There were countless rumors surrounding the “vampire.”
It was a monster that had lived for hundreds of years. Its power was said to rival that of a Master, and it was rumored to have turned the southern region of the continent to ashes long ago.
The worst daughter born of Omeros.
This was the collective cry of those who had witnessed its dreadfulness. Powerful figures of the time banded together to hunt it down, only to lose their lives in the process—a legendary mage was none other than the “vampire.”
There was no rival unless it was the Supreme Wizard or the Gender-neutral Saint.
However, they who protected the Imperial Court and the City of Siendel would not venture recklessly into the south. The people of the south were resigned to losing their livelihoods, drowning in despair.
That was, until the “Great Witch” made her appearance.
There was little known about the relationship between the two women. However, the only rumor that circulated was that the “Great Witch” referred to the “vampire” as her “ugly sister.”
The existence that held so many legends was precisely the “vampire.”
And “Greed” spoke.
The “vampire” was one of the Seven Deadly Sins of the Dark Cult, and it was said to be infiltrating the Academy even now.
It was information that was hard to believe, as was the severity of the situation.
So I had no choice but to voice my doubts.
“Are you talking about the vampire’s whereabouts?”
“Yeah, that’s right. Isn’t that what you wanted?”
The girl, sprawled on the bed with her chin in her hands, wore a bright smile. At first glance, there seemed to be no trace of malice in her demeanor.
But her opponent was “Greed.”
While her power was still not at its peak, this girl before me was also a member of the Seven Deadly Sins. In essence, she was a monster not fundamentally different from the “vampire.”
I couldn’t let myself be charmed by her beautiful appearance. If I did, I would fall prey to the web.
I desperately lowered the temperature of my heart and asked again.
“Is this reliable information? How could a mage like the vampire possibly hide here unnoticed?”
“Because she’s using a ‘body.'”
At that, my hands, which had been unbuttoning my shirt, froze.
“Body.”
It was a concept I had already heard of.
Fortunately, the girl didn’t seem to attach any particular meaning to my agitation. She seemed to assume I might be flustered by the unfamiliar term.
“Did you not know? The old nobles of the Great Forest in the south studied immortality. In doing so, they touched upon all sorts of taboos… One of their shining achievements was precisely ‘the body.’ The idea was to transfer the soul and surpass the limits of the body.”
“…Has the vampire acquired that technology?”
The girl wore a peculiar smile at my insight.
It was a question that bore significance.
If the vampire had obtained that technology, it meant she could not have created a body before.
This dialogue held two key pieces of information.
Firstly, if she had only recently acquired the technology to create a body, then who had passed it down to her?
And secondly, if she had possessed the technology to create a body for a long time, then why did she not reveal herself until now?
The girl, who had been silently gazing at me for a while, finally spoke after what felt like an eternity.
“…Hmm, well? I guess you’ll know once you take off that shirt?”
“What the…?”
I was about to retort with disbelief before I could stop myself.
Greed quickly seized the moment to play coy.
“Ah, who cares! It’s just the upper body! I want to see it too, my brother’s back muscles!”
“…You’re not a child.”
Eventually, I clicked my tongue and threw my shirt aside.
The moment I did, Greed shrieked with delight, expressing her peculiar happiness. The only thing that escaped my lips was a hollow chuckle.
To be dragged around by an executive of the Dark Cult.
Even while thinking that, I could not bring myself to meet the girl’s gaze directly. Of all times, she chose to act cutesy with that face toward me.
I had no way to manage the throbbing in my chest.
I could only bite my lip and compose myself.
After a while, the girl, who had been chirping like a chick, finally divulged the information she had been withholding.
“Hehe, they probably only started creating bodies recently. Still, it can’t have been more than a few decades~?”
“Is that considered recent?”
It wasn’t something a chick who had just reached adulthood should say, so I couldn’t help but give a sarcastic remark.
The girl merely shrugged as if it were nothing.
“We’ve been hiding in the darkness of the continent for thousands of years. Compared to that, a few decades is a very short time, right?”
“What a proud history you have.”
My mockery didn’t seem to elicit any sign of submission from the girl.
In fact, her eyes seemed to shine with love as she stared at me blankly.
“Ah, you recognize it, brother? Our tragic history… Indeed, we are fated to be soulmates from birth!”
“Stop babbling and give me the information.”
My voice remained cold.
