Fiesta for the Observers

by Gakuto Mikumo

  Kojou groaned as he looked up at an electronic billboard at a pedestrian bridge.

  “Damn… And the monorail ain’t runnin’, either. If it wasn’t for all the roads bein’ packed from the parade…!”

  The roads on the island were so congested that there was little hope of using a car. Unable to use the monorails, their only other option for getting around was to hoof it.

  Even sprinting at full speed with vampiric endurance, it’d take close to fifteen minutes to reach Keystone Gate. Kojou didn’t think Asagi and Natsuki would be safe that long.

  That was when Yukina tugged on Kojou’s hand and shouted, “Senpai, look!”

  She was pointing to a small corner store.

  “A bicycle?!”

  Guessing what Yukina had in mind, Kojou sprinted. There was a single bicycle stopped in front of the corner store. It was a thin-wheeled model for city riding, but it sure beat being on foot.

  Yukina severed the chain lock on the bike with one swing of her silver spear.

  “I’ll apologize to the owner. Senpai, go! With a vampire’s leg strength—”

  Then, she made a tiny cut in the tip of her own index finger and put it, complete with blood flowing out of it, into Kojou’s mouth.

  As Kojou licked Yukina’s finger, Sayaka raised her voice.

  “Ah! Ahh!”

  Her tone was disordered, a mix of anger and envy. But Kojou didn’t have any time to worry about that.

  Kojou’s body kicked into overdrive in response to the taste of Yukina’s blood. His true vampiric power awakened. Though the wound in his chest began to throb once more, Kojou ignored it and got on the bicycle.

  “We’ll come after you as soon as we can!”

  “Sorry, Himeragi. I owe you one!”

  Kojou pushed down on the pedals with all his vampiric strength.

  The bicycle flew forward at incredible speed as if it had been launched by a rocket.

  5

  The violet-haired woman continued to clutch her crimson whip as she looked at the young vampire nobleman.

  Her beautiful, sultry face revealed the tiniest bit of hesitation.

  “…Dimitrie Vattler. What is a noble from the Warlord’s Empire doing here?!”

  Vattler was a pureblood vampire, a direct descendant of Europe’s First Primogenitor, the Lost Warlord. Gigliola could not comprehend what a nobleman of Vattler’s stature was doing in a Demon Sanctuary in the Far East, far from the Dominion he called home.

  For his part, Vattler made a refined, polite smile, as he showed complete disregard for her confusion.

  “It is an honor to make your acquaintance, Gigliola Ghirardi, princess of the Chaos Bride’s tribe.”

  Vattler stepped in front of Gigliola as if he was protecting Asagi and Sana. Gigliola’s glossy lips twisted malevolently.

  “And you, of the Lost Warlord’s bloodline, do you intend to get in my way?”

  Vattler laughed, as if waiting for Gigliola to ask precisely that.

  “This is the Far East Demon Sanctuary, where our primogenitors hold no sway whatsoever. From the humans’ perspective, I, an ambassador in this land under the Holy Ground Treaty, am merely thwarting the evil deeds of a heinous criminal—a finer script could not be written. Do you not agree?”

  Gigliola’s eyes made a pointed scowl as it finally dawned on her what Vattler was really after.

  “I wonder, is your goal to hunt us prison barrier escapees…for sport?”

  The rumors of the young, handsome aristocrat being a fearsome berserker were famous among Europe’s demonkind. It was said that Vattler, bored with the passage of immortality, sought out combat with powerful opponents, even to the point of devouring fellow vampires…for kicks.

  No doubt, as far as Vattler was concerned, criminals fiendish enough to be housed in the prison ward were ideal prey. Having the law behind him was just the cherry on top.

  “I may not appear it, but I am recovering from injury,” Vattler stated in a deadly serious tone. “I was looking for an opponent suitable for…rehabilitation.”

  A thin bead of sweat rolled down Gigliola’s brow as her right hand violently cracked her whip.

  “Quite a glutton you are, Master of Serpents… However, can you defeat my Beast Vassal, I wonder?”

  In the next instant, the Island Guard troops under her control poured a hail of weapons fire upon Vattler. They numbered over 160. It was impossible for any demon to completely evade every single bullet. Besides, the weapons they were equipped with surely were powerful enough to inflict a lethal blow, even upon a vampire noble.

