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claire-starsword · 1 month

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Bloodline of the Sacred Dragons - Chapter 2-7

[warning for violence and dismemberment on this one. yes you read that right. as opposed to me who did not pay attention to this on my first read. lol.]

The group emerged back into the fields, after safely crossing the mountains. They hurried on their journey, heading towards the Pao Plains.

By Krin and Tyrin's calculations, they should be a day ahead of the monsters. If they could get the mercenaries at Pao and come back, they would be able to ambush the enemies at the mountain path that led to the plains. The devils wouldn't be able to escape a trap in such a narrow pathway.

In the forest, Karin replaced Randolf as the lead. Tyrin gave the general directions by her side, and she decided the exact path to traverse according to the condition of the plants and other forest signs. Bleu was speechless on how observant she was, not letting the slightest detail pass unnoticed.

Bleu struggled the most with the thick cluster of trees. Unlike Camallia and Karna, he didn't have the power to heal everyone's exhaustion either. He grew frustrated with himself. Once they got to a wider place or a road he'd be able to stretch out his wings. He did his best to put up with it.

Once the sun had gone down, the group had finally come out the end of the forest, reaching the road between Bustoke and the Pao Plains.

And there, their calculations failed them.

They ran right into the monster squad that had stolen the Manual. A sudden encounter, one could say.

"They shouldn't be here by our calculations, so why…" Krin complained about the unexpected turn of events, as she stared at the twenty or so monsters that had appeared in front of them.

The devils were just as shocked as them.

"Impossible! Why is there a Sacred Dragon here?"

One of the monsters, accompanying the squad of harpies and armed lizardmen, stared wide-eyed at Bleu, with empty eyes devoid of light. Those eyes caught sight of Camallia by his side. The devil then understood everything.

"So you survived. And you guided them here. It's always you, always… Fine, if you'll be this much of a hindrance, then I, Ziduur, will end you just like those pursuing mages."

The monster's fangs showed over the corner of his lips, and his two horns, atop his head like a moth's antennas, swung backwards in a menacing stance. Deep crimson hair ran from the nape of his neck to his back like a mane, bristling. As if answering to that, the lizardmen raised their slimy triangular heads, their bifurcated tongues flickering through their lips. The harpies let out ear-piercing shrieks.

"If you want this, come and take it."

Ziduur held a box made of ebony. It was full of intricate inlay decorations with a foreign feel.

"Sir Bleu, there's no doubt, the Manual is in there!"

With Tyrin's shout, the battle began.

"Randolf, Tyrin, take care of the girls!"

While shouting, Bleu bolted towards Ziduur, as if drawn to the Manual in his hands. Cerberus followed behind him.

"Wait, don't just rush in, it won't go well if we fight separated," Randolf hastily stopped Camallia, who wanted to jump ahead as well.

"Bleu, come back right now! Bleu!"

Karin's voice did not reach Bleu, and he began to fight the harpies in midair.

All his pent up feelings were unleashed at once. And at the same time, he had confidence in being the one who always broke through the enemy lines. With that amount of enemies, he believed he could strike the commander at once and end the battle with that. There was no reason to eliminate them all. Once he retrieved the Manual, he could just disperse the rest of the enemies. The shorter the battle, the less likely it would be for Karin and the others to get hurt. And by defeating all the monsters himself, he could prove his power to them. Maybe then the girls would stay behind without a fuss, Bleu thought.

However, his reckless advance did not go as he expected.

Superior to him in speed and number, the harpies put up a tough fight against him. Wanting to rush to Ziduur straight away, he had become isolated from his allies.

Randolf and Camallia shielded the others, facing the incoming lizardmen head on.

"Bleu, I'll burn down these enemies, get out of the way!"

Krin began chanting a Blaze spell, but Karin stopped her. If she cast the flames in a wide area, Bleu would certainly get caught in them.

"Krin, give up and target a single enemy," Karin ordered, while shooting down an enemy away from Bleu with perfect accuracy. Their lack of coordination was apparent. Karin bit down her anger at Bleu's stupid actions.

"I won't show mercy to any who interfere. Join the hateful corpses that sleep under this earth."

Ziduur took out a piece of a crimson jewel, and held it tightly within his left hand, as if squeezing it. Beams of light came through between his fingers.

"That light!" Camallia shouted, alerting everyone.

Ziduur punched the ground. Thin sparks of crimson lightning ran at once over the surface.

"What did he do?"

Karna watched in awe as the ground in front of her began to stir, and something jumped out from within.

"Eep!" She let out a strangled scream as she came face to face with a skeleton.

"Get down!"

Hearing that shout from behind her, Karna got down while covering her head with both arms. The end of a flail flew past her, sending the skeleton's skull flying like a football. As she pulled the weapon back, Camallia smashed its upper body as well.

