Volume 1 - Princess Royale
Volume 1 of Gun X Princess has been released on Amazon Kindle Direct as Princess Royale. In accordance with the digital distribution agreement, Volume 1 has been removed from RRL.
In its place,this summary serves as an introduction to the series.
Those of you that wish to read the complete novel can find the Kindle Edition of Princess Royale for purchase here:
https://www.royalroad.com/amazon/B0178NWM4I
----------------------------------------
Summary
On the colonized and terraformed world of Teloria, in the coastal city-state of Ar Telica, sixteen year old high school student Ronin Kassius is ditched on a Friday afternoon after school by his best friend, Tobias Mateus Praetor, in favor of a date with the eminently perky hottie, Toni Sheffield. Ambling off on his own to enjoy an afternoon of solo gaming at a popular arcade, Ronin racks up a new high score on a zombie killing first person shooter that employs holographics rather virtual reality. But his afternoon is off to a strange start. The game doesn’t play the way he remembers it. It plays way too real for comfort.
Receiving a brusque email to return home from his elder sister and legal guardian, Erina Kassius, Ronin makes his way to his student apartment when he’s suddenly caught up in a phenomena that leaves him alone in a dead and deserted Ar Telica. His afternoon grows from bad to worse when his body begins to decay rapidly. However, before he dies he witnesses a strangely armored girl arrive to save him moments before he loses consciousness
Waking upon on Monday morning, Ronin wonders if last Friday afternoon was all a dream. However, he is unable to explain what happened to his weekend. Nonetheless, he decides to attend school at Telos Academy which is situated on Telos Island out in the large bay encircled by Ar Telica.
At the shoe lockers, he runs into the class rep, Anri Shirohime, who promptly delivers punishment for shamelessly ogling her impressive bust. Witnessing the encounter, Tobias pokes fun at Ronin who casually knocks the taller boy on his ass. Surprised by his strength, Ronin tries to hide it, but is troubled by the loss of the weekend and the behavior of his body.
Matters come to a head during lunch break at the cafeteria. Ronin hears a voice in his head introducing itself as a Maestro, something of a personal assistant, who then quickly shocks Ronin to the core by revealing that he died last Friday, and his consciousness was transplanted into a temporary body – a Simulacrum – that resembles Ronin on the outside but is somewhat different on the inside.
At first disbelieving the Maestro, the more Ronin listens to the voice in his head, the more anxious he becomes until his emotions burst out in an angry display that culminates with him tossing a cafeteria table over the side of a balcony. Witnessed by hundreds of students, including Tobias and his new girlfriend Toni, Ronin flees the cafeteria and seeks solace elsewhere on Telos Island.
Ronin names the Maestro, Jive, and listens to the latter explain that Ronin is occupying a temporary body while parties Jive cannot reveal are keeping his real body safe. His remains are being stored for regeneration, but Jive then explains that Ronin’s nameless benefactors expect him to compete in the Princess Royale, a virtual combat tournament watched by millions. However, the reality is that the tournament is not virtual, but real, and makes use of a technology that copies slices of his reality – his environment – into confined regions called Slivers. These Slivers are then transplanted into a realm known as Decaying Space.
Jive explains that last Friday, Ronin was scooped up into one of these Slivers, and he was dropped into Decaying Space where his organic body subsequently decomposed and almost died. However, he was saved by a Gun Princess, and because it was deemed an unfortunate accident, Ronin was compensated with a new body, but his benefactor will expect him to participate in the Princess Royale, while his original body is regenerated by unknown means.
Adding to his woes, Ronin learns that the competitors of the Princess Royale are girls called Gun Princesses, which means he’ll be fighting in a female body, and his first match is scheduled for that evening against the reigning Gun Queen of Ar Telica.
Rattled by what he’s learnt, Ronin turns himself into the academy administration where he learns he won’t have to pay for the damages but will be attending detention for a week. Returning to afternoon homeroom, Ronin argues with Tobias and the two friends part ways less than amicably. However, on his way to serve his detention, Ronin encounters a trio of students and fellow detainees, who are ardent fans of the Princess Royale. After detention, the trio of second year high schoolers give Ronin the low down on the Gun Queen, unaware that Ronin will be taking part in the upcoming exhibition match.
Before Ronin can leave the detention room, the school is copied into a Sliver, causing him to disappear into thin air before the three students. Jive wails in despair, wondering how they’ll fix that problem, then quickly focuses on summoning Ronin’s sarcophagus which contains the Gun Princess body that he needs to ‘transfer’ into. Things don’t go to plan, and the massive sarcophagus crashes into the room, trapping Ronin under the rubble. Unable to free himself while his Simulacrum body rapidly decomposes, Ronin faces certain death until a girl in a black bikini, black shorts, and black coat arrives upon the scene. Wielding an enormous shotgun rifle, the girl blows Ronin apart, freeing him from the debris, and then tosses the upper half of his torso into the open sarcophagus.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
When he regains consciousness, Ronin finds himself outside the sarcophagus and standing on a mountain of rubble inside the remains of the detention room. His consciousness has been transferred into the body of his Gun Princess name Mercedes. Jive painfully establishes contact with him, and the Gun Queen who has been waiting patiently, gives Ronin/Mercedes a five minute head start. However, while she won’t chase him for five minutes, she does shoot at him with the massive shotgun, forcing Ronin to flee.
