“…Huh?!”

  When Kojou looked back, he opened his eyes in shock and froze completely.

  Without a word, she stood in the rays of the sinking sun pouring through the warehouse’s sunroof: a young girl with delicate, fairylike features.

  Her limbs were as thin as a child’s, her physique was slender, and her eyes were as pale blue as a glacier. Her hair was colored faintly blond; like a rainbow, it seemed to change color depending on the angle. She possessed an inhumanly beautiful face, something that seemed straight out of a Western painting, the kind of beauty that inspired awe on an instinctive level.

  Kojou stood unsteadily as he moaned out, “Why…do I know you…?!”

  Once more, countless visions poured into his brain.

  He knew her.

  He had met her long before, somewhere else. Somewhere stained with violence, slaughter, and blood—

  “Gah?!”

  The girl gently stepped forward. Previously shrouded in pure, white mist, the entirety of her willowy body became visible. That instant, Kojou’s expression contorted out of nervousness, because he finally realized the girl wasn’t wearing a single stitch of clothing. Her slightly visible ribs, the faint swell of her breasts, her skin so pale that you could almost see through her… She was completely naked, her whole body fully exposed to Kojou’s eyes.

  “W-wait…”

  Kojou put a hand out to try to stop her, but the girl’s feet did not halt. Nor could Kojou look away; he was entranced by her, unable to move, not unlike drones captivated by their queen bee.

  “Shit… At a time like this…”

  Kojou suddenly found it hard to breathe. A metallic scent assaulted his nostrils; the taste of blood spread throughout his mouth. He was bleeding from his nose.

  The causes were probably the precipitous drop in temperature and the accompanying shift in air pressure, plus the stress related to the bizarre situation before him. He wanted to think that it was not because he was aroused at seeing her nude.

  The girl made a wry smile when she saw the expression on Kojou’s face. It was a pretty smile that suited her elfin looks, but somehow, it seemed malicious.

  With Kojou unable to move, the girl walked to him with surprising speed, drawing her face near his. White, gleaming fangs protruded from her shapely lips.

  The soft feeling of her lips pressing against him kept Kojou frozen stiff and unresponsive.

  After a time, the girl pulled back from Kojou. A thin line of fresh, glossy blood trickled from the edge of her mouth. She licked it off, narrowing her eyes in obvious satisfaction.

  Kojou’s voice quivered as he realized what the girl before his eyes really was.

  “You…drank my blood…?!”

  She was a demon. More than that, she was an unregistered vampire wielding immense, off-the-charts power.

  The explosion rocking the hospital and the cold, icy air were probably manifestations of the awakening of her demonic power. Even Kojou, a resident of a Demon Sanctuary, had never before encountered such a powerful vampire.

  Kojou resigned himself to death at her hands. She was an unregistered demon; the Demon Sanctuary’s laws held no sway over her. Neither the monitoring network spread over the island nor the Attack Mages of the Island Guard could protect him now.

  Even if she was small in stature, a Demon’s physical prowess was overwhelming. She’d never need to use a vampire’s Beast Vassal. She could easily rip Kojou apart with her bare hands.

  But her next action was not the one Kojou expected.

  Her eyes blinked heavily, as if she’d just woken up. She looked at Kojou, standing right before her, and timidly backed away from him.

  “U…a…”

  The girl let out an unsteady cry as she hid her bare breasts with both arms. She was nothing like the girl who had just licked Kojou’s trickling blood with a malevolent smile. Now, she looked like a completely different person: a helpless, insecure child.

  “You’re…”

  Kojou couldn’t hide his bewilderment over her sudden about-face.

  Instantly, a mysterious, unprecedented, and ferocious sense of guilt overcame Kojou. If a stranger saw them at that exact moment, the individual would surely be convinced he had assaulted the naked girl.

  And as if fulfilling Kojou’s worst fears, a presence emerged behind him at that very moment: a woman wearing a black coat, pointing something like a gun at Kojou as she shouted:

  “—Don’t move!”

  “Ah?!”

  Kojou reflexively raised both hands into the air as he looked back.

