Strike the Blood - Volume 5 - Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE 

THE OCEANUS GRAVE II 

1 

A strange feeling assailed him the instant he set foot in the building. 

The world changed color as if he were hallucinating. The air dried out, feeling rough against his skin. It was unpleasant, but to him, the atmosphere was somehow nostalgic, too. 

Saikai Private Academy High School was rare among educational institutions in the Demon Sanctuary, for the campus did not have any special facilities for demonic research. It was a normal, mundane high school. Even so, there was a strange presence swirling on the school grounds. 

Here deep at night, the campus held no sign of the students; emergency lamps and the light of the moon dimly lit the various corridors. 

The empty classrooms had densely packed characters written on the blackboards. These were spells, written in magic symbols from a foreign land. They were verses from an ancient grimoire. 

The countless symbols written chokingly close gave off a pale, golden light as they emitted a surge of powerful magical energy. They formed a gateway through which power entered from another world. 

The young man smiled faintly, charmingly, as he muttered to no one in particular. 

“…The Black Bible…” 

His glasses added to the air of education and intelligence. There was a gray manacle on his left forearm with a short, severed chain dangling from it. He was one of the seven escapees from the prison barrier. He was the man Schtola D had addressed as Meiga. 

The young man’s quiet footsteps echoed as he walked up the stairs; his feet only halted when silhouettes that had fallen in the corridor piqued his interest. 

They were the corpses of sorcerers, cut by a giant sword. 

The fallen possessed jeweled daggers, wands, and grimoires—all magical weapons possessing substantial power. However, there was no longer any glow of magical power from them; they had been turned into useless junk. 

The bizarre atmosphere filling the school grounds had robbed them of their enchantments. 

“Are these LCO sorcerers?” the young man asked as he turned toward the center of the room. 

Hearing his voice, a young woman wearing a black-and-white ceremonial robe turned around. 

It was Aya Tokoyogi, the Witch of the Notaria… 

She was gripping a short piece of chalk in her hand, which she had been using to copy a verse from a grimoire onto the blackboard behind her. The characters were painfully small. 

Enigmatically, Aya took in the young man, asking thoughtfully, “…An escapee from the prison ward…yes? You are the one called Meiga?” 

“I am a mere Attack Mage dropout. My name is not very important.” 

As the young man smiled sociably at her, the smile Aya returned was tinged with a bloodlust-filled glare. 

“…Quite the words for someone who entered my world unscathed.” 

The young man let Aya’s hostile gaze roll off him as he raised his left arm before his eyes. 

“What happened to your manacle, Aya Tokoyogi?” 

“…What are you referring to?” 

“If you have stolen Natsuki Minamiya’s memories, surely the key to the prison barrier—the program to decode it—came included. Even though Natsuki Minamiya escaped, you did not pursue her…because you didn’t need to, did you?” 

The young man spoke as he looked at the witch’s left arm. Hidden under the sleeve of her ceremonial robe, her wrist did not have a manacle on it as it should have. Aya Tokoyogi was already completely free of the prison barrier. 

However, she hadn’t informed the other prisoners that she had the key in her possession. Thanks to that, the other jailbreakers—with the exception of the young man—were pursuing Natsuki Minamiya that very moment. She’d used Natsuki as a decoy. 

However, even having this pointed out only earned a mocking laugh from Aya. 

“And what of it? Have you come to be handed a sliver of the decoding program, Hell Wolf?” 

The young man sighed and shook his head. It seemed he did not like the odd moniker. 

“…No. I already have some idea of how to remove this, you see.” 

Suspicion crept over Aya’s face. “Then why are you here?” 

“I simply wanted to see for myself.” 

“…See?” 

“Yes, what in the world you have been doing while we escapees are being distracted by Natsuki Minamiya.” 

This said, the young man stepped lightly upon the jeweled dagger that had fallen before him. The dagger, which ought to have been imbued with a powerful enchantment, broke apart with ease, sounding almost like a twig being snapped. 

“So this is the power of the Black Bible?” 

“Correct,” Aya said with a nod, her gaze drifting to the chalk she was holding. 

“The Black Bible itself has already been lost. Natsuki Minamiya burned the book… What is written here is merely the knowledge of sorcery that existed in her memories.” 

An amused note escaped the young man’s throat. 

“So you stole her memories so that you could recreate the Black Bible like this…? I see, that is why you are called the Witch of the Notaria…” 

He smiled as he looked over the text on the chalkboard. 

The books of power known as grimoires were collections of sorcery-related knowledge and spells that had taken on a life of their own and become powerful magic themselves. These magical devices, in book form, granted power beyond human comprehension to the reader at the cost of courting great disaster. 

Aya’s special ability, and why she was called the Witch of the Notaria, was to copy these grimoires. What she wrote were not simple copies of the text; she completely recreated the magical power and dark spells of the original tome she worked from. 

And she had brought the Black Bible, the most abominable of all grimoires, back to life from Natsuki Minamiya’s memories. Each character Aya wrote on the blackboards around the room became part of a new grimoire, emitting vast magical energy in their own right. No doubt normal human beings would no longer be able to look directly at the blackboards, even if they could touch them; the entire Saikai Academy campus had been turned into a new Black Bible. 

Aya glared at the young man. “Do you intend to interfere as well?” 

Behind her, the air wavered as a shadowy knight encased in black armor floated up. It drew its giant sword and thrust the tip forward until it was right before the young man’s eyes. 

Her conversation partner calmly grabbed the tip of the sword pointed at him with his bare hand. 

“No, I merely find your experiment to be unexpectedly valuable.” 

As he finished speaking, the black knight’s form warped, as if it was turning blurry. 

The young man had done nothing more than give it a light touch. That was enough to warp the very being of the witch’s Guardian. Aya scowled in annoyance as she pulled the black knight back. 

“I see. You…you are the Lion King Agency’s…” 

Aya’s black gaze narrowed as she looked at the face that the young man hid behind his glasses. 

The youth turned his back on the witch, leaving himself defenseless. And then he walked straight out of the classroom. 

“I pray for the success of your experiment, Aya Tokoyogi. May you find the festival a pleasant one…” 

Those words were all the young man left behind as he entered the darkness and vanished. 

Left behind, Aya crushed the chalk she’d been gripping in a fit of pique. She used the white dust left on her fingers to write symbols on the blackboard—the final characters that made the Black Bible complete. 

Having been made whole, the Black Bible activated. 

Her world began to encroach upon the world beyond. 

The berobed witch let out a piercing laugh, as if she was a harbinger of death itself. 

The people of the Demon Sanctuary had not realized that their destruction had begun at that very moment… 

2 

The ship was moored in the calm waters of the expansive wharf known as Island East. 

Even among the many large ships docked at Itogami Island, this was an extravagant vessel that stole glances from everyone. 

It was a private ocean cruise liner—a megayacht with tonnage rivaling a military destroyer. 

Standing still inside the ship and feeling distinctly uncomfortable, Kojou Akatsuki gripped his cell phone. 

It was Yukina on the other end. 

“Ah? The Oceanus Grave II…you say?” 

Having lost contact with Kojou when he went to save Asagi, Yukina called him out of concern, from a phone booth near Keystone Gate. 

And when Kojou relayed to her his current location, there was an unconcealed echo of anger mixed in. 

“You mean, the Duke of Ardeal’s megayacht? What are you doing there, senpai?” 

“Well, it kinda…ended up this way.” 

The displeasure in Yukina’s voice only grew. 

“Excuse me?” 

