“Lou, would you mind tying that girl to a chair?”
With the Mithril Blade still pressed against the girl’s throat, I gave instructions to my partner.
The young man called Lou, with his dignified bearing and golden hair, headed to the dining room and retrieved a sturdy rope. He sat the girl down in one of the dining chairs, binding her hands securely behind the chair’s back. For good measure, he wrapped additional rope around both the chair and her body.
“Be careful, Lou. She’s one of the mazoku. There’s no telling what kind of magic she might use.”
“Tell me about it. Magic’s something we humans can barely wrap our heads around.”
Among the mazoku, those who can wield magic are not uncommon. This is especially true for higher-ranking mazoku like vampires, who often master advanced magical abilities.
In contrast, humans who can master magic are exceedingly rare. The magic used by mazoku is largely innate, and while a small number of humans who study it can master certain spells, it’s fundamentally an ability that humans don’t naturally possess.
Some members of the clergy can use what’s called holy magic for healing, but this is said to be fundamentally different from mazoku magic.
As we kept the Mithril Blade’s tip trained on her, the Vampire Princess muttered, seemingly exasperated by our excessive caution as Lou bound her with rope.
“You don’t have to be so on guard. I don’t even use magic.”
“Why should we believe that? You’re a higher-ranking mazoku, aren’t you?”
“Hah, higher-ranking, huh? Well, I guess that’s true by species…”
Lou tightened the rope without hesitation, unfazed by the Vampire Princess’s jaded expression.
“Ow! That hurts! Come on, couldn’t you be a little gentler?”
“Why should I be gentle with a murderer?”
“Why are you so sure I’m a murderer? It’s not like you saw me do anything!”
“Who else could it possibly be but you!”
Lou’s tone became argumentative as he put more force into tightening the ropes.
“Ow ow ow! I keep telling you!”
“What is it?!”
“Hey! You just touched my chest! Cut it out, you perverted human!”
“What chest? You’re as flat as a board.”
“Ah! You said it! You really said it! How dare you make such an insensitive comment about something I’m self-conscious about! I’ll sue you! Just you wait!”
“What are you talking about? If anyone’s getting sued here, it’s you! You murderer!”
“I keep telling you, that’s not—”
Lou silenced the Vampire Princess by forcing a gag into her mouth.
“Lou. Don’t you think that’s going a bit too far?”
“Not at all, Rin-san. She’s a Vampire Princess, after all. Gagging her mouth is the same as taking away a weapon. Come on, let’s get her to security headquarters.”
“Hmm… but… let’s examine the scene a bit more first.”
I looked around the room. We needed to observe the situation, imagine what had transpired, and verify our theories.
The room was a square, about five meters on each side. It was a simple bedroom with two beds against the back wall, one on the left and one on the right when entering through the door. These beds took up most of the available space. The only entrance was the door we’d come through. There was a small ventilation window near the top of the far wall, roughly 30 centimeters square. Though it was currently open, it would be impossible to enter or exit through it—a person’s head might barely fit through. Still, it was peculiar that this window would be left open on such a cold night.
The room had no furnishings besides the beds—not even shelves or a closet. Our Special Operations Squad had only recently been assembled and assigned here, so we hadn’t yet had time to furnish it properly. Rachel and Rose’s personal belongings were simply stuffed into bags in the corner of the room.
And then there was the main issue: the headless corpse lying on the floor between the beds. The body was female, and the head was nowhere to be found. Given that it was wearing the white uniform of the Special Operations Squad, it was reasonable to assume it belonged to Rose. The neck had been severed with a single stroke. Considering that Rose was a formidable warrior, whoever managed to take her head with one strike must have possessed remarkable skill. The murder weapon was likely the greatsword lying on the floor, its blade still coated with blood.
The vampire girl had been holding it earlier, but I suspected it originally belonged to Rose.
When we arrived, we found the door to this room locked.
Taking all this into account, the most plausible sequence of events would be:
While Rachel and Rose were in this room, the vampire girl entered through the front door. She caught Rose off guard, seized her greatsword, and severed her head with a single strike. Rachel, shocked by this, fled the scene and ran out to the main street.
Rachel might have been wounded during this encounter. There were bloodstains where she had run away.
When the vampire girl noticed our return, she barricaded herself in this room, locking the door from the inside.
Then I kicked down that door… but was that really how it happened?
Something about this scenario doesn’t quite add up.
I gazed at the headless corpse. Where had Rose’s head gone?
Had the vampire eaten it? I couldn’t rule out that possibility.
And then there was the clean cut at Rose’s neck. Though it was clearly done with a single stroke, could this vampire girl really have managed such a feat?
Looking at the headless corpse again, I couldn’t help but notice its rather generous chest.
“Lou. Didn’t you mention once that you like women with large breasts?”
“W-what are you suddenly bringing that up for?”
“Try feeling the corpse’s chest.”
“Huh? Ah… what? W-what are you…”
“An opportunity like this doesn’t come often.”
“N-no, I… I’m not into that kind of thing…”
“I see. Then I suppose I’ll have to do it myself.”