  The person standing there was a young, seductive brunette. Her face was chiseled and refined but surprisingly young; Kojou would have guessed she was only two or three years older than he.

  The woman was pointing a black, metallic crossbow at him. But it wasn’t loaded. It was a bluff, a mere threat.

  Kojou glared at her. “You’re a vampire, too, huh? So you’re the intruders barging into the lab?”

  Strangely, he felt no fear. In spite of the lady-spy-chic clothing she wore, there was no aura of violence coming from the girl. On the contrary, she felt like a soft, spoiled little girl whose defenses were hardly impervious.

  The woman did not answer Kojou, posing her own question instead.

  “Just to be certain—you are Kojou Akatsuki, correct?”

  Kojou blinked in surprise. He subconsciously checked to make sure he wasn’t wearing some kind of name tag.

  “How do you know my name?”

  “I am Veldiana Caruana, the daughter of Duke Caruana of the Warlord’s Empire.”

  “Caruana…?!”

  Her words threw Kojou off. Of course, it was the first time he had met the vampire who stood before his eyes.

  If she was related to the Duke of the Warlord’s Empire, she was a pureblood descendant of the First Primogenitor, the Lost Warlord—not the sort of person Kojou, a mere middle school student, ought to have as an acquaintance.

  And yet, he felt like he’d seen her before.

  Put more precisely, he knew someone who really resembled her: a beautiful female researcher, with her own brunette hair cut short. Someone who had risked her life to protect Kojou and Nagisa…

  “I am aware you have lost your memories of Gozo Island. Perhaps you cannot remember, but I want you to believe me: I am not your enemy, nor do I have any intention of causing harm to MAR.”

  Kojou glanced around his miserable surroundings and sighed in apparent disbelief.

  “No intention of causing harm… So, what, the underground explosion wasn’t you?”

  Veldiana averted her gaze with a guilty expression.

  “Th-that girl was held captive. I merely wanted to bring her out with me.”

  Veldiana pointed to the blond vampire girl as she spoke. The girl’s shoulders twitched and trembled; for some reason, she hid behind Kojou’s back.

  “…Held captive? You mean, she was a patient here?”

  “If I must be specific, ‘guinea pig’ might be more accurate…”

  Veldiana narrowed her eyes with a pitying look as she gazed at the blond girl.

  “She’s an MAR research subject? Because she’s a vampire?”

  “Yes, that is correct. That girl is not normal, but rather, a very special vampire.”

  Veldiana, apparently judging that Kojou had no hostile intent, lowered the crossbow in her hand. That was when Kojou noticed the fresh blood trickling down her right arm.

  “That wound… Did a guard shoot you?”

  Veldiana pressed her left hand against the open wound and snarled, “Do not underestimate a vampire’s healing ability. A wound like this will heal soon enough.”

  However, she seemed to be in considerable pain. When he looked closer, he noticed her eyes were watering.

  Kojou tediously shook his head and glared at her.

  “…Maybe if it was a normal wound, but this is a Demon Sanctuary. There’s no way they weren’t using special anti-demon rounds.”

  “I suppose you’re right. That’s why I don’t want to expose her to danger if at all possible.”

  Veldiana accepted Kojou’s statement with surprising ease. Then, she folded the crossbow and presented it to him.

  “Please. Work with me, Kojou Akatsuki.”

  “Work with…?”

  Even as Kojou snatched the crossbow away from her, he was confused, unable to discern her true intent. Put bluntly, her relinquishing the unloaded crossbow had startled him.

  “I want you to take her and escape. I will distract the guards. Use the opening to get her out of here somehow. If you’re Gajou’s son, you can surely do that much.”

  “Huh?”

  What does Dad have to do with this? Kojou wondered, even more bewildered. Regardless, things were somehow starting to make sense. If the vampiress was an acquaintance of Gajou, that’d explain how she knew Kojou’s name. So it figures that her personality is just a little off, he thought.

  Then, perhaps taking Kojou’s silence for a yes, Veldiana walked away from him and the girl on her way out.

  “Get her somewhere safe. I will come for her later.”

  “Hey, wait!”

