From the Warlord's Empire

by Gakuto Mikumo

  “Really. What is it?”

  “The Japanese government insists that you accept it dispatching a watcher and that you heed the watcher’s counsel.”

  “So, an overseer, then? I see,” said Vattler with an interested-seeming nod. “So, who is to be this watcher?”

  “If I may be so forward, I would ask that you permit me to perform this duty.”

  The girl’s reply was in a calm tone of voice backed up by a defiant look on her face.

  Though called a watcher, her duty was more than merely playing tour guide. She was essentially declaring, should the Japanese government see Vattler’s existence as a threat, as a last resort, she would eliminate him. She was saying, in other words, that she possessed enough power to destroy even a vampire of the Old Guard.

  Vattler gave the girl a mysterious look back as he asked her, “Ahh, I see. Incidentally, who are you?”

  The girl let out a faint sigh at the young aristocrat’s articulate, apathy-drenched words.

  “I am called Sayaka Kirasaka. I have been granted the title of Shamanic War Dancer by the Lion King Agency.”

  “Lion King Agency, hmm. I think I recall hearing the name…,” Vattler murmured with no sense of tension whatsoever. The girl shook her head, as if beside herself with irritation.

  “A Japanese government special agency charged with countering sorcerous terrorism.”

  “…Sorcerous terrorism?”

  “Please be advised that, as Your Excellency’s visit to Itogami City has placed you under the agency’s jurisdiction, we have been charged with accompanying your visit.”

  “Hmm. Well, whatever works.” The young aristocrat easily consented. Then, he squinted with a smiling face. “That said, it’s quite clever of the Japanese government to send a pretty girl like you to keep an eye on me.” As Vattler added, as if speaking to himself, “Though I’d have been quite fine with a pretty boy as well,” Sayaka, of course, shot him a disagreeable look.

  “About that, Your Excellency. Even so, I am a Counter-Demon Mage permitted to wield Heavy Demon-Purging Bow Type Six, Der Freischötz. Do not forget that I have been granted the right to decide to shoot and destroy you, Your Excellency.”

  Vattler unexpectedly raised a pleasant-sounding laugh at Sayaka’s sour words, apparently meant to intimidate.

  “Ha-ha-ha, excellent! Quite interesting, indeed. I like you. Yes, yes, call me Dima or Vattler, whatever you like. No more of ‘Your Excellency’ and other such formalities.”

  “…Understood, Duke Ardeal.” Sayaka would bend her etiquette for no one. As Vattler made a pouty-looking wave, he sat up and looked at Sayaka. There was a hazy, crimson flicker in both of his eyes, like a shimmering sun. “So, what shall we do about my other request, I wonder?”

  “Your other…request?”

  Sayaka’s expression hardened at the chilly aura Vattler was putting out.

  “Could you stop playing dumb already? You found him long ago and have him under surveillance even now, yes? The World’s Mightiest Vampire, I mean.”

  “If you are speaking as to the Fourth Primogenitor, shall we say, I do not deny it.”

  Vattler faintly bared his fangs as he laughed at Sayaka’s calm, businesslike behavior.

  “I’d appreciate it if you introduced him to me. Though I do understand why you’d want to keep him under wraps.”

  Though the young aristocrat’s smiling face was as affable as before, this time his entire body was giving off a powerful aura that resembled a tangible, physical pressure. It was as if a twisted, ferocious emotion had gained physical form. Had she been a normal human and not a Counter-Demon Attack Mage, she would have lost consciousness just from being in the same place as that powerful maliciousness.

  However, Sayaka maintained a neutral expression as she calmly shook her head.

  “No, we have no reason to protect him.”

  As she spoke, she took out a single photograph. It was a photo of a male high school student in uniform. He looked like a completely average teenage male. Kojou Akatsuki. That was his name.

  The watery horizon began to acquire a faint, white twinkle. It would be dawn soon enough.

  “After all, Kojou Akatsuki, the Fourth Primogenitor, is our enemy…”

  As Sayaka murmured, she crushed the photograph of the boy in her hand.

  The ship on which she and the young aristocrat were traveling slowly approached Itogami Island.

