wearing. With her scarlet eyes and dress, she looked like a roaring flame when she laughed. "The Governor's manor is dreadful, isn't it? Don't you think it's a fitting end for that child, dying as a heap of meat in the middle of his own playground? I wanted to crush his heart, which is why I invited you all here. Did you enjoy yourselves? If you did, I'm sure he'd have been pleased. Buffoonery is buffoonery precisely because it inspires laughter, no?" "You witch... You used the heart of a demon, one of your own comrades?" Elisabeth, still in agony, posed the question in a voice dripping with hatred. The scarlet woman nodded brazenly and seemingly proud rather than ashamed. "Precisely, Elisabeth. Up until now, I'd respected the lives of my comrades out of regard for my dear friend Vlad. But with his death, there will be no more of that. By consuming the lives of the weaker demons, I can use them for particularly effective attacks. Isn't that just splendid? ...Oh my, how rude of me. I became so caught up in idle chatter, I neglected to introduce myself. My sincerest apologies." The beautiful woman smiled with all the composure and magnanimity of a queen. She gave an elegant curtsy. As she did, she pulled on the chains connecting to her rings, causing the people behind her to bow deeply. "I am the Grand King, Fiore." Her introduction complete, she raised her head and smiled. Kaito and Hina stood in awe of her elegant demeanor and overwhelming presence. Even so, they tried to protect Elisabeth when the Grand King made her declaration. "Playtime is over, little princessâ€”now, the chaos begins." 2 The Kaiser's Contractor Elisabeth's castle sat atop a desolate hill, surrounded on all sides by dense forest. It was constructed firmly out of unworked stone, making it feel less like a castle and more like a fortress. Within one of its roomsâ€”a cold room wholly unfit for relaxationâ€”Elisabeth lay in shallow slumber atop a finely constructed yet modest bed. Sweat beaded across her forehead. Hina took a cloth cooled with ice water and gently wiped the sweat away. As he leaned against the hard stone wall, Kaito observed Elisabeth's condition. She seemed frail, a far cry from her normal haughty, prideful behavior. She resembled a child, sick in bed with a fever. But compared to how she was a moment ago, her breathing was much more stable. Hina blinked her emerald-green eyes as she turned to face Kaito. He silently gestured with his chin, beckoning her into the hallway. Careful not to make noise, the two of them left the room. After waiting for Hina to close the door behind them, Kaito asked her a question. "So what exactly is wrong with Elisabeth?" "Well... I'm quite ashamed to admit it, but while I have stored within me all modern medical knowledge, I lack specialized treatment functions, so any hypothesis I could make would be imprecise atâ€”" "That's fine. I'm positive your opinion is far more useful than mine. Please let me know what's going on with her." "As you wish... It appears that Lady Elisabeth is suffering from a dramatic decline in the amount of mana within her body." Kaito nodded, Hina's assessment aligning with his suspicions. Having learned the basics of magecraft, he was better than he'd been before at understanding other people's magical powers. Normally, Elisabeth gave off a sinister pressure as sharp as rose thorns, so cutting that even she herself was tormented by it. But now she seemed like a doll who'd had its insides scooped out. "While Lady Elisabeth freely wields magic strong enough to defeat demons, her body consumes mana to protect itself in order to withstand its overuse. As a result, her current situation is no doubt quite painful for her... Oh!" Suddenly, they heard a quiet groaning from inside the room. Hina and Kaito frantically rushed back in. Elisabeth was shaking her head and taking ragged breaths. Hina hurried to her side. "Lady Elisabeth, my sincerest apologies. I'm back now." Little by little, Hina poured a decoction into Elisabeth's half-open mouth. Kaito placed the towel back in the ice water, wrung it out, and then passed it to Hina. She thanked him and then wiped down Elisabeth's slender neck. There, too, ominous tracks pulsed. The red marring her pale flesh looked almost like an extra set of blood vessels beneath her skin. ...I've never seen her in this much pain... Dammit. Biting his lip in frustration at his own powerlessness, Kaito thought back to the events from before she'd fallen asleep. "La Guillotine, Saint of Beheadings!" Propped up by Kaito and Hina, Elisabeth faced the Grand King and called out. Dripping with cold sweat, she had summoned the torture device. Crimson flower petals and darkness swirled, and the white saint appeared to protect the three of them. It closed its arms and then opened them and set loose its rectangular blade. The Grand King forewent defense, simply yanking on one of the chains in her hand. One of her underlings came flying forward. He became the Grand King's shield, and his head and neck went their separate ways. It was almost comical how abruptly his straitjacket-covered head rolled across the floor. "Whâ€”?!" As Kaito reeled in shock, Hina made her move. With flowing movements, she vanished from his side. Dropping as low as she possibly could, she slid into the Grand King's blind spot and swung her halberd diagonally upward. Not even looking at the blade, the Grand King pulled on her chains again. Another underling flew forward, and another underling lost his head, which rolled across the floor. Tired of waiting for their chains to be pulled, the rest of the underlings swayed from side to side. "Tch!" Her attack repelled, Hina decided not to pursue and instead fell back. The