The girl that appears in the sky with the full moon behind her looks younger than Luna.
She looks to be in her young teens, but I can immediately tell what’s inside doesn’t match her appearance.
Her eyes looking this way are those of a predator. I’m sure she’s like Elga, Tiltue, and Luna, as in one of the beings standing on top of this island’s ecosystem.
“Hou… I figured you were a gentle man that was strong but knew nothing of battle, but you are surprisingly cautious.”
“Well I don’t know how to fight or anything, but when someone’s looking down at me and laughing, you bet I’m going to be on alert.”
This body is tough, but I don’t know just how invincible it is.
This is an extreme example, but I figure I’d die if a volcano erupted and I was buried in lava.
“…Then again, Tiltue’s fire didn’t hurt me, so maybe I’d be fine in lava too.”
“What are you on about? Do you want to try swimming in lava? Strange man…”
The girl heard what I said, and sounds exasperated as she slowly comes down.
Is she using floating magic?
I haven’t seen Reina use it, but it looks useful. I look at her as intently as I can to copy it right away.
She stops about fifty centimeters off the ground, and crosses her arms with an arrogant look on her face.
I’m about a meter and eighty centimeters tall, so she came down to the precise height to look me in the eye.
“Now I’m no longer looking down at you.”
“I feel like you’re a little higher.”
“Mu… Fastidious, aren’t we?”
She does a little adjusting and comes down just a little.
I look at her again, and even though I already noticed it when she was up there, I still can’t quite hide how surprised I am by how young she looks
“Anyway, how about we introduce ourselves, outsider? My name is Wilhelmina Vermilion Worheim. I am a true ancestral vampire who has lived on this island for a long time.”
“I’m Arata. I’m just a human who was here before he knew it.”
“Kufuh!”
All I did was introduce myself, and the girl who calls herself Wilhelmina bursts out laughing.
“Why is that funny?”
“Ku, kukuku… You wouldn’t be on this island if you were just a human, would you?”
“Well if I’m not human, what am I…”
She has a charm appropriate of her young appearance when she laughs, but it’s also scary somehow. She called herself a true ancestral vampire, but how is that different from the others?
“Fu, well, fine. Nothing new has happened on this island in a long time, and it seems something interesting might be coming. And…”
Wilhelmina says, before looking away from me with the same grin on her face that you might see on the face of a kid about to cause some trouble. Her eyes are now on the bathing area where Reina is.
“I have been sensing a very, very tasty smell.”
I’m not her target. At the same time as I realize that, Wilhelmina points that way, and an icicle appears above her.
“There.”
“…!? What are you…!?”
“…Ah?”
I quickly put myself between the icicle and the bathing area, and strike it down. I glare at Wilhelmina, and she looks surprised.
“What are you doing!?”
“No… You’re too fast. I activated my magic first, so how come you went around it?”
“I’m pretty confident in my physical abilities.”
“…I feel like it goes well beyond that, but… It’s fine.”
She raises her fist, and many icicles appear. It’s way more than before. I’d have trouble even counting them.
“Fufufu. Regardless of how you move, can you handle this many!?”
“Wai…!?”
“Go, ice needles!”
The bathing area is right behind me, and so is Reina. She’s completely defenseless right now, so she might get hurt if these things hit her.
I do my best to stop as many as I can.
The shine created by the pieces that flies around every time I destroy one of them feels fantastical, but I don’t have time to stand and watch.
What’s important now is not letting any of them through. That’s all I focus on as I strike down the hurricane of icicles flying this way.
“Not good enough.”
“Kuh!”
But it gets to a point where it’s too much.
It would be one thing if they were all coming towards me, but she’s cheating and shooting them from all sorts of angles. I can’t move fast enough to stop them all.
Icicles hit the wall made of trees, and I hear the sound of a small explosion.
One, two, and the area being hit by icicles expands as they keep smashing into the wall.
That kicks up dust, and all I can see is Reina’s shadow.
I quickly run towards her, thinking I can’t let them hit her like this.
“Reina, run!”
“Arata no! If you come here now…!”
“…Ah…”
The cloud of dust is blown away, revealing a completely naked Reina.
She just got out of the bath, so her scarlet hair looks glossy, and beautifully reflects the light of the stars.
And her pale skin, that seems to contrast with that deep red hair. Her slender body reminds me of an actress I saw on TV, with only one part clearly highlighted in a very feminine way.
If I looked down, I would see the parts of her body normally covered by her skirt completely exposed, and her legs that are so slender that they feel like they would crumble if I touched them.
