The year leading up to my conquest of a dungeon was a blur of peculiar events.
I kept to my training regimen as usual, focusing on increasing my overall body strength so that I would have a sufficient supply of magoi for the djinn's transformation. The average day for me was just a nonstop haze of exercising, drilling, martial arts practice, eating, and sleep. I didn't have a spare moment for frivolous activities anymore.
With Kouen's help, Hakuei and Kouha managed to master their metal vessels. The both of them received an extravagant ceremony held in their honor in which they were named generals and conscripted into the military. Shortly afterwards, Hakuei was shipped out in a caravan to join the northern subjugation army in the Tenka plains.
Kouha wasn't planned for deployment yet, but he began putting together his own squadron made up of societal outcasts, compassionately granting select groups of people a second chance at life under his command. Most of the nobles and military elite criticized him for it, but I admired him for his virtue.
While I was proud of my siblings for all their accomplishments, I found myself becoming quite lonely again. All my sisters had been sent away to be married. Hakuei began her journey north. My brothers were as busy as ever.
There were only two people left to keep company with. Hakuryuu and Judar.
Hakuryuu still met up with me on the training grounds every so often, but ever since that incident with Hakuei's training, along with her deployment, he seemed to withdraw into his shell again. Our conversations were sparse, and no matter how enthusiastic or cheerful I was, he just seemed to curl into himself like a melancholy little tortoise. I'd run out of the willpower to try and help him overcome his ennui, so I just decided to leave him be and stay focused on my own goals.
Judar was a different story. He seemed to be steadily simmering down from his aggressive temperament. After awhile, he went out of his way to make amends with everyone, but he did so in a manner that was typical of him.
The first instance was right before Hakuei was sent off and we held a banquet for her. I saw her and Judar conversing and laughing like the infamous night of training had never even happened. Then he ended up sharing a few bottles of rice wine with her, and by the end of the night he got up in front of the whole dining room on a table and was singing patriotic anthems and marching cadences for her. It was fun, but as long as I'm being honest with myself, it made me a bit jealous.
Then he approached Hakuryuu with apologies, and since the fourth prince had recently come of age, Judar invited him out on the town for drinks. I don't know how he pulled it off, but Hakuryuu agreed and they disappeared until sunrise. I found them passed out together in the garden the next day, along with a huge porcelain antique vase from the throne room stuffed full of peaches from the trees, which a hungover Judar explained to me was fermenting to make more liqueur. Ka Kobun and I got them cleaned up and put to bed. Poor Hakuryuu didn't seem to have the stomach for alcohol, and Judar spent the whole day with migraines that made him babble incoherently.
A few weeks later the same scenario played out, only this time it was with Koumei and Kouha. Luckily Koumei was responsible and could hold his liquor. He ended up driving a wagon home in the middle of the night with Judar and Kouha out cold and snuggling in a pile of straw. I was beginning to wonder why no one would cut off Judar from alcohol altogether.
Meanwhile, he was still the same trickster he always was with me. Instead of inviting me for excursions of alcoholism, I got treated to endless teasing and pranks.
"Judar-nii! Why'd you eat all the peaches in my bath?!"
"There were so many, what difference does it make if I help myself to a few?"
"But you ate all of them! Those were for my beauty care!"
"Beauty care? So you really have a bunch of wrinkles like an old granny?"
"Why you--!"
"Ow, stop throwing things at me and hear me out! There's no way putting peaches in your bath is good for your skin."
"Then what should I put in?"
"Hmmm...okay listen up 'cause this is my best kept secret. Have you ever heard of the legendary Gerozoma tribe from the Dark Continent that never seem to age?"
"No."
"Well...this is what they put in their bath..."
"...This is strange."
"P-princess?! What are you doing?! Why are you bathing with hogs?"
"BWAAAHAHAHAHA THE OLD HAG ACTUALLY DID IT!"
