Chapter 3: Namidare

Night. The Namidare household.

When I got back, Harissa was gone. I went next door to Satsuki’s house, but her parents said she’d suddenly gone out too. Rosalind was probably controlling them both. It was safe to assume that Iris was gone too.

As I was trying to figure out what to do about this, Hibiki came back from laying Chelsea down so she could recover.

“Is she okay?” I asked.

“She’s just unconscious,” Hibiki said. “She’ll wake up soon.”

“I see.”

When this all started, I was supposed to be helping her with her story, but now I’d gotten her caught up in one of my own. I felt pretty guilty.

And then there was the matter of our other guest. The girl who’d ended up saving us—Silver Slayer—was just standing silently by the window, not doing anything in particular.

“Um... Silver Slayer?”

“Yes.”

She turned around obediently when I called her name.

“Hibiki’s here too now, so do you think you can tell us about Rosalind?”

“Understood.”

I had Hibiki and Silver Slayer sit down on the living room sofa, then dragged over a chair from the kitchen so I could sit across from them.

“First, I want to make sure I understand what’s going on. I’ve got several questions for you. Can you answer them?” I asked.

“There is no issue with answering your queries.”

“Then first... what do you know about Rosalind?”

“I do not know her personal history. However, I have confirmed that she’s a powerful vampire, at least five hundred years old.”

Honestly, I was a little disappointed at her answer. If I could find out something about Rosalind’s past, I thought, then maybe I could understand her situation...

“What do you know about her vampire powers?” Hibiki asked.

“This information is primarily based on my combat experience with her, but she has physical capabilities far exceeding a normal human, including exceptional stamina and accelerated healing. She also has the ability to turn into a wolf, a bat, or mist; the ability to supernaturally charm people; and the ability to turn someone into a vampire and make them her thrall by sucking their blood.”

“In Bram Stoker’s novel, only people who were pure could become a vampire after having their blood drained. Are there any restrictions like that on her power?”

“I believe she’s capable of using it on any living creature. I once fought a cow she had turned into a vampire.”

“...Hmm, that’s tough.”

Hibiki gave me a look.

Yeah, I know... Worst-case scenario, she’s already turned Satsuki and the others into vampires.

“Next question.”

“Proceed.”

It was Hibiki’s turn to ask Silver Slayer a question again.

“Who are you?”

“...”

“And what were you doing back there at the station? That power you used to turn your hair into knives... In a sense, you’re even stranger than she is. It doesn’t seem like you’re against us, but I’m not sure I’m comfortable working with a total stranger.”

“...Organizing non-classified information. Please wait.”

Silver Slayer froze for a moment. She was so expressionless that she looked like a doll when she stopped moving. Her almost inhuman beauty only added to the effect.

“In short, I am a homunculus that was made by my master, an alchemist, approximately two hundred years ago.”

There was plenty about that sentence that went over my head. What was a homunculus? And wait, two hundred years ago?

“Do you require additional information regarding homunculi?”

“Yeah. Give us the short version. Rekka won’t be able to understand the long one.”

“Well excuse me!” I yelled, but I couldn’t say much else. She was right.

“I shall limit my explanation to the essential data then.”

“Please do.”

“Homunculi are artificial life-forms created by a technology called alchemy.”

“...Alchemy?”

“A general term for a set of techniques that involve changing lower orders of matter into higher orders. For example, lead into gold. It was studied widely in Europe many centuries ago.”

“So... we’re talking some ancient, mysterious science?”

“If that explanation works for you, then yes.”

Yes, it does. But you don’t have to look at me with those pitying eyes. It hurts.

Anyway, did that mean that Silver Slayer was an artificial life-form like R? The technology used to make them was pretty different, but that seemed to be the case.

“Hmm... Why did Silver Slayer’s master make her breasts so small? He should’ve been able to make them any size he wanted. Maybe he had a fetish for small boobs?”

One was much less dignified than the other, however.

Hey, wait, your breasts are small too. I guess that’s appropriate for your age, but... Come to think of it, Silver Slayer does look old enough that hers could be a bit bigger, huh? Wait, what am I thinking about?!

