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.

◇◇◇

 

When the conversation with Chigusa was over and her throat was wet, Miyako left the dining hall.
She had walked a little way toward the training ground when—

“Miyako!”

Ashera’s voice called her from along the path.
The moment Ashera reached her, she threw her arms around Miyako from behind and held on hard.

“Miyako, why weren’t you in your room? I got scared you’d forgotten our promise!”

Apparently it had been a mistake, at last night’s parting, to say, “Let’s meet at the training ground first thing in the morning.”

“Sorry, sorry. I just went to grab a drink.”
“I should’ve stayed in your room, like you said.”
“You’re the one who refused, Ashera. You said it was too soon.”
“Well, yeah, but …”

Ashera pushed out her lower lip and rubbed her forehead against Miyako’s shoulder.
The gesture was so unlike her usual self that Miyako smiled and patted her head.

A person first bares their true nature when they find someone they can cling to.
Charm, Miyako had come to think, was the complete release of a person’s heart.
In the same way, she thought, drinking blood was what set a soul free from the cage called being human.

She had learned last night that Ashera had lost her parents when she was small.
Left alone, she had acquired strength in order to live by herself.
And strength had rewarded her.
A personality is formed by the experiences one piles up. A woman who had lived only on the returns of battle came to want only that, and to wish for only that, and became a battle maniac.
And yet—in the depths of Ashera’s memory, the time when her parents had still doted on her remained.
She had only clung to strength to fill the place of the love she had not received.
So when her heart was laid bare and someone took hold of that place, the bluster collapsed with ease.

“Then as planned, combat training first.”

A woman who did not know love knew no other way to love.
For Ashera, striking one’s power against another’s was the fullest possible declaration of affection.

“And when that’s done … you can do what you want with my body, Miyako.”

The proposal was such an adorable piece of give-and-take that Miyako wanted, fiercely, to hold her.
If she got heated before the training was even finished, though, she risked spoiling Ashera’s mood.

“All right. Then today I’ll be a lot rougher with you than yesterday.”

So she contented herself with words.
Even that was enough to send Ashera’s face scarlet as she looked down.

 

◇◇◇

 

“Hey, David. What do you make of that?”

Narkil spoke while watching, from a distance, Miyako and Ashera vanish toward the training ground with their arms affectionately linked.
David’s huge frame stood beside him, which only made Narkil’s own thinness stand out more.

“… Looks tasty.”
“That is not the reaction I was looking for.”
“What, you were asking about Ashera? Then I’ll be frank: my impression is ‘disappointed.’ I thought she was my kind—interested in nothing but her own strength.”

To think she would drown in lust.
And with a woman, at that. David’s disappointment was understandable.

“I wouldn’t go as far as disappointed, but it is a surprise. By the way—when you said ‘tasty’ just now, did you mean the woman walking with her?”
“Obviously. I hear she’s been going head-to-head with Ashera. You’d have to be a fool not to take meat and blood of that caliber.”
“It’s always that with you.”
“Eating is one of the three great human wants. Is there a problem?”
“Not usually. In your case, though, the appetite itself is the abnormality.”
“Narkil, you like ‘self-improvement,’ don’t you? Mine’s part of the same thing. The way you watch what you eat for the sake of beauty, or take a pretty woman when you see one.”

David rubbed his belly as he spoke.

“—I want the flesh of strong people so I can get stronger.”

He imagined the taste of Miyako’s meat, the spring of it mixed with the rich scent of her blood—and wiped at saliva that threatened to spill.
Seeing that, Narkil murmured toward the unsuspecting Miyako, “My condolences.”

 

◇◇◇

 

When the bout was over, Miyako left the training ground a step ahead.
Ashera had weapons to tend and had asked her to go on to the shower room first.
Miyako had actually been thinking of ways to raise the mood along the way, but she headed there alone, reluctantly.
She left the training ground, walked the corridor, and was passing through an unpeopled, dim stretch when—suddenly she felt an unquiet presence above her head.

“Graaaaaah!”

With a beastlike roar, David, who had been clinging to the ceiling, dropped.
—Ugh, disgusting!
Her body moved on reflex, before the words could leave her mouth.
She dove forward as if falling, and slipped aside.
The moment he landed, David reached to follow up; Miyako kicked the arm away.
The kick must have been stronger than he expected. He looked at his tingling arm and laughed with pleasure.

