Let's go Dalian... Soon it's time for the appointment."

Taking out a army-use pocket watch, he called out to the girl.

The black-haired girl called Dalian looked expressionlessly up to him. And then said with haughtiness that didn't fit to her cute looks,

"Wait, Hughy. I am still in the middle of my meal."

"In the middle of it?.... Do you still plan to eat more?"

The young man called Hughy asked a bit amazed. A lot of cleanly eaten up plates were already piled up in front of the girl. In the plate, she was currently eating, were things like Fish & Chips, Meatpie and sugared glossy fried bread.

Only fatty dishes one almost gets heartburn just from looking.

"Why do you need to ask such an obvious thing?"

However, Dalian pointed without problem to the counter while biting in those dishes,

"This foolish pub offers eat-all-you-can for their fried breads! The price is the same, so then it's overwhelmingly more profit when I eat a lot. Are you so dense, you can't even do such simple maths?"

"No, I know that much even without maths..."

Hughy sighed lightly. The black-haired girl looked up to him and said

"In that case quickly bring me the next serving, you dunce."

"......"

While shaking his head, Hughy stood up as ordered to him and walked towards the counter.

Noticing Hughy with his sour face, the host of the pub raised doubtful an eyebrow.

"An unfamiliar face. You two, are you outsiders?"

"Yes. We just arrived with the train before."

Hughy smiled sociably. Looking around in the crowded pub he added

"Quite lively in here. I expected this town to be a bit calmer."

A group of about fifteen men were yelling around all the time in the center of the shop. A noisy bunch who seemed to be something like hunters or ex-soldats.

The host looked at them bothered and muttered in a tone like to speak to himself

"It is actually a calm town, you know. If there wasn't this incident."

"...incident?"

Hughy inclined his head. The host answered while cutting the roastbeef in front of him,

"The Beast of Ashwell. Didn't come because you've also hear of this rumour?"

"No. What is it about?"

Seemingly having aroused his interest, Hughy leaned forward lightly.

The host took out a newspaper from a stack of newspapers on the ground and presented it to him. A thin tabloid size local paper. It was the last week's issue.

"It's big on the first page. A lawyer that opened his business in this town got murdered."

"A lawyer...?"

While looking through the creased newspaper, Hughy narrowed his eyes. Ashwell was the name of the murdered lawyer. Leonard Ashwell. Age at death; 40 years.

"Mr. Ashwell was a famous barrister in this town, you see. He accepted cases for little prices, proceeded against corruped policemen or sued landlords that abused tenant farmers... for us common people he was like a hero."

"This hero... got murdered?"

Yeah, the host answered bluntly.

"Not just the lord. His wife and daughter got all murdered, too. I tell you, it was a cruel thing."

"...what about culprit?" asked Hughy.

"Huh?"

"Is it still unknown, who killed them? According to what you've just told me, he seemed to have many enemies."

"Ah, well yeah... Surely the bunch that shunned him wasn't all that small..."

The host said hazy. It was in a voice tired by lamenting.

"But we know who's the culprit. And there's the big problem."

"Who is it?"

"It's not a human. A beast."

"A beast?"

"I've heard it's taller than your common cow and looks like a wolf."

Hughy kept quiet for a while and gazed at the bearded face of the host. Then he lost his focus and breathed out,

"Err... can you tell me more about this?"

The host sighed deeply.

"A servant of the Ashwell's witnessed it. How this beast killed the whole family and in the end escaped through the window after it ate a bit of them."

"For real...?"

Hughy asked back perplexed. The host nodded deeply,

"Well... the servant collapsed right after the police arrived and the thing about it being bigger than a cow is probably not true. But I also don't think it's all a lie. Since there actually were corpsed eroded by a beast. And there were also hairs and footprints."

"I see..."

Hughy dropped his gaze to the newspaper. The contents of it were clearly substantiating the host's words.

"So the people gathered here are planning to hunt the beast?"

Hughy asked so gazing at the main street, which one could see from the entrance of the pub.

There were about 4, 5 gods, looking like hunting dogs, fastened carelessly to the street light. And the long and narrow luggage several guests of the pub were carrying, was probably their hunting gun.

The host continued in a indifferent voice.

"Vengeance for the Lord... a lot of people got support from him, you see. Especially the townspeople involved with this damn provoking Hurston family..."

"Hurston family?"

Hughy inclined once again his head. This name wasn't written in the newspaper.

