Ishura - Volume 7 - Chapter 13

Chapter 13- Secret Orders

There was one self-proclaimed demon king who was a part of Iriolde’s camp, but who never joined the operation to take down Lucnoca the Winter. Miluzi the Coffin Edict was incorporated into the National Defense Research Institute, along with Enu the Distant Mirror.

Of course, in light of the potential research and development time requirements, Miluzi could have never created any weapons to cope with Lucnoca, only joining the Institute after the end of the first round. Currently, the role he had been given was mainly to operate and maintain the various types of state-of-the-art machinery at the National Defense Research Institute as well as develop weapons with the next operation in mind.

“…I would like to try creating a golem with a heart,” Miluzi murmured, but the words may not have actually been directed at Enu, standing beside him.

He was gazing at the golems lined up in the hangar. Almost all of them were creations of Kiyazuna the Axle that Tuturi had requisitioned from Kaete’s camp.

Although they were both self-proclaimed demon kings with superb Craft Arts who researched golems, everyone knew that there was a vast gulf in ability between Kiyazuna and Miluzi.

“By that, you mean like Mestelexil the Box of Desperate Knowledge?”

“Copying Kiyazuna the Axle…isn’t necessarily what I’m trying to do. However, at this age, I feel like I understand what she was talking about now. For those like us, who’ve dedicated our lives to Craft Arts, a golem with a heart built by your own hands…truly is like a child for us.”

“You plan to make one for yourself?”

“Yes. That’s what I hope to do. There’s no limit on budget or materials here. I can even ask for additional manpower to help, too. There’s no need to escape the eyes of the kingdom, either. It’s like the country I once built before… I’ll be able to devote myself entirely to my final research.”

Miluzi smiled.

He was an elderly man with a gentle temperament rarely seen in a self-proclaimed demon king.

Nevertheless, Enu understood the danger that lay beneath it.

At this point, Miluzi was only living to find and come up with the logical conclusion to his life. He would do anything in its pursuit.

“…For the National Defense Research Institute, nothing’s a problem as long as you get results. No matter whose motives are pushing you forward, for example. I’m expecting great things.”

Miluzi the Coffin Edict was infiltrating the National Defense Research Institute under the control of Linaris the Obsidian. His objective was to investigate the internal affairs at the Institute, and to keep watch over Enu.

It was dangerous for Miluzi to work with Enu too much.

Not that I am in any position to comment on the danger of others, Enu thought as he departed.

Behind his forward-facing position as Aureatia’s Thirteenth Minister, Enu the Distant Mirror had continued to work behind the scenes providing living vampire specimens to the National Defense Research Institute. It was a scheme that had begun before the start of the Sixways Exhibition, and one worth spending the entirety of Enu’s own life on.

Even after he was defeated by Obsidian Eyes prior to the start of the Sixways Exhibition and stood as a puppet sponsor for Zeljirga the Abyss Web, this goal remained unchanged. While he kept himself alive, walking the thin tightrope with his utility as a sponsor and by sharing internal information from the Twenty-Nine Officials, he continued to maintain his link to the National Defense Research Institute.

Presently, Obsidian Eyes successfully gained control of Mestelexil through his match against Zeljirga, and forced the separate pawn under their control, Miluzi the Coffin Edict, to infiltrate the National Defense Research Institute. Linaris’s guild’s reason for continuing to keep Enu alive, with his utility as one of the Twenty-Nine Officials now gone, had almost disappeared entirely.

Nevertheless, Enu’s goal was near at hand.

Linaris the Obsidian herself was a mutant strain of vampire who concealed the chance for him to take great strides toward what he sought. Now that he had come this far, he couldn’t let himself give up on anything.

Iriolde and the others planned on sparking a large-scale conflict soon. The time had come when everyone would be forced to act.

…I suppose I need to come up with the conclusion to my own life, as well.

When Enu visited the biological experiment building, Viga the Clamor was washing her hands.

There was a detailed blood spray scattered over the apron she wore.

Viga had apparently committed a large-scale weapon to the operation against Lucnoca the Winter; however, she didn’t seem any different.

“Viga. How is your research going?”

“Hmmm. Good question.”

Ever since he first affiliated with Aureatia, he had an understanding with Viga, also part of the National Defense Research Institute.

Enu’s continued collecting of vampire specimens was to assist in the job he entrusted her with.

“The revenant I deployed during the ninth match was destroyed, but…I also sort of feel like it’d be better to repair and fix weapons that have a high level of perfection already.”

“Will you make it in time? Haade and the others will likely coordinate their action with the start of the tenth match. Though I imagine that Rosclay will try to delay the start of the match as long as he can, too…”

While it appeared to be trivial chitchat, there was a different meaning underneath both of their words.

There was research Enu had personally commissioned prior to the Sixways Exhibition. Would she be able to finish it before the plan to overthrow Aureatia began?

“Hmm, well. It won’t take much time if I use the stuff I already have.”

“…I see. Would it be difficult to reproduce them instead of fixing them?”

“As expected from their high level of perfection, there’s a bit of a limit to their reproducibility, I’d say.”

There was a limit to what she could extract from corpses. It meant she needed the real thing, an actual vampire specimen.

A completed mutation at that—she desired the living cells of Linaris the Obsidian.

“I see. I’ll arrange for as much as I am able to.”

“Be careful out there. Ever since the Alus the Star Runner affair, there’s been talk of corpse spread and all.”

“Hmm. Were you just in the middle of making the serum, then?”

On the autopsy table lay the body of a naked woman without a head. It was the corpse that Viga had just been cutting open before his arrival. It was beginning to spread among the citizens that Qwell the Moon Flower’s whereabouts were unknown as of the beginning of the ninth match.

