The Knight of the Sinful God

by Gakuto Mikumo

  It was truly a natural disaster—a calamity, even.

  The overwhelming destruction was akin to carpet-bombing. The line of a mountain ridge was shaved off, with a rockslide down its stony surface as the terrain around them changed as they watched.

  Violent winds gouged the ground below, covering an area rivaling a single city. Were it not an uninhabited area deep in the mountains, casualties would surely have been in the tens of thousands.

  “Wh-what have you…?”

  Yukina’s face went pale as she stared at the Beast Vassal’s rampage. It had been a while since Kojou beheld the true might of a Beast Vassal of the Fourth Primogenitor with his own eyes; he, too, was at a loss for words.

  Had he unleashed such might in the skies over Itogami Island, the entire island would likely have been wiped out without a trace by that point. Good thing I’m not stupid enough to try, he thought, relieved to the bottom of his heart for that.

  There was no way the wyverns ought to have been able to fly amid such violent winds and raging air currents. Even if they could nullify direct demonic energy hits, that would be no help against a stirred-up atmosphere.

  Seeing for himself that Azama and the others had abandoned pursuit, Kojou released his Beast Vassal from its summons. However, once arisen, the tornadoes could not be affected by even Kojou’s will.

  For a while, Kojou stared in amazement as they gouged the faces of the mountains and caused landslides, one after another. The scolding gaze from Yukina stabbing the side of his face stung bitterly. And then—

  “Glenda…?”

  The dragon’s body, presumably outside the range of the violent winds, suddenly lurched.

  Perhaps it was the effect of her wounds. Perhaps her strength had simply been exhausted. Either way, Glenda had lost consciousness. The dragon’s flapping wings lost their strength and were no longer able to support her enormous body.

  Glenda was falling toward the earth, with Kojou and the others riding her along with it.

  “Kyaaaaaaaaaaa—!”

  Yuiri’s death-resigned scream echoed across the gray, wintry sky for quite some time.

  2

  She’d first heard the rumors about the Fourth Primogenitor a little before summer.

  She’d heard that the Fourth Primogenitor was immoral and immutable, without any blood kin whatsoever, with no aspirations to rule, served by twelve Beast Vassals that were calamity incarnate—a cruel, heartless vampire who drank human blood, slaughtered, and destroyed, existing beyond all doctrines of the world.

  If such a monster appeared in a nation of the world, would someone from the Lion King Agency not be dispatched to slay him? Thus, at High God Forest, a Lion King Agency training facility masquerading as a famous primary and secondary level all-girls school, such information spread in the blink of an eye, plunging the students into terror.

  That said, it was an irresponsible, baseless rumor. With the same force with which the rumor had suddenly spread, the topic died away, and it was not long before it was consigned to oblivion.

  It was during that time when Yuiri Haba heard about the Fourth Primogenitor from a most unexpected source: the lips of Koyomi Shizuka, one of the Three Saints of the Lion King Agency.

  From her, Yuiri learned that the Fourth Primogenitor was actually a high school student living on Itogami Island. Furthermore, because Yuiri was the same age, she had been nominated as a candidate for the Sword Shaman to be dispatched to watch him.

  Those facts both surprised and scared her.

  On the one hand, she felt a faint pang of hope.

  If she was sent to watch over the Fourth Primogenitor, a boy, she might develop a romantic relationship with him—such was her sugary hope. Of her peers at the dormitory, no one beyond Shio Hikawa knew this, but Yuiri was an avid reader of romance manga catering to teenage girls.

  But in the end, it was not Yuiri who had been selected to be the watcher of the Fourth Primogenitor.

  The reasons were extremely simple. One was that Yuiri could not skillfully employ a Schneewaltzer.

  The Demon-Purging Assault Spear Type Seven, secret weapon of the Lion King Agency, could not be tuned to fit its user. Thanks to that, it was compatibility with the weapon, not the skill or abilities of the user, that determined whether someone would be able to master it. In point of fact, even Koyomi Shizuka apparently could not completely draw out a Schneewaltzer’s true abilities.

  The other reason Yuiri had not been selected was because Yuiri had not been an orphan.