Apparently, signs of combat with the jailbreakers were still fresh all around Keystone Gate, which was where she and Sayaka currently were. Even over the phone, Kojou could clearly hear the sirens of ambulances carrying injured guardsmen, various people shrieking, and officers yelling orders for onlookers to disperse. 

No doubt Yukina and Sayaka had both been furiously trying to find Kojou and the rest. 

Small wonder Yukina was upset when Kojou and the others turned out to be leisurely spending time on an extravagant cruise ship; though, from Kojou’s point of view, being with Vattler was more than enough to keep his heart far from peaceful. 

Sayaka apparently grabbed the receiver from Yukina and butted into the conversation. 

“Kojou Akatsuki, do you even understand what you’ve done? The Duke of Ardeal’s ship has diplomatic immunity so Yukina and I can’t set one foot on it! Why did you bring the Witch of the Void to a place like that? Are you a moron? Do you want to be turned to ash?!” 

Kojou found himself scowling at the upbraiding. 

“I couldn’t help it! That nut ball wants to use Natsuki as a decoy to draw the convicts out. The way it was goin’, I thought it was a hell of a lot safer if they throw down over the water rather than in the middle of the city.” 

“Well, I suppose you do have a point there, but…” 

Sayaka grudgingly agreed, though marked dissatisfaction remained in her tone. 

Apparently, she’d tentatively accepted that there was a decent amount of logic backing Kojou’s judgment for once. 

There were still a number of escaped prisoners after Natsuki. If they fought Vattler in the middle of the city, Kojou couldn’t even dream of how much damage would be inflicted around them. That being the case, surely the damage would be minimized if they tangled over the water instead. 

He heard Yukina’s voice from the phone once more. 

“So Aiba and Ms. Minamiya are both all right?” 

Well, sorta? replied Kojou in his mind, a bad taste in his mouth. 

“Um, they don’t look too beat up to me,” he continued aloud. “I’m not sure I can really describe how Natsuki is right now as all right, though…” 

Yukina sighed weakly. “I suppose not…” 

She had seen for herself on TV that Natsuki had been turned into a preschooler. 

“I think that…it’s best if you at least send Aiba back to her own residence. After all, if she stays there, she’ll be wrapped up in fighting for certain.” 

“I agree with you one hundred percent about that,” Kojou muttered bitterly. “But she just ain’t listenin’ to me. She’s more stubborn than she looks. She’s totally fallen for Sana, too…” 

Yukina fell into a silent, dubious pause. 

“Sana…you say?” 

“Her nickname for ‘Small Natsuki.’” 

“Ahhh…” Yukina exhaled, seemingly ready to fully accept that for some reason. But her tone of voice immediately turned to unease. “Anyway, Sayaka and I will get as close to you as possible. Please do not create even more difficulties.” 

“Whaddaya mean…difficulties?” 

“Like, ah…getting vampiric urges in front of Aiba and assaulting her…” 

“Like hell I will! There’s a little girl watchin’!” 

“I certainly hope that will stay the case.” 

Yukina seemed worried down to her final word as she cut off the call. Kojou stuffed his cell phone back in his pocket and leaned against a nearby wall, exhausted. And then… 

“Who were you calling?” Asagi asked. 

“Uwaa?!” 

Kojou blurted out a shout as he turned toward Asagi and Sana, having never realized they were standing right there. 

“A-Asagi?! Weren’t you changin’ clothes? Vattler said the maids would give you somethin’ to wear?” Kojou rambled, a desperate attempt to change the subject. 

Asagi and Sana were still in the ripped, dirtied clothes from when the jailbreakers had assaulted them. 

Ah, this? Asagi seemed to say, as she lifted up the sleeve of her muddy shirt. 

“They said they’re preparing a bath.” She shrugged. 

“Bath?” 

“They said there’s a big bath here on the ship. Vattler sure doesn’t do half measures. That’s a lord for you… He’s seriously loaded.” 

Asagi spoke with visible admiration as she looked around the showy interior of the ship. 

“I suppose he is,” Kojou agreed. He kept forgetting, due to the guy’s personality, but he was a nobleman from the Warlord’s Empire—a lord of high standing. He’d normally be wined and dined as a guest of the state. 

Asagi drew close to Kojou and peered up at him as she asked, “So, Kojou, why do you know someone like that?” 

Kojou averted his eyes without thinking. 

“Well, ah, we have similar physical condi… Er, we have some common issues, you see.” 

Asagi’s half-lidded eyes drew even closer to Kojou. 

“Oh, really…?” 

Before Kojou knew it, he’d been backed up against the wall, with Asagi’s thorny gaze silently piercing him. Apparently, half-baked excuses weren’t going to cut it here. 

“You know, Kojou…lately, when I talk to you, it feels like you’re trying to hide something from me, and sometimes it really ticks me off…” 

Kojou suddenly felt extremely guilty as he listened to her honesty. Excuses weren’t going to cut it, precisely because Kojou was hiding something from her. But Asagi made a light shrug of her shoulders that said, Well, whatever, easily letting Kojou slip the noose. 

“Anyway, I’ll drop it until after the bath. But after that, you’re gonna fess up to everything this time. Let’s go, Sana.” 

Asagi walked off toward the facilities, preschool Natsuki’s hand in tow. Kojou watched her back disappear before exhaling deeply. 

He was grateful for the time to put his feelings in order, but put another way, it might well have been Asagi’s ultimatum. It seemed Kojou’s continued attempts to hide the truth about himself from her had reached their limit. 

Besides, it felt like there would be nowhere to hide from Asagi tonight—she was especially suspicious of Vattler being an acquaintance of his, apparently. Kojou still had no idea why she was so nervous about that part when she was the one who came on board, already well aware of the danger. 

Well, Vattler was dangerous either way, so Asagi’s wariness of him was a good thing—or at least, that was the harmless conclusion Kojou forced himself to accept. 

As he thought this, Kojou suddenly lifted his head. Someone unknown to him was approaching, as if replacing his departed companions. 

It was a young man wearing a silver-colored tuxedo. Appearance-wise, he was fifteen or sixteen-ish. He was small in stature and had a gentle look to his face, making him quite the pretty boy. 

His hair was gray; his eyes were jade green. His eyelashes were long. Maybe that’s why he had a fragile air about him that stirred Kojou’s protective instincts, even though he was of the same gender. 

During the time his chiseled facial features had stolen Kojou’s eyes, he asked, “Akatsuki, is it not?” 

Having his name called by the youth’s voice, which apparently hadn’t broken yet, finally brought Kojou back to his senses. 

“Er, and you are?” 

“I am named Kira Lebedev Voltisvala of the Lost Warlord’s bloodline. I apologize for not having introduced myself to the lord of the Far East Demon Sanctuary sooner; I ask that you forgive me, Fourth Primogenitor.” 

The boy calling himself Kira flashed a beautiful, charming smile, even within his reverence. 

“It ain’t like this is my territory, so you didn’t really have to come and say hi… But anyway, nice to meet you. Ah, you can call me Kojou.” 

Upon saying this, Kojou gave Kira a friendly smile. Being of the Lost Warlord’s bloodline meant that he was probably a Warlord’s Empire aristocrat, just like Vattler. Even if they were the same age—at least outwardly—Kojou wasn’t quite comfortable being spoken to with such stuffy, polite language. 

“…As I might have expected,” Kira murmured in awe, his gaze moving up Kojou’s form. “You are indeed a frightening man, ruling the populace from the darkness through fear and chaos rather than through overt displays of might… I am deeply moved.” 

“Uh, no, it’s not like that at all… Really.” 

