Volume 8
Chapter 36
A corner of the forest, enveloped in a dazzling light after Nozomu poured his magic power into Mikael. Zonne watched this scene from high above in the sky. Floating in the air in his human form, he looked down with eyes full of emotion.
"It has
begun..."
With those words, he
slowly drew out his own vast elemental essence and began to conceal the area
around Shino's hut. He then deployed layer upon layer of magic circles,
enveloping the entire hut in a barrier.
"I cannot allow
any interruptions now. I shall take out a little insurance."
The barrier Zonne
deployed was an especially powerful one used by the dragon clan, severing the
space and time within from the outside. The space-time-warping barrier turned
the inside of the barrier into a different world, completely cutting off any
interference from the outside.
"All that remains
is the matter of the young ladies..."
Gazing toward Arcazam,
Zonne let out a heavy, choked voice. Although he had refused Irisdina's
request, he was, in fact, concerned about the Wajiart family's presence.
"For those from
that country to visit this land, at this specific time... Are they also
interested in the boy, even at this late stage? Or is there another
reason..."
Zonne stroked his
beard, lost in thought, but he quickly shook his head as if to dismiss
something. He looked down at the barrier he had deployed and let out a heavy
sigh.
"It is 'too
late'..."
The old dragon looked
up at the sky with sorrowful eyes. His form, staring at something far in the
distance, somewhere unreachable, looked so small and weak, unbecoming of a race
from ancient legends.
"...Who is
there?"
But, with a heavy
voice, Zonne's expression, which had been full of sadness, suddenly tensed. He,
who had been looking at the sky, turned his gaze to the side. A single bird was
flapping its wings, staring intently at the old man. Jet-black wings, as if the
dark night had been poured into them, and blood-red eyes. Its characteristics
were its large talons, bigger than a normal crow's, and its hooked beak. The
moment he saw the bird, which was more reminiscent of a raptor than a crow,
Zonne's eyes widened as if he had seen the unbelievable.
"It's been a while,
Lord White Dragon. You've become quite sentimental."
"You, don't tell
me..."
"But it's about
time for old men to make their exit. You are, after all, a race destined to
disappear."
The next moment, an
eerie, ominous-colored mist erupted from the flapping crow's wings. A chaotic
black mist, as if countless paints had been haphazardly mixed, surged toward
Zonne.
"Mmph!"
Faced with the
approaching chaotic mist, Zonne raised his staff, emitting a brilliant white elemental
essence from his body. The chaotic mist and the white light clashed. An immense
amount of elemental essence struggled against itself, purple lightning danced,
and space itself creaked and screamed. The mist and light seemed to be in a
stalemate. However, large beads of sweat were erupting on Zonne's forehead. He
clearly had no room to spare.
"It's useless,
Lord White Dragon. In your current state, having shaved away your soul to stop
your foolish grandchild, you cannot resist. Just fall quietly into the darkness
of the void."
"Since when...
have you..."
"Ashes to ashes,
dust to dust. Those who have finished their role should return whence they
came. Deep into the earth, to the bottom of the abyss..."
With the crow's
declaration, the chaotic torrent swelled. The stalemate between white and black
broke. The mist swirled, swallowing Zonne, and then converged on a single
point. It vanished, as if swallowed by the void.
"Well then, with
this, goodbye... is what I'd like to say, but as expected of the Lord White
Dragon. You won't be swallowed so easily. That said, I'm at my limit, and
thanks to your barrier, I can't interfere with my target..."
The red-eyed crow
changed its form. Its body, which had been the size of a human head, instantly
swelled. Its flapping wings turned into human arms, its sharp talons into human
feet. And its beaked face transformed into a pale, unsettling visage. The man
standing there was the same man who had introduced himself to Nozomu as "John
Smith" at the Opening Festival: Corpse Crow.
"Ah, man. When
I'm in this form, I always revert to my old way of speaking~"
Stretching his back as
if to relieve his stiff shoulders, Corpse Crow looked down at Zonne's barrier.
"Fufufu, kuku,
kukekeke... With this, my role is more or less complete. Mekuria-chan should be
fine, and we should be able to secure it. For now, let's wait for the
awakening. Now, now, what answer will this 'heretical Dragonslayer,'
born of coincidence, give us~~. Fu, fufu..."
A perverted smile on
his handsome features, he sat cross-legged in the air, and his form melted into
the dark night and vanished.