  Rare among the girls living at High God Forest, Yuiri still had living family. Both parents were office workers at the Lion King Agency, and she had a younger brother close to her in age.

  Of course, Yuiri had no intention of becoming a Sword Shaman just to be the apple of her parents’ eyes, but it was believed that Yuiri was spared being sent on highly dangerous missions, like being the watcher of the Fourth Primogenitor, out of consideration for her family.

  Hence, even in the present, Yuiri felt indebted to Yukina.

  If she’d only been able to use a Schneewaltzer a little better…and if only Yukina had family, like Yuiri did—

  Then perhaps it would have been Yuiri who would have been assigned the dangerous mission of being the Fourth Primogenitor’s watcher.

  “Oh, you came to, er… Miss Yuiri?”

  The lazy flickering of a firewood stove illuminated the room as that very Fourth Primogenitor called out to her.

  Though the face of the boy was a far cry from the handsome image of a vampire primogenitor she’d drawn in her own mind, he was not without his charms. He was sitting with his legs spread on the floor of an unfamiliar building that was apparently some kind of log cabin.

  “Kojou? Where is this? Where’s Glenda…?!”

  Yuiri slowly sat up as ambiguous memories trickled in. Immediately, she felt a dull pain running through her left arm. It was the wound from when the knight on the wyvern had attacked. Thanks to Glenda shielding her, the wound was not severe, but using her left hand to swing her sword seemed impractical for the time being.

  Beyond that, she recalled being grabbed by the dragon Glenda’s claw and hurtling toward the ground. Then, Yuiri’s vision had been covered in silver mist right before hitting the ground.

  To be precise, she’d been struck by the strange feeling that she herself had transformed into vapor. She also felt like she saw some kind of enormous shelled beast in the middle of the incredibly thick mist. Perhaps that had been one of the Fourth Primogenitor’s Beast Vassals.

  Numerous vampires possessed the special ability to transform their own flesh into mist and move in that form, but she’d never heard of any phenomenon that turned not only the self into mist, but everyone and everything around him. This time, she’d somehow managed to regain her old form, but a shudder went through her at the thought of him losing control of his Beast Vassal.

  That said, Yuiri and Glenda had been saved by Kojou again.

  First, I have to thank him, thought Yuiri, but when she opened her mouth, a conflicted expression came over Kojou when he realized something, turning his face away.

  “Um… Sorry. It’d be a big help if you could…cover up,” Kojou mumbled, never permitting his eyes to meet hers.

  “K…kyaaaaaaaaa!”

  That instant, Yuiri shrieked when she realized she was not wearing her school uniform. Fortunately, she was still wearing her underwear, but that was no comfort to her whatsoever. It was her first experience exposing her flesh so blatantly in front of a boy. She’d never even let her younger brother see her like this.

  “—Senpai, what did you do to Yuiri?!”

  Yukina, hearing Yuiri’s shriek, raced over from the middle of the log cabin with a rapid patter of steps and glared at Kojou.

  Seeing Yuiri in just her underwear, Yukina sighed deeply, grasping the gist of the situation as she said, “Truly, I cannot turn my back on you for one second…”

  “Hey, don’t pin this on me!”

>   Kojou put a palm to his cheek as he rebutted, sulking. Actually, it’s not his fault, Yuiri thought, but all that came to her lips was a frail smile.

  Yukina looked at the bandage wrapped around Yuiri’s left arm, inquiring in apparent concern, “Can you move, Yuiri? I applied first aid, but…”

  Apparently, she’d been the one to strip Yuiri’s uniform off.

  “Thank you, Yukii. The wound’s fine. More importantly, where is this…?”

  “I believe it is a mountain cabin meant to receive mountain climbers. It appears to have been empty due to the Self-Defense Forces sealing the area.”

  “That so…”

  Yuiri, seeing that Glenda was sleeping next to her safe and sound, exhaled in relief.

  So Kojou and Yukina just happened to have located a cabin near the point of their crash and were able to carry Yuiri and Glenda to it. Judging from the brightness outside, Yuiri had probably been unconscious for two to three hours.

