Chapter 33

“It’s pointless.”

Captain Shimena swept her hair back.

“The defense line is meaningless, Marcello.”

She tilted her face to the sky.

“The Demon King’s Army will invade the same way again. I would, if I were them.”

“Because it works.”

“Exactly. We have no counter for air attacks. Mago, Mago......”

The Second Invasion.

She pictured Mago over the capital, hurling spears that rained Demon Beasts down on the streets.

“We managed to hit them, but only while they skimmed low, dropping beasts caught on their claws. That’s not a real solution.”

“If they fly that low, bows or guns can knock them down.”

“Right. Mago just had good aim. What if they climb higher, ignore us, and fly straight for the Emperor?”

“The inner districts fall first, then we’re surrounded......”

“Annihilation.”

Shimena shook her head.

“The lull between the First and Second Invasions was the time they spent forging special armor and building an air corps. They’ll do it again—faster this time, now that they’ve rehearsed it.”

“Captain Shimena, what do you think?”

“About what?”

“How to stop the next air raid.”

“I know the method; I just don’t have the means.”

“Then tell me the method.”

“Meet them head-on. We need an air force of our own.”

Marcello pointed ahead.

A row of iron cages.

Inside the nearest, a black-winged beast thrashed.

The same winged creature that had air-lifted the green Demon Beasts during the last attack.

Every time it slammed against the bars, the whole cage rattled.

Ten identical cages stretched beside it, each holding an identical beast.

“You intend to use these things?”

“If we can.”

Shimena raised her voice.

“Louise Murphy!”

“Yes, ma’am!”

Louise jogged over.

While she approached, Marcello murmured, “She used to hunt on the capital’s fringe. Trained hawks, I heard.”

“So?”

“They say she raised wild ones and hunted with them—hawks, even eagles.”

Louise snapped a crisp salute.

“Louise Murphy, reporting. Any progress?”

“None yet, ma’am. I’m sorry—they don’t understand commands.”

“No comprehension at all?”

“When I trained hawks, I conditioned them to obey specific calls. Dogs or cats would work the same way: human word, instant action. I tried that here, but these beasts already speak their own tongue. They mix it with my words; communication breaks down.”

“Hm. Anything else to report?”

“No, ma’am. Sorry.”

“Update me the instant anything changes.”

“Understood!”

Shimena returned the salute and turned away.

“We’re trying to build an air corps, but as you see, it’s not going well.”

“Maybe we should ask the vampires for help,” Marcello muttered.

“Vampires?”

“They can turn into bats—well, bat-like things the size of men.”

“Useless while the sun’s up.”

“Ah.”

“If they could fly by day, we’d already be bargaining. And they’re still Demon Beasts, technically......”

“This is no time to quibble over labels.”

“True. We’ll take help from a cat if it can claw. Unintentionally, though, we are looking into the vampires.”

“Already?”

“Mago volunteered. Wants to investigate the death of our First Training Center’s chief instructor. Claims the bloodsuckers could become a threat to humanity. But vampires who’ve kept quiet for decades won’t suddenly shake the Demon King’s hand.”

“Then we have every reason to ask for cooperation.”

“I told you—daylight makes them useless.”

“Right......”

“You’re not listening.”

“I am!”

“If Mago finds a daylight-tolerant strain, maybe. For now I just want her to learn how to trust teammates.”

* * *

“I’ve heard about the capital.”

The man’s eyes darted, wet and trembling.

He looked ready to cry.

“Beasts dropped from the sky, and the Imperial Army can’t touch anything above their heads......”

No one argued.

No one knew the bleak truth better than I did.

“What if they invade the same way again? What do we do then?”

The man answered himself.

“They’ll just kill us again. We’ll retreat again, hand over more land again.”

“The Imperial Army’s that weak......”

“There’s only one superhuman like Marcello Arnes. The rest just die, powerless......”

His voice began to tremble.

“I don’t want to die, damn it......”

“So you chose to become a vampire?”

“Yeah......! What’s wrong with that? Is courage only for fighting Demon Beasts? No—risking the rejection and choosing to turn is courage too......!”

“Quiet......”

“If you can’t fly away, you’re just a bird in a cage.”

The man clamped his mouth shut.

At first I was furious.

His cowardice made me sick.

Becoming a Demon Beast because he was afraid—that was why.

Yet I couldn’t find the right words.

I couldn’t confidently tell him he was wrong, that humans could still win this war.

I had seen with my own eyes that eight years later the war still raged; of course I couldn’t say it.

A bitter taste filled my mouth.

Bigger than anger.

Then—

“Who are you?”

Madam Anne’s low voice sliced through the air.

A voice I shouldn’t be hearing—especially from behind.

I yanked my hood lower.

“What business do you have with my customer?”

She came closer with every click of her heel.