In the brief moment where Karna breathed a sigh of relief, more skeletons jumped from below, one after the other. Those skeletal warriors, carrying all kinds of different weapons, were the warped forms of monsters once defeated in that land, and the travelers they once killed.

"Are we surrounded?"

Watching the growing swarm of skeletons and lizardmen around them, Randolf swung his Battle Axe once again. If the monsters attacked all at once, they certainly wouldn't manage to defend against all of them.

Karna shouted for everyone to get closer together.

"O benevolent ones who watch upon all, please hear our prayers. Gather the righteous light within our hearts, and make it into a shield of holy brilliance!!"

By her incantation, the faint shine of the supporting spell Boost enveloped the whole group from within. The monsters with no flesh nor blood were driven away by that light.

Not wasting the opportunity, Randolf and Camallia attacked. The mages covered the openings between them, Tyrin freezing the enemies to stand as shields, and Krin erecting walls of fire with her Blaze spells. They were doing their best to defend themselves, but the situation still wasn't good as they were outnumbered.

On one swing, Camallia's flail became entangled in another flail wielded by a skeleton. The resulting forces made both of them lose their grips on their weapons. Without delay, the skeleton took a short sword from the back of its shield, and charged at the now empty-handed girl. Another short sword was thrown at the skeleton as it did that. By reflex, the skeleton knocked it down with its shield. Camallia jumped at the fallen sword, grabbing it and swinging it at the skeleton's leg to cut it down. The monster fell down as it lost its balance, and Camallia stepped on its bony body from over its shield, using all of her strength to crush it.

"Thank you, Sir Randolf."

Picking up her flail, she stood back to back with Randolf, who had moved backwards. She extended a hand in his direction, trying to return his short sword that had saved her from her predicament.

"I don't mind. Keep it. Without a spare weapon, something like this might happen to you again."

Answering that, he swung his blade at another monster.

At that time, Bleu was also surrounded by even more enemies than before.

Sacred Dragons had tough bodies and powerful attacks, but were in no way invincible. Their thick hide was hard to penetrate with a blade, yet at some point he had been wounded, and it bled. While he had finished off many of the harpies, he had also hurt his wings. The injury was not severe, but it made him unable to fight the remaining harpies in the air. Having fallen to the ground, Bleu faced a concentrated assault from the group of enemies.

Sustaining minor injuries all over his body, Bleu had made a pile of corpses out of his enemies. Yet he was clearly exhausted. Taking a fierce blow to his chest, he began to cough violently.

In this terrible moment, a lizardman brandished his Large Axe. In Bleu's current condition, he couldn't dodge or spew out his lightning breath.

The monsters became agitated.

Steeling himself for the fatal blow, Bleu saw a silver blur pass through the corner of his vision. Fresh blue blood spilled by. With a deep gash on his torso, the lizardman turned around only to be cut again like a paper doll by sharp claws, this time on the chest.

"Zylo!?" Bleu exclaimed in surprise, seeing the werewolf that had showed up behind the fallen lizardman.

"It's been a long time, Bleu."

Zylo's eyes had the glint of a wild beast hidden within, and he narrowed them in recognition for an instant.

Taking that as an opening, the harpies attacked from the sky.

"Watch out!"

Faster than Bleu's cry, Zylo jumped to the air. He spun next to harpy like a gear, hitting it with a somersault, and knocking it down hard to the ground. The blood from the harpy's torn neck ran in lines across her dead body.

"Before worrying for others, worry about yourself. Honestly, what a pathetic fight you put up. Have you forgotten your past experience? I'll show you how it is to fight as a group. Watch and learn."

Zylo howled.

The lizardmen and harpies flinched at the incoming chants of beast hunters. From its direction came the rushing sound of rain. A merciless rain of arrows…

Once the synchronized barrage of arrows ended, Zylo had also disappeared. Too fast for Bleu's eyes to keep up, he ran between the disoriented enemies, cutting them down as he passed them by. One by one they fell to the ground.

Having broken through the enemies surrounding them, Zylo reached Karin's group.

"It's Zylo, the king of Bustoke."

Krin calmed down the others, who were on guard, unsure if he was a new enemy.

"We'll regroup with Bleu. Follow me without delay," Zylo ordered, and turned away from them without waiting for an answer. He spoke as if certain that they'd obey. Not forceful. Just showing unwavering confidence.

"Diane!!" He shouted. In answer, a squad of archers appeared from the forest shadows, led by an elf girl. Their bowstrings rang as they once again released their arrows in unison.

Diane's archers concentrated their assault on the skeletons. The ropes tied in their arrows perfectly wrapped around their enemies. The skeletons hit by them fell down and tumbled through the ground. It seemed as if they knew what enemies they'd be facing, which made Krin impressed, but also a bit suspicious.

"Let's go!"

Zylo dashed away, heading towards Bleu, who had recovered some energy and continued to fight on his own. The others ran behind him as fast as they could.

