Ch.92Vampire Queen

Yuri’s problem wasn’t just one simple issue.

She prioritized her sexual preferences and failed to properly train the male recruits.

She even went so far as to use Gender Change Tickets to transform those whose faces she didn’t like into women.

Although these were thoroughly brainwashed adults, Yuri’s bizarre behavior would have a significant negative impact on their mental state.

I ultimately had no choice but to remove Yuri from her position as instructor.

Fortunately, she didn’t seem to mind much.

Now that Yuri could no longer train the recruits,

I needed to find a human user to replace her.

But there were no normal human users left.

The mental state of humans captured in the slave detention center had long since collapsed.

They were nothing more than beasts following their instincts, nothing more, nothing less.

At that moment,

I recalled something I had forgotten.

About 20 years ago, when we were rounding up human users, we acquired a large turbine that could generate electricity.

At that time, I selected a few humans to manage the turbine, giving them limited freedom and ordering them to maintain it.

After that, I assigned vampires to manage the humans and completely forgot about it.

I immediately headed to the underground where the turbine was operating.

At the entrance to the underground facility, a vampire sat in a chair guarding a tightly closed iron door.

I searched my hazy memories to recall his face.

He was one of the vampires I had personally asked to manage this facility 20 years ago.

“Ch-Charlotte?”

“It’s been a while.”

“Oh, are you here to see the slaves inside?”

“Yes. Are they doing alright?”

“They seem fine on the surface. Thanks to following your orders to provide them with comforts so they don’t harbor any ill thoughts.”

“I have business here. Open the door.”

“Yes!”

The vampire nodded at my command and opened the door.

I passed by him and headed into the underground facility.

There were three rooms inside the facility, two of which had closed doors, while the remaining one was wide open.

I looked at the distant turbine before heading toward the room.

Inside the room, as I expected, was a human woman lying down.

She looked quite relaxed, lying on the bed reading a worn-out comic book.

I deliberately made some noise as I approached the doorway.

“Huh?”

The human woman raised her head, sensing my presence.

She looked at me and frowned.

As if trying to recall a hazy memory.

After a moment,

She jumped up from her seat in shock.

“Ch-Charlotte!”

The fact that she remembered my name suggested her mental state was fine.

I activated my Mystic Eye.

[KingAubergineSalad]

Level: 16

Race: Human

Health: 100%

Mana: 100%

Emotional state: Fear, Confusion

As I confirmed her name through my Mystic Eye, my memory started coming back.

But in my memory, KingAubergineSalad was male…?

“You’re KingAubergineSalad, right?”

“Y-yes! That’s me!”

“Weren’t you a man?”

“H-huh…! I received Yuri’s blessing!”

KingAubergineSalad answered with a pale face.

It seems that Yuri had gotten to him, or rather, her now.

I couldn’t help but sigh.

“Anyway, are you free right now?”

“Y-yes!”

KingAubergineSalad nodded immediately at my question.

Just to be sure, I asked her:

“The turbine will run fine even if you’re away for a while, right?”

“Well…”

KingAubergineSalad hesitated and stumbled over her words.

Seeing her emotional state fluctuate wildly, she was probably anxious about being abandoned.

I smiled lightly and said:

“I need an instructor to teach shooting. Can you do it?”

“Sh-shooting? But vampires can’t use guns…”

“Don’t argue.”

“Y-yes! I can do it!”

“Good. Follow me.”

KingAubergineSalad hurriedly began to get dressed at my words.

What she pulled out from deep in her drawer was a clean-looking black tracksuit.

Her shoes were even three-striped slippers.

“Is that all you have for shoes?”

“Ah, y-yes…”

KingAubergineSalad wiggled her small toes at my question.

Her appearance, modified according to Yuri’s taste, wasn’t bad at all.

In fact, she was quite pretty.

While she looked good in anything due to her good features, I couldn’t let her conduct shooting training in that outfit.

She might get seriously injured if she got shot during training.

Before leaving the underground facility, I handed her a bulletproof vest and combat boots.

All were shop-purchased equipment items.

“Put those on and follow me.”

After leading KingAubergineSalad out of the underground, I gave her a few instructions.

“Don’t question the mental state of the children, and don’t mention the human race itself. If you follow these rules, you can live in a better environment than you do now.”

“A-a better environment than now?”

“If you want, I can help you return to being a man. If you prefer being a woman, I can provide women for you.”

KingAubergineSalad just blinked at my words.

After maintaining silence for a while, she struggled to give an answer.

“Can I tell you later?”

