38. I Cannot Do It as Well as You

Author: Kiki
Raw: https://novel18.syosetu.com/n2498fn/41/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

“Oh? Chii-chan, what are you doing in a place like this?”

Miyako had come to the dining hall to wet her throat, and found Chigusa sitting alone, sunk in thought.
Chigusa was supposed to be handling Lily, the captain of the knights. How was that going?
Lately Miyako had been glued to Ashera and they had hardly spoken—so she took the neighboring seat and leaned in.

“Mya-nee?”
“You looked bored out of your mind. What’s wrong? Something happen with Lily?”
“… Something of that sort, yes. I did tell you that the vampire who changed me into this body was named Camilla.”
“Yeah, I heard.”

Chigusa spoke with a grave face.

“Apparently that Camilla was a friend of Lily’s.”

Miyako cocked her head.

“Huh? But wasn’t Camilla the one who tried to lay hands on a princess named Sara and got cut down by the knight captain?”
“That much seems to be true, but there appears to be more beneath it … No matter how many times we speak, Lily only blurs that part and will not make it clear.”

And so today, too, Chigusa had been waiting in the dining hall, hoping Lily would come.
The one who actually arrived, unexpectedly, was Miyako.

“Come to think of it—the first place they dumped Chii-chan’s body was a trash heap, right?”
“Yes. That is where I met Camilla.”
“I’ve thought this for a while. Even for people who came from another world, isn’t that sloppy? Same goes for Camilla. They were careless enough to throw her out in a place like that, and that’s how the Chii-chan we have now got born.”

Chigusa had wondered the same thing for some time.
To the people of this world they were outsiders; their lives were worth little. If one thought of it that way, it was not unnatural.
Camilla, however, was different.
She was a vampire with high regenerative power, and she had been Lily’s friend.

“One possibility that comes to mind is that someone ordered it.”
“Is there even anyone who could do that? Still, that does seem like the likeliest one.”
“Mm …”

Thinking did not produce an answer.
At that time, the castle had held any number of people who could give orders to soldiers.
Unlike now, when almost no one remained properly alive, there was no way to narrow it down.
In the end, it seemed they would have to draw it out of Lily.
And yet something snagged strangely in Chigusa’s memory.
Camilla’s traces had not all vanished.
The memory of that time—it was certainly still there, somewhere in Chigusa’s mind.

Continue reading →

37. Not Madness, but Ignorance

Author: Kiki
Raw: https://novel18.syosetu.com/n2498fn/40/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

Camilla Dilideed.
It was the first time Chigusa had heard the full name, but if it was someone connected to the captain of the knighthood, and the name was Camilla, it could hardly be unrelated to that vampire Camilla.
Inwardly shaken that Camilla’s name had come up in such an unexpected place, Chigusa listened to the rest.

“The Dilideed house is a noble family, not especially wealthy, but they keep a villa in the royal capital. Camilla was a handful from childhood, and she used to sneak into our estate in secret.”
“What were the guards doing?”
“Exactly. Well, perhaps they saw that she and I were close and looked the other way.”

Whether that counted as being considerate was a dubious question.

“And so, after those secret meetings, once Camilla and I began attending school in the capital, we were finally able to associate openly. She was good with a sword as well, and we often clashed as rivals.”
“To go up against you, Captain—that’s considerable skill.”
“Well, at school we were among the top, at least. Camilla may have thought that if she surpassed me, who already had the captaincy lined up, she could enter the knighthood.”
“… Perhaps so that you could be together?”
“Who knows. Neither of us was honest, so I don’t know what she was thinking when she tried to join. But she was certainly fixated on strength.”

Hearing that, Chigusa thought.
Perhaps Camilla, too, had been a being granted a vampire’s power, as she herself had.
She did not know the finer circumstances, but Camilla had probably been unable to surpass Lily.
And so she had not been able to join the knighthood.
Still wishing somehow to catch up, she had—offered herself to the inhuman.

“What is that Camilla doing now?”

Chigusa knew the answer, but she asked anyway.
There was a chance, however slight, that it was a case of mistaken identity.
Lily answered at once.

“She’s dead. I cut her down.”