"Karna, Camallia, heal Bleu, quickly!"

As Zylo and Randolf took the surrounding enemies down, Karin immediately asked the priests to tend to Bleu. While the archers of Bustoke kept lending them support, Camallia healed everyone who had been injured with Aura, the high level healing spell.

"Thank you, Camallia. You too, Karin…" Bleu thanked the girls.

"There's no time to waste," Zylo urged Bleu. "Let's retrieve the Manual at once with this."

Led by the wolf king, the group split apart the confused enemies. Separated from each other, they had no time to recover, and were shot down by Diane's squad.

"Now. Sir Bleu, the Manual!" Tyrin shouted.

Spreading his healed wings, Bleu flew over the skeletons. The monsters were knocked down by the wings and the gust of wind.

Ziduur held up the ruby in his hand. His body was enveloped in red light.

"Like I'll let you teleport!"

The monster had jumped away, but Bleu sliced him with his claws.

Ziduur's arm was torn and sent flying, tracing an arc in midair, weighted down by the ebony box it carried.

Bleu had his attention drawn to the Manual for a moment. Ziduur didn't miss that, casting a Blaze spell in that time. Bleu crossed his arms in front of him as the flames burst in front of him.

"Bleu!!"

Karin and Camallia left the few remaining monsters to Zylo, and ran to the dragon.

He looked down bitterly at the space Ziduur had teleported away from. It shimmered like hot air, proving that a devil stood there just a moment before.

He picked up the box with the Manual, and Camallia saw that both his arms were bleeding.

"Are you wounded?" she asked, walking to him.

"It's no big deal. Just scratches."

"Even a small injury cannot be left alone."

While he insisted that he was fine, Camallia softly kissed his wounds.

Bleu suddenly felt eyes on him, and tried to pull away from her.

"Please stay still."

Camallia's warm lips moved over his skin as she said the words. Her hot tongue traced over his wound, licking off the blood. Her throat made a glugging noise as she drank it. Her lips continued to move over it, trembling with her incomprehensible chants and sighs.

She let go after a while, and no trace of the wound was left.

"Bleu, the king of Bustoke is calling."

Karin only said that before turning her back and running away.

To next part>

Translation notes:

"Zidur" is apparently a word of a power to summon one of the creatures in the Necronomicon by Simon. I know nothing of that book other than a cursory look so I can't talk much about it, but do you know how hilarious it is to google a Shining Force thing and come up with a pdf full of demon rituals and absolutely no other results? Unparalled experience. Also, the character's name does have a longer "u" sound so I reflected that in my translation as well.

I don't recall Ziduur being explicitly referred to as a man, but his speech manners are pretty rough and he'll eventually be using the rough and masc "ore" pronoun, so unlike Otrant I just made the call to use he/him pronouns for him.

Zylo's species in the original game is given as "wolfling". His base class however is "werewolf", so nothing wrong here.

Up to this point I had been calling the dog "Cerberos" because that's closer to the japanese reading and I didn't think to look it up, but I was recently reminded that the games use "Cerberus" instead. I'd rather stick close to the official translations when it doesn't matter so I've updated past posts and will be using the game romanization from here on.

#shining series #shining force #shining force 2 #shining force novel translation #bloodline of the sacred dragons #sf bleu #there we go. the annoying arrogant protag has learned a valuable lesson about the real super power of teamwork!#now things can finally progress smoothly into a great team dynamic!#...#dont. don't look at the page count. don't- it's fine. it'll be fine #sf karin #if this was a game she should be the leader and not bleu just saying #or it could be a protag choice with a few route differences #*person who has only played two tactical rpgs in their life* hmm. getting a lot of fantasy maiden wars vibes from this #also there's clearly a love triangle rearing its ugly head here but i chose to see it as funny like. girl she's drinking his blood #repressed village girl who clearly doesn't have enough going on in her life watching camallia be a badass freak: God I Wish That Was Me #sfbotsd camallia #NORMAL WOMAN. ABSOLUTELY INCONSPICUOUS WOMAN. GODDAMN #and i refuse to complain she's so cool!! woman's wrongs the novel #sf2 karna twiggy #the boost chant is also so cool and i knew it from the nnd summary i used to watch so i've waited more than a year to show you pals #i wish she did more but i'm not unhappy with her role in battles here generally #sf2 randolf dongo #sf2 tyrin piper #sf krin #sf krin's cerberus #so uh. does anyone else feels the writer is constantly struggling to remember the dog's still here? i legit did not realize the first time #she hadn't been mentioned since the lab. i legit thought she had been left in manarina #a shame because a hellhound on the team is prime shining content and i wish it was better used. i wanna play with this beauty #goddamn this is a lot of characters but i do wanna ramble

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claire-starsword · 2 months

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Bloodline of the Sacred Dragons - Chapter 2-5

[warning for needles and coerced blood tests. Yes, in Shining Force. this one is a ride]

"No."

