Chapter 154: The Blood Demon

“Ghhhhk!”

A silent scream echoed from Scarlett. Her tongue had been sliced, and the arm that had sprouted a mouth was now severed on the floor. In her agony, she glared at Rianna and Isaac with her characteristically languid eyes.

WHAM!

Of course, that lasted only a moment.
With a single kick from the Grandmaster, Scarlett’s body was launched into the air and sent flying out of the house.

“S-Scarlett!”

“No!”

The screams of the men rang out as they watched the woman they loved being brutally broken. But none of them could muster the resolve to attack. In the end, it meant that even if they loved her, it wasn’t enough to risk their lives so meaninglessly.

“Haaah, Isaac… your Adam’s apple is so sexy.”

Holding Rianna, Isaac began to walk, his pace steady. He deliberately pretended not to hear her and asked the Grandmaster a question.

“Do you think she’s one of the Primeval Transcendent?”

“No, not that,” the Grandmaster replied calmly, already walking out ahead of him.

The men parted to the left and right, clearing a path as if recalling the day the river had split.

Though Scarlett lay collapsed at the end of that path, the men were too terrified to offer any real resistance. For Isaac and his companions, this was for the best. It spared them from any needless bloodshed.

“She’s not one of the Primeval Transcendent, but a woman who forsook her humanity and offered herself to them.”

“…So it wasn’t just the nobles.”

The Grandmaster nodded at Isaac’s words.

“Well, it’s not as if they can afford to be picky about noble or common blood right now. The real question, however, is whether that woman can control Vassalization herself.”

“That is true.”

The woman on the ground ground her teeth, glaring up at them. For someone rumored to have captivated all the men in the village, she was a pathetic sight. Seeing her like this, the group felt their hesitations vanish.

“Hmm.”

The Grandmaster stood before her, her Odachi resting on her shoulder. She pondered for a moment, then let out a smirk.

“Come to think of it, I have quite a few questions for you, but it seems I’ve already cut up all your mouths.”

The woman, bleeding profusely, stared back with a look of pure hatred. Her expression was one of utter incomprehension.

“Do you have any other holes a mouth might pop out of? I can wait.”

“Shut… up!”

Surprisingly, the words that came from the bloodied woman’s mouth were quite clear. For her pronunciation to be so perfect despite her tongue having just been severed, had it already grown back? She didn’t appear to be one of the Primeval Transcendent, but it was clear her body had become something comparable to theirs.

Just like Galenia had.

Squeeze.

That thought made Isaac tighten his grip on Rianna. He feared an order from the Vassalization could reach her and trigger another rampage.

“Hnngh.”

For Rianna, however, the pressure seemed to be a different kind of stimulus. Though she hadn’t moved, she was breathing heavily, and a fine sheen of sweat coated her skin. Isaac felt as if her tension—or perhaps her excitement—was traveling through their point of contact, straight to his heart.

“Heup.”

Isaac’s eyes widened in surprise at the sensation on the front of his neck. He had felt something tracing a line up his skin; it was a tongue. To be precise, Rianna’s tongue had licked its way up his Adam’s apple, sending a jolt through him.

“…Ria?!”

Flustered, Isaac chose to hold her even tighter rather than let her go. He was startled, but it was a rational decision, born from the knowledge that he couldn’t release her here.

“Haahhh.”

Still, he couldn’t help but be bewildered that the result of his rational decision was so intensely sensory and emotional.

“…What the hell are those fucking bastards doing?!”

Even Scarlett seemed taken aback, shouting as she stared at Isaac and Rianna. The Grandmaster replied to her with an awkward air.

“This is your doing, is it not? My disciple is going through quite an ordeal right now. At this rate, they might even get around to the family planning they never managed as a married couple.”

It sounded half-joking, but the other half was completely serious. By this point, the Grandmaster suspected that the change in the woman could no longer be dismissed as a problem of Vassalization alone.

Conversely, when the Vassalization ends, will the woman known as Rianna Helmont truly return to her former self?

The Grandmaster suspected she would not.

“Now, speak,” she said to Scarlett. “No matter what nonsense you spout, that woman over there is too lost in her carnal desires to hear you anyway.”

“Just kill me.”

“That’s not a bad idea. But there’s something you should know. That master of yours has abandoned you.”

“…What?”

The woman’s eyes trembled. Hidden beneath tears and blood, a pair of vaguely reddish eyes were revealed. That alone made it clear she was a being awkwardly caught between the Primeval Transcendent and humans.

“It’s obvious your master told you to find us, isn’t it? That means she’s nearby. And there’s no way she doesn’t know how strong we are.”

