I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 4

by Namekojirushi

  “!”

  With no warning, Silver Slayer’s body rose into the air. She tried to struggle, but her body froze as if she’d been dipped in liquid nitrogen.

  “What did you do?!” Hibiki shouted.

  She tried to use her silver knife to stop Rosalind, but an outstretched hand grabbed her by the wrist.

  “Harissa?!” Hibiki yelled in surprise as she tried to shake off Harissa’s hand, but it was no use. Harissa’s grip was like a vise.

  “Harissa? How?”

  Even with the charm spell, Harissa shouldn’t be that strong. There was no way she could overpower Hibiki! As I watched on, Harissa started to open her mouth.

  “!”

  That was when I caught a glimpse of her teeth. No, not teeth... Those were fangs! The next thing I knew, Harissa was sinking those fangs of hers into Hibiki’s neck.

  “Aaaaah!” Hibiki screamed.

  “Hibiki!” I shouted.

  “No, Rekka!” Satsuki yelled.

  I was about to run forward when she grabbed me from behind. She was thinking clearly while I wasn’t, but... but...! I couldn’t help it. My heart was filled with rage and panic.

  “Rosalind! You turned Harissa... You turned them all into vampires, didn’t you?!”

  “Of course,” Rosalind answered with a glare. “I knew what your answer was going to be from the very beginning, so I made sure that I had insurance.”

  She looked up at Silver Slayer, who was floating immobile in the air.

  “This doll can’t be harmed because her body is made of liquid... But if you surround her with a bubble of water and increase the pressure inside of it, you can shut her down.”

  “...!”

  That first blast of water... Most of it had flowed down the paths leading deeper into the cave, but some of it was left in the holes along the walls and floor. Or so I thought. When I looked around for it now, I didn’t see so much as a single drop left! Was Harissa using her invisibility spell to make Lea’s water magic invisible?!

  What appeared to be a simple surprise attack turned out to be a carefully planned trick. I’d been completely outwitted.

  “The despair in your eyes! I love it!” Ulaula clapped her hands happily, but a look from Rosalind shut her up.

  “Now, I have no intention of asking you nicely or giving you another chance. Give up,” Rosalind commanded.

  “I don’t like giving up.”

  But what was I supposed to do? I was trapped.

  “...Rekka...”

  I heard Hibiki call my name even as Harissa was draining her blood.

  “Run...” she gasped.

  She had her hands behind her back, holding what looked like a tube of some kind. When Harissa let go, Hibiki’s twitching body fell forward towards the floor. But as she fell, she pulled the pin from the top of the tube she was holding with her right hand.

  “Close your eyes!” Chelsea yelled as she turned and threw her arms up to cover my face and Satsuki’s.

  There was a tiny clinking sound, and then a blast of light filled my field of vision. It was only thanks to Chelsea that it didn’t blind me entirely. But even with my eyes closed, they still stung. Was that what they called a flash grenade?

  “We’re getting out here!”

  Chelsea grabbed my arm—and probably Satsuki’s as well—and tried to pull us back.

  “But Chelsea...!”

  “We have to get out of here! If we don’t regroup, we’ll be wiped out!”

  “...”

  I hated to admit it, but she was right. I let her drag me along for a while, but I ran on my own power once I could see again.

  ▽

  We ran as fast as we could along the paths going deeper into the cave, trying to get as far away from Rosalind as possible. We ran until we couldn’t anymore, collapsing on the ground to catch our breaths.

  “Hahh... Hahh... Now what do we do?”

  I didn’t have a lot of cards left in my hand. One silver knife. Satsuki’s magic. And...

  “This contract, huh?”

  I took out the parchment that I’d folded up and put into my pocket.

  Chelsea was silent, but her gaze was wavering as if she wanted to say something.

  “Don’t worry. I’m not going to abandon your brother. But I think that unless we can use this thing properly, we don’t stand a chance of winning.”

  It was probably our last hope.

  “Let’s go over what we know. Our job is...”