The old lady flatly refused.

"Please, master. Don't be selfish. We just need Randolf's help for a little while," Krin begged the old lady with her hands clasped together.

This lady, known as Granny of the Experiments to the mages of Manarina, was Krin's teacher, Tyrin's friend, and Randolf's employer. She was an exceptional weirdo among the already weird mages.

As his boss, the old lady refused to grant Randolf permission to leave. No matter how one looked at it, she seemed to just be having fun causing problems for Tyrin and the rest.

He and Krin were at a loss on how to deal with her tantrum.

The other four, standing outside her laboratory, gathered near the half opened door without thinking, listening in to the discussion.

"If I said no that's a no. If I let Randolf go, I won't be able to continue my sublime research, will I?"

"Ma'am, this is an order from Master Otrant," Tyrin told her gravely. At least he hoped to impart the gravity of the situation. But it didn't work with her in the slightest.

"Otrant was once just a naughty brat I gave plenty of beatings and scoldings to. That one's a hundred years too young to order me around!"

She laughed, and Tyrin began sweating as he tried to persuade her.

"So this is the kind of place my sister's been studying at?" Karin whispered.

"I guess." Bleu scratched his nose at her words.

"Who was that? Is there someone outside?"

The old lady had heard Karin speak, and went to look outside her room. Her ears were apparently in pretty good shape for her age. With a bit of regret for having talked so carelessly, Bleu and the others entered the room.

"Ooh, if it isn't a Sacred Dragon. Good. Excellent. Alright, if you all help with my experiment, I'll let you have the dwarf."

The old lady's eyes shined as she saw Bleu, and Randolf angrily raised an eyebrow at what she had said.

"Hey hey hey, I'm not a thing. Don't go handing me over as you want. First of all, to let him help on the experiments, what do you want to turn him into? Or, are you gonna turn someone into a dragon…?"

Randolf looked at the machine in the corner of the room. It was bigger than Bleu. The imposing contraption, covered by a transparent dome, was a shapeshifting machine.

The reason the old lady was known as Granny of the Experiments was due to turning people into a bunch of different animals with that machine. That's why even the bulletin boards in Manarina had posters warning to beware of her.

"Even I can't turn people into Sacred Dragons. That's why I'm still researching. I hardly get the chance to pick up such a rare material to experiment with. Hohoho!"

"Bleu isn't any sort of lab animal!" Karin shouted.

"To me, all creatures are lab material, me included. You, and you, and you, and you…"

She spun around pointing each one of them.

"This machine, it looks a lot like the one in the Ancient Tower at Prompt… So you want me to get inside?" Bleu asked. Camallia wanted to say something, but the old lady was faster.

"The machine in the Ancient Tower was only for breathing lifeforce into an artificial creature, like Dark Dragon. It sucked out the life of living beings that entered it and transferred it to something else. This machine here is very different. It was dug out from the Bustoke Quarry a long time ago. Good ol' me here restored it, and it became usable again."

The old lady scolded Krin for not being awed and clapping like a pupil should. The poor girl praised her after way too long. A bit angry, she continued to explain the machine.

"This machine can transform a creature into another kind of creature. For example, it can turn giant worms and such into cute chickens and cows. Oh, it's such a groundbreaking invention."

She made a dreamy face, enchanted by her own words.

"But, I don't think anyone would want milk or stew from a cow that used to be a worm…" Karin mumbled, disgusted. Karna nodded, her lips tightened together.

"You don't understand the greatness of this research. Foolish little girls."

Karna got terribly angry at the old lady's insult, puffing her cheeks. But, suddenly remembering her reason for being there, she quickly calmed down.

"Old lady, have you seen a man called Gong, maybe?"

"Gong? Let's see…" She inclined her head, trying to gather her memories. "Ah, do you mean that huge monk? He helped me here a couple of days ago."

Karna beamed.

"It could be him. So, could you tell me where he is now?"

"He left."

"Ehh?"

She froze instantly, after having jumped in joy at first.

"He just suddenly walked out. I have no clue where he went."

He ran away, whispered Tyrin in Karna's ear. Probably, thought everyone who heard him.

Bleu too started wishing to ran away like Gong. He didn't have time to waste with this stuff.

"We can't spend too much time here. I enter that, then you give us him, right?"

"Don't give in, Bleu. This is a waste of time too," Karin rushed to stop him as he touched the machine.

"Whoa, whoa, who told you to enter? What I want is your cells. Turning a Sacred Dragon into a frog or a snake wouldn't be much fun now, would it?"

Rummaging through a box, the old lady chided the hasty dragon. Right after, she exclaimed "here, found it," and took out an odd tool with a needle.

"What, I'm just gonna take some blood from you all."

Her face contorted with glee as she carried the giant injection needle.

"Hey, hey, you don't mean even from me, do you?"

