Animate V24 DM Bonus
This was an exclusive short story bundled with a purchase of volume 24 and Dragon Magazine from Animate.
“…Sleepy.”
In the middle of the day, the person who looked rather lazy was a beautiful young blonde Vampire — Elmenhilde. She lived at the Hyoudou residence…and she was a genuine pure-blooded Vampire. As someone of noble birth, life in the human world was rather difficult for her. Unlike humans, it was easier for Devils to be active at night…as a pure-blooded Vampire, she was even more remarkable than Devils in that regard. Whenever the sun rose, she always felt rather uncomfortable. We don’t go outside in the daytime for no reason either. However, in order to live normally in the human world, we also had to get up in the morning.
“…Tired.”
Since she was not a Daywalker, she needed heavy protection, and so she wore thick clothing so that her skin wouldn’t be burned by the sun during the day.
“…Hot.”
It was indeed hot when all of her skin was covered by her uniform. In order to take care of her, my comrades made a special drink for her. It was a blood bag used for transfusions which had a few drops of my blood mixed in. As the Sekiryuutei, my blood seems to have the effect of enhancing a Vampire’s abilities, so she uses it often at critical times. However, it’s only being used as a nutritional drink this time. After drinking this, Elmenhide—
“I’m all better!”
She instantly became energetic, and it was even possible for her to run about underneath the rays of the sun now. When it came to this special energy drink of hers, she would have a sip whenever she felt tired to supplement her energy. She drank it so frequently that, let alone me, even my other comrades also began to worry. Finally, one day—
“Elmenhide-sama has collapsed!”
I received a message like that from Ravel. During the day, Elmenhilde suddenly collapsed. According to the diagnosis of a doctor who specialised in the treatment of supernatural races, it was dragon blood poisoning. She had consumed too much energy and this caused her body to collapse. In front of Elmenhilde who was resting in her bed (coffin), we retrospectively began to think.
“My blood…can supply an overdraft of energy.”
“Even my healing ability can’t bring her back to good health…”
Asia worriedly said. Everyone began to think about how to support Elmenhilde’s life because we stopped supplying her with that special drink. Three vampires then appeared! They were Gasper, Valerie and Millarca-san!
“I-Ise-senpai! Please leave it to me! I have practical experience in supporting Valerie!”
“Ufufu, if it’s Gasper, then I’m sure he’d understand a Vampire’s ecology!”
“Leave Elmenhilde’s support to me. You should have said so earlier!”
—Like this, Gya-suke, Valerie and Millarca-san all responded together. We decided to leave Elmenhilde’s care in their hands. And then, after around half a month—
“This is an example document. We’ll use this document tomorrow, so I’ll make a copy later.”
In the [Hyoudou Issei Household Office] that was run by me and my peerage members, Elmenhilde was working energetically. Whenever she felt tired, she had learned how to take a short break as a Vampire. Although one couldn’t say that night and day had been completely reversed for her, the pace of her life was better and she had also improved her efficiency. After finishing her work, Elmenhilde let out a sigh of relief — she walked into a large cardboard box which was placed in one corner of the room. Yes, what she learnt from Gya-suke was—
“When you’re tired, hide in a cardboard box!”
It was a closed container which was just as narrow as a coffin, and it seemed like it was surprisingly popular with Vampires. Valerie also imitated Gasper, and Millarca-san also said ‘Ah, this is pretty good’ and she soon got into the habit of resting in a box. Although Elmenhilde had disliked it at the beginning…
“…I might calm down.”
It seemed like she quite enjoyed talking aloud in the box now! …Among the Vampires of Kuoh Town, it felt as though cardboard boxes had been quietly trending in popularity…. From now on, we’ll also continue to support Elemnhilde so that she can live without any inconveniences. Right now, that’s what I think—.