“I will continue my explanation. The powers of a homunculus are determined by the wishes and capabilities of its master. The one thing that all homunculi have in common is that they are tools that exist only to carry out the will of their master.”

Something rubbed me the wrong way about how she said “tool.”

“Silver Slayer, you’re acting in accordance with your master’s orders, right?”

“Affirmative.”

“Hmm... If carrying out your orders is why you exist, then you didn’t follow us home from the station out of a sense of duty after saving us, but because you had some other reason?”

“Affirmative. As long as it does not go against my orders, I am allowed independent thought in order to achieve my mission. I judged that following you—Sir Namidare in particular—would prove extremely beneficial in completing my objective.”

“M-Me?”

I would be useful in completing her objective? Did that mean...

“Yup. Silver Slayer’s another of your heroines,” R said in answer to my confused glance, swinging her legs in the air as she spoke.

“I figured it was either me or Rekka, but since Rosalind said she wanted revenge on Namidare, I guess it makes more sense that it’s him,” said Hibiki, not looking especially surprised.

Wait a second... Did Silver Slayer want me to do the same thing one of my ancestors had?

“Then your goal is...”

“My master’s order is the annihilation of the vampire Rosalind C. Bathory,” Silver Slayer said in a cold, calm voice.

▽

Silver Slayer was planning to murder Rosalind. If that happened, I couldn’t save Rosalind’s story. But if it didn’t happen, I couldn’t save Silver Slayer’s story. So not only was a heroine my enemy, but two heroines were fighting each other? As I considered how to deal with a problem that was more complicated than any I’d faced before, the door to the living room suddenly opened.

“Hibiki, are you there?”

“Chelsea, are you okay to be up and about?”

“Yeah.”

It was Chelsea, the girl who’d come with Hibiki to visit me today.

“I didn’t get a good look at her at the station, but she’s got an impressive figure. Especially her breasts.”

Why was R so obsessed with boobs?! I mean, sure, there was quite a bit of cleavage visible underneath her tank top, but still...

Hibiki explained the situation so far to Chelsea as I sat there blushing.

“I see. That’s a pretty nasty situation, huh?” Chelsea sighed and shrugged her shoulders.

“Sorry for getting you caught up in all this,” I apologized.

“Nah. When you’re a treasure hunter, you get caught up in all kinds of messes.” Chelsea gave me a wink and a grin. “What’s happened so far isn’t important. What matters is how we decide to handle it now, right? I’m in a tight spot, so I need your friend Satsuki and her precise divination magic.”

“You’re looking for some demon pot that grants wishes, right?”

“That’s right. I need to cure my sick little brother.”

Despite the incredible things going on around her, Chelsea was still acting pretty casually. As bad as things were, her optimistic attitude was a big help for me.

“Okay. Then first, we need to save the others.”

Moving forward. That was the first step towards bringing these stories to a happy ending. I wasn’t going to accomplish anything just sitting here.

“Wait, Rekka.”

“Gwah!”

But before I could go save anyone, Hibiki grabbed me by the collar.

“I agree that we need to save them, but do you know where Rosalind is right now?”

“Uh... Maybe we could check places a vampire might like to hang out?”

“And where do you think a vampire would hang out?”

“Um... Caves? Maybe a church?”

“Hahh... Rekka, you don’t like to think things through, do you?” Hibiki sighed.

“No, I mean, I am putting some thought into this, you know? She’s after me to the point that she transferred into my school, so she can’t be that far away.”

“Sure, I’ll give you that. But there’s someone here who can do a better job than you, right?” Hibiki looked at Silver Slayer as she spoke.

“If you’re looking for the vampire, I can track her by her aura.”

“Really?!” I yelled in surprise.

“Affirmative. Granted, the only vampire I can do this for is Rosalind.”

“That’s more than enough!”

“She’s been tracking Rosalind for years. Of course she’d have a way to find her.” Hibiki sighed again.

“Then next, we need to find a way to save your friends,” Chelsea said.