Randolf took a step away from her.

"I don't see why not. I still don't have many dwarf cells, after all."

Hurried by Bleu and Tyrin, who were fed up with all that, everyone agreed to her procedure against their will. Even Randolf and Cerberus fell in her clutches. The one who resisted the most was Camallia, who tried to plead religious reasons, and that she was a foreigner, but the old lady didn't care at all for that. In the end, she went after half of the group had already done it.

"One Sacred Dragon, one dwarf, one elf, one half-elf, three humans, and one cerberus… Hohoho. Now, what crystals should I use…"

This time, she began rummaging through another box, full of crystal slabs shining in every color of rainbow. It was as if she had immediately forgotten about everyone else in the room.

"Hey, you're a bother to my work. Out."

She ushered them out of the lab. Camallia wished from the bottom of her heart that this old mage's research with their cells never got completed.

"Well then," Tyrin relaxed his shoulders, then asked his old friend, "guide us."

"Hang on, why do I have to do this?"

Randolf grabbed Tyrin's orange-brown robe, stopping him from running ahead.

"What do you mean 'why', I explained everything before. And the old lady has allowed you to."

"The old lady is the old lady, I'm talking about me. I'm no kid to be sent out by my guardian. I do what I want to."

"Then, can't you consider it?" Tyrin requested once more.

Randolf stubbornly rejected it. "I refuse. I shouldn't take anyone who isn't a dwarf through the secret path. Besides, I have nothing to do with this Manual and what it will be used for. I'm not sticking my nose in that kind of trouble when it's not worth a cent."

"Cheapskate."

Someone murmured.

"What did you say?"

Randolf turned around, and saw Karna with her puffed cheeks.

"I said you're a stingy miser, that's what you are. Lending a hand to people in trouble is the right thing to do."

She began preaching to the stubborn dwarf as a priest was bound to do.

"That's my decision to make."

"Cheapskate," she made the same face again. Of course, it was useless to preach to a man several times her age. Besides, Karna wasn't one to keep a dignified front for long.

"C'mon now, a young girl shouldn't talk like that. Not to mention, you seem to be a priest too."

"Oh, I can speak however I want to a dwarf like you. I don't think the gods will forgive your actions."

"My, what a difficult kid."

"You're the difficult one!"

Karna had got angry to the point of tears, and Karin hurried to calm her down. She hugged Karin, burying her face in the older girl's chest.

Randolf felt a bit troubled, as he did not intend to make her cry.

His gaze fell downwards, and when he raised his head again, the white dragon was right in front of him.

"Randolf the dwarf, I beg you once more. We need your help."

Bleu's long neck was bowed down all the way to the dwarf's face.

"Bleu, you shouldn't ever have to go this far."

Karin tried to push his head up. A proud and noble Sacred Dragon, hero of times past, shouldn't lower himself to a mere dwarf. But, Bleu's head stayed firmly where it was.

"If you want us to beg, then, please."

Joining the plea for help, Karin also bowed down towards Randolf, by Bleu's side and as deeply as him. Not leaving her sister alone in that, Krin also bowed by her side.

"I ask of you as well, dwarf, sir."

A bit late, Camallia joined them. Hers was a more elegant gesture, bending her upper body without lowering her head as much.

"Now, what will you do, dear friend. I will ask of you once more as well. To retrieve the stolen Manual, we require a dwarf's assistance..."

Tyrin bowed.

Karna quickly lowered her head as well by Karin's side, her face stained with tears.

"Fine, I get it, stop pestering me, you all. I'll guide you, now get these heads back up already."

Randolf had at last joined the group.

To next part>

Translation notes:

With thanks to Spriters Resource, here's a refresher on what the shapeshifting machine looks like:

And the machine in the Tower of the Ancients that gives power to Dark Dragon (we only see it after it's destroyed by Cain):

The similarities between them kinda start and end with having a glass dome. I don't see any entrances in the last one and Darksol does not put anyone inside it to supply Dark Dragon with energy, so yeah, the writer took some liberties here. Of course, there's no original explanation for it so it's not a big deal.

Karna is confirmed here as a half-elf. According to the afterword at the end of the book (which I'll be translating eventually), the writer did contact someone (he doesn't clarify who exactly) to ask on the issue of her looking like an elf while listed as a human in the manual. The way he talks about, it was very likely a mistake, and deciding to make her a half-elf was just a hasty fix. They decided the same should go for Taya even though she's not even in this book.

Rolling my eyes at the dwarf racism that seems to be going on here. I don't recall dwarves being established as a lesser race anywhere in the first game and its extra content, with Gort even being a legendary hero in Guardiana (despite centaurs dominating the army there in general, but that's mentioned more as centaurs being the prejudiced ones, as opposed to everyone else being on it). The SF2 encyclopedia has a note on Randolf being from a "rougher" subrace of dwarves, so he seems to attract this kinda comment, but in the same sentence that book establishes regular dwarves as respected, so the portrayal here still sticks out as the writer doing his own thing. Which feels pretty bad, especially when Randolf is so far the only character defined just as a worker as opposed to having some special heritage, religious or academic connection.

