My hand is still on my sword handle. My eyes are red. I want to die. Why? Because I am betrayed by the person who I love so much. The person who treats me like his son, a brother and a friend. My brother. My older brother who adopted me and gave a life to this homeless kid that he cannot even dream about in his life.
"Yusuke"
I say his name in anger. Not in hate. My voice was in pain. I was just sad to see my brother who I trusted so much.
"Protagonist"
Protagonist? I was in rage but I am not your typical dude who will ignore everything in anger. I calm myself by taking a deep breath. Now, let's begin. Protagonist?
"What are you trying to say?"
It was the first time I saw my brother looking at me with unbelievable eyes. He always knows everything about me. Nothing is surprising for him. But, right now, his eyes are observing me like a mathematician trying to find where he miscalculated.
"I never calculated this outcome. Script is changed at the last moment. That bastard really know to build up a plot twist in the story"
"What do you mean?"
He grinned and smiled like a silly person.
"A surprising moment for me. An unknown that I wasn't able to predict. I have to say this.....Nakajima Kazuya, you are wildcard and the chosen one"
"I am not able to understand what you are trying to say"
This is the first time I've ever said this. Why? I boast myself that I have the skill to read emotions and personality of a person. All of my friends always took my advice when they tried to pull some girls. They always get success in this, especially the brother of Senpai. Then how? We both had lived under a roof and yet, I was never able to understand him? Is my understanding hollow? Is this why Senpai stated that I am too scared to see the truth of heart? I was scared to ruin the moments and memories I created with my friends and my brother. Is this why I never go into depth of his character?
I was regretting deep inside my mind. I feel something weird. A new sensation that is coming from this sword. White light released from the sword as it blind my eyes and everything.
"Huh?!"
"A new challenge"
Light starts to fade. The colors of night come back again when the world of white fades away. My hand feels light now. At first, I didn't understand.....in the first place, why was my hand feeling heavy?
"Kuh——sword!"
I hear footsteps. I hear the sound of a punch. Punch. Yes. In front of me, there is a woman. She rushed towards Yusuke without any warning or battle-cry. But, my brother dodged her attacks one by one.
She first threw a jab at him. He stepped back from the place quickly. His speed is unbelievable from a human perspective. She goes for a punch at his left side of face. He ducks his head and she throws a punch to his right side but he quickly dodges it before her fist could connect to his face. She tries to give him an uppercut attack. He jumped in the air high above her.
"You cannot touch me, sister. Sorry to ruin your mood, bamboo"
She didn't say anything. Just silence follows her. She rushed at her which was followed by several barrages of punches.
I don't know how I always get in trouble, but——
"Hey! It is a family matter!"
I got between them. Her left fist strikes upon my heart. Air is taken away from my body. For a second, I thought that I died. Now, her punch directly hit my face. This punch didn't hurt me at all. I am on the ground.
She pulls back her punches.
"Sorry, master. I didn't see thee!"
She kneels down in front of me.
She has short wavy blonde hair. Her piercing red eyes were looking at me. She is very calm like it is natural for her to kneel down in front of me like a knight kneels to his king. She wears a form-fitting black bodysuit with intricate golden patterns. Her long, flowing cape has blue and gold design like she is some sort of royalty. Her gloves and boots have a metallic look like they are used for armor.
I get up from the ground.
"Who are you? Why did you attack this man?"
I point my finger towards Yusuke. Is this woman any sort of way related to him? Is she attacking him because my brother is a playboy and maybe had slept with her or committed some serious crime?
I feel like I know this girl. She holds a key to me but at the same time, I think she is related to my older brother.
She bowed down one more time to me and then stood up.
"I am a servant of thee. I am the divine sword that thou wield. The golden-white brilliant sword that thee had picked will kill off thy enemies that thou will encounter in thy life"
I don't have any doubt about this random blonde royal girl being the spirit of this sword. My mind is not understanding.....these old classic Latin words.
"Is this your default setting? This is not the medieval era. This is the modern time era. You should use the speech of manner that can be understood by me and everyone"
She is looking at my brother with a glare.
She stepped forward and came in front of me while pushing me back with her hand like a knight does to a princess. Hey! I am male!
"Step aside, master. This man is dangerous and most fearsome. We shouldn't trust someone like him. From my experience, I am saying this. Believe me, master. My instincts never went wrong to judge someone"
Judge. A word that is my property. Me who boasts that I can judge anyone. I failed in this skill. I cannot speak here. I wasn't able to judge my own brother and those around me. I look down.
"You know that a girl like you shouldn't attack anyone. Tell me why you attacked me?"
My brother starts to take steps towards us.
She is still on guard. She didn't let her guard down.
"My instincts are saying that you are danger"
The atmosphere is intense.
"Tell me something divine sword, do you know this man?"
She shook her head.
"I have never met this man in my whole life. His aura is something else. He is red. His pride in anger will burn down every one of us"
Pride and anger. Where did I hear those words? The pride of anger will burn down everything. The main weakness of people with——red color! The missing piece. She is someone who holds the key to something else. Fyodorov. She is saying the same thing as Fyodorov. There are two possibilities I can conclude from here. First possible theory is that she is some sort of being who is related to Fyodorov. Second possibility is an advanced version of the previous one. That vampire told me that he heard tales and legends about a warrior with a golden sword. So, it leads me to this conclusion, Mr Fyodorov was the previous owner of this sword.
"What is happening here?"