I can’t look away. It’s like I’m looking at an overwhelming work of art.
“A… Arata…”
But Reina is looking at me with a bright red face and tears welling up in her eyes. She’s covering her chest with both hands, and turning to the side with one of her legs.
“Don’t… Look…”
“…! Sorry!”
Hearing Reina speak with the frailest voice I’ve heard come out of her mouth brings me back to reality, and I quickly turn around.
That said, I can’t erase what I just saw. It’s so vividly etched in my mind that it’s like a photograph is in front of me.
“Kukuku… Nice! You two are the best! That embarrassment is so incredibly delicious!”
And Wilhelmina laughs as she looks at us, seemingly not even trying to contain it.
I also notice that the icicles above her head are all gone, so she has no intention to keep attacking. She’s just cackling like she’s drunk.
“…W-what is that?”
“Apparently, a true ancestral vampire…”
“T-true!?”
Reina sounds surprised, and I don’t know how to react.
I remember hearing Reina saying that it’s something that comes up in fairy-tales, but from what we’ve seen so far, it’s clear that this island is populated by those sorts of beings.
I’m just having trouble equating the blonde girl in front of me to an incredible being like that.
And as we stand here, at a loss, Wilhelmina looks like she’s done laughing, and comes down slowly with tears in her eyes.
“Fu… Keep on being all lovey-dovey, love birds. I will keep enjoying it and laughing.”
“…I really have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“What? Normal vampires drink blood, but true ancestral vampires have conquered the lust for blood, and the weakness that is the sun. Instead, we enjoy emotional ups and downs as we would food.”
Emotional ups and downs. I tilt my head, and she nods.
“It kills the boredom of immortality. In short, I just enjoyed the embarrassment that girl felt. Yes, thank you very much for the truly delicious romantic comedy.”
“You know what a romantic comedy is?”
“That’s what sticks out to you? Well, I have been alive for a long time. I know most things.”
Still, that does make sense. I felt something was off from the moment she started attacking.
If she wanted to hurt me, there would be no point in using weak magic. Not that I know if she has magic strong enough to hurt me, but I do know that those icicles wouldn’t hurt me no matter how many hit me.
And even if she wanted to hurt Reina, it would’ve been easy to use an attack with a wider area of effect. Using that weak magic also means she didn’t intend to hurt her either.
“A young lady’s embarrassment is a nice thing. The undulation of emotions when someone sees her in an embarrassing position… And a young man falling in love… Oops.”
A wind blade flies from behind me, and Wilhelmina flicks it away with one finger. But it did succeed in cutting off her sentence.
“…I won’t…”
“R-Reina…?”
I fearfully turn around, and see she’s already put on what she was wearing before, and she has a darker expression on her face than I’ve seen before.
“I won’t forgive you!
She yells as she creates many blades in the air, and fires them at Wilhelmina.
“So now it’s anger… Or at least that is what you’re trying to play it off as, but it’s still embarrassment. But I love that too!”
She says as Reina’s empty blades cut through that small body.
Wilhelmina’s limbs are cut, and so is her head, before it all falls to the ground.
“Eh…? You’re kidding? Did I really defeat her?”
Reina is taken aback, as I’m sure even she didn’t expect her attack to work so easily.
I feel the same way.
Every being we’ve met on this island has been the top of the top.
Therefore, this shouldn’t have been an opponent that a human like Reina should be able to match at all. She was probably just expecting to get some revenge.
But once that lid was popped, she went down in one hit. There’s no way she could be alive.
And just as I’m thinking that, Wilhelmina’s body turns into many dark bats far away, and once they all come together, her body returns to how it was before Reina attacked.
““Wha!?””
“Fufufu. You didn’t think you could defeat an immortal vampire with that, did you? That said, those surprised expressions serve as a great dessert. Nice reactions, you two!”
Says the smiling girl while giving us a thumbs up. Now I’m getting kind of annoyed too.
And I can feel Reina’s bloodlust overflowing behind me.
Honestly… She’s scaring me more than the ancestral vampire.
“Now now, I got a tasty meal out of you outsiders, but it’s about time I got back. That was a lot of fun, young ones!”
She says as she goes up, with the moon behind her like when she first appeared.
Reina keeps attacking with magic, but it all disappears when Wilhelmina whispers something.
“Show me some sweet lovey-dovey action next time too! I love how it tastes! Hahahaha!”
All we can do is watch as Wilhelmina disappears into the starry sky, and listen as she says nonsense right until the very end.
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