105 – 105. Last Dance!
The Betelgeuse Mansion.
It had been a long time since William Betelgeuse returned to England after a brief business trip.
In the vast mansion, the only occupants were his wife, Eris Betelgeuse, and his experimental subject and research colleague, Sawako Tachibana.
How many experiments had been conducted in the laboratory set up in one corner of the mansion?
Eris, checking the fusion technique with a tense expression, finally brightened her face after scrutinizing the core dozens of times.
Seeing her expression, Sawako also smiled beautifully.
“We did it! We finally did it!”
“Indeed! We’ve finally succeeded!”
Two months ago, they had completed the fusion release technique that Ichimaru Shiki had requested.
Having fine-tuned it as requested, they had essentially completed all the tasks at hand.
Originally novices in the field, they had surprisingly finished their research faster than anticipated.
“Finally, liberation!”
In her exhaustion, the blonde sorceress, Eris, raised both hands high, unable to contain her joy.
Research was the fate of a wizard, but when the client was as particular as this one, the content became demanding.
It was a series of rare cases to the point where one might wonder if such premises could ever be fulfilled.
“Combining the essence of monsters with that of humans, proposing beings from other realms… Hmm, even with all that, such cases are hardly ever seen.”
Despite such bizarre demands, having completed the request splendidly, she felt a sense of relief.
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A feeling of resolving the thorn in her side.
However, it seemed there was still time before completely letting go of that thorn.
Watching the core of the magic circle shining brightly with a joyful expression, Sawako mumbled with her lips slightly downturned.
“… So, when is Shiki-san coming?”
Eris Betelgeuse, with a furrowed brow, let out a deep sigh.
“That’s true.”
It had been a month since Ichimaru Shiki had been absent in the midst of November.
The damn client still showed no sign of returning.
***
The passing of a whole month since the midterm exam carries various implications.
Even in the wheel-like routine of school life, there is a sense of relief after overcoming trials.
No matter how serious one is about studying, even in an ordinary high school, students couldn’t be pushed to the limit every day.
While those pessimistic about their studies might scream, “Finals are approaching! The storm of time is upon us!” Karakura High School, like any typical Japanese high school, paid decent attention to work-life balance.
Though the tradition of posting students’ grades on the hallway walls existed, they offered various scholarships and held events to boost students’ spirits.
Especially, they were sincere about the festival.
Yes, the so-called ‘Karakura School Festival.’
A typical Japanese school festival often seen in anime or manga.
Classmates opening a maid café, going all out to build a haunted house, and sometimes unexpected major incidents occurring; it was a festival for all.
Karakura High School’s festival was traditionally quite grand, and the students were full of enthusiasm.
There were clubs planning band performances, and there was even a class plotting the assassination of their homeroom teacher.
Among all the various plans, the festival plan of Class 1-A was unusually straightforward.
As the class president (Sawamura Sento) became a runaway ninja right after the midterm exams, and with the vice president facing various setbacks, the class’s plan was rather lackluster.
“Now, focus!”
Ranking third in the whole school and vice president of Class A, Eris Betelgeuse tapped the blackboard with a thud.
Written in white chalk on the green board were various plans, and eventually, a decision was made.
With both internal and external voting, she was outvoted, squinted her eyes, and announced.
“──The voting result. Our Class 1-A will be doing a play!”
“Wow! A play!”
“Of course, if it’s a play, there must be a princess, a prince, and a villain!”
“I wanted to do a maid café!”
“…But you’re a guy.”
Amidst the confusion in the class due to the absence of the top two students, the popular plan left was a play, as it was the first submission.
Being confidently voted as the top choice in the class vote, there were quite a few excited classmates.
Of course, there were a few who wrinkled their faces at the idea of a play, but they were all turned into carpenters.
It is called the “Props Team.”
Kenichi, a MacGyver who made devices for the stage using just a hammer and nails, was commonly known as the hard-working half.
“Kenichi, can you make a forest, a medieval castle, and even an apartment for the play?”
“…There’s a medieval castle… an apartment? What kind of story is this, exactly?”
Kenichi, who had dozed off during the play explanation and lacked enthusiasm, being demoted to the Props Team was nothing short of fate.
