Ch.51Chapter 51: Vampire (7)

However, the opponent was a Master-level powerhouse.

And the attendants behind him all seemed formidable as well.

At minimum, they were all 6th Circle or higher.

I knew vampires were an elite few, but I hadn’t realized they would be this powerful.

This was the true strength of proper vampires on display.

“These are my guests! Are you saying I don’t even have that much authority!?”

But Ishuran didn’t budge an inch.

“I’m merely explaining the procedure, Princess. It seems… you’ve brought beasts and barbarians with you…. In Brasov’s long history, allowing such creatures inside the city walls is a rare occurrence indeed.”

“Ugh, beast stench.”

Some of them snickered while looking at Yuria.

Seeing such blatant hostility, it seemed that contrary to Lilith’s words, the conflict between vampires and beastkin hadn’t completely disappeared.

“What? Stench? What are these things saying? They’re the ones reeking of blood!”

Regardless of how powerful the opponents were, Yuria’s bold personality meant she spoke her mind freely.

It was hard to tolerate when one’s race was being insulted.

“What did this beast bitch just say?”

Yuria’s fur began to stand on end as she prepared to transform into her beast form.

Seeing this, Valt quietly stepped in front of her and spoke.

“Yuria, enough. You vampires, we weren’t aware of such rules. But are you saying this knowing that King Bladir himself requested our services?”

At the mention of the king, Ishuran’s eyebrow twitched.

“Services?”

“That’s right. A request to investigate a series of disappearances. For some reason, all the vampire investigation teams that have gone outside have gone missing. Do you know anything about that?”

But Ishuran was no pushover.

Of course, given his position, he could find fault with anything if he wanted to.

“What if you’re the culprits?! How do I know you’re not trying to deceive the king and plot against our clan?!”

Despite Ishuran’s thundering voice, Valt didn’t back down.

With their current strength, winning a fight against these vampires would be difficult.

But they could escape if needed. Valt was confident of that much.

“If that was our intention, Lilith, whom we rescued, would no longer be in this world. And I find it strange. Why are you all so healthy after consuming so much blood that even the king doesn’t drink?”

Ishuran gave a sinister smile at Valt’s question.

“The king has weakened himself with unnecessary mercy. We have no such intentions. Relations with humans? They’re merely food—what kind of relationship could we possibly have with them!”

“Uncle!!”

Provocation.

Ishuran was trying to provoke Valt’s group to gain justification for his actions.

If the angered group attacked, he would use that as an excuse to eliminate them all.

“You there, human, answer me. Do you humans have relationships with the livestock you raise? Hahaha! That would be amusing indeed. Well, I suppose it’s not strange for one type of livestock to get along with another.”

But Robin’s patience ran deep. Archery required maintaining a calm mind at all times.

To shoot an arrow along the correct path, the most important thing for an archer was an unwavering heart.

“Well… they might not be livestock, but humans do get along quite well with many animals. At least we’re not cowards who would devour our pet dogs out of fear of being bitten.”

“What did you say?”

Whoosh!

Blood-colored magical energy surged from Lilith’s body, and her sharp voice rang out.

“Enough! These people are collaborators recognized by Father. If you continue this disrespect, I will consider it rebellion against the king’s orders.”

At 6th Circle, Lilith might barely be able to handle one of them if she got angry.

But it seemed the king’s name carried weight, as Ishuran and his underlings turned to leave.

“Hmph, I will confirm this with His Majesty directly. You’re lucky, outsiders. You’ve saved your lives. And you, barbarian, next time you should speak more respectfully. Such uncivilized creatures with no manners.”

It seemed he was upset that Valt had spoken informally.

Thump, thump—

If those vampires, rather than Lilith, had been the first ones they’d met, they would have had to give up on getting along with vampires.

Having directly witnessed Brasov’s internal problems, Valt sensed this matter wouldn’t be easy.

“I-I’m sorry! I apologize on their behalf for their rudeness.”

“It’s fine. So those are the hardliners you mentioned?”

Lilith bit her lip hard. She bit it so forcefully that a little blood seeped out.

“…Yes, most of the Senate members, led by my uncle, are hardliners. Honestly, there are too many suspicious things about them.”

“But you have no evidence, I assume.”

Lilith nodded, hanging her head.

“Sigh… yes, they’re obtaining human blood from somewhere, but we have no idea how they’re getting it.”

“Collusion?”

“That’s what we suspect… but we have no evidence. Another problem is that we moderates don’t have enough strength to follow them now. They don’t make it easy to track them either.”

Robin stepped forward at Lilith’s words.

