Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru - Volume 9 - Chapter 3.06

Vampire rebellion

In seconds, Elizabeth’s corpse was unrecognizable.

Her fallen head and decapitated body burst into flames at the places they had been severed. Pale-blue fire rapidly enveloped her, then erased her entirely. Scarlet hadn’t left so much as a scrap of his enemy’s flesh behind—was this an expression of his cruelty, or the opposite? Had he incinerated the queen’s corpse quickly so it wouldn’t be needlessly exposed to prying eyes? There was no way to know.

Scarlet gazed steadily at the spot where Elizabeth had been burned away to nothing. No one spoke.

“—Kimizuka. Look.”

After a moment of silence, the situation took a sudden turn.

Natsunagi was pointing at several distant helicopters headed our way. They weren’t ordinary machines, either, but military helicopters painted in dark camouflage, with machine guns aimed at—

“I seem to have been designated an enemy of the world,” Scarlet said, gazing up at the night sky. “So Elizabeth’s warning was correct? Just as my former bride candidate once suspected.”

…His former bride candidate? In other words… “Siesta knew about this? She knew you’d become the world’s enemy?”

I was pretty sure Scarlet’s name hadn’t been mentioned in the sacred text when it prophesied the vampire rebellion. Even so, Siesta had been sure things would turn out this way years ago…?

“Kimizuka!” Natsunagi yanked my hand, and I remembered that now wasn’t the time to get lost in thought.

The helicopters were almost on top of us, and their guns were definitely locked on Scarlet. If we didn’t move fast, we’d get hit, too.

“…Stop joking around.”

Natsunagi and I took cover behind the water tower and plugged our ears. A moment later, there was a fierce explosion, and the ground shook beneath our feet. The guns blazed from the sky for over half a minute, and even after they fell silent, the strength seemed to have drained out of me. It was several seconds before I could get to my feet.

“—Scarlet!”

Holding my nose against the stench of burned concrete, I scanned the roof. The smoke cleared, revealing blackened ground…and right where the guns had been firing, something that looked like a three-meter-tall red cocoon.

“It’s blood,” Natsunagi murmured.

A cocoon of blood, created by a vampire. Was it something Scarlet’s vampire abilities had made, or a weapon given to him by Stephen? Either way, the cocoon had completely blocked that ferocious bombardment.

Then the combat situation changed once again. The blood cocoon developed cracks, then exploded, and shards of it flew toward a hovering helicopter. The fragments of the huge cocoon struck the rotor squarely, and the helicopter spun out of control and fell.

I reflexively squeezed my eyes shut and covered my ears, and almost immediately, the explosion I’d anticipated roared over us. When I opened my eyes again, the king of vampires was standing right where the cocoon had been.

Scarlet stood there in the wind, completely aloof, his golden eyes looking up at the night sky.

“I see. So this is the stage you’ve prepared, is it?”

He covered his face with a hand, yet there was a smile on his lips.

“Very well. It’s war, then!”

Like an actor on the stage, the white demon spread his arms wide and shouted.

He was issuing a proclamation to the Federation Government, which had to be watching him from somewhere beyond that dark sky. “Within the next seventy-two hours, I shall conquer the Mizoev Federation’s territory in Alaska! The operation has already begun!”

The next moment, Natsunagi’s smartphone rang. “…! Kimizuka, look at this!”

What she showed me was a new message from the Federation Government, forwarded through the Men in Black. When Natsunagi clicked on the URL in the text, it opened a video feed.

“…This is Mizoev Federation territory?”

The screen showed a town of blackened buildings, where flames were still spreading. It seemed to be aerial footage from a drone, and all we could see were endless ruined streets.

There were no people. In their place stood corpses.

The undead I’d seen Scarlet create on several occasions were marching, weapons at the ready. It was clear that they were the ones turning this place into a disaster zone.

“Scarlet, who are these undead? …Don’t tell me you’ve killed this many innocent humans.”

“Ha! Your concern is unnecessary.” Scarlet laughed off my question. “They are all my kin I’ve killed as a Tuner. No doubt they could want for nothing more than to resurrect and fight as my minions!”

A chill went down my spine: I finally understood what a vampire rebellion really meant.

By killing all of his kin, then resurrecting them as his minions, Scarlet had created a silent army.

“It’s an army I originally loaned the government to defend the Mizoev Federation’s territory; however, at this point, war with the government’s forces is inevitable. I’ll hasten to join my people, as the king of vampires.” With that final remark, Scarlet turned to go.

“Wait! Why?” Natsunagi took a step forward. “Is this your revenge on the Federation Government? Do you want to control the world in mankind’s place? Why are you really headed for the battlefield?”

“All living creatures simply play the roles they are assigned, dancing on a confined stage. There is no meaning to it. No reason. The same is true for you, Ace Detective.”

The door to the roof flew open, and a horde of footsteps rang out against the concrete.

They belonged to people in dark suits—the Men in Black.

As one, they leveled their guns, pointing them straight at Scarlet.

“Yes, this is how it should be. You also play a role as cogs in this world.”

Scarlet unfurled a black wing—his right wing, the one he hadn’t used at all during his fight with Elizabeth…and there was a girl inside it.

“—Siesta!”

Scarlet cradled the sleeping detective in his right arm.

Had he hidden her with that transparent wing and protected her throughout the fight?

“Wait! Scarlet!”

I reached out, and Natsunagi’s red eyes flashed.

Yet we were a fraction of a second too late.

The vampire turned his golden eyes on Natsunagi, and she suddenly lost her voice and word-soul ability.

It probably wasn’t some special vampiric talent, but simply that the difference in their ranks as living beings was just too vast.

“I will take my bride!”

With Siesta being a hostage, neither I nor the Men in Black could shoot him.

The vampire, stained red with blood, melted into the black night and disappeared.