I removed the unit uniform from the headless corpse and examined its breasts. Cupping them from below, I kneaded them to assess their texture. The body was still warm, with no signs of rigor mortis. They were softer than I’d expected.
“Um… Rin-san?”
“What is it? I’m in the middle of something important.”
“No… never mind.”
We moved to the dining room to confront the vampire girl tied to the chair. I questioned her directly.
“Did you kill our comrade?”
“Mmph! Mmmmph mmmph mmph!”
“Lou, sorry, but could you remove that gag?”
We’d gagged her out of fear she might bite, but that made it impossible for her to speak at all.
“I didn’t do it. When I got here, she was already like that!”
“That’s a rather weak defense given the circumstances.”
“What else can I say? I’m telling you it wasn’t me!”
“Well, let’s hear your story. First, tell us your name.”
“……”
“What’s wrong? Surely you have a name.”
“…La…Lavia…”
“Speak up. At least say your own name clearly.”
“Lavia von Ruberstöker. Happy now?”
“Ruberstöker? That name sounds familiar…”
“Ruberstöker… are you related to Count Bram?” Lou inquired.
“I’m his daughter. Sort of.”
“Well, well… if it isn’t the vampire count’s princess herself. What’s a noble of your standing doing attacking this place? Are you trying to start another all-out war?”
“Leave Papa out of this! I came here on my own! And I keep telling you, I’m not the culprit!”
“Then what were you doing here?”
“T-that’s… I was protecting my friend from that pervert!”
“Pervert?”
I turned around to look at Lou, who grimaced awkwardly.
“Well, he is a pervert, that’s true.”
“H-hey, come on…”
“So what business did you have with this pervert?”
“It’s about my friend Rosetta… no, never mind.”
“‘Never mind’ isn’t good enough. Did this friend Rosetta tell you to attack this dormitory and kill Lou? Is that why you attacked the two who were here?”
“No, no, that’s not it! I’m telling you, I didn’t do it!”
“Fine, let me ask you something else, Lavia.”
“How did you get in here?”
“How? I just came in through the front door. It was unlocked.”
“That’s what’s strange about this whole thing. This is the town guard’s dormitory. More specifically, it belongs to the newly formed Special Operations Squad. It’s hard to believe Rachel and Rose would have left it unlocked while they were here.”
“Well, it was unlocked, so what else could I do!”
“Never mind that. So you entered this room, right? From where?”
“Through that door, obviously.”
“It was unlocked?”
“Yes, it was!”
“And the two of them were inside?”
“No one was there! When I entered the room, there wasn’t anyone—just a headless corpse lying there!”
“Then why did you enter the room, Lavia? If it was an empty room with only a corpse, most people wouldn’t go inside. They’d either scream for help or run away in shock. That would be the normal response. But you went in anyway. Why? And there’s also a trail of blood leading from this room. Most likely left by Rachel, the other woman, when she fled after you attacked her, wasn’t it?”
“I don’t know anything about that! That blood was already there when I arrived! I’m telling you, it wasn’t me!”
“Is that so?”
“Ah! I got it! The culprit must be this Rachel person! She must be the one who cut off the head and killed her! That’s who you saw running away! She took the head with her when she fled. I just happened to be there and now I’m being framed! That must be it! You need to catch this Rachel girl quickly!”
“We did see Rachel running from here. But unfortunately, she wasn’t carrying any head with her.”
“She must have thrown it away somewhere!”
“That’s impossible too. We spotted Rachel right in front of this guardhouse. If she’d disposed of it, we would have seen it. Besides, Rachel may be capable, but she’s still just a cleric. It’s hard to imagine someone like her wielding such a large sword and managing to take the head of Rose, a trained warrior.”
“That applies to me too! There’s no way I could do something like that either!”
“Even though you’re a vampire called the Immortal Monarch?”
“I’m a failure of a vampire! There’s no way I could do something like that!”
“A failure, huh… Indeed, your movements earlier were rather pathetic for a vampire…”
“See? See?”
“That doesn’t mean I can believe everything you say.”
“Why won’t you believe me?! Untie me! I’m innocent!”
“Whether you’re innocent of that charge remains to be seen. That will be for the court to decide. However, you’re undeniably guilty of breaking and entering, as well as attempting to assault me. So I can’t untie you.”
“What court?! You humans and your one-sided, self-serving trials! Everyone knows that once you’re brought before a court, you’ll be found guilty and executed no matter how innocent you are! This is why I hate humans!”
“You certainly have a lot to say.”
“Because it’s true! Ever since the Demon Lord was killed, we mazoku have only suffered! You humans force your rules on us without any consideration for how different our living conditions are. We can’t even live normal lives anymore!
Take me for example. The only reason I’m this weak despite being a vampire is because you humans banned us from drinking blood! You were talking about silver weapons earlier, but because I’ve lived without drinking blood, I could die from even a dull iron blade, let alone silver. I’m not immortal, and I can’t even use magic. If you don’t believe me, try stabbing me with that fruit knife over there! I’ll die more easily than you’d expect—much more easily than a human would. Not that I care. This world isn’t worth living in anyway, so I’d rather just die. Go ahead, kill me!”
