His voice was soft, calming. She felt as though he was going to give the answer she was seeking. “Why are you even bothering with me? Like, back at the cafeteria, and then again in Electric Town…” Stop. You’ll only get hurt. “Is it…” Don’t ask that. You’re better off not knowing the truth. “Is it because I’m the head of the Reynards?” And yet, she asked. She felt as if a weight had been lifted off her chest. But not even a moment later, anxiety and regret—both just as heavy—filled it again. She shuffled her feet, her heart was pounding, her hands trembled, and her tongue was about to tense up. She wanted him to tell her there was no reason in particular why he’d intervened on her behalf. But she also wanted to be special. Her desires contradicted each other. What she really wanted was unconditional love. She glanced at him. “Bother myself with you? You’re quite self-conscious. I had you pinned as a gloomy girl, but you are more interesting than I thought.” Veltol smiled. “Wha…?!” “I simply follow my heart. I merely disciplined that boy at the cafeteria because he got in the way of my udon. You were second to my udon.” “…Oh.” “But things have changed,” he continued. “We are now friends who have shared meals. If the same thing happened again, I would act in defense of my friend.” Her heart was racing, and her face heated up. She convinced herself it was because of the hot bath. “Oh…” Her expression softened, and she couldn’t stop the corners of her mouth from drawing upward in a smile. She cast her head down so he wouldn’t notice. “So if I asked you for help, you would help me?” “Of course. I swear it on my name as Veltol Velvet Velsvalt.” Oaths were beyond just words among nobles. And Veltol pledged without hesitation. Thanks, she mouthed. It was neither flattery nor cold calculation—he meant what he said. In Veltol’s eyes, his response was perfectly natural, nothing special. And that was all the more reason why Hizuki was so happy. “Mmm!” Hizuki stretched her entire body. She felt refreshed, that indescribable cloud of anxiety finally clear from her mind. Then she approached Veltol’s side ever so slightly. “Hey, what did you talk about with Mr. Korneah?” “He told me that as far as the records go, you received the regalia, as you are current head of the family.” “Huh.” “Would you mind telling me about how that happened?” “Fine by me, though I don’t remember much.” “No matter. Perhaps we will find something out.” Hizuki didn’t like talking about herself. She thought she was boring, and she didn’t have many chances to do it in the first place. Whatever. I do want him to know. The thought crossed her mind. She was going to tell her friend about herself. That had to be a very normal thing. “Okay, okay. I’ll tell you everything, if that’s what you want. I’ll tell you my secret.” “The most interesting women always have secrets.” “Ha-ha, I guess.” Whenever she tried to remember the past, she heard that voice. “I’m sorry.” She heard it again but ignored it. “My parents were murdered.” “…” Veltol looked at her in silence. Hizuki tucked her arms between her thighs. “My father was from Electric Town, a top executive at the Seburd Company. A human. My mother was the only daughter of the Reynards, back when they still held power over Magic Town. She was an elf. Their interspecies marriage, on top of their difference in status, was apparently really problematic. Big fish from both Electric and Magic Town vehemently opposed their relationship, but they were able to get together thanks to the support of Mr. Korneah and Ms. Tratte.” Interspecies marriage, especially when an elf was involved, was still taboo in this day and age. There were various reasons why, such as differences in sentiment between species and the rise of neo-speciesism ideology, but the biggest one for elves was that a mixed child would live a shorter life than an elf, yet a longer one than the other species. “I remember being told I had to become the bridge linking Electric and Magic Town, and that I should continue my parents’ legacy. That I should graduate from the School of Magic and get a job in magineering to contribute to society. I was just a kid when they put such heavy expectations on me, so I believed I would be able to do it without a doubt.” Hizuki could barely remember her parents’ faces, but their words were still vivid in her mind. “It was snowing that night, ten years ago, in the Month of the Leviathan.” Hizuki looked up at the ceiling as she reminisced. “It was my birthday, and we went to Electric Town to buy my present, then had dinner at Magic Town… I had such a great time.” They were good parents. She had a comfortable lifestyle. It was the happiest time in Hizuki’s life. “We were ambushed on our way home. By a male high-powered full-borg, illegally remodeled.” She didn’t remember his face, only that he wore all-black clerical clothing. She’d never forget the emblem of a golden dragon entangled in a silver sword that decorated his clothes. A drop of water fell from the ceiling to the bathtub. “I was just a kid. I couldn’t do anything. I just watched my father get killed…right in front of me…” His blood dyed the snow as he covered Hizuki. Her mother’s unintelligible screams. The memory alone had her hyperventilating. “Are you all right? You don’t have to force yourself.” “…I’m fine.” “I’m sorry.” She heard the voice. Static scrambled her head. “That’s all I