Bonus Short Stories

A Morning’s Insanity in the Assassin House!

Nestled among the bleak emptiness of a forbidding wasteland somewhere on the Wind Continent there stood an immense mansion! What was this luxurious residence doing out here on its own in a place like this!? This is a perplexing puzzle and obviously a mystery our Dear Readers want the answer to!

The fact of the matter was this: the massive mansion was home to the most famous family of assassins in the Wind Continent’s underworld, the House of Evil! Let’s take a look inside!

It was five in the morning! The heiress of the House of Evil, the beautiful young Elphabelle—was sound asleep! Her bedroom was filled with opulent pieces of furniture, and the girl herself was in a deep slumber as she lay across her comfy bed! But this idyllic scene was disturbed when a balding man in a tailcoat appeared suddenly at her bedside!

The man took a moment to look at the sleeping Elphabelle’s beautiful face... and plunged a sharp knife directly at her head.

Elphabelle, watch out!

But Elphabelle, with her extraordinary instinct for danger, quickly rolled over in her sleep to avoid the attack!

STAB!!

The man’s knife drove deep into the pillow, right where Elphabelle’s head had been resting not a quarter of a moment ago!

“...Good morning, my Lady Elphabelle. Your faculties for perceiving threats continue to serve you well, I see.”

“’Morning, Sebas.”

Elphabelle slowly sat up in her bed, not looking at all bothered by what had just occurred! Cool as ice! Yes, her would-be-stabber was none other than Sebas Tiansteward, the House of Evil’s butler!

This may have appeared to be an attempted murder, but, when Sebas had tried to stab the young lady in her sleeping face, he was simply delivering Elphabelle’s morning wake-up call! Elphabelle had been trained to be a top-notch assassin, and even while unconscious her reflexes allow her to react to any attack!! Tiansteward uses this ability of hers to wake her up every morning!

Just what we’d expect from a house of assassins!

“I have prepared your breakfast. Please make your way to the dining room.”

＊＊＊

Elphabelle finished getting ready and headed down to the mansion’s dining room on the first floor! From the ceiling of the room hung a bright, sparkling chandelier that lit up the entire circular table, which was itself a whopping four meters in diameter!

At the far end of the table sat none other than the current head of the House of Evil, Elphabill!

He was a shocking four meters tall, and wore a white, custom-made, well-tailored button-down shirt! His abnormally oversized body made everything around him seem tiny—his chair, the table, even the very bun he was eating looked practically miniscule!

“Good morning, Elphabelle...!!”

Elphabill rumbled a greeting to his daughter, his face as fierce and stern as a demon’s! She sat down in a chair to his right and asked him a question!

“’Morning, Papa. You got work today?”

“Indeed. Today, I’ve got a job on the neighboring continent...!!”

“Oh, yeah? Are you gonna take a boat?”

“Inconceivable. I shall swim...!!”

This “neighboring continent,” by the way, was separated from the Wind Continent by a sea eight kilometers wide! It took dozens of hours to cross over by boat! But for Elphabill—why, it was a mere three-minute swim!

“Hmmmm, okay...”

Elphabelle looked not at all surprised and merely took a bite of the bun on her plate! This bread was laced with enough poison to kill any normal person with a single bite!

They were a rather special family indeed! As a way to develop a resistance to poisons, they poisoned their own food every day!

Just what we’d expect from a house of assassins!

“All right, I’ll be heading out now...!!”

Elphabill scarfed down the rest of his bun in one quick bite, then rose from his chair! Let me be clear: for most people, when I say he “rose from his chair,” it would mean that he stood up! But Elphabill simply launched himself skywards directly out of his seat! He broke through the ceilings of the floors above him with incredible force and blasted high up into the sky above the mansion, disappearing into its clear blue heights!

“Ugh, Papa! ...Don’t destroy the ceiling every time you leave the house! C’mon!!”

Elphabelle sounded completely fed up with her father’s antics!

But this was just another morning in the House of Evil, home to the most deadly assassins on the continent!

Special Interview with Résistance, a.k.a., ~La Rebellatrix~

For today’s feature, Sky-Novel Club’s editorial division has conducted an interview with Ms. Résistance, a.k.a., ~La Rebellatrix~, author of the soon-to-be published Dark Taboo ~The Forbidden Abyss~ (hereafter referred to as “Forbidden”). We’ve asked her some questions about the novel and her creative process in general.

—What inspired you to write this novel?

Ah, mockery from the get-go. For me, “writing novels” is something I’ve been doing for as long as I can remember. It came to me quite naturally, as I recall, as easy as breathing. There was no specific reason behind writing this particular novel.

—Are there certain things you keep in mind when you sit down to write?

Hmm, that’s a good question... I suppose I’m always trying to maintain a “spiritual fellowship” with my characters, you might say. There are a good number of unique, unusual characters in my novel, as you know, but they don’t just exist in some imaginary space—they live and breathe very real lives in that wonderful, free world we call “literature.” By communing with them in spirit, getting close to who they are, how they feel, I believe I can write more realistic descriptions of their world.

I am also, of course, constantly asking myself: “What is true literature, anyway?” Readers simply want their novels to entertain them. Should authors indulge that desire, however, and merely provide them with mass-produced commodities labeled “books,” well, that’d just make the literary world that much smaller, now wouldn’t it? Out of a desire to avoid that possibility, perhaps, I’ve come around to thinking that it is not entertainment that is important when writing a novel, but how artistic one can make the story. That fervent belief of mine, that literature is art and not merely entertaining fanservice, is clearly expressed in “Forbidden.”

—What would you, Ms. Résistance, a.k.a., ~La Rebellatrix~, consider to be your favorite part of the book?

I have so many, it’s almost impossible to say... but if there’s one aspect of “Forbidden” that I’m most proud of, it’s the careful, minute attention to detail I showed when describing the dark world and its characters: the protagonist Lucifer and his pain at the loss of his lover, the shadowy manoeuvres of the mysterious organization known as the “Right Arm of Divinity,” and the sorrowful truth behind the lightless world of Infinite Hell, ~Infinitus Infernum~. My descriptions of the subtleties of interactions between characters in this world will no doubt delight every reader to the greatest extent.

— As “Forbidden” is your first novel, have you encountered any difficulties in the process of getting it published?

Mocking me again, are we? I have not encountered a single difficulty in getting “Forbidden” published. I have absolute faith in my abilities as a writer, after all.

—Sorry for asking that. Anyway, when you announced that “Forbidden” was going to be published, what was the reaction from your personal acquaintances?

Well, actually, just the other day I had two of my friends read the prologue of “Forbidden.” Upon reading it, however, they threw out every insult imaginable: “Do you mind if I stop reading this now?” “Impossibly bad!” “Just how many times do we need to read about them creating illusions of themselves...!?” and even calling my pen name “too on the nose!” I did not buckle in the face of such criticism, however—there are a good many opinions about “classical” works of literature, aren’t there? Books that only receive effusive, shallow praise are lacking in what it takes to become timeless works of art... or at least, that’s my philosophy. The damning criticism from my friends only served to remind me once more that “Forbidden” truly is a wonderful work of art, pure literature.

—All right, then. Lastly, what kind of advice do you have for aspiring authors?

First, I’d ask them to read “Forbidden” before they write anything. My novel will illuminate them as to the meaning of what true literature is, and what it takes to write a classic and yet popular story. That’s the best start anyone could have.

—Thank you very much. Dark Taboo ~The Forbidden Abyss~, the debut novel of Ms. Résistance, a.k.a. ~La Rebellatrix~, will be published next month by Sky-Novel Club. We hope you enjoy it.