As Kira gave him a look of pure admiration, Kojou quietly sighed. 

Apparently, Vattler had given the boy an obviously mistaken impression of Kojou. Kira seemed completely unaware of the fact he was being toyed with. Probably has one a them super-serious personalities, Kojou thought, pitying the lad. He thought the newcomer resembled Yukina somewhat, in that respect. 

“So, whaddaya want with me, anyway?” 

Kira conveyed his business with Kojou in fluent Japanese, almost too fluent— 

“Yes, if I may be so bold, we have prepared a change of attire. If it pleases you to cleanse yourself first, then—” 

Apparently, they’d arranged clothes for Kojou to change into. 

“‘Cleanse’…? You mean take a bath, right?” 

For some reason, Kira turned bashful then, even as he shot a small, wry smile in Kojou’s direction. 

“Yes. Though the sight of you covered in blood does have a certain…ferocious charm to it.” 

Kojou was a bit thrown off by the faint throb that came to his chest. Hey, hold on here, the cute face might be throwin’ ya off a bit, but this is a dude. Definitely a dude. 

“Ha! ’S not for me. But I’d be grateful for a bath. You’ll show me where it is?” 

“Yes, if it is not a bother to you, Master Kojou.” 

“Of course, it ain’t a bother. This ship’s so huge, I’d probably get lost on my own.” 

Kira gave another bow of acknowledgment before walking ahead. Kojou tried to follow in his footsteps when the stab-like gaze he felt from behind him made his feet go still. 

A young man Kojou didn’t recognize was standing at the top of a flight of stairs, looking down at Kojou. 

He was probably the same generation as Kojou. His height was pretty much the same, too. He was wearing a silver tuxedo very similar to Kira’s, but the antagonistic air that enveloped him gave off a completely different impression. The young man’s face was very handsome, reminiscent of a cold steel blade. Hostility was plain on his face as he glared at Kojou. 

“Who’s that?” 

Kira looked conflicted as he replied to Kojou’s question. 

“Tobias—Lord Tobias Jagan. He, too, is a noble of the Warlord’s Empire, but—” 

“Uh…have I done somethin’ to get on his bad side?” 

“No… It’s not that,” Kira replied quietly. “It may be, ah…jealousy.” 

“Jealousy…?” 

For some reason, Kira’s cheeks reddened as he spoke, and he lowered his eyes with an even more conflicted look. 

“Yes. After all, Duke Ardeal is always paying great attention to Master Kojou, so…” 

The hell, thought Kojou in bewilderment. Yeah, Vattler had “sworn his undying love” to Kojou or some stupid thing like that, but that was purely his lust for the powerful blood of the Fourth Primogenitor. Surely that was no reason for this man to view him as an enemy. That said, if he indeed was “jealous” of Kojou even so, that must mean— 

As Kojou considered the question with great and earnest intensity, he felt a strange chill up his spine. 

“…Sorry. I’m gonna pretend I didn’t hear a word of that,” he muttered weakly. 

Tobias Jagan continued to glare at Kojou and Kira without a word for as long as he was within view. 

3 

Kojou, wearing a sauna towel, sighed with admiration as he took stock of his surroundings. 

“This bath ain’t big—it’s huge.” 

Though not as large as a Japanese hot spring bathhouse might have been, it was such a fine bath that it almost made you forget you were on a ship. The water level was somewhat shallow, but you could fit ten people in with room to spare. 

Even without the pompous ornamentation, the pure white covering the bathroom conveyed an air of high society. It wasn’t hard for Kojou to imagine a rich man in the tub, surrounded by young, doting lovers. 

Thanks to indulging in such thoughts of excess, Kojou immediately imagined Vattler there, served by Kira and Tobias…and promptly went into meltdown. He suffered a surprising amount of mental damage from the image. 

Even so, Kojou was pretty grateful for the chance to wash the grime away. His entire body was a mess from the sweat and blood from multiple bouts of combat. 

Kojou had his own blood caked on him, and Yuuma’s too from when he was carrying her— 

“…Yuuma…wait for me,” Kojou whispered to himself, as he scrubbed at the dried blood, losing it under heavy soap lather. 

The image of his childhood friend, wounded and in tatters, sent pain through his chest. 

Even if it wasn’t a race against the clock, that still left Yuuma hovering on death’s door. To save her, they needed to first save Natsuki, but Natsuki had lost her magical power and had the escapees after her, too. 

He was worried that Aya Tokoyogi was nowhere to be found, as well. Plus, he had no idea when or where Vattler would run amok as he pleased. Kojou’s brain capacity was close to overload from the sheer number of problems. Even so, there was no way he was going to cut and run with Yuuma’s life on the line. 

Calm down, Kojou thought, taking several deep breaths. It was precisely at times like these that he couldn’t just shove it all out of his mind. First, he needed to calm down and deal with the problems one by one, or— 

Before Kojou could finish that unusually serious thought— 

“Is the temperature of the bath to your liking, Fourth Primogenitor?” asked a girl’s voice. 

“Uwah?!” 

The sudden presence behind him ripped Kojou’s inner calm to tatters. 

With a patter of bare feet, some unfamiliar young girls came into the bathroom. 

There were five of them, each wearing a different color swimsuit. Their ages ran from the low teens to mid-twenties. They seemed like a bunch of sisters who got along well, but their races and body types had nothing in common. The only commonality was that they were all really good-looking. Each had a beauty to her like she’d been born to high society. 

Of course, the bare-naked Kojou hastily wrapped a towel around his loins and stood up. 

“Wh-what the heck?” 

The beautiful brigade of girls in swimsuits surrounded him without mercy. 

A blond woman, twenty years old give or take, leaned in close to Kojou as she spoke. 

“We are a maid troop serving the Duke of Ardeal. We thought that we would wash your back.” 

She had a red hibiscus bikini covering her glamorous body. 

“Nah, it’s all right, you don’t need to wash my back or anything…” 

Kojou had no idea whatsoever why Vattler’s maids had trespassed upon the bathroom. 

“The front, then?” she countered. 

“Not the front, either! And takin’ care of someone in the bath ain’t a maid’s job anyway, is it?!” 

The oldest and tallest of them, appearing reserved and ladylike in her blue swimsuit, replied to Kojou gently. 

“…I see that the cat is indeed out of the bag.” 

Kojou mentally dubbed her Bikini Blue. 

“Out of…the bag?” 

“Actually, we’re not maids at all, see,” said Red. 

“Huh?” 

A brown-skinned girl spoke with a tone of indifference. 

“We’re hostages, actually.” 

She had a rather young-looking visage and a yellow swimsuit. The swimsuit design had a sporty feel to it, matching her young physique. 

“…Hostages?” 

Bikini White replied first. 

“Yes. We are the daughters of royals and high officials from countries bordering the Warlord’s Empire, including a few princesses from countries the Duke of Ardeal personally destroyed… The bottom line is, we were sold to him in exchange for the preservation of our native lands.” 

Bikini Black added, “The saving grace is the fact Duke Ardeal swings that way, so he’s let us pretty much do as we please. He doesn’t seem to have any interest in women, you see…” 

The latter two each whispered into one of Kojou’s ears. They were the closest to Kojou in age, as well, which only magnified his embarrassment. 

The blond beauty in the red bikini put her hands on her hips and thrust her chest out with pride. 

“So, we figured we’d climb up in the world here and get revenge on the motherlands that sold us out.” 

The sudden, fierce dryness in Kojou’s throat made him nervous. 