The host nosed displeasured.

"Didn't you notice when you arrived? This fucking big fertilizer factory."

"If you're talking about this builing I could see from the window in the train..."

"Yeah, that's it. The city council member Roy Hurston is managing this factory, but this damn greenhorn fired about 500 workers half a year ago. Unilateral, just because he brought in a new machine!"

"Dismissal? But what happened to the workers...?"

Hughy asked in a serious voice. The host shrugged his shoulders bluntly,

"See, there's no other industry company in this town. It was awful. When they were on the edge of hanging themselves or become criminals, Mr. Ashwell came and rescued them."

"Rescued them....?"

"It's called 'class-action'. He stired up the press and caused an uproar with this. It seems like he even got back support by the noble and wealthy people of the capital. Thanks to this the Hurston greenhorn got severely criticised in court. Everyone was delighted when he won the lawsuit right in the first instance."

I see, Hughy nodded. Ashwell surely could be called a hero.

"And now the former employees want to revenge him...?"

"They seem to plan to go to a mountain hunt together with the hunters and ex-servicemen that gathered from the nearby. Some of them want to strike it rich by capturing this mysterious beast alive... I was sure you'd also belong to this bunch. I mean, you've also been a soldier, right?"

"No... I was just a pilot."

Hughy shook his head with a smile.

The host looked wonderingly at Hughy.

"Hmm... When you're not aiming for the beast, then why did you come to this town...?"

Hughy stiffened lightly his cheeks and nodded.

"Well... I have an appointment with an acquaintance of an acquaintance. This bread, I'm taking this with me, alright?"

"U, Uuh...?"

Hughy hurriedly wrapped up a fried bread in some oil paper and walked away. The host gazed for a while in wonder at him. Hughy pretended to not notice this and returned with fast steps to his table.

Dalian was already on watch for him with a bitter expression, embracing the sugar pot.

"You are late! How long does it take you to get some bread, you lame duck?"

Even before Hughy could sit down, Dalian came vituperating him. Hughy made a tired face and said,

"...let's go, Dalian."

The girl looked up amazed to him and held out her hands covered with protectors.

"What are you talking about? I will now eat this fried bread. Hurry up and hand it over."

"Your acquaintanted Hurston family seems to be pretty unpopular in this town... if they would know that our destination is the house of the Hurston's, then they'd probably cause quite an uproar."

Saying so, Hughy started to put together their luggage. Seeing this Dalian panicted. While standing up hurriedly she reached out her hands and said,

"Hey Hughy, why are you stowing the bread away? I've not yet put sugar on it. Hughy!"

"It also seems better, we'd not search for a carriage in the nearby. Can't be helped... then we'll walk for a bit."

"Hey! What are you doing? Let go of my hands. Where are you touching me? How lewd!"

Hughy took the kicking and struggling little girl, almost like luggage, under his arms and left the shop.

Beholding the sugar pot left on the table woefully, Dalian muttered in a tearful voice,

"Sugar..."

2

While the Hurston Family didn't hold a peerage, they were a gentry family with equal fortune and authority. They owned land around the town and employed several tenant farmers. A lot of them also were working in important offices of the town, like as judges or as comittee members.

Their residence was a big mansion on a high ground with a view down on the town.

There was a well maintenanced garden with flowers blooming in profusion and in the adjoining farm, expensive racehorses were grazing. Also the building itself was impressing and let one feel the assets of the family.

There was just one thing ruining this scenery, which was a group of about 40 or 50 people encircling the front door of the mansion. It was a protest movement against the discharge of the factory employees.

Gazing at them through the window of the parlor, Hughy sipped at his black tea with an uncomfortable expression. Dalian was sitting on a couch, absorbed in reading books she freely took out a bookshelf in the mansion. She was expressionless as always, but looked amused in a way. When she could read a rare book, she was almost always in a good temper.

"Thank you for waiting."

The time Hughy's tea cup was half-empty, a tall man wearing an american sack suit was guided by a butler and entered the room.

His age was about in the midst of the twenties. A young man which wasn't so much older than Hughy.

Seeing Hughy looking back to him, the man tried to manage a vague smile. But then instantly seemed surprised and stopped.

Staring at Dalian who was wordlessly reading a book, he spoke lightly bewildered,

"Err... are you the Black Reading Princess?"

"......"

Dalian gradually noticed his existence and raised her face. The man smiled timidly while she scowled at him on guard.

