The Taste of Blood
The aftereffects of turning the barren floor into a lifeless red swamp were more bearable than I had expected.
I sank to the ground like a powerless child and let my head hang. I stayed like that in silence, waiting for the helplessness soaking my body to drain away.
My throat was dry. An Americano would have been perfect right about now.
I cut the thought short and opened my eyes. The first thing I saw was not a gray straitjacket, but a pitch-black gothic lolita dress.
When I stood, my body felt light. The stab wound in my abdomen had long since vanished.
I let out a small sigh, then swept my arm through the air and gathered the red blood scattered across the floor and walls, condensing it into a tiny cube.
Once more the small crown rose into view, and beside it a single line of text.
The glowing letters crumpled as if folding into empty air, dissolving into dust and vanishing. The floating red cube dyed the white crown a soft crimson.
Only now that mana had settled into it could I finally take hold of the crown.
It was small. Cute, even.
Would it work?
As if soothing me after weeks of wandering outside in nothing but a coat, the little crown settled securely onto my head the moment it touched my hand.
It fixed itself in place yet felt weightless—as though nothing sat on my head at all.
Like an accessory, maybe.
I gave a quick twirl, then smiled faintly at Erika, who was staring at me.
"Well? How do I look?"
Pretty, right?
"·····."
She said nothing. She simply kept glaring.
At this point, all I felt was the urge to forcibly fix that expression of hers.
"You can look at me like that all you want. I didn't do anything wrong. The straitjacket tearing, melting away completely—none of that was my fault."
As I spoke, I beckoned toward a corner of the vast plaza, to the girl who had been hiding there watching me.
Her eyes flew wide. She flinched, then approached with a stream of apologies, fidgeting the whole way.
The device that had been around her neck was shattered—probably from the aftermath of the fight. Without hesitation I seized her by the throat and lifted her into the air.
"This girl is the problem. She was hiding a knife. A knife strong enough to tear through this straitjacket, no less. Isn't that right?"
"Ghk— kuhhk— ugk!"
The mana this criminal organization had been researching seemed to be that sort of thing. Not the kind that collapsed a build's structure on impact, but the kind that erased existence itself from space so thoroughly it could no longer be. Of course that had been more than enough to scratch a straitjacket crafted by the Mage Tower itself.
"Let— let her go right now!"
I smiled faintly.
"Originally I planned to get myself deliberately clawed by the monsters nesting on the third floor of this building. I never imagined there'd be a far simpler method!"
Erika raised her sword and poured mana into it. The air currents around us shuddered; the ground trembled.
I released the girl who was still gasping and choking for breath, slowly pulled her upright, and set the knife against her throat.
Then I whispered.
"From now on, beg me to spare you."
"P-please spare me·····. P-please, spare me·····."
Erika ground her teeth and froze where she stood.
Good. I'd been worried she might not value a life that highly.
"I wonder who ends up in danger if someone moves recklessly right now."
"····Let her go."
"Me? Why? Is there some reason I should obediently listen to you? I don't even have the straitjacket on anymore."
I had obtained blood at seventy percent assimilation and completed the first objective. Thanks to the considerable size of this organization, I'd even been able to stockpile a reserve.
The sentence that appeared to be the second objective—starting with the number 2—was beginning to glow as well. It looked ready to open tonight.
And so, having secured the basics, there was only one thing I needed now.
"S-spare me— hic— hiihk— ugk."
I slowly pressed the blade into the girl's throat. Broken whimpers spilled out one after another.
"Stop····. I said stop····!"
"The straitjacket was so stifling, you see. Honestly, my irritation has climbed all the way up here."
I brought a hand to the side of my mouth as I spoke.
"I was already past the point of simply cutting this girl's throat. The only reason my anger has eased even a little is that I get to have this pleasant conversation with you."
So it would be best not to provoke me.
Well, if she showed me something cute, the situation might change.
Perhaps it was my leisurely demeanor. To my surprise, Erika immediately dropped her sword to the floor and sank to her knees.
"····Please. Let that child go."
Oh?
I hadn't expected her to go this far. Though given her personality, maybe this was only natural.
A textbook example of goodness, was she?
"A kid who's got your attention. Makes me jealous."
"····She's done nothing wrong. She was just unlucky enough to get dragged into this organization."
Ah. Right. Erika had a little sister.
"Hmm? What should I do?"
"·····."
A brief silence fell.
It had been the same before. Hostages really were convenient.
During the massacres, before the Gates, and even now.
I could get my hands on most of what I wanted.
And so what I wanted now scratched at the inside of my body.
"Erika."
"······Yes."
"Shall we make a trade with this hostage?"
"······What is it."
She was being strangely compliant. Well, it didn't matter.
"What do you think my race is?"
As I spoke, I curled one corner of my mouth and let a protruding fang show.
"The origins are complicated, but simply put, it's easiest to think of me as a species that branched off from vampires."
Damphir. Not exactly well-known.
People just assumed vampire because I handled blood.
"So sometimes the urge to drink blood directly with these teeth boils over."