The predestined flaw of being a vampire was that lust awakened one’s vampiric urges. A vampire in the throes of such urges lost himself until he had tasted someone’s blood. Being seduced by a small army of swimsuit-wearing beauties with faces in the same league as gravure idols was more than destructive enough to stimulate Kojou’s brand of said urges. Getting sucked into their pace would be very dangerous. 

Kojou averted his eyes from the girls and asked in as serious a voice as he could muster, “‘Climb up in the world?’” 

Bikini Red pressed a hand to Kojou’s chest, as if trying to wreck all of his desperate efforts. 

“Yes, such as by bearing the Fourth Primogenitor’s children.” 

Kojou fiercely cleared his throat. 

Black and White shot Kojou smoky looks from the left and right. 

“The possibility is quite strong that a direct descendant of the Fourth Primogenitor would be a vampire surpassing Duke Ardeal in power,” said Black. 

“Or we could drink the blood of a primogenitor and become Blood Vassals ourselves—” White pointed out. 

“…So, how ’bout you give me a shot?” said Red, standing right before Kojou and pointing to herself. Kojou was in shock at how overly blunt her statement was. 

A Blood Vassal was a pseudo-vampire; they could only be created through vampiric contract by first-generation vampires. They were said to possess combat capability sometimes surpassing that of pureblood vampires and lived with their masters for eternity. 

The girls’ objective seemed to be to become Kojou’s Blood Vassals and to gain combat power on par with the Fourth Primogenitor himself. Kojou actually felt relieved that their behavior to this point was coldly calculated and not based solely on sexual desire. 

Perhaps thinking she might have come on to Kojou too strongly, Red suddenly lowered her eyes shyly. 

“Ah, but it’s our first time, so please be gentle…” 

She began to cuddle against him when Kojou shook his head, trying to brush her off. 

“I’m not doin’ anythin’ to anybody!” 

The youngest girl, the one in the yellow swimsuit, uneasily looked at him with upturned, moist eyes. 

“…You don’t like us?” 

In the first place, Kojou thought laying a hand on a girl like that was a crime in and of itself. 

“No, that’s really not it at all—” 

As Kojou sighed and stroked his wet hair back, his eyes rose as something suddenly nagged at him. How did these girls know that Kojou was entering the bath to begin with…? 

“Wait, did Vattler put you up to this? Did he order you to come seduce me?” 

Kojou’s question, aired in a low voice, made every face of the pretty girl brigade stiffen. 

If the girls were acting on Vattler’s orders, Kojou could easily understand why they were after him while he was bathing. Siccing them on Kojou to alleviate his boredom seemed like exactly the kind of thing Vattler would do. 

Bikini Black turned away to flee from Kojou’s suspicious glare. 

“Er…it was not an order, more like, our interests coincide…?” 

White excused herself with an awkward but charming smile. 

“Right, right. And it’s totally true that we’re hostages.” 

Kojou had no sense that the girls were lying to him. So, at the very least, the girls had entered the huge bathroom of their own volition. That didn’t change that Vattler had prompted them to do so, but— 

“…Why does he want me to drink blood that badly, anyway?” 

The lady in the blue bikini replied to Kojou’s murmur seriously. 

“I truly wonder. It feels like he’s waiting for something, though…” 

“Waiting?” 

“Yes. It is as if he seeks the power to fight something more dangerous than a primogenitor—” 

Kojou gasped. 

On the one hand, you had the Nalakuvera that terrorists brought back to life; on the other, Kensei Kanase’s Faux-Angel—either way, Vattler had displayed interest in weapons that had the potential to surpass a primogenitor in combat capability. And Kojou, the Fourth Primogenitor—the World’s Mightiest Vampire—certainly qualified as a being in possession of power “greater than a primogenitor.” It might have been mere coincidence, but it oddly added up. 

Though given the kind of man Vattler was, he might have simply wanted to play with a powerful opponent… 

Red had the last word as the girls left the bath: 

“Well, since that’s how it is, call us anytime if you change your mind about this. We’ll let her take over for today…” 

Kojou reddened as he heard conversational lines like “He’s cuter than I expected” and “For sure!” from the changing room. He felt very tired as he curled up into a defensive ball. 

He’d barely kept his vampiric impulses under control, but his heart was beating strongly even then. He wasn’t in any condition for thinking about things rationally. 

But deciding that he could leisurely immerse himself in the bath in the meantime, Kojou unfolded and began walking toward it. But as he did so, he suddenly recalled the brigade’s final words. 

“‘Let her take over’…? Who?” 

As Kojou stopped to consider, his ears picked up the sound of new footsteps approaching from the changing room. What came next was a familiar voice. 

“—Wait, Sana! Watch out, the floor’s wet!” 

“Eh…?” echoed Kojou. 

Two human silhouettes emerged from the opposite side of the white steam. One was a very small girl with a bath towel covering virtually her entire body. The other was a high school girl with gorgeous facial features. 

Noticing Kojou’s presence, Asagi stopped then and there in obvious surprise. 

“Eh?!” 

Her eyes opened wide as she stood stiffly, gazing dumbfounded at Kojou. 

For a time, both of them gazed at each other without a word; then, they raised two great shouts of horror simultaneously. 

4 

Kojou muttered incoherently as he sank into the shallow Turkish bath. 

“A-Asagi, why are you…?” 

Asagi sat down, but with her back facing his. 

“K-Kojou, why are you here?!” 

With both of them diving into the water to hide their bodies, neither were in any position to leave. 

For her part, Sana was enjoying herself, swimming in the bathwater, perhaps excited to be in such a wide bath for once. 

It was then that Kojou realized there were changing room doors to both the left and right. “So, uh, maybe this is a…mixed bath? And it’s only the entrances that are different for guys and girls?” 

He’d never expected a ship flying the flag of the Warlord’s Empire to have been built like that. 

Kojou had no doubt that Vattler, well aware of this from the beginning, had kept quiet on purpose. That bastard, Kojou thought as he silently shook his fist. 

Asagi asked meekly, “Um, d-did you…see?” 

Kojou’s reply was not, however, the innocent See what? 

“N-nah, not at all. Was just one second.” 

“Th-that so.” 

Kojou and Asagi laughed politely, dry and stiff, at the same time. As if on purpose, the bathroom echoed their voices off its walls, after which only an uncomfortable silence remained. 

As the silent pause continued, Kojou heard a plop, like something was sinking down. 

Kojou and Asagi traded glances with a questioning look when each suddenly went pale. In the instant they’d taken her eyes off her, Sana’s body had sunk to the bottom of the bath. The only thing on the surface of the water was a few small bubbles. 

“H-hey?!” shouted Kojou. 

“S-Sana?!” cried Asagi. 

They both rose up in surprise, rushing over to the sunken girl. 

However, in contrast to Kojou and Asagi’s nervousness, Sana, leisurely swimming in the bath, poked her head above the water’s surface like nothing had happened. Then, she began to dog paddle around once more. The splash back made the rose petals on the water’s surface sway. 

“Sh-she was just divin’, huh…?” Kojou mused. 

“Good grief,” replied Asagi. 

Patting their chests in relief, Kojou and Asagi met each other’s eyes. 

They both immediately yelped and hastily sank their important parts back below the waterline. 

Even with bath towels wrapped over their bodies, it was a little too stimulating at such extremely close range. 

Asagi’s back and shoulders were still exposed, however; the bath towel, drenched with hot bathwater, hugged the contours of her body. Just being in the same bath with a female classmate was an abnormal situation to begin with; Kojou’s nerves weren’t going to hold up to this. 

Without any other choice, Kojou hardened his resolve and declared, “I’m gonna get out first, then. Sorry, could you close your eyes for a bit?” 

