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-AAAAHHH!!!

The first thing I heard was someone’s scream.

Who on earth is shouting in the middle of the night?

When Yui opened her eyes, she caught sight of a bizarre scene.

‘Huh…?’

This wasn’t where she was supposed to be.

There was no cozy inn room or soft bed in sight.

But it wasn’t a completely unfamiliar place, either.

‘W-what is this…?’

It was the Count’s Territory.

The place where she first met Luke.

Right now, the buildings were all on fire, and she couldn’t find the original form of the Count’s Territory she once knew, but she still had no trouble recognizing where she was.

After all, it hadn’t been long since she was in the Count’s Territory.

The territory overlooking the sea was the only Count’s Territory she knew.

‘A dream…?’

What caught her eye immediately were the burning buildings and the people dying at the hands of vampires.

That bizarre sight made her think it was a dream.

After all, all the vampires, except for her, had been killed by Luke on the day the mansion burned down.

The Count’s Territory she knew was never a place ablaze like this.

But to consider it a dream felt far too real.

The sensation of the heated wind from the flames brushing against her, the feeling of her body moving.

Each sensation was vividly alive.

Moreover…

‘I-I don’t want this…’

She recognized this wasn’t reality but a nightmare.

Yet, not many people could simply brush off a thought like ‘Oh, it’s just a dream.’

After all, nightmares are crafted to torment people, often drawing forth traumas, bad memories, or the very things they hate hidden deep in their subconscious.

Even the strongest-willed person couldn’t look at such scenes without feeling something.

Imagine someone who hates bugs, dreaming of being all alone in a sealed room with walls from which bugs are pouring out.

Could that person calmly say, ‘It’s just a dream, so it’s fine’?

Absolutely not.

That’s the essence of a nightmare—knowing it but feeling utterly powerless.

Suddenly, Yui’s gaze dropped.

She hadn’t noticed while scanning her surroundings, but now she realized she was holding something in her hands.

When she bent down, she saw the corpse of someone beneath her without arms, and she was gripping what appeared to be that person’s arms with both hands.

‘Eek…!’

Startled, Yui wished she could just fall down, but her body wouldn’t obey her.

Rather, her body seemed to move on its own, tearing off the joints of the arms.

At that moment, her face was splattered with fresh blood.

Seeing the blood dripping from the broken joints sent Yui into a frenzy of thirst.

Many might think that a vampire sucks blood by biting the neck of their victim.

But in reality, it’s the opposite.

Since blood is their primary sustenance, how could they ever satisfiy themselves by just biting?

Much like someone experiencing severe thirst would not calmly sip from a cup of ice-cold water held before them with a straw.

No, they would act faster and consume more.

The best method is to do what her body was currently doing: tearing off the joints or twisting and squeezing the arms.

Yui’s body, regardless of her will, unconsciously raised an arm to drink in the flowing blood.

‘N-no…!’

Yet, contrary to her intentions, her throat swallowed, as the blood slid down her esophagus.

With a feeling of fullness rising up, she sensed a refreshing sensation surging through her body.

Even knowing she was just a frog in a well, at this moment, she felt like an all-powerful deity.

At last, she stood up and began wandering the Count’s Territory.

What was she intending to do?

She desperately tried to regain control of her body, but things didn’t go as planned.

All the while, Yui’s body continued to roam through the house.

Breaking down doors with blood magic, she stormed inside and wreaked havoc.

As if searching for something.

After rummaging through several houses like that…

– Hic!

She heard a hiccupping sound from somewhere.

Her gaze darted toward the source of the sound.

It was a large wardrobe, just big enough for the nearby person to fit inside.

When she flung open the wardrobe door, she found a girl and a woman presumed to be her mother embracing her tightly.

They were people who hadn’t managed to escape and were hiding.

“P-please, just save my child!”

The woman, clutching her child tightly, pleaded.

Yui desperately wanted to save them, but her body had other thoughts.

Her brain began to recognize the woman and child in front of her not as “people,” but as “food.”

Their forms slowly morphed in her eyes, becoming not human but puddles of blood—something that even sent a chill down her spine.

As if in a trance, her hands stretched toward the woman and the child.

The woman trembled, squeezing her child tightly, her eyes clenched shut in fear, trying to protect her child.

Watching the scene, the corners of Yui’s mouth twisted upward.

Her body, which took pleasure in killing and reveled in seeing someone tremble in fear, was distinctly different from her own self. It made her feel utterly terrified.

“Please…! Stop…!”

But no matter how much she pleaded, it wouldn’t stop.

Just as her elongated claws were about to reach the woman’s head—

“Stop!”