#shining series #shining force #shining force 2 #bloodline of the sacred dragons #shining force novel translation #sf bleu #sf karin #sfbotsd camallia #world's least suspicious woman #sf2 karna twiggy #not gonna lie while i knew randolf's treatment was weird here #i misread karna's line on my first read #they did my girl dirty #especially given the characterization she's gonna get in the next chapter #sf2 tyrin piper #sf2 randolf dongo #i have more to comment on his characterization between here and the game but i'll wait until more is shown #sf krin #sf krin's cerberus

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claire-starsword · 2 months

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Bloodline of the Sacred Dragons Chapter 2-1 & 2-2

Chapter 2: Chasing the Manual

The next day, having got the western gate opened for them thanks to Boken's help, Bleu and his group continued their journey to the country of mages, Manarina.

Their group was a lot of human girls except for Bleu and Cerberus, and the gatekeepers of Rindo advised them to be careful. They warned that a couple of days ago, a suspicious group had been seen heading to the mountaneous region of Bustoke close by.

Patting Cerberus' head, Krin laughed to her sister that they had no reason to worry.

Unlike their journey on sea so far, this time they were on land, walking with their own legs.

The one enjoying this change the most was Krin's pet and protector, Cerberus. She ran happily through the grassy paths scattered across the forest. She had certainly been too confined back in the ship. With all that pent up energy, she kept running off ahead and coming back afterwards. That way, she was basically a scout for the team, so they let her do as she pleased.

After doing so many rounds that everyone but Krin got tired of counting, Cerberus suddenly began barking furiously as soon as she returned to the group. She shook her head, pointing it at the direction they were headed to.

"There's something up ahead, I suppose."

Karin grabbed the long bow she carried on her back, along with an arrow from her quiver. Her hunter eyes scanned the area diligently.

"Yes, and it's probably nothing good."

Krin took a moment to quiet Cerberus down, keeping her gaze fixed straight ahead.

"I'll check the area."

Bleu opened his wings, and took to the skies in a blast of wind. He rose until he could watch the forest and river from above.

He saw a group next to the bridge they intended to cross. They were moving quite fast.

The one in the front seemed to be a human girl. Many fog-like monsters and bloodsucking bats chased after her.

A forgotten rage began to burn within Bleu. Those monsters were full of evil intent. He spewed his dragon breath in midair.

Closing his wings halfway, he dropped from the sky aiming at the monsters.

"Bleu came down. Let's go, follow my lead," Karin rallied the others and ran.

Karna was running close to the bridge, out of breath. Her heart felt like it would burst. She had a great urge to cast a healing spell, but it didn't look like the monsters right behind her would give her the time.

Running around with the hem of her priest robes rolled up, she figured she should be looking very unseemly, but didn't have the luxury to care about that.

Karna freed her young and healthy legs from those robes as much as she could, and kept running.

She could see the bridge. And some people.

She was saved.

The instant she thought that, a quite ill-timed shame burst within her. Her hands holding off her robe weakened their grip a bit. It fell down and got caught on her legs, and she tumbled down hard, the bridge right in front of her eyes.

The monsters would catch up to her!

Karna twisted around to look behind her. The fog-like monsters made horrifying smiles in the air, as if mocking their prey. She recoiled from them.

The monsters' bodies spread out as if to enwrap her.

She thought that was the end, and then a white figure cut through the deadly fog. Dispersed, the fog lost its devilish lifeforce and disappeared.

Karna raised her head, and saw what kind of creature had attacked the monsters. She instinctively backed away, dragged herself through the ground. The thing in front of her was a ferocious dragon. The other monsters were nothing but kittens compared to a dragon. She was out of the frying pan and into the fire.

"My friends are coming. Don't move."

The white dragon spoke with an unexpectedly kind voice, and flew towards the monsters. Covering her face with her arm against the wind he whipped up, she heard the voices of girls who had crossed the bridge.

"Are you alright?"

Karin helped the fallen girl to her feet.

"Yes, I'm fine. Never mind that, what's with the white dragon?" Karna asked, pointing at Bleu.

"He's Bleu, a Sacred Dragon. A member of the old Shining Force."

"The Shining Force…"

Karna's eyes sparkled with excitement at Karin's words.

"I'll help him."

Leaving Karna to Krin, Karin took an arrow from her quiver. With fluid motions she held it in her fingers while drawing her bow fully as she lowered the aim at the same time. The string released with a thwack. The bow twirled forward in Karin's hand. The arrow pierced a Vampire Bat as if sucked towards it.

Karna sighed with admiration as she watched the beautiful and smooth sequence of movements.

