Episode 51 — Curiosity Kill the Dog
～ Part 2 ～
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The sun had set, the merchants retired to their ship and prepared for the trade fair that would be held a few days later.
Or so was the original plan, but for some reason, Bergel — chieftain of Delf Island — decided to hold a welcome party this time. As they were told, it seemed to be something proposed by a man who took charge of heavy responsibilities as his right hand man. That man didn’t show up at the welcome party, he only sent words of welcome through the chieftain.
Because not just the merchants, but the students of 2nd year class 4 had been invited as well, it was quite generous of him. In consideration of students with big physique, the welcome party was being held in the plaza at the center of the village. Men with painted black skin throughout their body beat the drums, matching the rhythm, bewitching women — illuminated by bonfire — showed off intense dancing.
“Just like a continuation of the field trip…”
Someone spoke their impression. Certainly, it did feel that way.
“Welkano-san, thank you very much.”
Welkano — leader of the caravan — and Ryuzaki — leader of 2nd year class 4 — were seating side-by-side.
Contrastive to Ryuzaki’s gratitude, Welkano simply inclined his head.
“I don’t remember doing anything that deserves gratitude though…”
“It’s because you has properly said that we’re sufficiently trustworthy when introducing us to chieftain Bergel…”
“That’s a promise. A merchant has to keep his promises.”
Welkano’s way of speaking was cold, but for that part, Ryuzaki was convinced that this man was a man with a sincere way of thinking, limited to business. Also, Ryuzaki wanted to purchase the material for the caterpillar unit by using him as the intermediary.
However, there was still things he had to think about.
One of them was Inugami’s story. There’s vampire on this island.
Once an uproar occurs, it will be more difficult to get blood for Akai. Whether to fight or to chase them out, it needs to be done confidentially. The problem is how the vampire is hiding.
I would like to consult with the guys who can be war potential such as Kyousuke or Goubayashi.
Thereupon, a noticeably big applause reverberated in the plaza. The dancing had just ended.
“All right then, next is our turn to give a performance!”
One student said so and stood up. Little screams appeared here and there.
That was the headless public morals committee member, Kensaki Megumi.
“I’ll perform a martial arts demonstration. Goubayashi, please keep me company!”
“Mu, me…?”
“There’s only you or Okumura who practice martial arts, right?”
Receiving Kensaki’s words, Goubayashi’s giant body sluggishly rose up. Because his height was 3 meters and other students and the humans were sitting, he looked like a towering giant, reaching the cloud itself.
“Can I ad-lib?”
“No problem. I’ll attack, you defend.… Don’t get hurt?”
“I’ll be careful.”
Among the clamorous excitement, Kensaki and Goubayashi started a mock battle so fierce you can’t think of it as martial arts demonstration at all. Kensaki probably wasn’t going to actually hit him, but she continuously attacked Goubayashi with slashes almost invisible to the eyes, Goubayashi, on the other hand, caught all of them.
Since Kensaki was properly stopping her attacks just before they hit, not a single blade had touched Goubayashi’s skin, but to onlookers, it looked just like Goubayashi was taking every slash with those big arms of his. Finally, Goubayashi caught the sword Kensaki swung down between two fingers, stepped past her and aimed a backhand blow toward her back.
When he suddenly stopped his fist, the martial demonstration ended and the plaza was once again wrapped up in applause.
Now that it came to this, there was no stopping the easily getting into tune 2nd year class 4. Students raised their hand one after another, in a blink of an eye, the welcome party finished its transformation into a surprised monster one-liner convention.
As a matter of fact, not all students had participated in the welcome party. Akai was staying in bed as usual, and some students were on standby at the ship in preparation for an emergency. As for Akai, her feelings could probably be summed up as ‘give me blood if you welcome me’.
However, with reasons absolutely different from that Akai, Inugami Hibiki stealthily slipped out from the plaza.
It’s the smell of blood.
Inugami was sensitive to the special smell that a certain blood clan emitted. That smell of blood was neither one nor two. Several of those were drifting from the dense forest. Transforming her body into silver furred wolf, Inugami chased after that smell. The sailor suit, skirt and even underwear were flung off, but she could just recover them later.
While following the smell, Inugami looked up to the sky. Two full moons had come and gone after coming over here, yet the first time was in the dungeon, the 2nd on the sea, she didn’t had many chances to demonstrate her strength.
Even in this other world, the moon’s magical power remained unchanged. That was one of the few good news for Inugami.
Nonetheless, now was half-moon, and last quarter at that. It was still far off from being able to bring out her full power.
I cannot do anything unreasonable. It seems better to return to the plaza once I chase after the smell to some extent.
Is it because I have been living with that carefree bunch? It feels like my crisis management ability had dulled quite a lot. I should take as much safety margin as possible.
When chasing after the blood smell for a little while, she suddenly came upon a spot where the the smell thickened. Twitching her nose, she rubbed it on the ground. The origin of the smell was probably 5. There had been at least 5 vampires here.
“(Now’s a good time…?)”