“Oh, oh, interested in the dissection, are we?”

“No. It’s embarrassing to admit given my work involves vampires, but I’m a bit weak around blood.”

If he was in contact for too long, he might arouse suspicion among the other Obsidian Eyes corpses who had likely infiltrated the Institute along with Miluzi. Though not going along with Viga’s perverse tastes in entertainment was part of it as well.

“Sorry for bothering you. I’m hoping for good results.”

“Thank you.”

Enu hadn’t handed anything over to Viga. However, from her position looking back in Enu’s direction, she should have been able to notice the new vial on the shelf behind him. A cell sample he had gathered from Miluzi the Coffin Edict.

This still won’t be enough. Former Obsidian Eyes agents… There’s Kuuro the Cautious.

If he gained Kuuro’s assistance, perhaps he would be able to make direct contact with Linaris once more.

The outbreak of large-scale war and panic was growing close at hand.

He needed a means of uniting wills with a vampire’s power while, at the same time, not being under their control.

I need to finish them as fast as possible. The krsnik.

Miluzi and Viga were not the only ones trying to accomplish something through a new type of construct.

Ever since she had been carried back to the mansion, Linaris was retired in her bedchambers. For a full two days’ time, Yuno the Distant Claw hadn’t been allowed to see her.

The air raid by Alus the Star Runner had occurred right after, and Yuno even had the terrible thought that perhaps Linaris was already long dead.

Yuno had not seen the “father” figure that Linaris spoke of—she worried that before she knew it, Linaris might faintly disappear, and in the same way as him, become someone spoken of as if still alive, and nothing more.

Therefore, when she was finally given permission to meet with Linaris, Yuno felt a sense of relief more than anything else.

“Linaris.”

She scurried over to the side of the bed.

Linaris’s petite face, appearing isolated in the middle of the large bed, truly did seem like the face of the dead.

“…Miss Yuno.”

“You don’t need to tell me what happened or anything… Are you all right?”

Why had that simple outing on the day of the eighth match ended up exhausting her so much? She looked haggard, as if not only her body but her mind had been devastated as well.

Despite surely having a fever of some kind, Linaris was even whiter than Yuno, who was in perfect health. Perhaps it was due to her pale complexion.

Gripping Linaris’s head, Yuno could barely feel any heat from her body, and Yuno’s sense of relief gradually transformed into anxiety.

“Sh-she still hasn’t healed yet?”

Yuno asked the elderly leprechaun woman in waiting beside the bed.

She was the matron of the house, Frey the Waking.

“Although we avoided the worst possible situation…unfortunately, she still has yet to recover. Our lady’s Life Art treatments up until now had also been handled by Hartl…Hartl the Light Pinch. These senile old Word Arts of mine… They simply…they simply aren’t up to the task…!”

A tear fell from the usually mild and coolheaded Frey’s eyes.

Feeling awkward, as if she had witnessed something she wasn’t meant to see, Yuno couldn’t help averting her gaze.

“…Where is Hartl then?”

It was the name of the lycan that would occasionally come and go from the mansion.

However, both Frey and Linaris responded to Yuno’s question with only silence.

“Okay… Okay, then the only option’s to call a doctor from somewhere else, right?!”

“Miss Yuno… But that would mean…”

“I know. You people can’t openly ask Aureatia for any help. All of Aureatia’s doctors are under the control of Minister Flinsuda for one, and there’s a chance information could get leaked to the Aureatia Assembly…!”

Linaris and her group were enemies of order.

Just how different were they from Yuno’s hated foe, Kiyazuna the Axle?

However, right now Yuno was a broken failure. Even then, she wanted to help.

“In that case, you just have to get help from someone who’s not on Aureatia’s side…! I know someone like that! And they even have a really skilled doctor with them, too!”

Having betrayed Aureatia, there was one camp Yuno could think of that she could ask for help.

She had met him only once, during the sniper attack right before the start of the third match.

He possessed a superpower that defied observation. A fateful superpower that made him present for opportunities and forming cooperative relationships.

“Hiroto the Paradox! Let me meet with the Gray-Haired Child!”

“…!”

Yuno could tell Linaris’s breath caught in her throat.

“That will not happen, Miss Yuno. Right now, our relationship with the Gray-Haired Child is—”

Frey’s objection was cut short.

Linaris’s white hand was gently touching Frey’s own.

Yuno wondered if she was telling Frey to let her go.

“Linaris.”

“…”

She gripped Linaris’s soft hand.

Weak, fleeting. Even then, Yuno thought she was beautiful.

She didn’t want to lose something beautiful right before her eyes ever again.

“It’s okay… You’re worried about General Haade’s movements, right?”

Yuno felt the slightest bit of strength in Linaris’s fingers as she gripped down.

There was a secret they shared on the day they first met.

From the “cerebrum” to the “brain stem.” Depending on results, may be necessary to adjust “terminus excision” period.

The letter Haade the Flashpoint had written to the high ranks within his camp.

“I know it’s dangerous, but I can even use that as a bargaining chip. Besides I’m…I’m still a Nagan scholar, and the one who discovered Soujirou the Willow-Sword.”

She stared into Linaris’s golden eyes in order to show her the look in Yuno’s own.

“Frey. Get ready to depart. Assign someone to keep watch over me and silence me if necessary to ensure that I don’t leak any information on Obsidian Eyes.”

“You really will…try to save our lady, Miss Yuno?”

“…I will. I may be…a totally hopeless and miserable child, but…”

She retied her shoelaces. She might have been unconsciously smiling.

Yuno never thought she’d be capable of something so preposterous and outside of her quest for revenge.

“Who wouldn’t try to save a friend?”