Strike the Blood - Volume 20 - Chapter 3.1

CHAPTER THREE

DECISIONS

1

A tall man in a tuxedo came to greet Yuiri Haba.

He was a foreigner with a deeply chiseled face, black hair, and black eyes—a handsome young man, like you’d see in a painting.

“Young ladies, the meal has been prepared.”

“Ah…th-thanks…”

Huddled atop a luxurious sofa, Yuiri bowed her head with a strained smile on her face.

Yuiri and Glenda were in a room in a high-end hotel neighboring Itogami Central Airport. Fallgazer had rented out an entire wing of the hotel to use as a base.

It was the morning after they’d fought the Second Primogenitor and had acted as decoys so that Shio and Avrora might escape. Actually, a better description was that they’d done nothing but run around while the Second Primogenitor’s horde of Beast Vassals gave chase.

In the end, Yuiri and Glenda had surrendered once the Second Primogenitor backed them against a cliff face, after which they’d been brought to that building. They had been confined there ever since.

Surprisingly, however, they weren’t being treated nearly as badly as they had anticipated.

Naturally, Yuiri’s smartphone had been confiscated, and they were forbidden from all other outside contact, but that was it. They hadn’t split Glenda away from Yuiri, nor had they inspected their personal belongings, let alone interrogate them. On top of that, they’d brought in a skilled ritual spell doctor to fix Yuiri’s sprain, with treatment of her stiff shoulders and roughed-up skin thrown in for free. It was enough to make Yuiri, a commoner, even more worried that there was some ulterior motive behind taking things that far.

“Meal? Yuiri, meal?”

Back in girl form, Glenda was jumping around and playing with her friend.

Glenda was wearing a no-slip one-piece dress. It was quite an outfit, with snap buttons on her shoulder straps and back so that it wouldn’t tear even if she transformed into a dragon. Yuiri and Shio had commissioned a tailor-made dress for her.

“I shall guide you, young ladies. Please, come this way.”

“Ah, yes… S-sorry.”

Bewildered by the unfamiliar little rich girl treatment, Yuiri brought Glenda along as she followed behind the young man in the tuxedo. The long corridor in the five-star hotel left her spirits as heavy as if she were being led up the stairs to the gallows.

It was a little late for supper, but that was according to human sensitivities. Considering that vampires were nocturnal, this could very well be considered the start of their day. Either way, Yuiri and Glenda were captives, so they had no right to refuse.

“Wow…”

When they arrived at the banquet hall, Yuiri unwittingly let out a sigh of admiration.

Atop extravagant tableware, countless candles flickered in the night. The beautiful nighttime spectacle of this top-flight restaurant had dazzling ornamentation reminiscent of an imperial palace.

However, what shook her even more than this was that the Second Primogenitor’s subordinates were acting as servants.

Actors on the silver screen couldn’t even compare to how handsome the men were. Similarly, the women wearing highly revealing outfits were beauties for the ages. In addition to those two groups, there were also stern-faced elderly gentlemen. All had gathered around to serve the Second Primogenitor, Aswadguhl Aziz, who calmly sat upon a magnificent chair resembling a royal throne. It was a dazzling, surreal place that seemed straight out of an opera stage. Yuiri was stunned speechless.

“How are your…wounds?”

The Second Primogenitor made a beautiful, charming smile as she asked Yuiri that.

“Y…yes. They are all right now.”

Sitting right across from her at a handsome servant’s invitation, Yuiri spoke those words with a stiff expression. The meal had already been placed on the table, with each dish topped by a silver lid.

The Second Primogenitor curled her red lips up into a smile.

“I see. That is…good… I engaged in rather roughshod means… Yes?”

“No…ah… We were the ones to enter your territory without permission after all…”

“Tee-hee, you should eat before your meal is cold… It is food from this nation, so I believe it will suit your…palate.”

“Ah, yes…”

Yuiri replied absentmindedly. How had she, no more than an ordinary novice Attack Mage, wound up being served dinner by no less than a vampire primogenitor? No matter how she mulled it over, she couldn’t make sense of it.

A servant removed the lid covering the meal.

That instant, a deeply stimulating, familiar aroma pricked her nostrils. Dahh, she went, her expression brightening. A dish near and dear to her heart had been placed right in front of her.

“This Japanese food greatly resembles a dish in my own…Dynasty… We call it…curry…”

“I—I see… Now that you mention it…”

Yuiri shoved down and hid her confusion as she nodded. Heaped upon the plate was curry rice. Not the sort that came only from high-end establishments, mind you; it was clearly prepackaged curry the general public could find anywhere.

“Curry—!”

Gripping her pure silver spoon, Glenda happily began to dig in. When Yuiri glanced over, a satisfied expression came upon the Second Primogenitor as she brought the exact same curry to her lips. Yuiri really couldn’t wrap her head around the minds of the wealthy, vampires or no.

“Um…Second Primogenitor…would it be all right if I asked you a question?”

Yuiri gingerly posed an inquiry to Aswad as she added some specially made spice to heat things up, wondering if even that was quite enough.

“What, I wonder…?”

Aswad tilted a wrist as she prompted back.

Yuiri inhaled sharply.

“Are you the genuine Malik—the genuine Fallgazer? Er, in other words, we had heard you were a man, so…”

“A man…or…a woman… Is it really necessary to obsess with such triviali…ties?”

