Ch.91Vampire Queen

# Blood Carnival: Chapter 20

Barely arriving in Seoul.

Perhaps because everyone evacuated together? There were Werewolves mixed among the Vampires.

They all looked at me with resentful gazes upon my return.

Despite knowing the power I possessed.

I looked at them and said:

“Bad luck.”

It was also something I was saying to myself.

Bad luck indeed. If humans hadn’t resisted and had continued their symbiotic relationship with us, and if each race’s military strength hadn’t been greatly reduced.

Of course, such hypotheticals are meaningless now.

“Bad luck…? All those sacrifices, and you just call it…”

The muttering of a discontented Vampire.

He never finished his sentence.

A shadow extending from beneath my feet swallowed his body.

The Vampire sucked into the shadow was captured by my children, unable to even resist.

“We’ll do better next time.”

Next time—whenever that might be—but for now, we can’t touch the Manticore.

The Vampires and Werewolves sighed in relief at this fact.

Of course, some wore dark expressions knowing they would eventually have to challenge it again.

After letting the Werewolves and Vampires rest, I went to find Yuri.

She was waiting in my room with Aurel.

“Lady Charlotte…!”

Aurel rushed toward me as soon as she saw me.

While stroking her head, I said to Yuri:

“How many Gender Change Tickets do we have left?”

“About 100 or so…?”

“Give them all to me.”

***

After spending a day in Seoul, I attempted reforms.

First, I appointed Hwang-gu as the representative of the Werewolves.

The Werewolves, who traditionally selected their leader through trials of individual strength, had no choice but to accept Hwang-gu.

Afterward, I ordered the Werewolves to relocate to Seoul.

There was resistance, of course, but I crushed it with force.

It took about a week to move all facilities from Gangwon-do to Seoul.

The human farms built in Seoul also needed major expansions.

I used all the Gender Change Tickets Yuri gave me on human users.

With each race’s population greatly reduced, we needed human slaves’ sacrifices to increase our numbers quickly.

Human males were changed to females, and these females were forced to repeatedly breed and become pregnant.

After a year, hundreds of human user children were born.

Human users’ bodies far surpass ordinary humans.

They don’t get sick, and their youth doesn’t easily fade even after giving birth multiple times.

As time passed, by the time the first-born children turned one year old,

Vampire and Werewolf society needed a new profession.

Nannies to care for and educate the children.

***

Time flew by.

Vampires who don’t age and Werewolves who live long lives had a vague concept of time, but they gauged the passing years by watching the human children grow.

I stood on a tall building, looking down at the city.

The first-born children had just turned five and were running around the city.

The children didn’t know what race they were.

Having grown up seeing only Vampires and Werewolves, they assumed they belonged to one of these races.

Human children continued to be born. Hundreds every year, with half raised as slaves.

The other half came to the surface, receiving education while waiting to grow up.

When the children turned about twenty, I planned to turn them all into Vampires.

Purchasing hundreds of Race Change Tickets required enormous Cash Points, but that problem was solved too easily.

Yuri’s Cash Points were awarded whenever she negatively affected each race.

That condition naturally applied to humans as well, and the effect worked even when users who consumed doping potions purchased with those points harmed other races.

Yuri solved this problem by providing doping potions to the slave managers.

There were no hitches in the plan.

Everything had gone smoothly so far and would continue to do so.

-Tweet tweet!

At that moment, a sparrow flew down from the sky.

It was Aurel’s subordinate, Jjak-jjak.

Seeing it drawing figure-eights in the air, it must have discovered a new dungeon.

I spread my shadow wings and jumped down.

Flap-!

“Wow! It’s the Queen!”

“Queen Charlotte!”

As I glided across the city, I heard children’s voices from below.

I could see the children cheering for me, emitting the sweet blood scent unique to humans.

The children idolized me.

This was all due to Aurel’s influence as she managed the nannies.

For the past five years, I had been busy.

As a Vampire who doesn’t need sleep, I never tired despite moving around all day.

I used that time to travel throughout Korea, searching for hidden shops or dungeons.

And I would continue to do so.

***

The children grew and turned twenty.

Just entering adolescence, they were full of vigor and wanted to hunt the Fusion Bodies appearing outside.

