Ch. 29 Mendacious Counter
by AfuhfuihgsChapter 29 – Mendacious Counter
As soon as the ringing of the phone woke me up, the lingering pain, exhaustion, and the sunlight streaming in made me instinctively squint my eyes shut again.
Had I collapsed into sleep the moment I returned?
I silently praised my decision to use this place as my base, stretching briefly before checking the time.
“…1 PM, huh.”
It felt too early for a vampire to be awake, but at the same time, it also felt late.
There was no point in debating it. Pushing aside such trivial thoughts, I answered the call from my client and asked what they needed.
“What’s the matter at this hour?”
—You weren’t answering, so I figured I’d check if you were still alive and ask a few things. Judging by the fact that you picked up, I guess you’re doing fine.
“I’m alive, though a bit tired. I wouldn’t say I’m doing ‘well.’”
—Hmm, I see. Well, I guess you wouldn’t be in great shape after spending time with two women~
I had only been objectively stating my condition, but she twisted it into a joke involving Radiant White, using it to tease me.
“…That’s not funny. And I haven’t even contacted that magical girl yet.”
When I asked if they called just to chat, they immediately denied it.
—I just wanted to give you a moment to wake up. You think I called just to mess around?
Hearing Mina’s playful yet oddly sly tone, I wondered if she hadn’t done exactly that every time she called.
I considered pointing it out but decided against it—no need to stir up trouble. Instead, I gave her the answer she likely wanted.
“That makes sense. So, you wanted an update on Hemorrhagia’s investigation. I’ve made some progress, but I figured it was nothing you didn’t already know, so I didn’t bother reporting. Do you still want to hear it?”
—I’ll decide if I already know it after you tell me. Just say whatever you found. Oh, and don’t bother with obvious stuff like ‘she seems to be a vampire.’
Since my client requested it, I had no reason not to comply.
I relayed my findings: her unpleasant personality, her sharp insight, her refusal to take even a single hit. Based on those, I deduced that despite her strength, her defensive capabilities weren’t particularly high.
After listening quietly, she finally responded.
—Yeah… that’s almost everything I already knew. I get why you didn’t bother saying it earlier…
Her voice carried a mix of disappointment and boredom. That unsettled me enough that I rushed to explain myself.
“It wasn’t easy to observe from a distance, and trying to learn through combat was impossible—our power gap was too vast. I could barely hold my ground.”
Having served in the military for a long time, I knew that flimsy excuses only made things worse. But now that I was in a position where I had to make one, I finally understood why people resorted to weak excuses.
—Wait… You, a human, actually fought my mother in that form?
But rather than my excuse, Mina seemed more intrigued by the fact that I had been able to fight Hemorrhagia at all.
Ah, damn it.
…I let that slip in my rush to explain.
I was baffled by my mistake. Disappointed in myself. But this wasn’t the time to dwell on that.
I was now on the verge of revealing a secret I wanted to keep hidden from everyone.
—Hey? Hello? You still there? What’s going on?
Mina’s teasing tone had disappeared. She now sounded genuinely concerned.
But I couldn’t answer. I had no idea what to say.
If she found out I was some monstrous existence, caught between human and aberration… would she still accept me?
I was terrified that if I told the truth, she would say she couldn’t help me anymore.
Should I just brush it off? She hadn’t directly asked me anything yet, so maybe I could get away with it this time too.
But then, another thought struck me.
What if she hadn’t asked because she was waiting for me to tell her myself?
If that were the case, delaying would only make things worse.
—Seriously, are you okay?! Answer me! If something’s wrong, I’m coming over—
“There’s no need for that. I was just… sorting out my thoughts.”
—Damn it, don’t scare me like that! I thought something had happened!
Even now, she was worried about me.
And yet, I had tried to lie to her.
“…If something were wrong, I wouldn’t be this quiet. Earlier, you asked how I could fight that creature, right? Before I answer… may I ask you just one thing?”
Even in this situation, I was trying to secure an escape route.
The thought disgusted me.
—…What is it?
“You… your family. Could you accept me, no matter what I am?”
-Uh… probably?
Probably.
…That was enough.
“Then I’ll continue. It’s because I’m a monster.”
-Huh? Wait, what did you just say?
“If you didn’t hear it, I’ll say it again. It’s because I’m a monster. You heard me correctly.”
After saying that, she fell silent, asking for a moment to think.
That brief silence felt unbearably long.
Even longer than when I was trapped in darkness after death, waiting to return to reality.
-This… we should talk about this in person. It’s too heavy of a topic for a phone call. Can we meet tomorrow?
“If that’s what you want, then let’s do that. We’ll continue this conversation then.”
-Alright… I’ll see you then.
With that, Mina ended the call.
…Now, I should stop thinking about this. The bullet has already been fired.
Right now, I needed to prepare an insurance policy in case things went south.
In the darkness, I pulled out the slip of paper the magical girl had given me and dialed the number written on it.
Not even a second later, she answered.
-Hello?! Who is this?! If this isn’t important, could you call back later? I’m a bit busy right now—
“It’s me. I have information on Hemorrhagia. This isn’t free—I’m offering a trade. We can decide what to exchange when we meet. Same place as before. Come alone.”
Even though I set several conditions, the magical girl didn’t ask any questions. She simply agreed, saying she needed to drop her comrades off at a nearby base, so it would take some time.
…I knew this wasn’t exactly a noble act. But it was a choice I had to make to survive.
If things went completely wrong, this was the only lifeline I had left.
For now… I should get some weapons out of this.
Originally, I just wanted to mess with Suhyuk a little by nitpicking his words, but I never expected that one slip-up would make him confess to being a monster.
In the original story, he revealed the truth to Radiant White around the midpoint. Well, technically, he got found out rather than confessing himself.
I mean, Radiant White had started to suspect him at some point, but still—saying it outright was a different matter.
Not that it was a big deal.
I just hadn’t expected him to trust me enough to admit it so early on.
It caught me off guard.
And it was inconvenient.
…This wasn’t part of the plan.
If I exposed him now and cut him loose, it would ruin everything. So, I had to keep stacking lies to cover it up.
This means my plans will have to be moved up.
…Can a monster even be turned into a vampire?
I knew it worked the other way around, but I had no idea if it was possible in reverse. So when he inevitably asked me to turn him into one of my kind, what was I supposed to do?
I mean, I went on and on about family—if I refused to turn him, that would just be weird.
“Hey, Narae. Do you know if a monster can become a vampire?”
“…Miss Mina, do you think I’m some kind of encyclopedia? There are a lot of things I don’t know too, you know? If you’re so curious, why don’t you just test it yourself? Instead of always messing with magical girls.”
“I’m not messing with them. It’s just a little game of tag.”
“Oh yeah? Since when does the one being chased attack the tagger? Stop talking nonsense.”
Ha, seriously. I need to put her in her place someday.
But since she was handling so many things for me, I couldn’t be too harsh.
Looks like… I’ll have to take Narae’s advice and start experimenting on monsters.
One day, I will crush her pride. But for now, I opened my map and checked the location Suhyuk had given me—the Rabbit’s Foot branch.
It was about time to start stomping out some monsters.
hevb
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