“If you’re looking for the vampire, I can track her by her aura.”
“Really?!” I yelled in surprise.
“Affirmative. Granted, the only vampire I can do this for is Rosalind.”
“That’s more than enough!”
“She’s been tracking Rosalind for years. Of course she’d have a way to find her.” Hibiki sighed again.
“Then next, we need to find a way to save your friends,” Chelsea said.
“Silver Slayer’s attacks are effective against her, right?”
“The vampire is immune to the sun, running water, crosses, and garlic, but silver is her one weakness.”
As she spoke, Silver Slayer raised a hand... then turned her fingers into knives.
“If a vampire is injured by silver, it strikes at their life force, not just their physical body. I am made of alchemical silver formed around a philosopher’s stone core. I can change my shape at will. That is where my name, Silver Slayer the Vampire Killer, comes from.”
So her whole body was an anti-vampire weapon, huh? I guess her master really did make her only with killing Rosalind in mind...
She was made for that reason. She fought for that reason. If she actually defeated Rosalind, would that really make her happy?
“If silver is an effective weapon, I’d like to have some of our own to protect ourselves.”
“Then I will use part of my body to make weapons for you.”
“Thanks. I’d like a knife. What about you, Chelsea?”
“I’d like a knife too. Not that I’ve ever used one for anything other than fileting fish while camping...”
“I see. What about you, Rekka?”
“I’m not really good with weapons and stuff... I’d just like something I can use to help everyone.”
And so began our preparations to take back Lea and the other girls.
▽
The vampire lair that Silver Slayer led us to was a surprisingly familiar place, but it was very different from the last time I saw it. It was the hill with the abandoned factory where Satsuki had met me on the first day of school. However...
“What’s with this huge mansion?” I asked, baffled.
“This is your hometown, right? You don’t know it?” Hibiki asked somewhat skeptically.
Hell no. A month ago, there was just some rundown factory here. I mean, sure, it did get blown up a little, but there was certainly never a gigantic mansion here.
“It’s probably that ‘vampire’ thing’s doing, right?”
Chelsea looked up at the giant building. “Wow,” she whispered to herself, “what a mansion.”
“Well, the building itself seems normal enough. I guess it doesn’t matter who made it.”
“That’s right. Let’s just forget about that part. That’s not what’s important here.”
Hibiki and I nodded to each other, ready to get down to business.
“Silver Slayer, Rosalind’s inside, right?”
“Affirmative.”
“All right, then let’s go...”
We opened the door to the oversized house and went inside. It was dark. Even though it was nighttime, the only source of light was coming from the candles on the walls.
“Well, this place sure has atmosphere going for it...” I whispered to no one in particular.
The four of us proceeded deeper into the mansion, staying together as much as possible. There was a short hallway past the front door which lead to another door. Only after opening that second door were you finally in the front hall. Two long hallways split off from there, each with seemingly countless doors. And in the center of the hall right in front of us was a huge staircase that ten people could easily go up and down at once.
“Which way do we go?” Hibiki asked.
“I propose we go to the second floor,” Silver Slayer said.
“Why?”
“The vampire likes high places.”
Come to think of it, she did always insist on eating lunch on the roof at school.
In the end, Silver Slayer knew Rosalind better than any of us, so we decided to go with her plan. We headed straight for the staircase leading up. But...
“Above us!” Hibiki suddenly cried out.
Just after she screamed, someone jumped down from the second floor to block our path and attack us. My eyes went wide when I saw who it was.
“Iris!”
“......”
She didn’t answer me. It looked like she was under the same charm spell Lea was. And then Lea herself appeared on the landing.
“Lea!”
“I will stop you.”
She too ignored me, glaring as she descended the stairs. I could feel the animosity radiating from her. But it wasn’t my chief concern in that exact moment.
“Why are the two of them in maid uniforms?!”
“The vampire likes them.”
She likes maid uniforms? I mean, I guess that’s what servants wear, but to a normal Japanese person like me, it just looked like cosplay.
“Wait, now’s not the time to be worried about that!”
Regardless of how they looked, this was a bad situation. The two of them were standing in front of the stairs now, preventing us from going forward. I didn’t want to hurt them, but beating them seemed like the only way we would get upstairs.
“Yah!”
Iris leaped toward us with terrifying speed. The attack was so violent that when she landed, her jump kick smashed through the floor. I managed to dodge it at the last second, but a piece of the splintered wood flew up and embedded itself in my cheek.
“The floor’s made of wood, but there’s just bare earth below it! What’s going on here?!” Hibiki yelled. She’d only managed to dodge at the last moment too.
“Don’t ask me!” I yelled back.
It’s not my fault Fineritans are so strong!
“I defer to Sir Namidare for instructions. I believe that I could neutralize them both by force,” Silver Slayer ran up to my side and whispered in my ear.
I was a little surprised. Eliminating Rosalind was her top priority, and I was pretty sure she’d get rid of any obstacles in her way without a second thought.
