Read Online Tyrant's Stars: Parts Three and Four by Hideyuki Kikuchi - Free Book Online

strange if the question had gone unanswered. Nevertheless, the count replied, “Perhaps we all knew what the real answer was. Or rather, we know even now."
    “Count Braujou, have you ever wanted something that you couldn’t have?”
    The count fell silent at this new and abrupt query. The left hand’s question seemed as effective as an arrow through the very heart of the Nobleman. The voice that issued from the coffin was terribly shaken. And it soon swelled with deep emotion.
    “Science, magic, civilization,” the count said, his words hanging like castles in the air. “We reached the pinnacle of each, yet one dream still remains unfulfilled—I can’t help but think that.”
    “An unfulfilled dream? A dream ? Nothing as warm and fuzzy as a dream exists in your world,” the left hand sneered. “If you have a dream, then make it a reality. Accomplish your every desire—that’s the Noble way. Is that why you allowed the human race to survive? So that your unfulfilled dream wouldn’t be just a dream?”
    If the count had responded, he might’ve offered a valuable hint to an issue spanning the history of humanity and the Nobility. However, that was not to be. A warning siren sounded through the air.
    “There are life-form readings up ahead,” a woman’s voice informed them. “Two people and one cyborg horse. One is human; the other appears to be a synthesized life form. Distance: two miles.”
    “It seems we’ve got one of the kids and an assassin here,” the left hand said sourly. “We’ve been chasing D for two days now. Did we finally catch up to him?”
    Just as it said, the two of them—although technically one of them was only a fraction of a person—had left the fortress about an hour after D set off. Transformed into withered branches, all the enemy troops fell to the ground, leaving the fortress secure again. The cause of this was unknown. Having gone out of the fortress to assist D, Count Braujou quickly returned to Lamoa, got the Hunter’s left hand—which had been repairing the atomic reactor—and set out in his car. The assault on the fortress had already ceased. All that remained were androids, and the count and D’s left hand were solely concerned with the fate of the Dyalhis children and the Hunter’s whereabouts. A flying reconnaissance drone had also been dispatched, and it located where the earth had collapsed into the subterranean waterway, as well as where the battle had taken place. But the whereabouts of D, the Dyalhis children, and the assassins remained a mystery. Today, past noon on the third day out, the life-form radar had finally located someone they sought.
    “Give us a holographic projection,” the voice from the coffin ordered.
    The life-form radar didn’t respond to outward shapes; it perceived the chemical traces of living beings. It was the computer’s job to reconstruct their appearance.
    In the pitch blackness, a pair of figures appeared: Sue and a giant.
    “Is that you?” the left hand screeched toward the coffin, but realizing there would be no reply, it added, “No, I’m just kidding.”
    The giant was every bit as big as the count.
    “That guy calls himself Seurat. But with a big fella like that, that cyborg horse has gotta be strained to its limit. Are they taking a break or something?”
    “That is correct,” the female voice responded.
    “So, what do we do? Go outside and fight him?” the left hand asked sarcastically. Apparently it was rather peeved that its earlier joke had been ignored.
    “Stop the car,” the count said.
    Without a sound, without even a jolt, the car halted.
    It was now the sun-drenched middle of the day. What could the immobilized Braujou do? Making matters worse was the fact that their foe was the same giant, Seurat, who’d sent D flying.

III
    Over the last two days, Sue had come to feel a certain sort of relief concerning Seurat. She couldn’t completely rid herself of the fear caused by his being an assassin sent