Chapter 4 — Dyeing the Blue Sea Crimson
Episode 43 — Melancholy of the Queen
～ Part 1 ～
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“Suou-san has passed away?”
When he received that report, Tokihara was flipping the abacus.
After coming to this word, Tokihara wasn’t exactly Tokihara. Being recognized as one of the many Pawns, he was hardly called by his individual name. However, because he stayed in the archipelago country Albadanba, which floated on the Rubeling Sea, and was making contribution one couldn’t disregard within the blood clan, he was being called as the ‘Pawn of Albadanba’ for convenience. If you’re going that far, you may as well call me Tokihara normally, was his thought.
Now then, that report brought by Bishop Akeno was something astonishing in its own way to Tokihara.
Knight Suou. A young and vigorous vampire, yet his skill was certain. For someone like him to die meant a serious matter. Moreover, the old castle in the west that Suou and Akeno was staying was also a place where existed little possibility of foreign enemies attacking.
“The Queen rebellion is definite. One student awoke to Phase 3 and we fought against that guy.”
Akeno uninterestedly informed. «Yea», Tokihara muttered and wiped the lenses of his glasses.
“Well, it’s a story I’ve already heard. The fact that the Queen has rebelled also means that our war potential can’t be replenished. I heard that the vampires who have started skirmishes everywhere are also withdrawing temporarily. It’s reckless as expected. Because it’s something that all the oni together have failed when they tried it 70, 80 years ago.”
“I plan to take along the high elf and go to the King’s place.”
“So you’re expressly crossing the sea for that reason?”
“There’s one more thing I want to request.”
Looking at Akeno who said so, what Tokihara thought was that she had surprisingly calmed down then.
3 years ago — speaking in terms of the former world, Tokihara had already abandoned the company he was managing and located on-site over here. It was for the sake of laying the foundation for the blood clan’s activities. Thereafter, trouble seemed to have cropped up with the bunch of the Temple Knight Order of the Vatican and the Special Superpower Countermeasure Ministry Office.
He heard that it was then that Akeno Miyabi took an injury to her brain. Since the Transference Denaturation Gate and Ghoul Transformation Virus she advocated were the main points of the plan, they couldn’t afford to part with her intellect. It was worth it to exhaust all means possible and they managed to keep Akeno and that intellect of her, but considerable defects remained in her intelligence and emotions. It had become necessary to periodically perform cleanup to her brain.
Probably, the Akeno at the moment was right after she finished that. So it would be okay even if she took independent action for a while. Speaking of what to worry about, it was that every cleanup would cause anomaly to her mind little by little, but that was taken into consideration by both the King and Akeno herself.
That Suou who could properly took her reins no matter what kind of status Akeno was in, had died may be a serious blow as expected. While thinking about that sort of things, Tokihara was listening to Akeno’s story.
“There’s a possibility that the bunch the Queen is leading may go through this Albadanba.”
“Hou.”
“The occasion when they head east from the ruined kingdom has been sighted. They will eventually come out to the coast.”
“From there, there’s a choice of going northward along the coast, isn’t it?”
Putting on the glasses he finished wiping, Tokihara enquired.
“Not that there’s none, but it’s a choice they can’t take if they have even a little bit knowledge about this world. If they go along the coast, they will bump against the country of the . The bunch over there is exclusive.”
“I see.”
He asked but even Tokihara didn’t think that they would be stupidly honest enough to advance along the coast. Because it was considerably risky to advance along the coast even when assuming they were heading for the east. Since the Filnand Dragon Knight Kingdom, Pirika Southern Kingdom, etc., couldn’t disregard the Central Empire’s intention, they who were monsters might very well be captured if things went wrong.
Going to sea is the realistic choice. Except for the fact whether they have decent navigation technique that is.
“The Queen, I wonder where are they going?”
“I’m not very good at making conjecture based on human’s thinking and emotion. But there’s no refuge for the Queen and others either way. It’s the same wherever they go.”
“Most reasonable.”
“I’m leaving behind several Pawns. You take command of those guys. If those guys come to Albadanba, hinder them as much as possible, but if it’s impossible, find out their destination.”
It’s the same wherever they go, despite saying so, find out their destination, was it? Well, I know what you want to say.
