VOLUME 6
BRANDON VARNELL
Illustrations by XuaHanNin
Contents
Title Page
Publishing Info
Prologue: The Bored Prince
Chapter 1: The Prince Cometh
Interlude: Kazekiri and Ryoko
Chapter 2: A Prince’s Vanity
Chapter 3: Prince Versus Hero
Interlude II: Concern for a Friend
Chapter 4: What I Want
Epilogue: The Price of Being a Prince
Afterword
Sneak Peek: WIEDERGEBURT: Legend of the Reincarnated Warrior
Hey, Did You Know?
Exclusively on Patreon...
American Kitsune
A Most Unlikely Hero
Arcadia’s Ignoble Knight
The Executioner
Social Media
Coming Soon: Swordsman Of The Rift
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
A Most Unlikely Hero Volume 6
Copyright (c) 2019 Brandon Varnell
Illustrations by XuaHanNin
Kindle formatting: Lia at Free Your Words
All rights reserved
Brandon Varnell and Kitsune Incorporated supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce creative works that enrich our culture.
The uploading and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use the material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact the publisher. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
To see Brandon Varnell’s other works, or to ask for permission to use his works, visit him at www.varnell-brandon.com, facebook at www.facebook.com/AmericanKitsune, twitter at www.twitter.com/BrandonbVarnell, Patreon at www.patreon.com/BrandonVarnell, and instagram at www.instagram.com/brandonbvarnell.
If you would like to know when Brandon Varnell releases a new book, please sign up for his mailing list at www.varnell-brandon.com/mailing-list.
PROLOGUE
THE BORED PRINCE
Arthur was bored. Ever since he’d been named crown prince of Camelot, he’d done nothing but study, study, study, and study. He learned how to fight, how to talk politics, and how to make nice with other planets. He studied history, mathematics, social science, and economics. He was taught how to make war and how to make peace, and he listened to the people every single day.
It was all very boring.
If I had known this is what would happen when I became the owner of Caliburn, I’d have never pulled that blasted sword from the stone.
“That’s not a very nice thing to say about your own weapon!” a voice shouted in his ear.
“Stop reading my mind!” Arthur snapped.
It was late in the afternoon, and Arthur had just finished listening to the complaints and reports of his people. The light from the waning sun shone through the many windows that illuminated the hallway he and his aid were walking down. Their feet clicked against the floor with light taps. Tap-tap. Tap. Tap-tap. An offbeat rhythm that made him and his aid sound out of sync with each other echoed down the hall. Strapped to his waist, his sword thumped against his right thigh.
“Prince Arthur! Are you listening to me?” his aid demanded.
“Of course I am listening to you.” Arthur sighed.
His aide was an older woman with light brown hair tied into a severe bun. The hem of her black and purple dress swished around her legs as she walked, and her heeled shoes clacked against the tiles. While the dress had numerous frills, Arthur wasn’t fooled. Were he to look underneath that elegant outfit, he would find skintight leather and numerous daggers strapped to the woman’s body. This was Gwenn, his aide, bodyguard, and his combat instructor.
“Good.” Gwenn adjusted her glasses, which did little to hide her stern brown eyes. “Now that we’ve heard from your subjects and have properly allocated resources to them, you need to write up reports and read the latest on galactic news. You are almost done for the day, so please keep working hard.”
“Right…”
Arthur ran a hand through his hair as he and Gwenn passed through a set of large double doors guarded by a pair of knights in gleaming armor. As he tread across the dark red carpet of his office, he looked at the various decorations and accoutrements dotting the mostly spartan interior. There were a few portraits of previous kings to his left. On the right, a large shelf filled with old tomes. He didn’t know why they had them. Everything in there was also available through the planetary network, but he supposed it was tradition to have tomes like this or something to that effect.
Moving behind his large desk made of varnished wood, Arthur sat down, his butt and back sinking into the soft pillows of his chair. He would have liked to relax for a moment. He was tired. However, the moment he sat down, Gwenn set a tablet onto his desk and slid it before his eyes.
“Here are all of the current reports on the galactic community. Please read up before you begin writing your own reports,” she said.
He sighed again.
What I wouldn’t give to go back in time.
Arthur was one of four princes who had been in line for the throne. As the youngest, he was the least likely to actually become king, but all that changed when he accidentally pulled Caliburn from the stone. Ever since that moment, his life had been nothing but one big, hectic mess. Unlike the others, Arthur never wanted to be king. He would have been more than happy to spend the rest of his life playing with Princess Gabrielle.
I wonder how she’s doing…
As he read about the latest atrocity committed by a tyrannical king named MacArt, who had apparently attacked an undeveloped solar system with humans who had yet to invent a method of traveling outside of their solar system, Arthur thought about his friend from long ago.
Thanks to his solar system’s political power, he and his family had often gone over to visit with King Lucifer. He had been introduced to Gabrielle during that time and they became great friends. Over the course of the month he stayed there, he’d grown to love Gabrielle and had promised himself that he would marry her one day.
