“All hands, brace for impact—!”
The captain and Aradahl respectively shouted. The crew of the Strix desperately clung to anything they could within the unstable vessel. Kojou drew close to Yukina, immobile from fear, and embraced her.
“Senpai! Ground Nalakuveras!”
Her entire body was still rigid in fear as Yukina made that sharp warning.
As the Strix continued to fall, ground-model Nalakuveras were lying in wait. The barrels of their large-caliber laser cannons glowed red from charged-up energy. They were aimed at the Strix with the intent of attacking the instant it hit the ground.
“Damn that Asagi, she’s seriously trying to kill us, ain’t she…?!”
The merciless attack coming in waves made something snap inside Kojou’s head. If the opponent was fair game, then Kojou had no duty to hold back, either.
“Shit… C’mon over, Natra Cinereus! Sadalmelik Albus—!”
Kojou summoned new Beast Vassals. Emerging to envelop the flying boat was an enormous shelled beast covered in dense, silver-colored mist. Transforming the crash-landing Strix, passengers and all, into such dense, silver mist, the impact of the crash was nullified.
Simultaneously, an Undine emerged from the waterway, transforming her own body into a torrential deluge that swept the horde of Nalakuvera away.
Without exception, the ones that sank into the water began to crumble away. The armor, which supposedly had self-repair capabilities, fell apart as if it were sand. It wasn’t that they couldn’t repair—quite the opposite. The Undine governing the power of restoration was restoring the Nalakuvera beyond the limits of any self-repair functionality, to a time when they were nothing more than raw materials yet to be assembled—
“Ow… You okay there, Himeragi?”
On his back after being hurled to the ground, Kojou posed the question to Yukina, still in his arms against his chest. Though they’d somehow managed to crash-land, the fuselage of the Strix was all a jumble. Kojou’s Beast Vassal could transform any kind of matter into mist, but that didn’t mean it would return to its original form. Thanks to the force of the impact making the mist scatter spectacularly, the difficulty of restoration increased further still.
“Yes, somehow. It would seem the entire crew is also safe.”
Yukina helped the hurting and tired Kojou rise to his feet. Fortunately, the crew members of the Strix were all basically unscathed. Of course, he didn’t even need to check whether Aradahl was all right.
“…So this is the power of the Fourth Primogenitor. I thank you for having saved my subordinates,” the vampire said quietly.
“It’s no big deal,” Kojou said with a shrug. As he did so, Aradahl tossed something down right before his eyes. It was a military-spec, shock-resistant tablet device—the same one that had displayed the map earlier.
“I would say it is ten kilometers between here and Vattler’s ship. Go on ahead, Kojou Akatsuki.”
“What are you gonna do, Aradahl?”
The black-haired vampire made no reply, proceeding to lift his face with a deeply serious expression. At the end of Aradahl’s gaze stood a figure in a white coat, standing on an uninhabited building.
He had a slender, small frame. He had soft, androgynous, handsome features. However, his eyes glowed crimson, and sharp fangs were poking out of his lips. He was Kira Lebedev, vampire of the Warlord’s Empire—
“I shall engage him—”
Aradahl murmured as demonic energy mist enveloped his entire body.
As Kojou and Yukina stood rooted to the spot in astonishment, Kira smiled beautifully toward them.
7
Sayaka swiftly began to regret having accepted that La Folia go to the battlefield, for the attacks by the HGTO non-signatory alliance Military was far more severe than she had anticipated.
“The Strix has been shot down. Sir Fourth Primogenitor and Lady Sword Shaman are both intact. The Duke of Severin has engaged Count Voltislava in combat.”
“Four Floaty cruise missiles remaining. All port turrets, two starboard turrets are presently on cooldown.”
“One hundred and forty seconds before spiritual reactor reaches operational limit—”
On the bridge of the armored airship Böðvildr, the operators’ dry voices sailed to and fro. Their demeanor was composed, but the information they reported all reflected a worsening state of battle.