Of course, that didn’t mean the girl was cowed. Well aware of that fact, I deliberately tried to maintain my composure.
After all, she was someone I would have to kill someday.
There was no reason to leave room for affection.
“Anyway, the important point is the ‘body’… If we exert ourselves to defeat it and just before dying, the vampire transfers her consciousness to the body, we would be in real trouble, right?”
That made sense.
The vampire’s true form was excessively powerful. It was said that even a Master would have to risk their life to hunt it down.
But what if we managed to kill her while she was trapped in the body?
While the consciousness could theoretically return to the true form, from what I heard from Greed, it didn’t seem like it would go that straightforwardly.
It was an enticing proposition.
The problem was how to kill her while keeping her consciousness trapped in the body.
After a moment of hesitation, a sigh escaped my lips.
“…So?”
“Could you solve at least the related issues for me, lovely little brother? You can do that much for me, right?”
Little sister?
I couldn’t help but snort and add another question.
“In the end, you still haven’t told me the important information. How can we find that ‘vampire’?”
“Um, that’s the thing…”
Then, the girl began to subtly flush her cheeks while distracting me.
Glancing at me from the corner of her eye, it was evident she had hidden intentions.
Here we go again.
I could only release a tone of irritation that indicated I was fed up.
“What is it?”
“Oh, if you sleep with me tonight, I might tell you…?”
Did this insane girl at least have some sense of shame?
After saying something absurd, the girl rarely lowered her gaze.
Of course, I would have to refuse, as there’s no way I would sleep with the saintess of the Dark Cult.
Just as I was about to prepare the coldest of rejections, I noticed her downcast expression.
“…Not allowed?”
Clutching the blanket tightly and making a forlorn face, she filled my vision.
She bit her lips, inhaling then exhaling.
After repeating this struggle several times, I finally spat out a frustrated word.
“Do as you wish… But if I sense anything suspicious, I’ll kill you.”
Even with such a cold concession, the girl raised her hands and cheered.
“Yay!”
It was an unguarded and bright smile.
That night, lying there in a tense state, the girl surprisingly leaned her head against me and fell sound asleep. My tense body was starting to feel foolish.
The slumbering girl’s face wore a carefree smile that seemed worlds apart from her usual sly demeanor.
Wasn’t she being too defenseless?
If I were to kill her while she slept like this…?
On the other hand, I also thought this:
The girl mentioned that during her torture, she dreamt of being my little sister. Liya, being timid since childhood, had often curled up in my arms to sleep.
What would I say back then?
I would often pat Liya’s back and reassure her that everything would be alright.
Because her brother was there.
The girl must have witnessed that scene too.
After a few minutes of clenching and unclenching my idle hands in hesitation, I eventually let out a sigh and closed my eyes.
It was an unavoidable decision. I couldn’t kill my only source of information.
Perhaps that was all there was to it.
The next day, I was searching for an expert to seek advice about the “body.”
Beside me, the Knight walked majestically. By now, I had grown accustomed to his company to the point of feeling no particular excitement.
The only sentiment that lingered was that it was bothersome.
“So, when are we going to have a spar? The path of the sword has no end. You must train while you are still young to grasp what a sword truly is. Yes, indeed…”
It was slightly amusing to hear someone who looked younger than me talk about “while you are still young.”
However, I wasn’t foolish enough to display such rude thoughts outwardly. Rather, I preferred to let out a deep sigh while respecting the decorum.
“Knight Elder, could you please stop? The whereabouts of the ‘vampire’ are right before us…”
“Tsk tsk, nowadays, young knights lack their spirit… Their spirit! A spar only takes a few minutes, tsk.”
It was reaching a point where his grumbling was grating on my ears.
As I pondered seriously about raising my magical power to block out his voice, it happened.
“Ah, the dignity of an imperial knight has fallen to the ground! How can a knight break a promise made with a girl?”
I froze in place at the strange address.
The horror in my eyes turned toward the Knight, and he began to puff out his chest like he had finally found my weakness.
“Sir Ian, why haven’t you sparred with the girl~? How very disappointing~”
“Ugh…!”
I didn’t know what his intent was, but the effect was sure.
Suddenly feeling nauseated, I put my hand over my mouth.
As I slightly hunched my upper body, I suddenly felt a sharp impact on my back from the girl’s palm.
An infantile scream escaped my lips.
“Cough… Ah, ouch! That hurts!”
