Strike the Blood - Volume 22 - Chapter 1.3

3

The scenery from forty meters below sea level sprawled beyond huge, pressure-resistant windows.

There, sunlight illuminating the surface of the sea and the blue gradients of the deep produced a beautiful backdrop to gaze at from the huge round table placed in the room. It was a VIP conference room under Keystone Gate.

“How do you do, Fourth Primogenitor?”

Waiting for Kojou and company at the back of the conference room was a young woman wearing clothes so flashy, you’d think it was the stage outfit for an idol singer. Her outward age didn’t seem much different from that of Kojou and the girls. She had fluttery, ashen hair and skin as white as snow. Her red eyes were as bright as cherry tomatoes. A seductive smile crossed her lips as she touched a hand to her top hat with a big ribbon on it.

“…No, that would be the Former Fourth Primogenitor, Mr. Kojou Akatsuki, ruler of Itogami City-State.”

“Who are you?”

Kojou responded bluntly to the woman addressing him with a shrewd look on her face.

Even though Kojou obviously looked wary, the expression of the woman in the gaudy outfit changed little. She gave him an exaggerated, theatrical bow as she began introducing herself in fluent Japanese.

“I am most pleased to meet you. I am Ladli Ren, principal executive of Magna Ataraxia Research. I hope we become well acquainted.”

“You’re with MAR…?!”

“Ladli… Ren?”

Kojou and Yukina exclaimed simultaneously. The corners of the girl’s lips rose with delight.

“Yes, Shahryar Ren, president of our corporation, is my older brother. I am truly apologetic about the disturbances my brother has caused all of you of late.”

Ladli’s lips formed a teasing smile as she shifted her gaze upward. Then she touched the tip of her hat as if she’d just realized something.

“Ahhh, please do not mind the outfit. As you must be well aware, we Devas are sensitive to sunlight. This hat is to prevent sunburn. Giggle.”

“…!”

When Ladli announced her true nature, Kojou watched her, subconsciously going on guard.

If she really was a Deva, there was a good chance she could use what Shahryar Ren had termed divine energy to launch strange attacks. He couldn’t let his guard down, for the woman was a far more dangerous individual than she appeared.

“So what does an executive of MAR want with the Gigafloat Management Corporation? Don’t tell me you’ve come to drag your brother home?”

Asagi questioned Ladli bluntly. Ladli sadly shook her head as she took out a tiny box she could fit in the palm of her hand. It was a 3D holographic projector, MAR’s latest model.

“Unfortunately, I can do no such thing. First, see here? It’s a sphere…just kidding.”

“That’s…?”

Frostily ignoring Ladli’s playfulness, Kojou and the others paid attention to the 3D image floating in midair. On display inside the sphere some two meters in diameter was a fleet of warships traversing the sea. It looked like footage shot by a military unmanned recon vehicle.

“The North American Union’s Pacific Long-Range Strike Fleet, huh?”

Asagi gave the fleet in the footage one glance before snorting with scorn.

Asagi had duked it out with a multinational armada from the Holy Grounds Treaty Organization during the War of the Primogenitors. The NAU’s battle fleet had been included in that armada.

“Quite correct, Miss Priestess of Cain. Or perhaps I should call it a punitive fleet dispatched by the HGTO to conquer Itogami Island and invade Nod?”

Ladli nodded courteously. Kojou glared at Ladli in surprise.

“Conquer Itogami Island…?!”

“Yes, most likely. If they gain control of Itogami Island, the world’s only open route to Nod, it doesn’t matter what Shahryar might be planning, or so the thinking probably went.”

“Worst case, they might just blow Itogami Island off the map.”

Ladli and Asagi spoke in sequence. Kojou felt a mild sense of déjà vu as he shook his head. This would be the second time Itogami Island had become the HGTO’s attack target.

Last time, Kojou had managed to cut the attack short using a primogenitor’s veto power, but he couldn’t play the same card twice. Currently, Kojou was not the Fourth Primogenitor, and the HGTO viewed Shahryar Ren in Nod as its enemy, not Itogami Island. Now that Ren had been deemed a terrorist, the HGTO had every justification in the world to attack him.

“So, what? You want to fight alongside Itogami Island? You’re telling us to lend our strength to resist the HGTO together?”

Asagi sat in a nearby chair and rested her cheek against her palm, elbow on the conference table.

Kojou looked at Asagi in surprise. MAR had made an enemy out of the HGTO—or really, the entire world. Even if it was just being caught up in the mess, Itogami Island had become the HGTO’s attack target just as much. Ladli’s and Kojou’s team joining hands had some merit to it.

“Fighting alongside—? No, no, perish the thought.”

Unexpectedly, Ladli readily rejected Asagi’s words. Circling her index finger around, she sped up the holographic feed.