Within range of its guns, the Legacy of Cain had overwhelming combat capacity enabling it to challenge the HGTO Military in a head-on battle. However cutting edge it might be, a single armored airship could do nothing against such an opponent.
“Now then, what shall we do, Princess? Those bug bastards seem to have taken quite a liking to this ship. I was always awful at collecting insects.”
The captain, a middle-aged man with a dignified, weathered face making him look like some kind of pirate, questioned the princess with a jesting tone in his voice.
In the airspace above the steel-colored artificial isle, the Böðvildr was engaged in combat with a unit of nine flying Nalakuvera. What had begun as an evenly matched fight turned against them when the Böðvildr’s weapons came to have virtually no effect on the Nalakuvera. The ancient weapons’ evolutionary self-repair capability had already granted them resistance to the Böðvildr’s attacks. If they continued the one-sided battle, the sustained attacks would inevitably destroy their defenses at some point.
“Princess…?”
Finding it strange that the princess had not replied, the captain looked around the bridge. However, La Folia was nowhere to be seen within the cramped confines of the bridge. All that remained was an empty seat. The instant he’d taken his eyes off her and Sayaka, the princess had slipped out of the bridge on her own.
“Teleportation chamber activated! Jump coordinates, current estimated location of Lilith!”
One of the operators raised a suddenly tense voice.
“Dammit all…”
Covering his face in apparent resignation, the captain shook his head. It was probably forty to fifty kilometers from the Böðvildr’s current location to where Lilith was judged to be hiding.
Moving by teleport over such a long distance was nigh impossible. The magical calculations required for teleportation increased astronomically depending upon the distance of the movement required. The only spellcaster who could pull off such a reckless act solo was probably the witch specializing in spatial-control magic—Natsuki Minamiya.
However, if La Folia, blessed by the Spirits, employed the warship-class spiritual reactor with which the Böðvildr was equipped, even the impossible became possible. One could overcome insufficiently precise math with enough magical energy to force space to remain stable. Of course, such a trip was one-way only. Furthermore, it was impossible to send her escorting knights after her, but La Folia was not one to heed such concerns.
“Princess!”
Racing out of the bridge, Sayaka rushed into the teleportation chamber in the aft of the ship. The chamber, with a spatial control engraved into its walls, was only wide enough to accommodate two people at the utmost. This was why it could not be used to send a unit of knights.
Within the chamber, the silver-haired princess toyed with the control panel, as if all had gone as she had foreseen.
“Princess La Folia! Don’t tell me you intend to go on the ground? Under these conditions?!”
“Either way, at this rate, we cannot escape. We must smash the source controlling the Nalakuvera.”
Even the sight of Sayaka coming after her did not change La Folia’s expression. If anything, it felt like she’d been waiting for Sayaka to do just that.
“After we disembark, the Böðvildr is to stand by at high altitude. You may devote the spiritual reactor’s output into deploying the Holy Protection Barrier.”
“—Understood. But please do nothing rash, Princess. Your father’s going to kill me if anything happens to you.”
Sayaka heard the captain’s thi
ck voice through the interior communication system.
“—Er, Captain!”
“I shall take thy words to heart.”
Stop her already, went Sayaka’s objection, but before it could reach the bridge, La Folia activated the teleporter.
Sayaka and La Folia were assaulted by an incredible wavering in space that never happened with any normal teleport. A blue flash filled their vision. It was backlash from the long-range teleport.
When they landed, there was a crater gouging the ground surrounding Sayaka and La Folia with a radius of four to five meters. Every standing structure within dozens of meters had been mowed down. Had it been any normal urban area, it would have been an unmitigated disaster. However, Sayaka and La Folia were unharmed thanks to a powerful magical bulwark, generated by the princess and the Böðvildr’s own spiritual reactor.
“Sayaka—”
Heedless of the end of such a reckless trek, La Folia called out to Sayaka in a composed voice. In her right hand, the princess gripped a spell gun ornamented with gold.
“Yes.”
Sayaka nodded slightly, drawing her sword from the instrument case on her back. This was Lustrous Scale, a prototype area-suppression weapon of the Lion King Agency. Sayaka pointed its tip toward a bridge visible in front of them.
