Chapter 37

“Not everyone’s here. No Deputy Manager either. I suppose Madam Anne is busy with something else?”

“Mago...”

The Head Chef called my name.

The White Staff who had been preparing food had come to kill me.

“I suppose you could call killing me part of the cooking process.”

“Mago, you hid your identity well...”

The Head Chef stretched out a finger toward my navy uniform.

“I did it well, so of course I could hide it.”

They approached slowly.

The floor creaked beneath every step.

“How are you still alive?”

“How? Why should I be dead?”

“Madam Anne shot Lightning at you twice. How didn’t it hit?”

“When fireworks explode, lightning can ride the blast. I’ve felt that before—can’t forget it.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“No need for you to understand. Aren’t you busy right now? I can’t be the only one you’re chasing.”

“Is... is she dead?”

“She’s alive.”

I tapped the floor with my index finger.

“Tied up right beneath us.”

“What do you plan to do, keeping her locked down there?”

“Nothing special. I just wanted you to taste, even for a moment, what you did to others.”

“You’ve found the warehouse too, Mago... Then we can’t let you live!”

The Head Chef flicked his hand.

Understanding the signal, the Staff closed in.

A little closer.

Just a little more.

“Mago, did you really think you could take us on with that axe?”

He pointed at the weapon in my grip.

“Ordinary blades don’t kill us. A sip of blood and we regenerate.”

I tightened both hands around the axe handle.

“What can you do alone? Just a lowly Imperial Soldier.”

I didn’t answer.

I simply swung the axe down.

The moment the blade struck the floor with everything I had, the planks beneath their feet split in a chain reaction.

Cracks raced outward.

The shock sent the whole section collapsing.

Thirty Vampires.

All of them dropped into the basement.

Like gravel hurled into a lake.

Plop—plop—plop—the sounds overlapped.

I struck a match at once.

Connected it to the firework fuse and waited a heartbeat.

A streak of light shot through the hole in the ceiling.

Fireworks burst amid gray smoke.

High above, the flash momentarily blotted out the blue moonlight.

“Mago...!”

A voice rose from below.

Any Anakonda Clerk knows what fireworks mean.

That voice sounded as if it were sobbing.

Lightning crashed through the open ceiling.

The blue flash reached the brewery’s lowest depth in an instant.

The moment you saw it, it was already upon you.

No way to dodge.

The electric strike slammed into the underground sea of wine.

Madam Anne had killed her own kind with her own hand.

Every one of them electrocuted.

Thunder devoured their screams.

They floated to the surface like a school of fish.

* * *

Madam Anne hovered in midair.

She had climbed as high as possible so the Lightning would meet no obstacle.

“How messy do you have to be to make me fire three shots?”

She folded her wings slightly and descended to the ground.

“Let’s keep moving.”

She gestured.

Twelve Vampires fell in behind her.

They walked through the forest all night.

After a long march, Madam Anne stopped.

“Found them.”

She tilted her head, listening.

The other Vampires froze, focusing on the same sound.

“Goblins. We’ve located their den.”

At that, the Anakonda Clerks’ faces relaxed.

“Once we finish this job, we leave.”

“Yes, Madam.”

“Mago won’t be alone. If he came as Imperial Army, there’ll be more troops. We’ll enjoy our last feast, then vanish.”

Madam Anne’s warehouse.

“B-Boss...”

It was the Right-Hand Man’s quavering voice.

He stared at the Boss through trembling pupils.

The Boss only watched, silent.

“These piddling cuffs...”

A stub of iron rod clenched between his teeth, the Boss lifted the shackles up to his face.

He worked the pin in his mouth, probing the lock.

“Boss, it’s been a whole day...”

“I know. I’m about to wet myself. If I can’t spring this, I’ll be peeing right here...”

“Y-yes, Boss... Actually, I already—”

“Shut it. Don’t say it. I don’t want to hear.”

He kept at it.

Only the rasp of metal on metal.

Then, once—

a crisp click.

“Got it...!”

With both hands free, the rest was easy.

He spat the iron sliver into his palm, then snapped the leg-irons off.

Freedom.

“T-toilet!”

“Boss, me too...!”

“Tch, fine...”

The Boss looked annoyed.

Quick fingers freed the Right-Hand Man’s cuffs.

“Hoo...”

The Thief’s Right-Hand Man rolled his freed wrists, savoring liberty.

“Here, finish the rest yourself.”

The Boss tossed him the iron pin.

“Yes, Boss.”

While the lieutenant jabbed at the leg-lock keyhole, the Boss gazed down at the Five Hybrid Vampires with a complicated scowl.

“Help the others.”

“...Yes.”

The Hybrids only drooped, too drained to speak.

He couldn’t leave them like this.

“But first—bathroom, now...”

The Thief Boss started up the stairs to the first floor.

One iron door and they’d be out.

“Ah, right... only vampires or that white-haired freak can open it...”

He sank to the step.

“Huh...”

The moment he sat, his bladder screamed; he shot back up.

Sit, stand, sit, stand—an agonizing dance.

“B-Boss, let’s push together. I’ll help.”

The Right-Hand Man, having freed the others, called out.

