“Tee-hee, we have arrived with your meal.”
An elegant beauty in a blue faux-Japanese maid outfit reverently pressed three fingers of each hand to the floor as she bowed.
“I’ll do my best with the massage!” A girl in a similar outfit but in yellow valiantly clenched a fist as she looked up at Kojou.
“I shall wash your back in the bath…”
“I can throw in little ecchi freebies, too…”
Deeply suggestive smiles adorned the faces of the girls in black-and-white maid outfits as they crawled onto Kojou’s futon. Right around that point, Kojou finally recovered from his shock.
“You girls…! What’s Vattler’s maid brigade doing here…?!” Kojou exclaimed in a shrill voice.
In reality, the girls in the mysterious “maid” outfits were originally the daughters of royals and high officials of the countries neighboring the Warlord’s Empire, granted to Vattler as hostages in exchange for the safety of their mother nations, or so Kojou had heard.
However, Vattler himself had little interest in hostages or women, so he treated the girls as simple guests, letting them live their lives as they pleased—enough that, to be blunt, Kojou wondered if Vattler let them have too much freedom.
Kojou could not conceal his surprise at meeting the Oceanus Girls at that juncture. Their appearance before Kojou’s eyes meant that Vattler, Master of Serpents and battle maniac extraordinaire and plenipotentiary, had involved himself in the current incident, namely Nagisa’s disappearance.
Yukina was the one to answer Kojou’s question, though it sounded difficult for her to speak the words.
“Actually… Er, when we were on the verge of drowning, it was the Duke of Ardeal who brought us aboard…”
Kojou’s shoulders slumped forward as he digested the facts. Vattler being in the area and recovering Kojou and the others after they’d tumbled into the sea—now that it had been said out loud, he recognized it as a likely enough story. When Vattler’s appearance was added to the mix, Koyomi Shizuka letting Kojou and the others go so easily made sense, too.
“Then we’re inside Vattler’s ship? And this landscape is some kind of…3-D image, or…”
“No, that is incorrect,” said the girl wearing the red Japanese maid outfit, smiling. “This is a Japanese hot spring hotel, at one of the hot springs in Hakone.”
“H-Hakone…?! What are you all doing in a place like…?!”
“We are on vacation.”
The blue maid narrowed her eyes with delight.
“Through the wise judgment of the Duke of Ardeal, the crew of the Oceanus Grave II has been permitted to spend New Year’s Day at a hot spring.”
“O-oh…”
So you’d be here even if you hadn’t brought us, thought Kojou with conflicting feelings. Certainly, he was grateful to have been brought from Itogami Island all the way to the mainland, but to be honest, he was in a bind from being led to a tourist spot.
It would have been better if they’d been tossed out at a suitable harbor, but…
Then, as if peering into Kojou’s thoughts, the other maids chimed in:
“Fourth Primogenitor, please remember that…”
“…Hakone is less than twenty kilometers from Kannawa Lake.”
“It is close enough to reach by foot.”
“…?!”
Kojou stared in shock at the girls, smiling as if they saw right through him.
Apparently, unbeknownst to Kojou and the others, they had been cast into the very epicenter of the incident.
CHAPTER TWO
BATTLEFIELD OF WHITE MIST
1
On the bridge of the airship elegantly dancing in the sky, La Folia Rihavein sullenly pressed a hand against her cheek. She had silver hair and azure eyes—the young princess of Aldegia of Northern Europe, said to be the second coming of Freya.
The affectionate smile that came over her lips was just like the image she projected to the wider world. However, in that instant, it was a faint, fleeting smile, one that somehow seemed frightening.
It was the very elegance of her appearance, combined with the malice oozing from her smiling face, that invited terror.
“How unfortunate. To take a leave of absence and come all the way to Itogami Island only to find Kojou absent…”
So spoke La Folia as she turned a glacial gaze toward her subordinate. The gaze seemed to shoot through the female knight with short silver hair like an arrow, prompting her to hang her head in shame.