But his bewilderment was reasonable. This is because Dalian was a beauty that gave off the impression of a doll. Furthermore her dress added to this with its enigma.

Cloth decorated out with jet black laces. A skirt bulged up by several layers of frills. These outlines of her were enfolded by metallic protectors on her back hands and a unrefined tasset.

Her looks made one think of the ceremonial robes of medieval knights; an odd mixture that couldn't be called dress nor armor.

And finally, in place of a ribbon, she was wearing an old, metallic chest .

A big lock, tied to her with silver chains.

Even so the man bowed politely to the black-dressed girl.

"Please forgive my rudeness. I wasn't expecting such a beautiful lady..."

The corners of Dalian's mouth twitched when she heard his words. If she was a cat, she'd surely curr now pleased.

For some reason Dalian gave Hughy a triumphant sidelong glance and tugged at his sleeves. Then she muttered in a low voice,

"This greenhorn is quite promising. You ought to follow his example a bit."

Hughy sighed amazed.

"Wasn't this a mere phrase of civility... ah..."

He got his shin kicked by Dalian's metallic boots and frowned.

The timidly smiling man beheld their giving and taking in confusion.

"Thank you for taking on this far journey... I'm relieved you arrived without problems."

Finally he could pull himself together and said so.

He then shifted his glance in the direction of the front door of the mansion.

The workers gathered in front of the door were still hanging out banners across the street and were still raising protesting voices. There some guts are needed in order to slip through the circle of this menacing crowd.

"Well, somehow."

Hughy nodded with a bitter smile.

"But I pity the carriage driver who got thrown with rotten eggs."

"Is that so..."

The man sighed.

"I will provide this driver with a servant later, as apology."

"...this group seems to consists of the workers discharged by the factory, right?"

Hughy asked nonchalantly.

The man cast down his eyes sentimentally.

"Yes. The protest movement settled down a bit after the judgement at the first instance, but since a few days its again like this... do you already know about the barrister Ashwell?"

"I've hear about it underway by the host of a pub we went to... a beast has attacked him?"

"W-Well yes... such rumours seem to be also in circulation..."

The man's voice trembled.

"With the death of their barrister, the judgments from now on are in the wind. I think that's also a reason why the former employess of the factory grew wild now. I just hope my brother recognizes that they do have lives and families to protect."

"By 'brother' you mean...?"

"Aah, I forgot to mention this. My name's Chez Hurston. The head of the factory is my older brother, Loy Hurston."

Again with a timid smile, the man held out his right hand.

"My name is Hugh Anthony Disward - you may call me Hughy. And she's Dalian."

With these words, Hughy grasped back his hand. Then suddenly he seemed to have come upon something unexpected.

He noticed that the palm of Chez's hand was solid and trained, although he looked very timid.

Rather than the son of a rich gentry family, this seemed to be the fist of a coachman or groom, who fosters horses.

"Er... I've heard you came to meet grandfather... forgive my rudeness, but what kind of business...?"

Chez didn't notice Hughy's bewilderement and asked so reluctantly.

Not Hughy, but Dalian answered to this question.

"We came to hand over a book. The old Phantom Book we were entrusted with by your ancestors."

"Phantom Book...?"

Chez inclined his head. Dalian gazed at him expressionlessly.

"I've heard it's considered to be the proof of the current head of the family."

"Is that so? ...I see. So grandfather is..."

Chez muttered, comprehending something.

It was right after this, that rude footsteps could be heard from the corridor and the door to the parlor opened violently.

3

"Chez...! Is Chez here?!"

A stern-looking man with sharp eyes entered the parlor.

He looked around arrogantly in the room and seemed obviously unpleased when he noticed Hughy and Dalian.

"Brother."

Chez moaned weakly.

Hughy and Dalian compared the two of them with the eye wordlessly.

Apparently the man, that was called 'brother' by Chez, seemed to be the city council member Loy Hurston.

His was about in the latter half of his twenties. He could probably be classified as a young public official. He was just about 4 or 5 years older than Chez.

However, the impressions of those brothers were quite different. The appearance of the younger brother was helpless, but polite and gentle, whilst the older brother was brimming with self-confidence and haughtiness. In a sense, their relation was obvious.

"What is this bunch outside the mansion? Didn't I tell you to drive away this riffraff?"

Loy rebuked his younger brother unresisted in front of Hughy and Dalian's eyes.

