244-Creeping things




 Kotone was now on her way to Mizushige's room with her brother.

(I've stayed too long at Akika-san's place.

 Just a few moments ago, he was in Akika's room and couldn't find the right time to leave due to Akika's rambling conversations, and Kotone had to take time to talk at length, which was unusual for Kotone.

(With her brother ... we haven't been able to talk much today.)

 In the first place, Kotone knows that even if they were together, it wouldn't be much of a conversation, but she still thinks that she deserves to be near her brother.
 No, he wants to keep an eye on his brother.
 An older brother who flies too high in the sky for anyone to perceive or understand.
 And I am the only one who is aware of it.
 That's why I'm the only one who needs to be there for him.
 Even if I am insignificant to him.
 However, after Mizushige's match was over, he was going to be the first to praise his brother's victory, but then Akika appeared and asked him to have dinner with her.
 Of course, Kotone tried to refuse, but Mizushige told her to go, and without a moment's pause, she was taken away by Akika's hand.
 This led to her not seeing her brother for a long time for the first time since she came here.
 Although Kotone was in a hurry, Kotone's heart was actually a bit fluttery right now.
 She had never had the opportunity to talk to a girl her own age like this before, but to be honest, the time with Akika was... fun.
 So, Kotone wanted to tell her brother about this.
 He wanted to tell Mizushige about the conversation he had with Akika.
 

(.........eh?)

 When she came near her brother's room, Kotone stopped with a frown.
 Because he finds a person exiting his brother's room.
 The person has a carefree smile on his face as he exits and turns his face to the room.

'Well, I'd like to hear your response again. It would be nice to get a good response, Mizushige.

 Saying that, that person closes the door of Mizushige's room and walks over to where Kotone is.



 Kotone's eyes met with that boy who looked familiar and Kotone met his eyes.
 The boy smiled at Kotone, who was alarmed for a moment.

''Hey, Kotone, was it?''

'Oh ... yes. You.........

It's Julian knight, the big festival attendee. Don't you remember? We talked about this in the lounge.

'No, I remember. So what do you need to do for my brother?

No, it's nothing. I just wanted to have a chat with my fellow participant's brother. We're done talking, bye.

 Julian lightly raised his hand and smilingly walked past Kotone.
 Kotone stared at Julian's back for a moment and then knocked on the door of Mizushige's room. From inside, Kotone heard Mizushige's voice saying "Come in" and Kotone entered and Mizushige stood by the window, looking out.

''Brother, I'm sorry for the delay. Um.........was that........?

Ah ... there's a visitor.

 Mizushige, who responds in a less wordy manner, does not turn his head towards us.
 Also, a heavy air flows out, but Kotone can't help but be curious and open her mouth. Even when she was at her parents' house, she never asked Mizushige if she was a guest. Also, I don't know anyone who has a personal relationship with Mizushige.

What kind of business do you have here? I remember that he was a participant in this big festival and he also made it through the first round...

Hmmm ... not much of a story.

Well....

 Mizushige's typical answer.
 Surely everything is not much of a story for this brother.
 Of course, I, and the story that I got excited about with Akika that I decided to talk to my brother about is surely nothing more than a waste of time.
 When Kotone gave up on going further into the subject, Mizushige turned to her.

''Come on, Kotone, go rest in your room now.

 Kotone bowed her head and left her brother's room.
 Despite the fact that she should be used to this kind of conversation, Kotone noticed that her eyes were moistening.




'Call it luck or bad luck.... I've come across something outrageous, haven't I? I can't wait to let my husband know...''

 It was the first day of the great festival tournament game for the entrance of the Shitennji family.
 Gaston had come to Cornwall, England, in the waning light of day.
 Leaping around like the wind with the high physical prowess characteristic of the vampire, Gaston ducked into the shadows of a rocky shoreline hillside several dozen meters high.
 Gaston checks the vicinity of his own left arm with his chiseled eyes, focusing his attention above his head as if he were killing his breath.
 Now, the legendary immortal, Gaston's left arm is gone. He cut it off himself earlier.

(I didn't expect ... to notice my positioning, and I was caught off guard. (I was right to cut off this arm right away as well.)

 When Yuto asked him to find out if there were any suspicious participants in this year's Great Festival of Shitenji, and when he was given the list of those who had made it to the tournament, Gaston had an idea, and he immediately flew to England.

