Chapter 5
A musty stench.
Damp air.
A barely illuminated view.
Filthy water trickled along like a stream.
A clown was walking alongside that sewer.
“Hmm-hmm.”
A light hum.
As though off on a picnic, even the clown's steps were fresh and light.
That childlike innocence was grotesque against the bleak backdrop.
The Smiling Mask.
That was what I looked like reflected in the water.
“It's scary. So scary.”
I muttered aloud for no particular reason.
To dispel even a little of this gloomy atmosphere.
Rustle, rustle-.
I kept taking something out of my robe and putting it back in.
An object with a variety of colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.
“Phew, phew···.”
They were balloons.
As I blew air into one, the purple balloon grew long.
Once it was large enough, I grabbed both ends and diligently tied them together.
In an instant, the balloon took the shape of a sword.
“Niiice.”
A satisfying result.
I stowed the finished product back inside my robe.
With a few taps, the balloon sword was sucked inside.
[Evil God's Robe]
-Stored items:34/100
I already had more than thirty balloon sculptures.
There was quite a variety, too.
Swords, dogs, flowers, hearts···.
If you're wondering why I had suddenly taken up balloon art, there was no particular reason.
It was technically a clown mask, after all, so I figured I ought to carry around at least this much.
‘It'll be fun to hand them out to the students later.’
Grinning, I blew up another balloon.
A blatant way to kill time.
I was waiting.
For the event to draw near, and for the right moment to present itself.
Rustle, rustle-.
In my head, I organized the events of the original story.
‘Carmilla···.’
One of the original's supporting characters.
She was also the last survivor of the vampire dynasty that had fallen in a coup.
The last princess.
‘She said her uncle had betrayed her.’
Even her family and retainers had been massacred.
Was it her uncle's ambition to usurp the throne?
I checked the time.
‘Soon.’
Before long, Carmilla and the hounds pursuing her would pass through this sewer.
That was the moment I was waiting for.
“Then···.”
Phew, phew-,
I continued blowing up balloons, melting into the darkness.
***
Deep in the sewer.
A place where filthy water and things even filthier gathered.
“Hah, hah···!”
Ragged breathing echoed through the darkness.
Shimmering silver hair, blinking red eyes.
If the moon were steeped to make tea and a heart made of flower petals were placed atop it, perhaps this would be its color.
Beautiful.
Even in this remote cesspool, she was an elegant girl.
Of course, she staggered as though she might wilt at any moment···.
“Urgh···.”
The girl was battered from head to toe.
Her body was drenched in sweat and blood, and one leg dragged as though injured.
She was in no condition to avoid collapsing at any moment.
‘I can't stop. If I do··· they'll catch up soon···.’
The girl's name was Carmilla Blandid.
She was the last survivor of the Vampire Dynasty.
She forced her injured leg forward.
Her vision blurred, then cleared again and again.
“Sob, sob···.”
Tears streamed down her pale cheeks.
It was despair enough to make her retch, and she had lost count of how many times it had happened.
What echoed in her ears once again was,
-You are the only hope.
-The only one who can set all of this right···.
Her father's voice.
Words he had left behind like a final testament just before her uncle killed him.
-Run, my child.
Her sobbing would not stop.
Just as she forced herself to take another step,
Kwaak-!
“Kyaaah···!”
Something lodged itself in the girl's leg.
A pain as though she were being seared by fire.
It was a silver arrow.
Carmilla fell face-first onto the ground.
“Ah, ugh···.”
“Ha··· fuck, finally caught you.”
As she crouched and moaned, several shadows fell over her.
Hooded figures.
Each stood armed with swords, bows, and the like.
They were the hounds who had pursued Carmilla all this time.
Wham-!
“Kheugh···!”
A kick came first, without a question or a word.
The thigh with the arrow lodged in it was kicked hard.
The girl resisted, flinching.
“Like a rat··· You were quick to run, nearly slipped away from us···.”
“Your Highness. Why make things so troublesome? Would it kill you to die quietly?”
“Don't let your guard down this time. We lost her the last time we did that.”
The assassins surrounded Carmilla.
The girl stealthily twitched a finger.
Blood Manipulation (血操術).
She condensed her own blood into daggers.
She secretly aimed them at the assassins' throats, but···.
“Trying something, are you?”
Crunch-!
The assassin noticed what she was doing and stopped her.
The girl's fingers were brutally crushed beneath a foot.
She had no way to resist.
Her stamina was at its limit, and her hands and feet had been rendered useless.
“That's what you get··· Who told you to talk about reconciliation?”
“Hah, hah···.”
“Your father was the same. Act like a fool, and of course you'll be betrayed.”
“No··· War, at least··· We can't return to those barbaric times···.”
