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

by a Noble who wanted her dead, but aside from that she was convinced the giant would never hurt her. He hadn’t said a word to her. It was unclear whether he couldn’t speak or just didn’t feel like talking, but from the outset to this very moment he’d kept his silence. The source of Sue’s faith was the giant’s actions.
    Seurat had been incredibly lax. When they were riding the cyborg horse, Sue would sit in front of him and rock from side to side without the giant laying a hand on her. She was equally unconfined when the giant would get off the horse and walk after it became crushed under his weight. When they rested, he would trap her in one of his bizarre “mazes.”
    She was worried about Matthew, and she wasn’t about to just stroll into the lair of the very Noble who wanted them dead. Twice she’d tried to escape. When they stopped, she’d jumped off the horse and run before Seurat could make his maze. Both times Sue had encountered supernatural creatures. Fortunately, she hadn’t been caught unaware. The first was a spider dragon, which moved from tree to tree snaring its prey in the mucus excreted by its spherical body. The second was a bewilderer—a creature that used an illusion of a human woman to lure travelers closer. If Seurat hadn’t rushed in just in the nick of time and worked his magic with his club, she would’ve been eaten twice over.
    After her rescues, Sue fully expected a beating, but the giant didn’t treat her differently than he had before. As they traveled, he continued to leave her unfettered.
    Though the giant seemed like an automaton, he wasn’t, judging from the thoughtful way he reached into his own robe and took out an ointment to put on Sue’s injured feet. The timid movements of the gigantic figure coaxed a smile from Sue. The previous night, the giant had tried without success to apply the same medicine to the wound left by D’s needle. Unable to restrain herself any longer, the girl offered to put it on for him. The giant remained silent and continued his attempts. Though the wound was deep, it was tiny. All he had to do was apply the ointment liberally, but what would’ve been a small brush to an ordinary person looked to be the size of a sewing needle in the giant’s hand, and he seemed to put it on timidly.
    I wonder if his motor skills aren’t very sharp, Sue couldn’t help but think. Watching him try to do it twice, only to fail both times, Sue finally told him, “I’ll do that. Let me out of here, please.”
    The giant thought for a bit before granting her request.
    Taking the brush, she daubed the medicine on him. It was amazing how easy it was to do. Not saying a word, Seurat had taken the brush back from Sue and drawn a maze around her.
    Seurat now stared at the cyborg horse, which he’d put inside the same circle as Sue—it was the horse D had been riding. Seurat looked like an owner watching over his beloved steed. Sue realized that the reason they’d stopped pressing forward in the middle of the day was because the horse was fatigued. Had she not known what the giant really was, she’d have been completely at ease with him. The trip would’ve even been enjoyable.
    Sue felt an overwhelming tenderness coming over her. The next thing she knew, a soft melody was issuing from her mouth.
    Light and breeze that fill the woods Kindly take these words Tell him our yesterdays are forgotten But our memories of today will be deeper still Tomorrow, the departed will lie beneath the whispering grass His voice mine and mine alone
    Once she’d finished singing, she realized that the giant was no longer concentrating on the cyborg horse but was looking at her instead. Sue was a bit surprised.
    “What is it?”    ’
    In his great wall of a face, narrow eyes blinked as if struggling with the light. “Your voice ... is nice,” Seurat said. “It made me remember . . . I was born ... in the woods . . . too . . . Born in a forest... far from here ... on a