 It reminded Gaston that Edmund Stan, the freelance ability man who had once robbed him of this positioning ability, often visited the place.
 At the time, Gaston had met and worked with that Edmond Stan for a period of time.
 It was shortly after the loss of Sophia Sutherland, and Gaston was wandering around the London airport, exhausted in body and mind, and was looking at the flight chart at the airport without a destination when Edmond approached him.
 Edmond is a gifted man. He must have known he wasn't human, but Edmond didn't mind, he kept talking and finally said, "I'm not human.

You don't have anywhere to go, do you? Then why don't you help me with my work?

 The satori ability that Gaston got from Sophia worked, and he saw behind Edmond's eyes the deep darkness that was unique to humans who had done a lot of bad deeds, but Gaston's desire to fill any kind of big hole in his heart took over, and he accepted Edmond's offer to do so.
 It never occurred to Gaston at this time that this would later drive him to madness....
 Later on, Gaston discovered that Edmond was using his positioning abilities to infiltrate a number of organizations and make a fortune by selling the information he obtained from them.
 Edmond is also a genuine villain who abuses his positioning ability to enter the homes of many unrelated people, eating and sleeping with them, and robbing them of their wealth without a care in the world. And sometimes his venomous fang extended to young women as well.
 Having spent most of his one thousand and more years of life alone, Gaston was exposed for the first time to the evil nature of man... of Edmond, and in addition to that, Gaston's inexperience in controlling his newly acquired satori powers caused him to vomit again and again in his discomfort.

 The Edmund Stan had several superior clients.
 Edmond was usually arrogant, but Gaston remembered him being sneaky in front of these customers.
 One of his clients had apparently taken up residence in Cornwall.
 On one occasion, he had accompanied her to Cornwall.
 Apparently there was, because I didn't go to that person's house.
 However, Edmond had told me at the time that he always met with the person in a room in a lonely house on the outskirts of Cornwall.
 Edmond told Gaston to wait in the other room when he met with the person, and Gaston obeyed.
 Edmond's business meeting dragged on longer than he had expected, and Gaston, unavailable in the dusty room, got up to take a look at the scenery around him.
 Gaston was about to leave the waiting room and go outside when he passed the room where Edmond and the others were.
 As he did so, he saw, through an old door that opened slightly, the room in which Edmond and his friends were staying, if only for a moment.
 It was, in a way, an odd sight.
 Because Edmond was on both knees on the floor, talking to his partner as if he were worshipping him. Even though he was a superior customer, was it really necessary to show this level of attitude?
 The other man also sat in a chair in front of Edmond, cross-legged, glowering at him from above, as if he were glaring at Edmond from above.
 What made the scene even more bizarre was that the person who seemed to be his client was still looking like a child.
 It was a sight to behold for a brief moment. But Gaston could see that there was no mistaking this boy, who was still in his infancy, for a person with abilities. He felt the boy's eyes, perhaps it was his imagination, but he did not care and headed out the door.
 Gaston remembered the scene... or, more technically, he remembered the boy's eyes and a chill went through his body.

 Gaston was about to make the move from Russia to Spain when Gaston received an email from Yuto with a profile of the Grand Festival participants that Nina had created to advance to the tournament. Gaston pondered which people to investigate and discovered that one of them was a person with abilities from Cornwall.
 There wasn't much information on any of the abilities, but due to the nature of the request from Yuto, he thought he would start with someone with a well-known ability and less information about them. However, Gaston frowned at this profile, and for some reason, he immediately flew out of Japan to look into this gifted person from England first.

(I didn't expect it to be a bingo, I feel like admiring my own excellence! But it hurts to have my phone broken. I'd like to get through this and get to the city somehow, but...)

 Gaston moves his gaze from a hollow in the rock wall to stare at the splashing sea below.

(Hmmm ... I could fight here, but, oh, my husband would be mad at me...)

There you go rat.

 Gaston immediately leaps from his spot when he hears a woman's voice come through from above Gaston's head, unmatched by the sound of the waves.

'Oops....'

 Gaston landed on a rock a dozen or so meters below and saw that the area he had just been in had been smashed. The woman who had caused it descended lazily from above and appeared in the air in front of Gaston.
 Dressed in a deep red dress and with curly reddish-black hair, the woman turned her sharp gray gaze on Gaston.

