Chapter 35

This time she stressed the word *never*.

She sounded utterly sure.

And it was true—up to a point.

Captain Shimena would have listened that far without interest.

So long as we don’t interfere or threaten her, whatever.

Let them do as they please.

I could almost hear her voice saying it.

But what I knew was different.

Madam Anne had ridden with the Demon King’s Army and slaughtered humans.

Killed them, gulped their blood.

Anakonda, which claimed to coexist with humans, had ended up like that.

“What if the line breaks this far?”

“This far?”

That would mean the humans...

The Empire’s defeat had made it happen.

“If the Demon King’s Army storms in again and pushes all the way here...”

“Then...”

“Anakonda collapses. The rumor that guests in the red-light district can become vampires—gone. Anakonda falls out of use. Like a building crumbling back into dirt, you’ll return to the beginning.”

“Mago.”

“What will you do then? Can you still swear you won’t harm humans, won’t side with the Demon King’s Army?”

“That’s something I don’t know.”

“You trust the Imperial Army? Believe they’ll protect even the red-light district?”

“Yes. I trust humans.”

“I can’t believe that.”

Anakonda would be smashed in the Third Invasion.

While the district still stood, blood flowed freely; the moment that supply was cut, the vampires showed their true colors.

They joined the Demon King’s Army to fill their bellies.

“Stop dodging and answer. Faith isn’t a solution. If that happens, what will you do?”

“Then we’ll drink the blood of beasts or animals, I suppose.”

She answered as if stating the weather.

“You must have many questions. I get it. Still, Mago, I never thought you’d dig this up alone. A bit disappointing. To think you were Imperial Army.”

She tilted her face to the sky.

“I said it, but nothing will change.”

Everything was perfect.

The district circulated without a hitch.

She spoke confidently, yet she’d left out the most important part.

“The shop she’s preparing—that warehouse. Half-turned humans were lined up inside, wrists and ankles bound.”

She lifted both hands, pressing right wrist to left as if a single shackle encircled them.

“Slaves are sold that way. No sunlight, no food, tied up until the auction begins—one by one. You know?”

She couldn’t know.

The feelings of lesser beings were beneath her.

“I was locked in a place like that from the age of five. I know the feeling better than anyone.”

“Mago...?”

“You’re all enemies. Cut the chatter and state your purpose. Why reveal everything now?”

“Madam Anne is hunting you. Mago, you’re already finished.”

“Sounds like lightning is about to strike.”

“Yes. Once Madam Anne marks you, that bolt reaches all the way to hell.”

Her red eyes flared brighter.

Sharp fangs glinted.

* * *

“Nngh...”

Madam Anne crouched.

She lifted her head and met the eyes of two men:

the Thief Boss and his right-hand man.

Both were tied in the warehouse, underground among half-turned hybrids.

“You two seemed close to Mago. Like you’d known her a long time.”

“Tell me everything about her. Everything.”

“No idea what you’re talking about. Why ask about that white-haired girl?”

The Boss asked, head lowered.

“I didn’t say you could question me.”

“We know her, sure. So what?”

“That iron door leading down here. You might think you opened it easily, but an ordinary human can’t lift it. Takes three, four times an adult’s strength. Easy for a vampire, not for a man. No Anakonda-side vampire could’ve entered, so it had to be a human—and among humans, only one I know has that kind of power: Mago.”

Madam Anne hooked a finger under the Boss’s chin.

“I’ve spelled it out. Now it’s your turn to answer.”

* * *

“Madam Anne shut down every shop in the district as of today.”

“That money-grubber?”

“Every clerk who ever worked for her is being mobilized to catch you.”

As expected—total war.

“I don’t care.”

“Mago, it’s not too late.”

“It was simple. You took blood as payment. But after that? Hybrids have nothing left to give. The moment you drank their blood, the deal ended—suck them dry and toss them aside.”

“Just listen!”

“Suck them dry and toss them aside—because you’re vampires. Maybe that’s only natural.”

I seized Senior’s throat.

Crushed it in my fist as if to wring out every drop of life.

“Ghk......”

“The other guests on the Third Floor never suspected a thing. Like you said, they volunteered to become vampires just to escape. They probably thought they’d turn into hybrids and simply vanish. Never imagined they’d be chained in the basement, waiting their turn to die.”

I slammed her to the floor.

“Ngh......!”

“I don’t care what Madam Anne does. Let her come for me all she wants.”

Senior passed out in an instant.

Or pretended to.

I stopped caring.

As I turned to leave, I felt her stir.

From the ground she slowly lifted an arm.

“Too bad, Mago.”

In her hand:

a single long firework, fuse already hissing.

With the other she snatched my ankle.

I was about to stamp that hand flat when the rocket shot skyward.

A yellow flash climbed in a straight line, screaming for the stars.

A flare announcing my position.

Thunder followed.

I remembered my days in the 63rd Platoon.

A night we’d tightened ranks and charged.

A firework had blossomed above us then, too.

Commander’s face drained of color.