That knight was Interceptor Knight Kataya Justina—the agent under La Folia’s command stationed at Itogami Island for the protection of Kanon Kanase and other matters.
“I am very sorry. I, Kataya Justina, shall never live down the shame of having been tardy in my report to my princess. Accordingly, I shall atone for this failure by cutting my belly and—”
“Please don’t. You’ll make a mess of the airship.”
When Justina drew a dagger and spoke with tragic resolve, La Folia coldly rejected her offer.
“B-but, my princess—”
“Your failure is inescapably tied to an unexpected success. In light of this, I shall overlook the matter. It would seem that the world has become a rather interesting place.”
Perhaps teasing Justina had improved her mood, for La Folia seemed to have regained her usual disposition.
The armored airship Böðvildr was currently high in the sky over a lake in the mountains. Their altitude was some 2,500 meters off the ground, a position from which they were able to see from the foothills of Mt. Fuji to the Tangiwa mountain range.
The measuring instruments of the Kingdom of Aldegia, which boasted high-quality sorcerous technology, had firmly grasped the existence of a vast source of demonic energy emerging from Kannawa Lake. They had also granted the provisional name of “drones” to the demon-beast swarm also present.
To the bridge crew, La Folia inquired, “Incidentally, have you caught sight of a certain lord?”
It was a young knight sitting in the executive officer’s seat who replied with a tense look.
“He disembarked to act on his own. He stated there was something he wished to investigate.”
“I see… He anticipated this turn of events from the beginning, it would seem…,” La Folia murmured with an inquisitive glint in her eyes.
Justina gasped, seeming to realize something as she lifted her face and said, “Princess, then perhaps the destination Kojou Akatsuki left Itogami Island for…”
“Yes, most likely.” La Folia’s expression was one of amusement. “Can we descend to Kannawa Lake, Captain?”
“That will…likely be rather difficult.”
The captain, with a rugged face like a pirate from older times, greeted the whimsical princess’s question with a shake of his head.
“Why not?” she asked, slightly inclining her head with a small pout.
“These drones are not enough to breach the sacred wards of the Böðvildr, but it seems something worse lurks within that mist.”
The captain pointed to a corner of the long-distance viewing monitor on the bridge. A unit of unknown origin was deployed in open ground amid the mountains some two kilometers removed from Kannawa Lake. They included one large-scale trailer and two armored cars for a total of three vehicles. The number of personnel was small-scale, but the sight of them lurking under the mist somehow felt eerie.
“Who are they? It is not a JSDF unit?”
La Folia touched a hand to her lips, her interest piqued.
The objective of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces’ unit surrounding Kannawa Lake was undoubtedly to seal the demon beasts that had emerged. With combat having already broken out, there was no reason to keep a small force deployed in ambush like this.
They were clearly separate from the JSDF, belonging to a different, unknown command structure. If anything, they were behaving like enemies.
“I am mindful of just what that trailer is carrying. Have you finished analyzin
g it, I wonder?” La Folia calmly smiled as she posed the question.
“There’s no beating you, princess.”
The captain shrugged his shoulders as he ordered a subordinate to switch the screen. The rainbow-colored 3-D image displayed magic-energy density from real-time data analysis.
An unfamiliar silhouette emerged from where the unit of unknown origin was hiding. It was an enormous demon beast reading, its size incomparable to that of the drones.
“Captain, what is this?”
La Folia’s eyes glimmered as she beheld the truth behind the soldiers in ambush.
The captain knit his brows as he replied, “From the silhouette, it appears to be a wyvern.”
“Wyvern? That is an especially rare, endangered species, is it not?!” Justina asked in a grave tone.
Wyverns—these were two-legged, winged dragons with a high level of flight ability. They were less a lower species of dragon than demon beasts that merely resembled dragons in appearance, but even so, their wingspans reached forty to fifty meters, and they were a fiendish species, possessing great combat ability.