Someone had arrived.

The voice wasn’t familiar, but it was also not entirely unknown.

It was someone she had seen before—a man who said he had to kill her, along with his companions.

Though they looked different than the last time she saw them, she recognized them for sure.

Only then did the hand reaching for the woman stop, and Yui’s body turned away.

There, three figures of blood in the shape of people stood.

The part of her brain that had tasted the delight of blood no longer recognized them as “interferers” but rather as “food.”

“Oh? Since when did food start resisting?”

That brief provocation was the last of their conversation.

Arthur charged forward with his sword drawn, and she leaped back slightly, raising a pillar of blood to block the attack.

While his companion hurried to lead the woman and child to safety, the battle intensified.

Explosions due to magic shattered the windows, scattering glass shards across the floor, and the former home that once radiated warmth began to erase all traces of its past.

Even while her body fought, Yui’s gaze fixated on the glass shards.

Reflected on the shards lying on the floor was her own image.

Though she had a diminutive figure reminiscent of a child, her eyes were not the familiar sapphire she knew but the crimson hue like Luke’s.

Blood smeared across her mouth brought forth a chilling sight.

‘Ah…’

In that moment, she recalled.

What would have happened if Luke hadn’t come back then?

Though she didn’t want to admit it, it might have turned out just like this.

As the fighting continued, her body accumulated wounds.

She was cut by shining blades, burned and frostbitten by her companions’ magic.

And in the end…

– Bang!

“Ugh…!”

She crashed against the wall, emitting a groan.

Clatter, clatter.

She could hear the sounds of glass shards crunching and wood floors creaking underfoot.

Was this how she was going to die?

As her head slowly lifted from the floor—

“Yui, I think it would be fun to kill you. Slurp.”

“Eek…!!! I’m sorry!!!”

With that chilling face grinning back at her, along with the terrifying line her body remembered, Yui’s eyes snapped wide open.

“Ah…”

As expected.

It was a nightmare.

For a moment, she felt relieved.

But then again…

‘Why on earth did I suddenly have such a horrifying nightmare?’

Was something unusual happening?

Yui sluggishly got up from her bed and stepped out of the room.

*

When Yui exited her room, the first person she encountered was Luna.

The room was structured with a corridor in between and doors separating on both sides, so when she opened the door, she ran into Luna like this.

“Ah…! Luna-san!”

“Yui-san, you’re safe!”

“Yes, y-yes…?”

“You also had a nightmare, didn’t you?”

“Ah, did you have one too, Luna-san?”

“Yes, it seems someone intentionally led us to have nightmares. You came to realize that and broke free, didn’t you?”

“Ah, um… y-yeah… something like that.”

While Yui thought that if it hadn’t been for the last scene, she might not have made it out at all, she decided to put that thought aside for now.

“Oh? But where’s Luke?”

“Since he isn’t here, he might not have escaped the nightmare yet.”

To be honest, both Luna and Yui were skeptical about whether the man could even have a nightmare.

Nightmares that forcibly draw forth weaknesses or traumas.

Given Luke’s personality, it seemed unlikely he’d have any weaknesses or traumas, yet he still hadn’t awoken.

“If that’s the case, we need to hurry and help him!”

“Yes.”

With that, Luna and Yui headed toward the room where Luke was.

When they opened the door, Luke was seen lying neatly on the bed, but just as Luna was ready to wake him up—

“Save me!!!”

A horned woman burst out from Luke’s belly.

“A demon…!”

“Eek…!”

The heavy, unsettling dark magical power aside, her appearance was anything but human.

With dark, murky wings and horns like those of a mountain goat sprouting from her head, she was unmistakably a demon no matter how you looked at her.

If a demon were the cause behind this incident, it wasn’t hard to understand.

She was only halfway out, still entangled in Luke’s body.

If they were going to kill her, it had to be right now.

Filled with fury from the nightmare, Luna immediately gripped her sword backward.

“I’m done with this!!! Just kill me instead!!!”

The demon woman began to convulse.

Why was she having a seizure when she was the root of this incident?

And she looked somehow terrified, too.

“Uh, what’s going on here?”

Just then, a voice belonging to a man Yui had never heard before rang out, and someone barged in, grabbing the demon woman’s horns and dragging her back in.

“AAAAAHHHH!!!!”

Without a second thought, he dragged the demon woman back into his belly.

The face of the man momentarily visible was deeply shadowed with dark circles under his eyes, his grin stretching wide enough to frighten even Luna to the core.

“…?”

After a brief commotion, silence fell over the room again.

Luna and Yui, standing there watching the scene, could do nothing but be left in a daze.

 

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