Ouroboros Record ~Circus of Oubeniel~

His answer was suicide. Suicide was a serious offense under the Holy King religion, but there was a single exception to it. And that was if facing the undeads. To prevent the undead from tampering with their bodies before it could be returned to their Lord, they could kill themselves to be granted salvation after death.

He put the tip of his dagger to his throat, as he repeated the religious doctrines in his head.

"Used, plenty, of, magic. So, hungry!"

—Unexpectedly, the blasphemous monster, prevented the commander from commiting suicide.

The vampire, who jumped right in front of him with her inhuman leg strength, grabbed his arm up with her slender arm. No matter how he tried to resist, he could not cause even a slight budge. The monster's red eyes glowed as if mocking the futile resistance of her pitiful prey.

The moment their eyes met, his mind broke.

"Ahhhhhhhhh! Stop it! No! No! Let me die!"

"Die? ……Suck, blood, die! Die, become, kin!"

"Nooooo! Please no—"

His pleas were futile, and the lips that hid fanged teeth drew closer.

"Ahnn~yum~..."

It was a pecking on the skin of a lover — a lewd and passionate kiss. The touch that landed on his neck caused him to shiver because of how cold it felt.

"Giiyaaaaahhhh—?"

The dying man’s screams echoed out into the night. The soldiers ran harder on hearing the screams.

The only thing in their minds was to make it out of this hell safely.

They would soon learn that it was all for naught.

※ ※ ※

"Uh...... This flame, is, different......."

Standing in the middle of the destroyed camp, the girl who had called herself Vee groaned to herself.

She could shake off the sense of discomfort. She felt it when she saw the fleeing enemy soldiers she was chasing set their allies ablaze, or when she used her magic to burn their souls, or when she poured oil on a randomly captured opponent to set them on fire. There was something different about the flames she once knew, and the way she had used them to defeat her enemies.

"No, stop it! Please ...... no, I beg of you!"

The vampire shook her head. A defeated soldier crawling with broken limbs screamed in pain. It was a miracle that the limbs had not been torn off this soldier from the impact. A simple healing spell would not restore his bones to their original shape and position, and even if it did, they would not be in any state to move. If he wanted to be completely healed, he would have to rely on a mage who was familiar with the human body, or he would have to pay the church and put his trust in the blessings of the priests. However, what the priest needed more urgently at the moment was to exorcise the enemy vampire.

The girl was unconcerned about the suffering of her prey. When a human being butchered domesticated animals, they might feel a twinge in their conscience, or a sense of gratitude for the existence that fed them. However, it was nonsensical to expect human psychology to apply to literally inhumane beings. Monsters take pleasure in the pain of their prey, and cannot be blamed for it. Monsters inflict their cruelty to humans like mixing spices with meat on a plate. That’s why their hostility to humans was second nature.

The girl examined around for her next kill, and eventually, the motions of her eyes stopped at the campfire.

She picked up a stick.

".....Flaming, Sword!"

With a big smile on her face, she raised the thick piece of burning branch above her head. She was like a young child pretending to be a hero or an adventurer. But considering what this young girl had already done and what she might do with the burning stick, one could only feel nauseated.

What was she going to use it for?

The girl approached a soldier with the burning stick in her hand.

"Please no..."

"Yarrr!"

Without hesitation, she swung down with all her strength.

Of course, there was no way the soldier could withstand the vampire's physical strength. The soldier's skull was crushed like a water balloon, and her weapon snapped halfway through.

"Huh......?"

She looked curiously at the wooden stick, which had been rendered useless.

That's strange. How could this flame sword be so fragile? And it wasn’t sharp at all. It's just a blunt weapon doused in flame. This was nothing like something she loved...

"Armament summoning, selecting, secondary armament—hand cannon. ......fire."

A roar. Then a shockwave. Heat. Pain.

The girl who called herself Vee was unbearably blown away by the sudden assault on her body.

"W-Wha!"

As she regained her footing, she ran her hand over her chest where she felt extreme pain. There was some slimy blood and a small hole. She looked around, trying to identify the source of her pain and fear.

"Who! Who?"

As she bared her fangs and let out a threatening snarl, someone approached her, stomping on the grass.

"Evaluation. Good offensive performance. But intelligence and judgemental abilities are compromised."

"Well, that's about it, isn't it? In the end, the best she can be is a hunting dog for catching small fries."

A cold and emotionless voice of a woman and a man's voice with a sarcastic tone.

Opus 05 Fem. And Opus 04 Charl.

The vampire girl's eyes widened at the sight of Fem's short cylinder billowing smoke and Charl shrugging his shoulders.

"Aaaah......!?"

Her bloodless face paled further and she fell on her buttocks. She was doing the same thing that she had made others do.

In other words, the difference in strength between humans and vampires was exactly the difference between the girl called Vee and these two that had appeared.

"Confirmation. Has the ability to recognise the difference in strength. Then. What about identifying between friend and foe?"

"Fem-chan, Fem-chan. You know, you shouldn't have shot her out of the blue. If you shot me from behind with, what was that, a gun? If I got shot, I wouldn't think the person who did that is on my side either."

"Self-examining. You are right. When I came to check on the cause of the slow pace of the mission, I saw her playing. I couldn't help myself."

"Ha-ha-ha! Couldn’t help yourself, huh! Good for you! If you were serious instead, then this girl would have been blown to bits?"

Eventually, the two monsters came to a pause in front of the trembling little girl.

Then, Fem extended her armoured arm towards the vampire’s neck and held her up into the air.

"Ahh!?"

"Okay, I'm going to check for friend or foe identification. Do you know who I am?"

"Yes, yes! Yes! Opus 05! Supervisor. Of examination! …Person, giving orders!"

"Reply. Correct. Now, the next question. Do you know who this man is?"

"Opus 04, vice-supervisor......! 05… give the next orders!"

"Hahaha, that too is correct...! Well done!"

"Warning. Please don't interrupt 04. ......good, it seems she is able to distinguish between friend and foe."

Fem nodded in satisfaction and let go of the girl who was suspended around her throat. Naturally, the girl crashed to the ground.

"—agh!"

"Oh...... so violent. What if you break the toy we're testing? Master might get mad at us."

"Reply. It won't be a problem. Vampires are sturdy, and they can regenerate, right? I don't think they're built soft enough to break from something like this."

"That's true, but... You're treating us vampires too carelessly, aren't you? We're the most noble of all monsters, you know? That's right, high class~! So, I hope you will treat them with a little more respect...... I don't really care about all the other defects lying around here by the way......"

Charl laughed and grabbed the hair of a girl of his own race who was sitting on the floor.

"Ouch! Ouch..."

"You know, Fem isn’t the only one that is angry. I'm also pissed off about how you did the test. It’s an important test involving Master's strategy. You can't just fool around like that......"

"Ow, that hurts! It hurts! Stop, stop!"

"All those little fish you left behind while you were messing around! We had to take care of all of them! We're too busy babysitting the lowlifes to do any extra work, aren't we?"

He increased the strength in his fingers causing her hair to shred.

Charl no longer had a smile to his face. His face only displayed anger and disgust. It was like the rage of an adult selfishly imposing their will on a child.

"It hurts, huh? I'm making it ...... painful, so of course it is! If I don't do this, your rotten, blood-saturated brain won't be able to make sense of things, will it? You're an idiot, you know that?"

"Whaaaaat! I'm sorry! Please forgive me! Please forgive me!"

"Question. 04, will it be bad to destroy her? You're the one who warned me about this, so what are you going to do if you break her?"