But just as Kojou tried to get up, Asagi grabbed his hand and pulled strongly. 

“Wait!” 

“Wh-whoa—?!” 

His balance wrecked, Kojou flopped into the bath with great force. As a result, the two of them were now all over each other. And as if in complete defiance, Asagi peered straight into Kojou’s eyes. 

“This is a great opportunity, so how about you tell me right here, right now, exactly what you’ve been hiding from me?” 

“Asagi…” 

Attacked in so many unexpected ways, the inside of Kojou’s head was already completely blank. 

He didn’t have anything left for coming up with an excuse. The only answers he had to her questions now were the literal truth. No doubt Asagi was well aware of that and thought she could interrogate him like this. 

Looking like she had briefly sunk into thought, Asagi took a deep breath and voiced her question. 

“Kojou, do you………like men?” 

“…Huh?” 

As Asagi awaited his reply with bated breath, Kojou stared back at her with a stupid look on his face. For a while, what she had asked him just wasn’t sinking into his brain. 

“Wait a minute?! Where’d you get that idea?!” 

Asagi’s cheeks burned red as she elaborated: 

“I—I mean, I can’t think of any other reason you’d be buddy-buddy with a noble from the Warlord’s Empire! I mean, that guy is quite the pretty boy…” 

Kojou wondered if this had been the burning question that she’d been agonizing over since before. This was the cause of her uncharacteristic nervousness—? 

Kojou rubbed both of his arms as if feeling a chill. In all seriousness, he replied, “Even if it’s a joke, just stop… You’re givin’ me goose bumps here…” 

However, Asagi’s lips pursed slightly, even so. “Yuuma’s got that boyish feeling going for her, too…” 

“Er, Yuuma’s been my pal since we were little kids. Like or dislike ain’t the issue there.” 

“It—it’s like you’re not interested in my body, though…” 

The unexpected observation made Kojou grimace. “Hahh? Who the heck told you that?” 

Perhaps it was Asagi’s surprise at just how vividly he’d taken the bait that made Asagi’s hands grasp the edge of her bath towel, holding the closure in front of her chest as her eyes twinkled. 

“Wanna see?” 

Even as Kojou anguished over why she was making him confess something so embarrassing in regard to her, his reply was rather blunt. 

“W…well, of course I want to…” 

Asagi tilted her head with a curious look like the matter concerned someone else and pressed further… 

“Ah, is that so?” 

“Yeah, it is! But I don’t want you to hate me for that kind of stuff! I mean, you’re, like, a special friend to me and everything—” 

Watching Kojou raise his voice in such desperation, Asagi hummed. 

“…Special, huh? I see…” 

The teasing leer that came over her lips was her normal, everyday look. 

“So that’s why you were keeping your distance from me after our kiss?” 

Kojou replied in the bluntest voice he could come up with. “Well, excuse me. I mean, I had my own emotional stuff I had to put in order—” 

As he did so, he felt an unexpectedly soft touch on his back. Asagi, wearing only a bath towel, was cuddled right up against him. 

“A-Asagi?!” 

“A freebie. Don’t look this way, though.” 

“O-okay?” 

This time, Asagi’s completely indecipherable behavior brought Kojou to a complete panic. What did she mean by “freebie”? He wondered if it wasn’t so much a freebie as a one-way ticket to a heart attack, when… 

“…Kojou? What’s with these wounds?” 

Asagi’s face grew grave when she noticed the wound on Kojou’s chest. It was apparent, even to a complete amateur, that it was no normal scar. There was no way half-baked excuses could fool her now. 

Kojou sank into silence and made no reply. 

However, the reason for his silence was not his inability to come up with a suitable excuse. Rather, it was because Kojou had noticed that, distracted by his wound, Asagi leaned all the way forward, which allowed the edge of her bath towel to slip down— 

“Sorry, Asagi. I’ve hit my limit…!” 

Kojou thrust Asagi’s body away and rose up forcefully. 

“Eh?! W-wait, Kojou?!” 

Asagi, who fell into the bath and onto her rear, looked up in shock at the blood-drenched Kojou. 

Kojou’s nose gushed out blood with a force one would expect from breaking it. 

The fresh blood scattered all around the bath, dyeing the surface of the water so that it looked like some kind of crimson marble. 

However, by that time Kojou had already leaped out of the bath, rushing into the changing room. 

Asagi remained on her butt in the hot water, beside herself. 

“Geez…what’s with him?!” she muttered. 

However, in spite of her sigh, the look on her face was somehow pixie-like. She giggled as she thought back to the look on Kojou’s face. 

Meanwhile, without a single word, Sana scooped up the bathwater with both hands and looked at it. 

“…” 

The water, dyed vivid crimson, drenched in the blood of the Fourth Primogenitor— 

5 

The cabin Vattler had arranged for Kojou and the others only had a single queen bed. It was a family suite through and through. 

Kojou had expected it’d somehow turn out like this, so he flopped on the sofa against the wall without thinking any further about it. At any rate, it was the best arrangement for keeping Sana and Asagi safe. 

Asagi hadn’t made any special complaints, either. She probably figured it was better to be with Kojou rather than on a strange vampire’s ship by her lonesome. 

That very same Asagi looked down at Kojou, now lying on his side, as she asked in obvious concern, “Are you all right, Kojou? You looked like you were gonna keel over back there.” 

Kojou sluggishly sat up and gave a frail smile with his crinkly lips. “Don’t worry about it…just a little low on blood here.” 

Asagi slumped her shoulders in exasperation. “Well, that’s because you blew so much out of your nose back there…” 

Asagi was now wearing a yukata in place of her filthy street clothes. Apparently, one of Vattler’s maidservants, unaware of the specifics of the Hollow Eve Festival, must’ve figured, It’s a festival in Japan so you should wear a yukata, and lent Asagi one from her personal wardrobe. 

Asagi, lowering her voice so that Sana—currently jumping on the bed like a trampoline—wouldn’t hear, asked, “So, is Natsuki really the key to the whole prison barrier thing?” 

That was a resident of a Demon Sanctuary for you. Asagi apparently had little trouble believing that it really was Natsuki in an age-reduced state. 

“Probably. That’d be why the convicts are after her. Apparently, she lost her memory and got miniaturized because of this grimoire from a witch who broke out.” 

“Curse?” 

Kojou thought back to the discussion between the escapees he’d overheard at the prison barrier. “She said she stole the time she’d experienced…” 

Asagi raised her elegant eyebrows. 

“The grimoire Personal History? That’s a Forbidden-Class Dangerous Object, isn’t it?” 

“It’s probably because she used that thing that they were able to break out of the prison barrier to begin with.” 

Asagi nodded grimly. “Yes, I see…” 

It went without saying that an escape of sorcerous criminals from the prison barrier was a severe problem, not only for Kojou and his acquaintances, but also for every man and woman on Itogami Island. 

“So you got wrapped up in this incident because of Yuuma, then?” 

The matter-of-fact way Asagi asked the question made Kojou reply in all earnestness, “Eh? How did you know that…?” 

“Sheesh,” Asagi sighed. 

“Because I looked at records at the Gigafloat Management Corporation. Ten years ago, the witch Aya Tokoyogi was captured by Natsuki in the so-called ‘Black Bible Incident.’ Yuuma’s related to that, isn’t she? Tokoyogi is a very rare name, so it’s no coincidence is it?” 

“That…so…” 

Kojou bit his lip bitterly as he listened to the revelation. 