Wyverns had made their savage might known in the Middle Ages, but environmental destruction leading to reduction in habitat and rapacious hunting had reduced their numbers in recent years to the verge of extinction. In Japan, their only current habitats were the Demon Beast Park of Blue Elysium and a few other similar locations. That made it all the more unfathomable that wild wyverns might have survived living so close to human habitation.
“Mere wyverns are not enough to take on Böðvildr. However, their biological wall spells and their demonic-energy makeup is completely different from normal demon beasts. This goes well beyond being ‘just’ a new genus,” said the captain, wary.
“Tee-hee.” La Folia giggled. The look on her face was like a kitten excitedly staring at a ball rolling around on the ground.
“So it is an artificially created new genus…or something other than a wyvern. Either way, it is intended for combat…in accordance with a certain lord’s expectations, it would seem.”
Justina looked up at her liege with a fearful expression. “P-princess?”
The knightly order to which she belonged, serving as La Folia’s escorts, endured being flung this way and that by her whims. If something happened to La Folia, the crown princess, Justina slitting her belly would be nowhere near sufficient atonement.
Whether she knew of the female knight’s mental anguish or not, the princess began putting her beloved spell gun in order.
“The Duke of Ardeal’s cruise ship would appear moored in Tokyo Harbor, but the Nation of Neustria’s tilt-rotor aircraft has been sighted over Kannawa Lake airspace, has it not? Naturally, the eyes of various persons from Lotharingia and the Chaos Zone are sparkling as well. Tee-hee… This has become most amusing, Justina.”
“Princess, please… Please exercise prudence…!”
The knight was practically prostrate as she made a fervent plea that echoed throughout the armored airship’s bridge.
The pale-blue fuselage slowly began its descent.
2
Hisano Akatsuki ran across the frozen white embankment of the dam.
Over her shoulder, she was carrying an unconscious, white-haired girl. Shirona Kuraki was completely defenseless during spectral projection, leaving Hisano to defend Shirona’s real body all by herself.
With a roar, one of the houdas attacking them tumbled onto the ground. A string of naginata attacks unleashed by Hisano had brought down the silver creature. Even if the person she carried was a petite girl, it was a remarkable feat.
However, Hisano’s expression was grave as she looked down at the houda she had slashed to ribbons. She’d realized that the blade of her naginata, its hardness supposedly reinforced with ritual energy, was slightly chipped.
“Too hard… So this is why mere bullets are useless against them…”
With agility unthinkable for an old woman pushing seventy, Hisano climbed over the dam’s frozen gate.
In various places around the mist-enveloped dam, Self-Defense Forces continued to battle the houda swarms. Ordinary rifle rounds were unable to penetrate a houda’s scales; hence, why every unit was waging a difficult battle against the demon beasts. The Special Attack Mages were equipped with high-agility vehicles intended for reconnaissance as their main striking power—woefully insufficient firepower for taking on the swarms of demon beasts. In terms of fighting strength, they were just barely holding their own, but it was only a matter of time until the encirclement was breached.
Even the scenic parking lot where the field headquarters had been placed was under fierce attack by the houdas. Nearly ten of the steel-colored creatures, each four to five meters in length, were on a rampage.
Without the slightest hesitation, Hisano flung herself in the middle of that demon-beast swarm. Still shouldering the unconscious Shirona, she swung her naginata, handling it with incredible ease.
“So it will not hold until the end. Getting old is a terrible thing—”
Right around when Hisano was cutting down the sixth demon beast, the blade of her naginata shattered. She could not maintain the supply of ritual energy required for the enchantment, resulting in the blade losing its reinforcement.
“However, it would appear that striking the internal organs is rather effective. If I think of this as fighting monster crabs, I believe I can manage.”
