Ch.108Hidden Intentions

My unexpected reaction seemed to surprise Serena, as her eyes widened.

“Are you saying it’s nothing to worry about, my lord?”

“For now, yes.”

“And then?”

“Of course, since it managed to land an attack on you, we should be extra cautious when royal knights or S-rank adventurers face it. One careless moment could cost them their heads. What I mean is that you don’t need to worry too much about it.”

If we kill just a few more of them, this black blood monster incident should be wrapped up. Then those fools dabbling in black magic will naturally disappear as well.

Having experienced this kind of situation before, Charlotte showed no particular reaction and focused solely on licking my finger, while Serena’s expression was pure bewilderment.

I smiled lightly at Serena, who, if she could express emotions visually, would have had dozens of question marks floating above her head. In response, her face turned bright red.

“…”

Suddenly, with a crunching sound, my left finger was severed. Wondering what happened, I turned to look at Charlotte.

Charlotte was glaring at me with sullen blood-red eyes, working her mouth. She had clearly noticed the smile I’d just given Serena.

How did she notice when she couldn’t have seen my face from that angle?

I concentrated sensation into my hand and restored the severed finger. Charlotte must have just been throwing a momentary tantrum, as she didn’t bite off the restored finger again.

“Anyway, Serena, you’re probably wondering why I’m saying all this. It’s okay. I’ll explain everything.”

“No, my lord. I have not the slightest intention of doubting your words. If you consider those creatures to be nothing special, then they are nothing special. There’s no need to explain anything to someone like me.”

Serena said this with a serious look, even pausing her tongue that had been licking my finger.

My mind, which had been racing to find the simplest way to explain the core issue, suddenly froze.

Indeed, what was the point of explaining anything to Serena, who would sincerely accept even the most absurd statement from me? Whether I explained or not, her faith would remain unchanged.

Even if I told her that her arm was contaminated and needed to be cut off, she would immediately sever her left arm without the slightest hesitation and present it to me.

‘By the way, this incident seems to be wrapping up.’

The reason I wasn’t particularly surprised when Serena mentioned the appearance of a new black blood monster was because similar types had appeared when they first emerged about a hundred years ago.

It all began when the royal knights, who had been steadily reducing the number of black blood monsters through cooperation with the high priests of the Holy Church and the royal mage corps, suffered near-annihilation from just a single black blood monster.

It possessed characteristics clearly different from ordinary black blood monsters, so it was classified as an “enhanced type.”

There was no reason to give them fancy names anyway.

While the royal knights and priests could somehow handle other black blood monsters, they were helplessly slaughtered by the enhanced types.

According to the testimony of a survivor who barely escaped, by the time they saw the enhanced type attack, it was already too late.

Afterward, well over a hundred priests and S-rank adventurers were killed by enhanced black blood monsters, and eventually Charlotte had to step in personally.

To borrow Charlotte’s words, it was “somewhat respectable”—a statement that, coming from the proud Charlotte, was proof enough of the creature’s power.

Of course, even so, it was dismembered without a chance to make a sound against Charlotte.

The characteristics of the new black blood monster—the enhanced type—that I heard about then matched exactly with what Serena had just described about the one that crushed her gauntlet.

Explosively improved physical abilities and the ability to restore body tissue by absorbing black blood residue in the surroundings.

Also, its near-human appearance and the fact that it only appears in places where dozens of other black blood monsters have been slaughtered.

“I don’t know what creates these black blood monsters, but they probably have conditions for their production. After the new one you mentioned was wiped out by Charlotte, all the other black blood monsters disappeared too. This time, I think the situation will be resolved after killing just three or four more.”

“Does that mean no more black blood monsters will appear once we kill those?”

“Probably? I’m not certain. It’s just a highly likely guess. We don’t have much accumulated information, and this is only the second time this has happened. Anyway, you won’t be caught off guard by that thing again, right?”

“That’s right, my lord. Thank you for your trust. I will definitely live up to your faith in me.”

