Yukina’s expression grew quiet and concerned. Her words made Kojou catch on to what she meant, too.
“If they’ve started a revolt despite all that…that means…”
“Yes. That they might have obtained some kind of trump card with which they can oppose even a primogenitor.”
“O…kay…”
Kojou suddenly remembered a man named Kristof Gardos.
The remnants of the so-called Black Death Emperor Front had plotted to obtain the ancient weapons known as Nalakuvera in order to oppose the First Primogenitor who ruled the Warlord’s Empire.
Gardos’s plan failed in the end, but the Nalakuvera’s combat capability had indeed been a menace. It was no mere boast that they were capable of opposing a primogenitor. Had Asagi Aiba not turned the tables, Itogami Island would surely have been destroyed by a mere handful of them.
It wasn’t much of a stretch that a rebel army in the Chaos Zone plotting insurrection against a primogenitor like Gardos had weapons on par with the Nalakuvera for its own. That was likely what worried Yukina. But—
“S-senpai, the pot!”
As Kojou was indulging in such reverie, Yukina shouted from beside him. When he suddenly looked, the pot filled with meat simmering over a propane flame was starting to boil over.
“Uh-oh…! …Yeowch, hot!”
“Senpai?!”
Kojou rushed over to the burner to weaken the flame, inadvertently touching the pot lid in the process. Yukina, seeing this, drew in her breath and said, “Are you all right?! If we do not cool that immediately—”
“Ah…er, it’s probably all right. A little burn like this should heal in no time…”
“That will not do. Even if you are a vampire, proper application of first aid will reduce the time it takes to heal, so—”
She took the hesitant Kojou by the hand and dragged him over to the sink. Kojou, in unexpectedly close quarters with her, was stricken once again by the same tension as before.
“Senpai? What is the matter?” Yukina asked, confused by Kojou’s stiffness.
With her at very close range, he subconsciously looked away from her big eyes and said:
“Er, I was just thinking, Himeragi, it’s a funny feeling standing here in the kitchen, just the two of us…”
“J-just the two of us…”
Realizing that she was, in fact, embracing Kojou from behind, Yukina’s face flushed a deep red. However, having proclaimed she was administering first aid, she could not thrust him aside partway.
Before Kojou’s eyes, with black hair hanging over it, was the back of Yukina’s pale neck.
The pleasant scent of Yukina’s hair pricked at Kojou’s nostrils. He felt the beat of her heart through his back. Even though she was nervous, Yukina made no move of resistance. Kojou swallowed, his throat feeling incredibly dry. And then—
Ding-dong—
“Wh-whoa?!”
“Hyaa?!”
At the sudden ring of the doorbell, Kojou and Yukina separated as if feeling an electric jolt. Simultaneously, the pair deeply exhaled, liberated from the tension. The beats of Kojou’s pounding heart were very noisy. As if to conceal his flushed cheeks, he glared in the direction of the entrance in visible consternation.
“Who is it at a time like this?”
“It seems to be a package delivery. Shall I go out?”
“Nah, that’s fine. I’ll go.”
When Yukina moved to take off her apron, Kojou stopped her and headed for the entrance.
When he opened the front door, barely checking first, a male deliveryman was standing there in a uniform he didn’t recognize. At his feet rested a large suitcase with a packing slip plastered on it—the kind used for international shipping.
“Package for delivery. Sign here to indicate receipt, please.”
“Ah, right, right.”
The description of the contents of the package on the packing slip the deliveryman tendered was in flowing, handwritten English. Kojou could only make out his own name and the apartment’s address. He imagined that Gajou must have been the one who had sent it. He couldn’t think of anyone else who’d send a suspicious international package like that.
“Have a nice day—”
When Kojou finished awkwardly signing, the deliveryman forcefully snatched the packing slip back and proceeded to depart. All that was left in front of the entrance was the giant parcel.
It was a heavy metallic case. It seemed to be nearly a hundred kilograms in weight. Kojou had a little trouble carrying it one-handed, even with his vampiric arm strength.
