The Eminence in Shadow

Chapter 3

Pursuing the Blood Queen!

Man, Progenitors don’t screw around when it comes to treasure.

I’ve never seen literal mountains of gold before. My heart’s all aflutter.

I’m like a kid in a candy shop. I want some of this… I gotta get my hands on these… But as I rummage through the treasure, I suddenly remember there’s only so much I can carry.

Artwork is out for obvious reasons, so I’m gonna give all the cultured stuff a pass. Unfortunately, to my dismay, artwork seems to be the most plentiful thing here.

Next up are jewels and precious metals. The small stuff is fine, but the larger ones are too bulky and unwieldy.

Looks like I need to narrow my focus.

I gotta go with the most efficient, most reliable source of money out there—gold coins.

They’re as small as a five-hundred-yen piece, but each one is worth a hundred thousand

zeni

. And better yet, you can spend them as is without even needing to convert them or anything.

When it comes to efficiency and reliability, they blow everything else in this treasury out of the water.

It’s kinda sad, honestly, seeing all this treasure I can’t have.

“Well, that’s life for you…,” I mutter as I bid farewell to the myriad other riches and start shoveling up handfuls of gold coins.

Now, I’m not an idiot. I thought this out ahead of time.

Taking a page from Epsilon’s book—the undisputed expert when it comes to slime bodysuits—I embed the coins within my suit.

Epsilon padded her body out with slime, and I’m doing the same with gold.

Every inch of my bodysuit, longcoat, and hood is stuffed to the brim.

Okay, that’s not totally true. I left some room by the joints.

Even so, I manage to fit over a thousand of the little buggers onto my person.

A thousand gold coins comes out to a hundred million

zeni

. The math checks out.

I’m planning on living to the ripe old age of three hundred, so it’s nowhere near enough. That said, it’d be pretty risky to try and bring any more gold than that with me.

If I use magic to strengthen myself, carrying around a thousand coins isn’t a problem or anything, but it still makes it kinda hard to move. My movements are a little stiff now, but they’d be miles worse if I tried to pack on any more.

Also, a thousand coins aren’t really visible from the outside, but if I went for double that, I’d start sticking out like a sore thumb.

“I’d be fine if all I had to do was carry them out…”

…but I’ve got a boss battle with the Blood Queen waiting for me after this.

Supposedly, she’s some sort of Progenitor Vampire.

She’s gonna be strong as hell, I’m sure of it.

After all, Progenitor Vampires are

supposed

to be strong. That’s just how these things work.

To prepare for the occasion, I’ve already got my battle plan all laid out.

Up until now, I’ve been using the setup where I always show up at the twelfth hour, but given that the enemy this time is a Progenitor Vampire big shot, I thought I’d try mixing things up and being the first to get to her this time.

That way, we can do the scene where the protagonists show up in the middle of our fight and go, “What’s with that crazy battle going on over there?! Stay back!”

Love that.

For that to happen, I need to be the one who finds the Blood Queen

first. If I spend too much time dawdling here, someone’s gonna beat me to the punch.

For now, I’m just gonna pile the coins up by the treasury’s entrance.

“I’ll come pick you guys up later.”

This way, I’ll be able to nab them quickly even if something unexpected happens.

Praying I’ll be able to retrieve them successfully, I flex my muscles for the first time in a while and dash up the tower at full speed.

Midway up, I spy my sister. She seems to be in a tough spot, so I save her by sending the Tyrant flying.

Now then, gotta hurry.

“At long last, the time is finally here…”

A graceful smile spreads across Crimson’s face.

The sacrifice has been prepared, and the moon is waxing scarlet.

The time to revive Elisabeth the Blood Queen is finally upon him.

Crimson grabs the lid to the coffin enshrined in the center of the room and opens it up.

Its contents come into full view.

Inside is a small, shriveled-up black lump.

Crimson carefully swaddles the hunk with his fingers and lifts it into the air.

“It’s been too long, my Blood Queen… Everything is in place for you to bathe the world in blood…”

Upon closer inspection, the black lump is recognizable as an organ. Specifically, a shriveled-up heart.

After a thousand years, it’s all that’s left of the Progenitor.

As long as it remains, though, she can still be resuscitated. That’s just how Progenitors are.

Crimson closes the coffin and carries the heart to the raven-haired

sacrifice. He gouged out the boy’s heart earlier, and he now fits the Blood Queen’s in its place.

Fresh blood. Fresh flesh. That’s all the Blood Queen, the mightiest of the Progenitors, needs to rise anew and begin her reign of terror once more.

“Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh…”

It’ll take a little longer for the revival to begin.

Crimson knows he needs to leave for some time. The Blood Queen will be starving when she comes to, and she’ll attack man and vampire alike. He won’t be able to get closer until she settles down a bit.

He walks briskly to the door, opens it, and steps outside.

Suddenly, he freezes in his tracks.

“A-and who do you think you are…?”

He hadn’t sensed anyone out in the hallway. When he opened the door, there shouldn’t have been anyone there.

Out of nowhere, a man dressed in a black longcoat appears before him.

Crimson immediately extends his claws and prepares himself for battle.

“Begone now. Lest your life is for— Gluh?!”

Crimson’s body splits in two.

He’s been cleanly bisected from head to crotch.

He hadn’t even been able to follow the ebony sword’s swing with his eyes.

His eyes go wide in shock as he quickly regenerates.

Crimson is a powerful vampire in his own right. He can shrug off a bisection or two, easy.

“Who are you?! How dare you lay that

vulgar

blade of yours on m— Bluh?!”

In the middle of his sentence, his head goes flying.

Even though he was on high alert, he still couldn’t see the man’s movements.

“I—I say! I’m starting to get ang— Hruh?!”