“More importantly, watch this footage to the end. You’ll see something very interesting.”

Before Ladli’s words had even finished, the sound of an explosion echoed through the room. One of the destroyers in the fleet in the 3D image sank in an instant.

“…Eh?!”

Asagi’s eyes widened, and her jaw dropped. Apparently even she hadn’t expected this development.

“What the—?! What in the world are they fighting?!”

Kojou squinted and peered into the flame-enveloped 3D imagery. Just before the destroyer sank, something enveloped by blinding light flew right over it. It didn’t have a trail like a gun shell or a missile. The movements were animated, like those of a wild beast.

“That’s…a Beast Vassal?! But whose…?”

Yukina spoke in a daze. Coldly lording over the area, standing on the bow of the sinking destroyer, was a giant cephalopod with its whole body enveloped by demonic energy lightning.

Judging from the size of the destroyer, the monster had to be over ten meters tall. Of course, this was no creature from the natural world. It was a summoned beast from another world with a body of dense demonic energy—a vampire’s Beast Vassal.

Yet even vampiric Beast Vassals would not find sinking a destroyer equipped with magical defenses an easy task. Few vampires could use Beast Vassals on such a scale, nearly rivaling the primogenitors.

The Beast Vassal’s host was nowhere to be seen in the image.

The Beast Vassal attacking the HGTO battle fleet with the power of a primogenitor had no host. It was simply destroying everything in sight according to its instincts.

“Beast Vassal Warheads, huh?”

Gazing at the raging Beast Vassal, Kojou wore a neutral expression as he let those words slip.

“…Senpai?”

Kojou’s uncharacteristically calm reaction puzzled Yukina.

For her part, Ladli looked back at Kojou with a satisfied smile.

“I see, you’ve seen the memories of other primogenitors. So, you know the truth about the past, then.”

“Yeah.”

Kojou confirmed with a single word.

Beast Vassal Warheads—that was the name of the strategic weapons the Devas had employed in The Great Cleansing of Old. Their incredible might had inflicted grievous damage on the alliance of rebelling humans and demons, culminating in the destruction of Deva cities and civilization itself.

“Masses of demonic energy giving in to instinct and destroying everything in sight—such are summoned beasts from another world. This is the original version of Beast Vassals. A Beast Vassal Warhead is a weapon that seals them inside a warhead until they can be fired into an enemy formation.”

Ladli continued explaining with a musical air.

“The principle is very simple, but the power is, as you can see for yourselves, overwhelming. After all, these are wild, untamed Beast Vassals. The downside is that they cannot be ordered to attack specific targets or limit their attack range, so their only use is for genocidal warfare.”

“Sealing Beast Vassals…but how…?”

Yukina’s voice quivered as she inquired.

A Beast Vassal was a mass of dense demonic energy summoned from another world. Even merely existing in that world required the exhaustion of a vast amount of “sacrifices”—demonic energy, spiritual energy, life force energy, and even people’s memories. They maintained their physical manifestations by greedily devouring any and all information they could.

No sorcerous device existed that could seal such a monster, save a single exception—

“Are you not quite familiar with it?”

Ladli smiled elegantly, seemingly seeing right through Yukina’s thoughts.

Yukina fell silent, unable to hide her inner turmoil. The only things that could seal a Beast Vassal consuming vast “sacrifices” were unaging, undying vampires with infinite negative life force energy.

“Don’t tell me, this weapon uses…artificial vampires…?”

The look in Yukina’s eyes sharpened as she glared at Ladli.

The MAR executive casually accepted that gaze as she strongly puffed out her chest.

“Please, rest at ease. The artificial vampires employed in Beast Vassal Warheads are factory-made and possess neither emotions nor wills of their own. It is quite all right. They are mere weapons of might… giggle.”

“Why, you…!”

Ladli’s scornful demeanor brought Kojou’s anger to the surface. Ladli raised her fine eyebrows with a slightly disconcerted look.

“Don’t get angry at me. They were constructed in antiquity, thousands of years ago—before The Great Cleansing, it is said.”

“…I see…so Shahryar Ren went to Nod to bring Beast Vassal Warheads back with him, then.”

Asagi casually asserted this with an unmoved voice.

Yes, nodded Ladli proudly in reply.

Flames spewed from a fourth destroyer displayed in the 3D imagery.

The remaining ships desperately continued to engage in combat, but normal weapons were virtually powerless against a huge, rampaging Beast Vassal. The destruction of the entire fleet was probably only a matter of time.

“This is the Legacy that Cain the Sinful God sealed away in Nod—six thousand four hundred and fifty-two Beast Vassal Warheads. Had Cain not sealed them, the Devas would never have lost to humanity in The Great Cleansing. After all, that number of warheads is enough to destroy the surface three times over.”

