The Kiss of Death
“Haa… haaa……”
I’m exhausted. This marks the thirty-third time I’ve reached my limit.
“Not enough yet. You can’t be panting like that already. Come on, get up!”
Without even catching my breath—no, without breathing at all—I swing my sword at my opponent.
For the thirty-fourth time, our blades clash. Beyond the crossed swords right in front of my eyes, a pair of crimson eyes meets a pair of violet ones.
The standoff doesn’t last long. Keeping our blades locked, I press against her sword while twisting my wrist. Her blade shifts slightly to the left, and mine traces a horizontal arc.
She refuses to yield, sliding her sword to block the strike aimed at her head. Then, as if pushing me back with our locked blades, she slips her arm past mine in an attempt to break my elbow.
I quickly release my right hand from the hilt, using my left—which still gripped the pommel—to create an opening. I strike down at her exposed head.
“Ah……”
But while I wasn’t paying attention to my feet, her thick, white, scale-covered tail sweeps across my ankles. I lose my balance and fall backward onto the sand, landing hard on my rear.
“Ugh… Ow, ow, ow……”
My opponent—Bishop Lumina—extends a hand with long nails and rough scales toward me where I lay. I grasp it and pull myself up.
“Hoo… You really don’t have much talent for this, do you, Kaira? We’ve sparred every single day without fail while you were writing, yet you’re still only at this level.”
My face flushes with embarrassment.
“…That came out wrong. You’re only untalented compared to me. You haven’t absorbed everything I know, but at this rate, you should be able to handle two or three bandits you might encounter on the road all by yourself.”
“Is that so……”
Bishop Lumina’s cold, rough hand rests on the crown of my head. Feeling the touch of my swordsmanship instructor, protector, and patron, I close my eyes slightly.
“Besides, during our sparring matches, I’ve only ever faced you with pure swordplay. If you were to manifest that ability of yours through the tip of your blade, you might be able to protect yourself from five or six opponents—perhaps even more—that ordinary swordsmanship couldn’t handle.”
She was right. Swordsmanship—the art of killing people—was also an art of time. Even if I rewound an enemy’s time by a single second while our blades were crossed, they wouldn’t understand what was happening and would simply take the hit.
So far, I had only used the power to rewind time to fix something or someone. But perhaps it was a power better suited for murder. After all, the entity that had granted me this ability seemed to take more pleasure in harm than in healing.
“Well then, since today’s lesson is over, it’s time to pay the tuition fee, isn’t it?”
As I rose while holding Bishop Lumina’s hand, I swallowed hard in anticipation.
“Yes……”
“How would you like it? Painful? Or gentle?”
Even without falling under her bewitching gaze, I stared blankly at Bishop Lumina’s face before answering.
“…Painful, please.”
“Good.”
The bishop’s face, with her snake-like tongue flicking once, overlaps with mine. Without using charm or hypnosis.
“Chuu……”
Our lips touch lightly. After a cold, sweet, and soft kiss, her face pulls away from mine.
“Hehe. Then let’s begin.”
This time, I feel her face against my neck. The moment her cold, temperatureless lips touch my throat, my body shudders.
And then comes a sharp pain, like a razor slicing through flesh.
“Hngh…!!!”
A short moan escapes at the agony of torn flesh and ruptured blood vessels, but I pay it no mind…….
“Haaahhh…… Hehe, ehehe……”
I surrender myself to the climax that follows. My body goes limp, my legs tremble uncontrollably from the overwhelming pleasure, and I can’t even tense my lower abdomen.
The warm trickle… that sensation of release and shame hits me at once. While my mind remains clear as she drinks my blood, I can’t endure the orgasm and wet myself. The pants I wore for sword practice grow damp.
“Slurp… Mmph… Glug… Gulp……”
With an ecstatic expression, I listen to the sounds of her drinking my life away—sounds that are strangely, deliciously beautiful. My limbs quiver at the musical noise and the blissful sensation of my blood being drained.
Whether from blood loss or from my entire body being steeped in masochistic pleasure, strength drains from my legs. Supporting my own weight becomes impossible. Even now, I barely remain standing by leaning against Lumina’s arm.
And then I collapse with a thud, falling to my knees on the training ground’s sand. At the same time, the bishop’s fangs naturally slip free from my neck.
“Hehe. What an adorable young lady you are, Kaira. You’ve been so thoroughly trained now that you can enjoy it without me even needing to use hypnosis.”
“Yesh… yesss♡”
In a sweetly coquettish voice, I answered my beloved mentor and patron. In truth, I wasn’t even registering what she was saying.
Forgetting even the discomfort of my pants soaked with sticky fluids and urine, I sat there on the sand for a long while. Until Bishop Lumina’s hand helped me to my feet.
“Lady Kaira. There’s something special I need to tell you today.”
Still not fully recovered from the aftermath of the blood-drinking—the light anemia and the overwhelming pleasure of having my life drained—I looked up at the bishop with vacant eyes and echoed her words.
“S-something… to tell…?”
“Yes.”
The bishop stroked my hair.
“I’ll confess now—it wasn’t just for payment that I’ve been drinking your blood all this time. Of course, your blood is delicious and fragrant, of a quality rarely found even among the people of this territory. But that wasn’t all.”