  CHAPTER ONE

  FROM THE WARLORD’S EMPIRE

  1

  Wednesday, mid-September, 6:25 a.m.…

  That morning, for once, Kojou Akatsuki awoke alone.

  One could fairly call this a highly exceptional event. Though not a fact he could really divulge in public, Kojou Akatsuki was a vampire, and as a vampire, Kojou was doomed to be weak to sunlight. This held true even though he bore an extravagant title: the Fourth Primogenitor.

  The rays of the morning sun cut particularly deeply. Though they could not burn him to a crisp, he had to contend with a variety of symptoms such as feelings of fatigue and ennui, sleepiness, and loss of appetite. It was the latter symptom that was really troublesome, but to the uninformed, these symptoms were indistinguishable from a normal human being lacking sufficient sleep from staying up all night. For this reason, Kojou was deemed by the world at large to be a no-good high school student who was just not a morning person.

  As Kojou thought of such things, what he found truly regrettable was that his younger sister, Nagisa Akatsuki, was no exception. Thanks to this, every day his troublesome younger sister gave him long-winded lectures while slapping him awake; somewhere along the line it had become part of Kojou’s daily routine.

  However, this morning only, Kojou felt no sign of Nagisa having entered his room.

  Instead, he heard her through the wall in bits and pieces as she spoke in a happy-sounding voice. He didn’t think she would have a guest visiting at this early hour. Kojou wondered if she was talking to someone on the phone as he set foot out of his room. Still half-asleep, he dragged his feet toward the washroom to put his sleep-disheveled hair in order.

  When Kojou finished washing up and returned to the living room, he noticed that breakfast had already been set on top of the table. There were Nagisa’s handmade bagel sandwiches and Italian salad for three. The menu was slightly more elaborate than usual. Seeing this, Kojou understood. Apparently their mother had returned home for once.

  Due to their parents having divorced four years earlier, the Akatsuki household was currently composed of three people. But their mother, Mimori Akatsuki, was the head of research at one of the corporations on Itogami Island—a rather prestigious job—and most days she never made it back to the house. She’d be away for a week to ten days before showing up in the dead of night or the morning without any notice. She lived something like the life of an outlaw—or a stray cat.

  So in a sense, Kojou had no choice but to believe that his mother had returned while he hadn’t realized it and was now in Nagisa’s room, in spite of having no direct evidence whatsoever. Indeed, this was an act of God.

  “Nagisa. Sorry, I’m gonna eat breakfast first. If you’re gonna have coffee, I’ll make enough for you, too, when I mix…”

  Speaking with a yawn mixed in with his voice, Kojou opened the door to his little sister’s room.

  Nagisa’s voice, which had continued without a single pause until that very moment, suddenly broke off. She looked up at Kojou, eyes wide with a look of surprise.

  Though she still looked a little childlike, she was a middle school student with a constantly cute look on her face. She wore her long hair high enough that where it stopped it gave her a short-cut look. She was holding a cheerleading uniform over her lap. Nagisa was a member of the middle school’s cheerleading club.

  And as Kojou had anticipated, there was one other person in the room with Nagisa.

  However, as Kojou had not anticipated, this person was a girl, much younger than their mother.

&nbs
p; And this girl, her back to Kojou, was wearing underwear—and nothing else.

  “Wh…”

  This wholly unanticipated sight threw Kojou into complete confusion. Perhaps his morning grogginess explained why he couldn’t wrap his head around what was going on.

  The defenseless underwear-clad girl glanced awkwardly over her shoulder.

  Kojou immediately sucked in his breath at the girl’s serene beauty. Her body was delicate, but this lent it no impression of fragility. Even with the faint traces of youthful curves, her body possessed perfect symmetry, with a graceful curve to her back. She looked supple and tenacious, like a beautiful wild beast.

  Kojou’s eyes remained completely taken by her figure.

  His voice was broken as he asked, “…Why is…Himeragi here?”

  Yukina Himeragi. That was the girl’s name. She was in the third year of middle school, one year younger than Kojou. Only a half a month before, she had transferred to Saikai Academy, becoming Nagisa’s classmate.

  And she also bore the bizarre title of Sword Shaman of the Lion King Agency.

  She was the watcher dispatched by that organization to observe Kojou Akatsuki, the Fourth Primogenitor. It was her mission to stay close to Kojou, and should she determine him to be a dangerous being…to eliminate him.

