“…You have a point. It would be inexcusable to return to Master empty-handed. We need to get a handle on the situation, at least. I wonder what Kirasaka’s going to say…”
“Food, food, food…”
Humming in a pleasant mood, Glenda followed the woman in the suit. Shio and Yuiri picked up their respective divine arms and trailed behind the other two with tension in their steps.
A sour look remained on Jagan’s face as he joined them. His duty was no doubt to keep an eye on Shio and Yuiri. He seemed determined to stay out of the conversation as much as he could.
The interior of the ship was broader than Shio and Yuiri had expected. The sight of numerous foreign guests and their heavily armed escorts could be seen in the café and lounge. Shio and Yuiri were unfamiliar with the native attire they wore. They were probably people from non-signatories to the Holy Ground Treaty with little intercourse with Japan.
The woman in the suit led the pair to an area where the security was especially strict, nearly the most of any part of the vessel. It was a VIP suite.
As they entered the room, an unadorned, modern-weapons system flew into the corner of Shio’s vision. It was a crimson robot tank fitted with heavy weaponry.
“Uwaa?!”
Reacting to the body temperature of those entering the room, the spinning movements of the multi-eyed sensors caused Yuiri and Shio to cling to each other in surprise. For some reason, Glenda seemed accustomed to the sight, barely reacting when she saw the tank. Then, Yuiri looked up at the tank as she let a dazed murmur slip.
“That tank… It’s like the one back at Kannawa Lake…”
“Kannawa Lake…?”
Somehow recovering from her initial surprise, Shio narrowed her brows with a questioning expression.
Kannawa Lake, deep in the Tangiwa Mountains, was the place where the pair had first encountered Glenda. If the pilot of this robot tank was the same as the one back at that place, it was not something they could pass off as mere coincidence.
And behind that rounded tank, they heard a young voice from the back of the room that bore little sense of tension.
“Asagi, please bring more pizza. No onions, thank you.”
“Lady Empress, I desireth meat. Also, could I troubleth thee to bring a game console cable as well?”
“Oh, geez, you two are so noisy. When did this become a day care center?”
Three rather distinctive girls were sitting around the table with a relaxed air.
One was an elementary school girl with an adorable face wearing a uniform from a famous girls’ school. Another was a small-statured redhead wearing a piloting outfit resembling a regulation school swimsuit.
And the third was a high school girl with an extravagant hairstyle wearing her school uniform improperly on purpose.
“Ah, finally. Over here!”
Noticing Shio and Yuiri entering the room, that high school girl beckoned them over with her hand. Staring at her face, Yuiri blinked several times over.
“Miss…Asagi Aiba?”
“Ah? Have we met somewhere?”
Sitting cross-legged on top of the sofa, the high school girl tilted her head. Shio’s eyes went wide in surprise.
“Asagi Aiba, you mean that local idol?”
“I’ve had, ah, enough of that, so… Please forget all about that.”
Asagi limply hung her head. Apparently, Shio had touched a part of her past she would rather have left untouched. Yuiri immediately tried to follow up, shaking her head.
“I met you once at Kannawa Lake. You’re in the same class as Kojou, yes?”
“…Kojou?”
Asagi narrowed her eyes in wariness. The nonchalant way Yuiri had spoken his given name tugged at her. “Oh well,” she soon said, giving a casual shrug as she motioned the pair toward empty seats.
Upon the table lay pizza, sweets, bottles of juice, and other treats. The atmosphere felt like an all-girls sleepover. No doubt this ambience was somehow connected to Jagan’s sour mood.
“But why are you on the Duke of Ardeal’s ship? Aren’t you Kojou Akatsuki’s girlfriend?” Shio soberly asked, facing Asagi.
“G-girlfriend…?”
Asagi, nibbling on the corner of a slice of pizza, made a small cough that seemed like a nervous twitch. Shio found the girl’s unsophisticated reaction a little surprising. In contrast to her glamorous appearance, her personality seemed surprisingly pure.