“What are you yammering about?”
“How dare you··· me··· my people···.”
She did her best to bare her thorns, but they were broken thorns.
All she received from the assassins was derisive laughter.
A few more punches followed.
“Vampires are a race born to eat humans. And you talk about harmony? Fucking harmony.”
“No··· Cough, cough··· A peaceful world··· We can live without killing···.”
“Wow, you still have a mouth on you after taking that beating?”
“I am the last··· Blandid. Mere violence, of all things···.”
“I'm getting bored. We need to finish this and get back, too.”
Smack-.
After slapping her one more time, one assassin stepped back.
With one hand, the assassin signaled to those standing behind him.
In response, the hooded men took out a box.
“You brought it properly, right?”
“Of course. The new king personally ordered this.”
“Let's get it over with. He specifically told us to use this.”
A heavy outline.
What emerged from beyond the box was an enormous crossbow.
“······!”
Perhaps she recognized the weapon.
Carmilla's red eyes widened.
‘The Godslayer Bow.’
A weapon made of cord and silver, named for the claim that it could kill even gods.
It was an artifact that the Blandid Dynasty had kept from generation to generation.
It was also the weapon that had cut off her father's breath.
“You roughly know what this is, right? You saw it once during the royal purge.”
“Know your place. The new king specifically told us to show the old royal family proper respect, so he prepared this.”
“It was a pain carrying it around. Do you know how heavy this thing is?”
The previous king.
Carmilla's father had been one of the kingdom's foremost warriors.
To inherit the throne, one needed martial prowess to match it.
But even that previous king could not withstand this weapon.
“Hey, everyone stand back. If you get caught in it, there won't be enough of you left to collect.”
The string was drawn back.
The bolt loaded into the crossbow was no ordinary arrow.
Silver had to be honed with holy power for a hundred years, then aged in sunlight for another hundred.
It took two hundred years just to carve a single arrow.
Even veteran vampire craftsmen could barely make two in their entire lives.
‘A stake.’
The crossbow was called the Godslayer Bow because it could kill gods.
The arrow was called a stake because it could pierce souls.
It was not only vampires.
There had to be very few creatures in this world capable of surviving that single blow.
‘Ah.’
Click-.
The silver arrowhead was aimed at Carmilla.
The girl finally realized that she was going to die.
‘······I'm going to die. This is how I die.’
She was afraid.
She did not want to die.
“In the end, I accomplished nothing···.”
The demons cackled.
Faced with such despair, Carmilla eventually let go of hope.
She resigned herself.
“Goodbye.”
“At least you won't be lonely, right? Your family will all be waiting for you in hell, won't they?”
Her eyes faced death head-on.
She could not bring herself to beg them to spare her.
She knew they would not listen anyway.
“······Kill me.”
“Even if you don't rush us, we'll send you there now···!”
Click-.
A finger pulled the trigger of the enormous crossbow.
The attacker's body jolted backward from the recoil.
Immediately afterward, a majestic report rang out.
Kwooooong-!
‘Father···.’
Silver flashed free as the bowstring released it, no longer caught in flesh.
Something thicker than the girl's waist came rushing toward her.
The scene seemed to move in slow motion.
A single tear fell.
It was just as she was about to accept death.
“Oh dear.”
Kwooooong-!
Something stepped in front of Carmilla's eyes.
At the same time, an explosive report shook the entire sewer.
“······?!”
It was clearly the silhouette of a person.
If someone had been caught in the middle of such an impact, only scraps of their organs would have remained.
Carmilla's eyes trembled.
A civilian?
Had there been someone in the sewer?
Thoughts crowded her mind in confusion.
But.
The scene that followed brought even those assumptions to a halt.
Her red pupils stared blankly, utterly dazed.
“There you are, Your Highness.”
His limbs were perfectly intact.
His suit was not torn or pierced, nor did it bear even a speck of dust.
As the dust that had briefly billowed around him cleared, the figure of a boy emerged.
Black hair whipped about in the headwind.
“Oh my··· Did something happen? Why is there so much dust flying around?”
His face was covered by a mask.
A mask carved with a grotesque smile.
“Well, I suppose it doesn't matter.”
He reacted as though he had not even realized he had been attacked.
Behind that nonchalance, a voice soaked in laughter could be heard.
Light footsteps.
A leisurely ease entirely at odds with the situation.
The boy approached Carmilla.
“Carmilla Blandid.”
The clown called her by name.
He acted as though the assassins were not even there.
The eyes beyond his mask were focused solely on the girl.
“I've come to escort you.”
The Smiling Mask.
A slow, creeping chill licked the backs of Carmilla's and the assassins' necks.
“Shall we go together?”
Only the boy's voice echoed through the sewer.