Kojou averted his eyes without thinking.
“Well, ah, we have similar physical condi… Er, we have some common issues, you see.”
Asagi’s half-lidded eyes drew even closer to Kojou.
“Oh, really…?”
Before Kojou knew it, he’d been backed up against the wall, with Asagi’s thorny gaze silently piercing him. Apparently, half-baked excuses weren’t going to cut it here.
“You know, Kojou…lately, when I talk to you, it feels like you’re trying to hide something from me, and sometimes it really ticks me off…”
Kojou suddenly felt extremely guilty as he listened to her honesty. Excuses weren’t going to cut it, precisely because Kojou was hiding something from her. But Asagi made a light shrug of her shoulders that said, Well, whatever, easily letting Kojou slip the noose.
“Anyway, I’ll drop it until after the bath. But after that, you’re gonna fess up to everything this time. Let’s go, Sana.”
Asagi walked off toward the facilities, preschool Natsuki’s hand in tow. Kojou watched her back disappear before exhaling deeply.
He was grateful for the time to put his feelings in order, but put another way, it might well have been Asagi’s ultimatum. It seemed Kojou’s continued attempts to hide the truth about himself from her had reached their limit.
Besides, it felt like there would be nowhere to hide from Asagi tonight—she was especially suspicious of Vattler being an acquaintance of his, apparently. Kojou still had no idea why she was so nervous about that part when she was the one who came on board, already well aware of the danger.
Well, Vattler was dangerous either way, so Asagi’s wariness of him was a good thing—or at least, that was the harmless conclusion Kojou forced himself to accept.
As he thought this, Kojou suddenly lifted his head. Someone unknown to him was approaching, as if replacing his departed companions.
It was a young man wearing a silver-colored tuxedo. Appearance-wise, he was fifteen or sixteen-ish. He was small in stature and had a gentle look to his face, making him quite the pretty boy.
His hair was gray; his eyes were jade green. His eyelashes were long. Maybe that’s why he had a fragile air about him that stirred Kojou’s protective instincts, even though he was of the same gender.
During the time his chiseled facial features had stolen Kojou’s eyes, he asked, “Akatsuki, is it not?”
Having his name called by the youth’s voice, which apparently hadn’t broken yet, finally brought Kojou back to his senses.
“Er, and you are?”
“I am named Kira Lebedev Voltisvala of the Lost Warlord’s bloodline. I apologize for not having introduced myself to the lord of the Far East Demon Sanctuary sooner; I ask that you forgive me, Fourth Primogenitor.”
The boy calling himself Kira flashed a beautiful, charming smile, even within his reverence.
“It ain’t like this is my territory, so you didn’t really have to come and say hi… But anyway, nice to meet you. Ah, you can call me Kojou.”
Upon saying this, Kojou gave Kira a friendly smile. Being of the Lost Warlord’s bloodline meant that he was probably a Warlord’s Empire aristocrat, just like Vattler. Even if they were the same age—at least outwardly—Kojou wasn’t quite comfortable being spoken to with such stuffy, polite language.
“…As I might have expected,” Kira murmured in awe, his gaze moving up Kojou’s form. “You are indeed a frightening man, ruling the populace from the darkness through fear and chaos rather than through overt displays of might… I am deeply moved.”
“Uh, no, it’s not like that at all… Really.”
As Kira gave him a look of pure admiration, Kojou quietly sighed.
Apparently, Vattler had given the boy an obviously mistaken impression of Kojou. Kira seemed completely unaware of the fact he was being toyed with. Probably has one a them super-serious personalities, Kojou thought, pitying the lad. He thought the newcomer resembled Yukina somewhat, in that respect.
“So, whaddaya want with me, anyway?”
Kira conveyed his business with Kojou in fluent Japanese, almost too fluent—
“Yes, if I may be so bold, we have prepared a change of attire. If it pleases you to cleanse yourself first, then—”
Apparently, they’d arranged clothes for Kojou to change into.
“‘Cleanse’…? You mean take a bath, right?”
