To become a king and a magician

When she woke up, she saw Natsukawa Tora and Aozaki Aoko sitting around a table, seemingly discussing something.

Seemingly hearing the sound of the blanket slipping off, Natsukawa Torato looked at Aozaki Touko: "Teacher, you're awake. I've brought you dinner and put it on your bedside table. Go wash up and come back to eat. You still smell of alcohol on you."

"Oh......"

In a daze, Aozaki Touko agreed and went into the bathroom to turn on the shower. The hot water instantly soaked her whole body, and the warmth quickly dispelled the lingering drunkenness, gradually clearing her mind.

And in the instant she fully regained consciousness—

"—!"

She rushed out the door, looking at Natsukawa Torato and Aozaki Aoko with a look of astonishment: "You two... Aoko, what curse did you put on my boy?!"

"Miss Orange, your clothes! Your clothes! Brother, don't turn around!"

Upon seeing this, Gray, who had been attending to Aozaki Touko, immediately blushed and took a bath towel from the bathroom to wrap around her, while Natsukawa Torato, who was innocently caught in the crossfire, consciously covered his eyes.

"Teacher, are you still drunk? Have you forgotten my magic resistance? Curses can't possibly work on me."

"Ah, that's true... wait! What's Aoko doing here?"

"Investigating something about vampires? Do you think I, like you, Orange, spent the whole day sleeping in bed like a pig and wasting time?"

Aozaki Aoko glanced at Aozaki Touko with considerable disdain.

"Then, junior, as we agreed before, we'll each take charge of a section and find and kill the wandering vampires as soon as possible."

"Yes, Miss Aoko. Please be careful."

"It's none of your business to care about me—Orange, how long are you going to keep embarrassing yourself like this?"

What... what's going on with these two? What did we agree on beforehand? Vampires? Huh?

What exactly happened while I (Aozaki Touko) was drunk and passed out?!

"Miss Orange, why don't you go take a good shower first? I think your brother will explain everything to you afterwards." Gray said, pushing Aozaki Orange forcefully into the bathroom. "Brother! Go see Miss Aoko out!"

"No need. See you later, junior."

"See you later, Miss Aoko."

.......

A few minutes later, wearing a yukata and leaning back on the sofa, letting Gray comb her hair, Aozaki Touko listened to his explanation while eating the takeout that Natsukawa Tora had brought back.

"So, because the TV station broadcast rumors about suspected vampires this morning, and Shiki also encountered a scene of a suspected vampire attack last night, you and Aoko went to investigate? And you did indeed discover something about vampires, so you decided to become guardians of justice?"

Natsukawa Tora nodded: "That's about it. Teacher, do you think this is bad?"

"It's not about that. If vampires cause trouble, it won't be good for secrecy and hiding. I have no objection to that. It's just that I don't like Aoko. Well, to put it simply, it's just a sisterly feud. I think she feels the same way."

"Teacher, don't you have any intention of getting back together with Miss Aoko?"

"Absolutely not. What's the point of making up now? The conflict between her and me started the moment my grandfather abandoned me. Would you try to fix a mirror that's been broken for over a decade?"

Aozaki Touko waved her hand.

"You don't need to worry about our sisterly affairs. Just focus on your own business—so, where were we with the vampires? Are you going out to stake them out tonight?"

"It's more like patrolling than staking out, since we don't know when the vampires will appear. Ms. Aoko and I are each responsible for one-fifth of Misaki City, and the rest is left to the church and Ms. Aoko's friends."

Aoko's friend?

“Ayumi, indeed, her fairy tale familiar has a special reconnaissance ability.” Aozaki Touko thought for a moment, then took out her phone and made a call. “Ah, Beo? You don’t have anything to do, right? Then come to my place tonight, I have something I’d like to ask you to do. Come to my place in an hour.”

Should we call Beo over?

"Teacher, what's going on?"

"Beo is a fantasy species of werewolf, with an excellent sense of smell. If we take him on patrol, we can smell it immediately if something happens."

"Thank you."

Taking a drag of her cigarette, Aozaki Touko chuckled, "It was nothing. By the way, where's Shiki? Are you out wandering around as usual tonight?"

"As for Shiki, I asked her to do some things. I encountered some situations during the day, and I felt that Shiki would be a good fit."

Nero Chaos.

The tenth of the Twenty-Seven Dead Apostles, he possesses a small Reality Barrier [Beast King's Nest] within his body, containing 666 Beast Factors. No physical or magical damage can kill him; he cannot be killed unless all the Beast Factors are eliminated simultaneously.

Unless you get stabbed by the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception.

So after learning of his existence through the crows during the day, Natsukawa Torato immediately thought of Ryougi Shiki.

The Mystic Eyes of Death Perception? He has them too.