“Tell me when you decide.”

“Yes…”

I led KingAubergineSalad to the shooting range. Though crudely built, it was perfectly adequate for shooting practice.

Inside the range, numerous human children were practicing independently with guns.

Of course, they weren’t real guns but BB guns.

These children don’t yet understand the fear of guns. If they were given real guns with live ammunition without supervision, it would surely lead to casualties.

That’s why the children could only practice with BB guns.

I led KingAubergineSalad to the front of the children.

“This is KingAubergineSalad, who will be teaching you from today. Everyone should listen well.”

“Huh…? Isn’t Teacher Yuri coming anymore?”

“I wanted to learn from Queen Charlotte…”

The children grumbled with disappointed expressions.

They seemed mentally much younger than their 20 years would suggest.

It couldn’t be helped. The children had been educated by Aurel.

Rather than allowing the human children to develop mentally, she had raised them using definitive brainwashing methods.

“Um, Charlotte… these children…”

“Can you teach them well?”

KingAubergineSalad immediately closed her mouth at my question.

She eventually nodded.

I took out a real rifle from within the shadows and handed it to her.

Of course, it wasn’t loaded with live ammunition.

“Hmm…”

KingAubergineSalad held the rifle with familiarity and assumed a shooting stance.

As if her body was recalling the memory, she quickly demonstrated disassembling and reassembling the weapon.

“Wow…”

“She’s better than Teacher Yuri…”

“So cool…”

The human children exclaimed in admiration at the sight.

That day, I secretly observed KingAubergineSalad’s training.

I was worried she might harbor other intentions.

One day, two days, a week—time passed quickly.

By now, the children had become familiar with handling firearms.

After observing KingAubergineSalad for a week, I saw that she strictly followed my instructions.

It seemed like a good time to start live ammunition training.

On the second week of training,

I provided KingAubergineSalad and the children with boxes full of live ammunition and basic rifles purchased from the shop.

I decided to observe their first live ammunition practice myself.

As I hoped, KingAubergineSalad carefully explained the dangers of live ammunition to the children.

The first day of training with live ammunition ended without any issues.

The next day was the same.

On the third day of live ammunition training, I watched the class while hiding where no one could see me.

Contrary to my concerns, KingAubergineSalad taught the children very diligently.

Then, on the seventh day of live ammunition training…

News of KingAubergineSalad’s death reached me.

The news was delivered by a vampire who was on duty nearby.

I was startled and rushed to the shooting range.

“What on earth…”

The one who killed KingAubergineSalad was none other than one of the trainees.

What was even more bewildering was the atmosphere among the children at the shooting range.

The children showed no sign of being disturbed by KingAubergineSalad’s death.

I questioned the child who had killed KingAubergineSalad.

“Why did you kill KingAubergineSalad?”

“Because she insulted you, Charlotte.”

“She insulted me…?”

“Yes.”

“She insulted Charlotte! Of course she had to die!”

“That’s right! I want to shoot too!”

“I could have shot faster…”

After the perpetrator finished answering, the other children chimed in one by one.

I could only nod with a dazed expression.

“Y-you did well…”

KingAubergineSalad’s body was handed over to the werewolves.

It would surely be used as food.

While KingAubergineSalad’s death was regrettable, it wasn’t something to worry about too much.

Human children learn quickly. Thanks to the human trait [Rapid Growth], the children had all become proficient with firearms.

If I selected a few outstanding children who had been trained by KingAubergineSalad to be shooting instructors, there would be no problem educating newly recruited children.

Thus, my plan was proceeding very smoothly.

***

A year had passed since KingAubergineSalad’s death.

Werewolves, vampires, and humans.

The military strength of the three races had greatly increased.

This should be more than enough to subjugate the Manticore.

I immediately assembled an attack force to eliminate the Manticore.

The response was tremendous. 1,000 vampires, 1,000 werewolves, and 600 human children volunteered.

I frowned as I examined the volunteers.

All participants were second-generation children who had been born recently.

They weren’t qualitatively problematic forces. However, their experience was an issue.

For a smooth raid, the participation of the original first generation—those who had transformed when the world changed—was important.

Are they all afraid of death?

I gritted my teeth, thinking about the first-generation users who were nowhere to be seen among the volunteers.

As I was silently fuming, Aurel approached stealthily and whispered in my ear.

“Charlotte.”

“What?”

“Why don’t we turn them all into children?”

Aurel’s suggestions always surprised me.

How does she always say exactly what I want to hear?

I left a light kiss on Aurel’s lips and spread my shadow wings.

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