“Silver Slayer’s attacks are effective against her, right?”

“The vampire is immune to the sun, running water, crosses, and garlic, but silver is her one weakness.”

As she spoke, Silver Slayer raised a hand... then turned her fingers into knives.

“If a vampire is injured by silver, it strikes at their life force, not just their physical body. I am made of alchemical silver formed around a philosopher’s stone core. I can change my shape at will. That is where my name, Silver Slayer the Vampire Killer, comes from.”

So her whole body was an anti-vampire weapon, huh? I guess her master really did make her only with killing Rosalind in mind...

She was made for that reason. She fought for that reason. If she actually defeated Rosalind, would that really make her happy?

“If silver is an effective weapon, I’d like to have some of our own to protect ourselves.”

“Then I will use part of my body to make weapons for you.”

“Thanks. I’d like a knife. What about you, Chelsea?”

“I’d like a knife too. Not that I’ve ever used one for anything other than fileting fish while camping...”

“I see. What about you, Rekka?”

“I’m not really good with weapons and stuff... I’d just like something I can use to help everyone.”

And so began our preparations to take back Lea and the other girls.

▽

The vampire lair that Silver Slayer led us to was a surprisingly familiar place, but it was very different from the last time I saw it. It was the hill with the abandoned factory where Satsuki had met me on the first day of school. However...

“What’s with this huge mansion?” I asked, baffled.

“This is your hometown, right? You don’t know it?” Hibiki asked somewhat skeptically.

Hell no. A month ago, there was just some rundown factory here. I mean, sure, it did get blown up a little, but there was certainly never a gigantic mansion here.

“It’s probably that ‘vampire’ thing’s doing, right?”

Chelsea looked up at the giant building. “Wow,” she whispered to herself, “what a mansion.”

“Well, the building itself seems normal enough. I guess it doesn’t matter who made it.”

“That’s right. Let’s just forget about that part. That’s not what’s important here.”

Hibiki and I nodded to each other, ready to get down to business.

“Silver Slayer, Rosalind’s inside, right?”

“Affirmative.”

“All right, then let’s go...”

We opened the door to the oversized house and went inside. It was dark. Even though it was nighttime, the only source of light was coming from the candles on the walls.

“Well, this place sure has atmosphere going for it...” I whispered to no one in particular.

The four of us proceeded deeper into the mansion, staying together as much as possible. There was a short hallway past the front door which lead to another door. Only after opening that second door were you finally in the front hall. Two long hallways split off from there, each with seemingly countless doors. And in the center of the hall right in front of us was a huge staircase that ten people could easily go up and down at once.

“Which way do we go?” Hibiki asked.

“I propose we go to the second floor,” Silver Slayer said.

“Why?”

“The vampire likes high places.”

Come to think of it, she did always insist on eating lunch on the roof at school.

In the end, Silver Slayer knew Rosalind better than any of us, so we decided to go with her plan. We headed straight for the staircase leading up. But...

“Above us!” Hibiki suddenly cried out.

Just after she screamed, someone jumped down from the second floor to block our path and attack us. My eyes went wide when I saw who it was.

“Iris!”

“......”

She didn’t answer me. It looked like she was under the same charm spell Lea was. And then Lea herself appeared on the landing.

“Lea!”

“I will stop you.”

She too ignored me, glaring as she descended the stairs. I could feel the animosity radiating from her. But it wasn’t my chief concern in that exact moment.

“Why are the two of them in maid uniforms?!”

“The vampire likes them.”

She likes maid uniforms? I mean, I guess that’s what servants wear, but to a normal Japanese person like me, it just looked like cosplay.

“Wait, now’s not the time to be worried about that!”

Regardless of how they looked, this was a bad situation. The two of them were standing in front of the stairs now, preventing us from going forward. I didn’t want to hurt them, but beating them seemed like the only way we would get upstairs.

“Yah!”

Iris leaped toward us with terrifying speed. The attack was so violent that when she landed, her jump kick smashed through the floor. I managed to dodge it at the last second, but a piece of the splintered wood flew up and embedded itself in my cheek.