For some reason, Kira turned bashful then, even as he shot a small, wry smile in Kojou’s direction.
“Yes. Though the sight of you covered in blood does have a certain…ferocious charm to it.”
Kojou was a bit thrown off by the faint throb that came to his chest. Hey, hold on here, the cute face might be throwin’ ya off a bit, but this is a dude. Definitely a dude.
“Ha! ’S not for me. But I’d be grateful for a bath. You’ll show me where it is?”
“Yes, if it is not a bother to you, Master Kojou.”
“Of course, it ain’t a bother. This ship’s so huge, I’d probably get lost on my own.”
Kira gave another bow of acknowledgment before walking ahead. Kojou tried to follow in his footsteps when the stab-like gaze he felt from behind him made his feet go still.
A young man Kojou didn’t recognize was standing at the top of a flight of stairs, looking down at Kojou.
He was probably the same generation as Kojou. His height was pretty much the same, too. He was wearing a silver tuxedo very similar to Kira’s, but the antagonistic air that enveloped him gave off a completely different impression. The young man’s face was very handsome, reminiscent of a cold steel blade. Hostility was plain on his face as he glared at Kojou.
“Who’s that?”
Kira looked conflicted as he replied to Kojou’s question.
“Tobias—Lord Tobias Jagan. He, too, is a noble of the Warlord’s Empire, but—”
“Uh…have I done somethin’ to get on his bad side?”
“No… It’s not that,” Kira replied quietly. “It may be, ah…jealousy.”
“Jealousy…?”
For some reason, Kira’s cheeks reddened as he spoke, and he lowered his eyes with an even more conflicted look.
“Yes. After all, Duke Ardeal is always paying great attention to Master Kojou, so…”
The hell, thought Kojou in bewilderment. Yeah, Vattler had “sworn his undying love” to Kojou or some stupid thing like that, but that was purely his lust for the powerful blood of the Fourth Primogenitor. Surely that was no reason for this man to view him as an enemy. That said, if he indeed was “jealous” of Kojou even so, that must mean—
As Kojou considered the question with great and earnest intensity, he felt a strange chill up his spine.
“…Sorry. I’m gonna pretend I didn’t hear a word of that,” he muttered weakly.
Tobias Jagan continued to glare at Kojou and Kira without a word for as long as he was within view.
3
Kojou, wearing a sauna towel, sighed with admiration as he took stock of his surroundings.
“This bath ain’t big—it’s huge.”
Though not as large as a Japanese hot spring bathhouse might have been, it was such a fine bath that it almost made you forget you were on a ship. The water level was somewhat shallow, but you could fit ten people in with room to spare.
Even without the pompous ornamentation, the pure white covering the bathroom conveyed an air of high society. It wasn’t hard for Kojou to imagine a rich man in the tub, surrounded by young, doting lovers.
Thanks to indulging in such thoughts of excess, Kojou immediately imagined Vattler there, served by Kira and Tobias…and promptly went into meltdown. He suffered a surprising amount of mental damage from the image.
Even so, Kojou was pretty grateful for the chance to wash the grime away. His entire body was a mess from the sweat and blood from multiple bouts of combat.
Kojou had his own blood caked on him, and Yuuma’s too from when he was carrying her—
“�
��Yuuma…wait for me,” Kojou whispered to himself, as he scrubbed at the dried blood, losing it under heavy soap lather.
The image of his childhood friend, wounded and in tatters, sent pain through his chest.
Even if it wasn’t a race against the clock, that still left Yuuma hovering on death’s door. To save her, they needed to first save Natsuki, but Natsuki had lost her magical power and had the escapees after her, too.
He was worried that Aya Tokoyogi was nowhere to be found, as well. Plus, he had no idea when or where Vattler would run amok as he pleased. Kojou’s brain capacity was close to overload from the sheer number of problems. Even so, there was no way he was going to cut and run with Yuuma’s life on the line.