Now that she’d said it, of course there’d have been a record left of the other battle between Natsuki and Aya Tokoyogi some ten years prior. 

If that was so, Asagi surely knew all about the Black Bible and associated elements as well. 

However, before Kojou could ask about that, a lisping voice called for Asagi. 

“Mama…” 

Sana, kneeling on top of the bed, gazed at Asagi, her eyes unable to focus. 

Asagi was puzzled as she drew her face close to mini-Natsuki. “Sana? What’s wrong?” 

“Sleepy.” 

“Ah… It is pretty late, isn’t it…?” 

Asagi gave a strained smile as she looked at a clock indicating it was nearly midnight. Asagi lay down with Sana, warmly embracing her, and gently stroked her head. 

Sana rested her face against Asagi’s chest and closed her eyes in apparent relief. Soon she would be fast asleep, like any normal girl. It was a scene that somehow warmed the heart. 

“Man, you look like a real mother and daughter there,” Kojou whispered, admiring the scene. 

Certainly Sana was a very cute girl, but the way Asagi was taking such tender care of her surprised him. 

What, you didn’t think I could handle it? replied Asagi’s posture, her cheeks reddening in a minor fit of pique. 

“Let’s stop right there. I mean, if she’s my daughter, then that makes you the dad—” 

“Eh?” 

Kojou’s response to Asagi’s complaint was an incoherent grunt of surprise. Asagi, realizing that she’d slipped, stiffly amended herself. “I—I mean in this situation. That’s what it would look like to an impartial observer.” 

“R-right. You’ve got a point there…” 

Kojou desperately aided her attempt to stop the slippage into dangerous waters. 

Even if she was tiny for the time being, Asagi was sleeping in the same bed as her homeroom teacher. It was best to avoid any question of inappropriate behavior to the greatest possible extent. 

Thinking he’d best change the subject, Kojou voiced his honest thoughts on another matter. 

“Come to think of it, that yukata looks surprisingly good on you.” 

His little sister had drilled into him that girls wanted to be complimented on their clothing when they changed into something even a little different from their usual. However, Asagi glared back at Kojou in visible dissatisfaction. 

“What do you mean, ‘surprisingly’? Of course it looks good on me! And why are you in a sports jersey, anyway?” 

“Since Vattler didn’t send anythin’ proper over, Kira lent me something of his. He’s a pretty nice guy, you know. See? It’s a Boston jersey from when they were champs.” 

Thus did Kojou explain about the sports jersey he’d borrowed. Apparently, Kira was a fan of the Boston Celtics. Asagi looked back with acute annoyance at the proud expression Kojou sported on his face. 

“Hey, I don’t know anything about that stuff,” Asagi retorted. “And like, don’t stare at me so much. I’m pretty plain here at the moment.” 

“Ah…? Guess you are…” 

Only now did Kojou realize that she was giving off a different impression from the norm. As he agreed with her assessment, he abruptly gave Asagi a long, serious stare. 

“You look pretty darn good in normal, mature-lookin’ clothes like that, so why do you always dress so flamboyantly?” 

“HUH?!” 

It sounded like something had snapped inside Asagi as her temples bulged with rage. 

Without a word, Asagi took off the sandals she was wearing, holding both in one hand. With an uppercut-like motion, she smacked Kojou’s chin with them, hard. 

As a dull thud reverberated, Kojou groaned in agony and pressed a hand to his jaw. 

“That hurt! What’s with you all of a sudden? Do you always smack people with your sandals?!” 

“You’re the one who said it way back, dammit! ‘You’re too plain, so you should pay a bit more attention to your appearance and stuff.’ That’s why I—!” 

“I—I did…?!” 

Kojou endured the pain of the sharp kicks to his back as he arrived at a vague memory. 

Now that she mentioned it, he might well have made a throwaway comment like that back in middle school. He’d been of the opinion that she was putting such a nice face to waste by purposefully trying to blend into the crowd. Wow, she remembered that from way back, Kojou thought, admiring a part that was rather beside the point. Then… 

At that moment, the supposedly sleeping Sana suddenly snapped her eyes open. 

The little girl in the yukata slowly stood up. Her movements were unnatural and seemed to defy the laws of gravity. 

The bizarre aura surrounding her threw Kojou and Asagi completely off. Sana was clearly not in her normal state. It felt like some unknown entity had taken possession of her body. 

Then, as Kojou and Asagi watched her, the little girl took a deep breath. 

“—Na—tsu—kyun!” 

Making an adorable, decisive pose like some kind of idol singer, she shouted this from atop the bed. 

Sana gave off a high-tension vibe that seemed bizarre to the point of incomprehension compared to before, scaring the living daylights out of Kojou and Asagi. 

“The hell?!” 

“Sana?!” 

Sana still had her right hand raised high in a peace sign as her vacant eyes came to a stop. 

Like a ventriloquist’s dummy, nothing moved but her lips as she began to speak in a robotic tone. 

To put it bluntly, Kojou found the sight terrifying. 

“—Main personality shift to sleep mode confirmed. Blocking non-REM sleep. Connecting latent consciousness to backup memory block. Initiating restoration of accumulated personal time. One minute fifty-nine seconds until restoration complete.” 

“Wh-what the heck is that?” Kojou wondered aloud. 

Asagi, too, spoke in bewilderment as they looked up at Sana, dumbfounded. 

“Maybe Natsuki’s memories…came back?” 

When Sana heard this, she suddenly spun her head around and grinned buoyantly at the two of them. It was a splendid, picture-perfect smile the real Natsuki wouldn’t have made if her life depended on it. 

“Sorry. I am actually Natsu-kyun Minamiya’s backup personality.—Kyun!” 

Sana stuck her tongue out, another mysteriously adorable pose. 

Unsurprisingly, even Kojou was slowly getting used to the bizarre situation. “Er, I don’t think this is really a ‘kyun’ moment…?” 

“To think Natsuki had a latent personality like this she kept deep down,” Asagi murmured, exhausted. “I’m not sure whether I’m surprised or totally unsurprised…” 

Apparently, the current Natsuki was some kind of emergency backup she’d prepared in advance. 

She’d probably cast a special spell on her so that, should an enemy rob her of her memories as had happened here, a temporary backup would emerge and work to restore her memories. 

Leave it to a first-rate Attack Mage like her to be so prepared. The only miscalculation was the fact her backup personality had a few little…quirks. 

Kojou was faintly hopeful as he asked, “So if you restore from the backup…Natsuki’s gonna come back?” 

However, the backup twirled around on top of the bed for no apparent reason. 

“Sorry! That might not be possible! Memories are one thing, but I don’t think this body can take the strain of using spells! In the first place, there’s not enough magical power!” 

“…I see. So this really ain’t gonna work unless we destroy Aya Tokoyogi’s grimoire, huh?” 

“Totally. Or you could wait ten years for me to grow up like I was before, kyun?” 

“There’s no way we’re waitin’ that long!” 

Kojou sighed, aggrieved, at the backup’s completely unconcerned manner of speech. 

It was a moment later that the flat-screen TV nestled into the wall of the cabin came on unbidden without anyone touching the remote control. What now? Kojou thought as he looked over dubiously. 

A badly made CG teddy bear floated up onto the screen. 

“—Finally got a connection. You hearin’ this, Li’l Miss?” 

Asagi shrieked at the teddy bear on the TV. “M-Mogwai?!” 

Kojou knew the name. This was the avatar of the five supercomputers that administered Itogami Island—Asagi’s AI partner. 

“…What are you doing popping up in a place like that?” 

