"I think that’s enough for now."
"Okay."
Ai lets go of me but I did not stand up yet. Taking a deep and then exhaling it, I used all the power in my body to get on my feet. The problem that had occurred is that now that we were done with the fight against the three, all the adrenaline rush in my body was gone away. That meant that now I realized just how exhausted and beat up I actually am. I did not have any fatal wounds thanks to Ai but I was in no position to fight another noble.
So I started falling again but Ai and Akira helped me up.
I reached for the earpiece and tried getting in touch with Natsumi-san and the others.
"Kazuki, is that you?" I heard Natsumi-san’s voice and let out a sigh of relief.
"Yeah, I am and so are Ai and Akira. What is the situation there?" I asked without wasting any time. "We have killed the three nobles on our side."
"When you got away, more vampires flooded the floor so I have got down to the last few of them. As for the other three, we did not expect seeing a pure-blood amongst them so they are stalling time for me."
"Wait what? What do you mean by pure-blood?" I asked but the intercom got cut.
I looked at Ai and Akira they looked at me with widened eyes. Do they know what pure blood means?
"What does that mean?" I asked.
"Pure-blood refers to those vampires that are not turned into a vampire but are born as a vampire. They are the spawn of two vampires," Akira explained to me.
"I remember dad telling me about them. He said if a pure-blood were to ever turn into a noble, it will be almost twice as powerful as the noble," Ai added.
"Father has many pure-blood under his control. He is, for now, the second strongest vampire in all of existence, the one after him is a 743-year-old vampire but that person is like his personal pet. He is really loyal to Father but many rumors said that Father killed his parents and got hold of the boy. To him, Father is like his god," Akira said. "And the strongest vampire, for now, is the guardian. The person turned by the first."
"Wait, wait, wait," I said and held my head in pain. "Why am I getting told this right now? Isn’t this something I was supposed to know before?"
"Since Kazuki-sama never asked me that, I never told him," Akira said blankly.
While her "excuse" was understandable taking her behavior into account, I looked at Ai who started whistling and faced the other way. This idiot forgot to tell me, didn’t she?
"Hehe, sorry," she said rubbing the back of her head. "It kind of slipped my head."
I let out a sigh and shook my head. This completely changed the game for us had it been us back there. Good thing that we left them to the experienced people. I really did not take that into account but oh well, I can’t be able to think of every single possibility while juggling with other issues. I am no super human here.
"I think that is enough, Akira. Take us back to Natsumi-san and others," I said and she nodded her head.
"Wait!"
The shout almost burst my eardrums open and I looked at Ai who pulled my head in her chest. My face was enveloped with an extremely soft and cold object that I felt like I was floating on a cloud. Seriously, I feel so lucky having h- wait, I am drifting off-topic here.
The source of this c𝓸ntent is freewebnøvel.coɱ.
"Ai...…..I...…can’t...….breath."
I somehow got the words out of my mouth and she quickly loosened her grip and even if I was enjoying that feeling, I was relieved that I could get some air. I looked at her and she held me close to her.
"Kazu-kun is still weak. I don’t want to get him in the middle of another battle and you are not going to sweet talk me out of this Kazu-kun," she said the last part looking at me.
"As you say Ai-sama," Akira said and bowed down.
I could tell where Ai was coming from. She was already pretty worried for me since the start of all this so it was only natural she was to do something like this. This one time, I decided to listen to Ai and rested my head in her chest. I really need this rest right now. I was so exhausted that the only thing that was making me go further was the fact that I need to go back home as soon as possible.
I really want to go back and plop myself on the bed with my head sinking in the soft mattress. The warm blanket on my body and Ai holding me close to her. Yeah, I really want all that right now.
"How long before you arrive?" I suddenly heard Natsumi-san’s voice in the intercom. "I just got clear of the last hoard of the novices. Aren’t you coming to witness me in action?"
"Huh? What? Won’t you be needing any help?" I asked out of concern but all I got was…
"Hahaha, that was a nice joke," she said. "Now get here quick. This can be a good little lesson for you."
The intercom got cut and I looked at Ai and Akira and I could tell that they could hear what was said. We stared at each other for some time and then….we got teleported back to where Natsumi-san and the others were.
"Oh god!!" Iwaguchi-san shouted and stepped away as we appeared right beside him. "Oh, it’s just Kazuki and the others. You almost gave me a heart attack."
We got back to the room adjacent to where we were supposed to regroup before. Before us, were three nobles, all looked unscathed but I could see him huffing and panting. Their eyes fell on me and I hear them start growling. I tried getting on my feet but I just couldn’t.
Then I felt a hand on my shoulder. "Don’t try too hard Kazuki, you have done well today," Natsumi-san said.
I looked up seeing a soft smile form on her face and I nodded my head and looked down. She then started ruffling my hair out of nowhere.
