episode_0018

It’s dark.

My hands are clenched.

But I don’t feel anything.

Rachel realized it in that moment.

It’s another dream, she thought, taking deep breaths mixed with tension.

Around her, familiar voices echoed.

The mockery of seeing herself alone from her family, the pressure from those who believed she could overcome it, the betrayal of those around her who she thought would never cease their support, and the unrelenting misfortune.

If these memories resurfaced, it felt like being stabbed in the chest over and over again.

Instinctively, Rachel pulled her elbow closer to herself.

In the darkness, the only thing to rely on is clearly herself.

There have been times when she feared sleep so much, especially when she had suffered from severe nightmares in such a deep slumber.

That’s why she’s even more sensitive.

Whether succubus or nightmare, there’s this side to Rachel even when she’s putting on a front.

But it’s strange.

Clearly, it shouldn’t be the volume of just one person. Her body isn’t this big.

It’s warm. The sensation of thin arms she thought were fragile embracing her is gradually returning.

After a while, Rachel, lost in a daze of emotions, came to her senses at the touch of a hand she reached.

“Is… Ian? Are you there?”

“Yes, I’m here.”

The lips that had been moving continuously now finally seemed somewhat familiar.

However, as she faced the face that was barely different by just a few sheets of paper,

the embarrassment that had felt awkward before now surged through the center of her chest, accompanied by a slight sense of anticipation.

Close. Too close. It’s a narrow gap where even shallow breaths can be heard.

A complex and subtle feeling that cannot be understood no matter how hard she tries.

What she felt as soon as she faced him was an emotion she should never have. That’s why she felt even more embarrassed.

“Mother?”

“…Yes.”

“What did you say?”

“Ah… Yes!!!”

-Thump, thump, thump.

Her heart hurts.

She doesn’t know what it is, but she thinks she should stop this emotional game.

Sometimes she deludes herself into thinking she has become young again. Because her body looks young.

The late-blowing wind seems frightening. Lately, Rachel couldn’t think of anything else and grabbed her legs, urging herself to move forward, even if it meant breaking them, pulling out bones, or damaging her spine.

She felt like she had countless moments when she thought, “Just one more step from here,” but gradually lost track. If that moment comes, she had a strong intuition that there would be no turning back.

“Mother, are you okay? You’re suddenly sweating a lot.”

“…It’s… nothing. Just… stay quiet.”

Rachel, leaving my embrace, repeatedly pressed her lips against mine several times, then stopped and shook her head.

As Ian cautiously approached her, Rachel simultaneously stepped back a bit. Perhaps the words just spoken were quite shocking.

After swallowing hard for a moment, Rachel spoke quietly as if she had made up her mind.

“Ian…”

Looking at her face turned serious, he was on the verge of wanting to change his mind, which he had decided until a while ago.

“I’m… sorry. Please. Can’t we stop now? No more moving forward… No, I am between you and your parents. Such an act should not… No… happen.”

With her face turned away, Rachel said each word as if driving a nail into her own heart. With each period, it felt like she was punctuating her shoulder with a stake.

Due to just waking up from a nightmare, she forcibly held her trembling hand like a spasm. The woman, standing in front of a large piece of art in the corridor, opened her eyes after repeatedly asking questions without receiving answers.

“Ian? Why… why won’t you answer me? I feel…-”

Startled by her own words, she squinted her eyes and covered her mouth. Ian, looking at his pitiful self in silence, seemed frightening.

“…”

“Today, you seem to be nothing but disappointing. I’m… sorry.”

“Rachel.”

“No, don’t call me by my name… Please, this isn’t right. It’s not… There shouldn’t be this kind of atmosphere between us in the first place.”

“Father, is it because of that?”

“That’s not the issue. I can never be connected to you from the start. It’s impossible. This fact will never change. Never… change.”

Facing the hesitant woman, Ian placed his hand on her shoulder.

“Then let’s stop. It seems like both my mother and I need time to sort out our feelings.”

“…Is that so.”

Rachel muttered at the end with a dying voice. Can one really expect such an answer? Or did she hope for him to deny everything and embrace her?

Her hand on his shoulder pressed painfully. But this should do it. With this banquet as a turning point, Ian and… the moment when his thoughts and worries were about to end.