“’Cause your smartphone ran out of juice. I used the broadcast signal to hack in. Sorry, but there’s more trouble on the way. I’d like you to give me a hand, but…” 

“Oh, really. I don’t wanna.” 

Asagi turned off the TV without the slightest hesitation. However, the TV turned back on again instantly, to a display of Mogwai on its hands and knees. 

“Please, I’m begging you!” 

“I said NO. How much do you plan on making a normal high schooler work here? Thanks to you, the first day of the festival’s a complete write-off.” 

Asagi tapped the power button on the remote control, rapid-fire, as she spoke. When she saw that wasn’t going to do any good, she moved her hand toward the TV’s power cord. Mogwai desperately shook his head in alarm. 

“Wait, wait, wait, this problem totally affects you, too, Li’l Miss!” 

“Hah? How so?” 

“There’s a weird spatial distortion popping up with Saikai Academy’s campus at the center of it. Any device using magical power is inoperable inside it, and it seems to cancel all spells in operation, too.” 

“…You’re saying it neutralizes spells?” Asagi asked skeptically. 

Mogwai nodded gravely. “That’s the short version.” 

“Sounds nice and peaceful.” 

“If this wasn’t an artificial island, I might agree with you—” 

“Ah…!” Asagi exclaimed, finally grasping the gravity of the situation. 

Itogami Island was a man-made island, a city floating on the Pacific Ocean constructed from Gigafloats linked together. 

Of course, normal technology could not make a giant city with over five hundred thousand souls float on water. The Demon Sanctuary of Itogami City was a city reliant on magical spells. 

“You don’t mean the spells reinforcing the Gigafloats are being canceled, too?!” asked Asagi. 

“Yep. Hardening, mass reduction, spatial stabilization, ghost repellers…every kind of spell you can think of is losin’ power. Right now it’s still only affecting the area around Saikai Academy, but if the area of effect increases at this rate, it’s gonna get…a bit rough.” 

Asagi clutched her head and sighed hard. “…This is the worst.” 

The cause of the magic nullification was not yet clear, but sooner or later, the city would become unable to support its own weight, and Itogami Island would collapse. It certainly wasn’t something she could just ignore. 

“So y’see, we’re gettin’ everyone we can on deck to work on strength calculations and reinforcement plans and evacuation guide programs. We’ll pay good money.” 

“Well, I understand where you’re coming from now…but it’s pretty tight on this end, too, so I can’t just run to the Management Corporation at the drop of a hat. The monorails are still down, right?” 

“I get ya. I’ll get something whipped up on this end to g—” 

The television screen upon which the teddy bear avatar was displayed suddenly blacked out. 

“…Mogwai?” 

Above Asagi and Kojou’s heads, the sound of a giant explosion reverberated, fiercely rocking the hull of the Oceanus Grave II. 

Kojou let loose a shout as he tumbled onto the bed from losing his balance. 

“What now?!” 

At some point, the ship had lost its regular lights, switching to emergency lamps instead. 

They already had Sana’s sudden change and the anomaly affecting Itogami Island to worry about. Those two were trouble enough, but now Kojou and Asagi had to switch their attention to the one remaining problem. Kojou remembered what that was as impacts continued slamming against the ship. 

The backup looked out of the window as she stated, “It’s an escaped prisoner, meow. Looks like he’s coming to board the ship from the front, mew.” 

Kojou sighed as he shot the backup a frosty look. 

“…That’s fine, but you’re massively out of character, y’know. Well, if it’s no worse than this, Vattler’ll take care of it. He got us here just so he could draw ’em to this ship, after all…” 

But the backup had a somber look about her. 

Kojou saw the crimson flames in the nighttime sky reflected in the young girl’s pupils. The air was thick with intense demonic power: a powerful surge of energy far surpassing the norm. It might well have been Vattler calling a Beast Vassal. 

The next moment, a single, searing beam assaulted the ship, creating a large explosion in its wake. A portion of the ship was engulfed in flames as debris scattered and broke all about. Something had hit the deck of the Oceanus Grave II with tremendous force. 

In the center of the explosion was a young blond man wearing a white coat. Flames burned around Vattler as he lay on his side, blood covering his whole body. 

Vattler had tried to counterattack against the assaulting escapees, but he’d been the one that got blown away—? Him, an Old Guard vampire—? 

The backup knocked her knuckles against her own head and stuck out her tongue. 

“This doesn’t look so good…kyun.” 

Even as her needlessly overdramatic pose annoyed him, Kojou grabbed her and Asagi’s hands and rushed out of the cabin. 

6 

A little before the prisoners’ raid set the Oceanus Grave II aflame… 

…There were two girls on the great pier of Itogami Harbor. 

One was a tall girl wielding a long sword. The other was a girl in a nurse outfit, carrying a silver-colored spear. They were Sayaka and Yukina, following in Kojou’s wake. 

Sayaka seethed with rage as she looked up at the extravagant cruise ship floating atop the nighttime sea. 

“What are you thinking, Kojou Akatsuki?! Staying in the same room as a girl in your own class, with a d-double bed in it…that shameless pervergenitor…!” 

The girls couldn’t see the interior of the gigantic luxury yacht from the wharf they stood upon. However, Sayaka had sent a shikigami made out of thin metal plate to keep an eye on Kojou and the others. For Sayaka, well educated in the arts of curses and assassination, using ritual magic for reconnaissance was part of her specialty. 

Technically, Yukina could use the same spell, but Sayaka was far more skilled with it. Of the two of them, only Sayaka the Shamanic War Dancer could penetrate the anti-magic ward deployed all across Vattler’s ship to peer within. 

“Sana is with them, too, isn’t she? So they’re not alone,” Yukina countered. 

“Now that you mention it, I think so, but those two get along really well! Right now Asagi Aiba is smacking Kojou Akatsuki with a sandal.” 

“That’s…getting along well?” Yukina murmured. 

Relying on Sayaka as an intermediary, Yukina had a thin grasp of the current situation aboard the ship. As a result, Yukina’s mental image inflated on its own; in her head, something major was going on between Kojou and Asagi. 

For her part, Sayaka continued to concentrate her mind on her shikigami, tilting her head with a thoroughly mystified look. 

“Aiba Asagi’s such a beauty. Why doesn’t Kojou Akatsuki act like he’s aware of it?” 

“Um…I don’t really think you are one to talk, Sayaka…,” Yukina reprimanded gently. Her senior from the agency was also somewhat known for her lack of self-awareness. 

And then, before she could say any more, she spun the tip of her spear toward the darkness behind her. 

“—Incidentally, are you not the one who forced Akatsuki-senpai and Aiba upon each other, Duke Ardeal?” 

A voice with a snobbish echo to it floated down from the dark air. 

“Oh, you noticed, did you? There’s a Lion King Agency Sword Shaman for you.” 

A golden mist riding the wind coalesced into the form of a young man wearing a white coat—Dimitrie Vattler. 

Apparently, he’d been watching them while they’d been observing the ship. It was only Yukina’s extremely sharp spiritual senses that allowed her to notice the vampire’s aura while transformed into mist. 

“…Do you want Akatsuki-senpai to drink Aiba’s blood?” Yukina demanded. “Why are you going out of your way to offer a sacrifice to the Fourth Primogenitor?” 

Vattler smiled casually as he replied. 

“Because I thought it was more amusing that way. The fastest way to get Avrora’s Beast Vassals to awaken is for Kojou to drink the blood of a qualified spiritual medium. I think that girl has an excellent chance to make the grade.” 

“Why do you intend on granting the Fourth Primogenitor that much power?” 