A voice. Eyes went to the direction of the voice. She is my junior. She belongs to my school. She is an Italian who spent her childhood and studies here. She is in 1st year of highschool. Beatrice Alighieri.
She directly ignores us. She goes to Yusuke's side and looks at him with anger.
"Where did Dracula go? You didn't explain anything to me yet. What is the script? Who is the protagonist? You just pushed me into their battle and beating from that demon was painful!"
"Beatrice"
For instance, she forgot her anger on my brother and looked towards me.
"How long have you two been working together?"
Those two? Those two belong to this world. Definitely, this is wrong. It is not possible. They never met each other one-on-one. I cannot believe my eyes that she and my brother are working together. When did they meet?
Gun that Yusuke was holding started to disappear from his hand. So, my brother also has the same type of phenomenon that those demons possess. It is an interesting phenomenon that I want to get more knowledge about.
"Our alliance is only made in the morning. We met each other in the yesterday night"
"Wait a second. You guys met each other last night. It means that——that was your plan. It was your plan, right? You sent me after Senpai to drop her home. So, you can meet with the junior of mine. Beatrice Alighieri for your plan"
He smirked at me.
"You are a smart kid, Kazuya. This is why I always act like a different person in front of you. So, you cannot understand me. If I had showed my true colors from our first meeting then you probably would had figured out this dark side of the world that I was trying to hide from you"
He took something out of his pocket——cigarette and a lighter. He put a cigarette in his mouth and lit it with a lighter. He starts to smoke.
I glare at him. The atmosphere between us is intense. Nobody can predict how much pressure is increasing in this atmosphere. To break up the tension between us. The younger year junior speaks.
"Break this up!! The main question is why my relic didn't do any damage to him? Both of our relics are divine in nature. Only his relic happened to harm him but not mine. This is some sort of mystery"
"What is a relic?"
I know that relics are some sort of ancient historical artifact that humanity finds throughout history which tells the origin of the past. Like there is a huge difference between swords in the medieval era and other eras. Each country has a different style of weapons and designs.
The woman of divine sword raises her hand.
"Master, I am your servant. Allow me to speak about this matter"
I notice this right now that she has adapted to the modern era language. She is not using thou, thee, thy etc types of ancient medieval time words at my command.
"Go on. I am interesting in this matter"
"A relic is a different variety of weapon. Unlike normal weapons which are just tools for humanity to use for their reason. Relics are different types of products. They are a byproduct of the brilliance of humans. Thoughts of humanity whether it is good or evil"
"I understood a little bit. If I have to describe it in a language of mine then I would say that these types of supernatural weapons are connected to science to some extent. Like two types of charges. Positive and negative. Like charges repel each other and unlike charges attract each other. By putting this concept of science in magic terms then it is black magic and white magic or one can say dark arts and light arts"
My brother finished his cigarette. Now, I understand why his lungs are still in good condition. If he didn't belong to the supernatural world, then he would be dead from lung cancer. He looks at me and smirks.
"Kazuya, when you mention those concepts of physics. I found it funny how it applies to humans. Like charges repel each other. You will never see heroes(good people) coming together under one flag unless you provide a reason for them to bid together. Like saving a kingdom, heroine or saving the world. They need a reason. Just like how a nucleus contains protons inside of it with neutrons. Same goes for villains. But.....you will see the unlike forces attracting each other. They don't need a reason to attract each other"
"This is not some sort of romantic movie where the villain becomes good, the hero and villain then fall in love with each other. It is most rare case to happen in real life"
"I never talk about romance or anything. Force of attraction doesn't mean that it is about love. Let me give you a example.....Furuta Junko case"
The name of this case bring a shiver to my body. No! I get it now. This is what he mean by unlike charges attract each other. Love case is most rare one to happen but this one always happens.
I look at the divine girl. I want to change this topic.
"Back to the topic related to relic, explain me"
"Yes! When a weapon has a rich history. For instance, let's say a warrior always uses a sword which is his favorite in the battlefield and during the wars and some sort of miracle happens like a king never got defeated in the battle when he held that sword but when he forgot to take his sword in the next errand. He was killed. People then start to whisper the story that the might of the king had come from that sword. That's how legend of some weapon starts to become popular in the ancient times"
"Then how come that human thoughts made them relics? What is divine relic and demonic relic?"
"Crown of thorns. It is a divine relic that touched the head of Christ. Jesus is the son of God and people worship which leads to the expression of positive thoughts of humanity in large numbers. When an object is exposed to this much amount of spiritual devotion, then it starts to gain consciousness"
Now, if I think about this in a particular way then I have to just change this statement a little bit in order to get an idea on demonic relics. Sesshōseki, volcanic mountains of Nasu, a curse stone that will kill anyone who comes into contact with it. The legend of this stone generated due to volcanic toxic gases and then the legend of Tamamo-no-Mae brings negative opinions. So, this is how demonic relics are formed.
"This is not the answer to my question"
Alighieri spoke up. She is right. This information was only useful to me, not to them.
"How did I get dragged into this mess?"
"This is a war"
"What type of war?"
Yusuke looked at me with a curious expression as he finished his second cigarette. How quickly does this dude smoke those cigarettes?
Beatrice stepped between us.
"I have many questions that nobody is answering. I also don't know much about this war. So, the only person who can tell us everything is someone who has more experience than any of us. Someone who had been involved in this war events more than anyone——"
She gave a side glance to my older brother.
"——godkiller"