“…Well, well. Her Highness, Princess of Aldegia, is it?”
The elevated bridge strongly resembled the monorail tracks running through Itogami City. Bathed in the rays of the afternoon sun, a beautiful blond girl stood atop it. She’d detected precursors of the teleport and had taken position to await Sayaka and La Folia.
She was wearing a crimson bunny suit. The suit’s exterior had a metal exoskeleton on it that resembled bondage. Carrying a six-barreled anti-demon machine gun in each hand with ease, she pointed those gun barrels straight at La Folia.
The girl in the augmented bunny suit bowed, her gestures no less elegant than La Folia’s own.
“I am honored to set eyes upon you after so long. Taking the world for granted, walking onto a battlefield on your own without your knights as escorts… You really haven’t changed a bit. However, this is not the dance floor at a ball. I recommend that you run back before you get hurt and cry.”
The girl in the augmented bunny suit bowed. Her gestures were no less elegant than La Folia’s own.
“Er…um…”
Sayaka could not conceal her bewilderment at the emergence of a thoroughly out-of-place enemy. However, judging from her voice, she seemed to be an acquaintance of La Folia’s.
As if in search of a lifeline, Sayaka shifted her eyes to the side of La Folia’s face.
“…Who is she?”
“Who knows?”
Speaking those words, La Folia made an adorable tilt of her wrist. You don’t know, either, thought Sayaka, shifting from somewhat to thoroughly lost.
The blond beauty in the powered bunny suit widened her eyes in abject shock.
“It’s Vika! VIKA! Victoria of the Duchy of Assente! We met at the ball in Chromis a year back!”
“Ah…! Princess Victoria of Assente—so the rumors were true, you really did join the Duke of Ardeal’s harem as a hostage for a nonaggression treaty with the Warlord’s Empire.”
Clap. La Folia’s hands lightly struck together as she innocently narrowed her eyes. And as if making a show of pity for the Oceanus Girls’ blond bombshell, she gave an exaggerated sigh.
“I had heard that due to the Duke of Ardeal having no interest in human women, the girls in full bloom with him remain virgins, forced to play soldier night after night—but to think you would end up dressed like that.”
“Sh-shut up! What’s wrong with being a virgin?! And I’m still nineteen, you know?! Would you stop talking as if I’m too old for marriage?!” Her voice was shrill, softening just a little to add, “There’s only a two-year gap between us anyway.”
La Folia said nothing, letting out a “tee-hee” with a little grin, making the blond beauty scream in anger all the more.
It was then that Sayaka, too, realized that La Folia was angering her opponent on purpose. Reunited with an acquaintance on the battlefield only to make her fly into a rage in the span of a second, she seemed to relish living up to her reputation as a blackhearted scheming princess.
“Why are you going out of your way to provoke the opponent?!”
“Provoke…? I am merely stating the truth.”
When Sayaka, visibly exasperated, posed that question, La Folia blinked, as if finding it a completely unexpected thing to hear.
A gaaaah sound rose from the blond beauty in the augmented bunny suit as she turned off the anti-demon machine gun’s safety.
“And I thought I’d go out of my way to capture you unharmed…! Martha! Lana! Mithrina, Valeria!”
“Yeah, yeah…”
With resigned voices and strained smiles, girls dressed in augmented bunny suits came out of windows and rooftops of the surrounding buildings one after another. They wore blue and yellow, white and black—with the initial red one included, they numbered five in total. They had completely surrounded Sayaka and company. La Folia had provoked the first of them to drag the other girls out of their hiding places—probably.
“P-Princess…”
What are you trying to do? Sayaka implored to the side of La Folia’s face. As she did so, La Folia looked back at Sayaka with an odd degree of earnestness.
“Sayaka.”
“Y-yes.”
“What do you really think of Kojou?”
“I’m sorry…?”
“I am asking if you like or dislike Kojou. I am asking if you desire to be in a relationship with him.”