“Where’s all that power coming from in a skinny body like that? You’re interesting.”
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“I’m going to eat you. You’re with the army—you know about me, don’t you?”

Miyako did not, in fact, have a grasp of every knight’s proclivities.
She understood clearly, though, that the desire David turned on her was not lust.
This was a different kind of grotesquerie.
If she had to name it: a predator taking the measure of its prey—

“I knew it. No mistake. Your meat would definitely be good. It’d be a waste to just dote on it instead of eating it, Ashera!”

David lunged for her again.
If he caught her, he would tear her apart alive.
Miyako felt no particular fear.
He was repulsive enough to raise gooseflesh, but he was probably looking only at her physical strength.
That was why he had chosen her as prey, figuring he could win even barehanded.
Would it really go so well for him, though.
This was an unpeopled place, and besides—it was dim.

When Miyako reached out, black hands slid from the walls on every side in answer—above, below, left, and right.
First the hands to either side bound David’s arms.

“What!?”

The man was stunned.
He still seemed to think he could shake them off; he began to struggle.
As if sneering at how useless that was, a hand from below seized his legs.

“What is this … magic!? Damn it—there’s nothing this body of mine can’t throw off …!”

Chigusa had said the knights were stronger than expected, but that had probably only been a matter of a bad matchup.
Saints was a user of light magic; his affinity with shadows was the worst possible.
Even so, the gap in power had been enough for Chigusa to kill him almost unmarked.
There was no reason a mere lump of muscle like David, who could not handle light at all, should be able to beat Miyako.

The last hand, stretching from above, seized his head in its claws.
And then—it spun him a full three hundred and sixty degrees.
Gogiik!
A dull sound rang through the quiet corridor.
Strength went slack through David’s body, and the crotch of his trousers began to wet.

“Ugh, filthy.”

Even a shadow did not want to touch that.
When Miyako drew her hand back, David’s corpse thudded to the floor.
The sudden assault had startled her, but now she could relax.
… Or so she thought.
The whole of the fight had had a witness.
Ashera, who had bolted from the training ground thinking, I still want to be with Miyako, even a little.
On the far side of the corridor she stood frozen, looking from the fallen David to Miyako and back.

“This is bad. Did she see …?”

Miyako had not yet told her that she was no longer human.
The charm was not complete. She would have preferred not to show her true nature until Ashera was thoroughly captive—but.
Ashera came toward her slowly.
Miyako looked aside, awkward, but of course neither time nor Ashera’s feet would stop.

“Hey, Miyako.”

Ashera spoke, crouched, and took Miyako’s shoulders.
It was over. In that case she would restrain Ashera with shadows—Miyako was about to take a hard line when the words Ashera delivered were nothing she had expected.

“Amazing. That power just now was amazing! For that David to die that easy! What was it? Magic? Or some other trick?”
“… Huh?”
“The hell. If you had power like that you should’ve said so sooner! Meaning you’ve been holding back the whole time we’ve been fighting, right?”

She showed not the slightest interest in David’s death. She fastened only on Miyako’s power.
Like David, Ashera had probably never been interested in anything but his strength.
So the moment a stronger Miyako appeared, her curiosity had simply moved.

“I thought you were awfully strong for how skinny you are. Don’t tell me you’re not human, Miyako?”
“Well … they say I’m a Demi-Vamp.”
“A vampire! Right—I heard the knight captain took one down, but I guess it was still alive. If it’s sneaking around the castle, it’s trying to make more of itself, yeah?”
“Yeah. I was going to do that to you too, Ashera.”
“Then this is simple! If I can get the same power as you, hurry up and drink my blood, will you?”

Besides, Ashera was the sort of person who would transplant a monster’s arm onto her own back; she chose no means when it came to gaining strength.
Once Miyako’s power had been shown to her, and she knew Miyako could change humans into the same kind, of course she would want that.
The flow had gone somewhere other than the development Miyako had imagined, and she was bewildered—but if she could bring Ashera in as a companion, Ashera’s role would be fulfilled.
If it could be finished easily, so much the better.

“Um … the truth is, your body isn’t ready to become a vampire yet.”
“That so? Then finish it quick. What do I do?”
“If our bodies touch, my magic pours into you and the preparations go forward, but …”
“Then like this?”

