Night Hunters

Chapter One: The Tyrant King

"I don't feel good about this."

A voice broke through Tamaki's thoughts as she stood on the deck of the airship, heading back towards the Royal City after a 'mission' sanctioned by the king had sent her and her unit to eliminate an entire civilian village just because they refuse to give the standard one thousand ryou monthly to the king because they could no longer afford it.

Honestly, Tamaki's heart almost broke when she and her unit have arrived at the village, and the terrified villagers have begun acting like they've just seen a demon on their doorsteps.

Is that how the rest of the kingdom sees the Royal Guard now? The Royal Guard had been a branch of the Royal Army whose sole purpose is to safeguard the royal family and this kingdom. Does the common citizens now see them as the enemy, where the first thing that comes to mind the moment that they see the black and silver flag of the Royal Guard being to run and hide?

Ogiwara Shigehiro, Tamaki's childhood friend and also her deputy in the Intelligence Unit approached her with a frown on his face. Next to him, his co-deputy, Haizaki Shogo followed. Like Tamaki and the rest of the Royal Guard, they were both dressed in the black and silver uniforms of the Royal Guard.

"I don't feel good doing this." Shigehiro told Tamaki, a darkened look on his face. "It doesn't feel right, Tamaki."

Hell, Tamaki doesn't like it either when they have received their orders from the king to eliminate that particular village just because they 'are disobeying orders' when all that the village did is to send a missive to the palace, telling the king that they won't be paying the standard one thousand ryou monthly that month because the village could no longer afford it.

"I know." Tamaki sighed, turning around to face her two childhood friends and deputies. "But it isn't our place to question orders. You know that."

"Even still..." Shigehiro had a dark frown on his face that spoke wonders of just how he'd felt about their orders. "Are we, the Royal Guard, the Intelligence Unit, reduced to a bunch of bandits destroying towns and villages, and killing citizens of our kingdom just because they could no longer afford to accede to the king's demands? Are we to continue killing our citizens just because they're questioning the king and his decrees or even his motives?"

"Shige-kun! Quiet down!" Tamaki hissed at him, looking around cautiously to make sure that no one had overheard him. She knew better than anyone the fate of one who had questioned the king. She is the head of Intelligence after all. It is her jurisdiction. "Watch your words." She told Shigehiro and Haizaki in a hushed voice. "You know what had happened to Tsugawa just because he had questioned the king on his decision to have forty percent of the stores' profits going to the palace."

The two boys fell silent.

Tsugawa Tomoki had been one of the merchants in the Royal City. And when a recent decree by the king had all shops in the kingdom surrendering forty percent of their profits to the king, he had protested. And that is the last that anyone had heard from him.

Tamaki should know. She is the one who had gone to arrest him, before having Aomine Daiki, the head of the Covert Unit of the Royal Guard executing him in some dungeon.

"Even still, he had a point." Haizaki pointed out. "It hasn't even been two years since the prince had ascended to the throne, and there have already been various changes to the kingdom—not all of them good. Even the Generation of Miracles—the commanders of the Royal Guard hadn't been allowed to see the king. The only one whom His Highness allows to be near him in close proximity is that creepy Mayuzumi. Where is he from anyway? I've never seen him in my life before he had became the king's bodyguard."