Editing The Unexplored Summon Blood Sign:Volume6 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 2===

It was a stereotypical Toy Dream 35 high-rise building sticking directly up from the ocean.

Inside a luxury apartment’s living room, Kyousuke ignored the invitation to sit on the sofa and stood by the wall. Biondetta waited by his side like a well-behaved hound.

This was “their” current base.

They had only lived alongside the stone ruins because it was the most efficient way to protect the pharaoh’s body.

The tomb keeper family had protected the pyramid for millennia, but they were now sitting in an air-conditioned room, holding an online meeting, and throwing a tantrum: “No, you can’t just throw a texture on there. You have to register the peaks to properly map out the surface.” It might seem wrong, but that was the passage of time.

A brown-skinned woman was washing the dishes in the kitchen while a group of several men and woman were gathered around an OA desk computer in a corner of the living room while pointing at the screen and debating something. Kyousuke spoke under his breath while aware their eyes were on him.

“(Oh? So they can perceive us even when we aren’t in their field of vision?)

“(Sir, maybe they are intentionally keeping their Awards in the double digits so they can communicate between both sides of the world. Government often does that.)”

“(I wish, but this smells different. They seem more amateurish.)”

But that did not particularly matter.

There was another problem: They had used Aika as a Government middleman and arrived to offer their services as bodyguards, but they had been politely refused because the tomb keepers had already hired someone else.

“…”

“…”

Shiroyama Kyousuke faced a pair of shrine maiden twins who were crossing their arms and staring at him.

It was Meinokawa Renge and Meinokawa Higan.

Despite being twins, one of them had flowing black hair and the other had magnificent blonde hair.

His words were cruel.

“Those two are useless, so they won’t be any help at all.”

“Hey!!” shouted the strong-willed twin, but no one was listening.

A brown-skinned and muscular old man in a casual suit seemed to be the representative here, so Kyousuke’s tone grew serious when he spoke to that man.

“Have you ever heard the name Bridesmaid? They’re going to show up soon with plenty of summoners at the Award 900 level, so you could use all the help you can get.”

“Uuh…! H-he just gave them information that, um, not even we knew about…!”

The shy twin tearfully hid behind her sister’s back.

Mini-Yukata Biondetta clapped her hands in front of her chest and tilted her head.

“By the way, the two of us are both at Freedom’s Award 900 level. Look into the names Liar Cat and Alice (with) Rabbit and you should find everything you need to know.”

“Biondetta, I don’t think ''your'' legends are going to be much of a selling point.”

“Don’t be so sure. …They might realize that displeasing me here will lead me to bare these legendary fangs.”

Kyousuke wanted to hold his head in his hands. Biondetta did not seem to care whether they acted as the tomb keeper’s bodyguards or just stole the ancient map, as long as they got their hands on the map they needed as bait.

“Biondetta, over here a moment.”

“Yes, sir.”

Kyousuke and his faithful servant stepped out into the family apartment’s hallway for a private chat.

“Just to be clear, that method won’t necessarily work. If Bridesmaid doesn’t notice we stole the ancient map, they’ll still attack the tomb keepers. And no matter how much the tomb keepers insist they don’t have the map, they’ll probably be tortured to find out if they’re telling the truth. Plus, once it’s clear they aren’t any use, they’ll be silenced while weak from torture and unable to resist. In other words, just taking the map now wouldn’t protect them.”

“True enough. Such a flawless analysis, sir.” Horned Biondetta nodded and smiled like a tutor. “But what does that matter? Our goal is the Natural History’s missing entries and this tomb keeper family is only a detour. As long as you stay focused, some small detours are fine, but I see no real reason to stick with them if they stubbornly refuse to recognize the approaching danger.”

Her smile reminded Kyousuke of someone from somewhere else.

It was a white, lovely, and infinitely pure evil.

“…Curse the Queen’s hatred.”

“Yes. My role here is to suggest the things you cannot☆”

The demon smiled as she toyed with the cat nametag on her obi. Kyousuke figured this was still better than licking each other’s wounds and not even working to stop her, so he breathed a heavy sigh and made up his mind.

“We’re not abandoning anyone to die.”

“Yes, sir.”

“If we’re getting their help to reach our objective, then we need to share their fate. I want to protect them no matter what.”

“If that is your stance for enjoying the ultimate revenge, then so be it.”

That hired avenger was obedient as long as she could translate it into her own words. And as complicated as it was, he simply had to persuade anew her each and every time. He did not want to agree with Biondetta, but the tomb keeper family was indeed being too careless concerning the approaching danger. Just as they started back into the previous room, an unexpected voice reached them.

It came from a different door.

“Hello, you two visitors. There is no need to speak with my retainers any longer. Come directly here. I grant you an audience.”

It was a quiet feminine voice. It was polite and enticing, but it lacked the provocative tone that Biondetta used. These were words that flowed down from above. The tone carried a pressure that forced anyone listening to accept her superior position. Kyousuke saw it as the voice of a ruler. It was the voice of someone who had been born into a position of power and ''used that position like it was normal'' instead of drowning in it.