Each sharp step felt like a hammer knocking my heart deeper into my ribs.

My pulse pounded in my temples.

“Stop right there.”

Before she could grab me I reversed my grip on the sword.

“Move and you die.”

She closed the last step.

Close enough to touch.

The instant I thought it, her left hand reached for my hood.

My hidden identity was about to be stripped away.

Clenching my teeth, I spun.

Using the reversed blade, I hid my face.

At the same moment—

“Ngh......”

Madam Anne’s brows pinched and she jerked her head aside.

She had seen the cross-shaped sword.

She couldn’t look straight at it.

Eyes screwed shut, face turned, cold sweat beading—

She looked just like me.

She squeezed her eyes shut completely.

I knew that feeling better than anyone.

She must feel utterly powerless.

El’s weapon worked exactly as promised.

It bought me time.

I ran up the alley wall and onto the roof of a single-story building.

Before Madam Anne could follow, I sprinted full-tilt and opened distance.

“If it hadn’t been for this sword......”

Lightning might have drilled through my skull on the spot.

But it wasn’t over.

I stashed sword and raincoat, then went back.

This time as an Anakonda clerk.

* * *

“Madam? What’s wrong?”

“Mago...... I trusted you with my customer—where did you disappear to?”

As expected, Madam Anne started with anger.

“I’m sorry. I saw the guest safely home; I was just on my way back...... I finished everything I had to do.”

“This isn’t the time for excuses, Mago.”

“I’m sorry.”

“So, where did you go after leaving the carriage?”

What should I say? I racked my brain.

Whenever the squad got grilled like this, there was one excuse everyone used.

So often it was tiresome.

“I just......”

“Just?”

“Stepped out for a smoke.”

The cigarette excuse was the oldest trick.

“You smoke?”

“Now and then. Especially at dawn, to stay awake.”

The lie rolled off my tongue—I’d heard it so many times.

“Come here a second.”

I obeyed.

She grabbed my collar and pulled my face close to hers.

The reek of cigarette smoke clung to me, of course.

I’d never lit one myself, but the inside of Anakonda was thick with hazy, grey smoke.

I’d already soaked in enough of it to carry the stench.

“Hmm......”

She leaned in, tapped my shoulder twice, then stepped back.

I’d dodged any real suspicion—for now.

“Mago, come.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“The guest you just escorted out.”

As she spoke, the man appeared.

He would remember my voice, so from here on I had to speak as little as possible.

Yet the thought barely formed before—

“Ugh...?”

His eyes rolled halfway back and he crumpled to the ground.

“Urp...!”

One hand clamped over his mouth.

“Sir?”

Madam Anne’s attention snapped to him.

The man vomited blood.

Dark-crimson arterial spray, no food—just blood.

He flattened himself against the alley floor, moaning.

“Sir!”

Madam Anne rushed over.

The instant her hand reached to pat his back—

Something tore through his shirt from between his shoulder-blades.

An ashen wing.

At a glance it was bat-like, but only one.

A single wing unfurled, lopsided and twitching.

The man thrashed, slamming against the narrow alley walls, falling, rising, falling again.

His body had changed faster than he could master it.

And I—an outsider—was watching a man grow a wing.

“Madam Anne.”

What could you possibly say now?

“Disgusting.”

“...Pardon?”

I hadn’t expected that.

Disgusting?

She was the one who’d made them this way.

“H-help... please......”

Blood dripping from his lips, the man mumbled, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand.

“Mago, stand back.”

Madam Anne extended her left arm, barring me.

“J-just a moment, Madam—”

I knew by instinct what she meant to do.

I had no time to stop her.

The arm that blocked me swept upward, behind her back.

A blue flash blazed.

No sash, no ornament—her bare back.

From it appeared a crackling arrow: thick shaft, thin branches, lightning frozen in mid-fork.

Her right hand, already raised, now gripped a bow of the same blue lightning that answered her call.

Thunder rolled, one peal after another.

“M-Madam... spare me......”

The man sobbed.

Madam Anne ignored him, nocking the arrow of living storm.

“Madam!”

My shout was useless.

She held her breath.

A silence stretched impossibly long—though it lasted less than a second, the instant the thunder paused it felt eternal.

Perhaps we all wanted to stretch the final moment—she, the dying man, even I.

The instant she released, thunder exploded outward in a ringing clap.

A flash seared the alley.

When I opened my eyes—same as every time before—he was dead.

Not merely pierced; his head was simply gone.

Instant death, of course.

“Thank goodness,” said Madam Anne.

“Whew... that could have gotten ugly if I hadn’t shown up, Mago. That thing... was a demon beast, right?”

“Yes... a demon beast.”

I stared at her unchanging expression.

“Our enemy.”

She was a heartbeat from having her tail seized.

Anakonda severed it like a lizard discarding its own limb.

No emotion flickered across her face.