Princess Beauty (Utsukushihime)

Was originally in Shinobu's heroine book
Pages: 8
Around 600 years ago in a country the name of which is no longer remembered
There was an only daughter of a wealthy family known famously as Princess Beauty
People line up at the castle she lived in to see her and give gifts forming a mountain of presents
She was unhappy no one looked to see anything beyond her beauty
Witch granted her wish of making her outer beauty transparent
The beauty of her heart was such that people would offer up to her whatever was most important to them
Many people offered up their lives and the lives of other people to her forming a mountain of corpses taller than the castle
She tried to find the witch to have the magic undone but the witch had beheaded herself
She couldn't think what she could do, but her strong heart wouldn't allow her to give up and kill herself
Her tears briefly brought the witch's head to life
It tells that one day it may be possible to save those who die for her beauty
So until that day she must travel alone, never staying in one place

arrator is the vampire who turned Kiss-Shot Acerola-Orion Heart-Under-Blade and gave her that name
Called Deathtopia Virtuoso Suicide-Master
Speaks in a very overtly masculine way and as it's more convenient I'll use male pronouns for him
He lives in Corpse Castle which used to be the castle of a "Corpse King"
The legend of the king and his abandoned castle created the vampire Suicide-Master (so he isn't ex-human)
He has just one underling left named Tropicalesque Home-A-Wave Dog-Strings (or something like that)
Suicide-Master is rather proud of the names he comes up with and being cool and hard
He is also proud of his golden hair and golden eyes, which apparently his underlings inherit
He has a policy of eating whoever he kills and only eating who he kills
A lot of his underlings died by him killing and eating them for turning against him
Suicide-Master wakes up having died from starvation
Tropicalesque explains that the population of the kingdom has been wiped out and it was due to Princess Beauty
Princess Beauty has wiped out multiple kingdoms on her travels
Tropicalesque offers himself up to be eaten
But Suicide-Master wants to find Princess Beauty and eat her
Tracks her down to a hovel by flying and following corpses
After entering the hovel he resurrects with his head on the woman's lap
He tried to eat her and immediately killed himself out of guilt due to the curse on her
He will kill himself every time he succumbs to desire to eat her but stubbornly decides that she will be his next meal
When he resurrects he eats his detachment remains, in accordance with his policy
The woman doesn't go by the name Princess Beauty or the one her father gave her, Lola
She goes by the name Acerola and Suicide-Master calls her Princess Acerola (she's not really a princess though)
She has golden hair but not golden eyes: her right eye is silver and the left copper

He suggests she come to Corpse Castle rather keep travelling
The country is now empty and he, being a vampire, can regenerate so she can avoid killing anyone else
He offers to help the princess find salvation from the curse and doesn't hide that he intends to eat her if successful
Tropicalesque looks down on humans and doesn't want Suicide-Master looking after one in the castle
Suicide-Master warns him to stay away from Acerola and sends him travelling to gather information
Suicide-Master's only idea for how to nullify the curse is to have Acerola mask her inner beauty by pretense
Her inner beauty won't allow her to spoil that inner beauty and he wouldn't want to ruin his meal either
But the idea is that she could act like she doesn't have that inner beauty
He basically tries to get her to practice acting the way we know Kiss-Shot does, including the kaka laugh
Over the story she gets better at the act but never really manages to stop acting beautifully
At one point he comes bringing food for her when she's about stab out her right eye with a silver candlestick
He snatches the cnadlestick away, burning his hand on the silver, and shoves her onto the bed
He thought it was a suicide attempt but it was her idea that having an eye-patch like a pirate would help with the act
He doesn't want her to spoil his meal by doing anything that would actually damage herself and she agrees not to do it again
Tropicalesque doesn't get much information beyond the standard fairytale idea of the kiss of a prince lifting her curse
Suicide-Master is a monster rather than a prince
While he could potentially snatch a prince to try it he doesn't want to try to lift the curse that way
He is now thinking that even if his approach can't nullify the curse he'd rather just keep Acerola in his castle
However he can't force her to stay as the curse prevents him doing any harm to her

He is dying increasingly frequently from starvation but is still determined he won't eat anything else before Acerola
(according to Nisio's afterword his appearance regresses younger when he dies)
Eventually there is an occasion when he regenerates after starving and realizes Tropicalesque no longer exists
He goes to Acerola's room and finds what he expected: the room is covered in Tropicalesque's remains
Tropicalesque tried to kill Acerola but killed himself instead
He did it to free his master from obsession with Acerola
Tropicalesque's regeneration isn't strong enough to bring him back
Suicide-Master admits to Acerola that eventually he will also permanently die
So she decides she will leave the castle
Suicide-Master can't stop her but asks her to stay still while he eats Tropicalesque's remains before they turn to ash
He feels that he is responsible for killing his loyal servant and his rule is that he eats who he kills
She watches intently and comes to the decision that she wants him to make her a vampire
She is envious of him and wants to become like him
Her thinking is that she will be able to eat all the people who kill themselves for her sake
In this way she will be able to take them into herself rather than their deaths go to waste
Suicide-Master is sceptical that the curse would allow him to do it rather than kill himself if he tries
She suggests that if he does it for her sake it should be possible
He had been able to shove her with the intent of saving her despite the shove hurting her
Before he bites her he gives her the name Heart-Under-Blade Acerola-Orion Kiss-Shot
He tells her he wants her to be a vampire he'd be proud of
He doesn't want her to be servile to him: Tropicalesque was his last servant

The story ends in the modern day (nearly 600 years later) by explaining that she was successfully turned
They both left Corpse Castle but went separate ways
Suicide-Master is proud of the stories he hears about Kiss-Shot
At some point word of Princess Beauty had stopped so apparently the curse isn't a problem
He doesn't know how though, such as whether it was due to her becoming a vampire
He puts the fact he's still alive despite how hard life as a vampire has become down to feeding on her
Recently he's heard rumors of her being exorcised in a far eastern island nation
He's very sceptical of the rumors especially as he thinks he'd be able to sense whether she were dead
So he decides to go see her and hopes to feast with her if she's alive
Right on the last line it's implied that Suicide-Master was a woman too