Read Online White Devil Mountain by Hideyuki Kikuchi - Free Book Online Page A

twenty-three hundred years later new excavations had unearthed truths that came as a great shock. Thanks to other contracts and the journals of Nobles from that same time frame, it became known that for every contract completed satisfactorily, three times as many had been horribly breached. After that, the anti-Noble faction’s predominance was unshaken, and continued so in the present day. As far as humans were concerned, the Nobility were demons who’d ruled over them for nearly ten millennia.
    “They’re the same,” D said, his voice flowing out in a low tone. As always, it was cold and boundlessly dark. “Science isn’t satisfied with merely observing phenomena. It’s the spirit of finding the truth that lies behind them—in demonstrating facts. You might even say it’s supported by the imagination. Have you never considered, Doctor, that it’s possible for Nobles and humans to live together?”
    “Huh?” Vera replied, apparently dumbstruck. “Excuse me? What? ” The doctor shook her head fiercely. “Wait just a minute. Not once have I—”
    “Don’t lie.”
    The doctor froze. D’s words would gouge out her heart and lungs, turning blood to ice before it could spray forth. “I’m not lying. You’re wrong. Why do you think I’d lie?”
    “I can tell from the way you’ve been looking at this guy ever since we met.”
    The doctor blinked stupidly. D’s voice had become the hoarse tone of another person entirely.
    “Your average person just kinda loses themself in the sight. But underneath that, there’s a fear they can’t hide. A racial memory carved into humans’ bones—not even you can do anything about that. But the way you look at him is different. You’ve got the look of someone who understands him. Fundamentally different from those in the pro-Noble school, who are merely superficial, you have the eyes of one who’s struggled to understand the true nature of the Nobility and ultimately wrested free the truth. Even the tragedy that’s befallen you can’t shake that. No matter what evil purpose it might be put to, the truth of E = mc² doesn’t change. You know it.”
    Vera was stunned. It took her a good ten seconds before she could say anything. “No . . . Now that’s a lie . . . As long as I live, I’ll hate . . .”
    Her body began to tremble. The shaking grew finer and finer still, and then her body became a blur. She had surpassed the limits of the human body’s ability to shake.
    “What in the world is she—” the hoarse voice muttered in amazement. “A physical and mental transformation brought on through molecular vibrations—I’ve never seen the like.”
    What was taking place in the body of that ordinary country doctor?
    At any rate, the shaking gradually subsided. Her blurred outlines resolved into one, the tremors themselves ceased, and Vera flopped back against the sofa.
    “What the hell? Don’t make such a fuss over her.”
    Despite the hoarse voice’s objections, D picked Vera up and laid her flat on the sofa.
    “Leave her be. Dirty little tease,” the voice grumbled.
    “When the spirit and flesh separate, do they both stay the same as they were before?” D asked.
    “Nope. Some say they become like a whole different person. But I haven’t seen it for myself.”
    “In what way?”
    “Let me see . . . The most ordinary woman in the world could turn into the greatest liar of all time, or something like that, I guess?”
    Nothing from the Hunter.
    “This is serious, like holding a snake to your bosom. One of them’s a woman and a warrior at the same time; the other’s a doctor. Both of ’em consciously hate vampires. One alone could be trouble, but if the two of ’em were to team up, that’s about as dangerous as it comes. Why not put her down here and now? Ouff!”
    As D was squeezing his hand into a fist, Lilia and Dust came running in, having sensed something unusual. They had longsword and club in hand. As for Crey—it seemed he was