To become a king and a magician

After hearing Arcueid's explanation, Natsukawa Torato was speechless at Gaia's behavior.

Planetary restraint, what are you doing? This is your own daughter, and she won't answer a single question she asks you, leaving you to answer like a riddle. Is this how you act as a "father"?

"So, Frohan is actually in the direction we're heading?"

"No, it's on the other side. I came here just because I wanted to eat something."

As Arcueid spoke, she pulled another wheel cake from the bag—she had just bought ten in one go.

With a helpless sigh, Xia Chuanhu also took a bite of his own: "If you eat all of this, I reckon you won't be able to eat dinner tonight."

"Isn't that Xia Chuan?"

Just then, a familiar voice came from behind. Xia Chuanhu turned around and saw that Xier, wearing a school uniform, was smiling at him, with three other people who were also familiar to him in some ways.

Hiel smiled at Natsukawa Tora: "What a coincidence to run into you here. Is this your girlfriend? Out on a date?"

"No, no, we're just friends. By the way, what's this all about...?"

Natsukawa Tora glanced at the three people behind Hiel and finally fixed his gaze on the boy with glasses.

Tohno Shiki.

Like Ryougi Shiki, she is an anomaly with the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, and the one who divided Arcueid 17 in the last seven nights.

(What a coincidence to run into him here—wait!)

Suddenly remembering something, Natsukawa Torama quickly looked at Arcueid. As expected, upon seeing her "enemy," the princess no longer wanted to eat her wheel cake and stared intently at Tono Shiki.

"Oh my, what a coincidence to meet you here again. Do you remember me? Tohno Shiki?"

With a seemingly calm smile, Arcueid smiled at Tohno Shiki, but Tohno Shiki, who had already recognized her before she even greeted him, turned completely pale!

"You...you are..."

"Judging from your expression, you do remember me. That's wonderful! You've taken such good care of me these past few days. If it's alright, please allow me to return the favor."

—Divided into eighteen parts, etc.

(You wear your heart on your sleeve, Arcueid!)

36. Gas leak, absolutely a gas leak.

Tohno Shiki felt like he was dreaming. Although he had thought of it when he saw the back, he hadn't thought about it in detail because it was such an unbelievable thing. But now that he could see it clearly, he was sure that Arcueid was the woman he had killed a few days ago!

What is going on here?

Didn't she kill herself? He cut her into seventeen pieces! How could she survive in that situation—or did she come back to life under those circumstances? Is she immortal?

"You... what exactly are you...?"

"Tono-kun, what's wrong?"

Realizing that something was off with Tohno Shiki, Hiel couldn't help but ask, "Is this someone you know?"

"No... well, you can't say that..."

I can't say it, I can't say it, I killed her once or something!

Tohno Shiki could now even feel Arcueid's meaningful gaze. If looks could kill, he would be dead by now!

"Cough cough!"

Suddenly, a cough pulled Tono Shiki out of his panic. Natsukawa Tora cleared his throat, then reached out to Tono Shiki and the other two people beside him—were they Yumizuka Satsuki and Inui Yuhiko again?

Snapped.

He snapped his fingers lightly, and the three of them froze instantly. Then, without any apparent reason, they turned around and left quickly without looking back.

Seeing this, Arcueid couldn't help but pout: "Tiger, why did you suddenly use a hint magic trick? I still have something to say to that guy."

"This is on the street. If you want to talk, at least find a place where there aren't many people. There are too many people here. Besides, Hield, you probably don't want to cause any unexpected trouble, right?"

"I originally came over to say hello because I saw someone who looked like the True Ancestor Princess with you and wanted to confirm it. I didn't expect that Tono-kun would be related to the True Ancestor Princess. That was my oversight." Hiel sighed. "Using suggestion magic is fine. It saves me the trouble of explaining to Tono-kun and the others."

"But what's going on with you? It's only been a few days, how come you're already with the True Ancestor's princess?"

Arcueid Brunestard, the princess of the True Ancestor, was seen by Hierle in France, but at that time she was still possessed by Roya and did not have much of her own consciousness. She could only be glimpsed from the remaining memories that followed.

Of course, there are also records about her in the burial agency's records. When she was looking for records about Roya before, she also saw some things about Arcueid.

“We are now in an alliance. She came to seek revenge on Roya, but because she was killed by Tohno Shiki before, her strength has been greatly weakened. So until she fully recovers, I will temporarily be her ally.”

"Killed by Tohno-kun once?" Hiel frowned. "But from what I've observed, Tohno-kun isn't anything special—"

"The eyes of death."

Arcueid chimed in.

"That guy has a Mystic Eye that's monstrous even among Mystic Eyes, otherwise why do you think I was killed by him once?"

"The Mystic Eyes of Death Perception... I've heard of them. Does Tohno-kun possess Mystic Eyes of that level?"

"Judging from his appearance, he probably doesn't realize it much. But it's good that he doesn't. If he were to use those demonic eyes around recklessly, he would cause a lot of trouble."

Upon hearing Natsukawa Tora's words, Hiel immediately shook his head: "Don't worry about that. Tono is under constant surveillance by the church. If he does anything out of line, I will definitely stop him."

Is the church spying on Tono Shiki?

(Ah, come to think of it, that's true. Because it was uncertain who Roa had reincarnated into, Hiel initially considered Tohno Shiki as a suspect.)

After noting down the fact that Tohno Shiki possessed the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, Hiel continued, "Speaking of which, what are you doing? I know you've been hunting vampires at night, but vampires don't come out during the day. Are you on a date?"