  “A little bit longer, and Asagi…a friend of ours, will be coming to pick us up. Glenda can’t move yet, either, so it’s probably best we hide out here for the time being. It’ll be nighttime soon, too.”

  “Mm, I suppose so.”

  After Yukina handed Yuiri her uniform, she turned her back to Kojou, dressing as she concurred with his opinion.

  The gray-haired girl under the same blanket as Yuiri stirred, glomming on to Yuiri like a kitten doting on its mother.

  “Hyuiri… Hyuiri…”

  “Glenda, are your injuries all right?”

  “Dah.”

  When Glenda, perhaps not fully awake, addressed her with mysterious-sounding words, Yuiri stroked her hair. Becoming a dragon had sent Glenda’s clothes bursting apart once more, this time wrecking the ones that the Oceanus Girls had provided her. At the moment, the only thing she was wearing was the parka Kojou Akatsuki had been wearing until a short while before.

  Dressed in the baggy clothing, Glenda had no dramatic wounds on her body; seeing this for herself, Yuiri patted her chest in relief.

  “So…what is she anyway? Why’s Azama after her?” Kojou asked.

  “I have no idea, either.” Yuiri weakly shook her head.

  “Figures,” Kojou said, dejection visible in his eyes. After all, without knowing the reason Azama was after her, his next move couldn’t be predicted, and there were limits to how much they could protect Glenda.

  In case it might help, Yuiri did explain all the circumstances before and after meeting Glenda to both of them, but the expressions on both Kojou’s and Yukina’s faces were conflicted. If Yuiri couldn’t understand what was going on, and she was actually there, the two of them had little hope of understanding it, either.

  When she’d finished providing them with all the information she knew, a brief silence descended.

  It was a low, bestial rrrn that broke the awkward silence.

  This was the sound of Yuiri’s stomach, able to endure hunger no longer.

  When Yuiri thought back, she hadn’t had a single bite to eat since that morning. Glenda had robbed her of all her emergency ration biscuits. On top of that, she noticed that a nice scent was beginning to waft inside the mountain cabin. Something was boiling in the pot on top of the woodstove.

  “There was food for emergencies left in the kitchen, so I thought I would try heating it…”

  Yukina spoke in a reserved tone as she served the meal.

  It was vegetable soup with a plethora of ingredients and a variety of sweets, like cookies and candy bars, on the side. For someone nearly collapsing from hunger, it was truly a sight to behold. When she glanced over, Glenda, still half-awake, immediately began munching on the biscuits.

  “Thanks, Yukii. It kinda feels like I’m making you do all the work.”

  “Not at all, Yuiri. You’ve been taking good care of Sayaka and me for ages. I’m glad I could do something to return the favor.”

  “Ah-ha-ha. That’s because Kirasaka and Shio got into a lot of arguments…”

  Yuiri laughed with nostalgia as she brought soup to her lips. Shio Hikawa and Sayaka Kirasaka were both headstrong girls as well as Shamanic War Dancer candidates of the same grade, leading them to compete on every front. It was usually Yuiri, in the same class, or Yukina who ended up having to deal with the consequences.

  “I see… Yuiri, you’ve known Himeragi since you were little kids, huh?” Kojou asked, mystified.

  Yukina had difficulty speaking about her past. A slight blush came over her as she hung her head a little and said, “I suppose so. Although, we were not in the same grade and had few chances to speak directly with each other…”

  “Come to think of it, no one talked to Yukii all that much. She was kind of unapproachable; she was levelheaded since she was really little; and she was a little scary during mock combat, you see…”

  With her beautiful junior right before her eyes, Yuiri stared as she earnestly rambled. Hearing this, Yukina blinked her eyes in apparent surprise.

  “U…unapproachable? Scary?”

  “Yeah. You never smiled even when you won, and you were always blunt when talking to people. I really got bent out of shape when my awesome jokes just sailed over your head.”

  “Th-that is because I was tense before the competition…”

  Yukina weakly defended herself. But the adorable look on her face had apparently pricked Yuiri’s funny bone, for she continued smiling, even letting a giggle slip out.

  “You were really serious and straitlaced, and your grades were top tier, too. So you were, well, hard to socialize with.”

  “You really thought of me like that…?”