The reply she had expected.
In other words—the Camilla Dilideed she spoke of was, after all, almost certainly the very person who had made Chigusa a Demi-Vamp.

“It’s about time… If you wouldn’t mind, would you listen again sometime?”
“If someone like me will do.”
“Thank you. That’s a help.”

So saying, Lily left the mess hall at a quick pace.
Watching her back, Chigusa felt, strangely, a little forlorn.
Perhaps Camilla’s feelings inside her were appealing for something.

Continue reading →

36. Into the Depths of the Story

Author: Kiki
Raw: https://novel18.syosetu.com/n2498fn/39/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

After the meeting, Ashera did a light bout of combat training with David at the training grounds.
It had gone a long way toward relieving her stress—but on her way to the showers to wash off the sweat, she came face to face with the last person she wanted to meet.

“Geh…”
“Oh my, what a coincidence, Ashera. Were you training with David?”
“None of your business. Leave me alone.”
“Is it so strange to take an interest in the movements of one’s fellow members of the knighthood?”

Fellow members or not, they had never once acted as a group.
To begin with, opportunities for the members to be clustered in the same place like this were so rare it was doubtful they had even happened once.

“By the way, Ashera, I am in a terrible bind.”
“Good for you. Stay in a bind forever.”

Ashera had no intention of listening to anyone’s troubles; she fluttered a hand and tried to leave.
But Lalilalai, at her own pace, put a question to her.

“There is not a man to be seen anywhere in this castle. At this rate I cannot fulfill my duties as a holy woman.”
“Then Madis or Narkil would do, wouldn’t they? Or why don’t you seduce the king and drag him out yourself?”
“I did try, but no matter how provocatively, how sensually I spoke to him, there was no response. I had been confident I could arouse sexual excitement in any man, so I have been a little depressed.”

So she actually tried, Ashera retorted inwardly.
But perhaps that, too, was very like Lalilalai.
She did not choose to whom she offered her body.
Ally or enemy, noble or vagrant—if she was wanted, she gladly let herself be taken.
“That is my own form of love,” she would say, without once doubting her ethics.

“If there’s nobody around, that’s fine, isn’t it? It’s a rare holiday. Rest your body, literally.”
“Oh my, you are concerned for my body. How happy I am to hear you say such a thing, Ashera. I cannot help but… ahh, my body is growing hot.”
“… You really don’t pick your partners. What are you, a rabbit in heat?”
“How charming. A rabbit.”
“Yeah, sure. Below a rabbit, if you mean you’ve got no charm. Even they don’t go around casually aborting kids.”
“Casually? Did you just say I abort them casually, Ashera!”

A shadow fell across the smile that had not broken once until now.
The subject of abortion was a land mine for her.
Ashera, for her part, grinned at the sight—in other words, she had understood it was taboo and brought it up on purpose.
Lalilalai closed the distance by a step and set her hand on the hem of her coat.
Then, as if to show Ashera her skin, she rolled it up and bared herself.

“My eldest son, Edge; my second son, Lugrade; my third son, Alphaus—”

One by one, she pointed to the tattoos of fetuses carved into her torso.

“My eldest daughter, Muse; my fourth son, Sein; my second daughter, Norn; my third daughter, Room; my fourth daughter, Kiria; my fifth son, Jess; and my sixth son, Bardon!” Continue reading →

35. Eight Knights and a Lonely Princess

Author: Kiki
Raw: https://novel18.syosetu.com/n2498fn/38/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

Inside the royal castle, in a stone room ordinarily used for the soldiers’ briefings, the knighthood that was the kingdom’s pride stood assembled in full.
It was rare for them, usually scattered across the land, to gather in one place like this.
Was war about to break out at last, or had the other side already made the first move?
Convinced that an emergency of one kind or another must be underway, they had rushed back to the royal capital—and yet—

“Haaah? You don’t even know the reason!?”

Ashera Foshanza spat it out without bothering to hide her irritation.
She had blood-red hair tied back, eyes of the same blood-red, and from the legend that any battlefield she entered became a sea of blood, she was called the Crimson Battle Fiend.
Whether the rumors were true or not, the strength with which she swung an enormous axe as tall as she was was certainly beyond the human.