Ashera clung to her.
Well, this was not bad in its own way.
I cannot do it as well as Chigusa, Miyako thought, mocking herself, as she put her arms around Ashera’s back.

“Nn—ah!”

The instant Miyako’s fingertips touched somewhere about Ashera’s waist, Ashera made a sound.
The inflow of magic seemed to have stopped as well.

“Miyako. Did you just do something to me?”
“Ahaha, no—probably, but … can I see your back a second?”
“Like this?”

Ashera turned and pulled up her clothes.
Just above the hips, the Mark had risen.
Apparently that hug had completed the charm.
Miyako had thought it slow to appear, even after a night together; she had not realized they had been that close to the edge.
From start to finish, though, it was an anticlimax.

“Hey, Miyako. What’s with my back?”
“There’s a Mark here. It means you’re ready to stop being human.”
“Which means … I can get the power any time!”

She was bouncing like a child, thoroughly delighted.
She was cute; well, fine. Miyako decided to leave it at that, and opened her arms toward Ashera.
Ashera fitted herself into them and clung again.
Ashera’s throat came just before Miyako’s eyes.
“Hurry, hurry,” Ashera urged, so Miyako bit down at once.

“Haaahn—!”

When the fangs sank in, a numbness like running lightning arched Ashera’s body.

“Ah, aah … so this is … drinking blood … it’s … amazing … oh—”

There should have been pain at first, but a woman used to the battlefield put on a look of rapture from the start.
Her half-open mouth caught on small sounds.
She usually spoke in a rough voice; at times like this, of course, it was a woman’s.
Wanting her to feel it more fiercely, Miyako drove the fangs deeper.

“Hyaaah—! Ah, aha, n, o … ah, Miyako’s, Miyako’s, coming … in—!”

She seemed to be growing used to the sensation; the stiffness left her body.
The pleasure of the drinking did not weaken for that.
Ashera gripped Miyako’s clothes hard with shaking hands, as if enduring something.

“Aah … I love you, Miyako, I love you! I’ll, I’ll become yours … so more, more, nnaaah—!”

I love you too, I love you, Miyako repeated in her head, and drew the blood up further.

To be able to love someone this much was wonderful.
It had been impossible as a human.
She had not even managed it with Chii-chan alone; loving anyone else had been out of the question.
And yet now—now that she had stopped being human—she had been able to love Ellis, and Nunnally, and Leia, and Lina, and Sakuna, and Toka, this much.
And like this, she and Ashera, whom she had known only a few days, could love each other.

For Miyako, that was already something she might as well call pride.
Pride in being other than human—in being a Demi-Vamp.
That pride mixed with the instinct that said I want more companions, became a strong impulse, and, through the blood, stole Ashera’s humanity away.

“Hah … agh, uu … nnhi, hyafu … it, fee … ls … Miya, ko … hap, py … he, eh …”

Ashera’s voice broke off, and her body went slack.
Her coloring had changed; she was no longer the knotted, muscular thing she had been.
She had taken on a rounder, more womanly shape overall, attractive enough that even Miyako, who was a woman herself, felt a jolt.
Miyako laid the transformed body on the floor, straddled her, and set a hand to a cold cheek.
A little longer and the reborn Ashera would open her eyes.
Miyako could not wait.
A body that looked that delicious was lying there in front of her, looking as if it wanted something. To do nothing would have been a joke.

She kissed Ashera’s mouth again and again, tasting, licking, wetting it.
Soon licking was not enough; she sealed their lips and slid her tongue inside.
In the passage from human to Demi-Vamp—which is to say, in a state close to a corpse—Ashera’s mouth was cold, but moisture still remained.
Miyako slicked it further with her own, licked the unmoving tongue, and drew on it.
She was lost in the kiss when Ashera’s eyes snapped open.
The irises were red. She was no longer human.
Even so, waking to find her mouth taken at once apparently startled her—

“Fugo, ngh!?”

At first she was bewildered, blank, letting it happen; then she understood that Miyako could not hold back, and was devouring her. She narrowed her eyes, put her arms around Miyako’s back, and twined her tongue as well.
Beside them, of course, David’s freshly dead corpse still lay—but they had drowned in the kiss and in the affection they turned on each other, and his existence no longer remained even in a corner of their minds.
Wet sounds, rough breath, and broken voices carried down the corridor.
They did not stop until Chigusa, passing by chance, told them to.