But he could not let this deceive him.

That voice was a technique, not a natural talent. It was a technique for a single individual to bring together a large group. It was a method used by dictators to gather the people together. …It may have been mankind’s oldest discipline, dating back to when humans first started living together in groups. For example, people would stand on a platform for a position physically above everyone or they would use a megaphone or microphone so their voice would carry into the distance. Even a school principal would use these methods, but did the people listening or the person using them even realize these were methods of influencing people’s impressions?

And the Queen took all of that to another, completely unrecognizable level. If they had not known her, Kyousuke and Biondetta might have had their souls bound as much as anyone else. And comfortably so. Without even realizing they had been intentionally restrained.

Imprisonment became protection. Confiscation became an offering. Violence became education. Poverty became prosperity. Misfortune became happiness.

This ruler’s invitation could change one’s understanding of all those things.

And Kyousuke smoothly responded. What was one to do when the lost civilization of Ancient Egypt called out to them from beyond a door? …He gave no thought to such questions and followed the modern methods by walking to the thin door.

It was Biondetta by his side and not Kyousuke himself who lightly knocked at the door.

“I already gave you permission. Please come in.”

The polite words had a note of forcefulness to them, so they were a command.

Biondetta grabbed and silently turned the knob so her master would not have to and she pushed the door open.

Another world opened before their eyes.

That room with thick curtains blocking out all light seemed entirely cut off from the rest of the family apartment. It was like a temple or stone hut. The flickering flames on wicks soaked in oil lit the gold and jewels filling the space. But this was not just a worldly desire for liquid assets. That was obvious enough from the accurate arrangement that ignored the cardinal directions and even the spacing of the room. This was the grave keepers’ macro universe, their view of life and death, and the micro structure of their bodies. This was only natural given the accurate structure and knowledge of astronomy seen in the pyramid they had protected.

A girl sat at the center of that knowledge that spiraled outward with countless meanings.

She had brown skin and short silver hair.

She looked around 17 or 18, but her appearance could not be trusted. She looked a little too thin to call slender and the space between her breaths and heartbeats were clearly much longer than the average person’s. Her cycle of ingestion and consumption, her body’s metabolism, and the division of her microscopic cells were all artificially altered, so it was entirely possible there was a discrepancy between her apparent age and the amount of time that had passed in the world around her. The word “yoga” was used in gyms in modern times, but this went far beyond that. If she claimed she could live in this room for 5 years by drinking dew and controlling her breathing, Kyousuke would not have doubted her.

She may have been using just her own mind to produce a state of cold sleep while at room temperature. Or maybe it was more like a tree extending its roots into the earth.

If a Buddhist priest that claimed to have rid himself of worldly thoughts and become one with nature saw her perfection, he might just be dragged down into the abyss by his own envy and anger.

She was more like a divine object than a queen.

That explained why that ruler’s voice had sounded almost divine. This brown girl had taken a step to the other side using a process other than a summoner aiming for Award 1000.

Her body was wrapped in many bandages and adorned in places with pure gold and red jewels. She also wore a vanishingly thin decorative cloth much like a lace veil or shawl. However, it was extremely long. It was draped over her neck and shoulders like a towel, wrapped once around her waist, and then allowed to hang down, so it formed a Y-shape overall.

She effectively had nothing to hide her bodylines.

But despite being half naked, her divinity overpowered the sexuality. Just like the Venus de Milo or Michelangelo’s David, her body was so perfectly formed that there was no room for any common animal lust. In fact, it seemed to purify that desire away.

The girl’s lips opened slightly.

Just watching that may have cleansed one’s heart.

“Please forgive my rudeness, but I must omit the formalities in this pressing situation. My name is Sekurtiti. I am this generation’s Tomb Priestess who guards the pharaoh’s body during his brief absence and returns his soul to that dried and preserved vessel of flesh.”

“Pff.”

But the mood was ruined by a laugh.

Kyousuke glared at Biondetta next to him, but she could not stop the shaking of her shoulders. She had directly faced the White Queen just like him, so she could not be trapped by the bonds of these normal “techniques”.

Sekurtiti froze in place on the floor and doubt entered her light blue eyes.

“Is something the matter?”

“No, excuse me. I just thought it was surprisingly worldly for a human to pretend to be some higher being. Especially when you showed off your background and authority to take the initiative.”

“…”

“Now, now. Don’t get all tense. We can tell at a glance that you really have started to reach a higher stage. We’re at the 900 level ourselves. Just like you, we have one foot on the stairway up. Yes, just like you.”

She spoke slowly and gently, but also sharp and piercingly. It was like hearing a classmate proudly showing off some piece of trivia they knew and then commenting that you had also seen that on TV the day before.

Kyousuke brought his index finger to his temple and spoke.

“Biondetta.”

The yukata demon stuck out her tongue. She may have been trying to make her contracted master look impressive, but it was extremely childish. She looked like a big sister butting in when her little brother started to lose an argument.

“Very well, I shall forgive you of your rudeness, visitors. Malicious though it might be, it comes from an adorable place deep down. You cannot help but love on your little brother, can you? ''Not your client, but your little brother.''”