This wasn’t a lie to reassure Serena or my own bluster—it truly was nothing to worry about.

First, those creatures never appear alone. The enhanced types only emerge in places where there are black blood byproducts to reconstruct their bodies.

And despite being grandly named “enhanced types,” they couldn’t even land effective hits against Serena and Charlotte when they were fully prepared.

Serena took a hit this time because she was acting as she normally would against other black blood monsters. If she faced them with full intention, there was zero chance of her losing.

‘The possible connection to black magic is somewhat concerning, but that’s a possibility inherent in other black blood monsters as well.’

According to our investigations so far, enhanced types weren’t particularly more likely to be connected to black magic.

In other words, I had no reason to treat them differently from ordinary black blood monsters.

If black blood monsters appeared in large numbers somewhere, I could just send Serena, and she could cut down even the enhanced types in one go, just like ordinary monsters.

“Actually, this might be even better. The frequency of their appearances drops sharply once the new black blood monster you mentioned starts showing up.”

At least we won’t have the shortage of priests caused by monsters popping up all over the kingdom like now.

Enhanced types only appeared in places with black blood residue to repair their bodies. The reason for this was still unknown.

They weren’t difficult to deal with, and they actually narrowed down the area we needed to monitor, so the appearance of enhanced types could even be considered beneficial.

“Then perhaps we can have some peace for a while, my dear.”

I nodded reflexively at Charlotte’s voice.

“We’ll need to check how frequently the black blood monsters appear, but that’s probably what will happen.”

I was about to ask why, but hesitated. Charlotte’s eyes were emitting an ominous light.

The reason Charlotte was looking at me with those eyes was obvious. She intended to take me to the royal palace. And I had no particular reason to refuse.

Even the reason I came here—to get a new adventurer’s certificate—was related.

I had tried to handle it alone to avoid disturbing Charlotte, who was investigating possible connections to black magic, but there turned out to be a madwoman researching black magic in the city’s underground, which was why Charlotte had come here.

As if sensing my thoughts, Charlotte’s eyes, meeting mine while she held my finger in her mouth, narrowed into crescent moons.

‘And that’s why Serena and Charlotte almost had another confrontation.’

I laid Serena, nearly exhausted from pleasure, on the sofa with her head on my thigh, and gently stroked her still-golden glowing hair.

Her slightly unfocused eyes stared blankly into space, and hot breaths escaped from her half-open lips.

Serena’s body twitched occasionally. The very fact of resting her head on my thigh seemed to act as a kind of mental pleasure for her.

After Charlotte had opened with the remark about having some peace for a while, she predictably followed up with a proposal for me to stay at the royal palace.

I had no particular reason to refuse and was about to agree, but unexpectedly, Serena jumped up in opposition.

She accused Charlotte of having ulterior motives, saying she had just been caressing my cheek for her own selfish desires and now wanted to take me to the palace.

Since I didn’t want another headache from their fighting, the compromise that emerged from my mediation was to stay at one of my mansions in the kingdom’s capital.

My stroking of Serena’s body just now was both a reward for her hard work and damage control after Charlotte had provoked Serena by mentioning how she had held me for hours after I was half-conscious from activating a curse in my name.

‘What should I do now?’

I pondered what to do next while stroking Serena’s hair.

As I had predicted, the frequency of black blood monster appearances had decreased to almost nothing.

The occasional ones that did appear were all swept away by the royal knights, who had become quite accustomed to dealing with black blood monsters.

Thanks to this, Serena, who had openly refused to deploy based on having slaughtered the most monsters so far, had become quite idle, as had Charlotte and I.

The problem was that even with this free time, there wasn’t much to do.

Perhaps as a reaction to having overworked myself looking for connections to black magic, finding myself with nothing to do created a strange feeling.

Well, I suppose days like this are necessary too—

“What a fortunate beast you are.”

Though that didn’t mean I needed someone to create work for me.