I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel sympathy for her as she grew hysterical. I never wanted a world where humans dominated and persecuted the mazoku.
“…I’m sorry.”
That weak apology was all I could offer right now.
“Rin-san, why are you apologizing?”
“Even I feel that our current society isn’t right. I am human, and I fought on the human side against the Demon Lord’s army in the last war. But it wasn’t because I hated the mazoku.
Once conflict broke out, I chose actions that I thought would minimize casualties.
The one who united the mazoku and started this conflict was Demon Lord Zoltax. That’s why I believed that defeating the Demon Lord was the quickest path to ending the war, and why I aided Hero Cain.”
“But even though the war ended, humans just started oppressing the mazoku instead! This isn’t peace at all!”
Lavia was growing increasingly agitated.
“That’s why police organizations like ours exist. Please believe me, Lavia. We don’t exist to control the mazoku. We’re here to ensure humans and mazoku can coexist peacefully, and for that, we need to find the truth. So please, tell me what really happened.”
“You say that, but if the culprit turns out to be human instead of me, would you really punish them?”
“Of course. But to determine that, we need as much information as possible.”
“You… could it be…”
“Rin-san, there’s no point talking like this. In this situation, she has to be the culprit, no matter how you look at it.”
“Listen, Lou. This ‘situation’ you’re talking about—all we know for certain is that there was a headless corpse and Lavia in the same room. We have no proof that Lavia killed anyone. As it stands, she’s just one of several suspects.”
“But still, that’s—”
I glanced at the open window. While it would be impossible for someone to enter or exit through it, it was large enough for a human head to pass through.
“Lou, could you watch Lavia for a while? I’m going to check outside.”
“Sure thing. I might as well get a confession from the vampire while you’re gone.”
I tried to exit through the kitchen’s back door, but something heavy seemed to be blocking it from the other side.
“Who would put something there?”
“Huh? Why would anything be there? It wasn’t me.”
“No, of course not. There wasn’t anything there before we left for night patrol, and you’ve been with me the whole time.”
I tried pushing against it with my shoulder, but it wouldn’t budge.
“No choice, then.”
I decided to go around to the back through the front entrance, even though it would be quite a detour.
Behind the back door was a wooden cage used for storing firewood for the furnace, which had been moved to completely block the door.
Being winter, the cage was filled with firewood and extremely heavy. It wasn’t something that could be easily moved. Even if we tried removing all the firewood first, it would take considerable time. Someone must have deliberately blocked the back door to prevent anyone from leaving through it.
I made my way around to the back of the guardhouse, right beneath the open window of the crime scene.
The snow was falling even more heavily now, covering everything in white. Only the crimson moon floating in the sky cast a red glow across the snowy landscape.
The snow covering the hedges surrounding the guardhouse showed no signs of disturbance. There were no traces of anyone climbing over them.
I found no useful clues. If Rose’s severed head had been thrown out that window, it wasn’t here now. I considered that someone might have retrieved it, but any footprints would have been erased by the falling snow.
No, it would be wiser to dismiss that possibility entirely.
If someone had retrieved the head, the complete absence of blood in the snow would be unnatural. Given the amount of blood inside the room, it’s unlikely the severed head wouldn’t have bled, and it would be nearly impossible to completely clean up all traces of blood from the snow.
“Kyaaaaaaa!”
A scream came from inside through the window. It was Lavia’s voice.
I rushed back to the room to find Lavia still tied to the chair but fallen over on the dining room floor. Her clothes were disheveled as she lay there bound. Nearby was Lou, trying to put his clothes back on.
“Hey, what happened here?”
“Th-this man tried to force himself on me!”
“R-Rin-san, it’s not what it looks like! This is—”
“Enough. Just put your clothes back on already!”
I helped Lavia up, chair and all.
In front of her stood Lou, both hands occupied trying to put his clothes back on. Using the momentum from being lifted up, Lavia pitched forward. Her mouth opened wide, revealing the sharp fangs befitting a Vampire Princess.
“Look out!”
I reached out my hand to protect Lou, who couldn’t move freely with his hands full.
Lavia bit down on my outstretched hand. Two fangs sank into my flesh. I could feel my blood being drawn through those fangs as if through a straw. For a moment, my consciousness grew hazy.
“W-what is this—” Lavia’s eyes grew dreamy and unfocused. “—It’s d-delicious…”
Her gleaming silver hair took on a faint pink tinge, as if being stained by my blood. Like a young maiden’s soft skin flushed with heat…
In the next instant, Lavia’s body transformed into a small bat. As if mocking the ropes that had bound her, her tiny form slipped free of them and flew vigorously upward, escaping through the small window near the ceiling.
“Well, this is clearly my blunder.”
As I muttered this, Lou rushed over to me saying, “I’m sorry. This is my fault.” The snowy wind blowing in through the window was cold, reproaching me for my carelessness.
“Rin-san, that Vampire Princess must be the culprit after all. To think she could transform into a bat…
She must have come and gone through that open window. That’s how she caught Rose off guard…”
“No, we can’t say that for certain yet.”
“You’re still saying that?”
“Yes, nothing is clear yet. Let’s first organize everything that’s happened here today.”