“…The hell’d you say?”

“Stop! That’s enough of pitting your divine powers against each other in some unknown dimension!! And the tomb keepers out front would weep if they knew you were using that for something so trivial!!”

Both girls cleared their throat at the same time.

''She gets oddly fixated on retaliating against people and might really hate losing,'' mentally noted Kyousuke concerning the brown priestess.

“I heard your discussion from in here.”

“Eavesdropping? What a vulgar hobby. Hee hee. Did you order some night vision goggles to use in the park at night on the weekends?”

“I’m going to leave your face a bruised mess and take you on a walk like a dog, you extreme sweet tooth. I mean…excuse me.”

Sekurtiti once more displayed some information she should not have known. Or perhaps she had gathered some data on her guests once they had arrived like stage magicians would do.

“From what I have heard, you need the ancient map that we manage. Yes, and when I say ‘you’, I am not just referring to the two of you.”

“Can your divine power tell us the scale of the enemy we’re up against?”

“I sense a very deep darkness. So deep it is difficult to see through to the bottom.”

“That could apply to just about anything,” whispered Biondetta.

Kyousuke tried stomping on her foot, but she nimbly dodged, leaving him with no choice but to pinch her soft cheek.

“Thah hurhsh, shir!”

“Bad Biondetta.”

Still seated, Sekurtiti looked up at them with the golden decorations in her hair and she gave a warning.

“You two, quit flirting in front of the Tomb Priestess.”

“We’re not flirting! That divine power of yours is completely useless!”

“We’re not flirting! That divine power of yours is completely useless!”

“Anyway.”

With a calm look on her face, the brown priestess continued while gently shaking the decorative lace cloth draped over her shoulders in a Y-shape.

“I understand that we will be attacked by a dangerous lot whether we have the ancient map or not. We cannot ignore any tomb raiders who would bring unneeded chaos to the pharaoh’s place of slumber or who would lay a hand on his treasures. So as you said, we could use all the help we can get.”

No, that was not it. She was not shaking the cloth. After remaining seated like she had been carrying out a ritual all this time, the Tomb Priestess stood up as smoothly as a clay doll that showed no limitations in its joints or center of gravity.

[[Image:BloodSign_v06_070.png|thumb]]

“Oh, how cooperative of you. And I thought you would be more hardheaded.”

“I am merely saying we must protect wherever it is the pharaoh sleeps. President Toydream built up a relationship of trust in his efforts to preserve our culture and traditions and we are also indebted to him after ''the Seth incident''.”

She did not stop there.

The cloth as thin as fairy wings fell away. She exposed a body too thin to call slender with only bandages roughly wrapped around her brown nudity. No, Sekurtiti still was not done. She removed the gold decorations and turned her back to Kyousuke and Biondetta. Then she reached both hands for the bandages on the sides of her hips.

Almost like she was untying a swimsuit’s strings.

It happened as easily as a present being unwrapped. The final cloths protecting the girl’s body fell to the floor.

Something was faintly visible on her bared back.

“Nn… My apologies. The Lifelong Emblem only appears clearly on my skin when my blood flow increases.”

“Keh heh heh. So that’s why you wanted a guy watching. Exposing yourself to starved eyes turns you on.”

“Biondetta.”

“…U-um, sir. Isn’t it rude to not react at all? I’m actually feeling a little sorry for her.”

“Not to worry. I will forgive your rudeness, visitor. Those crude and vulgar words are necessary here. Your response is most logical. Nnn!!”

Like a piece of trick art, their view of the world changed at some point.

As the girl blushed and squeezed her eyes shut, something appeared on her naked back. It initially looked like a magic circle. It was known as an ancient map, but this was not enough to know what area it referenced. It was not necessarily anywhere near the Nile where so many pyramids remained.

“I see. So you can’t find the Founder’s Gallery without all three sacred treasures.”

Kyousuke smiled a little.

They already had two of them: the Diamond Master Key and the Girl’s Ancient Map.

That left just one.

Once they had the Golden Treasure Chest, they could reach the Founder’s Gallery and the scraps of parchment known as the Natural History’s missing entries. What was now only a vague image in his mind would take physical form in his hand.

This time, his broken heart could reboot.

“I would like for you to protect this with your Award 900 power.”

With that done, Sekurtiti kept her back to them, crouched down, and picked up the long bandages that had fallen to the floor.

“We are talking about a treasure that enthralled even the ruler of Toy Dream. It must be worth enough for any number of people to target it. I pray that you too will not succumb to its demonic power, Shiroyama Kyousuke.”

“Neh heh heh. I seem to recall Toy Dream’s 3D cartoons including a few magic circles appearing on people’s backs. …I hope it wasn’t just that the president was a pervert with a thing for the curves of young brown girls☆ Hopefully this isn’t like that author who is suspected to have made a world famous children’s book just to win the hearts of some little girls he knew.”

“Biondetta.”

Kyousuke finally spoke the forbidden words.

“Sit. Stay. That’s enough.”