  But that being as it may, it did not change the fact she was a very pretty girl.

  “S-senpai…?!” Yukina mumbled in Kojou’s direction, finally grasping the situation.

  “Hey,” replied Kojou, reflexively replying to the greeting like a complete idiot. Even so, his gaze did not shift away from her whatsoever.

  Gazing upon Yukina’s bare flesh as he was, one might say this was quite natural.

  Her white skin was like delicate glass. Her slender collarbone was like a work of art. She had a lean build, but even so, the body lines of her chest were mysteriously soft. It was impossible for the eye not to be attracted to all of these things.

  But these were not the only reasons Kojou’s gaze did not leave her, for the instincts of the Fourth Primogenitor, the World’s Mightiest Vampire, warned him of danger.

  Perhaps one might say he felt like he was face-to-face with a carnivorous beast, and should he avert his eyes for even a single moment, he would be attacked without hesitation. Perhaps it was more accurate to say it was like two master martial artists facing each other, neither making a move, each denying the other any opening. A precarious balance had been established between the staring, unmoving Kojou and Yukina’s silence. Even the slightest trigger would have surely broken that equilibrium in an instant.

  And the one who created that trigger, sitting on the edge of the bed, was Nagisa.

  “K-Kojou?! What are you doing—?!”

  Nagisa rose up with a yelp. Her voice broke the spell shackling Kojou and Yukina.

  Almost simultaneously, the flustered Kojou mumbled “um, um” as he backed up, while Yukina covered her breasts with both hands, turning without making a sound. Yukina’s fluttering hair, her white nape, her exposed back, and the smallness of the area of her body actually covered by clothes all flashed before Kojou’s eyes. The next moment, Yukina’s high sock-wrapped heel slammed into the side of Kojou’s face—

  By the time Kojou realized he’d taken a spinning roundhouse kick, his body was in a splendid spin as he flew to the far side of the room. It was enough of an impact that a normal human’s skull might well have been half smashed.

  Eeeeeek! With a slight delay, he heard Yukina shriek. Kojou would have liked to comment about the roundhouse kick having come before the shriek, but of course he had no opportunity to do so at the moment. On the floor, facing up, unable to rise, Kojou pressed his right hand against his face. As blood gushed vividly from his nose, he made a weak murmur mixed with a sigh.

  “…Gimme a break.”

  That was the beginning of Kojou Akatsuki’s very long day.

  2

  “Um, senpai…your nosebleed…is it really all right now?”

  Inside the monorail car used to commute to school, Yukina, dressed in her school uniform, looked up at Kojou as she inquired.

  She had a black gig case for a bass guitar over her shoulder.

  There wasn’t actually a musical instrument inside, but rather, the Lion King Agency’s secret weapon—a frighteningly powerful spirit spear granted to her for the purpose of eliminating vampire primogenitors. As Kojou watched Yukina—the watcher for Kojou Akatsuki, the Fourth Primogenitor—walk with that dangerous object never escaping her grasp, his mood became progressively more sullen.

  “More or less. Anyway, I’m the one at fault. Not that I intended to peek, mind you,” Kojou apologized while rubbing his still-itchy nose.

  The regenerative power of a vampire had healed the nasal bones broken by Yukina’s kick, but the nosebleed itself took a while to stop. But thanks to that, he had not been assailed by any vampiric urges—perhaps he should have been grateful for it.

  “It’s all right… I’m not upset about it anymore.”

  With a sigh in her voice, Yukina added, “And I did kick you full force.” Though her tone seemed to have resignation and embarrassment mixed in with it, she certainly gave off no hint of anger. A relieved expression came over Kojou’s face.

  “Th-that’s good.”

  “Er, well…I knew from the start that you were a pervert, senpai, so it is my fault for letting my guard down.”

  “Eh?”

  “I should have not forgotten the possibility such accidental behavior might arise from you, senpai.”

  “Why are you acting like it’s a given I’d peek?! That really was an accident, you know. I mean, I’m sorry about the mistake, but still!”

  “Hee-hee.” Yukina made a small laugh as she watched the flustered Kojou try to object.