"Hey, what’s with this sad look you are having? You held up all this so amazingly. Guess you really passed the test," she said while laughing.
I realized that. All this was a test. Natsumi-san and James decided to give me the command since they were very confident in their people. From what I know, for now, this was a little test for me. If anything were to go wrong, they already had countermeasures for that which was why they gave the entire command to me. If not, it would be weird they were to do that.
"Now rest and have fun, Iwaguchi, you’re up," Natsumi-san said and at the queue, Iwaguchi-san stood beside him. "Let’s show the newbies how it’s done."
"Okay," he said and activated his combat axes.
"Don’t think we will let you win easily," the woman said standing before the two and a strong gust of wind started blowing.
I held in my place by Ai and Akira and if not for them, I would have flown away with the gust. What the hell? Even if it was just one move but it made the nobles we fought before looking like nothing before this.
"She is the pure-blood," Ai said and Akira nodded.
On other hand, Natsumi-san was already up close with the vampire and hit her knee with the handle of the scythe making her kneel down. Natsumi-san kicked her in the face making her crash into the wall. Even in that gust, she was fast as light and Iwaguchi-san was fighting the other two nobles on his own.
He was evading their blows easily. Jumping back, he got on the wall and pushed it flying past the two swiftly.
"ARGH!!"
They both screamed in pain as Iwaguchi-san cut their eyes. This one has to hurt a lot.
"Ricky! Hiroto!" the woman screamed.
"Hey missy, eyes here," Natsumi-san said cutting her legs off making her fall down on the ground.
She then stomped on her back making her stay in one place. She then jumped off her and changed places with Iwaguchi-san as if they had done this a hundred times before. She got her scythe ready and cut the two in half. Wait a minute that fast? What the hell?
"Now that you know you won’t win against us, time to spill," Natsumi-san said holding the two vampires down. Even if they had regenerated their bodies down below, they could not move. "Resisting is futile. Now, speak. Why were you sent here?"
I could see Natsumi-san’s entire demeanor turning cold. It was as if she had turned into another person entirely. The way she was acting, speaking and even breathing felt different and the fact that it got over so quickly felt so anti-climactic. Wasn’t this supposed to be a final boss situation?
"I won’t speak. I will never betray father," he said spitting on the ground. "ARGH!!!"
Natsumi-san stuck her scythe in his back and he screamed in agony.
"Stop it!!" the woman shouted. "Don’t hurt him!! Please!!"
"Then you speak up," Natsumi-san said talking to her. "Tell me everything from start to finish and if I feel like you are lying, I missed his heart just by a few millimeters. I won’t next time."
"Fine! Fine! I will tell you everything, just don’t hurt him!" she said desperately.
"A-Asuka…cough…d-"
"No Ricky," she said assertively and Iwaguchi-san picked her up by her hair.
"Speak then," he said.
"We were sent here to capture Shiba Kazuki alive and if possible, that half-vampire over there too," she said pointing at Ai. "He wanted to get Shiba Kazuki so that he could offer his blood to the Lord of The Night but I have no idea why he wanted to get that freak there. That is all we know so please don’t hurt him."
I could see the desperation in the woman’s eyes. It felt similar to what I saw before and while I had some sympathy for her, I looked at Natsumi-san who had a blank look on her face. She was staring at her with cold eyes. Not a hint of emotion was seen in them and it was scary to see her like this.
"Thank you for your assistance," she said and the expression on the woman’s face relaxed. "With this, your job is done."
Slash
Schunk
Within a blink of an eye, she stabbed the two nobles in the heart. All I saw was a streak of silver moving in the air and moving through the two. The sound came later and when it did was when I realized what happened.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!" the woman screamed.
Huge gusts of wind started pushing us away and Iwaguchi-san got away from her. All three of us got knocked back by the gust but James and Ama helped us hold our ground.
"We are here too~," Ama said moving her hand down my back. "Oh my, you got a big hole in your uniform Kazuki-kun, looks like I need to make a new one for you~"
"Stop flirting with him," James said in his usual hoarse voice. "At least not in front of me."
"Oh my James, what was that~"
Wait a minute, this is all messed up.
"How can you be so calm? Did you just see what she did? Aren’t you worried?" I asked the two and they looked at each other and laughed.
"Hey, why are you laughing? Shouldn’t we be helping Natsumi-san?" Ai said and I nodded.
"If it were anyone else, we would have already been there but….since it’s Natsumi-chan, she doesn’t need anyone because…"
I looked forward at Natsumi-san standing as the noble rushed at her angrily. They crossed each other and I did not even see Natsumi-san move but the next thing I knew, the noble started spitting out blood and turned as I saw a gaping hole in her chest.
"…she is the strongest of all."
It was then that I realized something, what it truly meant by having someone like Natsumi-san on our side. Having someone like her on our side was a huge advantage for us. If it were a game, I will go even as far as to say that…
She was like a cheat code.
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