Corpse Reviver


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Copyright
 HOLLOW REGALIA—Corpse Reviver Vol. 1
 UTSURONARU REGALIA VOL. 1 Corpse Reviver
 Gakuto Mikumo
 Translation by Sergio Avila Ramirez
 Cover art by Miyuu
 This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
 UTSURONARU REGALIA Vol. 1 Corpse Reviver
 ©Gakuto Mikumo 2021
 Edited by Dengeki Bunko
 First published in Japan in 2021 by KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo. English translation rights arranged with KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo through TUTTLE-MORI AGENCY, INC., Tokyo.
 English translation © 2023 by Yen Press, LLC
 Yen Press, LLC supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.
 The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact the publisher. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
 Names: Mikumo, Gakuto, author. | Miyuu, illustrator. | Avila Ramirez, Sergio, translator.
 Title: Hollow regalia / Gakuto Mikumo ; illustration by Miyuu ; translated by Sergio Avila Ramirez.
 Other titles: Utsuronaru regalia. English
 Description: First Yen On edition. | New York, NY : Yen On, 2023- | Contents: v. 1. Corpse reviver—
 Identifiers: LCCN 2022048784 | ISBN 9781975352790 (v. 1 ; trade paperback)
 Subjects: LCGFT: Apocalyptic fiction. | Monster fiction. | Light novels.
 Classification: LCC PZ7.1.M555 Ho 2023 | DDC [Fic]—dc23
 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022048784
 ISBNs: 978-1-9753-5279-0 (paperback)
 978-1-9753-5280-6 (ebook)
 E3-20230223-JV-NF-ORI
 
 
 Contents
 Cover
 Insert
 Title Page
 Copyright
 Opening Act: Prologue
 Act 1: Corpse Reviver
 Act 2: Kushinada Hunting
 Act 3: Runaway Runaway
 Act 4: Hollow Regalia
 Final Act: Epilogue
 Afterword
 Glossary
 Yen Newsletter
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Opening Act Prologue
 Yahiro rolled on the ground, a powerful shock and scorching pain racking his whole body. Fresh blood gushed from his lungs, and the taste of death filled his mouth.
 He could hear the searing wind blowing through the gaps of the decayed steel frames of the structure.
 It was summer. The fourth one since the disaster.
 Not a trace of human life lingered in the ruins of the city. There was nothing but the calls of the cicadas. Only they did not rest as they cried endlessly to announce the twilight.
 What a fierce obsession with life. This species full of such vitality. Dreadful destruction had changed the shape of the land, eradicating any and all human inhabitants, and yet the boisterous insects kept on living as though nothing had happened.
 It was as moving as it was repugnant.
 All these thoughts flooded Yahiro’s mind as he stared at the twilight sky visible through the cracked ceiling. A scarlet afterglow charred the heavens. It was this same red sky that brought to mind those four-year-old memories.
 On a summer day like this one, crimson rain, thick as mist, had dyed the world the color of flames.
 There were collapsed skyscrapers as far as the eye could see. Wreckage and debris. Trains warped and twisted into gray lumps of metal. Fallen bridges and caved-in roads—not even the earth maintained its form. It was like looking at some foreign land.
 Rain fell consistently. Rusty-red rain.
 Nothing else moved.
 Not a single person had survived.
 Millions of citizens, wiped out of existence. Devoured so completely that not even corpses remained.
 The only one left behind was Yahiro Narusawa—age thirteen, his bloody fists clenched.
 “Su…i…!”
 His voice rang hollow throughout the silent ruins.
 The warmth of his sister’s small hand lingered in his own, her young, innocent smile still on his mind. But she was nowhere to be found. There was only the fresh blood that drenched Yahiro’s whole body.
 “Where are you…Sui…?!”
 No voice answered his yells; the quiet wind just increased in intensity.
 Yahiro had climbed rubble-strewn stairs to get a better view from a higher vantage point.
 It was like a poorly crafted diorama. A ravaged ghost town drenched in crimson rain. Fires burned all over the city and gave the morning sky an evening glow.
 The cataclysm cavorted in the sky. A giant shadow that enveloped the whole world. A rainbow-colored monster swimming through the clouds in a spiral, looking down at the ground with contempt.
 “Thank goodness…you’re alive, Dear Brother.”
 He heard a clear, cheerful voice.
 The soaring monster had pranced behind the girl as she looked down at Yahiro; chills ran along his spine.
 Sui Narusawa had smiled softly amid the crimson rain.
 “…Or was it that you just could not die?”
 It would not leave. He could not get away from that memory, even now. The memory of her clear eyes reflecting the world in ruins and that beautiful, atrocious dragon behind her.
 “…Tsk!”
 His consciousness faded for just a moment.
 Yahiro frantically awoke, irate, and rolled over before jumping back up.
 The fangs of the beast grazed the top of his head. The ferocious Moujuu stood three meters tall.
 It rushed him with unnecessary momentum and crashed into the concrete. Yahiro used the opportunity to pick his knife back up and regain his footing.
 His wound was ridiculously deep. One of his lungs was crushed, and his right shoulder blade was pulverized. His arm was barely connected to