“Don’t screw with me. I ain’t got time to waste. Bring out the king. The king!”
“Do calm yourself, Ashera. Lily is at a loss, is she not?”

Lalilalai Avota rebuked Ashera in a gentle voice.
Unlike Ashera, from whom roughness seeped even from her appearance, Lalilalai’s silver hair, ample figure, and mild expression suggested a tranquil person.
Her generosity was such that she was called the Madonna of the Kingdom, and the soldiers adored her in more than one sense.

“Well, well, Lalilalai, still as big-hearted as ever. That’s our Madonna of the Kingdom for you—the sex-mother herself.”
“Madonna is far too grand a title. I merely wrap as many people as I can in love, so that they may be happy.”
“That’s a roundabout way of saying you’ll spread your legs for anyone, you whore.”
“Oh my, I do not sell my body. I am always happy to do it free of charge, you know?”
“That makes it even worse!”

Ashera glared; Lalilalai’s smile did not falter.
Whenever the two of them met, it was always like this.
Watching them, Lily, captain of the knighthood, clutched her head and heaved a long sigh.
I ought to stop them here—so she thought, and yet her voice would not come.
Even if someone like Lily spoke up, these two would not stop.
While she dithered over it, another member opened her mouth first.

“Gahahaha! Ashera’s still as savage as ever! Don’t waste it in here—come keep me company later!”
“Tch… Don’t stick your oar in, David.”
“You ought to be thanking him for stopping you. You two will never see eye to eye, and an endless quarrel would be a nuisance.”
“You stay out of it too, Madis. I get it, all right?”

The two men belonging to the knighthood—David, distinguished by a huge frame some two meters tall, and Madis, who wore a white coat and glasses and looked every bit the intellectual—each cut in.
Told off by the familiar David and the cool-headed Madis, even Ashera, wild horse that she was, had no choice but to fall silent.
Watching the exchange, Narkil, who had been looking on from the side, gave a wry smile. Continue reading →

34. The Strongest and Worst of Humans

Author: Kiki
Raw: https://novel18.syosetu.com/n2498fn/37/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

“After that, if we can just… do something about the eight knights, the country would be as good as finished, wouldn’t it?”

Leia had told me as much a little while ago.

“The only knight stationed at the castle, the one who guards the royal family—her name is Lily Clearlights.”
“She was the knight who defeated Camilla, as I recall.”
“Yes. And she’s the captain of the knighthood, too. But that person… I think she’s probably weaker than I am. If it were you, Mistress, I believe you could beat her easily.”

In other words, the reasoning seemed to be that if Lily, the captain, was only that strong, the other knights ought to be no trouble either.
And so I issued the following order to the king, whose brain I had already toyed with until he was a puppet.

“Gather every knight at the castle.”

Rotten-brained or not, he was still a king. At that single word, the knights scattered across the kingdom assembled at the castle all at once.
Even so, there was one who arrived late.
He was the man riding in the carriage running ahead of me: Saints Judgment, who called himself “the human most beloved by God in all the world.”
The name was so blatant I suspected an alias, but it was apparently his real one.
His family had been deeply devout for generations, I was told.
There is no such thing as God in this world, however, so I decided to dispose of him promptly and turn him into a puppet as well.

I moved from the shadow of grass to the shadow of trees, closing the distance to the carriage.
At last I slipped into the shadow directly beneath it.
From there, Saints’ voice reached me.
When I shifted a little, I could see inside the carriage as well.
Saints had the look of a somewhat slender, thoroughly ordinary priest.

“By the by, coachman.”
“Y-yes?”
“Do you… believe in God?”
“God, sir? Well, I believe well enough.”
“I see, I see. How fine. You are truly fine. Lately, I am sorry to say, the number of rude people who do not believe in God has increased. A lamentable thing. Truly lamentable.”

Paying no mind to the coachman’s bewilderment, he launched into a sermon of a conversation.
He was rather like a troublesome passenger pestering a taxi driver.