“Wh-what are you talking about—and at a time like this?! Look at the situation!!” Sayaka’s voice went shrill as she shouted back in anger.
The five girls in augmented bunny suits had finished preparing various pieces of heavy weaponry to fire. In contrast, there was not a single piece of surrounding cover for Sayaka or La Folia to hide behind. No matter how you sliced it, it was not a situation for leisurely discussion of one’s love life.
However, La Folia continued in a sober tone of voice. “I am asking because it is a time like this. See here, Sayaka. We are fighting this battle so that Kojou may become the king of his Dominion. He will be sovereign, meaning that his rule will be law. The law that dictates that a man may only take one wife shall no longer be any obstacle. And like every king, Kojou requires a harem.”
“No, he does not!!”
“He does. After all, he is a vampire primogenitor.”
La Folia’s reply made Sayaka audibly gasp.
A primogenitor’s wife. That’s what it meant to be such a vampire’s Blood Concubine—an unaging, undying pseudo-vampire. If both were male, one would likely call him a Blood Vassal instead. Such women swore eternal fealty to their primogenitor, fighting by his side as an army of immortals. That was what La Folia truly meant by harem.
“A primogenitor’s Blood Concubine is more than a simple object of his love and affection. They are the soldiers that protect the Dominion. The duty to protect the Dominion’s territory and populace falls not solely on the primogenitor alone but to the elite Blood Vassals he has assembled. Do you have the resolve to be one among them—?”
“It—it’s not like I actually thought about being K-Kojou Akatsuki’s…Vassal…”
“Is that so…? Well, that is fine as well. If you fall in love with someone else, grow old with him, and die, like a normal person, that is one form of happiness.”
“Ah, er… Me falling for someone other than Kojou Akatsuki is pretty hopeless, actually…”
La Folia’s oddly world-wise words brought a nervous refutation from Sayaka. Even at that late juncture, Sayaka had been unable to leave her fundamental distrust of men behind. Kojou was the single exception.
“Besides, if it means being together with Yukina… Anything’s good. Hell, harem, whatever.”
“Well, let us leave it a
t that for the time being…”
La Folia’s smile vanished as she looked up at the girls in augmented bunny suits. Due to the princess’s questions, they’d completely lost all opportunity to flee. At that point, the girls’ envelopment could not be breached.
“Are you finished with your trivial chit-chat, La Folia Rihavein?”
The blond beauty in the red suit flashed a smile of pure ferocity as she asked. The next moment, her machine guns roared and belched fire. Simultaneously, the other four began their attacks in a single volley.
“Ritual stun rounds, fire—!”
“Launch electromagnetic net!”
“Firing.”
“FIRE—!”
“Urk…!”
Sayaka’s face contorted as merciless attacks poured down from four directions. The weapons the Oceanus Girls employed were all using rounds for taking captives, but under such a barrage, they would not emerge from the nonlethal attacks unscathed.
However, La Folia smiled as she gazed back at the incoming rounds.
“Sayaka. Not the sword—the bow.”
“Ah…?”
Perplexed, Sayaka looked at the long sword in her grip. Lustrous Scale, prototype area-suppression weapon of the Lion King Agency, was granted two modes—sword and bow. However you sliced it, in that situation, it was the “sword” slicing space apart to form an invincible shield that was the more useful.
“…Children of the gods dwelling within me, guardians of the host, thou who bring victory in the time of the sword, ye who carry the departed!”
As Sayaka was left befuddled, La Folia stepped forward in an attempt to shield her. The song of prayer she intoned echoed beautifully across the battlefield. As if responding to her voice, Sayaka and La Folia came to be surrounded by a blue glow of spiritual light reminiscent of a glacier.
That glow obstructed each and every attack the Oceanus Girls had unleashed, bouncing the attacks right off it.
“Holy defense barrier…!”
“Warship-class defense barrier confirmed.”
“The Svalinn System’s pseudo-holy shield…!”
One after another, the girls in augmented bunny suits let shocked voices trickle from their lips.
A War of Primogenitors Page 23