“Am I wrong? That’s what Kirasaka told me, you see…”
“I-is that so? So Kirasaka sees me as… Heh, really…”
Though she somehow maintained her composure, Asagi Aiba seemed rather pleased. In reality, Sayaka had called Asagi one of the girls Kojou Akatsuki had laid his hands upon, but Shio thought better of putting it in those words.
“Um, Asagi Aiba?”
“Ah, sorry. By the Duke of Ardeal, you mean Mr. Vattler, right? I made a deal with him.”
“A deal?”
“Yes. I cooperate with Mr. Vattler, and Mr. Vattler lends me a hand in return. Our mutual desires align, you see.”
“R…right…”
Shio gave a rather vague nod. She didn’t have a clue what to say to the girl. A high school girl who could make a deal with Dimitrie Vattler as his equal—it was something beyond Shio’s comprehension.
“Don’t tell me, you’re the Priestess of Cain that Tartarus Lapse was after?”
“Ah… Yeah, that kinda happened, too, didn’t it?”
Asagi looked up with an annoyed expression. Her reaction made Shio accept things somewhat. If she truly was the Priestess of Cain, dealing with Vattler on equal footing was far from impossible.
“So what does the Priestess of Cain want with us?”
“I thought it was better if I took the time to explain…”
Speaking those words, Asagi surveyed the faces of Yuiri and the others. The two elementary schoolers sat politely on the sofa, quietly listening to Shio and company’s conversation.
“Heh-heh.” Asagi grinned proudly. “I mean, don’t you want to know the reason people are after Glenda? Incidentally, Glenda’s true nature, too.”
“Miss Aiba, you know this?” Yuiri asked, leaning forward.
“Well, I am the Priestess of Cain, you know,” said Asagi as she puffed out her chest. “Also, you can call me Asagi.”
“Asagi!”
Glenda, right beside Asagi, smiled amiably toward her.
“Good girl.” Asagi stroked Glenda’s head. “You trust me?”
“Dah!”
“Thank you. All right, Glenda, acknowledge code.”
As Glenda nodded, Asagi peered into her eyes as she made a mischievous smile.
Her left hand was holding a pretty pink smartphone. The icon on the screen, resembling a badly sewn teddy bear, made a malicious grin.
Hearing Asagi’s words, Yuiri paled and rose to her feet. However, before Yuiri could stop her, Asagi had finished reciting the code.
“49 7265717567374 6173 7375636573736f72. We demand the relic as the rightful inheritors.”
2
Kojou awoke atop a soft bed.
He was in a room in a totally new apartment. Due to the lack of furnishings and private possessions, it gave off a fairly inorganic impression, but the owner of the room seemed to be female. Someone’s dresses were on hangers against the wall, and there was a faint, lingering whiff of perfume. The dresses seemed to actually be maid outfits.
“You have come to, Kojou? Unexpectedly quick of you.”
As Kojou lay there, he heard a voice above his head that came off as haughty. Kojou’s hazy vision displayed a doll in an exotic outfit, not even thirty centimeters in height.
“Nina…?”
Kojou looked up at the liquid metal life-form once known as the Great Alchemist of Yore, Nina Adelard. The current Nina ought to have been kept at Natsuki Minamiya’s mansion as Kanon Kanase’s pet.
“This room is?”
“Astarte’s bedroom. Natsuki brought
you back to this building with her. You apparently collapsed from using up your power during the duel with Velesh Aradahl,” Nina said with an exasperated smile. “So immature.”
Kojou finally grasped that she had technically watched over him until he returned to consciousness.
“Oh, all right… Asagi… Where did she go with Glenda…?!”
“If you mean the ship of the Warlord’s Empire’s Master of Serpents, it is moored at Itogami Island’s inlet.”
“She’s on Vattler’s ship…?”
Kojou clutched his head in confusion.
He should have realized it as soon as he’d seen Asagi and Jagan together. Jagan, a confidant of Vattler’s, would never make contact with Asagi without a good reason. Asagi had probably teamed up with Vattler for some reason or other. If so, kidnapping Glenda had to be nothing more than a means to some kind of end—
“At the moment, the Warlord’s Empire’s Master of Serpents is not making any move of note, but given the nature of the opponent, the Island Guard cannot make any careless moves against him. In the first place, I do not think the Gigafloat Management Corporation is at liberty to pay him much heed.”