That was just one of many similar instances. He'd tease me during my sword practice, taunting me and sneaking up from behind to tickle me. He'd fling food at me during meal times. He'd taunt me during sword practice. He'd tug on my hair, pinch my cheeks, and flip up my skirt. One time he found me crying because the maids wouldn't chat with me, and all he said was "Yo, shut up and stop crying, old hag!"
It got so bad that Ka Kobun was always chasing him away from me and watching me like a hawk. It was almost like Judar was doing his utmost to distract me. I couldn't tell if he wanted attention because he was lonely too, or if he just thought I was good for cheap thrills and laughs. Knowing him it was most likely the latter. Either way, it didn't make me feel like he thought of me as a friend anymore. I surmised thar Koumei had been right.
Or maybe it was his unorthodox way of testing me to make sure I could stay vigilant? That was a comforting theory, but I had no way of confirming it.
But that was mildly irritating compared to all the sidelong scowls and mud-slinging whispers from the elders everywhere I went.
"I can't believe they're really going to give that bubble-headed little girl a metal vessel. It's bad enough they let her go among the soldiers. She taints those fine young men with her low-born presence."
"Why should that come as a surprise? They inducted her half-breed brother into the military as well, and that boy just collects a bunch of peons even lowlier than him to put under his command. Honestly, this country has fallen far since the passing of the first emperor. Our only saving grace is the high priest and Prince Kouen."
I tried my best to ignore it all, but it kept chipping away at my self-esteem; those acidic words always churning and broiling about in the back of my mind.
About a week before my birthday, I heard the rumor mill all over again, and it was enough to crack through the floodgates on my emotions. I ran off to my favorite spot in the garden and bawled my eyes out.
"Awww, ugly little duckling. Tsk tsk. Whatever is the matter with her royal crybaby-ness now?"
I squinted the tears out of my eyes to see Judar and Kouen standing over me. Ashamed that they'd found me in such a pitiful state, I hid my face behind my sleeves and pawed at my eyes with a handkerchief.
Judar quirked an eyebrow and rubbed the back of his head. "And here I was just telling Kouen what a great job you've been doing with keeping up your training."
"Is everything alright, Kougyoku?" Said Kouen.
I sniffled and inhaled sharply, trying to regain my composure. "...y-yes. I'm s-s-sorry. I'm just t-tired of all the g-gossip. It's really been h-hurting my feelings."
Judar grumbled. "Ugh, you really listen to all the crap those old farts are always spewing? Come on now. They're just jealous! Know why?"
I whimpered and shook my head, mopping at my eyes with my sleeve.
Judar reached down with an outstretched hand.
"You're strong, Kougyoku!"
He smiled at me. A smile I hadn't seen in ages. The smile of the little boy in a breezy storm of dancing peach blossoms.
Kouen was smirking too, the way he used to look at me when he watched my sparring matches with the soldiers.
I took Judar's hand and he pulled me to my feet. Kouen tugged me into a warm embrace and patted my back.
"Let the hearsay fall by the wayside, dear sister. Soon enough they'll have to bow their heads and answer to you as a general."
"Yeah, you're gonna be a kickass dungeon capturer who can smite those dumb geezers in the blink of an eye! You've got one more week, so dry that soggy face of yours and don't forget!"
I smiled and laughed.
"Fix your craptastic caked-on makeup too."
I sputtered. "Eh?! Judar, you dirtbag!"
He got punched.
"OW, SHIT! NOT IN THE FACE, KOUEN!"
***
A week later. The morning of my sixteenth birthday.
I could barely sleep the night before, and I was practically just a gnarled bundle of raw nerves. I'd read so many tales and heard so many whispers about how dangerous and terrifying the dungeons were. I'd seen the bands of ferocious looking creatures that my brothers managed to capture and bring back on their expeditions. I'd listened to the reports on how many casualties there were from the elite regiments of soldiers that had been sent in. They always numbered in the thousands.
Was I truly ready for this? I'd been preparing for almost a decade...but would it be enough?
I clasped my hands in prayer and buried my face in my sleeves, taking deep breaths. I tried to swallow all the fear that was welling up in my throat back down into the pit of my stomach, as I waited at the palace gates with Ka Kobun and the battalion of soldiers that had been hand selected by Kouen. The only one missing was the person we needed to guide us to our destination.