Ladli casually revealed this frightening information. In other words, if Shahryar Ren had his hands on the rest of the Beast Vassal Warheads in Nod, he already had enough power to destroy the world and then some.

“So Shahryar Ren’s goal is to get his hands on the Beast Vassal Warheads in Nod?”

“I would say not his objective so much as one part of his plans. The Beast Vassal Warheads are merely a means to an end.”

Kojou shivered as he asked, and a suggestive smile came over Ladli’s lips. She put her hands together in front of her breasts with a clap, straightening up as she turned straight toward Kojou and the others.

“So I have come with a business proposal.”

“…Proposal?”

“Yes. Please sell Itogami Island to MAR. Everything, the island populace included.”

“Huh…?”

For a moment, Ladli’s sudden statement left Kojou reeling and unable to process what she had said. Yukina was just as surprised as he was. Asagi was the only one who merely covered her eyes a little and let out a languid sigh.

“In other words, you want us to hand rulership rights over Itogami City-State to you. You’ll pay fair compensation and ensure the citizens’ safety and guarantee their rights as subjects of the Devas—something along those lines? You probably have the fine details of the rights we’d request already laid out.”

“…The gist being, quietly sit and obey while you guys occupy Itogami Island?”

Kojou looked like he was nursing a headache as he double-checked.

Very much so, said Ladli’s narrowed eyes as she smiled.

“I believe the terms are extremely favorable. It seems Shahryar intends to bring the entire world under Deva rule, which would make war unavoidable. However, coming under our rule sooner rather than later would avoid exposure to the flames of war. It will be teatime, not wartime, for you.”

“Favorable terms, my foot. Itogami Island getting destroyed is a big problem for you, isn’t it?”

Asagi spoke with a sardonic smile.

“I do not refute this. I also understand how you resent being threatened with Beast Vassals and the like to force you to obey us.”

Ladli accepted Asagi’s words without any attempt at a rebuttal. Then she turned a sharp gaze toward Kojou, seemingly testing him.

“However, are you not the same, Kojou Akatsuki, ruling people through the violent power we call Beast Vassals? What is your basis for assuming you would be a better ruler of Itogami Island than we would?”

Ghhh, went Kojou’s low groan. Ladli’s question struck Kojou’s doubts with pinpoint accuracy.

It wasn’t as if he’d wanted to sit on Itogami Island’s throne. He certainly didn’t think he had the qualifications or right to rule Itogami Island. By rights, it was nonsensical for a student and minor like Kojou to sit at the negotiating table that would determine Itogami Island’s destiny.

“At the very least, MAR employs a large number of skilled specialists and possesses the know-how to move as an organization. We possess the financial power to hire the right people and the technology to allow people to live prosperous lives. Is it not obvious to the residents of Itogami Island which would serve as the better statesman?”

Ladli’s words were like rubbing salt into Kojou’s self-conscious wounds. Kojou couldn’t manage a response, leaving Yukina and Asagi to speak in his stead.

“I do not believe it is for you to decide what the residents of Itogami Island wish.”

“Nope, and Kojou’s the one who did the hard work bringing the Electoral War chaos to an end. The people who fanned the flames of the conflict that made the citizens suffer are in no position to complain.”

“Oh myyy…it hurts when you put it like thaaat…”

How vexing, Ladli’s strained smile seemed to say as she shook her head.

“However, what is it that you think, Kojou Akatsuki? Do you genuinely desire to rule Itogami Island? Would you not be satisfied with saving Dodekatos? If so, why not help us?”

It was easy to tell that Ladli’s mention of an unexpected name threw Kojou off-balance. His whole reason for regaining vampire powers wasn’t for the sake of being Itogami Island’s ruler, let alone saving the world. He was motivated to save the girl named Avrora Florestina, and that was all.

“…Help, you say?”

“Yes. Now that the gate to Nod is open, we do not require her any longer. I shall attempt to persuade my brother to return her to you. Or is her return such a strange turn? Mm? …Just kidding.”

Ladli spoke in a jovial tone. Are you messing with me? broadcast the twitch of Kojou’s temple, but she apparently had no particular ill intent.

“I am providing you with two options. Hand over your right to rule Itogami Island to us and avoid unnecessary conflict or make enemies of MAR and the Devas and fight us to the last.”

Peace, Ladli seemed to say as she grinned and held up two fingers in a peace sign.

“I will not insist that you make a decision immediately. There is still time, so please eat a good meal, take your time, and make a good judgment. Ah, also, this is my business card. Business is my business, so to speak.”

Pulling a business card out from somewhere and unveiling it like prize merchandise, Ladli left it on the table and waved bye-bye. This signaled that the meeting was at an end.