Genre: Comedy
---
*"You're my best friend! Decided!"*
Jīku woke up on a cold stone floor with no name, no memories, and a number branded on his neck. A homunculus—a disposable mana source created for the Great Holy Grail War. He was supposed to be nothing more than a tool.
Then a pink-haired Rider with more enthusiasm than sense burst into his life and declared them best friends. Just like that. No reason. No logic. Just... because.
Now Jīku finds himself swept into the chaotic daily life o
The Daily Life Before the Great Holy Grail War - Vampires, Screams, and a Voice That Never Reached
Morning light bleached the stone walls of Trifas Castle white.
Jīku was in the kitchen, wiping down the great pot they'd used the night before. The enormous cauldron Avicebron had forged with alchemy still held a faint warmth from the boar stew it had cooked. He ran the cloth across its surface, and the dull silver metal gave a soft gleam.
"Jīku! I stacked the plates over there for you!"
That fluffy pink hair bobbed at the edge of his vision. Asutorufo was clutching wooden plates in both arms, beaming at him.
"Thank you."
"Ehehe, you're welcome! Cleaning up is kind of fun, isn't it? Especially when we all do it together!"
Jīku took the plates and returned them to the shelf.
(Fun, huh.)
Maybe it was. A feeling he hadn't known until yesterday. Doing something together with others, then tidying up after it was done. Just that—and something deep in his chest went quietly warm.
In the corner of the kitchen, the black Berserker was silently sweeping the floor. Her long black hair swayed as she worked the broom without a word. At her feet, onion skins had gathered into a small mountain.
"You're helping too, Berserker."
"Oh, you're right! When did that happen?! Amazing—I didn't even notice!"
Asutorufo scampered over. Berserker didn't so much as lift her face, broom still moving.
"...Jīku, you're not pushing yourself too hard, are you?"
He turned. Jannu, her long golden hair in a braid, was watching him with worried blue eyes. The hem of her white vestments stirred softly in the morning breeze.
"I'm fine. This much is nothing."
"I see. But you cut your finger with a knife yesterday, didn't you? Be careful today."
"...I will."
Jīku looked at his left hand. The bandage was already off. The wound had scabbed over. That time, there had been blood. It had hurt. But Asutorufo had wrapped the bandage for him.
(If I bleed, that's proof I'm alive.)
He remembered those words.
"Hey, hey, what should we do once we're done cleaning? Run around the courtyard? Or cook something again?"
"Asutorufo, running around is dangerous."
Kauresu poked his head in from the kitchen doorway. A young man with neatly trimmed brown hair. The pattern of a Command Spell floated on the back of his right hand. Behind him sat Fiore in her wheelchair.
"Kauresu, there are still onion skins on the floor. Sweep them up later."
"Sister, I just swept a minute ago..."
"Oh, was that so? Well, sweeping again wouldn't hurt."
Kauresu let out a small sigh. Watching the exchange, Jīku's lips loosened, just slightly.
(Is this what family is?)
He didn't know. But watching it didn't feel bad.
Then it happened.
A deep boom.
Something echoed from deep within the castle.
The floor trembled, just barely. The plates on the shelf rattled.
"...Huh?"
Asutorufo froze.
Jīku's hands stopped too.
(That sound just now...)
His heart lurched.
Boom.
Again. Louder this time.
And then—
"GRRRAAAAAAOOOOOOOHHHHH!!!"
A beast's roar tore up from underground.
An eardrum-splitting, low, unnatural howl. Not a human voice. Not a beast's either. Something far more loathsome.
"W-what was that just now!?"
"I-I don't know! But it feels really, really bad!"
Asutorufo hugged his own shoulders.
"...It's coming from underground."
Jannu narrowed her blue eyes.
"This disturbance in the mana... it can't be."
The color drained from her face.
"Jannu, do you know something?"
"...Darnic Prestone Yggdmillennia. I knew he was pursuing a forbidden ritual. But to think he actually went through with it..."
"A forbidden ritual?"
"Soul fusion. A forbidden art that merges multiple souls into one to gain immense power. If it succeeds, fine—but if it fails..."
"If it fails?"
Jannu gripped her holy flag tight.
"...He stops being human. His soul shatters, and he loses all reason."
The kitchen went dead silent.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
The impacts from below drew steadily closer.
—And then.