This time, his arms are sent into the air.

“You fool! Under the Red Moon, vampires are un— Chuh?!”

His legs get the same treatment, instantly carved into pieces. Then his torso gets sliced like salami.

“Wh-what?! My regeneration can’t keep up wi— Fluh?!”

The regenerating parts of his body immediately get chopped off and minced.

“W-wait! Wait just one moment!! What are you after?! We can talk this o— Mruh?!”

Next, his neckless head gets diced up.

“Impossible… This can’t be happening…”

Afterward, all that’s left is his heart. It, too, gets stabbed.

Crimson crumbles to ash.

The man in the longcoat then enters the room and stops in front of the large coffin.

“My name is Shadow. I lurk in the darkness and hunt down shadows…”

He waits for a moment.

On standby.

Waiting…

“Blood Queen… I know you’re in there…”

And still he waits.

He stays in place…!!

“…You’re there, right? I don’t sense anyone, but you’re just concealing your presence, right?” Shadow opens the coffin and peers inside.

There’s no one there.

“Huh? Wait, seriously? What kind of cliché is this?”

He looks around the room and spots the corpse of a dark-haired young man with a hole in his chest.

“

You

aren’t the Queen, are you? Nah, you’re a guy, and dead to boot…”

He tilts his head to the side and looks at the pile of ash by the door.

“Was

that

vampire the Queen? He

did

have red hair… No, no, there’s no way it’s a dude, right? He did seem kinda like a boss, though… Buuuut he was way too weak for that…”

He ponders for a moment.

“Is this one of those weird scenarios where the Queen is missing…?

Maybe it’s the thing where she never even existed in the first place, or the one where she’s already been killed, or the one where she’s out and about… Anyways, let’s go pick up the coins, then I can go looking for her…”

He turns around and walks out.

“Sigh… I hope I didn’t get here too late… I came here as fast as I could… Maaan…,” he mutters as he disappears.

The crimson moon casts its fantastical light over the now-empty room.

Suddenly, the sacrifice’s body twitches.

Thump, thump.

The heart embedded in his chest begins beating.

Mary and Claire reach the top of the Crimson Tower and open the door.

“Cid?!”

Seeing a young man with dark hair toppled over and bleeding from the chest, Claire rushes over to him.

She wraps him in a tight embrace. Tears gush out of her ruby eyes.

“No!! Please, Cid, wake up!! Cid?! Cid? …Huh?”

Claire quickly snaps to her senses as she looks at the corpse.

Her tears dry up.

“This isn’t Cid.”

“Really? It isn’t?”

“Cid? Cid, where are you?”

Claire’s eyes dart around the room.

Then Mary shouts.

“—Claire?!”

“…Huh?”

It all happens in a flash.

By the time she’s noticed, the boy’s arm has already pierced her stomach.

Blood dribbles from Claire’s mouth.

“Gluh…What’s…happening…Cid…”

“Claire!!”

Claire crumples to the ground.

The boy, still bleeding from the chest, begins moving.

He was definitely dead a moment ago.

Now, though, he rises to his feet. Red feelers come pouring out of his chest. They wriggle and squirm ominously as they engulf his body.

“Oh no… No, it can’t be…”

Mary knows this aura.

The red feelers cover the boy’s body completely, then suddenly burst outward.

And when they do…

…a beautiful, naked girl appears from within the spray of blood.

Her hair is a deep crimson, as are her eyes. Her skin, on the other hand, is pale, and her proportions are nearly perfect and feminine. She looks exactly like the Elisabeth that Mary remembers.

Elisabeth embraces the impaled Claire, then sinks her fangs into the girl’s neck.

Claire’s voice dribbles from her mouth. “Ah, ah…”

She’s still alive.

However, all Mary can do is watch as Claire has her blood sucked.

Mary knows all too well.

Now that Elisabeth the Blood Queen has risen, there’s nothing they can do.

“Claire… Ah…”

Claire gets tossed aside, her skin pallid from the blood loss.

Next, Elisabeth turns her beautiful gaze on Mary. In her eyes, Mary is nothing more than food.

“Oh…Queen Elisabeth…” Mary trembles as she shrinks backward.

Her master is risen.

Elisabeth is the strongest of the Progenitors, and there’s no way to stop her. Once again, Mary was too late.

Tears well up in her eyes.

In an instant, though, the despair in her eyes turns to astonishment.

A dark figure appears out of nowhere and crashes into Elisabeth. An ebony blade collides with Elisabeth’s crimson claws.

It’s the woman in the bodysuit they met down in the library—Beta.

“Secure her!!” she shouts, and three other figures appear to protect Claire.

Beta blocks Elisabeth’s claws with her sword, then leaps backward to put some space between them.

“Number 665, what’s her status?”

“Still breathing. But she needs treatment badly.”

“Noted. Unfortunately…I doubt

she

plans on just letting us go.”

The naked girl begins walking toward Beta.

“You three, back me up.”

“Roger that.”

“Ms. Vampire Hunter, I’m leaving Ms. Claire in your hands for now.”

“Oh, Claire…”

Mary takes Claire from Number 665 and cradles her in her arms.

Then she calls out to stop Beta from trying to fight Elisabeth “No, you can’t…”

She needs to warn her.

“It’s impossible… Not even you can beat her…”

From beneath her mask, Beta casts a feline glance Mary’s way.

“Even if that’s the case, this is my mission.”

With her ebony blade in hand, Beta faces off against the Blood Queen.

How did things get this bad…?

Beta laments her failure as she faces off against the Blood Queen.

It’s all her fault that her lord’s sister’s life is in such danger.

Her master hasn’t shown up yet. There must be an important reason

why he had to prioritize some other matter, which means he implicitly left the situation here for Beta and the others to handle.