-Whack.

He automatically raised his head in the familiar embrace. Just as he was about to lose his temper and scold, he himself understood the situation.

-Kugugugung!

A demon with black skin and magical power with an unusual color.

“…..Demon? No, devil…?”

At the moment when the actions of the demons rushed in, his mind became dizzy. About 3 seconds later, the demon, who had closed his eyes, was torn in half and vanished before his eyes.

“Master. I… I am now. Why…”

However, at the same time, he took a step back at the sight of the red figure.

“…Vampire?”

…

“Are you here?”

A maid with red pupils swung her arm once. However, contrary to what could be seen from a distance, the mansion, which should have been filled only with empty wind, resounded with a noise that would make one believe in monsters.

‘What on earth is that woman…!!!! The employer should have been most concerned with the lord and the ice palace owner, but…!’

The leader of the thieves, who barely managed to change positions behind the pillar, could not hide his astonishment.

With a whimper, they dodged the widespread magic attacks by rolling their bodies.

Facing off against 10 Laheenos without flinching, even with a shield? Damn it, when I first encountered them, I was hit by a fatigue-inducing arrow and crumpled into a useless heap. It’s absurd that arrows that look identical can hold over ten times the power due to some mysterious force within them.

“Gah… darn it,” my legs involuntarily weakened, and as my vision blurred, the echoing footsteps in the corridor filled me with dread. I’ve managed to hold out this far and erase my tracks thanks to an easy-to-use concealment technique. Assassins typically train in lower-level concealment, but those who survive refine it to a high level, turning it into a skill… there were people like that.

But now, it’s meaningless. No, it’s become meaningless due to an incomprehensible response beyond common sense. Sensitivity to blood scent even more acute than sight, and utilizing the advantage of surprise in close combat. Even if by some chance they say it was a lucky shot, to anyone other than Ora Blade, it’s not even a contest; she’d tear their clothes apart, saying, “How dare you defile the maid uniform directly bestowed upon me by the master,” and then proceed to continue this malicious game, killing all surrounding subordinates while sparing herself alone.

“What in the world is that if not a real demon…!”

-Thud, thud, thud.

Bleeding had already begun in my right abdomen. When did I get hurt? If I had known, I would have avoided it from the start. The truly terrifying aspect of that vampire maid lies in her unbelievably powerful magic manipulation.

“Not only does her body exude strong magic, but it’s also reinforced through three layers… on top of that, her mana-trained breathing method seems correct, and her recovery is fast.”

With that face, if I were to run away, just breathing would replenish the mana I’ve used up until now.

It was at that moment.

-“You, how much longer do you plan to engage in this petty cat-and-mouse game?”

A chilling voice reached my ears from beside the pillar.

-Thud.

My reflexes, honed by habit, quickly pulled the trigger of the crossbow. But the crossbow was already in Uriah’s hand, crushed and crumpled.

“Ugh, a crossbow made of steel… so simple…”

A swift kick lodged in the back sent the thief spinning several times before slamming into the wall.

Had it been an ordinary person, it would have been instant death, but being the head of an assassination group, he didn’t go down with just one blow. Since he was the only one who hadn’t died from a single strike, Yuria took her time to finish him off.

Not inherently cruel by nature, she felt no remorse due to her aversion to humanity itself. Instead, she treated her master Ian with exceptional care and nothing more, nothing less.

But now, even that had become tiresome.

“I’d rather not taste anything other than Ian’s blood because of the foul stench… but well, it’s fine. It’s just the scavengers’ feast.”

Yuria let out a low chuckle and slowly opened her eyes. Her worn ruby irises stared blankly at the path she had traversed and the torn clothes.

The crossbow fell from the assassin’s arm as it was flung aside. Then, as if swarming out of a shadow where nothing had been, the vampires’ underlings rushed to devour what was left. The assassin’s arm was now twisted beyond recognition, not even leaving its original form intact.

However, their leader was remarkably resilient.

“G-gah… gurk, ugh!”

Seeing him barely clinging to life, Yuria tilted her head.

As if suddenly remembering something forgotten, her eyes widened, and her lips curled into a faint smile.

“…I didn’t expect you to hold on for a second time.