  Yuiri reflected a little when she observed Yukina’s genuine shock. She couldn’t help but find it somewhat humorous that even on their reunion after a fairly long interval, her earnestness had not changed a bit.

  “Ah, but I don’t mean people hated you at all. A lot of the younger girls really looked up to you. That’s why, when I heard that Yukii was the one given the Schneewaltzer and made the watcher for the Fourth Primogenitor, I was like I knew it’d be her.”

  When Kojou heard Yuiri’s follow-up to a flustered Yukina, his mouth opened as if he had come to realize something.

  “I see… Yuiri’s a Sword Shaman, too, so it could’ve been her living right next door instead of Himeragi?”

  “Eh? Yukii, you live right next to Kojou?”

  Yuiri gawked at Yukina in surprise. Her junior raised an eyebrow.

  “Yes. It is part of the mission.”

  “Ohh… A-all right.”

  Naturally, half the reason Yuiri was knocked off-balance was from how Kojou had spoken of it like it was nothing. After all, it was an iron rule of the romance novels Yuiri dotingly read: When classmates lived next door to one another, romance followed.

  Yuiri could hardly remain calm at the thought that it might have been herself living next door to Kojou.

  She was indulging herself in such fantasies when Kojou posed his next question to Yukina.

  “So what was Yuiri like back in the day?”

  “Eh?!”

  Yuiri felt distinct unease when she suddenly became the topic of discussion, all the more because it was just after Yuiri had babbled all about Yukina.

  Then, thinking she should honestly reply to Kojou’s question, Yuiri’s overly serious junior opened her mouth and said, “Let’s see. The first time I remember meeting her, it was nighttime right after a field exercise—”

  “Yukii, please, anything but that!”

  The sight of Yuiri desperately bowing her head made Kojou and Glenda raise their voices in laughter.

  A benefit of the entirely trivial conversation was that Yuiri could feel her depleted willpower gradually recover. Her sense of tension and wariness toward Kojou Akatsuki, the Fourth Primogenitor, was vanishing as well.

  However, at the same time, she felt a single doubt within her.

  When she thought about it rationally, Kojou had no duty to save Yuiri or Glenda. He�
��d come to that land to protect his little sister; he had no reason to fight Azama.

  Why, then, had he gone so far to protect Yuiri and Glenda?

  The one thing she did understand was this: It was no doubt because Kojou had that kind of personality that Yukina—this very earnest girl next to him—trusted him, enough that Yuiri wondered if Yukina trusted him a little too much…

  “Senpai, your manners are poor.”

  She glared at him and voiced her complaint when he audibly slurped his soup. However, Kojou shrugged his shoulders, failing to concede the point.

  “I can’t move my right hand, so I don’t have much of a choice.”

  “Goodness. Give me that… Here you go.”

  Having had enough, Yukina stole the dish from Kojou’s hand and brought the soup to his lips with a spoon. It was the sort of pose where you’d expect someone to go Say aah. Kojou merely went “Mm” as brief thanks, sipping the soup from Yukina’s spoon as if it was no big deal.

  Then, when he took a bite from a cereal bar between sips, he said, “Hey, this is pretty tasty.”

  “Is that so? Somehow, it looks rather odd…”

  “Yeah, that’s what surprised me. I think you’ll like the taste, too, Himeragi. Here.”

  Kojou tendered the partially eaten cereal bar in front of Yukina as he spoke. Without hesitation, Yukina leaned forward and nibbled at the tip like a little bird.

  “It really is tasty…”

  “Told ya.”

  Kojou nodded as he glanced around the surrounding area. Yukina, watching him, picked up a PET bottle at Kojou’s feet and said, “Water? Here you go.”

  “Ah, thanks.”

  With a very natural-looking demeanor, Yukina opened the lid of the bottle, and Kojou accepted it from her without the slightest hint of suspicion. The reason Kojou did not move away from the chilly windowsill was apparently because he was letting Yukina sit in front of the woodstove, the most comfortable place in the cabin.

  For a while, Yuiri gazed at the frighteningly natural interaction between the pair with a neutral expression. Eventually, she was seized by the abrupt impulse to exclaim, “Are you two husband and wife?!”