“All right, you’re loose.”

“Hurry, c’mon!”

The Boss bounced on his heels.

“I’ll do it.”

One of the dazed Hybrids rose.

Eyes suddenly sharp, he threw himself at the iron door.

“Ngh...!”

One man wasn’t enough.

“Me too.”

“I’ll help.”

One after another they stood—five Hybrids, two Humans.

“One, two...!”

They rammed the door in unison.

It groaned open with a metallic shriek.

“It’s open!”

The Boss bolted first, sprinting for the first-floor toilet.

He vanished inside; moments later he was back, pale but relieved.

“That white hair... this is all because of that white-haired bastard...”

He clawed the last of his strength to growl the words.

“Why drag us into it...”

He crossed to the window and peeked out.

“Boss, if we step outside, Madam Anne might blast us with lightning.”

“She might.”

“Yesterday I thought I heard thunder a couple times...”

“Did you?”

“Boss?”

“There’s nothing.”

“Huh?”

The Right-Hand Man hurried to the window.

He stared outside too.

“You’re right... it’s too quiet...”

“I thought they’d at least keep watch so we couldn’t slip out. Isn’t this... careless?”

“They probably never imagined we’d take the cuffs off in the first place.”

“That’s because Madam Anne looked down on a bunch of thieves. She didn’t know we always carry an iron bar.”

“Think it’s because they’re chasing Big Brother Mago?”

“Mm... could be.”

“Shall we go out and look?”

“What if someone’s lining up a shot from the next roof?”

“Then... we die.”

“Finally crawl out of the basement and still can’t step outside....”

“Uh, hey—!”

“Hm?”

“It’s Big Brother Mago!”

* * *

“Oh! Brother, that’s a uniform! So you really were Imperial Army...!”

The right-hand man noticed the change.

“Yeah, that’s right. I couldn’t just throw it away. I was top ranker at the Training Center—waste to toss it.”

“Knew it....”

The boss sighed.

“The Army decided to take Madam Anne out?”

“Not the Army—Special Task Force. If I’d stayed quiet, none of this would’ve happened.”

“Stirring up trouble, White Hair. Bold for a fresh recruit.”

“If I hadn’t, the mess would’ve been bigger.”

“Brother Mago, what’s going on outside? Wasn’t Madam Anne lying low, hunting you?”

“She’s not here. Left the red-light district with the rest of the Vampires.”

“...She did?”

“No idea why. Something more important than catching me, I guess. I’ve got a hunch.”

“If even you don’t know, White Hair, it’s hopeless....”

“That’s why I’m finding out now.”

He locked eyes with the boss.

“Madam Anne asked about me—how much did you tell her?”

“Hey, if we hadn’t talked, we’d be corpses in that cellar.”

“Not blaming you. I need every clue.”

“She told us to spill everything. So we did.”

“Everything?”

“Yes, Brother....”

“That’s a wide test range. Be more specific.”

“Literally everything, White Hair. How you and Kinjo wiped us out in the capital. How we got a coded letter and smuggled that Orc model with the sword inside into the Training Center.”

“Brother...!”

The right-hand man clapped his hands suddenly.

“When we told her! I think Madam Anne laughed.”

“Laughed?”

“Yes, Brother. When we mentioned the Orc model.”

“She reacted to that... what kind of laugh?”

“What kind, sir?”

“Was it a sneer, a hollow chuckle, a burst of laughter—what?”

“White Hair, do we really need to analyze her laugh?”

“We do.”

“Mm... if I had to say, a thin little smile.”

“So she learned something from the Orc model....”

Which part had made her smile?

The coded letter.

The Orc model.

The sword hidden inside.

“She laughed and said, ‘An Orc model—so a fake demon beast, then.’”

The right-hand man added.

I could picture Madam Anne’s nasty grin.

Not a sneer, not a hollow laugh.

Not a giggle either.

“You should’ve led with that.”

“Huh? It’s just a model, of course it’s fake. That detail mattered...?”

“I’ve got the gist. Almost wish I didn’t....”

“White Hair, if you’re the only one who gets it, explain. We’re not the only ones locked up here.”

The boss pointed at the five Hybrids.

“The model looks like an Orc. Obvious, right? One of our rookies tore it apart thinking it was real.”

“Sounds dumb. Anyway, go on.”

“They’re planning to use the resemblance.”

“What do you mean? Madam Anne’s building Vampire models now?”

“No—they’re going to become the models. During the Second Invasion, winged demon beasts filled the sky.”

“Yes, Brother, we heard....”

“Hearing and seeing aren’t the same. I’ve seen them up close, so I know exactly how they look. Anyone who only heard the story pictures nothing more than ‘black winged beasts.’”

I pointed to one Hybrid Vampire.

“If you’ve only heard, you wouldn’t know.”

Especially the wings—shaped like a bat’s.

“Even if someone says ‘bat wings,’ listeners take it at face value. That’s what they’re counting on.”

“So, White Hair... Madam Anne will pretend to be those winged beasts from the Second Invasion...?”

“Almost certainly.”

“But why copy them?”

“To screw me—and the Task Force—over.”