VOLUME 1

Chapter 3: Part 7

I flew through the nighttime city with the dog. This was a very personal matter, so the other three hadn’t come with me.

Nighttime sure is great. I could use my full strength. Underneath the sun, I very well might lose in a fight to an elementary school student.

“It’s nearby… yes. It seems there is still someone alive in there though.”

The dog descended in front of what seemed like an incredibly unremarkable house. He opened the second-floor window and we infiltrated the building.

“… It seems I was beaten. The soul is no longer here.”

“What do you mean? Did the person die?”

“I came here to collect the soul to send back to the underworld, but it seems that the soul has already disappeared. These types of things have been happening quite often lately… yes. Souls that don’t reach the underworld even after the person dies.”

“So, where do they go?”

“They were probably sacked.”

“Sacked?”

“Sacrificed. It’s an abbreviation. This is just hearsay, but people say that if you offer souls to this King of the Night person, you can receive an immense amount of magical energy. It’s been happening quite often lately… yes.”

We timidly exited the room, and descended the stairs. It still just looked like a normal house. Did a bizarre murder really take place here? It was so quiet that I had my doubts.

But, when we got down to the first floor, we saw all the blood.

“Aikawa-san, be on your guard.”

The dog had gone ahead of me, and wiped his forehead with the sleeve of his trench coat. This dog… he was sweating.

Well, I was sweating too. I could feel an intense pressure from whoever was ahead of us. The thumping of my heart sped up, and a chill ran down my spine.

That person was here. That terrifying person.

“Oohh, the magical energy is steadily going up… yes. To think that there would be someone in the human world with this much magical energy… I see! Quite!”

I had no idea what he was so impressed about. I wish I could sense magical energy too…

In the darkness, I spied a flash of light.

Bam. My body was pushed to the side, and in front of my eyes I saw the dog’s outstretched hands. Hey hey, I’m the one who can’t die here. Let me be the s.h.i.+eld. You go stand off to the side.

“Why the h.e.l.l are you protecting me?!”

“… If something happened to you, h.e.l.lscythe-sama would be sad, right?”

“I’m fine. I’m-“

“h.e.l.lscythe-sama really looked like she was happy… I won’t allow myself to s.n.a.t.c.h that away from her.”

At that moment, the dog looked almost human to me. He really seemed to care for Yuu.

“Please hurry up and run away! With your level of magical energy, this is out of the question! This person, this world…”

That large body tumbled backwards and collapsed onto mine. In the darkness, new blood fell to the floor.

I couldn’t move. I wanted to get out in front of the dog as soon as possible to pay my respects to this person, but I couldn’t move at all.

All I could see was the blade of a sword.

With a single stroke, my body was cut in half from the chest down. The dog in front of me also suffered the same fate.

My body still couldn’t move.

Move, move dammit, move. My mind was spinning as usual. There was nothing to be afraid about this time around. But even so, my body couldn’t move. Just like that time when I had been killed.

At the very least, I wanted to see this person’s face.

I needed just a bit more time, but my vision suddenly blurred. The dog had thrown the upper half of my body. With quite a bit of force, I crashed through the wall and exited the building.

Once I went outside, my body began to move again, as if it had all been a bad dream. I desperately crawled along the ground and went back into the house. I didn’t know what the dog had felt that caused him to force me away. But, I was in no mood to run away. I was just that helpful of a guy.

Inside, the dog was collapsed onto the floor. In that blood-splattered hallway, the dog’s body had been cut into two. No, cut into three. His head had been chopped off, although it was nowhere to be seen.

I attached the lower half of my body, and staggered into the house’s interior.

I saw a small, severed hand on the floor. A young boy? Or maybe a girl?

A large body was there also. It was probably that of the master of the house. I found a total of four bodies scattered about on the floor. Ah, I guess that would be five bodies, counting the dog’s. But, the one I was looking for was nowhere to be found.

“So, what exactly were you trying to tell me?”

Returning to the dog, I sat down in the sea of blood and looked down at his tragic remains.

”This person, this world…”

If only he had been able to add one more syllable, I probably would know what he meant. To this world? This world’s? In this world?

But now there was no response.

Like dandelion fluff, the dog’s body dissolved into small, white particles and flew away. It was the same as when a Megalo died…

You really did something unnecessary…

And… well… in the end, you really weren’t such a bad person.

Hm? It was the same as when a Megalo died…

What? The Megalo also talked, didn’t they? Like that crustacean thing.

I remembered my own thoughts from before. Then, underneath the dissolving trench coat, I saw the distinctive mark of the Megalo, that black schoolboy’s uniform.

The dog was… Kerberos Wansard was a Megalo.

He had said that he was a guardsman for the underworld. In other words, were Megalo ent.i.ties that came from the world of the afterlife?

Why did a Megalo help a masou shoujo like myself? Why hadn’t Haruna made a move before when they were together in the same room?

Why did a Megalo know Yuu?

And finally… why was he a good person?

TRANSLATOR’S NOTES