Ryuunosuke was shocked as the blood spike pierced through the air and plunged itself deep into his neck.
Despite being a Rank 1, the Blood Spike Gu turned out more reliable than expected as the spike it created was about as sharp as a military combat knife.
However, there was a catch as the Gu only covered the creation process of the resulting blood spike and not its propulsion into the air, making it much more suitable in close range.
Unfortunately, using it for melee combat was just not the right call for my current situation.
Not only was my three-year-old body incapable of making good use of such weaponry, but it would also ruin the element of surprise.
Catching this brainwashing serial killer off guard was my only hope of making it out alive.
For this reason, I chose to use the Blood Spike Gu as a ranged weapon by having it turn the blood inside my mouth into a spike before spitting out in his direction.
This was definitely much more rudimentary than if I had used a proper bow like Michizane, but it was my only reasonable option.
By a stroke of luck, the blood spike actually managed to penetrate through his neck, severing multiple arteries!
Ryuunosuke’s skin became stained by his own blood as the spike was lodged deep within.
It vanished from one end and emerged in another as the man began to choke and suffocate on his own blood.
“Haha…
ha…
ha…” he breathed out ruggedly, laughing as the blood continued to spurt from his exposed wound.
“S-So that’s how you were able to break yourself free, a fucking vampire…”
I found no reason to correct him as his body slumped backwards, the knife slipping free from his hand as he fell down the staircase.
Unexpectedly, he began laughing even more as he let go of that dusty tome as well and reached up to his neck to clutch the blood spike.
Ryuunosuke drove the sharp implement even deeper, twisting and turning as more of his flesh and blood were torn off.
“I can’t believe it!” He shouted like a man possessed by divine inspiration.
“This is what I’ve been missing all this while, my own despair as the primary ingredient?
Hahaha…!”
Yeah, this guy’s already far gone.
Taking this opportunity, I told Shirou to get out as the spell that had messed with our minds seemed to have crumbled the moment Ryuunosuke had let go of his grimoire, a testament of just how meagre his Magecraft had been.
Shirou hesitated however, as he tugged as my arm and asked, “B-But what about you, Shin!?”
“Don’t worry about me, I still need to deal with him.” I answered resolutely as I pointed at the serial killer bleeding on the floor.
The ginger-haired boy clearly did not fully grasp what ‘dealing with him’ implied, but he eventually gave in and left after my continued urging.
…Good riddance.
Sweat clung to my hands as I trudged forward and descended the stairs.
My mind remained in a haze, the adrenaline pumping through my body as I didn’t dare to let my guard down this time around.
To lose my autonomy and way of thinking had been a great fright, indeed.
Certainly not as terrifying as what came after, but it was definitely up there for sure.
Speaking of what happened next, I struggled to maintain my composure as I avoided directly looking at any of the deceased children, steeling my resolve to face what was to come.
I walked up to the crazed lunatic and glanced at his hands, noting the lack of any strange red markings that would have otherwise indicated his status as a Master.
With that fact out of the way, I heaved a sigh of relief.
How much time had passed between Ryuunosuke’s fortuitous encounter with the spellbook and his summoning of Caster was never specified in the original story, as far as I could remember.
I was afraid that I would have to deal with Caster as well, which I wouldn’t be able to no matter how much I tried.
Luckily, that didn’t appear to be to be the case.
Though it did mean that the future Caster would most likely not end up being Gilles de Rais now that his Master was disposed of.
This left me rather worried as this would introduce unknown factors should I continue with my initial plan to summon a Berserker instead of taking Ryuunosuke’s position as the Master of Caster…
Ryuunosuke glanced up at me and smiled.
“Shinji-kun!” He called out in bliss as he continued to choke on his blood.
“You have no idea what you’ve done for me.
My own blood, my own tears, my own despair—those make up the secret recipe to creating a perfect, beautiful masterpiece!
I don’t even know how I should repay you…”
“You can probably try dying.” I said with finality as I knelt beside him.
“Y-You’re right, that would—”
Before the serial killer could finish his sentence, I promptly removed the blood spike and used an execution method that I had learned from Michizane’s memories as my fingers plunged inside his wound.
Immediately, I used the Blood Spike Gu as numerous blood spikes began to shoot up inside his neck in different directions.
A few inevitably cleaved his brain apart as his eyes shuddered before they became vacant, signifying his departure.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath as I confirmed his death.
‘I’ve just killed someone,’ I thought to myself.
‘But why don’t I feel guilty at all?’
Perhaps it was because my first kill was a crazed maniac.
Had Ryuunosuke been a normal janitor, I would have probably been wrestling with intense guilt as even the callous Michizane had never killed a person before.
He only tested this execution method on chickens, after all.
Heh, I’ve actually surpassed him in ruthlessness, how funny was that?
I didn’t much thought into it after that.
When push came to shove, murder wasn’t so bad as long as it was justified.
This was pretty clear-cut self-defense, so no court of law was going to find me guilty.
Not that I planned for any court of law to find out I was the one responsible, mind you.
This matter involved Magi, so the Matou should be able to cover it up easily and I could just blame Ryuunosuke himself for all those stab wounds on his body.
He was a weirdo and no one would put it past him at this point.
This wouldn’t have been able to fool the actual police with their forensics teams and all, but I doubted the Matou had such means or would resort to them.
There was no reason for them to suspect I’d lie, after all.
The blood spikes created by the Blood Spike Gu withered away after 20 minutes, so they would never suspect me to be the true killer as I was just an ‘ordinary person’ at the end of the day.
That didn’t mean they would be entirely ambivalent about the matter, however, as they would absolutely be interested in the spellbook that Ryuunosuke possessed.
I took a glance at the dusty book before I retrieved the Blood Spike Gu from my Aperture, which took on the shape of a red centipede, as I let it feed on Ryuunosuke’s blood.
To my surprise, the spellbook’s title was written in French.
Nouveau Nécronomicon
Par François Prelati
Frankly, I’ve never learned French, so I had no idea what those words conveyed.
However, just the term ‘Necronomicon’ was enough to set warning bells in my head as I took the book for myself and debated on what to do with it.
The Necronomicon was a mysterious book frequently mentioned in Lovecraft’s novels.
I didn’t really think this was the actual Necronomicon since Magi were prone to creating knockoffs, the Fuyuki Holy Grail being a good example, but I was still pretty shook nonetheless.
‘Was this why he ended up with Gilles de Rais in the original story?’ I thought to myself as I recounted Caster’s eldritch summons.
‘I assumed it was just because they were both serial killers…’
In the end, I decided to take the book for future study as such an artifact was undoubtedly very valuable.
If my memory served me right, then Ryuunosuke should be a dormant Magus like I was.
He only awakened his Magic Circuits later when he summoned Caster.
However, such a summoning could not have possibly been the reason that his Magic Circuits awakened from their slumber.
It must have instead been this copy of the Necronomicon that did the deed!
Furthermore, I didn’t know whether his Magic Circuits had already been awakened or not.
If they have yet to do so, then that meant the Necronomicon was also capable of acting as a substitute to one’s Magic Circuits, allowing even an ordinary person to cast Magecraft.
This was truly a jackpot on my part!
Oops, sorry for the short delay.
Got sick.
I will make an extra chapter today as compensation and then another chapter for midnight.