“However! If you are a righteous man who has faith in God, then I, beloved of God, have a duty to act in His stead. In short, I must save you.”
“Uh… right…”
“Listen well, young man. Stop the carriage at once. Then get down, and—let me see—run until you are somewhere beyond the horizon.”
“Huh? W-why?”
“Do not talk back! I am telling you to run!”

The young coachman startled at the force of that voice.

“Eek!? I understand!” Continue reading →

Interlude 3: An Unremarkable, Beloved Everyday, for Example Café Boutiful

Author: Kiki
Raw: https://novel18.syosetu.com/n2498fn/36/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

Ever since I obtained this body, I have scarcely had to worry about being oppressed by anyone, or about facing a difficulty I could not overcome.
My beloved companions have increased in number as well, and the plan is proceeding smoothly.
I am happy. I am fortunate.
And yet that very fortune has given rise to a new sort of worry.

“Hmph … I never thought I’d end up fighting Nunnally in earnest in a place like this.”
“I am quite surprised myself, Ellis. But since we have each staked something precious, I can hardly withdraw.”
“I feel the same way … Now get ready, Nunnally!”
“I am ready whenever you are!”

The two of them had abruptly begun fighting right in front of me. I watched from a luxurious, plush chair prepared as the best seat in the house, wearing a troubled expression.
Good grief. How on earth had it come to this?

Continue reading →

33. Dessert After All, to Cleanse the Palate of Bitter Memories

Author: Kiki
Raw: https://novel18.syosetu.com/n2498fn/35/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

A dim prison beneath the castle.
Saiji was in a cell divided off by iron bars, furnished with nothing but a moldy bed and a toilet.

“I’m not wrong. I’m not wrong. I’m not wrong. I’m not wrong.”

His eyes were wide, his cheeks were gaunt, and he had not slept at all since the previous night. He only repeated the same words.
By any measure, he had gone mad.
Even so, Saiji remained utterly convinced that he was right. He believed just as firmly that the knights under the king’s direct command—the ones who had locked him in this cell—had already been brainwashed by “them.”
That was why he refused the meals they brought him.
He was certain they contained human flesh.

“I’m not wrong. I’m not wrong. I’m not wrong. I’m not wrong.”

When the knights questioned him about why he had put poison in the food, he would not even tell them his reason.
He did nothing but repeat the same phrase, making communication all but impossible.
The only evidence left behind was the poison he had used and the small vial that had held it.
No one had ever heard of a poison capable of dissolving a body after only a small dose. An unknown poison naturally cast suspicion first upon Leia, a researcher, but she had a perfect alibi.
In other words, they still knew nothing.
The knights would probably never reach the truth.
They lacked the ability—and, more importantly, they would probably run out of time.

As Saiji sat with his knees drawn to his chest, he heard footsteps approaching.
There was more than one person, unlike the knights who delivered his meals.
But it made no difference to him who had come. He continued his chant like a prayer.
The visitors stopped in front of his cell and addressed him.

“It has been a while, Mr. Kazeoka.”

Only one of the summoned people would call him by that surname.
Yet the voice belonged neither to the surviving Sakuna nor to Toka, much less Miyako.
Wondering who else it could be, Saiji raised his head slightly and caught sight of them at the edge of his vision.
Sakuna, Toka, and … someone he did not know.
No—that face was familiar, and when he thought carefully, so was the voice.
But if she were the girl Saiji remembered, some condition should have kept her facial muscles constantly twitching. Her voice should have been hoarser. Above all, she should never have worn such a confident expression.
Then who was this? What was this person standing before him and looking down upon him? Continue reading →

32. You Are the Hero of the Story—Truly, the Viande

Author: Kiki
Raw: https://novel18.syosetu.com/n2498fn/34/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

“Uwaaaaaaagh!”

Saiji bolted upright and screamed the instant he awoke.

“Hah… hah… hah…”

His shoulders heaved with every ragged breath. Forgetting even to blink, he stared wildly around him.
This was—his room, and his body lay on the bed.
He had been certain he was dead.
He had felt the pain, and he had unmistakably felt his body growing cold.
Yet his arms and legs were attached.
So was his head, of course.

“Was it… a dream?”