“The floor’s made of wood, but there’s just bare earth below it! What’s going on here?!” Hibiki yelled. She’d only managed to dodge at the last moment too.

“Don’t ask me!” I yelled back.

It’s not my fault Fineritans are so strong!

“I defer to Sir Namidare for instructions. I believe that I could neutralize them both by force,” Silver Slayer ran up to my side and whispered in my ear.

I was a little surprised. Eliminating Rosalind was her top priority, and I was pretty sure she’d get rid of any obstacles in her way without a second thought.

“The structure of my body means that it’s impossible for a vampire to defeat me, but over the last two hundred years, I’ve failed to defeat her even once. Thus, I have placed my hopes in you, the descendant of the Namidare who sealed her away. I cannot jeopardize my alliance with you here.”

So that was it, huh? It made sense, but that put me under a ton of pressure.

“Then just do your best not to hurt them. But if you have to protect yourself, then you have to protect yourself.”

“Understood.”

She nodded, then transformed her hair into a lasso like cowboys used to wrangle horses. Evidently she intended to capture them without hurting them. But even if Iris wasn’t a professional fighter, she was still as quick as a cat. Even Silver Slayer would have trouble catching her.

“Rekka! Move!” Hibiki suddenly shouted.

“Hm? Dwaah!”

When I heard her yell, I twisted my body just in time to avoid something passing by me at an incredible speed. Was it a bullet? Of water? That’s right, Lea’s magic!

“Chelsea, you can use magic too, right? Can’t you cast some sort of defense spell or something?!”

“Sorry for being a failure of a mage!”

A good distance away from me, Hibiki and Chelsea were arguing as they dodged the rain of water bullets.

“......”

Lea was standing in front of the staircase, silently firing one round after another. She was aiming mostly at Silver Slayer, who was trying to catch Iris, while keeping an eye on Hibiki and Chelsea. I was the least useful in combat, so I was largely being ignored. But since there was no place to hide in the big, open hallway, there was no way I could catch her off guard.

Damn it! Wasn’t there something I could do? ...Think! What were we really dealing with here?

Our biggest problem right now was Lea and Iris. They were being controlled by Rosalind’s charm. So... how were we supposed to break it? Lea told me that it was possible if a person’s mind was strong enough. And in fact, I’d been able to do it myself.

Back then I’d... That’s right! At the time, I wasn’t just worried about myself. I was really upset and was thinking about Harissa and the others. That’s how I’d managed to shake off the spell. Did that mean the key was strong emotions?

As I was thinking about how to replicate that, I felt a sudden force like something running into me and I was knocked to the ground.

“Grrrowl!”

A wolf?! No, two of them.

Had they been hiding outside the light of the candles? The wolves bit into my clothes and started to drag me towards the staircase. Lea ignored the wolves as I was carried upstairs. I tried to escape, but I was being dragged by my arms, which made it hard to get a grip on the ground or anything else to stop them.

“Rekka!”

Hibiki and the others shouted after me, but Iris and Lea blocked their path to keep them from following.

“Yeowch! Oww! Hey! Oww!”

The stairs! Were banging! Into my head! At a really! Bad! Angle!

SLAM!

Uh-oh...

▽

When I woke up, I was lying on a bed.

“Ugh... That left a bump.”

I touched the back of my head and immediately felt a sharp pain. I’d hit my head and passed out... but it didn’t feel like much time had passed.

“Where am I?”

I assumed I was still somewhere in the mansion, but where?

“Grrrowl...”

“Uwah!”

Th-That scared me...

There was a wolf snarling in front of the door that seemed like the room’s entrance. It was probably watching to make sure I didn’t escape. I fearfully stood up from the bed, but the wolf by the door didn’t move.

There was another door in the room, but it didn’t look like it led to the hallway. Of the two doors, it made sense that the wolf would be guarding the way out.

Hmm... What should I do? I ran my hand over the inner pocket of my jacket to make sure its contents were safe.

Good. It wasn’t broken.