For the blood clan, the best choice would be to capture everyone of those guys, starting from the Queen. As long as they secured their person, there would be any amount of methods to make them do what they were told. But he couldn’t help saying that it had already entered a considerable difficult stage. There was the guy who seemed to have killed Suou as opponent.
Honestly speaking, in this case, he at least would like to find out even just where the opponents were and what was their purpose. As long as they know the detailed location, the King could give a ‘command’ to the Queen even from far away, the prospect would open in that case.
“Roger that. Lastly, it’s waiting for the King’s instruction, isn’t it?”
Said Tokihara. Akeno also nodded.
“Do we prioritize securing the Queen even if we kill those buys, or thoroughly ignore them? We can’t say anything regarding that unless we ask for the King’s instruction.”
“I understand. Just to confirm, does the King has an accurate grasp of you or my location?”
“You’re asking such a thing now? This conversation, everything is being leaked to the King. You don’t mean to cause unnecessary feelings, yeah?”
“Hahaha, no way that could be.”
Once your blood is dedicated to the King, you can never escape from the King’s monitoring. The Queen of the time in the former world was tremendously obedient to the King, therefore it was fine even if she didn’t dedicate her blood and was overlooked. The King himself probably also had the reason that he didn’t feel any ill will toward the Queen.
It backfired as a result. So would the King kill the Queen? Whether he felt like killing or forgiving her rebellion, either way, once the King and the Queen confronted each other, the Queen would be compelled to yield regardless of whether she was willing or not. Because the King’s domination authority was absolute.
“It would be best if we can collect the Queen’s blood, yeah?”
When Tokihara enquired so, Akeno widen her eyes in surprise.
“It’s best but difficult. She won’t go out on the front line too much.”
“Well, I guess so. Let’s me also think about various things.”
It had indeed been 9 years since he put himself in the service of the Maritime United Nations Albadanba. In this world time, it was 9 years.
It was long, but thanks to that the foundation had been considerably solidified. This archipelago country where the domination of the Empire was thin, was optimum to perform preliminary preparation for the blood clan’s migration. At first, Tokihara was also being doubted, but now he was entrusted the management of one island, and was even permitted to attend the Chieftain Parliament.
If he made the best use of his position, there would be various ways of doing things.
Everything would come to nothing if they just passed by though.
If they were to cross the sea where it seemed imperceptible to the Empire, this Albadanba would be an unavoidable key-point. The possibility could be said to be high.
“I have overstayed.”
Saying so, Akeno turned her back to Tokihara.
“You’re going already?”
“Ahh. While that high elf is still obedient.”
Obedient, she said, that would also be a little different. When the ship Akeno was on reached this island, Tokihara had also saw that high elf boy. His was a face of receiving a shock and moping around. What was probably noticeable was that he was building a friendly relationship with the deceased Suou.
“Akeno-san, you’re not going into mourning or something?”
Despite thinking it was unnecessary, he talked. Suddenly, Akeno stopped her feet.
“About Suou?”
“Yes. I was told that you two were close.”
“We were certainly close. Therefore, I intend to take revenge someday.”
Akeno went out of the room. Contrary to expectations, she planned to take revenge, it seemed some melancholy parts still remained.
Tokihara didn’t know the series of events that became the impetus for Suou being killed in the first place. But even if he knew, he would think that Akeno’s anger that Suou was killed, was justified. Being killed led to kill, kill led to being killed. Such exchanges between vampires and humans had been going on for the past 1000 years.
“The King too, I wish he would just quietly stay in a corner of the continent without thinking about absurd things such as invading the empire.”
Well, is it impossible since we’re vampires? We will eventually dry up if we don’t suck blood.
They had tried various things after coming here, but it was no good unless it was human’s blood. Even elf was no good, beastkin was also no good. Both lizardman and dwarf were hopeless. And since they had to suck human’s blood, the seam would come out from somewhere.
After all, it was the same in the former world. It’s a body of karma, Tokihara thought.
Speaking of which, I haven’t sucked blood this past month. Shall I go catch some children who go out to play on the beach before sunset when the people who go out are gone?
Tokihara clanged his fangs and dressed up to go outside.
To be continued…
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