chapter_0607

607 – Vampire

607 – Vampire

The screams of Gaeul and me were enough to wake the sleeping children.

Even the drowsy Saebyeok managed to wake up.

“W-who is it…?!”

Levinas sprang up from his bed with a happy face.

Clenching his fists in caution, he twisted his body with eyes still heavy with sleep.

“The, the elephant uncle is thumping…”

Haneul woke up mumbling, as if he had been dreaming, while Bomi quietly rubbed her eyes and assessed the situation.

As I tried to explain the situation to the children who had woken up because of us, a resurrected mosquito flew by, missing its timing.

“Gah!”

I followed the resurrected mosquito with my eyes, mouth agape.

As Gaeul and I were lost in shock, family members began to appear one by one through the bedroom door.

“What’s going on?!”

Hanyeoreum, startled, and Sophia, looking disheveled.

There was also Ravi, who arrived late, and Ian, who was only making his presence known from a distance since it was the girls’ area.

It seemed our screams had been quite loud.

“Gyeoul, what’s the matter?”

“Well, we encountered an immortal mosquito…”

“An immortal mosquito?”

“Yes, over there…”

I pointed to the mosquito stuck to the wall of the house.

Then Hanyeoreum jumped up and caught the mosquito with her index finger.

“Is this one immortal?”

“Yes…”

After a moment of contemplation, Hanyeoreum pressed down on the mosquito with her finger.

The flattened mosquito could clearly be said to be dead.

“It’s coming back to life… Huh?!”

The squashed mosquito began to restore its body.

At that horrific sight, Gaeul shut her eyes tightly.

“The mosquito sucked blood all night without dying.”

“W-well, why isn’t it dead?”

“This isn’t normal.”

So it really wasn’t an ordinary mosquito.

Just as we were about to share our thoughts on the mosquito, Ravi began to lay Gaeul and the other children back down.

“It’s a fascinating mosquito, but since it’s late, shall we send the children off to dreamland?”

“Yeah… Levinas will sleep more…”

“Okay, Gyeoul, shall we sleep too?”

“Uh…”

Indeed, as Ravi said, it was time for the children to sleep.

There was no need to show excitement and disturb their sleep time.

“See you all tomorrow.”

I covered myself with a blanket and waved goodbye to everyone.

Seeing Hanyeoreum take the mosquito in a container made me feel relieved.

At least there wouldn’t be any chance of getting drained of blood while sleeping.

**

The next day.

We sat in the living room discussing the immortal mosquito from last night.

The most plausible theory was Levinas’s “vampire minion” hypothesis.

“A vampire?”

“Yeah! The minion of a vampire collects blood! To make the vampire stronger…!”

Levinas raised both hands high.

He seemed to be trying to create a somewhat scary image.

Unfortunately, aside from Haneul, no one looked frightened.

“Gaeul, aren’t you scared of vampires?!”

“Black-haired dog?”

“What?! You don’t know what a vampire is?!”

“Ugh…”

It seemed that Levinas had talked about vampires in front of Gaeul before, but she didn’t actually know what they were.

Realizing why Gaeul wasn’t scared, she put on a fearful expression.

“Gaeul, vampires drink human blood!”

“Blood?!”

“Yeah! Like this, slurp slurp slurp…!”

Levinas pretended to suck on Gaeul’s shoulder.

While acting out the motion of sucking something, he went to the living room and brought back a dried anchovy.

“If you suck a lot of blood, you turn into something like this anchovy!”

“How many?!”

Startled, Gaeul flinched.

It seemed she understood that if all the blood in her body was sucked out, she would dry up.

“Black-haired dog is scary!”

“Yeah! Vampires are very terrifying beings! We have to catch them before they get strong by drinking a lot of blood!”

Seeing Levinas’s serious demeanor, Gaeul raised her Wooden Caliber high.

Just as Haneul lifted her mechanical arm, ready to form a vampire hunting squad, Sophia came in holding the container with the mosquito.

“Sophia, did you find out anything?”

“Yeah, Yuna checked and said it’s a type of monster. It uses the blood left in its body like a potion.”

“Oh, so that’s why…!”

I wondered why the mosquito resurrected; it must have used the blood it had sucked like a potion.

Since the potion’s ingredient was blood, it wasn’t something to be shocked about.

“I’ve figured out its identity, but a bigger problem has arisen.”

“Yeah? What problem?”

“It seems there will be more than one of these creatures.”

“Ah…”

An immortal swarm of mosquitoes.

That would truly be hell.

“It seems they snuck out from some portal…”

“Then will Levinas go look for them?!”

“Can you do it?”

“Yeah! The Horned Rabbit is strong against vampires!”

Levinas was indeed right.

In the Animal King animation, Count Dracula was defeated by the heroic Horned Rabbit.

“Just don’t overdo it.”

As soon as Sophia gave her permission, Levinas’s ears perked up.

He looked quite happy at the thought of being able to catch a vampire.

“Everyone, let’s go catch the vampire!”

“Wow!”