Don’t look at me with those vulture-like eyes. At least die comfortably without pain—

No.

Dying without pain is too merciful a choice. After all, you’ve stolen time from me and my master.”

In that moment, the assassin regretted instinctively trying to lift his head thousands of times over.

Yuria briefly touched her chin and gazed outside the blood-stained window, tinted red by the assassins’ blood.

Where did the title of the leader of the assassins go?

Fear emanated from his trembling knees and quivering jaw, unable to stop. The primal fear of wanting to escape somehow consumed his body, but…

Warm saliva was being lapped up around the ankle, as if the vampire’s kin were about to bite into it at any moment. The despair seeping through the thin skin painted the face of the man, who never once thought he would end up like this.

“…I heard something strange. It sounded like a woman’s moan, near Ian-nim? This voice is…”

Clutching his chest and falling into a trance, the figure dancing alone among the nobles, a maid, seemed not just obsessive, but something more.

As an assassin, he had encountered countless lunatics, but he had never seen a woman so oddly disturbed before. And on top of that, never had he been overwhelmed to this extent.

The shame he felt since the first time he wielded a sword against a demon… he had never experienced it even once.

“It was you who struck the blow on the day I could have conceived my child.”

The maid, touching her lower abdomen, tapped the window with a troubled look.

Thunk.

A piece of wood fell for a moment.

Attached to the leader’s shoulder, something trembled slightly and fell. Along with it, ruby-like red pupils, tainted with blood, shone through the black mass falling between the dirty window frames.

“…Are you still alive? You are forgiving, too. It seems you have received the blessing of the gods.”

There was no hopeful talk of perhaps sparing his life. He had already prepared to flee himself, but there was no escape. His foot was gone. No, it had been torn off along with his ankle.

He didn’t need to see the source to know. It took less than three minutes for the wolves of the assassin’s kin to enter through their mouths.

“Grrrr….”

“Good grief.”

The assassin, already convinced of his own demise, let it happen. Following that, dozens of famished kin devoured the assassin’s ankles.

He knew. Each one of them had enough strength to tear through leather with ease and crush a human skull as if it were nothing.

‘I should have realized from the beginning.’

Typically, young vampires spew out a red aura and scream that they want to kill at least one person, but Yuriya’s surroundings were surprisingly quiet.

From there, he felt doubt. The fact that she, who was only 100 years old, was able to control her blood-sucking impulse, which even troubled vampires over 100 years old, was a significant fact.

The only choice left for him, who was staggering backward, was one thing: to activate the devil transformation he had originally planned to use all the attendees of the banquet as catalysts for, whether to trigger it himself or to face death as it was.

Soon, in the banquet hall, a low-ranking demon was wandering around.

…

The situation returned to the present. I barely raised my head after barely rescuing Rachel from the demon’s attack.

Rachel seemed slightly flustered and tried to raise her voice, but soon noticed the scene below and became subtly complex again.

“I-Ian. It hurts. Please… ease up on my shoulder a bit…”

Was I gripping her waist too tightly? If I really saw her like this, I couldn’t believe she was the same person who had asked to keep some distance just a while ago. Just like two lovers in love. If I really saw her like this, she was just like lovers sharing affection.

-Slip.

“Huh?!”

As the fallen demon’s body was stepped on and they slipped closer until their lips almost touched, suddenly, a being appeared in the mirror.

[ You are under an absolute threat to your life. Escape immediately. ]

[ ?????Final Boss (Yuriya) feels deep betrayal towards you. ]

[ ?????Final Boss (Yuriya) says you are not at fault. The sin lies solely with %%$@## ]

[ ?????Final Boss (Yuriya) is feeling excessive emotional turmoil towards you. ]

[ ?????Final Boss (Yuriya) is feeling #$~^%@!% excessive emotional turmoil towards you. ]

[ ?????Final #$Boss (Yuriya) is feeling #$~^%%$ excessive emotional turmoil towards you. ]

-Thud.

“Master, am I… am I no longer needed…?”

Through the crack in the broken mirror, the figure of a woman was reflected. A maid with red eyes walked unsteadily.

Tears welled up in her eyes. Yet, within her surged an overwhelming torrent of emotions.

The night was just beginning now.