'Enough about what you're looking for, vampire. I'll kill you right here. You've lived long enough, haven't you? The "Immortals

'No no I've lived a long time, but my life has only just begun thanks to one person. I don't intend to die in the slightest now.

Then go ahead and die!

You don't listen to me, do you, lady?

 As the woman cleaves her right hand, dozens of dark blades the size of Gaston, who is over six feet tall, attack Gaston.

''Don't underestimate my power too ........''

 Gaston stood unconcernedly in the midst of the blade of darkness, catching it.
 Then, without pause, a huge bird with a disastrous appearance swooped down like a falcon that had found its prey from directly above towards the rock on which Gaston stood.
 On top of the huge bird is a man clad in raggedy clothes, turning his murderous eyes to Gaston.

'Haha! I'm not going to miss it!

 But Gaston didn't move from his spot.

'Not at all you were the one who told me not to underestimate me, weren't you?

  The giant bird wrapped in jet-black feathers, under Gaston's tremendous physical strength, spun and squealed, and crashed into the sea, along with the man on top of it.

''...! You've done it! Vampires!

 The woman turned her hair upside down and was furious, but she was clearly more wary than before after seeing Gaston's abilities.

''Hmmm.......My left hand hasn't come back yet, so it's half as powerful as it could be. Well, on the contrary, it might have hurt. As far as I know, the only people who can f*ck with me with their bare hands are my friends.

A vampire with this much power against us could not possibly be... Are you a purebred?

"Shut up....yeah? That nasty one from earlier is coming.

 Gaston looked up at the rock wall a few dozen feet away as if he hadn't even dealt with the woman. At the top of the cliff, Gaston could see several small figures in hooded robes, and he let out a sigh.

I don't like that outfit. Couldn't you have been more original? Isn't that textbook...................of a mysterious villain?

 Gaston shifts his gaze to the woman, his chiseled eyes narrowing into a smile.
 The woman is actually stuck in the midst of Gaston's [Iquivocal] art, but the red-black-haired woman didn't seem to notice that her judgment was being impaired because of it.

''Well then I'll leave. If you try too hard, your husband will get angry with you, you know. You are also beautiful, so I recommend you to be more calm. That red dress is a few hundred times better than those guys, but it's out of place in this place. It does look good on you, though!

"A vampire's mentality is a nonsense...! Wait!

 Suddenly, Gaston seems to flutter and knock his body off his back, and then he disappears into the waves.
 The woman again releases her dark blade into the surface of the sea, which reflects gold in the setting sun, but the waves only catch the blade as if it were nothing.
 The woman glares at the waves and clenches her fists in frustration.

''What in the world is that vampire...?''

"He got away the red witch."

Tsk.

 The woman who was called the Red Witch clicks her tongue and rises to the top of the rock wall as her voice echoes in her brain.

"Well fine..... But still, vampires are a handy bunch to notice this corrosive worm of mine and cut off my left arm, aren't they? But what is it? What would a vampire with that much power be doing here.......coincidence, no, it's impossible."

"That vampire raided that house. So that's it. Considering the timing I'm sure it has something to do with Shitenji."

"You don't think... you think that you are aware of our presence, Shitenji?"

"No, when the other party is a vampire, it's subtle. It's hard to believe that Shitenji has a connection to the vampire community. Red Witch, is there anything you've noticed?"

"I don't know ... it's just that the vampire said some strange things.

"...ho..."

"........."

"A contract with a purebred vampire? That's just silly. Who can sign a contract with those proud people? I've never heard of anyone with the ability to make a contract with a vampire."

"Well, okay. In any case, let's expedite our plans as well.... Once the plan is accomplished, there is no stopping any person or organization. The point is, we just need to focus on it."

"Mm.........Shall I tell that guy to come back and not play around? It's not like we were seriously trying to avenge Surt's sword or the Count's death. You only went to Shitenji to make an example of him before our long-cherished desire begins to move, right?"

"Mm...... So, what do you do with the ruf that fell into the sea?"

"Let it go, it will come out on its own in time."

 After this conversation, the last of those on the rock wall disappeared.
 The red witch stared at the horizon, where the sun was setting, and the angle of her reddish-black lips, the same as her hair, was raised slightly.

'The twilight of this world is the beginning of a new world........ Hmph, something to look forward to.

 Gradually the sun's light waned and darkness began to take over the area.