Armed with two rail-guns in the shape of two-foot long heavy rifles, Ronin/Mercedes decides to face the Gun Queen in a stairwell. But the ensuing shootout leaves the stairwell in ruins, and Mercedes heavily concussed. She does manage to land a solid hit on the Gun Queen, but is forced to flee yet again. Making her way outside the school by climbing out of a classroom window, Ronin/Mercedes is hunted down by the Gun Queen who resembles a walking corpse as a result of the damage she sustained.
A second shoot out takes place on the cafeteria balcony and the Gun Queen succeeds in firing heavy concussion grenades that knock Ronin/Mercedes through the cafeteria glass wall and into the interior. However, she is able to turn the tables on the Gun Queen by using the rail-guns to destroy the Queen’s shotcannon, which explodes and rips apart even more of the girl’s artificial body.
Having been disarmed by Ronin/Mercedes, the Gun Queen flees the cafeteria balcony and runs into the school gymnasium. Pursued by Ronin, a third battle takes place on the gantries above the gym that ends with Ronin/Mercedes crashing to the floor and losing track of the Gun Queen.
Returning to the academy building, Ronin/Mercedes believes the Gun Queen will want to end this by sniping him, as sniping rifles are her secondary weapons of choice. Wracked by indecision, he eventually climbs onto the academy rooftop where he is lured into the open by the Gun Queen who has been watching him from her position on the roof of the administration building. Narrowly avoiding sniper shots, Ronin/Mercedes flees back into the academy building and runs down the curved inner corridor. As he arrives at the administration faculty building, the Gun Queen lands a hit on Ronin/Mercedes that rips through her left arm. However, Mercedes continues onward and engages the Queen in a final shootout in the top floor of the admin building that ends with the Queen falling four stories off the building.
A heavily injured Ronin/Mercedes exits the admin building and approaches the critically damaged Gun Queen that by now resembles a corpse with an alabaster metal skeleton. Ronin sees for himself that the Gun Princesses are mechanical monstrosities resembling hot girls on the outside. After destroying the Gun Queen, Ronin/Mercedes limps back to the waiting sarcophagus as the Sliver begins to collapse around him.
Waking up in the comfort of his student apartment, Ronin discovers he’s still in Mercedes’s body and falls into despair that is interrupted by the arrival of his sister, Erina. To his shock, he learns that Erina and her team at the Telos Corporation are responsible for creating Mercedes’s body. They are also responsible for putting him inside the Gun Princess, and Erina reveals that his benefactor wants to meet him.
Together with his sister, Ronin travels to a hotel-resort on the outskirts of Ar Telica city where he meets a man who introduces himself as Simon. He learns from Simon that the Princess Royale is a form of bread and circus to the people of his reality – his parallel universe. Simon explains that humanity in his reality is centuries more advanced than the people in Ronin’s universe. As a result, they created the means to travel between universes, and established contact with elements of society on the terraformed world of Teloria.
Simon explains the importance of the Princess Royale as a means of keeping the masses happy in his universe, and to that end he wants Ronin to continue competing in the brutal tournament. The people he represents, House Alus Novis, have invested considerable time and resources in the creation of the next generation of Gun Princesses, namely, Princesses like Mercedes that are organic as opposed to inorganic machines like the Gun Queen.
Overwhelmed by what she's learnt, Ronin/Mercedes runs away from the resort, but Jive convinces her that for now her best option is to do as Simon says. Jive also reveals that Simon wasn’t entirely truthful about the technology behind the creation of the Slivers and about travel in the multiverse. He vows to protect Ronin/Mercedes, and that he will not leave her side. Ronin/Mercedes realizes that for now she has no viable choice but to follow Jive's advice.
She finds her sister Erina waiting for her, and after a short exchange of words, Ronin/Mercedes climbs into the car with Erina, and returns to Ar Telica.
With Jive as her ally, Ronin/Mercedes decides to accept her new fake identity of sixteen year old Cassidy Reynier, who has been entered into the citizen registry as Erina’s faux younger cousin.
Unfortunately, part of living his new life as Cassidy requires Ronin attend Telos Academy as a female student.
Ronin Kassius’s life at Telos Academy has come to a temporary end.
But Cassidy Reynier’s high school life is just beginning.