  Apparently she really was minded to forgive him. As Yukina suggested that “Yes, some soul-searching would be good” with a demure, admonishing look on her face, Kojou’s lips twisted a bit as he exhaled and patted his chest in relief. However…

  “That’s no good, Yukina. If you forgive this pervert so easily…!”

  It was Nagisa who broke the reconciliatory mood, inserting herself as if to shield Yukina.

  Wearing the same uniform as Yukina, she looked up at Kojou with anger apparent in her eyes.

  Spread out beyond the monorail’s windows was a cloudless blue sky with an ultramarine sea. As the rays of the morning sun mercilessly illuminated the inside of the car, Nagisa’s shrill voice reverberated in spite of the restrained volume.

  “I can’t believe it. There’s just no way. And how do you call barging into a girl’s room without knocking an accident? Kojou, you’re the worst. I told you yesterday before bed that Yukina was coming over to visit the next morning, didn’t I?”

  “Ah…now that you mention it, I do sorta feel like you might’ve told me that…” Kojou’s face grimaced as he arrived at a rather vague memory. “But I didn’t hear anything about Himeragi changing clothes at our place. What were you two doing at that hour?”

  “Just stop with the weird imagination already, geez! We were taking measurements for adjusting outfits for the sports festival.” Nagisa added with a crude snort, “I told you about that yesterday.” But even being told this, Kojou didn’t have any grasp of the circumstances whatsoever.

  “…What do you mean, outfits for the sports festival? It’s all just gym jerseys, isn’t it?”

  “No. These aren’t for matches, they’re cheerleading outfits. We can’t use the cheerleading club uniforms to cheer on our own class, now can we? So we have to make new ones. The home economics club girls are doing the detail work, and the boys are putting up the money for it.”

  Nagisa babbled on, explaining details he’d never asked about. The sheer quantity of words that came out of Nagisa’s mouth was one of her few flaws, but at times like these he was grateful that she was a quick talker.

  “Cheerleading uniforms…wait, Himeragi’s wearing one, too?”<
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  Kojou raised his eyebrows doubtfully as he asked Yukina, who had a sullen look for some reason.

  Though the sports festival was an official school event, there was no rule that said girls had to dress up to cheer people on. He could understand Nagisa, an active member of the cheerleading club, running off to any cheer event, but he felt it was a bit unexpected for Yukina to volunteer to participate in an event like this.

  A gloomy expression came over Yukina’s graceful features as she spoke.

  “I had intended to do no such thing, but I wasn’t able to refuse…”

  She heaved a sigh, exhaling her anguish. “No, you couldn’t,” Nagisa said, her cheerful voice the complete opposite.

  “All of the boys in our class put their heads to the floor and begged Yukina. If the Princess cheered them on in a cheerleading outfit, they’d do anything for her as her loyal servants and work their rear ends off to win for her.”

  “All the boys bowed down?”

  Kojou was taken aback by Nagisa’s explanation. Yukina covered her eyes with an even more awkward expression. So “Princess” was Yukina’s nickname, was it? Not bad, brats, Kojou thought with a smidgen of admiration. Apparently, without Kojou knowing it, Yukina had risen to the rank of class princess. He could imagine how awkward Yukina must have looked with a mob of classmates bowing down before her.

  “Ordinarily I would’ve just blown them all off, but I can understand why the boys would say that. I mean, this is Yukina here, so I said, ‘Hey, girls, let’s work together on this.’”

  For some reason Nagisa was awfully proud of it. Kojou finally had a decent grasp on the circumstances. “So you’re both gonna cheerlead together, then.”

  “Tee-hee, nothing wrong with that. Ah, Kojou, maybe you wanted us to cheer you on?”

  Kojou gave an indifferent reply and shook his head. “Nah, it’s all the same to me really.”

  Nagisa’s expression, which tended to move around a lot, changed to an obvious frown for once. “Huh? Why not?! Doesn’t it make you happy?!”

  “I’d get embarrassed to have my little sister cheering me on, all worked up over just an intramural sports tournament.” Kojou let his comment loose with a very blunt tone. He’d only meant to convey the opinion that he had no interest taking pleasure in making his own little sister play cheerleader, but Yukina, listening from the side, seemed to derive a different meaning from it.