Getting any deeper than this might put herself at risk. Smell this strong wouldn’t disappear so easily, so returning to the plaza and investigate it again tomorrow with other members would be a better choice.
As Inugami was trying to turn back, shadows suddenly flitted through at the corner of her vision.
Reflexively and quickly, she looked over. A smell, a stench so unpleasant it felt like her nose would break. Shiny black armor.
It was those lots.
Moreover, that face, she remembered seeing it somewhere before.
“(Is he, the driver…?)”
Could it be the man sitting on the driver seat of that bus that got into the falling accident two months ago?
That guy was also a vampire. Since the bus had conveniently plunged into the installed Transference Denaturation Gate, this too was just natural? Or perhaps Inugami just didn’t hear it and Akai had already brought this information to the class.
As far as she could see, his rank was Pawn. It was half-moon right now, she might be able to bite him to death if she fought desperately. But there were traces of 4 other vampires on this island. It was optimal to retreat without pushing herself, but Inugami had a reason she couldn’t do that right now.
It was children. There were human children.
Ahead of the driver’s line of sight was probably sake or something to use for the welcome party. The drink was put into a large container and two children — appearing to be big sis and little bro — were slowly carrying that. The vampire was obviously aiming at those two.
She hesitated shortly. But Inugami decided.
“GURUOOUUU!!”
She kicked the land and broke into a run, cutting the distance to behind the vampire in an instant. The face with slackened meat turned back, it was warped with fear for a moment. Inugami opened her big jaws and stabbed her fang into his slackened throat. As it was, she used her forelegs to push down that vampire — who was little vertically and wide horizontally.
The driver struggled, but Inugami didn’t released her jaws. Taking a glance, she saw that the siblings were going to escape to the plaza at this rate. She had a feeling that the brother looked over here for a moment, but she didn’t have time to care about it more than that.
Now, what do I do?
Will I wait for werewolf poison to circulate his entire body and kill all of the factors.
Or bite off his windpipe with all my strength?
It may be better to retreat once I know that the children have definitely escape to a safety zone.
But neither of those results came true.
Without any advance warning, foreign substance bit into Inugami’s body. That felt like lead bullets. Stabbing pain ran, fresh blood scattered. Taking advantage of the moment Inugami staggered, the vampire under her legs forcibly shook her off.
“GUuuu…!”
‘Shall I escape?’ The moment she thought so, a 2nd bullet dug into her shoulder.
“Kyaan…!”
Screaming, Inugami’s body rolled on the ground.
“I have heard that descendant of the dogs were lurking, but well…”
She heard a male voice unlike that of the driver.
“Ohh, you saved me Tokihara-san.”
“Oops, is it okay to call me that name? Asaake-san.”
The words they exchanged and the Japanese names. It was certain. These guys belonged to the blood clan. Inugami tried to stood up, but she couldn’t bring out her strength.
“How about the Queen? Was you able to contact her?”
“The skeleton group in the report were on stand-by at the heavy cruiser. Unnecessary meddling isn’t really possible. Even though I have the welcome party open to clear out the people…”
The Queen. Contact Akai Asuka. Is that this lots’ objective?
Judging from the way they are talking, they may even know of Akai’s bad condition. It is unknown what their purpose is, but it is obviously good-for-nothing anyway. I have to escape somehow, and let Ryuzaki and the others know, but still, my body doesn’t move.
The two people continued their conversation as though the likes of Inugami was already not there. You’re looking down on me, Inugami thought, but since she had already fallen to this state, they could just kill her anytime they wished. This was the flip side of that.
Around the time they finished 2 or 3 stories about Akai, Asaake the driver suddenly looked at Inugami.
“However, carrying guns is dangerous…”
“Well, just in case something happens. These are bullets of the kind that remain in the body and dissolve neurotoxin. Well, I think she won’t be able to move for a while…”
Gun, as expected, it’s gun. Just the part that I didn’t eat a silver bullet is still better, but being like this may be same thing.
“Shall we kill it?”
Saying so, Asaake approached.
Something, anything, I have to convey about these guys to someone in the class. Inugami desperately struggled and stabbed her claw into the trunk of a tree nearby.
“No,”
The man named Tokihara said this in a cold voice.
“I thought of something good. Asaake-san, we have a good method to make the Queen surrender.”
“Hou, what is it? I’m curious.”
“Do you know why our King wanted to eradicate the blood of these worthless dogs?”
The man spoke in a very pompous manner. Inugami kept her claws hook on the tree trunk and somehow managed to stand up, but she took a kick to her side and collapsed again.
Looking at Inugami rolling on the ground, Tokihara snorted. He squatted down, forcibly grabbed Inugami’s lower jaw. Inugami didn’t even have strength remained to oppose that. Tokihara gazed inside Inugami’s jaws in which sharp fangs grew.
“The saliva of these guys can forcibly return the vampire factors to ground state. Since it’s a valuable lone survivor. May be fate has led us to meet it here. Let’s make use of it.”
Next Episode: Class Meeting in a Different World #5
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