I thought it might’ve shattered when I was dragged up the stairs, but it had managed to survive since I was dragged on my back. If I used it now, I could probably at least blind the wolf. I would be able to get out of the room, but could I get to the other girls? No. Rosalind could summon at least two wolves. Even if I got past this one, there was a good chance the other would catch me and drag me back.

And where was Rosalind, anyway? I couldn’t do much until I had some idea of what she was up to.

Just as I was thinking I should wait it out a little longer and see how things went, I noticed a photo stand on top of a chest of drawers.

I stood up and walked over to it. The wolf didn’t attack me. It looked like it was just keeping watch to make sure I didn’t leave the room.

I reached the chest and picked up the picture. It was an old sepia photograph that looked like it might fall apart if you touched it the wrong way. It was even ripped down the middle. Because of that, I couldn’t see the face of the boy in the center. But I could, however, make out the face of the girl next to him. It was Rosalind, wearing the same dress.

“She’s smiling...”

It was the happy, shy smile I’d seen several times at school and even earlier this afternoon. She was smiling like a normal girl.

“This was taken in Japan, wasn’t it?”

I took a hint from the store sign in the background that was written in Japanese.

“When did photography like this first come to Japan again?”

Satsuki would be the best person to ask about that. Too bad I still didn’t know where in the building she was.

“Satsuki... Uwah!”

Suddenly Satsuki was standing next to me, also wearing a maid uniform.

“Um...”

Maid Satsuki, or really any kind of cosplaying Satsuki, was incredibly rare... I didn’t even know what to say. Wait, no! This was not the time to be thinking about how Satsuki looked in her maid outfit!

“Cute, isn’t she? There’s a big difference between this and how she usually looks. I like it,” R volunteered without being asked.

I already said this wasn’t the time! Drop it, will you?!

“......”

But Satsuki didn’t have any reaction to me. In fact, she ignored me and walked to the back of the room. For some reason, she was holding a bath towel.

“H-Hey, Satsuki!”

Without thinking, I went to follow her. Before I could catch up, I heard the door in the back of the room open, and a fully naked Rosalind emerged.

“Nghwaaah?!”

“Oh, you’re already awake? Wait, what are you doing?”

“What are YOU doing?” I quickly turned away.

“I was taking a shower.”

That would explain why her blond hair was slick and glistening as it stuck to her chest... Wait, I’d only seen her for a second. How did I remember the sight so clearly?

“What am I thinking? She’s just a kid!”

“Who are you calling a kid?!”

She kicked me in the behind and sent me flying back onto the bed, but my heart was still pounding.

She’s a kid. A kid! She may actually be five hundred years old, but she still looks like a kid. I kept repeating that to myself until Satsuki was done wiping down Rosalind’s body and dressing her.

Back on topic...

“Whew...”

Rosalind, who was now wearing an outfit with a very vampire-esque cape, sat down in an easy chair. Satsuki silently stood behind her. The wolf at the door walked over to its master and melded back into her arm. Rosalind was glaring at me. Maybe she was still mad about earlier.

“Don’t you have something to say to me?” she asked.

“Oh, yeah. Sorry.”

“Hah!” She laughed when I apologized. “You don’t seem nearly as concerned as you should be. You’ve been separated from your companions, and now you’re my prisoner.”

“...Where are the others?” I asked.

“Who can say?” she replied. She seemed to be enjoying my responses.

Silver Slayer was with them, and Hibiki always knew when it was time to retreat... But all I could do was pray for them. I was worried, but for now, I had to put my faith in them. I would just have to make do for myself in the meantime.

“Rosalind, there’s something I want to ask you.”

“What?”

“...What happened between you and my ancestor?”

The smile immediately vanished from her face.

“You don’t think I’d enjoy telling you that story, do you?”

“Even if they were a relative of mine, I’m getting caught up in all of this because of someone I’ve never even met. Surely you can understand why I at least want to know what’s going on.”

Rosalind and I glared at each other for a while.

Maybe it was dangerous to anger her right now, but if I wanted to know her past—her story—this was probably the best chance I was going to get.