Calm down, Kojou thought, taking several deep breaths. It was precisely at times like these that he couldn’t just shove it all out of his mind. First, he needed to calm down and deal with the problems one by one, or—
Before Kojou could finish that unusually serious thought—
“Is the temperature of the bath to your liking, Fourth Primogenitor?” asked a girl’s voice.
“Uwah?!”
The sudden presence behind him ripped Kojou’s inner calm to tatters.
With a patter of bare feet, some unfamiliar young girls came into the bathroom.
There were five of them, each wearing a different color swimsuit. Their ages ran from the low teens to mid-twenties. They seemed like a bunch of sisters who got along well, but their races and body types had nothing in common. The only commonality was that they were all really good-looking. Each had a beauty to her like she’d been born to high society.
Of course, the bare-naked Kojou hastily wrapped a towel around his loins and stood up.
“Wh-what the heck?”
The beautiful brigade of girls in swimsuits surrounded him without mercy.
A blond woman, twenty years old give or take, leaned in close to Kojou as she spoke.
“We are a maid troop serving the Duke of Ardeal. We thought that we would wash your back.”
She had a red hibiscus bikini covering her glamorous body.
“Nah, it’s all right, you don’t need to wash my back or anything…”
Kojou had no idea whatsoever why Vattler’s maids had trespassed upon the bathroom.
“The front, then?” she countered.
“Not the front, either! And takin’ care of someone in the bath ain’t a maid’s job anyway, is it?!”
The oldest and tallest of them, appearing reserved and ladylike in her blue swimsuit, replied to Kojou gently.
“…I see that the cat is indeed out of the bag.”
Kojou mentally dubbed her Bikini Blue.
“Out of…the bag?”
“Actually, we’re not maids at all, see,” said Red.
“Huh?”
A brown-skinned girl spoke with a tone of indifference.
“We’re hostages, actually.”
She had a rather young-looking visage and a yellow swimsuit. The swimsuit design had a sporty feel to it, matching her young physique.
“…Hostages?”
Bikini White replied first.
“Yes. We are the daughters of royals and high officials from countries bordering the Warlord’s Empire, including a few princesses from countries the Duke of Ardeal personally destroyed… The bottom line is, we were sold to him in exchange for the preservation of our native lands.”
Bikini Black added, “The saving grace is the fact Duke Ardeal swings that way, so he’s let us pretty much do as we please. He doesn’t seem to have any interest in women, you see…”
The latter two each whispered into one of Kojou’s ears. They were the closest to Kojou in age, as well, which only magnified his embarrassment.
The blond beauty in the red bikini put her hands on her hips and thrust her chest out with pride.
“So, we figured we’d climb up in the world here and get revenge on the motherlands that sold us out.”
The sudden, fierce dryness in Kojou’s throat made him nervous.
The predestined flaw of being a vampire was that lust awakened one’s vampiric urges. A vampire in the throes of such urges lost himself until he had tasted someone’s blood. Being seduced by a small army of swimsuit-wearing beauties with faces in the same league as gravure idols was more than destructive enough to stimulate Kojou’s brand of said urges. Getting sucked into their pace would be very dangerous.
Kojou averted his eyes from the girls and asked in as serious a voice as he could muster, “‘Climb up in the world?’”
Bikini Red pressed a hand to Kojou’s chest, as if trying to wreck all of his desperate efforts.
“Yes, such as by bearing the Fourth Primogenitor’s children.”
Kojou fiercely cleared his throat.
Black and White shot Kojou smoky looks from the left and right.
“The possibility is quite strong that a direct descendant of the Fourth Primogenitor would be a vampire surpassing Duke Ardeal in power,” said Black.
“Or we could drink the blood of a primogenitor and become Blood Vassals ourselves—” White pointed out.
“…So, how ’bout you give me a shot?” said Red, standing right before Kojou and pointing to herself. Kojou was in shock at how overly blunt her statement was.
A Blood Vassal was a pseudo-vampire; they could only be created through vampiric contract by first-generation vampires. They were said to possess combat capability sometimes surpassing that of pureblood vampires and lived with their masters for eternity.
