“Do you know him, director?”
Replying to that comment was a silver-haired, blue-eyed girl with an air of gentleness hovering around her like that of a saint. She was Kanon Kanase, Yukina’s classmate. And sitting cross-legged on her lap was a beautiful Eastern doll about thirty centimeters tall.
With a jiggle of the doll’s bountiful breasts, she inclined her head, as if searching through vague memories and said, “I met him in person once, about a century ago… No, perhaps it was two centuries…?”
With an annoyed look on his face, Kojou stared at the doll and Kanon as he asked, “…So, Kanase, what’s with the getup you two are in?”
Kanon was not wearing the familiar uniform of Saikai Academy but rather a pure-white, long-skirted apron dress. The outfit made her look like a military nurse auxiliary from the time of the Great European War. The color made Kanon resemble an angel, suiting her to an almost bizarre degree—but Kojou didn’t want to think that she wore cosplay normally.
“I…I am Astarte’s assistant,” Kanon spoke in a little voice as she looked toward the floor, seemingly blushing as she held down her nurse’s cap.
“Assistant?” Kojou nodded, his face vaguely saying Okaaay.
Kanon Kanase and Astarte were living as houseguests at Natsuki Minamiya’s residence. When Kojou had contacted Astarte, Kanon had delivered his message. That said, he didn’t think Kanon, a mere middle schooler, could work as Astarte’s assistant, but—
“Do not fault Kanon too greatly, Kojou. When she heard you ask Astarte to give an examination, she wrongly believed that you had collapsed, so she got it in her head to nurse you.”
The doll sitting on Kanon’s lap spoke up in her defense.
No, properly speaking, she wasn’t a doll at all; she was what was left of Nina Adelard, once called the Great Alchemist of Yore.
Nina, having lost most of her physical flesh during the Wiseman’s Blood incident, had been the size of a small pet ever since, remaining under Kanon’s care. However, even in her diminutive form, her haughty demeanor remained undaunted, but perhaps that was testament to her greatness.
“D-director!” Kanon cried in a panic, her pale, almost translucent skin tinged a deep red.
Nina looked up at the flustered Kanon with a dubious look. “What? Is it not the truth?”
“Really…? Thanks, Kanase.”
With Kanon shrinking in embarrassment, Kojou gave her his honest thanks. After all, this was Kanon, who’d once tried to care for fourteen stray cats at once, unable to turn her back on a single one. He thought of her as a girl who would never leave a sick acquaintance to rot.
“Not at all… It was for you, after all…”
Speaking these words, Kanon smiled, delighted. Yukina, listening to their exchange, cleared her throat.
“So what do you intend to do with the girl, senpai?”
“Good question… The trouble is, I’d love to leave her to Natsuki if I could, but…”
Kojou grimaced as he spoke. Put bluntly, managing Celesta was too much for them to handle. He genuinely wanted to shove the whole thing onto a trustworthy, professional Attack Mage without a moment to spare.
However—
“Master is on a special patrol mission at the request of the Island Guard,” Astarte replied in a businesslike tone.
Kojou had an unpleasant premonition as he narrowed his eyes and asked, “…Special patrol mission?”
“Affirmative. According to information, signs have been detected of unregistered demons infiltrating the country.”
“Infiltrating the… Wait, you’re not talking about her, are you…?”
Kojou pointed at Celesta as he wondered aloud. After all, she’d been stuffed in a box and sent by way of home delivery. He didn’t exactly think proper customs procedures had been followed.
That said, did Celesta really pose enough danger to warrant a special patrol?
“Unclear. I cannot reply due to insufficient data.”
“That figures…”
Kojou made no objection to Astarte’s simple reply. Yukina, too, merely nodded without a word.
“I guess all we can do is wait and see for now. If she…Celesta…is just sleeping, she should wake up sometime soon, right? Maybe Vattler will get in touch before that happens. Sorry, Astarte, could you try to get in touch with Natsuki for me?”
“Accepted.”