"How dare he keep us waiting! That pompous, insolent, lackadaisical, good-for-nothing bastard!"
"Calm down before you burst a capillary, Ka Kobun. You know how Judar is. He's probably just...fixing his hair still, or something."
"We agreed during the council meeting yesterday, which he was ever so conveniently absent from mind you, to meet here at precisely this time! I would've hoped Lord Kouen at least passed along the message, but it seems I put too much faith in the high priest's punctuality!"
"Should we go look for him?"
"No! He ought to know better. We shall wait until he finally arrives, and then I shall give him the scolding of a lifetime!"
"...I'm gonna go look for him."
"Gyah! Your highness, get back here! ...Wait for me, then!"
I scoured every corner of the palace for our high priest, checking all his usual hangout spots and favorite hiding places. I grilled every servant I came across with questions of his possible whereabouts. No one had seen him and he was in no place that I looked. The only place I had yet to check was his quarters.
"You don't think he could've forgotten and overslept?"
"He better not have! I may be a lowly vassal but I'll still tan his hide!"
Judar's quarters consisted of an opulent little villa tucked away in a private corner of the palace near the chambers of the Emperor and Empress. He had a beautiful sand and rock garden cut through by a stream and koi pond fed from the aqueducts out front, and a steaming private hot spring walled off in the back. With the way he got to live, it was no wonder he had such an over inflated ego.
I rapped on the massive double doors with one of the ornamental brass knockers.
"Come out here this instant, you imbecile!"
"Hush, Ka Kobun! You let me speak to him!"
The door creaked open, and a disheveled, sleepy looking Judar poked his head out. His hair was undone and he was still in his bedclothes. His makeup was smeared, and all over his face and neck were red smudges of lip paint. He smelled heavily of alcohol and some other smokey scent I couldn't identify.
He yawned, scratched his head and smacked his lips. "Izzit mornin' awready?" he croaked.
"I don't believe this! You really did oversleep and forget! Unacceptable!" Kobun yelled.
"Urgh why're you so damn loud?"
"For the last time, Ka Kobun, shut the hell up!" I snapped.
I plastered a sweet smile on my face and turned to Judar. "Judar-nii...today's my birthday. It's a big day for all of us, remember?"
He blinked the dryness out of his bloodshot eyes. "Oh...oh yeah. That's today? Shit...I forgot. Gimme a sec..."
He clicked the door shut. There came a ruckus from the inside that sounded like furniture being knocked over, and then a choir of shrieking girls' voices erupted.
"Out! Get out! All of you! GET OUT!"
The doors burst open and a scrambling pack of girls in their rumpled bedclothes and bedraggled hanfu came spilling out, making a dash back to their rightful places to make themselves decent before they were caught.
Judar pulled the doors shut again, presumably to make himself presentable. Ka Kobun and I stood there waiting for a few moments before he poked his head out of the door again.
"Dammit, I just kicked out my chambermaid too. C'mere old hag."
Before I could say anything in protest, he grabbed my hand and pulled me inside, slamming the door shut in Kobun's face.
I stood awkwardly in the foyer while he disappeared behind a wooden divider near his huge canopied bed to change. In our culture, inviting someone into your room carried the implications that you had a rather intimate relationship, so I felt really out of place and flustered. Not that Judar ever cared about customs or etiquette in the first place.
I listened to him fumble about and curse while he got dressed, taking in the sight of my new surroundings. I could tell that normally the place was quite luxurious and put together as though he were royalty, but right now it looked like a hurricane had traveled through. Parlor furniture overturned. Clothes, linens and tapestries scattered everywhere. Empty liquor bottles and dishes strewn about. A thick haze of that pungent smoke clinging to the air. Evidently he spent the night having a spontaneous celebration and...pleasurable company.
He emerged fully dressed and noticed me being apprehensive. "Oi. Don't worry about all that. Come over here and help me."