Nina made the assertion with a farsighted tone of voice. Even during the time Kojou had collapsed, the Holy Ground Treaty Organization Military’s armada was approaching Itogami Island. The Gigafloat Management Corporation’s staff had to have their hands full trying to form countermeasures. He didn’t think they would put the Island Guard in motion over a dragon abduction that wasn’t even public knowledge among Itogami City residents.
“Shit,” Kojou cursed foully as he sat up fast. “Where are my clothes?”
“Rejoice, for it is I who has mended them by hand. See, right here.”
Nina pointed to the bedside table. Since Kojou’s clothes had been in tatters from the duel with Aradahl, he would have been grateful to have them repaired by alchemy. However, it was not a Saikai Academy’s schoolboy uniform resting on the table, but a gold-colored tuxedo with a dazzling luster.
“Um… What the hell is…this?”
“I am saying, it is your change of clothes. I merely employed my own discretion to make some minor improvements.”
“You call these improvements?!” shouted Kojou.
Apparently, Nina had not stopped at merely repairing his clothes, but she had altered the molecular composition of the threads as well. Transmutation was alchemy’s master-level art.
“This outfit’s gonna make me look like a circus clown! Turn it back, right now!”
“Goodness, you really do not have any sense of taste… This is so trendy.”
“You’re the last person I wanna hear the word taste from…”
Kojou covered his eyes in annoyance. Nina grumbled aloud as she turned the gold, sparkly tuxedo back to ordinary clothes. Someone must have heard the loud exchange, for there was a reserved knock at the door just as Kojou began to put on his clothes.
After awaiting Kojou’s reply, Yukina opened the door and entered. Appearing next was a homunculus girl with indigo hair—Astarte.
“…Senpai? Is it all right for you to be on your feet already?”
Seeing Kojou sitting on the bed, Yukina gave an expression of concern. She was no doubt being considerate not only for his wounds and blood loss, but also the mental shock of having been betrayed by Asagi.
Realizing he’d caused her a great deal of trouble, Kojou reflected honestly upon his actions.
“Yeah, sorry. I’m all right already.”
“You do not look like it…”
Seeing Kojou put on a strong front and rise to his feet, Yukina let out a tiny sigh. She proceeded to walk in front of Kojou, putting a hand to the collar of his uniform. It was only then that Kojou finally realized that he’d wrongly fastened one of his shirt buttons. That was the fault of getting up in a daze and dressing in a hurry.
“Try not to make me worry too much, would you?”
Speaking with a pained smile mixed in, Yukina refastened the buttons of his shirt. Kojou, drawn in by the faint rustle of her bangs, drew his face near.
“Himeragi…you smell…nice for some reason…”
“I—I do?!”
Kojou’s sudden utterance sent tension running through Yukina’s entire body.
“Goodness,” muttered Nina, and Kojou heard her sigh deeply.
“Kojou…what do you think you are doing, sniffing the body odor of the girl taking care of you?”
“Erotic…,” said Astarte in an emotionless murmur.
“It’s n… It’s not in a weird way; I just thought she smelled kind of sweet…”
“You’re doing better than I thought,” Yukina said in a sarcastic tone, baring her white teeth at Kojou. She proceeded to meticulously refasten the last of Kojou’s buttons, which he thought was very much like her.
Kojou silently shook his head, abandoning all thoughts of excuses.
“Astarte, what time is it?”
“It is 2356 hours and forty seconds. It will be midnight very shortly.”
“So I’ve been out for close to five hours…”
The homunculus girl’s perfectly accurate reply instilled a great deal of nervousness in Kojou.
The duel with Aradahl had been conducted just after sunset. A fair bit of time had passed since the subsequent kidnapping of Glenda. Whatever Asagi’s and Vattler’s objectives had been, the odds were not low that they had already been achieved.
“Where’s Natsuki?”