And today, I intended to grant their request.

In a large space converted from a parking lot,

About 500 children stood in formation.

On a small platform in front of the children, Hwang-gu and Aurel stood with slight smiles.

I also headed toward that platform.

“Salute to the Queen!”

Aurel shouted as soon as I appeared on the platform.

At her command, the children performed a strange action.

Like medieval nobles showing respect, they all bowed their heads and knelt.

I looked at Aurel with an astonished expression.

She must have trained them despite my dislike for such formalities.

I sighed and took out the Race Change Tickets I had brought.

“Use these on the children.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

“Yes!”

At my command, Aurel and Hwang-gu nodded and hurriedly took the Race Change Tickets.

The two girls rushed to throw small cards at the children.

Children hit by the cards transformed with a small flash of light.

A boy with black hair and black eyes had his hair turn white and his eyes turn red.

His slightly yellowish skin turned white and began to emit a faint glow.

Sharp fangs must have grown inside his mouth.

The boy had become a Vampire.

The children’s races continued to change like this.

The children perceived this act as a coming-of-age ceremony.

On their twentieth birthday, they were reborn into their true form after receiving baptism from Vampire Queen Charlotte.

Since Aurel was responsible for the children’s education, their biased knowledge was an inevitable flow.

In twenty years, the Vampire population had increased significantly.

Naturally infertile, Vampires couldn’t increase their numbers on their own unlike Werewolves.

After twenty years, the Werewolf population had grown to about 1,500, while the Vampire population was still under 500.

But now things were different.

Hundreds of children who grew up as humans would become Vampires every year.

These newly-turned Vampire children received basic equipment and went hunting alongside newly born Werewolf children.

Leading these children was Vampire nun Mary.

She still lived in the church and took care of the children.

“I’m counting on you.”

Mary smiled faintly at my request.

As always, she wore black priest’s robes.

Given her female appearance, nun’s attire would be more appropriate, but her insistence on those clothes suggested she hadn’t completely abandoned her memories as a human.

“We’ll be going now.”

Before Mary left with the children,

I attached a small shadow to her feet.

In an emergency, that shadow could save her life once.

“Um… Lady Charlotte…”

“Lady Charlotte…”

After watching the departing children for a while,

Aurel and Hwang-gu clung to me from both sides.

Reddened cheeks and heated breaths.

It was obvious what they wanted.

I led the two girls home.

***

Twenty years after the failed Manticore subjugation,

The three of us intertwining our bodies had become natural.

As races with tireless stamina, we couldn’t easily separate once our eyes met.

The heat in the room was sultry.

Despite the air conditioner running, the indoor temperature showed 28 degrees.

I left the bed, leaving behind the limp Aurel and Hwang-gu.

The damp, sticky blanket peeled away from my skin.

The two girls were sleeping with satisfied expressions, having exhausted all their energy.

Though everything I planned was on track, I couldn’t rest yet.

I licked my white, swollen fingers.

The sticky bodily fluids had a subtle peach fragrance.

***

Mary returned after the first combat training ended.

A total of five children had died.

The cause of their deaths was the sun that came periodically.

“Hah…”

After confirming Mary’s report, I held my head.

Despite constantly emphasizing the dangers of sunlight, they must have underestimated it due to their experiences as humans.

Still, it wasn’t a bad sacrifice. With five people burning to death in front of everyone, the remaining children would fully understand the terror of the sun.

The children’s combat training continued until they reached level 10.

After reaching level 10, the children headed to the Underground Ruins and lived there until reaching level 20.

The same applied to Werewolves.

The children grew stronger very quickly.

Another year passed.

About 700 new Vampires were added.

The numbers of Vampires and Werewolves were sufficient.

Now all that remained was the full-scale development of human users.

Vampires and Werewolves can’t handle guns. This meant they couldn’t professionally train human users.

Yuri became the one to teach the human children how to shoot.

I was a bit worried about her mental state, but there was no other choice.

Surely she wouldn’t grab a child she liked and roll around during training.

A week after Yuri began training the human users, my concerns materialized.

Unable to contain her excitement, Yuri grabbed a cute child nearby and planted a kiss.

After attempting to kiss alone and rubbing her body, Yuri fainted.

The children’s training was immediately suspended.