  Regardless, Vattler’s expression did not change. He merely raised his hand and lightly snapped his fingers.

  “Shakala!”

  A Beast Vassal resembling a sea serpent materialized and coiled around Vattler. The monster was overwhelmingly large; the view of it was surreal—as if a skyscraper had been built to overlook a canyon.

  The cruel creature’s eyes gazed down at Gigliola and the troops under her control.

  As the serpent smoothly adopted an offensive posture, Gigliola’s blood ran cold.

  “Are you sane, Dimitrie Vattler?! They’re merely puppets!”

  Looking decidedly intrigued, Vattler’s reply had a hint of sarcasm in it.

  “…Your point?”

  The giant sea serpent transformed its flesh and blood into a super high-pressure stream of water as it attacked the Island Guard. The explosive force blasted the asphalt apart; the guardsmen, protected by riot shields and armored cars, were blown away like they were made of paper.

  It was absurdly merciless destruction.

  Asagi held her breath as she beheld the apocalyptic scene.

  Even so, Vattler had apparently held back somewhat (by his standards). Of course, that was no doubt out of consideration for Asagi and Sana, not the Island Guard. The Beast Vassal he had called Shakala was capable of raising an area’s pressure to tens of thousands of atmospheres, enough to boil human beings from the inside out.

  “Did you intend to use them as human shields?” Vattler asked Gigliola, sounding distinctly bored. “Really, now…why would I be concerned about the lives of beings weak enough to fall prey to your control?”

  The Island Guard’s main strike force was virtually wiped out. That also meant Gigliola had lost her army.

  “I see…,” ground out the mage. “So that’s the kind of vampire you are, Duke of Ardeal. Just as the rumors say.”

  Vattler’s Beast Vassal rematerialized, circled in the sky like it was threatening to rain, and then aimed straight at her.

  Watching Gigliola’s lack of resistance, Vattler seemed somewhat disappointed.

  “Over already? Is that all the Third Primogenitor’s bloodline has to offer? I expected more.”

  Gigliola flicked her violet hair back and howled…

  “…Oh, it’s quite all right. Don’t worry—I won’t give you time to be disappointed!”

  Her right hand grew hazy, like a mirage, and the crimson whip shot out like lightning.

  Gigliola’s Intelligent Weapon, her whiplike Beast Vassal, was aimed at Vattler’s as it floated above her head.

  In midair, the thorny, branched whip wrapped around the giant serpent’s body. She was trying to gain command over it, too.

  Vattler smiled thinly. “I see… So it isn’t just humans that you can control, then…?”

  He wasn’t just smiling on the surface; it was the first time he’d revealed true delight. It was a dangerous smile that held ferocity in its shadow.

  A cruel smile came over Gigliola as well.

  “Know your place, Master of Serpents. Aguijón!”

  The swarm of crimson bees reemerged above her head. Their numbers were far greater than before; there might have been five hundred, even a thousand; it was a vast swarm that dyed the entire sky red. Even among the Old Guard, few vampires could summon such a number of Beast Vassals.

  A loud, vivid laugh erupted out of Vattler. “Ha-ha-ha-ha, tha
t’s wonderful. Fine indeed. So this is the Songstress of Cuartas Theater!”

  He looked deeply delighted at a sight he was rarely privileged to see. Here he was, his Beast Vassal stolen from his control, under ferocious enemy attack—he was overjoyed that his very life was being put on the line by a prison barrier escapee, as mighty a foe as he had dared hope.

  He was still laughing when the crimson bees rushed toward him. It looked like Vattler was being burned to ash by a giant flame. It was an all-out attack by Beast Vassals too numerous to count; there seemed no possible escape.

  However, that moment, something like a jet-black vortex emerged above the male vampire’s head. It was a gigantic vortex several dozen meters in diameter.

  Gigliola’s beautiful face twisted in shock.

  “—Aguijón?!”

  Just before the swarm of crimson bees could arrive at the young aristocrat, they vanished one after another. The jet-black vortex floating above Vattler’s head simply sucked all the bees in.

  “A Beast Vassal…?! It can’t be?!”