***
The morning after
Nozomu went to Shino's hut. Mars was in front of Central Park, waiting for the
usual members to arrive for school. The large young man, dressed in his academy
uniform with a greatsword on his back, was extremely conspicuous. Students on
their way to school kept stealing glances at him, their gazes fixed on his
right arm. His arm was in a sling, as if treating a fracture. The tightly wound
bandages looked painful. But Mars himself paid no mind to the stares, standing
still as he watched the main street, as if waiting for someone. Eventually, the
people he was waiting for arrived: Tima, Feo, and Tom. Mars and the three
exchanged light greetings. Tom and Feo were from the same boys' dormitory. Tima
had apparently joined them on the way. But Mars was suspicious of the fact that
it was only Tom and Feo. One more of his friends should have been living in
that dorm.
"Hey, where's
Nozomu?"
"About that... it
seems he didn't come back to the dorm last night. We knocked on his door, but
there was no answer."
Tom nodded at Feo's
words. Something caught in Mars's mind. When he looked to his side, Tima also
had a shadow over her. She usually came to school with her best friend,
Irisdina, but today she was alone. Her downcast face was dark, her eyes lowered
as if in defeat.
"Tima, what about
Irisdina?"
"I couldn't see
her. I went to her mansion to pick her up, but Mena-san said that since it's a
crucial time, Ai will be refraining from attending school..."
"...Hmm, that's
strange."
Feo raised his voice
in question at Tima's words.
"What do you
mean, fox?"
"The princess was
attending school, leavin' her sister behind, to draw Nozomu in. But I don't get
why she'd stop now. Somethin' must've happened at the Francilt house."
Something happened. At
those words, Tima looked down anxiously. Seeing her worry about her friends,
Mars's expression also hardened.
"When are the
Francilt negotiations supposed to start?"
"The day after
tomorrow, in the afternoon. At the Francilt mansion. I checked, and it seems
the Arcazam council decided to close off the surrounding area just in case.
It's about a quarter of the administrative district. They're bein' pretty
cautious."
The administrative
district was, as its name implied, the brains of Arcazam. Closing off a quarter
of it, even temporarily, showed the academy's wariness toward Vitora and the
Imperial Kingdom.
"The city itself
hasn't changed much, but behind the scenes, the academy and the council must be
in a total panic."
"Well, the other
party is a vampire. And from a nation with first-class power on this
continent. There's still a lot of prejudice, and the mansion in the
administrative district where Princess Vitora is staying is also apparently
sealed off."
Tom continued Feo's
explanation. Thanks to the construction of Arcazam and the related research in
various fields, new facts about vampires had come to light. One of them
was the mistaken perception of vampires. The biggest of which was the
fact that vampires do not intentionally turn humans into monsters. In
the first place, a race that absolutely requires blood to survive would be
unable to maintain itself if it turned its victims into monsters every time it
fed.
"Then how did the
story about them turning people into monsters start?"
"That's where it
gets a little complicated. The main cause is the stories about vampires
turning people into vampires or monsters, but there's a lot to it.
Um..."
Tom said he'd also
gone to the Gloaurum Institute to check the materials. He took a bundle of
papers from his bag and handed them to Tima and Mars. The two took the bundle
and quickly scanned the contents. It was likely a handwritten copy by Tom and
Feo, containing the latest research findings on vampires.
"When a vampire
turns a person into one of them, they don't suck blood. Instead, they pour
their own blood into the person. And that poured blood is what changes the
person into a vampire."
"...What?"
"Here's the
problem. Just because you're given blood doesn't mean you'll become a vampire.
In fact, most humans fail to turn, and instead become... beings that attack
indiscriminately until they're destroyed."
"A ghoul..."
Ghoul. A monster also known
as a shokushiki. An undead that turns its victims into ghouls,
multiplying endlessly. This being, the ghoul, is extremely troublesome.
Perhaps because it inherits an incomplete version of a vampire's
abilities, it doesn't stop even if its limbs are severed. To kill it, you have
to crush its head, destroy its heart, burn its entire body, or expose it to
sunlight. However, its body, enhanced like a vampire's, isn't easily
destroyed, and it's difficult to survive until sunrise against such a
physically superior opponent. On top of that, a ghoul has B-Rank power.
A B-Rank is not something an ordinary person can stand against. And the new ghouls
it creates are just as dangerous. If a normal soldier is D-Rank and a veteran
is C-Rank, its threat is easy to imagine. If a monster like that is unleashed
in a city, a place densely populated with vulnerable citizens, the only thing
that awaits is a scene from hell.
