The Eminence in Shadow

“Uhh…”

She must have passed out.

When Beta opens her eyes, she’s greeted by the Red Moon’s light shining down on a quiet night.

Everyone else is unconscious. She must have been the first one to wake up.

Her master is nowhere to be seen.

He’s probably already on his way to his next battle. How busy he is…and how kind.

“Thank you, Master Shadow…”

She vows never to forget the image of him putting his life on the line to protect her and the others.

When she suddenly notices that all her wounds are healed, a silent smile creeps across her face.

She looks and sees that Number 664’s wounds are healed, too, as are Number 665’s and Number 666’s.

Naturally, there isn’t a scratch on Mary or her master’s sister, either.

“Nothing gets by Master Shadow. It seems like Eta’s theory was right…”

Beta retrieves a drop of the Blood Queen’s blood and seals it in a vial.

Then she focuses her mind on her own blood plastered across her bodysuit…and causes it to hover into the air.

“Vampiric powers, huh…? With proper training, these could be useful.

Sigh

…I bet Eta’s going to use me as a lab rat… Hyah!”

Beta launches her blood through the air, then goes to wake her subordinates up.

“Ow.”

“Huh?!”

“Where am I?”

“Are you three planning on sleeping all day? We’re heading back.”

The Numbers frantically scramble to their feet.

“Rgh…,” groans Juggernaut. “What happened?”

“What happened, indeed…”

It seems like the two from the Lawless City are up, too.

They look around in astonishment.

“Wait, Shadow did all this…?”

“The man protected everyone all on his own…”

The Crimson Tower’s been annihilated. They all look up at the sky. As though trying to burn his existence into their very eyes…

Beta turns around. “Come on, we’re going.”

“Ungh…”

“Ahh…!”

It sounds like Claire and Mary just woke up behind her.

Beta glances backward and sees Mary helping someone up from amid the rubble.

It’s an adorable little girl with dark crimson hair.

“I hope you’re able to find it this time… Your Haven, that is…”

And with a kind smile, Beta vanishes into the darkness of the night.

As the morning sun beats down on me, I gaze at the elegant, black-lacquered carriage and yawn.

The carriage’s windows are blocked by a thick curtain, so I can’t see inside, but I imagine my sister is exchanging teary good-byes with her vampire friend.

The autumn air is crisp and pleasant.

All sorts of stuff went down, but the real-deal Vampire Progenitor event has come to an end.

Things got a little rocky when I ran into some unforeseen problems in the middle there, but at the end of the day, I was able to rescue the big finish. And hey, all’s well that ends well, amirite?

The one thing I didn’t manage to rescue, though, was all the gold coins.

For a while there, I was sitting pretty on a whole three thousand coins, but because of, shall we say, a myriad of circumstances, I ended the day with a scant five hundred.

Five hundred coins come out to five hundred million

zeni

. That’s nowhere near enough for me to retire on.

But after some thought, I’ve come to the conclusion that maybe this is fine.

After all, the Lawless City is still standing, and it’s still got two towers left.

If I ever run low on funds, I can just stop by again. In a way, the Lawless City is basically my own personal piggy bank.

A little while later, the carriage door opens and Claire steps out.

Speaking of my sister, there’s been a big development on that front.

It happened last night, at our inn.

I did kinda wander off on my own back in the Lawless City, so I stopped by her room to make a cursory apology.

When I opened her door, I saw something.

There was some sorta badass magic circle on her hand, and she was wrapping it up in a bandage to hide it.

And to make matters worse, she was muttering, “My right hand is trembling… A special power awakens in me…”

I chose to say nothing and quietly closed the door.

She’s got the three-hit combo trope of a magic circle, a bandage cover, and a special power going on.

I guess she’s finally getting to that age…

When she steps out of the carriage, she walks toward me with a suggestive smile on her face.

I call out to her in as normal a tone as I can muster.

“You all set?”

“Yup, let’s go.”

The two of us set off.

Suddenly, though…

“Cid…”

…she hugs me from behind.

“…What’s up?”

“It’s nothing… No, it is something… See, the truth is…”

Here it comes…!

“I have a special power sleeping within me…”

She’s doing her big coming-out scene.

It wouldn’t do for me to refute her here. If you carelessly shut children down, they’re liable to get rebellious on you.

“Figures. I always knew you were special, Sis.”

“I knew you’d believe me, Cid…” She squeezes a little tighter. “I have to unravel the secret behind this power. And the secrets surrounding

him

…”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll do great. I’ll support you no matter what path you take, Claire.”

“Cid…have you heard of Shadow?”

“Oh, yeah, he was crazy cool back at the Bushin Festival. Why, did he do something?”

“…No, it’s nothing.” Claire hugs me tight.

There are probably no shortage of hardships waiting for my sister after this. She’ll struggle, she’ll suffer, and she’ll have to confront some cold, hard truths. But if her right hand is “throbbing,” there’s no getting around it. It’s all part of growing up, after all.

No matter what path she eventually decides to take, I’ll respect her for it. After all, the path she’s walking is the path I, too, once walked…

Suddenly, I feel a gaze on my back. I turn to look.

There’s a girl standing in the black-lacquered carriage carrying a large black parasol.

I can’t see her face because it’s hidden behind it, but I can make out her lovely crimson hair fluttering in the autumn breeze.

Under the parasol, she bows deeply.