Ch.65Water-Colored Wind

After leaving the house, I began guiding Mulbitbaram.

She was extremely curious about everything.

“What’s that over there?”

In the direction Mulbitbaram pointed, vampires were gathered.

Wondering what was happening, I stood on tiptoe to get a better look. Two human users, covered in blood, were throwing punches at each other.

Their punches seemed devoid of emotion, mechanical.

Those stiff movements resembled puppets rather than humans.

They were breathing and bleeding, so they were definitely living humans.

“Looks like they’re playing.”

“Playing… with humans?”

“Yes.”

I nodded.

Apparently, these vampires had captured humans and were making them fight each other for gambling purposes.

To vampires, humans were no different from livestock.

Just as humans organize dogfights or cockfights with chickens and dogs.

Vampires were simply creating human fights for entertainment.

Mulbitbaram frowned at the sight.

Did she find it distasteful?

She turned her head away, refusing to watch the scene any longer.

Afterward, I toured all of Seoul with Mulbitbaram.

During our journey, Mulbitbaram approached a large tree and asked me:

“What is this…?”

“It’s a Blood Fruit Tree.”

“I’ve heard rumors about it. They say it bears fruit that tastes like human blood…”

I nodded.

Seeing her large ears twitching attentively, she seemed eager to try it.

I took a bright red Blood Fruit from within the shadows and handed it to Mulbitbaram.

“Would you like to try it?”

“This is…”

Mulbitbaram stared at the bright red fruit in her hand for a long while.

“A human face…”

“It just happens to look similar.”

The Blood Fruit had markings resembling a human face.

It was too consistent to be coincidence, as most harvested fruits bore such patterns, but it was just their natural design and had nothing to do with actual humans.

Crunch-

After hesitating briefly, Mulbitbaram began eating the Blood Fruit.

Did she enjoy the taste?

It didn’t take long for the large fruit to disappear.

At that moment, as she was licking the juice from her fingers, Mulbitbaram raised her head.

Her ears perked up as she sniffed the air.

“I smell one of our kind…”

Tap-tap-tap-!

“Charlotte!”

Just as Mulbitbaram finished speaking, Aurel’s voice and the sound of Hwang-gu’s paws could be heard.

Judging by the energetic tapping, they seemed to have run at full speed.

Turning my head, I saw Hwang-gu jumping down from between large buildings.

Tap-!

Hwang-gu and Aurel landed between Mulbitbaram and me.

Aurel spoke to me with an urgent expression.

“We found traces of humans!”

“Humans?”

“Yes!”

Nodding at my question, Aurel rummaged through her bag.

She pulled out an opened can from inside.

“This!”

I took the can Aurel handed me.

The inside was still moist.

That meant it hadn’t been emptied long ago.

Moreover, the outside of the can was soaked with red blood.

I could smell humans, but this wasn’t human blood.

The blood covering the can belonged to vampires, our kind.

“Where did you find this?”

“Near the Han River! Hwang-gu found it!”

“Woof!”

Near the Han River…

I let out a small groan as I looked at the can.

It seemed I needed to visit the scene myself.

“By the way, Charlotte…”

“What?”

“Who is this person?”

“Ah.”

Come to think of it, the children had left before Mulbitbaram arrived.

I nodded and introduced Mulbitbaram to Hwang-gu and Aurel.

“This is Mulbitbaram, the werewolf representative. She’ll be accompanying us for a few days.”

“Oh…! Hello! I’m Aurel!”

Aurel bowed her head in greeting.

But Mulbitbaram’s gaze wasn’t directed at Aurel.

“Grrrr…”

“One of my kind… a familiar scent.”

Sniff sniff.

“But… how can you transform into a perfect wolf?”

Mulbitbaram was sniffing Hwang-gu.

Seemingly displeased, Hwang-gu bared her teeth.

But Mulbitbaram paid no attention to Hwang-gu’s reaction and continued sniffing.

After sniffing for a while, Mulbitbaram nodded as if confirming something.

She asked Hwang-gu:

“You… aren’t you Meong-meong Gongju?”

But Hwang-gu didn’t respond.

She just continued growling with bared teeth.

Could they possibly know each other?

I wanted to ask about their past in detail, but there wasn’t time for that now.

I naturally climbed onto Hwang-gu’s back and grabbed her leash.

“You… right now…”

Mulbitbaram gaped in shock at the sight.

She seemed quite stunned to see me riding one of her kind.

“Can you keep up? We need to go right now. I’ll explain everything later.”

Mulbitbaram nodded at my question. She seemed to understand the seriousness of the situation.

If that’s the case, we should depart immediately.

I pulled on Hwang-gu’s leash to signal her.

“Woof!”

Hwang-gu began running vigorously at my command.

Tap-tap-tap-!

Mulbitbaram kept pace beside Hwang-gu.

She looked quite impressive, stretching her muscular long legs as she ran.

As if confirming that the can was indeed found near the Han River, Hwang-gu ran toward the Han River without hesitation.