“Answer: Master’s current location is the living room. Commencing route—”
Speaking with the tone of a car navigation system, Astarte walked into one of the apartment building’s mazelike corridors. Kojou and Yukina rushed to follow. Finally, they arrived at the living room, where Natsuki was elegantly tilting a teacup all by her lonesome. She did not seem even the slightest bit nervous, looking the same as always.
“So you have finally awakened, Kojou Akatsuki.”
Natsuki gently returned the teacup to the table as she haughtily made the statement.
Kojou sat in front of her even before being prompted. He didn’t want to waste precious time on pleasantries.
“What’s going on with Nagisa?”
“She remains inside my barrier. There is no need to worry. Kanon Kanase is with her as well.”
Natsuki’s expression did not change in the face of Kojou’s impolite question. The Prison Barrier was the alternate dimension constructed inside her dream, for which the price was her eternal sleep. To purely stop Nagisa from wasting away, there was no safer place than inside Natsuki’s time-suspended barrier. However, the fact that the passage of time was halted also meant he could not hope for her to recover in any way.
“That said, the young Akatsuki sister is in a precarious state, parched of spiritual energy. Leaving her in the barrier too long runs the risk of her being eroded by my dream. I would like to bring her out as quickly as possible.”
“In other words, we have to find a way to save Nagisa before that happens—”
Kojou lowered his eyes in anguish.
Nagisa’s primary caregiver was her mother, Mimori Akatsuki, but in the end, she was a scientist, nothing more. She had no deep knowledge where magic was concerned. Even if she tended to Nagisa, Kojou could not expect effective treatment from her.
In the first place, the terrifying circumstances—her daughter’s spiritual energy being drained by a Beast Vassal of the Fourth Primogenitor—were not something he could explain to Mimori, let alone that said Fourth Primogenitor was actually her own biological son.
“Could we not get in touch with Aiba?” Yukina abruptly changed the topic, seemingly in consideration for the silent Kojou.
“Unfortunately, no,” said Natsuki with a shake of her head.
“Yaze doesn’t seem to be responding to texts, either.”
“Why the hell would Asagi work with Vattler…?”
Kojou lifted his face to see Natsuki. Natsuki looked back at Kojou with a myst
ified expression.
“Try asking yourself that question, Akatsuki.”
“Huh? I didn’t do anything to Asagi. I didn’t do a single thing to put her in a bad mood…”
Kojou rebutted Natsuki’s words of blame with complete seriousness.
Natsuki glared at him in response.
“Sometimes, a woman is known to alter her tastes and personality to suit the object of her desires. It is only natural to think that Aiba became fed up with you and thought of switching to that Master of Serpents—”
“How the hell is that a natural thought process?! In the first place, Asagi’s not some maiden-in-love character to begin with, right?!”
“You’re the only one who thinks so, fool…”
For once, a look of visible despondence came over Natsuki. As if on cue, everyone present except for Kojou sighed in unison. The heck’s with this atmosphere? thought Kojou, feeling distinctly uncomfortable.
“Even if it is love, why would Asagi fall for Vattler all of a sudden? There’s bad taste, and then there’s that, okay?”
“The Warlord’s Empire’s combat maniac and the Fourth Primogenitor—I do not think there is so much distance between the two. Besides, at the very least, he is far handsomer and richer than you.”
“Oh, shut up!”
Kojou put his cheek to his palm in a visible sulk. Apparently, it was futile to ask Natsuki about it any further.
Sure, he couldn’t dismiss the possibility that Asagi had fallen for Vattler, but the fact remained that such an act felt very much out of character. Asagi was too shrewd to be fooled by Vattler, let alone be brainwashed by him. It was far more natural to speculate that their relationship was based on mutual interests. If not, Asagi having some reason to kidnap Glenda would become inexplicable.
“Come to think of it, what’s happening with that Holy Ground Treaty Organization Military thingy?”
Kojou shifted the topic once more. Natsuki nodded without a word, pressing a switch for the television embedded in the wall. It was a cable channel run by the Gigafloat Management Corporation.
“As before, the multinational armada is approaching Itogami Island. The corporation’s people are no doubt in a big uproar trying to work out countermeasures. They should be making a public announcement any time now.”
A War of Primogenitors Page 15