The homunculus girl nodded. Legally speaking, Astarte had been put under Natsuki Minamiya’s guardianship. There was surely no one better to entrust with a message while Natsuki was with the Island Guard.
“Well then, Kanon and I shall prepare dinner during that time. As you can see, we have already finished purchasing ingredients,” Nina said, albeit in a condescending manner. Apparently, ingredients for supper were inside the numerous bags Kanon had carried in.
“I’m grateful to hear that, but…I’m kinda surprised. Setting Kanon aside, you can cook, too?” asked Kojou in surprise.
Certainly, Nina was an excellent alchemist, but the way she typically spoke and acted made Kojou unable to shake the image that she couldn’t do proper cooking.
Nina responded to Kojou’s stark doubts with a ferocious smile. “Do not underestimate me. I am she who has mastered the Magnum Opus. I shall demonstrate the quintessence of cooking from my homeland of Parmia. It has been two centuries. I cannot wait.”
“Wait, two centuries, is that all right here?! Is it really?!” exclaimed Kojou as a nervous sweat spread across his back.
“…Himeragi, sorry, but could you watch over Kanase and Nina’s cooki…… Himeragi?”
Kojou addressed her in a quiet voice, but Yukina made no immediate response. Her eyes seemed glazed over as they stared somewhere off in the distance, yet in spite of that, she held her breath with an oddly serious expression.
After a brief delay, she finally noticed Kojou and said, “Ah, senpai. I apologize.”
“…Something happen?” Kojou watched her soberly.
“No, it is all right. I simply felt as if someone was watching me. I believe it was my imagination. There is an anti-intrusion barrier around this apartment, after all.”
“I-is that so?”
“Yes. Therefore, please leave the seasoning of Nina’s cooking to me.”
Yukina raised her face with a look of pride. She pointed toward the kitchen of the Himeragi residence which, for some reason, was stocked with a large quantity of mayonnaise…
“R-right…”
As Yukina aggressively rolled up her sleeves, Kojou stared and nodded weakly.
Beside them, the foreign girl continued sleeping peacefully, moaning with an expression that suggested she was having a dream.
2
Natsuki Minamiya picked up the phone call at a viewing lounge on the top floor of the airport. The number displayed on her cell phone’s screen was not one she remembered recording.
“Heya, Teacher Girl. How are ya? It’s me, me—!”
The greeting coming through the speaker was that of a very chummy middle-aged man. She knew that voice. The velvety tone only served to make it all the more irritating.
“…” Natsuki knit her brows indifferently and quietly ended the call.
She was about to return the cell phone to her bag, but the incoming ringtone sounded once more. “Goodness,” Natsuki muttered, letting out a long sigh and grudgingly touching the phone to her ear.
“Hey now, don’t suddenly hang up without one word of greeting. At least let me thank you for taking care of my idiot son.”
“…What is it, grave robber? I did not plan for a three-party conversation.” Natsuki questioned him back with a chilly tone.
The caller was Gajou Akatsuki. From Natsuki’s point of view, he was the father of one of her pupils.
More precisely, Natsuki knew Gajou Akatsuki before his son had ever enrolled in Saikai Academy. The father was an archeologist, a field worker who traveled to conflict zones the world over, pilfering excavated goods during the tu
rmoil of combat—a hairbreadth from looting during a fire.
It was on one such battlefield that Natsuki had met him.
“I wanted to do a little informing. I’d love it if you followed up, but…” Gajou spoke in a manner that was, for once, sober and serious.
A blatant expression of wariness came over Natsuki. According to rumor, Gajou Akatsuki had been out on an excavation on the fringes of the Chaos Zone until a few short days prior.
“Informing, you say. Where are you right now?”
“I just landed at Haneda Airport. That civil war–related job got canceled at the last minute, see. I brought my daughter with me for homecoming. But plane tickets to Japan are so expensive. And when did they jack up the price of midflight beers? Real pain in the ass.”
“Just get to the point already. If you don’t want me to expose the sins of your past to your lovely bride, that is.”
The barbs in Natsuki’s voice increased. She felt like Gajou was smirking on the other end of the line.
