After escaping from the meat-covered capital, Yogiri was speaking with Risley, who had just exited her carriage.
"I used to be a Sage, I guess. I'll give it to you, so please listen to my request!" As she spoke, she held out a round stone.
There was someone she wanted dead. She must have meant for the stone to be
a sort of reward.
"No, thanks. I can't just go around killing people because someone asked me to." Still, Yogiri took the stone from her.
After all, it was a Philosopher's Stone, one of the things he wanted most at the
moment.
"Hey! I don't know about her asking you to kill people, and I'm fine with you turning her down, but you can't just take the stone after
that anyway!" Tomochika chided him.
"Oh, okay. Here you go, then." He returned the stone to Risley.
"Oh, uhh, sorry. I got a bit excited after finally meeting you, but I guess you have no idea what this is about."
This girl, who he had never met before, had suddenly appeared and started rambling to him, so it was understandable that he was utterly confused.
He turned to the woman who had stepped out of the carriage with her.
She was beautiful, with silver hair and dark skin: Theodisia, someone he and Tomochika had worked with at the tower back in the canyon.
"Is this your sister?" They didn't look a bit alike, so he figured she wasn't, but he felt it was best to make sure.
Theodisia's sole reason for going to the tower in the first place had been to search for her
missing sibling.
"No, she isn't, but..." As she struggled to explain the situation, someone else descended from the carriage.
Like Theodisia, she was a woman with silver hair and dark skin.
Yogiri recalled that they belonged to a race of people known as half-demons.
"Wait, weren't you one of Tachibana's bodyguards?!" Tomochika blurted out.
Her recognition of the newcomer reminded Yogiri of their encounter with Yuuki.
He'd been one of their classmates who'd
had the class of Dominator, and he had forced five women to act as his personal guard.
This woman was one of them.
"Yes. I apologize for my behavior back then. My name is Euphemia."
"So, you're the sister. If we had remembered earlier, things would have gone much easier for you, huh?" Tomochika said apologetically.
"Well, you managed to find her anyway, so I guess it worked out in the end." She had remembered hearing the name Euphemia before, but had only been able to give Theodisia the vaguest of details at the time.
At least they had eventually found each other.
"Anyway, I'm glad you two finally connected, but I'm still not sure why you're here," she continued.
Yogiri had the same questions.
"I would be more than happy to explain, but I'm not sure this is the place to do so." She indicated the carriage. "Would you perhaps be willing to come inside?"
Tomochika turned to Yogiri. "What do you think?"
"They've got a Philosopher's Stone, right? And we can't just take it from them, apparently."
"I'm surprised the thought even crossed your mind, stealing from a little girl like that!"
"Then I guess we need to listen to what they have to say. What about you guys?" he asked, turning to their three companions.
Risley's group only seemed to be interested in Yogiri, so the others were just standing back and waiting to see how things turned out.
"I had intended to take you somewhere a bit more relaxed, but if you have a carriage, you hardly need my guidance," David said.
He was, in the end, a city guard.
The survivors from the capital were relying
on him for guidance. It occurred to Yogiri that dragging him away from the capital might not have been the best idea.
"I would be happy to go with you," Ryouko offered.
"Same," Carol agreed.
Their original roles had been to keep an eye on him.
Perhaps they intended to continue that mission even now.
Leaving David behind, they joined the newcomers, deciding to hear
them out in the carriage.
◇ ◇ ◇
Soon after, the seven sat within the luxurious vehicle.
The inside was arranged like a meeting room, complete with a fancy table and sofas.
On one side was the owner, Risley, and her two attendants, Euphemia and Theodisia. On the other side were Tomochika, Yogiri,
Carol, and Ryouko.
"Please allow me to explain our circumstances," Theodisia offered.
She went on to recount the events that had led to their current situation, beginning with Yuuki Tachibana's attack on the half-demon
village in the Haqua Forest.
For some reason, Yuuki's monsters and
slaves had attacked the sisters' village, completely destroying it.
Although some of their people had had the strength to defend it, the enemy numbers were just too overwhelming.
The survivors were ultimately enslaved by Yuuki and taken away.
And that was just the beginning of Euphemia's myriad misfortunes.
Thanks to her beauty, Yuuki had selected her for his personal guard.