“What’s with this huge suitcase…? Errr……?!”
Crouching next to the baggage, Kojou checked the packing slip one more time. Then, when Kojou made out the sender’s name, he raised a hoarse cry.
“Geh…! Wait a sec! I don’t need this package. Rather, I’d like you to take it back…!”
Kojou leaped out of the entrance barefoot, calling out to the deliveryman. However, the deliveryman was already nowhere to be seen in the apartment building corridor. He was long gone.
“—Wait, he’s not here anymore! Shit!!”
Kojou fell to his knees, drained of strength. It was Kojou’s mistake to have signed the form without having checked the sender. He ought to have rejected the package and insisted it be returned, whatever it took.
“Senpai? Did something happen?”
Yukina, noticing Kojou’s odd state, called out to him. Kojou, clutching his head in anguish, pointed at the suitcase and said:
“This happened. Look, here.”
“…Eh?! Dimitrie Vattler…the Duke of Ardeal is the sender?!”
Yukina’s expression stiffened as she stared at the attached packing slip. The name of the individual written upon it was simply that unexpected.
The sender of the suitcase was Dimitrie Vattler—the battle-maniac vampire native to the Warlord’s Empire. The very fact that he’d gone out of his way to send it to Kojou made him imagine that the content was nothing good.
“And I went and signed for it. Aw, shit, I messed up…”
“Th-that does make things difficult. Even if you were to return it, the Duke of Ardeal’s ship is not in port…,” Yukina murmured, bewildered.
The giant cruise ship upon which Vattler lived had already left port—its whereabouts unknown. Considering that the package had been sent by international shipping, it was a safe bet that he was somewhere outside of Japan.
“Well, we can’t just let it sit there without looking at it…can we?” Kojou’s expression contorted. He genuinely didn’t want to know what was in the package Vattler had sent him.
However, Yukina nodded in resignation.
“I suppose not. We cannot take countermeasures without checking to see what is inside. There is no guarantee that it is safe so long as it remains unopened.”
“Yeah, you have a point…… Better not be a bomb that blows up the second you open it…”
Kojou shifted an annoyed gaze to the suitcase. As if to console him, Yukina shook her head with an earnest expression.
“I believe there is little need to be concerned about that. After all, senpai, even if your entire body is ripped to pieces, you should return to life immediately, and I can nullify any type of curse or spell with Snowdrift Wolf. Knowing this, I doubt the Duke of Ardeal would do something so futile.”
“That makes logical sense, but he’ll do pretty much anything if it amuses him.”
“Now that you mention it, you have a point…”
Yukina, influenced by Kojou’s blunt statement, bit her lip, as if she feared that as well.
“But waffling about won’t solve anything. Himeragi, please.”
“Yes.”
His resolve apparently hardened, Kojou stood up and carried the suitcase into the living room. In the meantime, Yukina opened up her favorite guitar case, pulling out the silver spear within.
This was a Schneewaltzer, a secret weapon of the Lion King Agency—a purg
ing spear able to rend any barrier and nullify demonic energy. Even if there was a magical trap cast upon the suitcase, so long as Yukina had the spear activated, damage to the surrounding area ought to be minimal at worst. Against physical attacks, she could only pray that Kojou’s Beast Vassals could manage somehow.
Checking to see that Yukina’s preparations were complete, Kojou stretched a hand toward the suitcase. That was all it took to release the lock; perhaps it had reacted to Kojou’s demonic energy. Vattler really had intended for the case to be for Kojou, and Kojou alone.
“Let’s do this. Three…two…one…!” Kojou counted “Zero” and simultaneously yanked open the case.
That instant, thick, pure-white mist spewed out of the case.
Naturally, he hadn’t expected that to happen. Yukina, too, was bewildered, unable to respond.
“It’s cold… What the hell is this?! Dry ice?!”