“The structure of my body means that it’s impossible for a vampire to defeat me, but over the last two hundred years, I’ve failed to defeat her even once. Thus, I have placed my hopes in you, the descendant of the Namidare who sealed her away. I cannot jeopardize my alliance with you here.”
So that was it, huh? It made sense, but that put me under a ton of pressure.
“Then just do your best not to hurt them. But if you have to protect yourself, then you have to protect yourself.”
“Understood.”
She nodded, then transformed her hair into a lasso like cowboys used to wrangle horses. Evidently she intended to capture them without hurting them. But even if Iris wasn’t a professional fighter, she was still as quick as a cat. Even Silver Slayer would have trouble catching her.
“Rekka! Move!” Hibiki suddenly shouted.
“Hm? Dwaah!”
When I heard her yell, I twisted my body just in time to avoid something passing by me at an incredible speed. Was it a bullet? Of water? That’s right, Lea’s magic!
“Chelsea, you can use magic too, right? Can’t you cast some sort of defense spell or something?!”
“Sorry for being a failure of a mage!”
A good distance away from me, Hibiki and Chelsea were arguing as they dodged the rain of water bullets.
“......”
Lea was standing in front of the staircase, silently firing one round after another. She was aiming mostly at Silver Slayer, who was trying to catch Iris, while keeping an eye on Hibiki and Chelsea. I was the least useful in combat, so I was largely being ignored. But since there was no place to hide in the big, open hallway, there was no way I could catch her off guard.
Damn it! Wasn’t there something I could do? ...Think! What were we really dealing with here?
&n
bsp; Our biggest problem right now was Lea and Iris. They were being controlled by Rosalind’s charm. So... how were we supposed to break it? Lea told me that it was possible if a person’s mind was strong enough. And in fact, I’d been able to do it myself.
Back then I’d... That’s right! At the time, I wasn’t just worried about myself. I was really upset and was thinking about Harissa and the others. That’s how I’d managed to shake off the spell. Did that mean the key was strong emotions?
As I was thinking about how to replicate that, I felt a sudden force like something running into me and I was knocked to the ground.
“Grrrowl!”
A wolf?! No, two of them.
Had they been hiding outside the light of the candles? The wolves bit into my clothes and started to drag me towards the staircase. Lea ignored the wolves as I was carried upstairs. I tried to escape, but I was being dragged by my arms, which made it hard to get a grip on the ground or anything else to stop them.
“Rekka!”
Hibiki and the others shouted after me, but Iris and Lea blocked their path to keep them from following.
“Yeowch! Oww! Hey! Oww!”
The stairs! Were banging! Into my head! At a really! Bad! Angle!
SLAM!
Uh-oh...
▽
When I woke up, I was lying on a bed.
“Ugh... That left a bump.”
I touched the back of my head and immediately felt a sharp pain. I’d hit my head and passed out... but it didn’t feel like much time had passed.
“Where am I?”
I assumed I was still somewhere in the mansion, but where?
“Grrrowl...”
“Uwah!”
Th-That scared me...
There was a wolf snarling in front of the door that seemed like the room’s entrance. It was probably watching to make sure I didn’t escape. I fearfully stood up from the bed, but the wolf by the door didn’t move.
There was another door in the room, but it didn’t look like it led to the hallway. Of the two doors, it made sense that the wolf would be guarding the way out.
Hmm... What should I do? I ran my hand over the inner pocket of my jacket to make sure its contents were safe.
Good. It wasn’t broken.
I thought it might’ve shattered when I was dragged up the stairs, but it had managed to survive since I was dragged on my back. If I used it now, I could probably at least blind the wolf. I would be able to get out of the room, but could I get to the other girls? No. Rosalind could summon at least two wolves. Even if I got past this one, there was a good chance the other would catch me and drag me back.
And where was Rosalind, anyway? I couldn’t do much until I had some idea of what she was up to.
Just as I was thinking I should wait it out a little longer and see how things went, I noticed a photo stand on top of a chest of drawers.
I stood up and walked over to it. The wolf didn’t attack me. It looked like it was just keeping watch to make sure I didn’t leave the room.
I reached the chest and picked up the picture. It was an old sepia photograph that looked like it might fall apart if you touched it the wrong way. It was even ripped down the middle. Because of that, I couldn’t see the face of the boy in the center. But I could, however, make out the face of the girl next to him. It was Rosalind, wearing the same dress.
“She’s smiling...”
It was the happy, shy smile I’d seen several times at school and even earlier this afternoon. She was smiling like a normal girl.
“This was taken in Japan, wasn’t it?”
I took a hint from the store sign in the background that was written in Japanese.
“When did photography like this first come to Japan again?”
Satsuki would be the best person to ask about that. Too bad I still didn’t know where in the building she was.
“Satsuki... Uwah!”
Suddenly Satsuki was standing next to me, also wearing a maid uniform.
“Um...”
Maid Satsuki, or really any kind of cosplaying Satsuki, was incredibly rare... I didn’t even know what to say. Wait, no! This was not the time to be thinking about how Satsuki looked in her maid outfit!