“If they’re obtaining human blood from somewhere, doesn’t that mean they’re hunting humans?”

“…That’s one possibility, but they seem to have other methods. We need to figure this out first. The hardliners continue to grow in power because they can supply their faction with proper blood.”

“How many hardliners are there?”

Lilith thought carefully before answering.

“Counting just the nobles, about 200, which is a huge gap compared to the roughly 100 moderates remaining.”

And this was just counting the nobles, excluding common vampires.

Though not visible on the streets right now, the vampire population in this city must be quite substantial.

“Strange… how could they obtain enough blood for 200 vampires…?”

“Yes, it is strange indeed.”

While the mission confirmed through the Armlet did include investigating disappearances, there weren’t enough missing humans to feed 200 vampires.

Most of those cases were likely ordinary disappearances.

Lilith spoke with resignation.

“It’s impossible to obtain that much blood through hunting. To be honest, we might be seeing a revival of the human farm nightmare…”

Three hundred years ago, before Bladir Bloodwell became the new vampire king and took power.

There was an incident where the previous king, Klick Bloodwell, created farms to raise humans.

While it’s now just a historical footnote, it was a major issue at the time.

It’s a story that anyone familiar with vampires would have heard at least once.

“Hard to deny that possibility. You get more blood by keeping humans alive than by killing them.”

The situation was worse than expected.

King Bladir, already cornered in internal politics due to the inability to secure more blood, had planned to gradually emerge into the light by sending Lilith to Grovint at the Emperor’s suggestion. But now, 200 years of effort seemed about to be wasted.

The concern deepened, but it wasn’t something they could solve immediately.

Valt urged his companions.

“For now, we should head out. I need to call my friends.”

***

At that moment, Lisa and her friends were desperately trying to catch a cat.

Lisa’s urgent voice echoed.

“That way! No, this way! Wait, what! It’s too fast!!”

In hindsight, the request had been a bit strange. Finding a cat was honestly something even ordinary people could do—it should have been a Grade 1 mission at most.

Yet it was Grade 2.

And it was larger than what you’d call a cat. It was a Shadow Jaguar, kept by some nobles.

It wasn’t even a cat by name.

They had just labeled it “cat finding” because it belonged to the feline family.

For some reason, the grade was high and the reward substantial.

“Kyahaaaaaak!”

Lisa became frightened at the chilling snarl.

“Oh my god!!”

Swoosh—

The Shadow Jaguar once again concealed itself in the shadows.

Victor cried out in despair at the sight.

“No!! Not again!!”

Victor, who had lunged at the jaguar, ended up crashing into a wall.

Thud—

Seeing this, Lati activated her magic.

“Hey! You useless muscle head! How could you miss it? Detect Mana Force!”

As Lati’s incantation continued, magical power spread widely, pinpointing the Shadow Jaguar’s location again.

“This way! Ten meters!”

The ability to hide in shadows and escape to another shadow within 10 meters.

Though not particularly strong in combat, it was precisely this ability that had Grade 4-5 adventurers repeatedly failing to catch it.

Victor, who had tumbled to the ground after trying to capture the Shadow Jaguar, shouted.

“This is driving me crazy! Seriously! How is this a Grade 2 request?!”

Arias also looked dejected.

“Well, a Shadow Jaguar is technically a Grade 2 monster…”

The grade criteria were based primarily on danger level.

The Shadow Jaguar’s attack power wasn’t enough to seriously injure even a slightly trained ordinary person, but its agility and mobility were extraordinarily exceptional.

Moreover, it had excellent magical detection abilities, quickly escaping into shadows whenever Lati tried to cast a spell.

With such a short cooldown on its shadow movement, it was truly difficult to catch.

Lisa tried to encourage everyone once more.

“Come on! Let’s try again! We can do this!”

Though Lisa was the least helpful, her enthusiasm was unmatched.

At that moment.

Ding—

The GramChat they had set up specifically for the mission rang.

“Oh? It’s Valt! Looks like we can contact him now!”

But Lati was too irritated to check the Armlet.

“Let’s catch that damn cat first!!”

***

Valt nodded as he checked the GramChat.

“Hmm, it seems they’ve succeeded in catching the cat and will be departing soon.”

Since they had already cleared the path to the village where they found Lilith, it would take less time than before.

“The village is closer to the city, so we need to move quickly. Let’s get going. Will you be alright without me carrying you this time?”

Lilith’s face reddened slightly at Valt’s words.

“What? Oh, yes! I-I’ll be fine…”

Valt stepped to the front of the group and said.

“I’ll take the lead. Let’s go.”