"And next…"

Karin prepared a second arrow.

"There is no need for this. Unskilled interference will only cause trouble for Sir Bleu," Camallia stopped Karin, her voice calm, and her eyes watching Bleu full of interest.

Karin slowly lowered her longbow.

Camallia was right, those monsters were nothing to Bleu. A single swish of his claws was enough to scatter the living lumps of fog. His lightning breath burned Vampire Bats to a crisp in an instant.

Watching that overwhelming power, Karin doubted if the creature fighting there was even Bleu. There was no sign of the shy, peaceful little dragon that liked to read. The kid who always needed Karin to take care of him was gone.

"What a shame. We didn't get a turn," Krin commented as if she really wanted to cast a Blaze spell, opening and closing her hand nonstop.

"…Yeah, how sad."

Time had passed differently for them, and Karin hated that.

To next part>

Translation notes:

This is the one chapter that refers to Cerberus as a "she". Since english uses pronouns a lot more, I've been using it on previous chapters as well.

#shining series #shining force #shining force 2 #this tag makes a lot more sense now!#bloodline of the sacred dragons #shining force novel translation #sf bleu #sf karin #sf krin #sf krin's cerberus #sf2 karna twiggy #sfbotsd camallia #i find it pretty abrupt how the pov immediately changes to karna though #she has some great scenes coming up tho #also karin continues to be a lump of irony that the book refuses to touch #'oh no the guy i pushed to become a warrior became a warrior. how could this happen'

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claire-starsword · 3 months

Text

Bloodline of the Sacred Dragons - Chapter 1-2

Rudo Village was a small port, established by people who revered the Sacred Dragons of Dragonia. Despite being small, it was regularly visited by ships from Port Uranbatol in West Rune and the island kingdom of Waral at the center of the continent, acting as the northern entrance to East Rune.

It was already noon when Bleu and Karin arrived at the village. Karin's legs were used to run around the land hunting, and she showed no sign of exhaustion for walking all the way from Dragonia.

Marron came to greet the two at the gate. In the war, ten years ago, he had been the boy who raised a barricade of stones to protect the village, proud of his great strength. Now he had grown into a robust man.

"Lady Karin, Sir Bleu, Krin's ship should be arriving just now. I'll accompany you."

Leaving the gatekeeping to other guards, Marron began guiding them to the harbor. There was a particular reason he wanted to be there to welcome Krin. Karin knew that, and raised a hand to hide her smile.

"Lead the way," she replied, with the dignity of a village leader. To those around her age, she was the hero who brought all children together to resist the demon army. It was the same for Bleu, having been part of the Shining Force, independently of how much he wanted it or not.

The three walked towards the ocean, weaving their way through lines of houses surrounded by a tall fence that blocked out the sea breeze.

The people who passed by would immediately stop when they saw the three, bowing deeply. There were also children who would blatantly hide behind their own mothers. Marron's chest would noticeably puff up with pride at all those people.

Karin took a discreet glance at Bleu. While he looked calm, he seemed to be holding back some discomfort, or at least it looked that way to her.

A long time ago, the people of Rudo Village worshiped and supported the Sacred Dragons of Dragonia. The reason Bleu had managed to live alone all those years after losing his parents, until he met the Shining Force, was thanks to the help of the people of Rudo, starting from Karin.

And that was the problem. Being thanked by those people was one thing, but there should be no reason for them to be in awe of him. No matter how it had once been with the first Sacred Dragons, Bleu had been equals with Karin and the other children of Rudo. He wished it could have continued like that.

But as time went by, those children grew up, becoming adults who served the Sacred Dragons. They had changed, and perhaps Bleu had changed as well. The only ones who didn't change their attitude towards him were the sisters, Karin and Krin.

To shake off those stares bending toward him, Bleu hurried up to the harbor.

The smell of salt became stronger.

They could see the pier now. A ship then stopped by it.

The gangway was lowered, and people began disembarking.

At the end of a big group of people, a lone girl got down to the pier. She wore a long mantle, and after putting a heavy looking luggage bag down with a thud, waved a hand at them. Her round glasses threatened to slide off her small nose, so she fixed them casually with her right middle finger.

"Krin!" Karin called out for the sister she hadn't seen in so long.

Using her hands to comb her short maroon hair, which looked terribly messy, Krin waited for the embrace of her sister.

"Hey, Krin the walking library, welcome back." Bleu greeted the eccentric girl with an affectionate nickname.

"Good to see you again, Bleu," she replied, getting out of her sister's hug to embrace Bleu's neck. Bleu hid a bitter smile, they sure were sisters.

"Welcome home, Krin," Marron greeted her, as if not wanting to be overlooked.

"Hi, Marron."

"What, I just get a word?" He grumbled a bit, "do you know how much I wanted to see you again?"