I climbed the steps out of the foyer, tiptoeing around the debris and making my way to where he was seated at a vanity.
He splashed his face with water from a basin and then handed me a comb. "Would you mind?"
"Of course not."
He toweled off and then opened a gold phial with a snake coiled around it, tapping out a bit of black powder into a saucer and mixing it with water using a brush.
"You still wear that every day even though it was something the Empress made you do?"
He shrugged. "Yeah. I like it. Makes me look badass."
I snickered. "This is so weird. I never imagined I'd be doing something like this for you. It's like I'm your mom or something."
"Don't go getting all sappy and maternal on me. Ow damn, I poked my eye."
I chuckled and ran my fingers through his silky hair, dividing it up and weaving it into a plait.
"Oh, you don't have to do that part. Watch this."
He picked up his wand and gave it a twirl, and his hair swirled around little puffs of air. He tied it off using magic too.
"Show off."
"Pfff...you'd do your hair like that too if you could. Dammit, I diluted it too much again."
"Oh please, let me do your makeup. I've had plenty of practice."
I dampened the towel and dabbed the runny kohl off his eyes before grabbing the brush and turning him around on his bench. I remixed his makeup and used pins to secure his fringy bangs out of his eyes, and then I carefully painted on the eyeshadow, my hands trembling with the fine movements.
When he wasn't making a weird face to keep the powder from falling into his eyes, his gaze was locked on me. Normally that gaze gave me shivers, but today it felt strangely warm...like the vermillion of his irises were smoldering embers.
"...You nervous, Momoko-hime?"
I heaved a sigh. "Yeah. Didn't sleep well. Wish I'd known you were partying your ass off. You never invite me, but you'll rollick around with all my brothers, and every handmaiden and courtesan around the palace, hm?"
He scoffed. "I dunno...that kinda stuff just seems beneath you. Didn't seem appropriate."
"Since when do you worry about what's appropriate?"
"When it comes to you? ...Most--well...some of the time."
"Except when you want an easy target for your mischief."
"Uh, well...I like the faces you make when you're all mad and stuff. It's kinda cute."
My eyes bulged. I punched him in the shoulder.
"What the hell is wrong with you? This is not the Judar I know and...er...know."
"Heheh...sorry. Maybe I'm still a bit high."
"Ugh, you debaucherous lech. There, your eyeshadow's done." I pulled the pins out of his hair and patted his cheek playfully. "Now come on slut, we've got a dungeon to conquer."
"Momoko..."
Before I could move away, he draped his lanky arms around my shoulders. He buried his face in the crook of my neck, and I caught sight of the redness of his ears in the mirror.
"Um...just so you know, no matter what happens out there, even if you fail and I gotta come to your rescue or something...I'm not gonna think any differently of you. You really are strong. I wouldn't give you such a hard time if I didn't think that. If I truly thought you were weak, I wouldn't even bother with you."
My pulse started racing and my face turned the color of a healthy tomato. I wriggled out of his grasp.
"Hey hey hey!" I exclaimed, waving my hands about sheepishly. "Who's the one getting sappy now, huh? C-c-can we please just go already?"
He pursed his lips, looking rather offended. "Hmph. See if I ever try to pay you a compliment again, old hag."
He tugged on the scruff of my robe and marched over to his window, throwing it open and flinging his magic carpet outside. I was tossed aboard and before I knew it, we were whizzing into the sky.
"W-wait! Judar-nii! What about Ka Kobun?!"
"Hm? Oh. I totally forgot he was even there."
"YOU BASTARD!"
"What about all the soldiers?"
"Screw that, we can manage without em."
He dive bombed Ka Kobun and hurled him onto the carpet with a gust of wind, and just like that we were off to the dungeon.
***
After hours of flying eastward out into the ocean, we were hovering above an enormous red and white structure. It looked deceptively like an ancient temple from our culture, except it was far too wide and tall. It jutted out of the water in the middle of the ocean.
"So that's really a dungeon, Judar-nii?"