The room temperature plunged as the white mist enveloped them. However, he felt no danger. The scent and other stimuli were not particularly strange; it was just very cold. Any careless touch with a bare hand would get the frost that was dancing around inside the suitcase onto one’s flesh. It was without doubt that the temperature was lower than a freezer’s.
Kojou, obstructed by the dense mist, could not tell what was inside the case. He kept his hand on the case’s handle, unable to do anything except wait for the mist to clear. And then—
“Get back, senpai. There is a person inside—!”
Yukina suddenly turned the tip of her spear toward the case.
Kojou peered through a slender break in the cold mist to see the contents within. Amid the cloudy, freezing air, there was a human being stuffed into the case—one with a petite, beautiful figure.
“A w-woman…?!” Kojou murmured, shocked.
The stark-white mist filling the case cleared away, completely exposing the figure. She had delicate, light-brown skin and honey-colored hair as dazzling as the sun. Her limbs were supple, and her face looked quite young. She had tight hips and a surprisingly abundant swell to her breasts—
Lying on her side inside the case was this young, foreign-born girl—a beautiful young woman wearing not even a single stitch of clothing. However, she did not move. She continued her cold sleep, almost as if she were dead.
“H-how long are you going to continue looking?!”
With Kojou fascinated by the girl, Yukina launched a palm strike at the side of his face.
“Ghoh!” He reeled backward as he held the tip of his nose. Kojou couldn’t help but feel angry at Yukina’s excessive, irrational action. Yes, he was staring at a buck naked girl, but that couldn’t be avoided under the circumstances. It was an act of fate, no matter how you sliced it.
“Well, you don’t have to put it like— Aaah…!”
As Kojou raised his voice to object, fresh blood vigorously flowed out of his nose.
Right in front of Kojou was the completely nude foreign girl lying on her side. Yukina glared sullenly at the sight of Kojou getting a nosebleed while looking down at the two of them.
“Senpai…”
“Y-you’re wrong. This is because you smacked me in the—”
Kojou desperately made excuses as blood flowed from his nose. Yukina stared at Kojou with a cold gaze.
“Indecent.”
She said it like an afterthought in a voice bereft of emotion. Then, she sighed disparagingly.
“Why meeeee?!” Kojou shouted on the spot.
As the two stared at each other like that, the beautiful, foreign girl quietly continued to sleep.
CHAPTER TWO
VISITORS FROM THE BATTLEFIELD
1
In the nook of a simple room with minimal furniture, there was a bed with an equally simple design. This was Yukina’s bedroom in her apartment.
On her side, the foreign-born girl sent in a suitcase lay upon the clean, pastel-blue sheets. Asserting that she could not leave an unconscious girl with Kojou, Yukina had brought the girl into her own room.
The foreigner was wearing a T-shirt and shorts that Kojou had lent. Yukina was unable to dress the girl in her own clothes, chiefly due to the largeness of her breasts. Yukina didn’t know if it was a difference in ethnicity, or simple individual variation, but in the battle of bust sizes, the foreign-born girl wielded overwhelming superiority.
And sitting right beside the mysterious young woman was a small-statured, blue-haired homunculus, stethoscope in one hand.
This was the sole experimental Beast Vassal symbiont homunculus in the entire world—Astarte.
“—Body temperature normal. No abnormal heart rate. No external injuries. Background brain waves detected in theta and beta ranges. Diagnosis, stage three: deep sleep.”
The homunculus girl spoke those words in a calm tone largely bereft of intonation.
That day, the girl was wearing a white gown over her usual maid uniform—a rather sharp clash of attire.
Astarte, originally designed as a medical homunculus for a pharmaceutical corporation, apparently had medical knowledge on par with an MD installed by default. That was why Kojou and Yukina had called her over to examine the still-unconscious foreigner.
Perplexed, Kojou furrowed his brow and asked the homunculus girl, “Meaning what, Astarte?”
Astarte looked over her shoulder with a neutral expression and haltingly replied, “She is…sound asleep.”
“…That is to say, she is merely asleep?” Yukina looked bewildered.
