Chapter 55: Two Spaces

“Welcome.”
“Our store is not open twenty-four hours.”
“We’ll be closing in two minutes.”
“You are the last customer.”

Inside a convenience store.

Aibrune put on an extremely professional expression, speaking in a soft and gentle voice.

He was wearing a blue and white clerk’s uniform with a work apron over it.
He stood behind the cash register with his hands placed before him, working diligently.

“Oh, you’re closing in two minutes?”
“I’ll just grab a soda and go then.”

The last customer quickly took a bottle of soda from the cooler near the entrance.
After paying, he didn’t linger and turned to walk out of the store.

“Thank you for your patronage.”
“Please come again.”

Aibrune smiled as he saw the customer out, speaking the customary words while sighing helplessly in his heart.

The four-person Rose squad had been looking for work in the human city.
Each of them had found a position they wanted, and surprisingly, it had gone very smoothly.

It was probably because their exceptional looks were highly regarded by human aesthetic standards.
Almost no one gave them a hard time, and they were hired directly after their first interviews—though it wasn’t like they were applying to any major corporations.

But only Aibrune, as the captain, had failed to secure a job in his desired field.

Because the place he wanted to go was the Humanoid Weapon Research Society.
As it turned out, after a whole day, he couldn’t even find a branch office of the Research Society and was almost discovered as a Bloodkin, forcing him to flee in a hurry.

In the end, he also found a job at a convenience store.

The owner saw that he was good-looking and perfect for the front counter cashier position, so he was hired with pleasure, with his wages paid daily.

Closing at midnight was the norm for this convenience store.

There were few customers late at night, and it wasn’t worth having someone stay up all night to watch the store, so they simply closed early.

But for Aibrune, he could actually keep working.

As a Bloodkin, he was exceptionally sensitive to the night.
In the pitch-black night, a Bloodkin’s power would grow stronger, and not only would they not feel fatigue, they would become even more excited.

‘Oh well, time to close the store.’
‘Working a little less is fine too.’
‘I’ll go check on how the other three are doing.’
‘I, for one, got paid on my very first day.’

Aibrune was cheerfully preparing to close the shop door.

Suddenly, a strange wave spread through his entire body.
Blue lines, like a scanner, covered everything, making him shudder.

His vision distorted for a moment, then quickly returned to normal.

Aibrune was stunned for a second.
He glanced at the mirror on the table and chairs in the lower-left corner and was shocked to find that his pupils, whose color he had hidden, had turned red again, and his pointed ears had lost the effect of the concealment spell.

‘Forced removal of my disguise?’

‘What’s going on?’
‘I didn’t deactivate it myself.’

But soon, Aibrune realized something.
He hung the sheathed sword at his waist and slowly walked toward the convenience store’s exit.

On the street, where there had been a few scattered pedestrians just moments ago, they had all vanished in an instant.

He looked both ways down the long avenue, but there wasn’t a single person on the street.
Even the customer who had just bought a soda and walked out the door had disappeared without a sound.

A vampire’s hearing is very keen.
The bustling noise of the city’s traffic had been quite loud just a moment ago, but now, in an instant, it was as if all things had returned to tranquility.
Everything had stopped.
It was far too quiet.

Suddenly, a massive explosion echoed from the distance.
Flames shot up into the sky, and thick smoke billowed.

“What… is happening?”

Aibrune’s crimson eyes looked toward the sky, narrowing slightly.

He could feel the presence of his own kind.
Many of them.
Not just a few, or a dozen, but at least a hundred!

Then, he heard the radical sound of the Rose Legion’s horn from the distant sky.
Countless figures in white cloaks appeared in the sky at the same time.
Countless pairs of crimson eyes flashed simultaneously as they all descended together.

The great army of the Bloodkin had descended upon this city.

“Hm?”
“Looks like I got too much change back?”
“Hey, cashier, you—”

The customer who had walked out of the store counted the money in his hand and was about to turn back when he found that the convenience store was already empty.
The cashier from a moment ago was gone.

Even the store lights hadn’t been turned off.

The baffled customer couldn’t help but scratch his head.
He scanned the convenience store in confusion and wondered aloud:

“Where did he go?”
“Was he in that much of a hurry to get off work?”