Sadly, he’d not seen the girl of his dreams since that time. Barely a week after that, he’d become the owner of Caliburn, and since then, he had not left the planet even once. It was a regular suckfest. The only good thing to come from being the crown prince was his first wife.
Of course, I haven’t seen her in months either.
“Thinking of your main squeeze?” a voice said in his ear.
“I thought I told you to stop reading my mind,” Arthur said.
“I can’t help it. Your thoughts are so loud.”
“Tch!”
“Please stop holding a conversation with your sword, Prince Arthur,” Gwenn said. “It’s disturbing.”
“I can’t help it. Maybe if this blasted thing stopped talking, I wouldn’t be having this problem.”
“That cannot be helped. Caliburn is a sentient sword created from the time before the founding of our solar system, and it awakened once you pulled it from the stone. That said, I’d prefer it if you ignored the sword while I was in your presence.”
“Such a cruel woman, this Gwenn is.”
“Be quiet, Cal. I’m trying to concentrate.”
Being the crown prince meant he was directly involved in his solar systems affairs. In most cases, his father was supposed to handle the vast majority o
f the workload regarding the solar system as a whole, though currently that task had fallen to his wives. He received numerous reports from his father’s wives regarding this solar system and the galactic community.
Arthur was in charge of ruling over Camelot, which meant he still had several dozen stacks of paperwork to deal with every single day. It often took him two or more hours to complete all the work, and by the time he finished, he was so exhausted that he barely made it to bed each night.
In other words, he didn’t need this damn sword bothering him while he worked.
However, as he continued reading about the debacle instigated by King MacArt, something caught his eyes. He stopped. He read a few lines, eyes slowly widening until it felt like they might fall out of his sockets. His breathing all but stopped as he finished reading. He set the tablet down, slowly, almost mechanically, and leaned back in his chair.
“Is something wrong, Prince Arthur?” asked Gwenn.
“Perhaps. Tell me, Gwenn, did you know that Gabrielle was living on a planet called Mars?”
Gwenn paused, and Arthur knew that his bodyguard was trying to think of what she should say to him. Should she lie? Should she tell the truth? How much of the truth should she tell him? He’d known this woman for many years, so he knew how she thought, and he knew that she knew what would happen if she lied to him.
She might have been his instructor in combat and his bodyguard, but he was still crown prince.
“I’ve known for several months now,” she admitted with a sigh.
“And why did you neglect to inform me of this?” asked Arthur.
“Because I do not believe it is in your best interest to pursue a relationship with that girl.” Gwenn paused again, gathering her thoughts to present him with a logical argument, no doubt. “Princess Gabrielle is currently the most wanted woman in the entire galaxy. Men from far and wide are traveling all the way to this backwater planet just so they can force her to marry them. Our solar system is powerful, but some of the forces after her are even more powerful. The chances of you successfully marrying her are low, so I thought your time would be better spent on more useful endeavors.”
While Arthur would have loved to tell this woman off for keeping this a secret, he couldn’t. Her argument was indeed logical. It made a good deal of sense.
Gabrielle had always been highly sought after. Her beauty, intelligence, and the power she wielded as a princess of Angelise made her the most desirable woman in the entire galaxy. Men would gladly murder their own mothers for her hand in marriage.
Their solar system was powerful, perhaps even one of the most powerful thanks to the many trade routes that ran through it. In terms of wealth, they were among the top ten most wealthy solar systems in the entire galaxy, but that did not mean they were at the top. They were wealthy. They had an excellent army. This much was true. However, there were some people who had far more power, wealth, and military might than they did. It would be those people who were going after Gabrielle.
At the same time…
“It says here that she’s marrying some human,” Arthur read. “Alexander S. Ryker.”
“Hey, his name starts with an A like you.”
“Quiet, Cal.” Arthur looked at Gwenn. “Do we have any information on this Alexander?”
Adjusting her glasses, which gleamed as the light reflected off her lenses, Gwenn typed into her own tablet. She looked at the information on her tablet. A frown marred her face.
“Alexander S. Ryker,” Gwenn began, “from what we can gather, he appears to be a normal human. However, lately a rumor has been spreading around that he might be Angelisian.”
“Might be?” Arthur raised an eyebrow.
“We only have rumors and hearsay, but I’ve heard tell that this Alexander fought and defeated both Nyx the assassin and the Tyrant King, MacArt. The rumor is that he defeated them both by using the Aura of Creation. What’s more, he also supposedly defeated Jāhilīyah’s reigning queen and her brothers.”
The Aura of Creation was a power unique to Angelisians. While most people simply thought of it as the ability to manipulate their internal energy to freely create whatever they wanted, the truth was far more profound. It was the ability to manipulate all of creation. While weaker Angelisians could create weapons, shields, and anything else they could think of, the more powerful ones could destroy or create planets, cause stars to go nova, and make black holes appear at will.