"GYAAAAAAAHHH!!!"
A scream.
From the castle corridor. And not just one or two. Voices layered over each other, cut off, then rising again.
"W-what!? Screams!?"
"N-no... what's happening..."
Fiore trembled in her wheelchair. Kauresu stepped in front of his sister.
"Sister, get behind me."
"Kauresu..."
Jīku looked toward the corridor.
He smelled blood.
An iron-like, lukewarm, sticky smell. It poured in through the open door.
"...Blood."
Jīku's throat twitched.
(I know this smell.)
Different from yesterday, when he'd cut his own finger slicing onions. Thicker. So much more of it.
"Help me...!"
"Run! Run—gyaaah!"
"Hii—hiii... aaaaaaah!"
From the corridor came screams, shrieks, death rattles, one after another.
The dream surfaced in Jīku's mind.
A dark tank. Green liquid. The same face as his own, tethered to tubes.
Dozens of homunculi, floating.
And one by one, they vanished.
Pulled from the tanks, carried away, never to return.
(Wait.)
(Don't go.)
(Don't leave me behind.)
A voiceless voice. A body that wouldn't move.
His kin, disappearing one after another.
Back then, he couldn't do anything.
All he could do was watch.
—But now.
Now he had a body. Legs. A voice.
"...I have to go."
Jīku broke into a run toward the kitchen doorway.
"Huh!? Jīku!? Wait a second! It's dangerous!"
Asutorufo grabbed his arm.
"Let go."
"No! You couldn't even hold a knife until yesterday! What good is it for you to go out there!?"
"...Still."
"Don't 'still' me! Absolutely not! I'll go, so you stay here—"
"Asutorufo."
Jīku gently—but firmly—pried Asutorufo's hand away.
"I can hear them."
"...Huh?"
"The voices calling for help. Mixed in with those screams are homunculi—just like me."
Jīku looked straight into Asutorufo's eyes.
"I can't just let them die. I don't want to repeat that dream."
"Jīku..."
"I'm going. Don't stop me."
Jīku ran.
"Ugh! Why are you like this!? Jīku, you idiot!"
Asutorufo's shout chased after him.
—Moments later, there were two sets of footsteps.
"Wait up! If my best friend's going, then obviously I'm going too!"
"Asutorufo..."
"Complain later! Come on, run!"
The two of them sprinted side by side down the corridor.
"Everyone! Get away from the underground! Evacuate outside the castle!"
The black Caster, Avicebron, bellowed through the castle. From behind his mask, he was shouting with everything he had.
"Caster! Which way do we run!?"
"The west corridor is still safe! Hurry!"
Then—
BOOOOOM!!!
The black Berserker smashed through the kitchen wall with her bare hands.
Stone shattered, and daylight poured in.
"...!"
Berserker silently pointed at the hole in the wall.
"Amazing! A hole in the wall! Now we can escape!"
"Thank you, Berserker!"
Kauresu pushed Fiore's wheelchair toward the opening.
"Kauresu, I'm scared..."
"It's all right, Sister. I'll protect you."
Kauresu's voice was shaking. But the hands pushing the wheelchair were steady.
Jīku waited until they were through, then ran again.
"Jīku, which way!?"
"Toward the screams."
"So basically, the most dangerous direction!"
"Yes."
"Seriously!? How are you so calm!?"
"I'm not calm. My legs are shaking."
"Huh, they really are! They're shaking like crazy!"
"But I'm still going."
"...All right! That's what I want to hear! Show me what my best friend's made of!"
The two of them raced down the stairs toward the underground.
The smell of blood grew thicker.
The stone steps were slick. A dark red liquid ran down the stairs.
"Ugh... what is this... blood...?"
"...It's awful."
Jīku caught his breath.
Red splatter was scattered across the corridor walls, the floor, the ceiling.
And there, fallen.
Homunculus soldiers.
Their white uniforms soaked crimson, lying in heaps atop one another.
"A... aah..."
Jīku's knees nearly gave out.
(Homunculi. Just like me.)
(Lives that were made. Just like mine.)
(What were they trying to protect?)
(What were they fighting for?)
"Jīku, snap out of it!"
Asutorufo slapped him on the back.
"...Yes."
Jīku approached one of the fallen soldiers.
Still breathing. His chest rose and fell, faintly.
