After floating in the air all this time, her feet finally touched the ground and she walked over to me. Standing next to me, I could see that she was a lot shorter than I was... but she suddenly grabbed me by the collar and yanked me down to her eye level.
“And so why are your eyes so pure? Both you and the girl. I see a little fear, but none of the greed I want to see in order to grant your wish. I don’t like it one bit.”
She then let go and kicked me hard in the solar plexus.
“Ow!”
She just grit her teeth and sneered.
“And so I’ve got no intention of granting your wish,” she said. “Get out of here.”
There wasn’t even room to negotiate. That much was clear from her attitude.
“But... But wait!”
I tried to come up with something to say, but I couldn’t think of anything that would get her to change her mind quickly. At this rate, she was going to go back into her pot without granting even one wish.
“Wait, please.” It was Satsuki that tried to stop her.
“...Do you need something else?” The demon looked around, aggravated.
It sure didn’t look like anything we said would convince her.
“There’s no point in lying to us.” Satsuki refused to be afraid.
“Lying?”
“Queen Ulaula, you are the Wish-Granting Demon. Just like you said, granting wishes is your job. It’s why you exist. You can’t change that.”
“...”
“You’re trying to scare us so we lose the desire for you to grant us our wish. Because if we lose that desire, you won’t have to do it.”
“...”
“But Satsuki, didn’t Ulaula just refuse to grant Chelsea’s wish?”
“That’s Queen Ulaula to you, stupid human,” a very angry Ulaula snapped.
I ignored her and waited for my childhood friend to answer.
“Yes, you’re right. But unlike a normal demon, Queen Ulaula the Great is a special, wish-granting type. Just like I said, she can’t change who she is... and right now, she’s trying her absolute best to stay in control.”
“In control?”
“Look. Queen Ulaula, why is your face twitching so hard?” Satsuki turned the conversation back to Ulaula.
“...”
She fell silent and stared at Satsuki, but her eyebrows were spasming every few seconds. I realized now why she’d been switching her expressions so dramatically. She’d been going between laughing, sneering, and gritting her teeth. It was to keep us from seeing that she was trying her hardest not to grant Chelsea’s wish, wasn’t it?
“Miss Margaret, don’t let her intimidate you. If she really was free to refuse your request, she could’ve just gone back inside her pot. The fact that she hasn’t done that suggests there’s some reason she can’t. For example... when someone comes to her with a wish, she can’t go back into her pot until she grants it, perhaps?”
“...!”
Life finally returned to Chelsea’s face.
What Satsuki was saying made sense. If she hated us that much, she could just leave. But she hadn’t. Or maybe she couldn’t. And that meant there had to be a reason.
“This is why I hate mages so much...”
Ulaula’s grimace was at least three times steelier than it had been a moment ago. The young girl grabbed her ponytail and twirled it in her hand before continuing.
“Fine. I’ll issue a demonic contract. But!” She held her palm up. In a puff of purple smoke, a sheet of parchment appeared in her hand, which she then threw at me. “I’m adding a restriction and a price to the contract.”
“A restriction... and a price?”
That didn’t sound good.
“You’ve granted all your other wishes for free. Are you allowed to just change the rules like that?”
I decided to pretend like it didn’t scare me as much as it did.
“I can do whatever I want. Until now, I’ve decided that the misery and madness caused by the people whose wishes I granted was a good enough price for me. But I don’t think I’ll be getting any of that from you, so I’ve got the right to demand a fair price for my goods. I am a demon, after all.”
Ulaula must have seen right through me, because her lips curled up into a grin.
“The restriction is that only a normal human can sign the contract. No mages, and that inhuman creature over there can’t sign it either.”
Silver Slayer had no reaction. She had been totally silent so far, and silent she remained.
But if that was Ulaula’s rule, that meant the only ones here who could sign the contract and have their wishes granted were me and Hibiki. But so far so good. There was nothing that said one of us couldn’t just wish for Chelsea’s brother to be cured in her stead. The problem was...
“And as for the price...”
When we were going through the caves, I’d asked Satsuki if the demon might demand something in return. She’d indicated that I didn’t need to worry about it, so I’d put it out of my mind. I was starting to think that was a mistake.
Demons usually only wanted one thing, didn’t they? I gulped audibly. And at last...
“The life of the person who signs the contract.”
It was about as bad as I’d expected. In a sense, it was the highest possible price she could ask for. The cost of the contract was a human life.
“Rekka, I’m sure you understand this, but I’m not going to let you do anything stupid,” Satsuki said.
“Yeah, I know. If I die, I can’t save the other stories. So the same goes for you too, Hibiki.”
“I wasn’t even thinking about it,” Hibiki said angrily. But she looked worried.
There wasn’t time to find another way to cure Chelsea’s brother. Our only real hope now would be to get Ulaula to change her mind and renege on the price for the contract... but I didn’t have the faintest clue how to go about convincing her to do that. Still, I had to keep moving forward.
“Queen Ulaula the Great, there’s only one contract here. Can you give me another one for Hibiki?”