“Okay, got it. The main topic. You know of a chick named Angelica Hermida?”
“…No, I don’t know her.”
Natsuki shook her head after a brief pause. She possessed confidence in never forgetting the name of a single Attack Mage or sorcerous criminal after hearing it initially over the course of her work. However, this was the first time she’d heard of Angelica Hermida.
“Didn’t think so,” Gajou said rather bluntly. “Not any fault of yours. She’s not your run-of-the-mill sorcerous criminal.”
“Who is she?”
“She’s the head of Zenforce—CSA Army’s special forces company.”
“A soldier…?”
“That’s right. Rank of major. She participated in military interrogations on the government side in the Andes Commonwealth civil war four years ago. It’s said that she commanded a unit of forty-four people, who killed almost two thousand guerillas, earning her the nickname of Bloodstained Angelica—what makes it a little tough is that she’s a real babe. In an expensive designer coat, she looks like a celebrity’s trophy wife.”
“…Why do you know all this, Gajou Akatsuki?”
Natsuki’s face grew graver still at how Gajou was speaking like he’d seen her in person.
“Well,” said Gajou, breaking into laughter, his behavior lacking all trace of seriousness, “that’s because I walked right past her a few minutes ago.”
“What…?!”
“She was waiting for a flight to Itogami Island in the lobby here at Haneda. By now, she’s probably landed over on your end. I couldn’t confirm who she had with her, but it’s probably a four-man squad at absolute minimum,” Gajou commented, as if he was discussing idle gossip.
Natsuki’s lips twisted in distinct displeasure.
“And you just watched them go without lifting a finger?”
“Damn right I did. I’m a civilian here—what did you expect? Of course, I put my daughter’s safety first.”
“Tch,” went Natsuki, nastily clicking her tongue.
Though it annoyed her to an almost unbelievable degree to admit, Gajou was right. Even if he did possess combat skill on par with a mercenary, Gajou was still a civilian in the end. He had no reason to fight Angelica Hermida.
“The CSA, yes…? There seem to be a lot of fishy movements taking place around the Chaos Zone lately.”
“Your understanding the situation makes this a lot quicker. Well, that’s how it is, so I’ll leave it in your hands,” Gajou said. “Later.”
His quick farewell was the last thing he said before hanging up unbidden. When the cell phone fell silent, Natsuki glared at it, clicking her tongue once more.
Just as Gajou Akatsuki had indicated, a flight from Haneda had been scheduled to arrive at Itogami Island only a few minutes prior. The passengers were probably heading to the customs counter that very moment.
She did not know Angelica Hermida’s objective. However, it was hard to believe that a member of a foreign nation’s special forces would visit the Far East Demon Sanctuary for no reason. Considering her relationship to the civil war in the Chaos Zone, that much was virtually certain.
The Chaos Zone in Central America was the Dominion ruled by the Third Primogenitor, the Chaos Bride.
And on Itogami Island lived the Fourth Primogenitor—
“…Can I make it in time?”
Natsuki fished out her personal radio for communicating with the Island Guard.
She could worry later. Angelica Hermida could not be permitted onto Itogami Island. They needed to detain her in the airport before ever reaching the city. She gave orders to that effect to the responsible party in the Island Guard, and immediately after—
Natuski heard the sudden sound of intense gunfire, accompanied by the screams of people fleeing.
3
“Aah—…”
In the kitchen of Yukina’s apartment, two middle schoolers and one doll continued to cook in silence.
Kojou watched them with a nervous expression punctuated by cold sweat.
Yukina, who lived by herself, had the bare minimum equipment required for cooking. She employed a single combat knife for everything from peeling vegetables to slicing meat off bones to even opening canned food.
That very moment, she was pulverizing cow bones for soup stock through brute force. The sight of Yukina waving a giant knife around in a cramped kitchen looked less like cooking and more like a particularly pitiful display.
As Yukina prepared the soup, Kanon was frying food in a wok.