“I told you before. About a century ago, things in Europe were getting dangerous, so I left and came to Japan, where your ancestor then sealed me away.”

“But that doesn’t really tell me anything. Why did my ancestor do that?”

“Because of the bloodline of the Namidare, of course,” Rosalind scoffed. She paused for a moment and then continued bitterly, “He got involved in the story of a girl whose blood I tried to suck. He became my opponent... then thrust a silver blade into my heart, and when I was on death’s door, he stuffed me into a coffin and threw me in the sea.”

A girl attacked by a vampire? If an ancestor of mine ended up in a situation like that, it was true that he’d probably try to protect her from Rosalind. But... something seemed wrong.

“Rosalind, from what you just said, you know about my family bloodline.”

“What of it?” she said.

“Who told you about it?”

It was a possible that a vampire—a being whose very existence defied the rules of nature—simply knew about my bloodline from the very beginning.

“...”

But all that came back was silence. “I knew about it all along” was NOT what she said. Which meant that somebody had told her about it. But who?

“Am I wrong, or did you hear about my bloodline from my ancestor?”

“...Why do you think that?”

“Because there’s nobody else who would have known about it and could have told you.”

It wasn’t something we openly went around talking to people about, so what made him tell her? And what was up with that photograph? It was a photograph from Japan of a boy whose face I couldn’t see, along with a smiling Rosalind. If nothing else, they seemed close.

Why did my ancestor tell Rosalind about the bloodline of the Namidare? And who was the boy she was so friendly with? When I connected the dots...

“Rosalind, you were close with my ancestor, weren’t you?”

“...!”

I got a reaction this time. That was enough for me to be sure.

“Rosa—”

“Be quiet!” A sharp yell cut me off before I could ask anything else. Her eyes were filled with anger. “There’s no need to tell you anything else. You won’t be able to even think soon...”

Two red lights appeared in the dim room. Was she going to use her charm on me again? Of course, I wanted to avoid that if I could. If I used the thing in my pocket, I might be able to get away, but I couldn’t get this close to Satsuki and then just leave her.

I tried to crawl away from her on the bed. But with the layout of the room, I was trapped like a rat. Rosalind knew it too. She stood up and slowly walked towards me. She was just two meters away. There was no time. If I wanted to escape, I needed to break Satsuki’s charm.

Even if she’d been told not to listen to me, she still had to be hearing my voice. So if I could say something to emotionally agitate her, I could probably break the spell! But what would make her mad...? Wait, did she have to get mad? I didn’t know.

One meter.

I didn’t have time to think about it!

“Satsuki! I happened to see your aunt hanging laundry out to dry on the veranda!”

It didn’t matter what! I just needed to say the first thing that came to my mind!

“And I’ve gotta say... I really don’t know about a teenage girl wearing panties with kittens on them!”

Never in my life, before or after this moment, would I say something I regretted quite so much.

For a moment, everyone in the room was silent. Even Rosalind froze, not believing what she’d just heard.

And finally...

“Wh-Why the heck were you looking at them?! You pervert!” Satsuki’s face went beet red.

I had hoped that embarrassing her would be just as effective as making her mad, but had I managed to make her more mad than embarrassed anyway? Like, really, really mad...

Whatever! All that mattered was that the spell over Satsuki was broken.

“Grr... So that’s how you broke the spell?” Rosalind’s gaze shifted from me to Satsuki.

The moment she looked away, I slipped my hand inside my jacket pocket and pulled out an egg. Not just any egg, mind you. I’d opened a hole in it to remove the yolk, then replaced it with silver powder that Silver Slayer had made for me.

I used my nails to make a crack in the glue I’d used to seal it shut, then flung it as hard as I could into Rosalind’s face. The eggshell broke, dousing her with the silvery powder.

“Gwaaaaah! My eyes!”

Rosalind covered her face with her hand and began to stagger about. The silver powder had burned both eyes.

“Satsuki! We’re getting out of here!”

“Huh? R-Right!”

The panic in my voice must’ve brought her fully back to her senses because she let me take her by the hand as we ran out of the room together. I looked outside one of the windows. We seemed to be on the third floor.