After all, the girl had been frozen, stuffed into a suitcase, and shipped internationally. That she was alive at all was a miracle by any definition. There weren’t many “immortal” vampires who could withstand that.
However, Astarte calmly conveyed the naked truth:
“Affirmative. It is not a magically or chemically induced coma.”
“So what, the case was rigged with something?”
“I suppose so. Most likely.” Yukina gazed at the suitcase standing in a corner of the room and agreed with Kojou’s comment.
A human being, sealed away alive, and revived the instant the seal was opened—though simple at first glance, such a system was built with rather high-level sorcery. It had to have been very expensive. However mad Vattler might be, Yukina didn’t think he’d use such an expensive case to send a mere girl to Kojou’s address for no reason.
“Astarte, can you tell us anything else about her…? I’d love some info on what she is and where she comes from, like, if she’s some kind of special demon or s—”
“Negative. The patient’s biological patterns do not fit any known demons whatsoever.”
Astarte readily shook her head in the face of Kojou’s hopeful question. She completely refuted the possibility that the girl was some kind of rare demon like Yume.
“Ethnically, I can confirm she shares characteristics of Latin American first nations and European Caucasians. Her physical age is fifteen. She is in excellent health. Her height is one hundred and seventy-one centimeters. Her weight is forty-six kilograms. Beginning with the top, her three sizes are eighty-six—”
“Wait, wait! We don’t need those numbers!”
Kojou rushed to stop Astarte from divulging more of the girl’s personal information. Astarte inclined her head in surprise.
“Question: Have you already taken these measurements for yourself?” she asked.
“Like hell…!”
“When did you…?!” even Yukina exclaimed, watching Kojou with a shocked expression.
“I didn’t!! Don’t take her seriously, Himeragi!
“Why would I even check that?!” Kojou shouted, his voice going hoarse. It was true that the girl had a marvelous body that did not match her age, but he was hardly skillful enough to guess her three sizes from a few glimpses.
“Anyway, ain’t there any other info?! I mean, besides the size of her breasts and stuff!”
“—I deduce that her individual name is Celesta Ciate.”
In contr
ast to the raggedly breathing Kojou, Astarte continued to speak at her own, measured pace. “What?!” Kojou and Yukina blurted out simultaneously, rocked by the unexpected information.
“How did you know that?” Kojou asked.
“Answer: It is written on the packing slip.”
“Ah…”
Kojou spontaneously felt his strength drain from him when he saw Astarte point at the suitcase. Thanks to there being so many things written, it had escaped his sight, but on the declaration of contents on the home delivery packing slip, it indeed stated CELESTA CIATE, QTY: 1.
“That’s pretty up-front… Well, fine. Anyway, thanks, Astarte. You’ve been a great help.”
Kojou’s shoulders listlessly fell as he spoke words of appreciation. When Kojou called Astarte out of the blue, she’d come without even asking why. If not for her medical knowledge, Kojou and Yukina would have probably been carrying the still-sleeping Celesta around with nary a clue between them.
“Gratitude is unnecessary. This is a simplified diagnosis, not an accurate examination. Just to be safe, I recommend obtaining a diagnosis from a proper physician.”
“If she was simply some girl who’d fainted, we’d just take her straight to a hospital. But it was that bastard Vattler who sent her, so…”
Kojou sullenly flicked up his forelocks as he gazed at Celesta’s sleeping face. That Dimitrie Vattler had sent the girl to Kojou by name. There was no guarantee she was the harmless being she appeared to be. Bringing her to a hospital would potentially put innocent hospital staff and patients in danger.
On the other hand, he was worried about continuing to shelter Celesta as Vattler had apparently intended. He had the unpleasant sense of somehow being that man’s partner in crime.
“Oh-ho. Dimitrie Vattler…the Master of Serpents of the Warlord’s Empire? I have not heard that name in some time. I wonder what he could be up to,” said a conflicted, casual voice, one Kojou abruptly heard from behind. It employed a grandiose tone that was somehow larger-than-life.
Bride of the Dark God Page 5