"Are you all right?"
"...R-run... away..."
The soldier looked at Jīku's face and smiled faintly.
"You're... a homunculus... too... huh."
"Yes."
"...Hurry... run... that thing... it's already... no good..."
"And you?"
"Me... I'm done... You... live."
The soldier's hand fell limp.
"...!"
Jīku took that hand in his.
Still warm.
But from the fingertips, it was growing cold.
"Jīku..."
"...Let's go."
Jīku stood.
His eyes burned.
But this was no time to cry.
(I'll protect them. We're all going to live.)
Jīku stepped through the sea of blood and pressed deeper into the corridor.
—And then he saw it.
The door to the underground magecraft workshop had been blown outward from within.
The thick iron door was crumpled like paper, embedded in the wall.
Beyond it, something stood.
"G... guu... uuu..."
A man.
No—what had once been a man.
Darnic Prestone Yggdmillennia.
Supreme commander of the Black faction. Head of the Yggdmillennia family.
His form was no longer human.
His skin was ashen, black veins bulging beneath it. His eyes were bloodshot crimson, sharp fangs peeking from his lips. His fingertips had grown claws like a beast's, wet with blood.
"Darnic...!"
"Hiii! Is that Darnic!? He looks nothing like himself!"
Darnic slowly turned his head.
Giii, went the creak of his joints.
"...Blood... more... more blood..."
His voice was hoarse, low, as if several voices were layered atop one another.
"The soul fusion failed. That thing isn't Darnic anymore."
Jannu was suddenly standing beside them.
"Jannu!?"
"As Ruler, I have to stop that. You two fall back."
"But—"
"Fall back!"
Jannu's voice rang out sharp.
Then—
"—Hold, Ruler."
A black shadow dropped down in front of Jīku and the others.
The black Lancer.
A tall man. Piercing eyes. In his hand, a spear red as blood.
"Lancer..."
"That is my lord. I will be the one to finish him."
Lancer leveled his spear and stood before Darnic.
"Lord Darnic. Come to your senses. This is not like you."
"...Lan... cer..."
Darnic looked at Lancer.
"Give me... your blood..."
"—I see. Words no longer reach you, then."
Lancer thrust his spear.
Thunk!
The spearhead pierced Darnic's chest.
"Got him!?"
—But.
Darnic laughed.
"G... gufufu... fufufu..."
With the spear still buried in his chest, Darnic took a step forward.
"What...!?"
"Blood... your blood... smells delicious..."
Darnic's hand seized Lancer's arm.
"Guh!?"
"Lancer!"
Darnic slammed Lancer into the wall.
CRASH!
The stone wall shattered, and Lancer's body sank into it.
"You...!"
Lancer pulled out his spear and righted himself.
"Lancer, are you all right!?"
"No problem. But ordinary attacks don't seem to work."
"He's turned vampire. You'll have to crush his heart or take his head."
"Understood."
Lancer readied his spear again.
—But then.
Darnic vanished.
"!?"
The next instant, Darnic stood right in front of Jīku.
"...Blood."
"—!"
Jīku couldn't move.
Too fast. Too close.
Darnic's claws reached for Jīku's face.
"Jīku!"
Asutorufo shoved Jīku out of the way.
"Guaah!"
Instead, Asutorufo was caught in Darnic's claws.
"Asutorufo!"
"Stay back! Jīku, get away—"
Darnic hurled Asutorufo aside.
CRASH!
Asutorufo's body slammed into the corridor wall.
"Gah...!"
"Asutorufo!!"
Jīku tried to run to him.
—But.
"...Blood."
Darnic blocked Jīku's path.
"You... homunculus... your blood is... thin... but I can eat it."
Darnic's mouth opened wide.
Sharp fangs closed in on Jīku's throat.
(I'm going to die.)
That was what Jīku thought.
(I'm going to die here.)
(Without protecting anyone.)
(Without being able to do anything, again.)
—Then.
"—Stop."
A low, heavy voice rang out.
A silver light cut Darnic down.
"GUUUGYAAAAAAH!!"
Darnic was blown backward.
A man stood before Jīku.
Silver hair. Deep green eyes. A greatsword on his ba
Novelia is an AI-powered platform to read original light novels and fan fiction, create your own in just a few taps, and chat with the characters. New, illustrated episodes arrive daily — free to start.