“Yay!”

The children raised their weapons high.

My bow was at the guild, so I just raised my clenched fist.

Today, I decided to track down the vampire with the children.

‘For now…’

I examined the mosquito in the container.

If I could use it, maybe I could catch other mosquitoes too.

**

We walked through the village searching for the vampire.

Not knowing exactly where to go, we just wandered around the neighborhood.

“Gah! That’s it!”

While walking towards the large mart, Levinas suddenly started running.

The place where Levinas stopped was none other than a blood donation vehicle.

“······!”

Levinas, with his ears perked up in caution, stepped into the blood donation vehicle.

Could it be that Levinas still thinks the people drawing blood are vampires?

I hurriedly ran towards the blood donation vehicle.

“…Are you doing well?”

Levinas’s tone seemed strange, perhaps because he was tense from the smell of blood.

The nurse looked at Levinas with wide eyes.

“Did you come to donate blood? Children can’t donate blood, what should we do?”

“No, it’s not a blood donation…! I just came to ask something!”

“Hmm? What is it?”

“Are you a vampire…?”

The nurse paused for a moment at Levinas’s question.

Then she began to giggle.

“…How did you know?”

“What?!”

Startled, Levinas pulled out a soap bubble necklace from his pocket.

Haneul and Bomi also ignited their mechanical arms and Black Mana, while Gaeul raised her Wooden Caliber, shouting “Medicine!”

“Evil vampire…!”

“No, no, no, kids, it’s just a joke.”

The nurse seemed taken aback, not expecting them to aim their weapons at her.

Levinas, however, couldn’t shake off his suspicion.

“…You’re not a bad vampire, are you?”

“Yeah. I’m a kind and good person.”

After hesitating for a moment, Levinas sniffed the nurse.

Could there be a separate scent for good people?

Levinas relaxed his guard and bowed deeply.

“I’m sorry. Levinas was chasing a bad vampire.”

“A vampire?”

“Yeah. Vampires are the natural enemies of Horned Rabbits, but the Horned Rabbit is a bit stronger.”

“Is that so?”

“Exactly!”

Levinas continued to chatter away.

In the meantime, I noticed that the mosquito I had released was heading somewhere through pheromones.

It wasn’t wandering aimlessly; it was heading straight for a specific location.

As if it had made an appointment to meet there.

“Good people don’t need to worry! Levinas will defeat the wicked vampire!”

“Really? Thank you.”

I patted Levinas on the shoulder while he was chatting.

I thought about how great Levinas’s sociability was.

“Levinas, the mosquito you released is moving somewhere.”

“Could it be… going to deliver blood to the vampire?!”

“Maybe?”

If there really was a vampire, that could be possible.

I was sure, but I decided not to shatter Levinas’s childlike innocence.

“Good vampire, bye-bye…!”

“Good vampire…?”

The nurse gave an awkward smile.

Even if the person drawing blood was kind, to Levinas, they were all vampires.

“Wanga, where is the vampire’s minion going?”

“Um… to the mountain?”

It was moving to a mountain quite far away.

A place outside our neighborhood.

I felt a bit relieved knowing it wasn’t a monster that had appeared in our village.

It didn’t mean we had missed a monster in the dawn.

“Can you make it that far?”

“Yeah!”

“Gaeul can do it.”

“Me too!”

We took a bus to the area near the mountain where the mosquito was heading.

Since the bus wouldn’t take us all the way up the mountain, we decided to walk.

‘Is this it.’

Halfway up the mountain.

The pheromones from the mosquito were thick in the air.

The smell of blood was also quite strong.

“Gyeoul, over there!”

Bomi pointed somewhere with her finger.

At the tip of her finger, a mosquito the size of a wild boar was clinging to a tree, resting.

“Gah!”

“······!”

The children instinctively took a step back at the sight of the giant mosquito.

If it sucked even a sip of blood, we might end up like dried squid.

“E-everyone, be careful not to get your blood sucked!”

“Ugh, okay!”

Everyone gripped their weapons and kept a wary eye on the mosquito.

Then Levinas shouted loudly at the mosquito.

“Evil insect vampire! The Horned Rabbit has arrived!”

Did the giant mosquito understand Levinas’s words?

It took off with a sound comparable to a helicopter’s wings.

Thud thud thud—

It was big and scary, but it was just one.

Just as I was about to aim my bow, I noticed something small gathering around it.

Ten, a hundred, and then thousands.

The swarm that densely filled the air was none other than the immortal mosquitoes.

Thousands of immortal mosquitoes.

Every hair on my body stood on end.

“Gah!”

“Nyahhh!”

The children and I screamed in unison.

This was the greatest crisis since the founding of the Ggaemmi Guild.

A word from the author (Author’s note)

Thank you so much for reading today, PIA1747014585384!

Thanks for the comments and recommendations too! They always give me strength…!

Thousands of immortal mosquitoes…!

Just imagining it is terrifying…!

Thank you to the person who loves good things for the 50 coin support!

And to AABABBA for the 10 coin support!