"I see, so that 'ghoul'
thing is the source of the vampires' bad reputation. But a ghoul
is a menace to vampires too, right? If they knew it was a threat, why
didn't they kill the ghouls they created?"
Mars's question was a
valid one. If a ghoul rampaged, the blame would inevitably fall on the vampires.
And in fact, the nations of the continent had hunted vampires to
extinction with blood in their eyes. As a result, the vampire population
plummeted. They were forced to live in a single region of a small country in
the frigid, far north. If it were just about sucking blood, it would have no
effect on the vampire or the human. If that were all, vampires
would likely not have faced such excessive persecution. Feo joined Tom in
answering Mars's question.
"When we looked
into the vampire legends from various places, we found a number of
strange points. One was that, in many cases, even after the ghouls were
exterminated, the original vampire didn't flee."
"There were vampires
who went mad with bloodlust and rampaged. But when that happened, only the vampire
was subjugated, and no ghouls appeared."
"What's more,
there are many cases where the ghoul's 'parent' vampire committed
suicide. This means that the person they turned... had turned... into a ghoul,
was someone who was like their other half."
"So, they... grew
attached?"
"Attached enough
to not even fear their own death. And this is what fundamentally changed the
perception of vampires."
The fear of vampires
was the result of conflating the tragedies caused by blood-drunk individuals
with the tragedies caused by vampires who had devoted so much affection
to a human that they shared their blood. Tom and Feo finished their explanation
and stretched. Looking closely, there were dark circles under their eyes. They
had probably pulled an all-nighter researching this.
"Still, that's
some impressive research, you two."
"We found out the
library's materials were old, so we went and negotiated directly with the Gloaurum
Institute. It was public information, so they showed us the materials right
away."
"But, we couldn't
take 'em out, so we had to copy 'em by hand."
Having finished his
explanation, Tom turned his eyes to Mars's bandaged right arm.
"So, Mars-kun,
how's the arm?"
"Well, it's not
bad. The pain's already gone."
"But, it'll take
a little more time for it to 'settle,' so you still need to rest it."
"Yeah, I know.
I'll stay quiet as long as I can."
Tom gave a wry smile
as Mars patted his bandaged right arm with his left hand. Meanwhile, Feo was
the one intrigued by this exchange. Combined with his natural curiosity, he
began to wonder about their cryptic conversation.
"Hmm? Mars, what
exactly did ya ask Tom to do?"
"Well, just a
little experiment. If it works, it'll be a huge win..."
"Hmm..."
Feo's narrow eyes
opened wide, and he shot Mars a sharp look. Mars just grinned back, a
suggestive smile on his face. Meanwhile, Tom was staring down the street leading
from Central Park to the residential area. It was the path he and the others
had just walked, but it was also the path to the girls' dormitory.
"By the way,
Mimuru and the others are late. I wonder what happened..."
Tom was worried that
his girlfriend hadn't arrived yet. She was usually the first one to meet up
with him, so her being late was concerning. But immediately after he uttered
those words, the beastman girl in question appeared from the end of the street.
Tom raised his hand at the sight of Mimuru.
"Ah, there she
is... huh?"
But then, his eyebrows
furrowed. Mimuru was walking with her head down, her expression dark. Even for
the onset of winter, it was too dark. She was exuding an aura like the ghouls
they had just been talking about.
"M-Mimuru, what
on earth happened!? Where's Shina?"
"Shina... is
absent today, apparently..."
"Absent? Eh? What
happened!?"
Tom rushed over to his
girlfriend, distraught at her completely changed appearance. He grabbed her
shoulders, trying to look her in the face, but she just ducked her head
further, as if she didn't want him to see. At that moment, a cheerful voice,
the complete opposite of the gloomy, confused atmosphere, rang out.
"Yoo-hoo! Good
morning!"
"Lisa-san, and
Camilla-san."
"Morning. You all
look gloomy. What's wrong?"
It was Lisa and
Camilla. At the sound of Lisa's voice, who was waving her red hair, Mimuru, who
had been looking down, snapped her head up. Tom's eyes widened at the sight of
Mimuru, her eyes wide, turning with a furious expression. Meanwhile, Lisa,
confirming Mimuru's glare and the absence of the elven girl who was always
beside her, frowned for a moment, then gave a provocative smile.
"Hmm, so
Shina-san is absent? Is she sick or something?"
"Who do you
think... is to blame..."