“Flip the page and you’ll find as many as you need.”
I turned the sheet of parchment over, and sure enough, a second identical contract appeared from below. It really was some kind of demonic item.
“Write down your wish in your own blood. Then sign your name, and the contract will be complete. Think carefully about what you write, because once you sign it, there’s no canceling it.”
“Got it,” I said.
Since I didn’t actually need any more contracts, I turned the parchment back over. As I was contemplating what to do, Silver Slayer suddenly gave a start and turned around.
“...What’s wrong?” I asked, unnerved by her sudden movement.
“The vampire approaches. Quickly. She’s headed right for us.” There was the tiniest bit of uncertainty in her expressionless voice.
“She wasn’t tracking us... so how?”
I had no idea how to answer that. The one thing that even a dimwit like me could be sure of in this situation was that things had just gotten worse.
Chapter 5: Those Who Gave Up and Those Who Never Will
“She’s approaching at an incredible speed. She seems to be going right over the mountains and ocean... Is she moving through the sky? Her current speed is practically impossible. She’s right on top of us now,” Silver Slayer reported mechanically.
“...What’s going on?” Chelsea asked, looking up at the ceiling of the cave.
Directly above us, according to Silver Slayer, were Rosalind and the other girls.
“I think she’s using Iris’s spaceship,” I said.
“Spaceship?!” Chelsea yelled.
“I didn’t have time to tell you, but one of the girls Rosalind was controlling at her mansion is an alien.”
“...I really underestimated you guys.” Chelsea shook her head. She’d gone beyond surprise and entered a state of mild shock. But her expression quickly
changed. “So what now? We can put my wish aside for the moment.”
“Chelsea...”
“If all of you get taken out, I’m doomed too.” She winked at me and put on a brave face, but her hands were at her sides, gripped into tight, trembling fists.
It had already been two hours since she’d gotten the call saying that her brother’s condition was getting worse. It wasn’t like we could get any cell phone reception down here, either. But even so... she was willing to put her own story on hold so that we could make the right choice here. No, she was acting strong in order to keep us from hesitating and ruining everything.
“The vampire is rapidly progressing through the cave’s traps. Estimated time of arrival is a few minutes,” Silver Slayer said, updating us on Rosalind’s position.
“Don’t worry. My brother’s sick, but he’s a tough kid. He’s fighting his illness even as we speak. He wouldn’t drop out of the fight while the rest of us are still at it,” said Chelsea.
She was only three years older than me, but she was such a strong woman.
“...All right. First, we’ll do something about Rosalind.”
I switched gears and readied myself to face this new opponent. I couldn’t let Chelsea’s resolve be for nothing. I needed to bring all the stories to a happy ending.
“Now this is getting entertaining.” Ulaula was laughing, but I didn’t have time to waste on her.
“Silver Slayer, can you make me another knife?” Hibiki asked.
“Affirmative,” Silver Slayer said as she formed new knives for Hibiki and Chelsea.
“Hey, can I have one too?” I asked.
“According to my memory bank, you said you couldn’t use a knife, Sir Namidare.”
“Just a small one’s fine.”
This deep in the cave, there was nowhere to run. There was no avoiding a throw down with Rosalind, so if I wanted to stop her, I needed to be ready to fight.
“Satsuki,” I said.
“What?”
“I want you to hide in one of those paths up ahead and support us with magic if you can,” I told her, pointing to one of the small paths continuing deeper into the cave.
“I can only use magic to protect myself or run away. And besides, my defensive spells don’t work as well if I’m too far away, so let me stay by your side and protect you.”
“...All right. Thanks.” I nodded.
“Less than one minute,” Silver Slayer said calmly.
We readied ourselves, but...
“What’s that sound?” Hibiki whispered.
I listened carefully and could hear what sounded like a low roar. An instant later, a blast of water came surging out of the passage we’d come from.
“What the hell?!”
The water swept me away before I could even react, slamming me against the cavern wall. My head made a nasty sound when it hit the rock wall, but I managed to grab on to an outcropping and keep the water from washing me further down one of the tunnels. Fortunately there wasn’t too much of it, so it quickly drained down the pathways on the opposite side of the room.
“Is everyone okay?” I heard one of the girls ask.
It looked like everyone had managed to grab on to something too, but we’d all been cut or bruised somewhere. That had caught us totally off guard.
And then a voice came echoing through the corridor...
“I’ve finally caught up to you.”
Before any of us had a chance to prepare ourselves, Rosalind, Iris, Lea, and Harissa all came into the room. That blast of water must’ve been Lea’s magic. The water that had gotten into my mouth had a salty taste to it, so she’d probably brought some seawater with her all the way down here.
“...I don’t recognize one of you,” Rosalind said.
“I’m neutral.” Ulaula held up her hands. “Don’t worry about me.”
“Hmph... Lea, Iris. Grab everyone but Namidare.”
“Yes, my lady,” the two of them answered even more lifelessly than before. One of them jumped at Silver Slayer, and the other at Hibiki and Chelsea.