“There’s a staircase in the center. We’ll use that.”

“No, we’ll go out this way,” Satsuki said as she opened the window. “We’re jumping!”

“Huh?!”

Since we were still holding hands, she pulled me right along with her. I felt a floating sensation in the lower half of my body for a second, but my childhood friend chanted a spell, and both of us landed safely on the ground.

“What next?”

“We get out of here and meet up with Hibiki and the others. Let’s run!”

She probably didn’t know what was going on, but she was sharp, alert, and doing exactly what I needed to her to. I was silently grateful as I ran down the hill and got out my cell phone. Neither Satsuki nor I were very good at exercise, so our three companions quickly caught up to us.

“Where are Iris and Lea?” I asked when they arrived.

“Just before you called, the two of them started to move really slowly. Silver Slayer lassoed them both,” Hibiki informed me.

“Moving slowly?”

Was it because of the powder I threw in Rosalind’s eyes? When I asked Silver Slayer—our resident vampire expert—about it, she nodded.

“Then can we break through their brainwashing easily now?”

“Out of all of a vampire’s powers, their charm is the one most dependent on the strength of their mind. The reason the spell’s power was temporarily disrupted wasn’t because of the silver powder, but because she was caught off guard. If you’re asking me whether the vampire is still in that vulnerable state, however, my answer is that I’m doubtful.”

“I see...” I nodded.

Hibiki looked at Satsuki and then me.

“Did you break Satsuki’s charm? How did you do it?”

“It was, um... a coincidence.” I could see murder in Satsuki’s eyes, so I gave a vague answer.

“I don’t really understand... But if there’s a way to break the charm, what do we do? Risk going back to free the others too?”

“Hmm...”

“Um...” Satsuki timidly raised her hand. “I’m sorry, my head’s a little fuzzy and I still don’t know exactly what I’m doing here.”

“Oh, right. I’ll explain.”

Hibiki took over the job of explaining in order to give me some time to think. I had only that much time to make my decision: go back up to the mansion or retreat?

There was still Iris and Lea, not to mention Harissa, who I hadn’t seen yet. If I could break all of their charm spells, that would be the end of my biggest worry. Granted, going back was dangerous.

Just when I was about to make my decision...

“Don’t trouble yourself.”

“Grrrowl!”

A girl’s voice came out of the darkness, followed by the bared fangs of a wolf.

Silver Slayer moved faster than any of us, her silver knife stabbing the wolf right between the eyes. The vampire’s familiar fell to the ground without even making a sound.

Another wolf appeared from the shadows behind Silver Slayer, catching her off guard. But she turned her hair into a forest of blades, impaling the wolf. It disappeared in a puff of fog, what was left of its power returning to its master. Its master, of course, was Rosalind. She stood before us now, vicious intentions still gleaming in her eyes.

“I won’t let you escape...”

She was moving slowly, yet there was a terrible power in her words.

“Everyone, you may fall back.”

Silver Slayer the Vampire Killer seemed neither frightened nor assured as she spoke. It was as if she was simply reporting the best option.

And then the two of them collided. It didn’t even take a minute for it to be over.

“Guh...” Rosalind was lying on the ground.

Not even Lea had been able to best this vampire, but Silver Slayer had done it with ease. No... When I thought about it, she’d been moving sluggishly since she reappeared. The cause was obvious. The silver had burned her eyes and she still couldn’t see. She’d probably relied on her wolf familiar’s nose to lead her here.

“Aah... Ugh...”

And during the fight, even an amateur like me could see that she was trying to protect her left shoulder—the one Silver Slayer had impaled with a knife during the battle at the station. When I’d seen her in her room, the wound itself had healed over, but the damage must have been deep.

But then... Why had she followed us?

“I feel something strange, vampire. Everything you’ve done today is a mistake. Your kind are strong and cunning, but not arrogant. And that wound on your shoulder... The old you would’ve detected my sneak attack and evaded it.”

“...Hmph. So what?”