It had been so real he wanted to call that idea ridiculous.
But since he was lying here in his own room, there seemed to be no other explanation.
If so, which parts had been real, and when had he fallen into the dream?
Saiji clutched his head.
He had no idea. He could not even begin to guess where reality ended and the dream began.
He wanted it all to have been an illusion.
But the moment Saiji formed that wish, he heard that sound from the wall behind him.

Scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch—

His entire body went rigid, gripped by tension as fierce as a hand closing around his heart.
He forgot not only to blink but even to breathe. He hunched forward with a hand pressed to his chest.
Tears threatened to spill from his eyes.
What in the world was this?
Who was doing it, and for what? Why did he have to be caught up in it?
Nothing came to mind.
Nothing at all. Saiji had never once thought of himself as a sinner.

Scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch—

The unnatural sound continued as though rebuking him.
It would go on until Saiji’s repentance was accepted.
Or until he went mad.

“Screw this… You piece of shit!”

Saiji flung the sheet aside, climbed out of bed, and strode from the room.
He was heading, of course, for the room that held the ihai.
If the cause of the sound was in there, he intended to beat it senseless and send it flying.
Even if his fists proved useless, Saiji could wield a little magic.
He would simply blast it away.
For some reason, the door was unlocked. Saiji opened it and stepped into a vast room that was, otherwise, nothing at all.

“…!”

He had assumed no one would be there.
Instead they stood stock-still, as if waiting for him.
Four men.
Their heads were bowed, and the room was dark, so he could not see their faces clearly. Judging by their appearance, however, they were probably soldiers who worked at the castle.

“Wel… come.”

The soldier on the far right spoke in a rasp and pointed in a particular direction.

“To the… ihai.”

The soldier beside him continued.

“Together… everyone… the whole time.” Continue reading →

31. A Migratory Fish Swimming Through Dreams—in Other Words, Poisson

Author: Kiki
Raw: https://novel18.syosetu.com/n2498fn/33/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

Late on the night the room had suddenly appeared next door, Saiji woke in the small hours.
He ought to have been exhausted, yet he could not get to sleep. The knowledge that the room lay just beyond the wall was probably to blame.

“What the hell is an ‘ihai,’ anyway…? And I never did make it to Ms. Mikage’s room.”

Saiji pressed a palm to his forehead and shook his head from side to side, trying to rouse his still-muddled mind.
Sakuna had been just as bad. She had gone out of her way to come to him for advice, only to leave hand in hand with Toka the moment the other girl appeared.
In the end, Sakuna must have had those inclinations all along and merely been confused because she had recognized her own feelings for the first time.

“… Girls together. Disgusting. God, what a turnoff.”

Once his eyes were fully open, he found it difficult to fall asleep a second time.
Saiji sat up, intending to drink some water and change his mood.

Scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch—

Then he heard a strange sound.
It was as though something were scraping at the wall.

“Maybe there’s a bug in here…”

Running a hand through his disheveled hair, Saiji poured water from the waiting thermos into a glass and drained it at once.
It was not especially hot, but sleep inevitably left a person dehydrated.
As he felt the water spread through his body, he exhaled. “Whew.”

Scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch…

All the while, the strange sound continued without pause.
It was quiet in itself, but its endless repetition soon became irritating.

“If that’s some mating call, go do it somewhere else. Damn it.”

As if taking out his mounting frustration, Saiji punched the wall in the direction of the sound.
At that moment, he realized something.
What lay beyond this wall—was that not the room with the ihai?

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Saiji’s expression stiffened.
The only word ihai brought to mind was a single Japanese one: a mortuary tablet.
Of course, this was another world, and there was no reason the same word should exist here. But once the association had occurred to him, he could not erase the image.
Sakuna had behaved as though the room had always been next door. An auditory hallucination would have been one thing, but there was no possible way he could be mistaken about that.
His room had unquestionably been the last one at the end of the hall.
There had never been another room beside it.
That being so, Saiji’s suspicion that neither the neighboring room nor the object called an ihai was anything normal was almost certainly correct.

Scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch—scratch… scratch, scratch—

The rhythm changed from time to time, and the sound went on as though a living person were carving at the wall.
Saiji swallowed, cold sweat beading on his brow as he glared at it.
Should he go?
No. It could still be nothing more than an insect. There was no need to force himself to learn the truth.
Fear outweighed everything else, enough to make him despise himself as a coward.
Or perhaps it would be more accurate to call the feeling a survival instinct.
Yes. That had to be it.
Repeating that to himself, he crawled back into bed.
He pulled the covers over his face, trying to shut out as much of the sound as possible.
The scratching continued until dawn, as though it were calling to Saiji.

◇◇◇ Continue reading →

30. Painting Over Inhumanity—in Other Words, Soup

Author: Kiki
Raw: https://novel18.syosetu.com/n2498fn/32/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

At a loss for how to spend his time, Saiji left the room at the far end of that floor and walked toward the barracks, intending to go to the dining hall.
Even outside mealtimes, one could at least get juice.
He could have ordered someone to bring the finest drinks to his room, but just then he wanted to be alone and take things slowly.

“Fuaaah…”

Saiji stretched his arms as far as they would go and yawned with his mouth wide open.
Perhaps because about two hours had passed since lunch, a pleasant drowsiness wrapped around him.
He might as well take a nap in the dining hall.
That plush bed in his own room somehow put him on edge, and the pillow was a little too high besides; it made it hard to breathe.
They were supposedly using the finest goods this world had to offer—and that, no doubt, was exactly why a commoner found them suffocating.

“‘Dilson’s Stew,’ huh… Come to think of it, the counter said something about that yesterday. What’s a Dilson, anyway? The name sounds kinda like a cow.”

The signboard in front of the dining hall listed another unfamiliar ingredient again today.
Yesterday’s meat had been good, so today’s would probably taste decent enough too.
Still, two days in a row at the dining hall was starting to feel stale; he might as well head over to the castle and get himself a lavish meal instead—he was thinking as much when he stepped inside and heard two familiar male voices.
He looked toward the speakers and found Taka and Oya there.
Saiji poured a yellow citrus juice from the neighboring pitcher into a waiting cup and carried it over to them.

“Yo. You guys bored too?”
“Oh, Saiji.”
“Nothing else to do… We were just killing time.”
“Then I’ll join you.”

So saying, Saiji sat down beside Taka.
As Oya had said, the conversation was idle—the sort of pointless talk typical of high-school boys, if one were being honest.
But even that kind of time now felt as distant as something he longed for.
No matter how much they could obtain, no matter that they had acquired so-called magic, they would never see their families again, and they would never follow the paths they had hoped for.
Whenever his thoughts turned negative, the fact would suddenly return to him, and a nameless sadness would well up.

“Hey… Think we’re ever gonna get to go home?”

Taka, who was usually so cheerful, spoke with a rare cloud over his face.

“… They’re not planning to send us back. At the very least, this country’s king is counting us as military assets.”
“They were gonna invade other countries or something, right?”

Taka frowned at Oya’s words.
Saiji thought:
Do whatever you want.
From the standpoint of someone who had been dragged into this and stripped of his future, it was utterly unreasonable.

“I just can’t picture it, y’know? Sure, they give us magic lessons now and then, but are we actually that strong?”
“If the king’s relying on us, then me, Taka, and Oya must all be outrageously powerful by this world’s standards.”
“… Talent worth dragging all the way from another world, huh.”

They simply did not yet know how to use it; they harbored a considerable amount of magical power.
In fact Chigusa, having become a half-vampire and absorbed that knowledge, had learned how to wield shadow magic and was already approaching a strength beyond that of any mage in the world.
Miyako and Leia, who had likewise ceased to be human, possessed power on a level with hers.
Of course, there was no way these three would know any of that—

“Well, whatever the circumstances, we’ll do what we want. We don’t owe anyone obedience.”
“Yeah. No matter where Saiji goes, all he does is chase women.”
“Even that’s gotten old. Ahh, isn’t there a decent woman lying around somewhere?”
“… So that’s where it ends up.”
“You never know. Someone out of the ordinary might suit you better. What about Chigusa?”
“She’s dead.” Continue reading →