“You brat, do you realize how serious the sin is for putting me in this state? It would be best to request a return of your true body while you still can.”
That was of course something to achieve after the operation was complete.
It was a matter entirely separate from my will. I would easily return to my true form if I set my mind to it.
It seemed the Knight was already expecting this sort of rebuttal as he placed one hand on his hip and wore a meaningful smile.
“Hoo, you might really end up being a girl after all…”
“Just tell me! Just tell me! I will be sure to report it to the Great Witch!”
In the end, I couldn’t endure the verbal sabotage and shouted out.
Only then did the Knight cross his arms, wearing a satisfied expression. A hopeful glimmer could be seen in his nodding head.
“Hehe, yes! After all, as important as a disciple is, I can’t keep being treated like a female dog by my granddaughter…!”
At that moment.
The Knight’s gaze shifted slightly as he trailed off, looking behind. There were tall trees behind which gray hair flickered.
This wasn’t the first time it happened.
I sighed a weary breath. If I noticed, there was no way the Knight hadn’t figured it out.
Unable to hide her discomfort, the girl asked.
“…So, when are you going to deal with that kid?”
Ultimately, I decided not to answer, raising my voice to call my junior’s name.
“Ceria, come here!”
At that, the gray hair behind the trees jerked in surprise and hid.
Yet, any normal human with social skills would inevitably realize that my voice was filled with certainty.
It was hard to even evaluate Ceria’s social skills as normal, but I imagined that the training over the past few months hadn’t been pointless. Seeing Ceria emerge hesitantly from behind the trees corroborated that.
Ceria’s face was flushed in embarrassment.
“W-What? W-What a coincidence! Sir Ian!”
Coincidence, my foot. She had been tailing me since this morning.
As I signaled her to come closer with my hand, Ceria hesitated, slowly reducing the distance between us. I couldn’t understand why she was clutching the sword tightly with both hands, though.
Was she trying to hide behind the sword instead of the trees?
With such absurd thoughts, I voiced my confusion.
“What is it?”
“Uh, um! Oh! I just remembered! My sister wants you to contact her as soon as possible!”
It was information that came from Senior Delphine.
It was information I couldn’t afford to ignore.
I nodded, tucking that message into a corner of my mind for the moment.
However, Ceria’s message didn’t end there.
“But, um, Senior?”
“Yeah?”
Suddenly, I felt a slight drop in the surrounding temperature.
The Academy During the Day was hot and humid. Such an unexpected chill was bound to raise questions.
The cause was evident, but.
Ceria’s blue eyes had taken on a cold glint.
“…Who is this woman?”
Her grip on the sword tightened, and her posture became resolute.
At that, I realized I needed to hastily come up with an explanation.
“No, it’s nothing special. Just a special admission student so I thought I would take care of her for a bit…”
“That sounds too intimate, considering how close you two are. You act as if you’re freely flaunting your hands… It’s so, so vulgar.”
With a creaking sound, my jaw dropped.
I closed my eyes tightly, realizing it was already too late.
Finally, the trembling voice of a delirious Ceria escaped.
“Disgusting! How can you act so closely to a man you don’t even like? No, no…it’s strange! This bitch must be aiming for Sir Ian, too! Not to mention, there have been plenty of females eyeing you lately, causing me endless frustration…”
Until that point, the Knight had yawned, showing little interest.
He seemed to have adapted to the frequent misunderstandings.
However, the Knight was still oblivious to what kind of girl Ceria was.
“Since it’s come to this, I have no choice… To not sully Sir Ian’s side, I will personally deal with this!”
As Ceria’s blue eyes flashed with intent, she placed her hand on the sword’s hilt.
With a sharp sound.
Ceria was sent flying through the air. It was literally a strike that was invisible to the naked eye.
The Knight’s sword hilt eventually made contact with Ceria’s silhouette. It appeared she hadn’t anticipated this development either, her eyes widened in shock.
Finally, Ceria’s body, which had been floating in the air, collapsed heavily onto the ground.
As her eyes rolled back, it was clear she had lost consciousness. My idiotic gaze turned to the Knight, who finally struck his forehead with his palm and sighed.
“…Oops!”
“What do you mean oops?! What do you mean?!”
Ignoring my scream over the loss of my beloved junior before my very eyes,
Ceria was simply murmuring an empty sound as she lay unconscious, betraying utter cluelessness.
Thus, my junior joined our party just before meeting the Great Witch.