“I’m aware of the possibility that it might be a trap,” Silver Slayer said coldly as she looked down at Rosalind.

The vampire chuckled bitterly.

“Your sole purpose is to kill me, and every action you take is to that end. You have no value to this world, except insofar as a means to my demise. So that’s just what I’d expect you to say.”

“Affirmative. There is nothing you have said that I can deny.”

“You’re such a boring little creature... And now that you’ve fulfilled your duty, will you just turn into a real silent, unmoving doll before you rust away?”

“...!”

Rosalind’s words sent a shock through me.

“Wait, Rosalind. What do you mean by Silver Slayer rusting away?”

“No more or less than what I said. Her only value—her one and only reason for existing—is to kill me. That means that once I’m dead, there’s no reason for her to remain in this world.”

Silver Slayer herself had explained that a homunculus was a tool created to carry out its master’s wishes, and it had been two hundred-some-odd years since she was created. I didn’t know much about alchemists, but if her master was human, he was long since dead. She would never receive another order. And what happens to a tool when nobody uses it anymore? ...The answer was just as Rosalind had said.

“That is my purpose. There is nothing wrong with that,” Silver Slayer flatly declared as she transformed her right arm into a huge sword. “I will now execute my Master Order.”

She raised the sword high over her head. She would bring the blade down on Rosalind’s heart... and bring an end to both herself and her opponent!

“Silver Slayer!” I quickly grabbed her from behind.

“Sir Namidare. What are you doing?”

“Wait, Rosalind. Something’s not right here! Is this really what’s going to make you happy?!”

“Hap... py?”

Silver Slayer tilted her head as if she didn’t understand what that meant.

“Just hang on a second! Both you and Rosalind... I don’t think this is your happy ending!”

I didn’t know if she understood even a tenth of what I was saying. Even though she could have easily shaken me off if she’d wanted to, my desperate efforts to hang on to her delayed her sword strike by several seconds. It was just enough time for Rosalind to make her escape. She suddenly vanished into thin air.

“What?!”

“Huh, what? Why’d she disappear?”

Hibiki dropped into a crouch and looked around cautiously while Chelsea just yelled in confusion.

Silver Slayer’s hair grew out into a big, silver cage that surrounded us. If something was coming, we would know.

“...The vampire’s presence is fading,” Silver Slayer said a moment later, and we all finally relaxed.

“Rekka... What was that back there?”

“I think that was Harissa’s magic.”

Invisibility was a specialty of hers. Rosalind had probably brought her as insurance in case things didn’t go well. We then tried going back to Rosalind’s mansion, but it was to no avail. Iris and Lea weren’t there.

“So she got away, huh?” Hibiki whispered and turned towards me. “Rekka... and Silver Slayer too. I want to hear your opinions on how we should proceed.”

“Opinions?”

“Chelsea and I are going to look for the Demon’s Pot. Will you come with us?”

“No. If you two want to do that, I won’t tell you not to, but I...” I was worried about the three girls Rosalind still had and couldn’t help biting my lip.

“You’re right to be worried. But if she can turn invisible, how are you going to find her now? Do you have any clues?”

“Silver Slayer can track her, and Satsuki’s Magic of Omni... I mean, her search magic can help too,” I answered.

“Rosalind’s hurt, but both Lea and Iris are still fine. You can find them with magic, but you can’t stop them from attacking you while you can’t see them.”

“That’s true, but...”

I looked to Silver Slayer, but she shook her head. I guess not even she thought she could fight an invisible enemy.

“But if we can find the Demon’s Pot...” Hibiki stuck up her index finger so that everyone would pay attention. “If it can really grant any wish, you can get the girls back from Rosalind, or even make Rosalind talk things out with you.”

“...I see.”

She had a point, as usual. It was much better than my idea of following Rosalind without any idea of how to save Iris, Lea, and Harissa. It would even help us solve Chelsea’s story too.

“All right. I’ll go with you then. Silver Slayer, are you okay with that?”

“I cannot win if I pursue her right now either. I will obey you.”

“Then it’s settled,” Hibiki said.

Everyone nodded in agreement.