Though it was not especially surprising, Kanon’s level of cooking skill was average for her age. Her work was diligent, but Kojou couldn’t call it skillful, even as flattery. Put simply, it was precarious. Kojou’s heart was on edge as he watched her sway the heavy pot around. He felt like a father covertly watching over a child in kindergarten.
“Um…you know, maybe I could help with something?”
Kojou, finally reaching the limit of his endurance, addressed the pair. As he did…
“A-Akatsuki, I am sorry. You would be…in the way.”
“Eh? Whoaaa!”
When Kojou looked back in response to Kanon’s statement, he was greeted by flame spewing from the wok in her hands. Set atop a propane burner, the heated oil within had caught fire.
Kojou’s upper body recoiled from the stark pillar of flame rising before his eyes.
“What is that? Cooking?! Is that cooking?!”
“Do not be concerned. ’Tis the cooking technique known as charring. In Parmia cooking, fire is life. A first-rate cook can manipulate flame akin to her own hands and feet, as you see before you.”
As Kojou stared on in total shock, Nina spoke confidently, looking like she was experienced in such matters.
“Er…it doesn’t seem like you’re controlling it much at all. And that’s not Parmia cooking, that’s just normal Chinese, isn’t it…? And in the first place, what are you bragging about? You’re making Kanase do the cooking.”
“It cannot be helped. I cannot shake a pot at my size. More importantly, the next ingredients. Kanon, prepare the meat. Yukina, I entrust preparing the fish to you.”
“Yes, director.”
Meekly obeying Nina’s instructions, Kanon pulled some beef out of the freezer. She began making some kind of silent prayer toward the beef as if she was giving thanks. For Kojou, it was a surreal scene difficult to comprehend.
For her part, Yukina laid some mysterious object on its side atop the counter and said, “Senpai, could you stand back a little?”
“Sure… Wait, what the hell is that?!”
“I believe it is a species of deep-sea fish.”
The thing she had deposited onto the counter was an amorphous, soft, flabby object that seemed almost like a mass of gelatin. Its entire body was covered with black specks, and Kojou couldn’t exactly call the bulging eyeball charming. Surely, if not for the short, perfunctory tail, few people would think it was a fish. It was a mysterious lif
e-form that seemed like a cross between puffer fish, catfish, anglerfish, and slime.
“I-is this…edible?”
“Do not be concerned. ’Tis the most prized ingredient of all in the land of my birth.”
“Is it really?” muttered Kojou in the face of Nina’s proud comment. “Um, Himeragi.”
“I-it is not a problem. I have received survival training from the Lion King Agency, so…!”
Yukina, gripping her combat knife harder, seemed to have said that for her own benefit. It seemed like mostly stubbornness rather than any actual confidence in it as an ingredient.
However, the knife Yukina thrust into the deep-sea fish was obstructed by some mysterious membrane covering it. Half out of annoyance, Yukina raised her brows at the unexpectedly fierce combat and drew a second knife. Alternating left and right swings of her paired blades, her deadly duel with the deep-sea fish recommenced.
“…Sorry. I’ll leave you to it.”
With those final words, Kojou walked out of the kitchen. Apparently, the situation was beyond his means. All he could do was pray that they would safely reach the point of something edible. If only Nagisa were here at a time like this, he could not help thinking.
“Haah…”
A sigh trickled out of Kojou as he made his way toward the bedroom in which Celesta rested.
Astarte still silently observed Celesta as she slept. Noticing that Kojou was drawing near, the homunculus girl lifted her face without making a sound.
“Astarte, how’s Celesta doing?”
“Continuous sleep. Rapid eye movement and skeletal muscle relaxation confirmed. Brain wave state is predominately theta. Heart rate and breathing are both uneven.”
“Er…what…does all that mean…?”
The series of unfamiliar specialized terms bewildered Kojou.
Astarte emotionlessly blinked and stated, “I believe she is dreaming.”
“Dreams…huh? Nothing good by the looks of it…,” Kojou muttered as he stared at Celesta’s sleeping face. Her expression, including the biting of her tongue, made her look like she was having a nightmare, or perhaps even crying.
Bride of the Dark God Page 6