An uneasy gaze turned toward me. I wanted to twist that face as soon as possible. Even the sadism and impulse rising in me must have been instinct for this race.
Or maybe it was because it was her.
I smiled faintly and opened my mouth.
"I want to drink your blood, Erika."
Countless emotions flickered across her. Anxiety, tension, surprise, and doubt.
In one corner of the research she had conducted on the Damphir race over four years, there had been a brief record of this species baring its fangs directly.
There was no particular meaning to be found in the act of sinking sharp fangs into flesh.
Of course not. It wasn't an act that granted pleasure, nor did it forge any master-and-thrall connection between the one who drank and the one who was drunk from.
However, for a Damphir who possessed mana, it was said to produce a slightly different effect.
"····All right."
Whether she trusted me or simply trusted her own far superior regeneration stat—
After my long, careful explanation that it was safe, she quietly nodded.
"If it feels good, you're not allowed to cling to me and beg me to keep sucking."
"····That will absolutely never happen, so dream on."
With a glare she peeled back one layer of her uniform and bared her shoulder.
The upper collarbone. The stretch of skin connecting neck to shoulder.
"I didn't think you'd go along so obediently. Is this your type of thing?"
"······."
If I had a question, it was this:
She was following along strangely well.
It was different from the icy demeanor she had shown until now.
Because of some girl she'd just met? Was she the type who didn't mind a small personal sacrifice if it meant someone else wouldn't die?
Well, it didn't matter.
Even if this act brought me no instinctive pleasure, I couldn't stop my mouth from watering at the thought of freely taking the flesh of the girl I was so thoroughly immersed in.
I still had human desires, after all.
"Excuse me."
I bound the hostage girl with mana for the moment, then leaned lightly into Erika where she knelt on the floor.
I felt the stiffness of her rumpled uniform and the brush of her breath against my face.
Smiling faintly, I opened my mouth.
And I was about to drive my fangs in.
If only I hadn't felt the mana surging upward at blinding speed in that split second.
───BOOM!
Explosions roared one after another. Rubble crashed down from the ceiling, and with a dizzying rush of pain my body was run clean through by a flashing blade.
I had been savoring the pleasure of being pressed flush against Erika with not an inch between us. I coughed up blood and flailed my arms, wondering what on earth—
But the woman who had been holding me only moments before was already forcing the girl along with her and bolting for the exit.
"Ugh— pwah!"
Impressive.
I'd almost said it out loud.
Maybe it was a split-second judgment. Did she decide this was her chance, while the aftereffects of the straitjacket had lowered my stats to some degree?
If the fight dragged on she would be at a disadvantage, so land a critical blow fast and at least save that girl?
But she couldn't do that.
It would throw my plan off course.
If I let her go like this, that was exactly what would happen.
After four years of rolling around on battlefields, even the pain of flesh being crushed had become familiar.
In fact, it was convenient.
I'd planned to be as gentle as possible with the blood-drinking so she wouldn't hurt—
But now there was no need for that.
I stretched a hand toward Erika and the girl, who had already reached the door.
───Whump.
A duller sound than the earlier explosion rang out. I sprinted toward them as the blast swept them up.
"Haaah····!"
Did she forget the mana binding the girl was mine?
Even if she hadn't forgotten, there was nothing she could have done.
In a situation like this, when would she have time to undo all those formulas?
"Ugh····!"
Even sprawled on the ground glaring up at me, she was still beautiful.
"This is your fault."
I seized Erika's arm, shoved her back against the wall, tore her clothes open by force, and drove my teeth into her skin.
A faint resistance. Hair tickling my face.
The moment I felt the alien sensation of sinking in, the liquid flooding into my mouth began to warm my body from the inside.
"Hhk— hhngh····!"
Even her moans were cute.
Tasting her while our bodies were pressed together was a game that had long since crossed the line into excess.
The occasional twitch of her body. The faint scent of her skin teasing my nose.
What was that about it not giving pleasure?
It was nothing but electric.
A sweet, faintly bitter taste filled my mouth. By the time I swallowed it all without meaning to and pulled my fangs free—
Her flushed face and fragile breathing stirred yet another hunger.
"Y-you piece of trash····!"
Listening to Erika's curses, I checked the place where my fangs had entered. Two small marks, dyed gold, glittered there.
The first plan was complete.
Pouring my mana into her body.
And the second plan would begin tomorrow.
Until she could endure and adapt to my mana, I would have to keep taking action.
"What, did it feel good?"
"····Shut that mouth."
Watching her grab me by the collar and bite her lip, I smiled faintly.
Yes.
You have to hate me and grow stronger.
Strong enough that on the day I become a complete vampire and paint the world red, you can bring me down.
Strong enough to butcher me wretchedly, tear me to shreds until nothing of my form remains recognizable.
Justice triumphs, and the radiant good smile.
The wicked who collapse too easily are destroyed, and mixed beings are cast out by life itself.
The beautiful world I long for—I who never found the light—
is exactly that kind of world.