Chez chewed his words,

"But look, brother. They aren't trying to do us any harm. They just seek an employment and hence wish to discuss this matter once again with you. So please..."

"So what?"

Loy asked him back in a cynic voice.

"Don't make me laugh. There's nothing to discuss with those lower classes. What a waste of time."

"...isn't it this one-sided attitude of you, that makes them revolt like this?"

"Don't be absurd. Are you telling me to bow my head to those lowlives out there?"

"What a nonsense" Loy added muttering like to spit out.

"To begin with, wasn't their uncapability the reason they failed keeping a job? Why should I, Loy Hurston, bear responsibility for this? Listen Chez, the ability of us humans isn't equal. Superiour people have a role appropriate to their ability and incapable people aren't allowed to hinder them."

"Even so, suddenly dismissing them is going too far! Didn't they all expend great effort for the factory up to now?"

Chez tried desperately to convince his brother.

But Loy just looked down on him with a cold gaze,

"However much effort uncapable people do expend, they cannot win against a person with true ability. Aren't you, more than anyone other, aware of this fact, Chez?"

The younger brother hanged his head powerlessly to the mocking words of his brother.

Chez looked down miserably, but Loy didn't care and asked him rudely,

"By the way... who are those guys?"

Loy gazed suspiciously at Hughy and Dalian.

"They are our guests! The two of them came to meet grandfather... Sir Disward and Miss Dalian."

Chez said to his brother in a reproving voice.

A light astonishment skimmed over Loy's face.

"...Sir Disward? A relative of Wesley Disward?"

"Pleased to meet you."

Hughy smiled uncomfortable. He stood up and greeted him politely.

When he recognized that the out-of-place looking guests were related to a noble family, Loy changed his attitude abruptly. He drew near as of they were intimate and smiled unnaturally.

"Welcome, Sir Disward! I am Loy Hurston."

"I've heard you are a member of the city council? You seem to be a very busy person!"

A bit cynicism was mixed in Hughy's words, but Loy nodded exaggeratedly.

"You see, the Hurston family is a personage in this town. So we have to do reputable work."

Then he turned around to his younger brother,

"Are you planning to lead them to grandfather's room hereafter?"

"Yes, that's what I thought..."

Chez answered in a subdued voice.

"Got it. I shall accompany you."

Loy said so interrupting his brother.

"Pointless..."

A hoarse voice could be heard from behind Loy.

An old man escorted by servants arrived on a roll chair with creaking metallic wheels. He looked terrible pale.

"This won't be... necessary... Loy."

"Grandfather?"

Loy turned around to him surprised, while Chez rushed over to the old man hurriedly.

"Grandfather... what about your health? Please don't overdo things..."

"I'm fine, Chez..."

The old man said in a cracking voice resembling a rusty gear.

"It sins against good manners to invite the Reading Princes to our house and then summon her to my bedroom..."

Dalian stepped up to the old man.

She elegantly spread the sleeves of her jet black dress, stopped and then proclaimed with a face as expresionless as the one of a doll. Her voice seemed lonesome in a way.

"You've gotten old... Haven't you, Boyd Hurston?"

A smile floated over the stale cheeks of the old man. He kissed her hand that was covered with a metallic protector.

"You are without change, Black Reading Princess... I am truly grateful... that you've come to grant my wish."

Dalian nodded silently.

"Based on an old contract, I've come to hand out a book. The Phantom Book sealed by your ancestor in the distant past... 'The Pedigree of All Creation'."

Upon the words of the black-dressed girl, Loy's look became grim.

"Phantom Book...? Grandfather, what does this...?"

The old man raised his face clumsy and turned his glance towards his two grandchildren.

"It's an ancient book... the new head of the Hurston family is allowed to read it only once in his entire life. The proof of the present head of... our family."

"So that means... you've called them today because..."

"You two should be aware of this... but I won't last... so long anymore. It's something... I have to pass on to the new head before I leave this world..."

When the old man spoke so far, he started to cough violently. He coughed up blood and it didn't seem to stop any time soon.

"Grandfather...!"

Chez patted the back of the old man. In the meanwhile, a servant poured out water from a water jar and presented it to him. The old man grapped the glass with termbling fingers.

"Tonight... come to my room before the date changes... there... I shall conduct the inheritance... is this alright for you... Black Reading Princess?"

The old man asked while breathing painfully.

Dalian proclaimed without a single change in her expression.

"I've heard your wish."