I couldn’t understand what she meant and simply stared at her face with my still-dizzy mind. Bishop Lumina’s shining eyes looked down at me.
“Think about it, Lady Kaira. We are beings who command death, who have become corpses ourselves and walk the boundary between life and death—ominous existences. Before you met us, you only knew us as sinister vampires who raise the dead, didn’t you?”
“That’s not true…!! I don’t think that way anymore, not at all! Neither I nor Rin!! You, Lady Lumina, are the greatest benefactor I’ve met in my life……”
It was the truth. Despite having no blood ties and little shared interest, she had saved my life, given me a place to stay, offered me a chance to restore my honor, and even taught me knowledge. She was a true benefactor.
There had been many others—my parents, the professors at the magic academy, Saint Azalea—but those relationships had formed through ordinary human connections. Someone like Bishop Lumina, who had treated me kindly from the very first meeting when I knew nothing, was rare even in my previous life.
“Well, I’m glad you feel that way. Though it wasn’t without any compensation. I did commission that book introducing Riaska, and I used you as my personal blood bag.”
“That hardly counts as compensation……”
“Anyway, that’s not what I wanted to say. To outsiders we may seem ominous, but we are beings who serve one of the gods who created this world. It may not seem fitting, but we too are agents of the order that protects this world.”
I tilted my head. Why was she saying something like this now—of all times—when the lingering pleasure from the blood-drinking still coursed through my entire body?
Paying no mind to my confused expression, Bishop Lumina kissed me.
“Hweh…?”
“So all the blood-drinking up until now… was also an effort to somehow alleviate that something dwelling inside you, using the power blessed by the Father of Rest. Like sucking out venom from a snakebite and spitting it away. …Though I suppose I am the snake in this case.”
Only then did I remember.
‘But surely… Lady Kaira……’
When I had first allowed Priest Karik to drink my blood, he had hesitated and started to say something before stopping. It must have been because of the corrupting energy mixed in my blood.
“Your blood is delicious, Lady Kaira, and its scent strongly evokes memories of when we were still alive. The scent itself is fine, but… deep within your blood, something from beyond this world is writhing, trying to tear through dimensions and enter.”
“Was it really okay for you to drink something like that…?”
“I told you, Lady Kaira. Though we may seem far from the light, we are still priests. Perhaps we are even closer to our god than priests of any other order, since we have devoted even our lives to the one who rules over rest. His power itself sustains our bodies. A mere sip of your corruption was something I could purify within myself.”
“And through my saliva, I’ve been introducing it little by little…… The essence granted by the Father of Rest—the power that allows us to walk between immortality and mortality. In truth, this is a power that should only be used during the ordination of new priests……”
Bishop Lumina smiled awkwardly.
“If it’s to protect our world, I’m sure the Father of Rest will understand.”
“So… you’ve been injecting something into my body to attempt purification? Using the power of the God of Rest?”
“That’s one way to put it. There will be side effects, of course.”
Side effects. Well, it was the power of a god who granted strength in exchange for taking life, so it was only natural there would be some.
“Then… did it work?”
“To some extent. The hollow taste from beyond the world that I used to sense in your blood every day has grown fainter. I haven’t completely erased that entity’s influence from your body and memories. I’ve merely sealed it with the power of this world’s gods. Still, you should have fewer worries when you rewind time. However……”
Bishop Lumina lifted my hand and held it before my eyes. Slightly pale skin filled my vision.
“Your body has become a little dead as well.”
Was that all the side effect amounted to?
“…It doesn’t matter.”
“Oh?”
Seeing me accept it more readily than expected, Bishop Lumina looked surprised.
“Well, I suppose it makes sense. Your other mentor was an undead too, wasn’t she? Though she used wicked tricks instead of a blessing like ours.”
“It wasn’t wicked. It was an academic method.”
I weakly refuted her. The bishop raised both hands in a gesture that clearly expressed, ‘Typical arrogant mage.’
Unlike Lumina, Viran had maintained her dead body through magic rather than divine power. I recalled her decaying form. Becoming like that didn’t bother me. It was better than having my body and mind stolen from me. …I wonder if Master Viran managed to restore her collapsed body and is doing well.
Knowing that such magic existed, and that the world might shake if I died, it was only natural that I would want to learn the undead transformation magic that Master Viran had used. But now there was no need—my body had apparently become somewhat ‘dead’ through Bishop Lumina’s power, so it was actually a relief.
“Well, I’m glad you’ve accepted it. Then, Lady Kaira.”
The bishop’s hands settled on both my shoulders.
“You’ve finished your preparations. The preparations to leave the nest and take flight.”
“Do I… have to leave……?”
Her snake-like tongue flicks once.
“Ah, no, no. I’m not trying to drive you out. But……”
One of Bishop Lumina’s eyes winked shut.
“I’ve noticed, you know. That you want to leave. You’ve learned swordsmanship, and you’ve been studying magic with the book your mentor gave you, right? Now that you can protect your own body, you probably want to meet your mother, see other parts of the world, and visit your old comrades. Am I wrong?”
I answered quietly.
“Perhaps……”
Am I ready to spread my wings and leave this comfortable embrace of death? That wasn’t an answer I could find right now. I would only know on the day I set out on the road.