Krin side-eyed him for a quick moment. "Before that, hurry up and get my luggage," she replied, half an order. Complaining that she hadn't changed a bit, he reached out for her bag. As he looked down to it, he met eyes with the creature behind Krin. He froze.

"It's fine, Cerby. He's just carrying the luggage."

Upon hearing Krin's voice, the two-headed dog, Cerberus, turned away all four of her eyes from Marron. With a single bark, she ran to her master, tail wagging. Marron let out a breath as the tension passed.

"There's a lot I want to talk about with you, Karin, Marron. And Bleu… Let's go home already."

Krin took Karin and Bleu's hands on hers, and led them. Marron and Cerberus followed behind them.

As they tried to leave the harbor, suddenly the people around got agitated.

Bleu turned around, and saw another ship. It was still at sea, slowly approaching the harbor. But even from that distance he could that the bow was broken, and the mast torn in half. It certainly wasn't approaching intentionally, just being dragged by the tide.

As if hearing something, Cerberus suddenly ran in the shipwreck's direction, and began barking furiously. Looking closely, a group of flying creatures were flying in circles around the ship.

"Sea Bats. They're scavenger creatures. That means there's something in that ship, maybe someone…" Krin was observing the creatures from a binocular, that she must had taken from her bag at some point.

"We have to confirm that," Bleu murmured, and spread his wings. Karin, who stood behind him, had her view completely blocked by them. He looked three times bigger like that. It was an imposing sight to anyone around.

With great strength from his muscles, his wings beat against the air. With some flaps, he took to the clear skies at once. Cutting through the air, he rose even higher, and glided in the direction of the shipwreck.

Upon the white dragon's approach, the Sea Bats scattered away from the ship like scared little spiders.

Bleu spun above the ship quickly, then landed gently on the deck.

"We should go as well. Prepare a boat," Karin ordered.

Marron hopped into a small boat and prepared the oars. The sisters boarded as well, and he began to row immediately with great might.

The three hurried after Bleu and the shipwreck.

By the time they arrived, there was no bat in sight. Naturally, a Sea Bat would never face a Sacred Dragon. You could consider them wise for running away on instinct.

Waiting for them at the deck, Bleu flew once again to bring them aboard.

Inspecting their surroundings, they found that the damage on the ship was worse than it looked from afar. Even a storm or a battle shouldn't be able to cause so much destruction. There were marks all around, that looked as if a giant hand had struck it down, or ripped parts from it.

Heading to the inside of the ship through a crack, they found it just as wrecked as the outside. The damage was so big, it was fascinating that the ship managed to remain afloat.

There was no sign of passengers anywhere. Perhaps they had fallen off the ship through the cracks. Or dragged out by something.

"It's more like a ghost ship than a shipwreck," Krin said, and Bleu nodded slightly at her words.

Just as they thought of leaving, Marron shouted, pointing at a big crack on the floor. The others strained their eyes, attempting to see inside with the dim light that passed through it. A girl lied down there in the depths of the ship, half of her body submerged in the water.

"Marron, please."

At Karin's command, Marron headed down there.

He placed a hand on the girl's chest to check her vitals. Fortunately, her heartbeat was strong. Perhaps she had fallen there by luck and escaped the danger, albeit losing consciousness. Marron picked her up with ease due to his strength. Her long hair was wet with the sea water accumulated in the ship's bottom, and it dripped loudly.

"Sir Bleu, please hold her."

As Bleu took the girl from Marron's hands and carried her to above the floor, he couldn't help a vague, uneasy presentiment coming over him. His movements became stiff for a moment, and Karin laid eyes upon the girl in his arms.

The black haired girl remained still, her chest going up and down weakly.

To next part>

Translation notes:

Krin's design seems entirely original. At most you can argue the maroon hair color is taken from her in-game sprite. In the GBA version she had blue hair, so that's a completely different take.

Speaking of maroon, this color name apparently comes from "marron", french for both "brown" and "chestnut". So even Marron's name ties him to Krin.

Krin calls her pet Cerberus-chan, both in the novel and in the original game. The english localization of the game changed it to Brit, but unlike most name changes I doubt anyone remembers this one except me, so i kept closer to the original this time. Edit: by instinct I first used "Cerberos", as it's closer to the japanese reading, but the games use "Cerberus" and it's not a meaningful difference for me so i've updated it.

The line about Bleu living alone for years since the death of his parents strikes me as a bit odd. I always thought Dragonia's population had been decimated during Cain's attack, and the GBA version indeed states that. I can't find any evidence of that in the original game though, so it might be that his parents and everyone else died earlier in this version. The adults of Rudo did leave due to thinking the dragons were done for, after all.

#shining series #shining force #shining force novel translation #bloodline of the sacred dragons #sf bleu #sf karin #sf krin #sf krin's cerberus #sfbotsd marron #sfbotsd camallia #we deserve a playable cerberus honestly

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