Her words were
challenging, her tone rising at the end. Lisa's comment, which didn't even try
to hide its deliberateness, only deepened Tom's and the others' confusion. What
on earth had happened between these two? It was the same for Camilla, who was
next to Lisa.
"H-Huh? What's...
this atmosphere..."
She was bewildered by
the suddenly tense air between Lisa and Mimuru, her eyes darting back and forth
between them. Sensing the confused stares, Lisa dropped her provocative smile
and shrugged, as if tired.
"You don't have
to glare at me... It can't be helped. Even I have things I won't back down
from, and, though I don't know why, she's worrying strangely and dithering over
something, so..."
Unlike Lisa, who had
retracted her hostility, Mimuru's glare did not soften. If anything, she was
gritting her back teeth, baring her sharp canine teeth, and directing even
sharper animosity at Lisa.
"Well, whatever.
More importantly, Tom-kun, I have another favor. Can you put that formula on my
sword again?"
"A-Again? But
didn't I just enchant it the other day?"
"Well, it already
broke... C'mon, please!"
"I guess I can...
Mgyu!?"
Sensing she wouldn't
get anywhere with Mimuru, Lisa suddenly turned to Tom and began asking him to
re-enchant the sword she had previously blown up. She leaned in, pressing her
hands together in front of her face and bowing her head. Just as Tom was about
to agree, Mimuru grabbed him from behind and lifted him up.
"Don't get near
Tom."
Mimuru glared, her
large eyes filled with hostility and vigilance. Lisa, looking like she had a
headache, pressed her fingers to her temples and turned her mouth down in
annoyance.
"Look... the
person I like is Nozomu. I mean, I think Tom-kun is amazing, but he's not my
type. And, it's true I won't back down, but I don't have any enmity for
Shina-san. I just need her to get a grip..."
"W-Wait, Mimuru,
what's gotten into you... Waaah!"
Without answering
Lisa's reasoning or Tom's question, Mimuru ran into the trees of Central Park,
still holding her boyfriend. Tom's screams, audible from between the trees,
quickly faded into the distance.
"Oh dear... Did I
overdo it?"
While Mars and the
others stood dumbfounded, Lisa pressed a hand to her forehead and looked up at
the sky.
"H-Hey, what's
wrong? What happened between you and Shina-san and Mimuru-san...?"
"Hm? Oh, well, I
confessed to Nozomu again."
"...Eh?"
"What!?"
"Hohou~~!"
Lisa cheerfully began
to recount her "date" (which she forced) with Nozomu the other day.
Mars, Tima, and Camilla stared with blank expressions, while Feo watched with
an intrigued smirk. How she'd run into him at the smithy, dragged him around
town, had him treat her to sweets (as a "finder's fee"), and then
confessed to him while pressing her body against him. Mars and Tima felt like
there was a strange narration playing under her happy words, but they shook
their heads, dismissing their thoughts.
"And then...
Shina-san and Mimuru-san saw us..."
"W-Wait, a
confession, you...?"
"It can't be
helped! Irisdina-san and Shina-san are both holding back, and Nozomu looked
like he was agonizing over something, so I just had to think it was my chance
to cut in!" She added, "Well, he rejected me again, though," and
stuck out her tongue with a shrug.
Mars and the others
were speechless at Lisa, who said this so nonchalantly. She had brightened up
since getting back on her feet, and they'd thought this was the real Lisa
Hounds, but they now realized she was far more of a go-getter than they'd
imagined. Meanwhile, Feo tilted his head at Mimuru's hostility. Even if Lisa
had tried to cut in, he'd thought Mimuru was the type to encourage Shina in
matters of romance.
"For just a
confession... Mimuru was showin' a lot of hostility. Did ya do somethin'
else?~~"
"Yeah. After
that, I was thinking we'd 'make a fait accompli' at a nearby inn, so I tried to
kiss him and drag him off while the mood was right..."
"A-A fait accompli~~~!?"
Tima shrieked at
Lisa's bombshell. Mars, next to her, was gaping, completely stunned. Feo,
however, nodded as if he understood.
"And right as ya
were about to do it, ya noticed Shina and the others watchin'?"
"Yeah. I mean,
dragging Nozomu off to an inn while Shina-san was watching was a bit..."
So you would have
dragged him off if she wasn't watching? Feo retorted in his
head, glancing at the girl who had just shrieked. Tima was bright red, like a
boiled octopus, imagining the two of them.
"W-W-Watch...
ing!? Hawa, hawa, hawawawa... faint."
"H-Hey! Get a
grip!"