  Kojou urgently objected. Nothing but trouble could come from having this buck-naked girl pushed onto him with no explanation.

  “Explain things a little, dammit! Why are you just assuming I’m gonna help—?!”

  “There’s no time to explain!” Veldiana shouted right back with a twinge of annoyance. Behind Kojou, the blond girl twitched and shuddered in apparent fright. Irritated, Veldiana sighed. “I’ll tell you this, at least. You have a duty to protect her.”

  “What ‘duty’?”

  “If I say that only she can save Nagisa Akatsuki, would you accept it?”

  “…What do you mean?”

  Kojou’s expression morphed into a snarl as he glared back at Veldiana.

  His temperament had changed the instant she invoked his little sister’s name. The force rising in Kojou’s eyes, resembling bloodlust, made the vampiress’s words catch in her throat.

  “E-exactly what I said. Nagisa Akatsuki’s debilitation cannot be treated by medicine, even with the Demon Sanctuary’s technology. If anything, it is amazing that she is still alive. One day soon, she shall perish.”

  “Nagisa’s going to…die…?”

  Kojou grunted and clenched his fist. His mouth couldn’t form a rebuttal.

  No one had come out and told him, but he would have been lying if he said he hadn’t realized this.

  Nagisa’s body was weakening, slowly but surely.

  Her wounds from the incident three years prior had healed, but her physical energy had never returned. It was as if Nagisa had continued to bleed from an invisible wound all that time, her very life essence draining away moment by moment, even with Mimori Akatsuki and MAR’s medical technology doing their utmost to prolong her life.

  “With her, you can save Nagisa?” Kojou asked, pointing to the blond girl.

  The girl seemed ignorant of the circumstances as she uncomfortably lowered her eyes. Veldiana stared at her and said nonetheless:

  “She is the twelfth Kaleid Blood… Her name is Avrora Florestina.”

  “…Avrora?”

  Kojou felt a dull throb from the right side of his rib cage. Once again, he had hallucinations—or flashbacks—from the recesses of his mind. The girl floating in ice. The Sleeping Princess. Avrora Florestina—Kojou knew that name.

  “My sovereign, please permit me to leave your side for the moment.”

  Veldiana knelt before the timid girl, offering the girl her own coat.

  “A… U…”

  With a frail voice, the girl continued hiding behind Kojou. It appeared that she really didn’t understand the situation she’d been placed in. She seemed to have difficulty judging if Veldiana was her ally.

  Perhaps thinking she had to say something, the girl shakily opened her mouth. In a beautiful, clear, high-pitched voice, she said:

  “I-I permit it.”

  4

  “Three minutes from now, I shall summon a Beast Vassal in front of the laboratory—”

  And with that, Veldiana vanished. It was a simple decoy operation. Her spectacular rampage would draw the guards away while Kojou brought the blond girl—Avrora—out the back.

  The tactic was straightforward, and with security believing there was only one intruder, it was likely to be effective. He was genuinely grateful that Tooyama had lent him her medical wing pass card.

  Furthermore, it seemed there was no need for Kojou and Avrora to fear pursuit from the guards if they made it off MAR property. Only a tiny handful of researchers even knew of Avrora’s existence, and keeping an unregistered demon confined was criminal to begin with.

  Kojou wasn’t sure if he could trust a vampire he’d just met, but at the very least, it seemed that Veldiana really did know Gajou. Besides, it wasn’t in his nature to just abandon the fainthearted girl. If she really could save Nagisa, it was worth risking his life over.

  “That said, we can’t go far with you looking like that. Gotta get some clothes on you if I’m gonna take you outside…”

  Kojou gazed at Avrora, naked under a leather coat, and lightly clutched his head. Avrora simply stood out too much. If Kojou led the girl around town in such provocative attire, he’d be arrested as a sex offender long before the unregistered-demon part came to light.

  Plus, Veldiana’s bullet-for-hire coat wasn’t designed for concealing flesh. The slightest movement would expose Avrora’s breasts and crotch.

  What am I gonna do? he pondered as he gazed at the girl.

  “D-do not lay your indecent gaze upon me…!”