“Satsuki, over here.” I moved Satsuki behind me to protect her.
The surprise attack had split us into two groups. Hibiki and Silver Slayer had their hands full with Lea and Iris. I couldn’t count on them coming to help me now.
“It’s been a while, Namidare.” Rosalind wasn’t smiling when she spoke.
“...Hey. How’d you find me here?”
“It was easy. Harissa?”
When Rosalind addressed her, Harissa chanted a short spell. A single bat appeared out of thin air. It flew towards Rosalind with a high-pitched screeching and fused with her body.
“You sent an invisible bat to follow us, huh?”
“I can tell where my familiars are at any time, if you must know.”
It was a possibility we’d overlooked. We’d only been worried about Rosalind herself, not her familiars. I ground my teeth in frustration, but it didn’t do me any good now.
“Namidare... I’ll give you one last chance. If you agree to give in to my charm spell instead of resisting, I’ll let all the girls go.”
“I refuse.”
“...Do you really hate me that much?”
“No, that’s not it.” I shook my head. “If I admit defeat here, maybe Hibiki can still save Chelsea’s story, but Silver Slayer’s will be doomed. And...”
“...And?”
“No matter how much I think about it, I don’t think helping you with your revenge is the right way to save your story.”
Her real goal was something more than revenge. It had to be. That was a stab in the dark on my part, or really just a gut feeling, but more importantly...
“Rosalind, if you do get your revenge on me, will that make you happy?”
That was what really mattered. Would exacting her revenge on me in lieu of my ancestor truly make her happy? Looking at her now, it was hard to believe that was really the case. She wasn’t smiling at all. Her expression was almost the exact opposite of when she was eating her red bean jam bun the other day.
“What this Namidare wants to do... is make you happy, Rosalind. And I don’t think what you’re asking me to do is the right way to go about making that happen. So I’m going to fight you with everything I have. Not because I hate you, but because I want to find a way to make everyone, including you, happy.”
“All of you are like that, aren’t you? Mere humans who refuse to back down in the face of a vampire. Who refuse to give up. And... who refuse to be mine...”
“...All of us?”
Was she talking about me and my ancestor? And what did she mean by “become mine”? But before I even had time to think about it...
“So I’m done wishing for more than I’m going to get.”
The air around Rosalind changed.
“I wanted you as you really were, but I’m done with that. All I need is for you to be by my side. That’s all that matters. And so...”
She took another step forward.
“I’m going to make you into a vampire, Namidare.”
“What?!”
She came closer and closer, each step more determined than the last. She wasn’t even going to use her charm magic this time. She was just going to turn me into a vampire.
What was I supposed to do? If I had any chance, it was to break the spell on Iris, Lea, and Harissa. But unlike my childhood friend Satsuki, I had no idea what I could say to make them mad or embarrass them.
I was starting to panic.
At this point, I had to make a choice. I just had to steel myself to fight a vampire. Silver Slayer said that the power of her charm weakened when Rosalind became flustered or was caught off guard, so I didn’t actually need to defeat her. If I could just do a little bit of damage with the silver knife and then distract her for a moment...
“Rekka! I’ve got an idea!”
“Ow!”
Satsuki suddenly grabbed me by the ear and started whispering to me.
&
nbsp; “You want me to do WHAT?!” I yelled when she told me her “plan.”
“Just say it!”
“R-Right!”
I didn’t know why on earth she would suggest something like that. I figured if Satsuki thought it would work, then it was worth a try, but I really had no idea what she was thinking! I took a deep breath, turned to Harissa, and screamed...
“I-I love you!”
But...
“......”
Harissa didn’t even twitch.
“It didn’t work, Satsuki!”
“I-I thought that any girl would be embarrassed if a boy said that to her!”
Rather than Harissa, Satsuki was the one who started blushing.
That doesn’t work unless it’s a boy you like, right? And wait, if anyone should be embarrassed here, it’s me! Ugh... But now wasn’t the time for this! Rosalind was...
“Wh-Wh-What?!”
For some reason, she was totally freaking out. I was trying to figure out how to handle this unexpected development when I heard a thud. I looked and saw that Silver Slayer had bound Iris and Lea up with a silver rope. Rosalind’s charm had weakened for a moment, and Silver Slayer hadn’t missed that chance. I really wasn’t sure how it had happened, but it worked out in our favor. Now it was five against two.
“Rosalind, surrender and undo your charm spells.”
“Hmph. You’re asking me to give up?”
“I’m just asking you to give up on revenge so we can think things through together. We can figure out a way for everyone to be happy.”
While Rosalind and I were talking, my other three companions closed in. Hibiki and Silver Slayer stood on either side of Rosalind with knives to her throat, and Chelsea was standing next to me to protect Satsuki.
“It’s over, vampire,” Silver Slayer said.
“Don’t try anything,” Hibiki added.
“...It seems I’ve embarrassed myself,” Rosalind said. Her panic from a moment ago was gone and her air of superiority returned. “Lea... Do it.”
I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 4 Page 12