“Break apart! Spread formation—! Cluster and you die, scatter and you live!”

An order to dodge the chain lightning.

The instant the flare burst, blue bolts rained down.

One sluggish soldier took the hit and hurled his comrades past death’s threshold with him.

“Fall back! Fall back—!”

Madam Anne didn’t merely hurl destructive lightning; she dictated the Imperial Army’s very formation.

Bunch up—chain lightning.

Spread out—force divided.

We were beaten either way.

“But if my theory is right......”

Next morning I sought the Commander.

“Mago, what is it?”

“Madam Anne’s relic. I think it has a weakness.”

“A weakness?”

I unfolded the notebook I’d kept.

Sketched her bow and arrows.

Filled the margins with cramped writing.

“A violin?”

“A bow and arrows.”

“Where do you see—?”

Ignore my hopeless drawing skills.

“Just listen. Last month, September, Madam Anne fired seven bolts.”

“Did she?”

“Yes. The month before, August, and July too—always seven.”

“You counted that?”

“I study relics, sir.”

“What’s your point?”

“She fires exactly seven a month. That could be her limit. Every relic has a flaw. Marcello Arnes’s sword and spear, Captain Shimena Extein’s gear—same rule. Madam Anne’s might be a strict quota of seven shots per month.”

“Mago, you’ve been logging Special Task Force relics too?”

“If I see it, it goes in the book.”

“Quiet hobby.”

“It’s not a hobby. It’s tactical analysis......!”

“Raw notes don’t prove anything.”

“Repeating patterns become data. From July to today, 20 October, she’s never deviated. Four months, same number. Odds are high seven is her ceiling. If so, she’s already spent this month’s allotment—yet we’re still cowering......!”

“Then gather a little more. Four months isn’t enough.”

“Commander!”

“If anyone else brought this, maybe. But you, Mago......”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You can’t tell weapons apart. And now you’re lecturing me on relics......”

“That’s irrelevant, sir! In the next operation, do not split formation.”

“And if we all fry together?”

“She’s out of arrows this month, so—”

“Shut it.”

He threw me out.

Next engagement.

The 63rd advanced in the widest possible line.

That day, Madam Anne’s lightning never fell.

No flares either.

She seemed to have stopped caring.

So we crept forward, cautiously—

The Demon King’s spearmen punched straight through our tightly packed formation.

Madam Anne never lifted a finger; she simply let the Imperial Army tear itself apart.

Fear had been planted so deep it had taken root.

Even after I’d exposed their weakness, no one listened.

This was my war alone.

* * *

I pressed my throbbing forehead.

“Ughhh...”

Senior crawled across the ground.

Half her waist was gone, the skin around it charred black.

Still, she lived—

after the firework burst.

I’d hoisted her up at once and used her as a shield.

“Thought I wouldn’t know your tricks?”

Unlike my powerless past life, this time I knew as much as anyone.

I could move exactly as I chose.

That was the point of the solo mission.

If Madam Anne planned to snipe from afar, I could use that too.

Her mage-tool held only seven shots; that was its limit.

I didn’t know when she’d last reloaded, but—

The man who’d stolen Anakonda’s money and fled.

The guest on the third floor who’d become a Hybrid.

And me, moments ago.

Just counting what I’d seen, three shots fired.

I rifled through Senior’s pocket.

The side where she’d pulled the firework.

“Ma... go...”

I ignored her groan and opened the pouch.

Three more fireworks identical to the one she’d launched.

Even matches.

I transferred everything to my own pocket.

From here on, I could call the lightning myself.

“H-Hey...!”

Soldiers stationed at the checkpoint came running.

The thunder had clearly startled them.

They crowded around me.

“What happened—”

“Lightning from the sky, straight down. Must’ve been Madam Anne’s...”

They glanced between me and Senior, muttering.

“Trainee?”

One of them focused on my uniform.

The insignia stitched across chest and shoulder:

a single sword thrust upside-down.

“What’s a trainee doing here...?”

As I opened my mouth to deny it, the soldier who’d taken my letter to Captain Shimena answered for me.

“Not a trainee. Special Task Force.”

He added, “I was on my way back from delivering the letter.”

“Thank you.”

I bowed my head.

Standing, I met the soldiers eye to eye.

“This uniform’s pre-assignment—”

I tugged at the navy collar.

“Pre-assignment but already Special Task Force? Never heard of that. Are you really... Task Force?”

I unfolded the official document.

Once they saw the seal, they nodded.

But I had one more thing to tell them.

Senior lay on the ground, barely conscious.

A soldier started toward her.

“Don’t go near her!”

I barked.

She was close enough to lunge and sink her fangs into his ankle with her last strength.

“She’s not human.”

“...Excuse me?”

“I couldn’t say before.”

I turned to the soldier who’d carried my letter.

“She’s a Vampire.”

“A Vampire...?”

“Madam Anne included—Anakonda Tavern, every other bar in the red-light district—Vampires have been hiding among the staff.”

“Then the mission...”

“The final stage is to kill every last one. I need help.”