  To cure Chelsea’s sick brother. To save everyone who’d been turned into a vampire—that is, to make them human again. To save Rosalind’s story. Silver Slayer’s too.

  “...It’s not enough,” Chelsea said.

  She was right. The only person who could use the contract now was me. I had one wish and four problems to solve. That wasn’t enough to pull it off.

  “Let’s not give up. We can just keep thinking. Dig deep and examine every possibility. And if you think of anything, let’s talk about it...”

  As I spoke, I recalled what Rosalind had said earlier that had gotten my attention. “All of you...” It was like she thought of me and my ancestor as the same person. And then there was the strange way she’d said “refuse to be mine.”

  The short of it was that most of my problems now had something to do with Rosalind. I shared with Satsuki and Chelsea what she had said, hoping it would lead to some kind of hint. When I did, Chelsea looked a little exasperated.

  “Rekka, I think she sees you as a substitute.”

  “A substitute?”

  “In other words, she wants you at her side because she couldn’t have your ancestor.”

  “......What?”

  I understood the words that were coming out of her mouth, but I had no idea what she was saying.

  “I mean, it’s the only thing that makes sense.”

  “That’s impossible...”

  Despite what I said, I was slowly starting to put the pieces together in my head. Like why Rosalind came all the way to my high school, for instance. Or why she hadn’t just jumped me in an alleyway one night if she really wanted revenge. Or why she used her charm magic to control everyone but me. Or why, even when she tried to do it, she’d left me with most of my will. Or why she’d used the charm magic instead of just turning me into a vampire in the first place.

  “She wanted the ‘real’ me, huh?” She’d said something to that effect just a few minutes ago.

  When she’d turned the others into vampires, they were like dolls. It was probably the power she had over them after sucking their blood. A charm spell might hold sway over someone, but it was still mind control.

  If she wanted me to still be me, the first thing she would try would be to charm the people around me in order to get to me. Then if that didn’t work, she’d have to try charming me anyway. And if that still didn’t work, she’d finally have no choice but to turn me into a vampire...

  I bit down hard on my back teeth.

  “I can’t possibly be a replacement for my ancestor.”

  This vampire’s lived five hundred years and she still doesn’t understand that?

  The light bulb finally came on. If I wanted to save Rosalind’s story, I needed to stop her revenge—no, I needed to stop her from using me as a substitute. And to do that, I first needed to get out of this grim situation.

  “You said some elixir could cure your brother, right?” I asked, my voice filled with new resolve and a little bit of anger.

  “That’s true, but...” Chelsea’s voice trailed off. She paused and then said, “The philosopher’s stone that I would need to make it is part of Silver Slayer’s core. If I ripped it out of her, her body would fall apart.”

  Satsuki explained to me in detail how the magic and alchemy involved actually worked.

  “Then what if I used the contract to have Ulaula make Silver Slayer human? What would happen to the philosopher’s stone? Would it disappear?” I asked.

  Both Satsuki and Chelsea loo
ked shocked.

  Turning Silver Slayer into a human was an idea I’d had when we were looking at the white flower together. I thought that might be what her story needed.

  “Um... I don’t think so. The philosopher’s stone is perfected matter. No physical force or magic—not even a miracle—could destroy it from the outside.”

  “I see.”

  Then that would solve two stories at once.

  “That just leaves turning everyone back, and then Rosalind herself...”

  “Wait, Rekka! That contract had a price, remember?” Satsuki said.

  She was right. The person who signed the contract needed to give their life. That was the price. But I couldn’t just give up because of that. There might be a loophole I hadn’t found yet.

  “The price is the life of the person who makes the contract, right? But how exactly do they die? Does their soul just leave their body the instant they sign it?”

  “The demonic contract is an agreement between two souls, so the moment you sign it, your soul belongs to the demon. But a soul is bound to the body, and it can’t just leave on its own. So you won’t straight up die, but if she touches your soul, it’s all over.”

  “Where is the soul, exactly?”