The girlish Second Primogenitor brushed back her long purple hair, staring at Yuiri with a skeptical expression.

“…Eh?! Ah…ahhh…”

Even though the unexpected reply threw her off, Yuiri accepted it on a deep level. In other words, the Second Primogenitor, Aswadguhl Aziz, was that kind of person.

“Moon is moon… Flower is flower… Gemstone is gemstone… Yes…all possess beauty. Can this not all just…be? Anyone who would not accept any of these tenants is but a…fool.”

“I—I suppose you’re right…”

She’d have easily accepted if anyone else told her that, let alone by the Second Primogenitor. After all, he—or perhaps she—possessed beauty that passed beyond the boundaries of actual gender.

Aswad frostily narrowed her beautiful eyes.

“Accordingly, within the range of my eyesight, there is no need for anything that is not…beautiful. Neither the retainers of the Warlord, who are without the slightest hint of aesthetics, nor the blood kin of the Chaos Bride, who reek of beasts…”

“…?!”

Yuiri’s expression stiffened at the hostility the primogenitor didn’t even realize she was exuding.

Gazing back at her, Aswad smiled kindly.

“But with the Fourth Primogenitor of this age, I have slight…confidence…at the very least, his taste in companions is not…poor.”

“Companions…er, umm?! Do you mean us?!”

Yuiri pointed at her own cleavage in bewilderment.

Aswad made a bewitching smile as if she saw through everything.

“Both of you have felt the lips of the Fourth Primogenitor upon you…yes?”

“That’s…umm…

“Yes,” whispered Yuiri in a tiny voice. Kojou had partaken of more than a bit of blood from her and Glenda respectively. One time when Itogami Island had been in crisis, the other time to stop the encroachment of Nod. Both instances had been una—

“You are fortunate…then… You have arrived in time for the banquet…”

Gazing with delight at Yuiri’s embarrassment, Aswad murmured like so.

“Banquet…?”

“…Dah?”

Yuiri and Glenda glanced at each other. Neither had a clue what the term meant.

“The Blazing Banquet…the snatching of memories by the Fourth Primogenitor, and a mass outbreak of pseudo-vampirization syndrome, you…see…”

“Snatching of…memories?!”

Yuiri almost dropped her spoon at the Second Primogenitor’s casual explanation.

She had learned of an event with the same name from reading the files on Kojou Akatsuki. However, even she didn’t know its exact details. Besides, the records kept by the Lion King Agency were vague in and of themselves. The fact that the true nature of the Blazing Banquet was actually a pseudo-vampirization syndrome was news to her ears.

An outbreak of pseudo-vampirization syndrome turning vast numbers of people into demons overnight was one of the sorcerous disasters the Lion King Agency feared most. Normally, however, it would be impossible for a single vampire to trigger such a thing. Yes, if the source of the spread were an ordinary vampire—

“Why would…Kojou do such a thing…?!”

“The Twelfth, Avrora.”

Aswad answered bluntly.

Yuiri widened her eyes in abject shock. Dodekatos—Avrora Florestina—had been brought to the island by none other than Glenda and herself.

“Currently, the Fourth Primogenitor lacks the twelfth Beast Vassal… Yes…this loss must be compensated for somehow… For instance, through consuming a vast quantity of demonic energy rivaling that of a primogenitor’s Beast…Vassal…”

“Is there…any way to stop that?”

Yuiri’s voice wavered as she asked.

Aswad smiled elegantly and stared at the girl as if she was testing her.

“There…is… It is very simple. All will be well if Dodekatos’s seal is…shattered.”

“No…! If that happens, Avrora will…”

“The choice is…yours…”

Aswad chuckled as she coldly rebuffed Yuiri.

“Save the people of Itogami Island or save Avrora… That’s what you’re saying?”

Yuiri glared at Aswad, the blood drained from her face.

The purple-haired Second Primogenitor quietly shook her head.

“No…is it not, rather…whether the Fourth Primogenitor slays Dodekatos…or you…slay her…?”

“Me…kill Avrora…?”

She stared at her hands, stunned.

“If Dodekatos escapes my domain and arrives at the Fourth Primogenitor’s side, her seal shall be broken one way or…another…”

“So to kill her…before that happens…”

“Consuming her would work as well…but that would be boring…yes?”

Aswad let her white fangs protrude slightly from her lips.

Yuiri said nothing in response. Glenda gazed at her speechless friend with concern.

“Young lady, we return to you that which you yielded to us.”

Yuiri hung her head as the handsome young retainer of the Second Primogenitor presented something to her.

A silver long sword stored inside an instrument case.

“Rosen Chevalier Plus…”

Yuiri was still ferociously in chaos as she robotically accepted the weapon.

Next, the retainer placed her smartphone on top of the table.

On the screen of the smartphone, supposedly unusable within the Second Primogenitor’s domain, was a map of Itogami City’s interior. There were two dots on the map. One was Yuiri’s current position. The other was Shio’s coordinates.

And Avrora was likely by Shio’s side.

“Yuiri…?”

Yuiri bit her lip as Glenda called out to her.

She subconsciously averted her eyes from Glenda; her pure gaze was too much to handle.

“The meal was…marvelous… Curry really should be…spicy, yes?”

Finishing her meal, the Second Primogenitor smirked with satisfaction.

Yuiri maintained her silence as she stared at the two blinking dots on the map.