  By then, Gigliola had surely realized that the black vortex was really a mass of thousands of intertwined snakes. Those thousands of serpents extended their necks one after another, each taking an onrushing crimson bee into its jaws and swallowing it whole.

  The new Beast Vassal that Vattler had summoned was a serpent with a thousand heads.

  “It’s been a while since I’ve faced an enemy that made me summon this one, Gigliola Ghirardi,” Vattler offered with a smirk.

  His blue eyes were dyed crimson; his long, large fangs were poking out from his lips. Incredible demonic energy had welled up into his body.

  Having consumed Gigliola’s Beast Vassal, he’d healed his wounds from the previous battle and regained every sliver of demonic power that he had lost.

  Backed into a corner, Gigliola let loose her crimson whip toward Vattler himself.

  “What…did you do…to my Beast Vassal?!”

  But Vattler’s new Beast Vassal devoured her whip in midair. The countless serpents consumed the equally countless branches of the Intelligent Weapon—

  —And not just the whip, but Gigliola’s hand with it.

  “Aaaaaaaaaaaa—!”

  Gigliola screamed as her right arm was bitten off midway. When she turned her back as if to run, the serpents assailed her, one after another. Bits and pieces of her were consumed until her entire body was dyed in vermilion.

  Cannibalism—this was the true reason the vampires of Europe feared Vattler. Vattler consumed his fellow vampires and stole their power for himself.

  Gigliola tried to transform her body into mist to flee, but Vattler’s other Beast Vassal stopped her. The sea serpent, able to freely manipulate atmospheric pressure, created a wall of dense air that would not permit her to escape.

  “Ha-ha, so you’re still alive? That’s an Old Guard for you. Truly splendid—”

  Gigliola rolled onto the ground, her body still half-solid, half-mist. Vattler’s cruel smile continued as he gazed at her helpless form.

  “N-no! Stop…! Someone help me…!”

  Gigliola desperately tried to escape, crawling on the ground with her left arm—her only usable limb remaining. Even the great regenerative abilities of an Old Guard vampire could not heal such grievous wounds in a short time span. Gigliola no longer possessed the strength with which to fight.

  All that awaited her now was one-sided slaughter.

  “…”

  In anticipation of that cruel fate, Asagi covered Sana’s eyes. She couldn’t let a little girl witness such a cruel, tragic sight any further.

  The handsome young vampire hadn’t come to save Asagi or Sana; he just wanted a fight. He’d appeared to hunt prey and then make it his own flesh and blood.

  Once the slaughter was complete, there was no guarantee whatsoever he wouldn’t go after Asagi or Sana.

  Beyond that, the Island Guard was in tatters, and Astarte, having sustained repeated assaults from them, was already at her limit. There was no one to save Asagi.

  Asagi clutched Sana in her arms and pleaded, “Someone, help me. Someone, stop him…”

  The voice that responded to her call was that of a teenage boy she knew very well.

  “Vattler—!”

  The thick, unearthly aura that filled the night sky vanished.

  The light of the moon shone down on one Kojou Akatsuki, sitting atop a bicycle that was spewing white smoke. It had been abused to the very limits of its endurance.

  6

  There was only one term for it: “a disaster zone.”

  The road had been chewed up, the walls of buildings had been cracked, and traffic lights and lampposts were all crooked.

  The Island Guard’s main strike force was in ruins. And a vampiress dressed in something like underwear was on the ground, half-alive and half-dead.

  The sole saving grace was that Asagi and the little girl she was embracing were nominally unharmed.

  Kojou didn’t have to ask who’d done all this. It took someone like a beserker vampire to look at the tragic scene and calmly smile.

  Vattler gazed at Kojou, who was all covered in sweat, and called out to him with a smile that was completely out of place.

  “Hiya, Kojou.”

  Kojou sighed in visible exhaustion as he disposed of the bicycle he’d ridden in on.

  “Like this is the place to be all casual! You totally overdid it!”

  “Hmm, did I?” mused Vattler in mock dismay as he inclined his head slightly.

  The woman in lingerie lying at his feet did ring a bell for Kojou, so to speak. She was one of the ones who’d busted out of the prison barrier. It looked like Vattler had counterattacked when one of the jailbreakers was assaulting Asagi and Natsuki, saving both of them as a result.