Hisano sent the seventh attacking creature flying with her bare hands. The eyes of the members of the Special Attack Mages went wide as they marveled at Hisano’s overwhelming combat ability.
With the broader number of houda now reduced by half, the Self-Defense Forces had combat capacity to spare. The demon beasts were bathed in concentrated fire from heavy weapons, falling one after another. Seeing for herself that the houda swarm was beginning to disperse, Hisano finally lowered her weapon and headed into the command tent.
When she entered the nearly smashed tent, it was a female SDF officer in camouflaged fatigues who addressed her. “So you made it out safely, High Priest Akatsuki?”
The individual was doubtlessly working as Azama’s aide-de-camp. She had sharp eyes, a neutral expression, and gave off a fairly unapproachable air.
As Hisano set the unconscious Shirona down in a chair, she gave Hisano a perfunctory salute and said:
“I am Special Captain Mikage Okiyama of the First Battalion. As the whereabouts of Major Azama are currently unknown, I have taken acting command of the regiment.”
“…Major Azama has disappeared?”
“Yes. Considering the situation, it is even possible he was killed in action…”
“I see,” said Hisano with a sigh.
The damage from the houdas’ surprise attack in the vicinity of the headquarters was enormous. It would be a failure unlike the capable Azama but, in a situation where the commanding officer might be a casualty, Mikage Okiyama had apparently responded according to standard operating procedure.
“What is the situation?”
“It is not good,” replied Okiyama in a businesslike tone. “The chain of command has fragmented due to the dense mist. Nor can we hope for air support with this level of visibility.”
“Even I did not expect the houda to have such numbers…”
Hisano murmured, her expression grave. Even Kamioda Temple lacked any record of the houda actually appearing. Even to Hisano, the living calamity freed from Avalon was an unknown quantity.
“Our estimates were off, same as yours,” Okiyama replied, calm and rational to the end. “At present, we have a crippling lack of firepower for dispatching such large demon beasts. If we could at least restore cohesion between the various units, we might be able to cope even with the gear on hand, but—”
“Cohesion, you say. If that is the case, I believe we can manage.”
“Eh?”
For the first time, the fully confident demeanor with which Hisano made the statement brought a perplexed look over O
kiyama’s face. Thanks to the mist, infused with powerful demonic energy, communication via radio and spellcraft was being obstructed. She did not believe there was any remaining way to communicate with the units scattered across the area around the lake.
Right beside Okiyama, the white-haired girl, finally returning to consciousness, meekly raised her hand.
“Um… I…I can do it.”
“Lord Kuraki?”
Okiyama looked at Shirona in surprise.
“But how will you relay commands?”
“I will take direct…control…of them…”
Shirona closed her eyes. Her hair, independent of gravity, danced upward without a sound.
From there, invisible spirit threads stretched forth, and it felt like the entirety of Kannawa Lake had been covered in netting. The threads of spiritual energy wove a giant network together through which she was able to take hold of each individual.
The next moment, the movements of the Self-Defense Forces members…changed.
The auto-cannons of the surviving armored units spewed flames. Precise shots penetrated the houda hiding in the thick mist. She’d used the visual information of other soldiers in the vicinity of the houda to calculate their exact positions. Similar scenes occurred to and fro within the encirclement.
It was perfect coordination without a single hint of time lag.
Units that had annihilated the enemies before their eyes shifted to protecting units short on fighting strength. The medical unit went in motion to rescue the wounded that had gone missing. Even if radio communication was available, maintaining such tight unit cohesion was no simple task. The will of a single individual, Shirona Kuraki, dominated the entire field of battle. She was like an elite chess player manipulating every pawn on the board.
“So this is…the power of the Three Saints of the Lion King Agency…”
Okiyama murmured, looking completely taken aback. This was an ability that could simultaneously command hundreds, even thousands of soldiers at a time. In a sense, given the realities of modern society, the ability was far more frightening than direct combat potential.
The Knight of the Sinful God Page 7