Her speed was so fast that I tightly hugged Hwang-gu’s neck as the Han River grew closer.

“Huff… huff…”

The crime scene we arrived at on Hwang-gu’s back was horrific.

Dark red bloodstains on the ground led toward the Han River.

Sniffing it, I could tell it was the blood of our kind.

Given that there was no body visible, it seemed the corpse had been disposed of in the Han River.

I dismounted from Hwang-gu’s back and examined the surroundings.

“Was there nothing else?”

“No! That can was the only trace of humans!”

There was no smell of gunpowder. No smell of human blood either.

It meant they had killed one of our kind with overwhelming skill or by ambush.

“Hwang-gu, can you tell which way the humans went?”

“Whine…”

Hwang-gu shook her head uncertainly at my question.

It seemed the humans who infiltrated Seoul were using something special to mask their scent.

“Tweet-tweet!”

Just then, the chirping of a sparrow came from the sky.

From its appearance, it was Aurel’s subordinate, Jjak-jjak.

“Jjak-jjak!”

Aurel welcomed her subordinate.

When Aurel extended her soft finger, Jjak-jjak flew over and perched on it.

Aurel began conversing with Jjak-jjak.

“Tweet-tweet!”

“Yes, and then?”

“Tweet!”

“Oh!”

“Tweet-tweet!”

“I see!”

Could she actually understand what it was saying?

As I watched Aurel with my arms crossed, she spoke with a grave expression.

“I found them!”

“The humans?”

“Yes!”

“Jjak-jjak found them?”

“Yes!”

Though I was skeptical about information from such a small sparrow, I couldn’t disbelieve Aurel with such a confident expression.

I climbed back onto Hwang-gu’s back and said to Aurel:

“Tell Jjak-jjak to guide us.”

“Yes! Jjak-jjak!”

At Aurel’s command, Jjak-jjak soared high into the sky.

Then it began flying away as if telling us to follow.

Patter-patter-!

“Let’s go, Hwang-gu!”

“Woof!”

And so the chase began.

But we weren’t making much progress.

The reason was the speed of the sparrow Jjak-jjak.

“Tweet!”

Jjak-jjak was flapping its wings very diligently, but its speed was yawn-inducing.

At this rate, it was slower than Hwang-gu’s casual trot.

“Tweet!”

After running for some time, Jjak-jjak, who had been flying past the Han River toward Seoul Station, descended to the ground.

“Tweet-!”

Jjak-jjak cried out as if to say “this is the place.”

The location Jjak-jjak guided us to was a very narrow alley.

“This is…”

Again, the smell of blood.

The blood of our kind, once more.

Not only that, but this time we could also find a corpse.

A body severed by a sharp sword.

The corpse was stuffed into a trash can in a corner of the alley.

“Hwang-gu!”

I called Hwang-gu just in case.

But again, she shook her head.

I bit my lip and let out a deep sigh.

“Jjak-jjak, there’s no human here.”

Aurel was scolding her subordinate sparrow.

She seemed disappointed that there were no humans after following the guidance.

But it couldn’t be helped. It would have taken considerable time for Jjak-jjak to find humans and return to Aurel.

I dismounted from Hwang-gu’s back and said to Aurel and Hwang-gu:

“Aurel, Hwang-gu. You two go back and report this.”

“Yes!”

“Woof!”

Aurel and Hwang-gu nodded at my command.

When I gestured for them to go quickly, the two hurriedly left.

If we mobilized all of Firin’s, Prix’s, and Shakara’s clan members for a search, we could quickly find the infiltrating humans.

I sighed and looked at Mulbitbaram.

I had many questions for her, but the timing wasn’t right.

Of all times, the human side had to initiate an attack now.

Judging by their blatant murders, their purpose wasn’t reconnaissance.

What could be the purpose of these infiltrating humans?

I released my shadows to summon my subordinates.

I didn’t know how strong the infiltrating humans were.

But I didn’t think my children would be greatly outmatched.

“Everyone, form groups of five… no, ten each!”

“Yes!”

“Over here, gather here!”

“Five of you, this way!”

“Heeek!”

My children began gathering hurriedly at my command.

The children, paired in groups of ten, looked at me with sparkling eyes.

“Spread out and find the humans! If it’s dangerous, return to the shadows immediately!”

“Yes!”

“Understood!”

“Capture the humans!”

“Uweee!”

As soon as my command ended, the children rushed out.

“Impressive.”

Mulbitbaram let out an admiring comment at the sight.

Feeling somewhat proud, I shrugged my shoulders.

***

After mobilizing everything we could, we managed to capture the humans who had infiltrated Seoul Station.

It was Firin’s clan member who discovered the human.

“This one…”

The human was collapsed in the basement of Firin’s clan hideout, missing arms and legs.

It seemed Firin’s side had cut off the limbs.

I approached Firin and asked:

“Did you find out anything?”

“He won’t talk.”

If he wouldn’t talk, there was only one method left.

I reached out toward the collapsed human.