She had served him for a while before he was killed by Yogiri, which had freed her.
Leaving Yuuki's body behind in the ruins they'd been exploring, Euphemia had immediately headed for the surface, where she met
the Sage Lain.
The surface had been reduced to rubble by an Aggressor known as the Darkness, and Lain was curious about how Euphemia had survived unscathed.
She was a vampire who could grow her own lineage by drinking the blood of others.
So she drank Euphemia's blood, enslaving her once again.
Lain then attacked Yogiri and was killed in turn. Euphemia, once again on her own, returned to her now abandoned village.
No one other than her had made it back.
Although Euphemia had been freed by the Sage's death, there was
more to it.
Lain was a type of vampire known as an Origin Blood, and her death had prompted a succession battle to claim her title.
Euphemia had been dragged into that battle against her will and won, inheriting the title herself.
With nowhere else to go, she went
to a mansion that she had found in Lain's memories, where she met Risley.
"I'm sleepy," Yogiri said with a yawn.
"Hey! They're trying so hard to tell us their story right now!" Tomochika wasn't impressed with his attitude.
Theodisia's story wasn't exactly a straightforward one, but she was clearly making an effort to explain it in easy-to-understand terms.
"Well, yeah, the story is long too, but it's more because I used my power so much. So can you listen to them for me, please?"
With that, he flopped over, resting his head on Tomochika's lap.
He had been using his powers almost nonstop since the nuclear explosion in the Underworld, so his exhaustion was to be expected.
"Wait! I never said you could use me as a pillow!"
"It's too cramped in here. I have no choice. It's out of my hands."
"You have no self-restraint at all, do you?!"
But Yogiri was asleep within moments, so there wasn't much point in complaining.
It appears to be the boy's one weakness, Mokomoko observed.
Not that it would be enough to kill him...
The more Yogiri used his power, the more exhausted he became.
But it wasn't a significant weakness.
After all, you could wake him up just by shaking him a bit, and even while asleep, he could counterattack.
"All right, please ignore him," Tomochika told their hosts. "You can continue with your story. I'll tell him everything later on."
Sleeping on her lap this way, Yogiri looked incredibly peaceful. While she couldn't help but feel slightly exasperated by his behavior, the
thought that she could provide him even a small amount of peace also made her feel a bit proud.
"I see. In that case..." Theodisia continued her story.
When Euphemia had arrived at Lain's mansion, she'd found Risley there making preparations for a journey to the capital.
Recognizing Risley instinctively as her master, she had decided to join her, and they had gone on to the city together.
Along the way, Euphemia had noticed the presence of some of her people, and Risley had decided they should help the half-demons they came across.
As they had entered the canyon to do just that, they'd found Theodisia.
"And after meeting each other, you came here. But why did you come here? You said you were looking for Takatou?"
"Yes. I suppose I need to explain who I am. Basically, I'm Lain, the
Sage."
"Huh? Really?" Tomochika had only seen Lain from a distance, but she knew the Sage hadn't been a young girl like this.
"Technically, I'm a copy she left behind before she went to fight Yogiri. As a safeguard against his power, she made me a completely
separate life form, so I don't have any of her memories."
Yogiri had killed all of Lain's clones during their encounter, so creating Risley as a unique being who had none of the intentions or
memories of the original had been the right choice.
"She also created me to like Yogiri."
"What?! Why?!"
Oh? It appears you have a new rival.
"I think she did it to make sure that I didn't endup trying to fight
him. You see, she had something she wanted him to do."
"Kill someone, right?"
"Yes. Someone that Lain could never kill herself." Risley didn't seem to feel like saying any more than that. She must have been saving the rest for when Yogiri woke up
.
"So what should I ask next? I feel like there's a lot I still need to know."
"May I?" Carol raised a hand, breaking her silence.
"What is it?"
"Since we have so many girls here, I feel like we should have a swimsuit or hot spring episode at least once."
"How does that follow?!" Tomochika snapped.
"A hot spring? Are there any around here?" Risley asked Euphemia,
taking Carol's suggestion literally.
"It's possible. I could use my senses to look for one, but in either case it would require us to move."
"You don't have to take her seriously! And could we wait a bit before we go anywhere?" She had thought of something she wanted to do
before they moved on.