"No, I'm looking for Dead Apostles—perfect, since I've run into you, let's discuss this."

"Discuss? Discuss what?"

"The matter of punishing the ancestor."

————————————————————

Inside a coffee shop near the shopping street.

"The nineteenth patriarch, Freud Arkhangel, has come to Japan?"

Upon hearing the information Natsukawa Torato provided, Hiel frowned: "While I did receive intelligence that he was taking action, the fact that he's actually come to Japan... what are those people in charge of intelligence doing?"

"No, that's not the point. You just mentioned going to defeat him?"

Natsukawa Tiger nodded: "You know about the series of fires that have happened in Misaki City recently, right? Arcueid said that it was Floff who did it, and it has already had a considerable impact on society. It can't be left unattended."

"For the sake of mysterious concealment, is that it?"

"Not entirely. I don't care about the mysterious concealment at all. I just can't stand seeing the scale of the damage expand further. If he continues to cause trouble in Misaki City and start fires, he'll cause problems sooner or later, right?"

"I see." Hiel understood. "So, what is it you want to discuss with me?"

"The aftermath. Although your Church is an expert at dealing with Dead Apostles, our forces are more than enough. We don't need more or less of you, so please at least lend a hand in the aftermath."

"for example?"

"Intelligence operations and such. I remember the Church of Sanctuary is very good at this. Back in Fuyuki City, no matter what trouble the magicians caused, the church there could always cover it up with a gas leak." Natsukawa Tora laughed. "I don't know how much of a commotion our battle with Flov will cause, so at least please do a good job of evacuation and cleanup to avoid accidentally injuring civilians or exposing our secrets."

"What? Is that all...?"

Hier took a sip of coffee: "I thought it was something serious. Even without you saying anything, the church would have dealt with it immediately afterward. That's what happened in the park before—speaking of which, you were the one who did that in the park, weren't you? You really made a big fuss. Couldn't you have kept it down a bit? Do you know how much effort it takes to cover things up!"

"That time... I should say I was a little tipsy from eating too much, or maybe it was just a rare occasion when I was in a good mood. It shouldn't happen this time."

"Why can't I believe it?"

Hierle’s intuition told him that Natsukawa Tiger would definitely cause a commotion no less than that one in the park—he’s always been like this, and it’s impossible to expect him to resolve something quietly!

(Just insist it was a gas leak, it should be fine.)

37. The Death of Aozaki Touko

Night fell quickly.

After entrusting Hierer with the aftermath, Natsukawa Torato and Arcueid continued their journey to find Flov.

According to Arcueid, vampires emit a special wavelength, and one can find vampires by following that wavelength. She was able to find other vampires because of this intuition. Although she had Gaia's guidance, she basically didn't need to use this method.

But the same applies to other vampires as well.

According to Arcueid's thinking, Floff came to the city because he had his eye on her. So as long as she released her wavelength, he would appear in front of her even if she didn't go looking for him. The reason she took the initiative to go looking for him was just to find him as soon as possible.

Physically, there are no problems anymore. Although his strength has not fully recovered, Natsukawa Tora is still the main force in this battle, so it shouldn't develop into the worst situation.

However, by the time the sun had already set and the silver moon had risen in the east, neither Floff nor Arcueid had sensed the unique wavelength of vampires within their perception range.

"What's wrong with that guy?"

Leaning against a railing, Arcueid pounded on it in frustration.

"I could understand why he doesn't come out during the day as a Dead Apostle who doesn't like sunlight, but it's already night and he still hasn't shown up. If he's after me, he should be coming soon now that I've released my aura."

"Could it be that he's planning to stand us up? No, thinking about it carefully, we've never met him before, and we didn't agree to meet him here, did we?"

"Xia Chuanhu asked."

"To put it in extreme terms, surely he couldn't be completely unaware of our presence?"

"No, that's impossible. If he's the ancestor, he'll definitely come."

While not all of them were ancestors, the vast majority were men who valued their pride and reputation highly, and would never do anything to embarrass themselves. Flöf was originally a medieval knight, and the nineteenth ancestor who saved him was also a typical ancestor, so he must have always been raised that way.

Therefore, given Arcueid's undisguised presence and even provocative release of his aura, he would definitely come.

If you are provoked, you must retaliate. Turning away and running away will only reveal your cowardice and fear. If you replaced Flov with any of the other Twenty-Seven Ancestors, they would definitely have the same thought.

"Speaking of which, Tiger, you've been looking at your phone the whole time. Who have you been chatting with?"

"I just wanted to contact Shiki," Natsukawa Tora said. "Since he's a Death Disciple at the level of the Twenty-Seventh Ancestor, his immortality must be top-notch. I want to end the battle as quickly as possible to avoid affecting the surrounding area too much. As for Shiki, I just need to give him one stab. That's the safest insurance."

"But she hasn't replied to my texts since just now, and she doesn't answer my calls either. I don't know what she's doing."

The phone showed that the dozen or so messages he had sent were still unread, which meant that Ryougi Shiki probably didn't have her phone with her. This had happened before after the incident in Kanbushi City. She doesn't really care about phones and usually only carries them when Natsukawa Tora reminds her.

(Is it the same this time? Ugh, I can't stand her.)

Putting away his phone, Xia Chuanhu sighed helplessly.

“It doesn’t really matter if Shiki doesn’t come. Flov’s immortality is not as good as Nero’s. Even you and I could kill him.”