  If that was in fact the case, perhaps Kojou ought to have been thanking him; but seeing the nobleman’s handiwork up close, he didn’t feel very thankful at all.

  The gray manacle on the wounded escapee’s left arm emitted a glow. After that, silver chains spewed out and wrapped her up tightly; she immediately winked out. She had returned to the prison barrier once more. Seeing this, Vattler nodded in a show of admiration.

  “Oh my…the prison barrier’s system activated, did it? It’s been quite an amusing show, all thanks to you, Kojou. It’s never boring on this island.”

  “Yeah, yeah…” Blowing him off with an exasperated look, Kojou rushed over to Asagi and Natsuki.

  Asagi didn’t have her usual arrogant leer. Her hair was a mess; her clothes were dirty and all torn up. Her eyelashes were wet with tears. Even so, she looked up at Kojou and heartily chewed him out.

  “You’re late, Kojou!”

  “…Sorry.”

  Kojou made a strained smile at the first words out of Asagi’s mouth. He took hold of her hand and helped her to her feet.

  Seeing Kojou and Asagi like that, a little girl who greatly resembled Natsuki looked up with a curious expression.

  Kojou looked at the homunculus, who was sitting against a wall, and asked, “You all right, Astarte?”

  The young woman stiffly turned her head and replied rather weakly, “Affirmative. However, unable to continue combat. Rest and retuning is required.”

  “Got it. I’ll take it from here,” Kojou declared.

  Hearing this, Astarte closed her eyes in apparent relief. She slipped into sleep mode, no doubt preserving her body temperature.

  Sheesh, thought Kojou as he sighed. Asagi watched his face from the side, glaring in obvious anger.

  “Take over, my butt! What is all this?! What do you know?!”

  “Well, what are you doin’ together with Natsuki?!” Kojou yelled back instantly.

  Asagi was a normal high schooler. She had neither the power nor the training to fight off sorcerous criminals. No one would have criticized Asagi for ditching the little girl and running for her life.

  And yet, here she was, protecting a girl she didn’t know to
the point of being all beat up.

  She really is quite something, thought Kojou.

  For her part, Natsuki’s eyes blinked hard when she heard Kojou’s words.

  “What do you mean…with Natsuki? Wait, you mean Sana?”

  “Sana…?”

  “Yeah. ‘Small Natsuki.’ Abbreviated to Sana.”

  “Ahh…”

  So that’s what happened, Kojou realized. It wasn’t a big surprise Asagi had noticed the little girl’s resemblance to Natsuki. The kid seemed to genuinely have amnesia, so calling her by some other name while in that state seemed like a pretty good idea…

  And Vattler, listening to their exchange of words, murmured as he realized it for himself. “Natsuki Minamiya…I see. So the escapees aim to eliminate the Witch of the Void?”

  He gave Sana a sly look.

  Kojou girded himself, ready to shield the two. “Vattler…why you…”

  Natsuki Minamiya, an exceptional Attack Mage, was one of the precious few mighty foes Vattler recognized as among his equals. Now Natsuki had lost her memory and magical power and was trapped in the form of a (very) little girl. Kojou could scarcely imagine just what Vattler might do, armed with such knowledge.

  Put bluntly, if Natsuki died here, the prison barrier would completely vanish and the prisoners within would be completely freed. And Vattler was well aware of that fact.

  If Vattler tried to kill Natsuki then and there, Kojou had to stop him.

  In other words, Kojou had to fight him.

  Wounded by Snowdrift Wolf as he was, Kojou had no guarantee he could win against Vattler; still, he had no choice but to try, even if it meant exposing his being a vampire to Asagi…

  But—

  Vattler suddenly burst into laughter, as if to mock the hardened determination on Kojou’s face.

  “Ha-ha…ha-ha-ha-ha-ha…ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”

  It was a huge burst of genuine laughter that seemed to come from a different person.

  He put both his arms over his belly and bent over, like he was laughing so hard that it actually hurt.

  Here was a frightening noble from the Warlord’s Empire, an Old Guard vampire, overcome with mirth. Apparently seeing Natsuki like that was simply too far beyond all his expectations.