  Avrora turned her back to Kojou as she lodged a timid protest. Her manner of speech was regal, but her frightened, shaky tone made it difficult for her to sound haughty.

  “Ah, sorry…”

  So she does have a sense of shame, Kojou mused, oddly admiring her for that. Apparently, she wasn’t her normal self when she’d licked off Kojou’s nosebleed. But when he thought about it rationally, having a naked girl, vampire or not, press her lips against him was a crazy experience. He pondered in anguish whether such a thing counted as a kiss, but he told himself to forget about it for the time being.

  “I see… Right, I have Nagisa’s…”

  Kojou lowered the schoolbag he was carrying, taking out something packed within: the school uniform Nagisa had asked Kojou to wash. It was the one she’d worn when she’d collapsed at school, but it barely had a speck of dirt on it.

  “Anyway, put this on. It’s my little sister’s, but it beats wearing nothing but a coat.”

  “A, u… V-very well.”

  An expression of relief came over the vampire girl as she received the uniform.

  Nagisa was smaller than girls her own age, but her physique wasn’t that different from Avrora’s. Surely Avrora would be able to get the outfit on. Yet, as Kojou waited with his back turned, Avrora spent a long time changing.

  Not much remained of Veldiana’s promised three minutes. Even Kojou began to get irritated when he heard Avrora’s voice. She sounded as if she could break into tears at any moment.

  “K-Kojou Akatsuki… I-I permit an exception to my warning to thee.”

  “Huh?” Kojou turned and stared at her dubiously. “What’re you talking about?”

  Avrora was still holding the collar of the school uniform with a frightful expression. Apparently, she didn’t know how to button the uniform, putting her in quite a bind.

  Having successfully deciphered Avrora’s mystery language, he languidly said, “Ah… You want me to fasten your buttons?”

  Talk in a way that’s easier to understand, sheesh, crossed his mind, of course, but she was no doubt a vampire born in a foreign country. He should be grateful to understand what she meant at all.

  Kojou was closing the uniform’s buttons when he suddenly thought of something.

  “Hey, you’re a vampire, too, right? Can’t you turn into mist to move around like Veldiana did earlier?”

  He’d heard that a comparatively large number of vampires had that special ability. If Avrora could turn into mist and hide from sight, taking her out of the building would get easier by leaps and bounds.

  However, the vampire girl shook her head, lowering her eyes in a deeply apologetic look.

  “I-I do not possess the grace of mist.”

  “That so… Well, if you can’t, you can’t.”

  What era is that Japanese from? Kojou wondered, but he didn’t dwell on it. Deciphering was a bit of a pain, but one way or another, he knew what she was trying to say.

  “Anyway, it’s time. I think we should be as out in the open as possible. That way people won’t suspect anything.”

  “V-very well.”

  Her words were as haughty as ever, but Avrora was desperately clinging to Kojou’s uniform, which meant Kojou was dragged back the instant he tried to begin walking.

  “Hey, you…!”

  Kojou looked back and glared at Avrora. She whimpered, shrinking back like a small, frightened animal.

  A moment later, a new siren echoed throughout the medical wing.

  Apparently, Veldiana had summoned a Beast Vassal and begun wreaking havoc as promised. If they didn’t get off MAR property in a hurry, the gate might seal them in, and nothing good would come from that.

  “Geez, I just said we’ve gotta do this in the open. If you’re clinging to me like that, people’ll get suspicious for sure! And at least walk, dammit!”

  “Hi…u…”

  Kojou’s coarse shout nearly made Avrora cry. Her big, blue eyes filled with tears, but even so, she replied in a fleeting voice, “A-Avrora…”

  “Ah?”

  “I am not ‘you’… I am Avrora Florestina. R-respect my name…”

  Apparently, it had taken her considerable courage just to express that much. The latter part of her speech was so broken that he could barely hear them at all.

  Put another way, she might have taken such a special liking to the name Avrora that she needed to hear Kojou say it.

  “I get it… I was wrong. Sorry.”

  This said, Kojou extended his hand to the tearful girl. Even then, the timid vampire girl retreated a step, leaving Kojou somewhat at a loss.

 

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