For now, I couldn't save or kill anyone. So I locked onto what I could do and pressed for more information. "Why would you eat my second heart?"
Malgam rubbed the back of his head and blushed. "Oh, not me. I'm human. The demons are the ones who'll be doing the eating." He said casually.
'Demons?' Every answer he gave left me with more questions.
"Did you say demons?" I asked. "What do you mean 'demons?'"
"Of course I did!" He smiled. "The nobles you danced with are all demons, Lady Vlad, too." He pointed his finger at me as if to lecture. "Oh, but Weiser isn't. He's human, like us!"
Malgam's attitude changed at Weiser's mention. He pouted and crossed his arms. "I never liked him. He's always messing with me and trying to fiddle with my mind." He griped, rubbing the temples of his skull.
I ignored the part about Weiser; I had more important things to consider. Like the demons, for example. That's what he called them, though that isn't how they looked.
They had no inhuman features, no monstrous deformities. In fact, it was the opposite; they were all unrealistically beautiful.
"How are they demons when they all looked so human?"
Malgam brought the scalpel back into his coat's pocket, shelving his hands. "Well, of course! They aren't some low breeds!" He said condescendingly.
His word choice of 'low breeds' intrigued me, but that didn't matter. What mattered was learning who or what I was dealing with. "What exactly are they, then?"
He became oddly reserved with my question. "They're one of the purest of demon kind. A force that humanity has feared since we faced our first night, "his gaze became ominous and alert, "they're Fullkin."
I furrowed my brow. "Fullkin?" I asked.
His eyes were infused with disappointment. His expression condescended me as if I'd just asked what two plus two was.
"Oh, that's right. I suppose those from your world wouldn't know them by that name." He clawed at his chin and averted his gaze upward.
When he finally returned to reality, he did so with a new expression of excitement. "I remember! You'd know them as vampires, probably? At least that's what another of you heroes compared them to."
pαпdα Йᴏνê|,сòМ I loathed that I couldn't bring myself to be surprised. But, between being transported to another world and devoured by our esteemed hosts, the idea of vampires actually seemed plausible.
Their being self-proclaimed "vampires" did beg a new question.
If they were vampires, would they follow the same rules as the fictional ones back home? Maybe there was hope to live after all. "Don't vampires only drink blood? Why do you need our hearts too?"
Malgam brought a finger up again. "Oh, they'll do that too! That's why I'm collecting all of your blood in that big container thingy over there." He gestured to the hanging torsos. "As for your hearts, I'm not sure myself, but they eat them to gain power…probably?" He seemed as if he were the one asking the question.
"Power?" I questioned.
"Yes, power." He nodded with a smile.
He pointed at me. "You humans born outside of this world have exceptionally potent second hearts. So you are just chock full of the mana they enjoy eating. So we summon you for them; they eat you and don't eat us. Does that make sense?"
Make sense? Does the situation where I was strapped to a bloodied wooden shelf, about to be dissected and eaten by alleged vampires, all to gain power, make sense? 'Of course, it doesn-. Wait, what was that other thing that he said?'
"Malgam," I hoped I was wrong, "what did you mean by 'we summon you'?"
"Huh?" He tilted his head in confusion. "It's just as it sounds."
"By 'we,' you don't mean," fear weighed me down; I was afraid of my own question, "mankind… do you?".
"That's right!" He nodded.
My heart sank into a bottomless pit. I was used to petty human infighting, but would we war against one another even in the face of literal monsters?
The thought disgusted me, giving me a nausea-inducing headache, though I had nothing left in my stomach to act on it.
After the sickness came throbbing anger. I imagined how many of my countrymen lost their lives because of a betrayal. If you were going to kill us anyway, at least be forthright about it!
I clenched my fists, bruising my callused skin.
Amongst my hatred, my thoughts turned to those depicting my brief companions. Kamida, Takagi, and Agawa each appeared in my mind.
That wasn't all. There was one more who had made an appearance. He was someone that deserved the most pity.
Since I met him, I always disliked him. Still, I couldn't help feeling sorry for him. He was the most excited of all of us to live in this world, and his despair would be the greatest when he discovered his true role in it.
'I'm sorry, Tachibana.'
I couldn't contain my rage anymore. "Why the hell is mankind helping demonkind?! Aren't they the enemy?!" My veins pulsated against my skin as they throbbed with my excited heartbeat.
Even when faced with my sweltering anger, Malgam remained happily unhinged. "Oh, I guess they were. After the first party of heroes failed to kill the Void King, humanity made a pact with him for survival."
I cursed the first party of 'heroes' that failed to stop this.
No matter where I was, it was always the same. I always needed to clean up someone else's mess.
Block a bullet for a foolish subordinate? I was there. Kill a father over a war some politician instigated? I was there. Sacrifice myself for a convoy of blank faces because it was my duty? I was FUCKING!!!.....there...
'So why? Why can't I ever rest?! I'm supposed to be dead! So why?! Why does it always come back to this?!' Like a floodgate opening, my negative thoughts and emotions swept me away.
Calming myself was like trying to stuff a hurricane in a bottle, but it had to be done. So I forced what might've been the deepest breath I'd ever taken, expanding my diaphragm to its limits.
Loudly exhaling, I was ready to continue my questioning. "Why do demons need humans to summon us? Couldn't they do it themselves?" Though I quelled myself from rage, my voice still staggered from the fury that festered within me.
"Simple," Malgam said, "the summoning ritual is built in such a way that only humans can summon other humans. If any other species tried," he held a hand to his throat, "they'd die."
"So you summon us for the demons, just so they can devour us? What the hell does that make us, then?! It's almost as if we're-"
"Why you're cattle, of course!"
'Of course, we were. We were Cattle. Goddamn…cattle!'
It was expected, though. Humans would always deceive other humans, even when faced with a common threat. Ours really was a disgusting, self-serving species.
My thoughts transformed into a torrent of insults toward "humanity."
My session of cynicism was cut short when Malgam clenched my throat. "Oh, this is a problem! I completely forgot to put on your collar!" Despite his unstable emotional state, this was the first time I'd seen him looking so panicked.
'A collar? So they really do intend to kill me like a dog...' I somberly sighed.
Despite my despair, I'll admit I was giddy to see Malgam panicking. Could this have been a chance? No, even if it wasn't... I'd make it one. 'Fate lost its chance to kill me when it resurrected me into this hell...'
Frantically, he removed his hand from my neck and ran back towards where he'd come from. "I'll be right back to get your collar, so stay there, okay!" He receded further down the hallway until his footsteps clacking disappeared entirely.
I grunted to myself and snarked under my breath. "Like hell I will."
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