Fortunately, the only one strong enough to do that was King Lucifer.
Arthur had witnessed this aura before. Gabrielle Angelise had an extremely powerful aura. He remembered this one time when they had been running from her guards, Gabrielle had created this massive beam of energy that not only destroyed half of King Lucifer’s palace, but it had also annihilated the hanger, which had been on the opposite side of the palace—along with every ship that had been docked there. Arthur would later find out that Gabrielle hadn’t even used a fraction of her power.
“So he’s an Angelisian?” Arthur questioned, mostly to himself.
“Or a half-Angelisian who was lucky enough to inherit his Angelisian parent’s power.” Gwenn adjusted her glasses again. “Whether that is the case or not, it does not change what we do know. He did fight Nyx, King MacArt, and Jāhilīyah’s queen, and he defeated all of them. What hasn’t been confirmed is whether this was because he’s Angelisian, or if there is some other reason.”
Arthur took in everything that Gwenn told him, crossing his arms and closing his eyes as he decided on a course of action. Really, there was only one course of action he could take.
He stood up.
“Gwennyvere, prepare my shuttle,” he commanded. “We’re leaving for Mars.”
Gwenn looked like she wanted to deny him, to say they couldn’t go, but he had used her full name. He was not asking her to prepare his shuttle. He was commanding her.
“Very well, Prince Arthur.” Gwenn bowed. “I shall have your shuttle prepared within the hour.”
“Excellent. I’ll leave the details to you. Also, please get in touch with Nimue. I want her to come with me.”
“I shall inform your wife of what’s happening personally.”
“My thanks.”
Arthur began walking toward the door. He didn’t know who this Alexander Ryker was, but he would be damned if he allowed anyone beside himself to marry Gabrielle. He’d go to Mars, defeat this barbarian from a backwater planet, and return to Camelot with Gabrielle.
Yes, Gabrielle would become his bride. No one else appreciated her like he did. No one else cared about her like him. Out of all the people in this galaxy, he was the only one fit to marry her.
“Prince Arthur,” Gwenn said as he placed a hand on the double doors.
He paused. “Yes?”
“You still have work to do. Please sit back down and continue working diligently until the shuttle is ready.”
Arthur’s hand trembled. Slowly, painfully, he pulled his hand from the door, trudged over to the desk, and sat back down with slumped shoulders.
Being the crown prince really sucked balls.
CHAPTER 1
THE PRINCE COMETH
A brightly lit room bursting to the brim with medical equipment, white walls, a white ceiling, and a white floor filled his vision. Alex was lying on one of three beds with sheets that matched the interior. The bed wasn’t very comfortable, but it could have been worse. Surrounding him was a variety medical equipment. Several pieces of that equipment were connected to him via a series of cables, bleeping and blooping as they monitored and mapped his body.
It hadn’t been that long since Alex, Gabrielle, and Nyx had dealt with King MacArt, the evil tyrant who had tried to kidnap Gabrielle and turn her into his toy. While he hadn’t been hurt during the incident, he did have a machine meant to block Angelisian powers forced on him. He was currently getting a checkup from the resident black-market doctor to make sure the device hadn’t done any internal damage.
; Alex had two powers inside of him. One was the Aura of Creation, the Angelisian power, which created a silvery blue around his body that he could manipulate freely. With it, Alex could create anything he wanted so long as he had the imagination for it.
Of course, there were limitations, such as the fact that the Aura of Creation couldn’t make anything that was too technologically advanced. Sure, he could technically create a shuttle out of his aura. However, the shuttle wouldn’t work. He wouldn’t be able to pilot it anywhere. This was because the Aura of Creation was only good for creating inanimate or mystical objects.
Alex primarily used the Aura of Creation to make weapons. Swords. Whips. Knives. However, he could also make shields with it. That wasn’t all it could do, though, as Alex still remembered his fight with the simulated King Lucifer during his prime. The Emperor of the Galaxy had shot the aura out of his hand as a massive beam of light that had engulfed Alex and killed him on the spot. There were probably millions of uses for this power that he wasn’t even aware of. It would probably be years before he learned them all.
The other power was one of unknown origins, something that neither Gabrielle, Michelle, nor even Nyx had been able to tell him anything about. It made Alex wonder if perhaps this power was the reason he had voices inside of his head.
“Okay, we’re finished here (^_^),” a voice said to his left.
Alex turned his head. Sitting on a stool beside his bed was a woman with green hair that traveled down her back, flowing past her butt, and rabbit-like ears that hung from her head and twitched periodically. Eyes a bright amethyst blinked several times behind wireframe glasses. It was very old-school. He actually assumed the glasses were a fashion statement instead of something she needed. No one who wore those actually needed them anymore. She also wore a white lab coat over a dark black dress that clung to her body, stretching across her bust and wrapping around her wide hips. In complete contrast with her looks, the smile on her face brighter than the sun and more childish than Gabrielle’s beaming smiles.
A Most Unlikely Hero, Vol 6 Page 1