(I just don't know if Shiki can beat him, since Shiki is still a human, but considering the buffs from the Root Shiki, it shouldn't be a problem.)

Thinking of this, Xia Chuanhu remained silent for a moment before taking out his phone.

"Hmm? Who are you calling?"

"Let's contact the Shi and see if there's enough time to send Avalon over. It seems too much for a human to fight against the Dead Apostles."

"What were you doing all this time?"

"Well......"

——————————————————————————————

Avalon was ultimately not delivered. No one knew what landmine it had stepped on. Ryougi Shiki on the other end of the phone directly rebuked Natsukawa Torato a couple of times and then hung up, leaving him completely confused.

"Women are such a hassle."

"Although I don't know why you have this idea, I quite agree with it."

Beside Natsukawa Torata, Beo, now in his beautiful boy form, licked a string of lollipops as he spoke—apparently, he'd been given them by an elderly woman overflowing with maternal love on the way here. Beo himself often encountered such situations.

"Humans are really strange creatures. To this day, I still don't understand why they would give me something like this."

"I guess it's because you're so likable," Natsukawa Tora said. The appearance of a blond, delicate, and beautiful young man must really appeal to single women.

"By the way, Beo—is it alright if I call you that?"

"Sure. What's up?"

"Your original form was a werewolf, right? Did you create this form yourself?"

Beo nodded: "Yes, it was made to resemble a human. Although I can transform into anything, Sojuro said I'm fine this way, so I've kept this form."

"Can you turn into a woman?"

"Sure."

As they spoke, Beo's body, hidden by her beige coat, underwent a subtle change. Though barely noticeable, Natsukawa Tora could still see it—her chest and hips rose and fell slightly! And her overall appearance became more feminine and delicate!

GOODJOB!

"Hmm... a woman's body is so strange, I feel so uncomfortable—how are you feeling? This is my first time being a woman, is it appropriate?"

Beo twisted his body as he asked Natsukawa Tora for his opinion.

it is good!

Natsukawa Tora really wanted to say that, you could even say his soul was cheering for it!

However, before Xia Chuanhu's thoughts could begin to wander into some strange realms, Beo suddenly looked in a certain direction, sniffed, and pointed, saying, "Over there, there's the smell of blood, very strong."

"go!"

.......

A few minutes later, what Xia Chuanhu saw was a blood-stained entrance hall and seventeen pieces of corpse scattered at the entrance.

19. Arcueid puzzle

Natsukawa Tora was no stranger to bloody scenes; in fact, he had caused them himself quite a few times, though none of them resulted in death.

But this level of gore was truly the first time he had ever seen anything like it.

A complete human being was cut into seventeen pieces, and blood stained the entire entrance hall, walls, doors, floor tiles, shoe cabinet, ceiling... like water bursting out after a water balloon exploded, everywhere.

"That's really tragic."

Beo crouched down, stepping on the blood, and examined several of the chunks of flesh.

"Judging from the way they were scattered, they must have been ambushed from behind. There were no signs of resistance around them. They were cut into seventeen pieces in an instant? The person who did it must have been quite skilled."

"However, it shouldn't have been done by vampires."

Of course, this couldn't possibly have been done by a vampire. If it were, the corpse lying here wouldn't be the dismembered person, but the vampire who did it.

(They've already made their move, so does that mean we're on the eve of it?)

Xia Chuanhu knew who the dismembered person in front of him was, and he also knew who had done it.

The victim was Arcueid Brunestard, the princess of the True Ancestor.

The person who made the move was Tohno Shiki, a descendant of the Nanaya family, one of the four great exorcising families, just like Ryougi Shiki. He was the last Nanaya.

Now that Arcueid has been dismembered, it means that today is the day before the Tsukihime storyline begins.

(I really picked a good time to come to Misaki City.)

Thinking of this, Xia Chuanhu took a few steps inside: "Beo, help me put these body parts back together."

"Huh? Why?" Beo blinked in confusion. "She's been hacked to pieces like this, you're not still thinking of saving her, are you? Even if you had that scabbard, you couldn't save her. People die when they're killed."

"But this dismembered body is not human. Even if she has been cut up like this, she is definitely still alive."

The unexpected firmness in his tone made Beo pause for a moment, then he chuckled and asked, "In this situation, do you still believe this person is alive? She's not some higher life form like me, whose soul has materialized."

"I didn't say she was the same kind of being as you, I just said she wasn't human."

not human?

"So you mean she's a vampire? A vampire who can come back to life?"

"She is the true ancestor."

Holding Arcueid's severed head, Natsukawa Torama looked into her eyes, which had lost their light. The last thing these ruby-like eyes revealed was not the anger, regret, sorrow, or grief that a dying person would have, but rather an unusual surprise.

Why was I ambushed?

Why was I killed?