As Yukina asked her question, the expression she gave Vattler was one of dead seriousness. 

To Vattler, a blood relative of the First Primogenitor, the Lost Warlord, the Fourth Primogenitor, from a cost-benefit perspective, was an enemy. For Vattler to engage in conduct beneficial to Kojou multiple times was very odd indeed. 

Even Vattler’s lust for combat—how he craved to fight opponents more powerful than himself—was not a sufficient explanation. After all, the other nobles and elders of the Warlord’s Empire silently approved of Vattler’s conduct; Vattler having been named ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary was proof enough. 

Vattler replied to Yukina with a question of his own in an apparent effort to deflect hers. 

“Yukina Himeragi…I wonder if you realize the true reason you were chosen to be Kojou’s watcher?” 

Yukina knitted her brows in annoyance, suspicious of a trick. 

“What do you mean by that…?” 

Yukina had been told that she’d been chosen to be Kojou’s watcher because she was the only Sword Shaman similar in age to him who could stay close without arousing suspicion. She didn’t think there was any other reason. 

Vattler gazed with apparent delight at Yukina’s reaction. 

“Allow me to change the question, then. What is the Fourth Primogenitor to begin with? If only three vampire primogenitors, the pillars of the race, ought to exist, why is there a fourth? 

“If Kojou becomes a complete Fourth Primogenitor, we might learn the reason why a fourth came into being. Also, fighting and consuming Kojou in that state sounds very amusing.” 

Vattler laughed as his vulgar thirst for battle finally revealed itself in full. It was a full-throated laugh he normally kept well under wraps. 

Yukina subconsciously regripped her spear as she glared at the man. “Duke Ardeal…you are such a…” 

Sayaka, having silently listened to their back and forth all this time, poised her sword with a similar level of enmity naked to the eye. 

Looking at both of them with a highly satisfied smirk, Vattler abruptly turned his back to them. 

“You don’t need to make such scary faces. It’s quite all right—that is for well into the future. Having found my beloved after all this time, I simply must draw out the enjoyment. Besides,” Vattler murmured, “Kojou is not tonight’s guest of honor—” 

A malignant aural wave rolled off Vattler’s entire body. He was glaring at a large, unfamiliar silhouette standing at the tip of the pier. 

It was a man wearing black armor from the neck down, with a huge sword slung over his back. His unkempt, gray hair resembled the mane of a wild beast. His skin had the color of steel. He didn’t have any obvious demonic characteristics, but he certainly didn’t look like a normal human being. 

“An escapee from the prison barrier…!” exclaimed Yukina. She and Sayaka immediately turned their weapons toward the new arrival. 

There was a silver manacle covering the gauntlet on the man’s left forearm. He, too, was one of the jailbreakers chasing after Natsuki Minamiya in search of complete freedom from the prison barrier. 

He reached toward the giant sword at his back. However, before he could draw it, Vattler unleashed his attack. Without warning, Vattler’s Beast Vassal appeared in the sky and spewed a sickly green beam, striking the man dead center and enveloping him in an enormous explosion. 

Yukina stood in shock as she watched the head of the pier collapse. 

“D-Duke Ardeal—?!” 

The Old Guard vampire’s blow hadn’t held back even a little. She didn’t think anyone could endure a hit like that. Surely it had been a surprise attack, leaving no opportunity to put up a defensive ward. 

However, Vattler shot the smoke-enveloped remains of the head of the pier an expectant look. 

“I have no need for an opponent who’d die from just that. There’d be no need for me to trouble myself.” 

“—Then I shall repay thy words with interest, Dimitrie Vattler!” 

A silver-colored light sliced through the hovering cloud of smoke. 

Kicking off the ground and leaping high, the armored man drew the massive great sword from his back and pounded it home into Vattler’s Beast Vassal. The monstrous, deep green serpent was dozens of meters long, yet its entire body shuddered with an anguished roar; beams of light scattered from it as it exploded in every direction. Then, the armored man sliced toward Vattler, defenseless with the loss of his Beast Vassal. 

“Gwah?!” 

Sustaining a merciless slashing attack from the flank, Vattler’s tall form was blown away. He sailed all the way to the Oceanus Grave II, colliding with it, scattering rubble that also buried him and hid him from sight. Fragments of the ruptured Beast Vassal poured down upon the ship, causing explosions and fires in multiple locations. 

“Duke Ardeal!” Yukina exclaimed. 

“He cut…a Beast Vassal?! No way…?!” said Sayaka, her eyes wide in astonishment. 

A vampire’s Beast Vassal was a summoned creature from another world, using vast magical energy to take physical form. 

By their very nature, being masses of magical energy themselves, they could only be defeated by slamming even greater magical energy into them. 

However, the armored man had felled one with a single blow of his sword. Even though Yukina and Sayaka had just witnessed this with their own eyes, it was still a hard sight for them to easily believe. 

The armored man leaped toward the deck of the ship in pursuit of the wounded vampire. 

Yukina and Sayaka hastily pursued the man in turn. Kojou and the others were inside the burning ship. They didn’t think Kojou, in his present state, could do anything against an opponent who’d defeated the likes of Vattler with one blow. Protecting Asagi, an ordinary person, or the age-reduced Natsuki seemed an utterly impossible task for him alone, but… 

A new man suddenly stood before the girls. He had red hair, a small stature, and an inappropriately bright, wide smile on his face. 

“Ooh…he really went in big. Tch, I’m late to the party, dammit!” 

He spoke in a voice of ready admiration at the sight of the ship ablaze; perhaps his appearance reflected a so-called fiery personality. 

Yukina stopped where she stood and raised her spear. 

“Who are you…?!” 

As she asked it, she remembered the man’s face. He was the prisoner called Schtola D. 

The corners of his lips rose as he looked back in amusement at Yukina, now in a combat stance. 

“What’s this…? In this Demon Sanctuary, even nurses work as Attack Mages?” 

“Eh?” 

“Well, fine. I owe you one for stepping on my pride, little nurse—!” 

Yukina didn’t have the time to retort, I am not a nurse!, but it was apparently a trivial matter to Schtola D. He raised his right hand high above his head, swinging it down at once. 

Yukina bit her lip. It was his invisible slash, the mysterious attack that even Snowdrift Wolf, able to nullify all types of magical energy, could not completely block. Since she couldn’t nail down the timing or distance, deflection seemed the better option— 

Yukina raised her spear, relying on intuition alone. She couldn’t dodge an attack when she didn’t know the enemy’s striking range. She had no choice but to block it. 

But just before Schtola D’s attack came at her, a silhouette danced right before Yukina’s eyes. 

“—What are you trying to do to my Yukina, you little shrimp?!” 

Sayaka’s long hair swayed as she lashed out with her long silver sword. 

One of the abilities of Sayaka’s sword, Lustrous Scale, was to nullify physical attacks. 

Through severing space itself, the area sliced by Lustrous Scale became a momentary barrier that was utterly invincible against physical attacks. 

And so, Schtola D’s invisible slash slammed into the invisible wall before Sayaka’s eyes, bouncing off and petering out. 

Schtola D’s face twisted in malice. 

“…That’s a nice trick you’ve got, bitch!” 

He had absolute confidence in his own attack; seeing it blocked had really gotten his blood flowing. It was quite a troublesome personality trait. 

“I’ve got this, Yukina. You go help Kojou and the others!” 

Having thus spoken, Sayaka glared at the escaped convict with red-hot rage. 

Yukina watched Sayaka from behind with a look of concern for a single moment, but quickly nodded to herself and ran off, heading onto the ship enveloped by flames.