  “You can think of your soul as inhabiting the exact same space as your physical body.”

  In other words, if she touched me somewhere, my soul would be ripped from my body? It was like a lethal game of tag, never mind the fact that I was playing with a demon.

  But at the very least, I wouldn’t die immediately just for making the contract.

  “So if we can do something before she touches me, we can turn Silver Slayer from a homunculus into a human. And that gives us a philosopher’s stone, too... But then how do we turn everyone back?”

  Wait. Turn a homunculus into a human? Turn everyone back? Hang on...

  “Satsuki, I have one more question,” I said.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “It’s about the rules for the demonic contract...”

  Satsuki seemed a little confused by the simple question I proceeded to ask her, but she nodded affirmatively in response. That meant we could do this after all!

  “Satsuki. Chelsea. I need your help with something.”

  I told them my plan, including what I needed them to do.

  “That’s risky as hell... Are you trying to get yourself killed?” Chelsea asked warily.

  “Life’s about taking risks,” I said, steeling myself for what was to come.

  That’s right. My life wasn’t some toy to hand over to Rosalind, and it certainly wasn’t something I would sacrifice to entertain a demon. It was my last chip, but I was going all in to bring these stories to a happy ending.

  Chapter 6: What You Should See

  Shortly after I explained my plan to the girls, we got a message from Rosalind via Lea’s telepathy.

  “If you don’t come back in the next ten minutes, I’ll start killing them one by one.”

  We ran back to the cavern with the Demon’s Pot as fast as we could.

  “Hahh... Hahh... It hasn’t been ten minutes yet...”

  Rosalind was standing there in ominous silence. I’d kept my end of the bargain, but she still looked unhappy.

  Nevertheless, booking it back had paid off. The other girls were all safe. Even Hibiki had woken up from the shock of becoming a vampire. Silver Slayer was still trapped in her water prison, but the water wasn’t invisible anymore.

  “Hey there, human. I didn’t think you’d really come back. Are you planning on getting killed? Or do you want to make a wish before you die? A death wish, perhaps? Hahaha!”

  And of course, Ulaula was still there too. She was sitting cross-legged next to her pot in the corner of the room. She was watching us like someone would a movie.

  “Silence, lesser demon. You will not be permitted to speak,” Rosalind said, glaring in Ulaula’s direction.

  That’s right. Keep your mouth shut.

  I didn’t want her to start asking questions.

  “Now then...” Rosalind whispered, watching as Hibiki raised a silver knife to her own heart. “This strikes me as more effective than simply trying to kill you.”

  “...!”

  We all tensed. If I tried anything, she’d kill them one by one. What Ulaula said had put her on guard. I needed to distract her and gain the upper hand somehow.

  “Now come here. I’ll suck your blood and turn you into a vampire.”

  “...And then I’ll be yours since you can’t have my ancestor?”

  “...Yes, that’s right.”

  Not even that ruffled her feathers, huh?

  I guess it made sense. Once Rosalind had drained the other girls’ blood, there was no going back for her. It would take more than that to shake her up. But that in and of itself told me exactly how uncertain she was.

  “Wait, you knew where I was the whole time. Why didn’t you just come and get me?” I kept talking, taking a slow step forward like a cow.

  “I was recovering from the damage to my life force that the silver caused.”

  “But vampires can recover by draining blood, right?”

  Powerful vampires didn’t need to drink blood to survive like weaker ones did, but that didn’t mean that they couldn’t use blood to recover their life force if they needed to.

  “Iris, Harissa, Lea... You drained the blood of three people. So why did you let us go for a few days?”

  “It was... to find out what you were planning.”

  “And why did you need to do that?”

  She was already tracking us. She could have attacked at any time. Of course, it might have taken her a while to come up with the plan of trapping Silver Slayer in a water prison. But from what Silver Slayer had said, between her and Rosalind, Rosalind was the stronger of the two. Silver Slayer just couldn’t be defeated because her body was made of silver. The only reason we’d been able to do so much damage this time was because Rosalind was injured.

