Thousand Year Old Cherry Tree

Chapter 13: Story Telling

Today, I decided to tell a favorite story I used to read with Chiyo to Gokotai and Akita. It's called Holy Knight. Unknowingly, a few other swords listened into the story as well out of curiosity. Not allowing their presence to be known by the tantous or me.

"Once upon a time, there were two friends." A girl of blue and one of red. The one of blue was named Iris while the other was named Rosabel. After one meeting at the flower fields, they became instant friends through the mandragoras. However as times pass by, the two were forced to split up. Rosabel was a princess of the Red Kingdom while Iris was training for knighthood in the neighboring Blue Kingdom. Rosabel had to return to her kingdom for her coronation as the official princess. Whereas Iris had to resume her training in the sanctuary. The two girls made a promise to meet each other again when they were older. When Rosabel would be Queen while Iris would become a head knight. As time passed, Rosabel was set to claiming her title as princess when people with malicious intent murdered her family. In amidst of the tragedy known as the 'Red Coronation', a few servants managed to lead Rosabel out to safety. However they lost their lives in the process of trying to protect their precious princess, anguished by the loss of everyone in from her kingdom Rosabel walked further and further into the woods that protected her identity. Only to find a book in the middle of nowhere, upon opening the book a blast of powerful dark magic swarmed the girl. Turning her beautiful verdant green eyes into the color of blood. Indeed, the book Rosabel had found was none other than the Forbidden Book known as the Codex which changed the young girl's life forever. In turn, the other girl known as Iris succeeded in her knighthood training only to receive bad news of what had happened to the Princess. Rosabel had taken her throne as Queen, but the way she obtained it was through the magic of the Codex. Iris had to put an end to her rein, and thus challenged Rosabel and her army of controlled soldiers to war.

Upon meeting on the battlefield, Iris swallowed her past memories as she fought to the best against her once-called friend. Rosabel did the same, but a sign of weakness shown in her eyes. A small sliver of the original Rosabel fought the codex to allow Iris to strike her in the chest. She didn't want to be controlled nor did Iris wanted to kill her one and only friend. But in the end they had no choice.

Once the war was over, Iris took Rosabel's golden sword and dragged it over to edge of a mountain. As it showed the bright warm sun rising slowly in the distance, a thought arrived in her head. Iris wondered to herself, "If things were different, maybe we would've been still friends."

Gokotai and Akita glanced at each other before returning their gazes over to me to ask, "How come the story has such a sad ending?"

I smiled sadly at the two tantous, "It can be interpreted as a sad ending or something else."

"How so, Yuna-nee?" Akita asked out of wonder. "Iris ended up having to kill her friend, why wouldn't it be considered a sad ending?"

"Well you see what Iris says at the end of the book?" I pointed out to Iris' words. "There's a possibility that this scenario wouldn't have happened. That maybe in another world, they lived together in peace without war."

"You mean Iris and Rosabel are out there somewhere!" Gokotai's eyes sparkled upon listening to what I said. "As friends, right?"

"Yes." As I tucked the tantous in, Tsurumaru held a look at Shokudaikiri. Once the rest of the sword went for sleep, the two tachi swords made there way elsewhere to avoid being heard.

"Hey, Tsuru." Shokudaikiri started off, wearing a frown on his face. "The woman Master mentioned in her story, you don't think 'Iris' is that woman we encountered last time?"