Although Kenichi, now a superhuman, had the power to overturn the team, he silently accepted his destiny.
“Don’t talk back. Unpaid slaves should just work!”
“…Yes, yes!”
It was due to Princess Ichinose Hotaru being cast as the princess in the play “Alibaba and the Aristocrats of Rice Cake Castle.”
Despite being familiar from childhood, she was a beauty that stood out in the whole school.
With Eris and Sawako withdrawing to focus on their research, she was a talented choice for the “princess” role in the class vote.
“How do I look in this outfit, Kenichi?”
“Hmm.”
Watching the twirling princess Hotaru in her dress, Kenichi’s mouth twitched, but he managed to hold back any unkind words.
He knew that if he made a bad joke, there would be no end to the consequences.
The slightly smarter Kenichi, who had been enjoying himself, clapped his hands with a broad smile.
“It suits you quite well!”
“…Quite well?”
“…No, it suits you very well.”
“Really? That’s a relief.”
Seeing Hotaru’s satisfied expression, Kenichi exhaled a sigh of relief, touching his chest.
Satisfied with her childhood friend’s reaction, Princess Hotaru soon left to practice the script, while Kenichi, a mere carpenter, picked up the hammer again without a moment to enjoy the freedom from the dictator’s tyranny.
Tap-tap-tap—He was simply hammering nails into the wooden boards to create a wheat field backdrop.
Perhaps it was due to his transcendent physique.
Or maybe, surprisingly, he had a knack for making stage backgrounds, as Kenichi, who had been working as part of the props team recently, hammered away to a point of trance.
In terms of physical comfort alone, it was much more comfortable now than during training with Ichimaru Shiki, but sometimes he longed for those days.
“It’s like being stuck in one place.”
After defeating the great demon in Kyoto, his life had been too peaceful.
Days spent hammering props aimlessly felt like a dream floating on a cloud.
While this was a happy routine, he was anxious it might suddenly end.
Also, the awkwardness of idly playing around without progress was unsettling, unlike when he was with the infuriating Ichimaru Shiki.
“He better come back soon… No, even if Sento is here, we could spar.”
With such thoughts in mind as he hammered away, the warrior Kenichi suddenly sensed a strange presence.
The aura of a powerful demon stimulating his warrior blood mixed haphazardly with a familiar shaman’s aura.
He should have noticed this strangeness sooner, but it wasn’t until he approached that he realized.
“Ah…”
Turning his head, Kitagawa Kenichi spotted a familiar face at the classroom threshold.
A delinquent student, absent for nearly a month, or someone in a similar situation, the disciple of the damn teacher.
Sawamura Sento, with a more matured look than before, waved his hand slightly and smiled.
“Are you ready?”
***
“Hmm, it seems like everything in this area is over.”
“Yeah, it looks like it.”
As the massive carcass of a sea dragon on the Yokohama beach turned into ashes and disappeared, Yoyo, who had transformed into a dragon in a cute form, shook his head.
It seemed like an accidental case of fratricide, but it was too late to feel remorse now.
In the upcoming game episodes, there seemed to be a plan for the dragon clan to fly nationwide, as there were quite a few monsters resembling dragons in their magnificence.
Well, the hunting of sea dragons had come to a complete end today.
Even if they exerted all their magical detection power, there were hardly any monsters strong enough to be called major monsters left.
Including the dragon clan.
They had eliminated all the monsters, including the spirits and demons of higher rank sealed and scattered throughout the country.
“I feel like I’ve taken some of Kenichi’s share of the hunting for later.”
I hadn’t killed them all in case the foolish Kenichi might try something behind my back.
Kenichi could handle spirits of that level with ease, but I had dried up all the monsters for my personal needs.
After all, spirits of that level would soon reappear, so it was for my own strength right now.
—Crackle!
The black-tinged sword, stained with the power of darkness, went wild, reflecting the souls, desires, and energies of the major monsters scattered throughout the country.
“Now, only one is left.”
It was time to set sights on the monster hunt.
Looking at the distant city, I climbed onto Yoyo’s broad back.
With caution to ensure the black sword didn’t accidentally cut anything, I advanced towards Tokyo.
“Shall we go and try to behead the Emperor?”
For the final dance on the ground.