"Yep. That's just the top of it, too. The rest goes deep down into the ocean."
"Seriously?! How are the three of us supposed to go through that entire building by ourselves? I bet you could spend weeks in there!"
"Don't be chicken-shit, old geezer. You're supposed to protect the princess, so if you're gonna wuss out now you might as well jump into the ocean and feed yourself to the sharks."
"Never! I, the great Ka Kobun, would never disgrace myself with such cowardice! I have sworn to protect her highness princess Kougyoku at all costs!"
"Ugh, if you don't shut up I'm gonna feed you to the sharks anyways."
"Judar-nii, how are we supposed to get in? I don't see a door."
Judar smirked and leaned over the edge, pointing down.
"See that glimmer of light down in the depths? That's the entrance."
I gulped. "Wh-what?! It's way down there?"
Judar crossed his arms. "Yep. We haven't had any reports of anyone successfully entering this dungeon. Most have drowned before they even get inside." He heaved a sigh. "To be honest, I didn't really want to bring anyone to this one. It scares me. The djinn inside...it gives me the creeps. But it's the only one left near our territories."
I felt ice creep down my spine. A djinn that scared even Judar?! Just what was I in for?!
He put an arm around my shoulders and smiled. "Don't you worry, Kougyoku. I'm gonna make this easy for you. But unfortunately, I won't be able to go inside, so you and grandpa will be on your own."
"Wait, what? Why can't you come with us?"
He didn't answer me, but instead stood up on the carpet and clutched his wand, taking a deep breath.
Suddenly there came a whistle as an arrow whizzed passed us.
Judar reacted instantly, throwing up a borg around all of us just as a whole volley of arrows came sailing through the air directly at us. They plinked against the shield and fell away.
"Back off you Kou cretins! That dungeon is ours!"
I uncovered my head to see a whole battalion of soldiers dressed in black and white clothing with horned masks over their eyes, standing atop huge chunks of flying rocks. Their leader carried a huge curved sword and wore armor.
"I am General Yamato Takeruhiko, and I will be claiming that dungeon in the name of Kina Kingdom and the Seven Seas Alliance!"
Judar snarled and raised his arms like he was lifting a great amount of weight. I heard the churning of water below, and I had to rub my eyes to make sure what I saw was real as I looked over the edge.
There was a huge mass of water from around the dungeon rising into the air like a great wall, climbing higher and higher until the water formed a huge ring around the dungeon and the entire structure was no longer submerged. A ring of bare sand was around the base of the tower, with sea creatures confusedly flopping around.
"This is MY dungeon, you fucking morons!" Judar roared.
"No one is getting in except MY king's candidates! And tell your buddy Sinbad to go fuck himself!!!"
The wall of water began to form into huge spires of ice, which then began to splinter off into smaller shards that Judar began hurling at the Kina soldiers. The archers were reloading their bows as they dodged the ice with their flying rocks.
Judar sprang off of the carpet into the air, maintaining a borg around himself.
"Go now, Kougyoku! I won't be able to hold the sea up much longer! GO!" He shouted.
I heeded his words and gripped the carpet, diving down towards the shimmering light that was the entrance to the dungeon. Ka Kobun screamed like a girl and grabbed onto my waist as I careened through the air to dodge oncoming arrows. I felt a huge gust of air, and I didn't look back, but I could tell Judar had conjured a whirlwind to deflect arrows away from us.
"I'M GONNA KILL YOU ALL!!! YOU PICKED THE WRONG FIGHT ON THE WRONG DAY! NOW DIIIIIE!!!" Judar howled.
I heard cracks of lightning. I saw the sky darkening and swirling. Never had I seen him so enraged and destructive. With one last look back, I marveled at the force of nature he had become. I also thought I could see an aura of pure darkness enveloping him, like he embodied a solar eclipse and was swallowing all the light around him. I passed through the curtain of light.
Then all that was in my vision was a column of pure light and a void of stars. It felt like the air had been sucked from my lungs, and I was suspended in space and could see the entire world below me. I lost consciousness.