Isaac nodded in satisfaction. The Grandmaster was following the same line of thought he was. Standing beside them, Sharen, who had clearly been oblivious, suddenly looked around in a panic and tightened her grip on her greatsword.

“Abandoned… me?”

“She wanted to see how we would react, didn’t she? You’re just one human, after all. A cheap price to pay, from their perspective.”

It was just like with Viscount Hellerwein. The Blood Demon never truly believed the Viscount could harm us. It’s like she’s playing chess, advancing her pawns one by one to see how her opponent will respond.

“A disposable piece…?”

But a pawn never knows it is disposable.

Her expression was one of pure shock. And then there was her current reality—powerless, collapsed on the ground, unable to resist. As if she were the heroine of some grand tragedy, she screamed.

“N-No, that can’t be! I served her for years! I offered her so many men! For th-thirty years! I changed from a wrinkled old woman to this—!”

A sharp snap echoed from somewhere nearby.

It sounded like a final curtain, signaling that her role was over. At the same time, it felt as casual as the plink of an apple being plucked from a tree.

That was the end.
Scarlett’s eyes rolled back in her head, and she collapsed.

The Grandmaster’s gaze was no longer on Scarlett. Her ears twitched as she turned her body toward the sound, her gently swaying tail growing rigid with tension.

The Primeval Transcendent known as the Blood Demon was sitting on the roof of a building, her legs crossed. She wore a faint smile, as light as a sparrow just passing through, but the atmosphere she projected was anything but.

They say Helmont originally resembled a rose. But to put it coldly, this woman was closer to a bloodstain. A dead, black blood that stood in stark contrast to the vibrant red of Helmont. That was the impression given by the woman called the Blood Demon.

“That child is rather pitiful. She said she would do anything to reclaim the beauty of her youth, but—”

A soft smile played on the Blood Demon’s lips, as if she were savoring the taste of blood.

“The truth is, she wasn’t that beautiful to begin with. Perhaps the reason I left her be was because of the futility of it all. I may have found that beautiful.”

Scarlett had abandoned her humanity, her past, and her memories to escape her former self and become what she was today. But in the Blood Demon’s eyes, was it truly worth abandoning everything? No. And conversely, that was precisely what had made it beautiful.

“You’re quite good at spouting bullshit. You and Nameless would make great friends.”

Naturally, the Grandmaster was neither swayed by such nonsense nor particularly moved by it. After all, one needed at least a sliver of empathy to react to such things.

“Heh.”

But, as was often the case, beings like her did not seek understanding for their artistic values or their inherent afflictions. They simply acted.

Isaac glared at the Blood Demon. According to Rianna, the one who controlled her Vassalization was the Blood Demon, not Helix.

“Did you come for Rianna?”

The Blood Demon laughed as if it were an amusing question.

“Well, that among other things. I never imagined Rianna would survive, you see. Whether the attempt on the Princess’s life succeeded or failed, I was certain Rianna would die.”

But she had survived. And here she was, on the move to break the sorcery.

“This is turning into a losing venture for my side, isn’t it? Though, it looks like you’re enjoying yourself.”

“…”

Glancing down, Isaac saw Rianna, still nestled in his arms, biting down hard on his shirt to hold back her words. The fabric, damp with her saliva, was being mumbled against. She was trying to resist in her own way, but it exuded a strangely sensual air.

“She is having a very hard time.”

“…”

As Isaac defended her, Sharen shot them a look and tilted her head.

“I’ve never seen my sister look so happy…” she muttered.

Isaac pretended not to hear her.

“Phht. If you say so, I’ll take your word for it,” the Blood Demon chuckled, swinging her legs as she nodded. “Well, Rianna is secondary, really. What do I care if the left arm of some pathetic bastard who can’t get over an old flame gets cut off or not?”

“…”

“There’s only one thing I’m curious about.”

The Blood Demon gestured toward Scarlett and asked, “That boy you mentioned, Jonathan, the one who resembles me. I want to know if he is truly of Mixed Blood. Or if he was merely a tool, like Scarlett.”

“…”

It’s all starting to make sense now—Scarlett’s sudden attack. For the Blood Demon, this was a sort of sampling. A way to compare Jonathan, who might be of her bloodline, with Scarlett. To confirm if Jonathan was truly a Mixed Blood of the Blood Demon.

To her, this seemed more important than anything else in the world.

As Isaac stood in silence, weighing his options…

“If you tell me—”

The Blood Demon presented another possibility.

“—I can tell you another way to undo the Vassalization, one that doesn’t involve death. That sorcery, you see, was derived from the Blood Demons.”