The girls’ objective seemed to be to become Kojou’s Blood Vassals and to gain combat power on par with the Fourth Primogenitor himself. Kojou actually felt relieved that their behavior to this point was coldly calculated and not based solely on sexual desire.
Perhaps thinking she might have come on to Kojou too strongly, Red suddenly lowered her eyes shyly.
“Ah, but it’s our first time, so please be gentle…”
She began to cuddle against him when Kojou shook his head, trying to brush her off.
“I’m not doin’ anythin’ to anybody!”
The youngest girl, the one in the yellow swimsuit, uneasily looked at him with upturned, moist eyes.
“…You don’t like us?”
In the first place, Kojou thought laying a hand on a girl like that was a crime in and of itself.
“No, that’s really not it at all—”
As Kojou sighed and stroked his wet hair back, his eyes rose as something suddenly nagged at him. How did these girls know that Kojou was entering the bath to begin with…?
“Wait, did Vattler put you up to this? Did he order you to come seduce me?”
Kojou’s question, aired in a low voice, made every face of the pretty girl brigade stiffen.
If the girls were acting on Vattler’s orders, Kojou could easily understand why they were after him while he was bathing. Siccing them on Kojou to alleviate his boredom seemed like exactly the kind of thing Vattler would do.
Bikini Black turned away to flee from Kojou’s suspicious glare.
“Er…it was not an order, more like, our interests coincide…?”
White excused herself with an awkward but charming smile.
“Right, right. And it’s totally true that we’re hostages.”
Kojou had no sense that the girls were lying to him. So, at the very least, the girls had entered the huge bathroom of their own volition. That didn’t change that Vattler had prompted them to do so, but—
“…Why does he want me to drink blood that badly, anyway?”
The lady in the blue bikini replied to Kojou’s murmur seriously.
“I truly wonder. It feels like he’s waiting for something, though…”
“Waiting?”
“Yes. It is as if he seeks the power to fight something more dangerous than a primogenitor—”
Kojou gasped.
On the one hand, you had the Nalakuvera that terrorists brought back to life; on the other, Kensei
Kanase’s Faux-Angel—either way, Vattler had displayed interest in weapons that had the potential to surpass a primogenitor in combat capability. And Kojou, the Fourth Primogenitor—the World’s Mightiest Vampire—certainly qualified as a being in possession of power “greater than a primogenitor.” It might have been mere coincidence, but it oddly added up.
Though given the kind of man Vattler was, he might have simply wanted to play with a powerful opponent…
Red had the last word as the girls left the bath:
“Well, since that’s how it is, call us anytime if you change your mind about this. We’ll let her take over for today…”
Kojou reddened as he heard conversational lines like “He’s cuter than I expected” and “For sure!” from the changing room. He felt very tired as he curled up into a defensive ball.
He’d barely kept his vampiric impulses under control, but his heart was beating strongly even then. He wasn’t in any condition for thinking about things rationally.
But deciding that he could leisurely immerse himself in the bath in the meantime, Kojou unfolded and began walking toward it. But as he did so, he suddenly recalled the brigade’s final words.
“‘Let her take over’…? Who?”
As Kojou stopped to consider, his ears picked up the sound of new footsteps approaching from the changing room. What came next was a familiar voice.
“—Wait, Sana! Watch out, the floor’s wet!”
“Eh…?” echoed Kojou.
Two human silhouettes emerged from the opposite side of the white steam. One was a very small girl with a bath towel covering virtually her entire body. The other was a high school girl with gorgeous facial features.
Noticing Kojou’s presence, Asagi stopped then and there in obvious surprise.
“Eh?!”
Her eyes opened wide as she stood stiffly, gazing dumbfounded at Kojou.
For a time, both of them gazed at each other without a word; then, they raised two great shouts of horror simultaneously.
4
Kojou muttered incoherently as he sank into the shallow Turkish bath.
“A-Asagi, why are you…?”
Fiesta for the Observers Page 12