Grand King laughed uncomfortably. "You're a reckless young lass, aren't you? It brings me back, but youth really is a troubling time." The Grand King suddenly turned her gaze away from Hina and the saint. She removed the two chains connected to the dead underlings' collars. Her heavy crinoline dress shook as she stooped over and touched one of the corpse's straitjackets. The cloth melted away at her touch, and its arms fell free. She took its hideous, sarcoma-covered hand in hers. "You did well." She whispered gently and then placed a ring on its ring finger with a kiss. The living underlings collectively groaned, seemingly in envy. Then, having lost interest, the Grand King tossed the corpse's arm aside and stood. Her guard had been down throughout the entire series of actions, yet she hadn't left so much as a single opening. "Now, now, Elisabeth. Do you still intend to fight me? The Governor said it when he was under my needle's control, didn't he? 'While I harbor no shortage of animosity toward you, as you can see, I have no desire to do battle with you.'" "Ha, what a joke. Who'd believe the words of a seductress such as you?" "Oh my, but I'm telling the truth. In order to win a fight to the death with the Torture Princess while she still has the power to summon La Guillotine, as well as one of Vlad's automatons, I would have no choice but to assume my demon-fused form... But I find that form laughably hideous, you see. And think of how my subordinates would feel if I were to discard my beauty now." The Grand King drew a crow-feather fan from the cleavage of her voluptuous breasts and covered her mouth with it. She shook her head in refusal. After completing her innocent-seeming gesture, she heaved a heavy sigh. "But alas, unlike Vlad, who brought about his own ruin, I'm a far more logical and self-interested individual. I am a woman, after all. If the necessity arises, I won't hesitate. See now, Vlad refused to fuse with his demon, whereas I'm already one with mine. But as much as I can, I'd rather not show off that hideous formâ€”a woman has her pride, you know." She thrust her closed fan toward Elisabeth, as if asking if she could appreciate that. Elisabeth didn't reply. The Grand King acted as though she'd heard an answer regardless, though, and gave a light shrug. "You're displaying your displeasure all over your pretty little face. Listen now, Elisabeth. Would you mind not constantly looking for openings like that? The fact that I'm not simply killing you all without regard for appearances may be due to pride, but it is a mercy as well. You're carrying rather important baggage, after all. Isn't that right, automaton girl?" Gesturing at Kaito with her chin, the Grand King winked at Hina. Hina readied her halberd, tension racing through her body as she prepared herself for whatever might come. She resembled a guillotine, blade ready to drop at any moment. The Grand King licked her lips as she whispered to her. "A lesson for you, young pup. You're still young, so you might not understand, but love is something you keep hidden. It isn't something you bare for the world to see, you know? Especially against a female opponentâ€”otherwise, a wicked woman with a taste for other people's men might just snatch him up." The Grand King cast a flirtatious glance at Kaito, and her pale hand moved. One of her rings, not attached to any of her underlings, shot out a chain. It hurtled toward Kaito at full speed. The chain was right about to wrap around his neck when a thunderous noise rang out, and the chain was cut to pieces. Hina had swung her halberd, cutting apart the chain and taking a chunk of the floor with it. "Go die in a hole, you vixen." Her pupils dilated, Hina moved her legs. She hurled her halberd, and it spun as it sped at the Grand King. But she yanked on her chains once more, and another underling flew in to receive the blow in her place. There was the sound of a neck snapping. The front of the underling's straitjacket split open, and blood sprayed everywhere. Kaito and the rest momentarily had their vision blotted out by red. Then a hand reached out from an unexpected direction and grabbed hold of La Guillotine's hair. "See, you lost your cool, didn't you? How adorable you are, young lass. You seem difficult to take, so I'll end things here for todayâ€”but next time, who knows? You may want to learn a thing or two about provocations in love affairs." Chuckling, the Grand King put force into the hand holding La Guillotine's head. At some point, that hand had become nothing but bone, demonic and much larger than that of a human. Its head buckling under the pressure, the saint's skin began to split. The unseemly mechanisms within it became exposed. The sound of creaking iron rang out. "I'll be taking this." The Grand King crushed the saint's neck with her grotesque hand. The now-headless body collapsed on its side and transformed into rose petals. Amid their crimson dance, the Grand King's cheeks reddened, and she fanned herself with her crow-feather fan. "Oh, good gracious. How improper of me. Please just pretend you didn't see that arm." "Damn you, Grand King... Damn you, Fiore!" "How pleasant it feels to hear you cry out my name, Elisabeth. Of all the demons you've killed, they were always the ones pitifully crying out yours, right? ...That's plenty enough for me today." Her arm returning to that of a lady's, the Grand King nodded. She placed a ring on the ring finger of her freshly killed underling and then suddenly, as if bored, turned her back on Elisabeth and company. However, she turned her head back around and twisted her lips seductively. "I hope we meet again, little princessâ€”and as for you, lover boy, do try to get a bit