remember. When I came to, I was on a hospital bed, badly injured. The doctor told me my mother had brought me in, and that she died soon after.” “…And who is this doctor? They might know something.” Hizuki shook her head. “Murdered a few years ago. It even made the news. They caught the murderer, but the person didn’t even remember killing the doctor. Said it must’ve been the work of mediumship. I heard the killer died by suicide in jail.” Hizuki suspected a connection between both cases, but there was only so much a kid could do to find out the truth. “The records say my mother gave me the regalia when she took me to the hospital. She was the head of the Reynards back then, after all. But I don’t remember ever receiving a thing like that. I have no idea where it is.” “I was told the regalia are magi-gadgets stored in one’s soul. Can’t you feel it?” “I don’t know. They say you’re supposed to feel it, but I just have no idea. Except…” She paused for a second. “…ever since that day, I’ve been hearing a voice.” Hizuki stared at the calm surface of the bathtub’s water. “…A voice?” “I can hear someone apologizing to someone else. The doctor said it’s a hallucination caused by the psychological trauma of my parents’ murder, but I don’t think so.” “Are you hearing it right now?” “No, I don’t even know when exactly I’ll hear it, but it tends to happen whenever I try to remember the past.” Hizuki put a hand to her chest and then clenched her fist. “A few years after the incident, the Reynard house fell from grace, and the people who didn’t like us from the get-go tried to get rid of me. I got ambushed by assassins multiple times. They were all sorts of people, from lonely vagabonds to trained mercenaries, but I have no idea who hired any of them. I don’t even know if they had anything to do with my parents’ murder.” “Hmmm…” “At the same time, something changed within me.” “What do you mean?” “The next thing I knew, the assassins were on the ground, defeated.” Hizuki, naturally, hadn’t undergone combat training, and yet she had repelled every one of her attackers up to then. “The Reynards are naturally predisposed to mediumship, but it doesn’t seem like I was under any sort of spell when these incidents happened.” Each case shared one commonality: Hizuki lost consciousness when she felt danger, the attackers were down by the time she came to, and she was miraculously unharmed. “I haven’t been attacked the last couple years thanks to Mr. Korneah’s and Ms. Tratte’s support, though.” The incidents had done a number on her mental health. She’d been scared to even set foot outside. “That was around the same time I met Ms. Mag, and she helped me out a lot before I enrolled in school… She’s supported me even more since, too. We even go out to eat together from time to time. It’s like, I honestly can’t tell if I’m blessed or cursed.” In retrospect, even she was surprised she managed to recover. Korneah and Tratte couldn’t help her directly due to their agreement, but they supported her from behind the scenes, something Hizuki didn’t learn until years later. “So I enrolled in the School of Magic. I’m no good at magic, but my mother really wanted me to go to this school, and with help from Ms. Tratte, I pulled it off. However, having lost the regalia, on top of the Reynards already being treated like trash after my parents’ marriage, I had no standing in school. But I still managed to make a friend.” Back when she was in her first year, one classmate approached the isolated Hizuki. She was a human girl, very cheerful and lively, kind of like Takahashi. “But not long after, she got hurt because of me. I think it was that mysterious power running amok again. I can’t really remember.” She felt like throwing up whenever she talked about it. It wasn’t so much that she didn’t want to remember, but rather she just couldn’t. “She stopped attending school. I don’t know where she is now. Ms. Tratte didn’t question me about it, but the students didn’t care about the truth. I went from being ignored by everyone to outright getting bullied. They’ve done some really nasty things to me.” “…” Veltol looked up at the tall ceiling in silence. “That’s why I thought I didn’t need friends anymore. No one even comes near me, and I don’t want to get along with anyone. I end up hurting whoever gets close. They all just disappear. They all meet tragedy. So it’d be best not to get involved with anyone in the first place. If I can’t be happy, then I won’t try.” That’s what she thought before meeting Veltol and his friends. It was her defensive instinct. Measures to protect herself. “I hate that person who took my parents and my life away from me. But at the same time, I’m scared…so scared of him coming back again.” Hizuki looked at Veltol. She couldn’t tell whether he was sad, or angry, or anything else. His expression was hard to read. “I’m still here because my parents wanted me to live in Akihabara like a noble. I can’t leave the nest. If I could, I’d rather leave this city…” She smiled faintly. “That’s it from me.” A drop of water ran down her face before falling from her chin and into the bath, making ripples. She had never told anyone this secret. She was glad she could talk about it with someone who considered her a friend. “It takes courage to tell someone about your own past, especially when you’ve experienced such hardships,” Veltol said calmly. “It must have been hard