Mars, who was next to
her, scrambled to support Tima as she collapsed.
"After that,
Shina-san confronted me, and I talked back, and then she got all depressed...
It seems Shina-san has her own stuff going on~"
"Stuff? What
stuff?"
Mars, still supporting
the fainted Tima, asked. But Lisa, who didn't seem to know the details, just
shrugged.
"Ah well, forget
Shina. We can just ask Mimuru. So, what did ya say to Nozomu?"
"Hm? What do you
mean?"
"Nozomu didn't
come back to the dorm last night. From the sound of it, you must've done
somethin' to him on that 'date,' Red-Haired Princess. I'm guessin' that's the
cause~~"
"Oh, yeah. He
seemed to be overthinking things, so I just advised him to try and empty his
head..."
"Empty his
head... eh. Well, the problem is how Nozomu empties his head."
"Well, for him,
it's gotta be sword training. Which means he must have gone to the forest. He's
probably swinging his sword in the forest, just as advised. And I'm pretty sure
I know where."
Mars answered from
beside Feo, who had started to think. He'd been friends with Nozomu for nearly
a year. He could easily guess that Nozomu's destination was his master's collapsed
hut. At Mars's words, Feo nodded, saying, "Makes sense~."
"Musclehead~"
"It's his
starting point, basically. Well, I'm worried about Shina and Irisdina,
but..."
Mars's expression,
which had been smiling at Nozomu's antics, tightened.
"Ya look
serious."
"Yeah. This whole
situation... I've got a really bad feeling about it."
"Well, true.
Feels like there's a fire smolderin' in the shadows."
An anxiety that had
been welling up since the Opening Festival. The premonition of trouble, which
had become second nature this past year, was surfacing in both Mars's and Feo's
minds.
"We should
probably talk to Tom and Mimuru, just in case. Though I am a little worried
about him getting kidnapped..."
Just as they finished
talking and Mars was about to wake Tima, Tom and Mimuru returned from the
woods.
"Ah, looks like
they're back... holy-"
Mars was at a loss for
words at the sight of Mimuru, who was being led by the hand by Tom, sobbing and
hiccuping. Not just Mars, but Feo and the others stared, wide-eyed, at the
sight of the usually cheerful, runaway-carriage-like Mimuru, bawling.
"Everyone,
there's something I need to tell you."
Tom, holding Mimuru's
hand, spoke with a bitter expression. At his heavy tone, Mars and Feo felt
their own anxiety swell.
"I see. This
seems more serious than I thought. Looks like we've got no choice but to skip
school today."
First, they woke the
fainted Tima, and then, to grasp the situation, the group began to walk in the
opposite direction of the academy.
***
A little while
earlier, just after Tom had been carried off by Mimuru. He was being held in a
tight grip by his girlfriend, still shocked at her sudden action.
"W-Wait, just a
minute, Mimuru, stop!"
Tom, being jostled as
Mimuru ran through the woods of Central Park, somehow managed to call out to
her to stop, but she showed no signs of doing so. Something was clearly wrong.
This wasn't her usual self. Wincing as the rustling bushes slapped his cheeks,
Tom kept calling out to her.
"What on earth happened!?
To suddenly do this... Gweh!"
Just then, Mimuru
abruptly stopped. Tom's stomach was squeezed by the inertia, and an agonized
sound escaped his lips. The air was forced from his lungs, and he coughed
violently. At that moment, Mimuru, who had stopped, collapsed to the ground as
if all her strength had left her. Tom's body was brought down with her, and the
two ended up in a position where Tom was being hugged from behind by Mimuru.
"...Mimuru."
"..."
The strength in
Mimuru's arms tightened. Tightly. In that embrace, so tight it was almost
painful, Tom could feel her desperation. He could feel her body, tensed and
trembling, along with her ragged breath on the back of his neck. She's crying.
Feeling her wordless sobs on his back, Tom gently brought his right hand back
to comfort her, stroking the head of the girl clinging to him.
"It's okay, it's
okay..."
He continued to stroke
her head gently for a while, and the tension in Mimuru's body slowly began to ease.
Tom, confirming that the grip on his body had loosened, slowly turned to face
her. His girlfriend, who was usually so cheerful and full of energy, had her
big, round eyes brimming with tears.
"Tom, I... I...
what should I do?"
"What
happened?"
Wiping away the tears
that were now flowing freely, Tom listened to her story.
"Shina's...
gone."
Tom's brow furrowed at
the words Mimuru began to speak, haltingly.
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