  And the reason for that... was probably me.

  She’d been so focused on me during the fight at the station that she’d been too slow to respond to Silver Slayer’s attack. And at the mansion, she’d come after us even when she was blinded to try and get me back.

  “Rosalind, this time it’s not a question.”

  I took another step forward, choosing my words carefully to keep her attention on me.

  As I did, Satsuki moved slowly to my left toward Ulaula, and Chelsea moved to my right toward Hibiki. It was time to finish this!

  “You know exactly why you didn’t come after me for days. You knew that even if you got me this way, you could never be happy!” I shouted.

  Rosalind was aghast.

  No matter what twisted way someone might have of achieving it, everyone’s end goal is always happiness. That’s all people really want. And when Rosalind realized that would be denied to her yet again, she froze.

  When she did, I took the contract out of my pocket and pressed my thumb (which I’d already cut with the knife) up against the parchment to finish writing out the last “e” in “Rekka Namidare.”

  “Ulaula! This is my contract! Turn everyone that Rosalind turned into a vampire back again!”

  The contract I’d signed burned up in a puff of purple smoke.

  “Haha! So that’s your wish?!” Ulaula’s laugh echoed throughout the cavern.

  That was creepy enough, but then I felt a chill like a cold, invisible hand had reached inside me and grabbed me by the stomach. The contract had given the demon possession of my soul. And if I let her touch me now, she’d take my life too. But in exchange...

  “Huh? What am I doing?”

  “...?”

  “Where am I?”

  “Hm?”

  Iris, Harissa, Lea, and Hibiki all returned to normal.

  Since Lea had been using her water magic at Rosalind’s orders, the bubble around Silver Slayer burst and she fell helplessly to the ground. She’d bee
n trapped in that high-pressure prison for a while now. I didn’t expect her to be able to move for some time.

  “Lea! Iris! Stop Rosalind!”

  Lea reacted first. She had been there at the station and knew what Rosalind really was. Iris was quick to join in afterward. Even if she didn’t remember what had happened while she was a vampire, she probably still had at least a vague memory of being charmed. She could tell Rosalind was an enemy one way or another.

  “Chelsea!”

  “Okay!”

  Chelsea made a dash for Hibiki to carry out her part of the plan.

  “Rekka!” Satsuki cried frantically.

  I turned around and saw Ulaula charging at me.

  “The contract says your life is mine now!” she shouted, reaching out her hand.

  Satsuki jumped between us and chanted a defensive spell.

  “Guardian Winds!”

  A shield of wind appeared, and the demon’s childlike fists smashed into it like a brick wall.

  “Tch! Damned mage!” Ulaula yelled.

  She couldn’t break through, but it wasn’t knocking her back either.

  “What are you doing to Namidare?!” Rosalind shouted even as she fought Iris and Lea.

  “Oh, I’m a demon, you see.” Ulaula laughed hideously.

  Iris and Lea seemed surprised, but I yelled for them to concentrate on Rosalind. It was time for the next part of my plan.

  “Ulaula, grant my wish!”

  Now it was Hibiki’s turn. She grabbed the contract from Chelsea, cut her finger with her knife, and started to write out what Chelsea had told her to.

  I’d turned everyone back into humans first in order to make sure Hibiki was able to meet the restriction Ulaula had put on the contracts. And the “wish” I’d had Chelsea relay to her was to turn Silver Slayer into a human. When Hibiki finished writing, the contract burned up and disappeared just like mine had.

  “Huh...?”

  Ulaula looked confused even as she was still trying to pierce through Satsuki’s wind shield. But she was a wish-granting demon and a contract had been signed.

  “...Agh! Ack! Gaaha!” Silver Slayer moaned and coughed up something red.

  It was probably the philosopher’s stone. Now that she was human, she’d probably spit it out. Things were proceeding smoothly at this rate, but I was momentarily sidetracked by an unexpected noise.