to speak the truth without hiding anything. Thank you for that, my friend.” “…Yeah.” He stood up with a splash. “I should go now.” “How about you try hiding at least a little bit?!” “Ugh, I can’t believe I actually bathed with a man… I must’ve lost my mind…” “Bwa-ha-ha! Cherish this moment for the rest of your life!” “I will not, you lunatic!” Hizuki shot Veltol a sideways glance, cheeks red. They had already left the changing room and were now walking through the hallway on their way to their rooms. Hizuki was wearing the same clothes from earlier, while Veltol was wearing his Demon Lord T-shirt and tracksuit. “So where are you guys staying tomorrow?” “This mansion is far more pleasant than the dormitories, but you certainly can’t have three exchange students making themselves at home.” “I—I don’t mind… I mean, if you want to…” “Wait, Hijiki.” Veltol interrupted her. “There is much to think about here…” He turned around and glared at the end of the hallway, eyes like daggers. “But unfortunately, my bath time is already over.” “Huh?” Hizuki turned around as well. No one but the dim lighting was there. “Unsurprising coming from Demon Lord Veltol, I suppose,” came a cheap synthetic voice. Then a silhouette appeared from the shadows. Average build, fully black clothes with a uniform design, like clerical vestments. Their face was covered, so Hizuki couldn’t tell whether they were a man or a woman. And on the clothing, she saw an emblem of a golden dragon entangled in a silver sword. That person wasn’t truly there. It was an image projected into the air’s aether through a charm in the shape of a person—a hologram. “Image projection through a low-level spirit…? You make some handy things with mediumship,” Veltol muttered. Hizuki’s eyes were glued to the emblem. “Th-that’s…” It’s him. The full-borg who killed my parents. She had no proof, and his build was quite different from what she remembered. She couldn’t even tell if they were a borg or a flesh-and-blood person in the first place. But she instinctively knew it was the same person from back then. She couldn’t speak. She was just trembling. Veltol took a step forward to shield her. “It appears you know me very well… How about you introduce yourself, too? It’s only polite.” “Apologies, but I don’t have a personal name, nor a face or body to call my own. Please call me Faceless. As for our organization…let’s say I’m a Hero from the Guild.” The Guild—also known as the New World Church. “Hero…?” Veltol’s shoulders jolted up. “So what is the supposed Hero of the Guild doing here so late at night?” “I’ve come to bargain, Demon Lord Veltol.” “Bargain?” “Indeed.” Faceless respectfully bowed their head. “Let’s get straight to the point. We want you to leave this city right now.” Veltol remained silent. “Your presence—and that of your friends—is an irregularity that could hinder the completion of our quest. Put simply, defeating Marcus designated you a clear and present threat.” “Marcus? You know about what happened in Shinjuku?” “Yes. Marcus, Duke of the Bloody Arts, was part of our organization as well. His standing wasn’t very high, but his achievements were quite impressive. It’s an unfortunate loss, truly.” Marcus, one of Veltol’s immortal vassals, was also the director of megacorporation IHMI. He opposed Veltol upon his return but was ultimately defeated at his hands. “What do you mean his standing wasn’t very high?” “That is currently an internal matter. In any case, if you and your comrades leave this city right this moment, we promise not to cause you any harm. Your objective is the treasury in the school’s underground, correct? We can offer you some help if need be. What say you?” Presented with Faceless’s proposal, Veltol… “Fat chance.” …immediately refused. “…What?” Veltol’s answer surprised Faceless so much, their confusion could be felt even in their synthetic voice. “You want to negotiate with me? Know your place. What makes you think you have the right to bargain? You ought to be prostrating yourself before me, begging, crying, and presenting me offerings so that I might consider hearing your plea. Yet here you are, sneaking around and hiding your face, a blight upon my eyes and ears. Where are your manners, scum? Were you born in a latrine? Outrageous.” Negotiating was too high a grade of communication for two parties with such different status. Haughty and arrogant, insolent and bold. The king had no need to hear out someone who didn’t show their face, and the latter had no right to speak to the former. “Most of all…” Veltol’s hostile aura instantly swelled. “…!” The tension in the air rose to an oppressive degree. Even Faceless was overwhelmed. “…I can’t stand you calling yourself Hero. There is only one person in the world worthy of using that title in my presence. Anyone else who dares claim that title should be executed.” “So our deal is over. Unfortunate, but what can we do? I shall excuse myself for tonight.” “Ha! Don’t dirty my eyes with your presence anymore. Begone.” “Oh, one last thing.” Faceless spoke with an ominous tone. “Akihabara is going to change.” Then they disappeared. The humanoid projection went up in blue flames. “The spirit vanished as the technic finished… High-level mediumship,” Veltol muttered. He stepped forward to try to investigate the remnants, but Hizuki grabbed his sleeve. “Veltol…” She was shaking in fear like a baby.
Chapter 22
15 min read