“Cute, isn’t she? There’s a big difference between this and how she usually looks. I like it,” R volunteered without being asked.
I already said this wasn’t the time! Drop it, will you?!
“......”
But Satsuki didn’t have any reaction to me. In fact, she ignored me and walked to the back of the room. For some reason, she was holding a bath towel.
“H-Hey, Satsuki!”
Without thinking, I went to follow her. Before I could catch up, I heard the door in the back of the room open, and a fully naked Rosalind emerged.
“Nghwaaah?!”
“Oh, you’re already awake? Wait, what are you doing?”
“What are YOU doing?” I quickly turned away.
“I was taking a shower.”
That would explain why her blond hair was slick and glistening as it stuck to her chest... Wait, I’d only seen her for a second. How did I remember the sight so clearly?
“What am I thinking? She’s just a kid!”
“Who are you calling a kid?!”
She kicked me in the behind and sent me flying back onto the bed, but my heart was still pounding.
She’s a kid. A kid! She may actually be five hundred years old, but she still looks like a kid. I kept repeating that to myself until Satsuki was done wiping down Rosalind’s body and dressing her.
Back on topic...
“Whew...”
Rosalind, who was now wearing an outfit with a very vampire-esque cape, sat down in an easy chair. Satsuki silently stood behind her. The wolf at the door walked over to its master and melded back into her arm. Rosalind was glaring at me. Maybe she was still mad about earlier.
“Don’t you have something to say to me?” she asked.
“Oh, yeah. Sorry.”
“Hah!” She laughed when I apologized. “You don’t seem nearly as concerned as you should be. You’ve been separated from your companions, and now you’re my prisoner.”
“...Where are the others?” I asked.
“Who can say?” she replied. She seemed to be enjoying my responses.
Silver Slayer was with them, and Hibiki always knew when it was time to retreat... But all I could do was pray for them. I was worried, but for now, I had to put my faith in them. I would just have to make do for myself in the meantime.
“Rosalind, there’s something I want to ask you.”
“What?”
“...What happened between you and my ancestor?”
The smile immediately vanished from her face.
“You don’t think I’d enjoy telling you that story, do you?”
“Even if they were a relative of mine, I’m getting caught up in all of this because of someone I’ve never even met. Surely you can understand why I at least want to know what’s going on.”
Rosalind and I glared at each other for a while.
Maybe it was dangerous to anger her right now, but if I wanted to know her past—her story—this was probably the best chance I was going to get.
“I told you before. About a century ago, things in Europe were getting dangerous, so I left and came to Japan, where your ancestor then sealed me away.”
“But that doesn’t really tell me anything. Why did my ancestor do that?”
“Because of the bloodline of the Namidare, of course,” Rosalind scoffed. She paused for a moment and then continued bitterly, “He got involved in the story of a girl whose blood I tried to suck. He became my opponent... then thrust a silver blade into my heart, and when I was on death’s door, he stuffed me into a coffin and threw me in the sea.”
A girl attacked by a vampire? If an ancestor of mine ended up in a situation like that, it was true that he’d probably try to protect her from Rosalind. But... something seemed wrong
.
“Rosalind, from what you just said, you know about my family bloodline.”
“What of it?” she said.
“Who told you about it?”
It was a possible that a vampire—a being whose very existence defied the rules of nature—simply knew about my bloodline from the very beginning.
“...”
But all that came back was silence. “I knew about it all along” was NOT what she said. Which meant that somebody had told her about it. But who?
“Am I wrong, or did you hear about my bloodline from my ancestor?”
“...Why do you think that?”
“Because there’s nobody else who would have known about it and could have told you.”
It wasn’t something we openly went around talking to people about, so what made him tell her? And what was up with that photograph? It was a photograph from Japan of a boy whose face I couldn’t see, along with a smiling Rosalind. If nothing else, they seemed close.
Why did my ancestor tell Rosalind about the bloodline of the Namidare? And who was the boy she was so friendly with? When I connected the dots...
“Rosalind, you were close with my ancestor, weren’t you?”
“...!”
I got a reaction this time. That was enough for me to be sure.
“Rosa—”
“Be quiet!” A sharp yell cut me off before I could ask anything else. Her eyes were filled with anger. “There’s no need to tell you anything else. You won’t be able to even think soon...”
Two red lights appeared in the dim room. Was she going to use her charm on me again? Of course, I wanted to avoid that if I could. If I used the thing in my pocket, I might be able to get away, but I couldn’t get this close to Satsuki and then just leave her.
I tried to crawl away from her on the bed. But with the layout of the room, I was trapped like a rat. Rosalind knew it too. She stood up and slowly walked towards me. She was just two meters away. There was no time. If I wanted to escape, I needed to break Satsuki’s charm.
Even if she’d been told not to listen to me, she still had to be hearing my voice. So if I could say something to emotionally agitate her, I could probably break the spell! But what would make her mad...? Wait, did she have to get mad? I didn’t know.
One meter.
I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 4 Page 8
