Chapter 20 : Mask Of The Red Death – (6)

I stepped out into the street, tracking the vampire’s trail through scent.

It wasn’t all that difficult.

Though the air reeked of burning from the fire, I had already taken in a good amount of his blood at the chapel—my sense of smell vividly remembered the scent of the vampire viscount.

Not long after I reached the main road, I caught his scent.

“He’s above.”

“Above?”

I raised my head.

High above the smoke-filled sky, I spotted the vampire viscount gliding smoothly through the air in a gaseous form.

It seemed he had given up the plague doctor disguise; now, he wore a blood-red frock coat.

At that moment, our eyes met.

Or more precisely, he looked at me as if confused.

Just like in Jursach.

The only difference was, in Jursach, he’d been flying through the narrow space of a cave.

Now, he soared dozens of meters in the air.

There was no way I was letting him get away—not for the sake of avenging the Barrington branch manager, not if I wanted to pass Guildmaster Aila’s test.

Not if I wanted to see Lily again.

I had to shoot him down.

I glanced around.

The streets of Barrington had turned into a living hell from the fire.

People were too busy fleeing with their belongings to pay me any mind.

The only one looking at me was the undertaker.

I had already explained who I was to him earlier, so I felt no hesitation.

“Let’s use blood.”

I scraped my palm with my sawblade sword.

I had learned to some degree how to use others’ blood, but I still lacked the mastery to control it well.

Using my own blood was safer.

I recalled how Aila had once shot magic at me in the name of training.

As her nickname “the Witch” suggested, her accuracy had been terrifying.

She’d fired magic that deliberately avoided my vitals.

I recreated that same technique as best I could using blood magic.

Fwoosh.

I gathered the droplets of blood and stretched them out—like an arrow.

No, it was nearly the span of two hands long.

It was more like a spearhead than an arrow.

“H-Hey… you’re not really going to…”

The undertaker muttered, flustered.

But he wasn’t the only one startled.

The vampire viscount, still hovering midair in his gaseous state, stood frozen—gazing at me.

This was my chance.

Even a moment’s delay would be fatal.

I couldn’t afford a mistake.

I fired the blood-forged spear.

Thud!

With a heavy impact, a massive hole was blown into the vampire viscount’s side.

“Aaargh!”

His scream came a second later.

The gaseous form dissolved, and Hoover fell from dozens of meters in the air, plummeting down with his bare body.

He crash-landed on the roof of a burning house.

“I hit him!”

“You hit—what do you mean, hit what?”

“The vampire!”

With those words, I slung my greatsword over my shoulder and burst into the house.

“Eden?”

Inside, Camilla and Luerin were already there, seemingly also tracking the vampire.

Camilla blinked in surprise when she saw me, but there was no time to waste.

“He’s here.”

I kicked down the rickety attic door.

Pushing through the thick smoke, I stepped into the shed.

The vampire viscount glared at me like he was seeing a ghost.

From the way his limbs were grotesquely twisted, he must’ve been seriously hurt from the fall.

Blood from his side pooled thickly on the floor.

“So this rat was hiding here.”

I twisted my lips into a sneer and stepped forward.

Hoover, the vampire viscount, moved his lips.

“You… you! What was that just now!?”

“What do you think? Blood magic.”

“How could a mere human…”

His gaze fell on my palm.

The wound I had made to cast the blood magic was already healed.

When he saw that, Hoover’s expression changed.

“Wh-why would a kin attack his own kind? More importantly, what is a kin doing among hunters—”

“Shut up.”

I cut him off.

The chill in my voice surprised even me.

“…Don’t lump me in with the likes of you.”

I gritted my teeth and stepped closer.

He still hadn’t healed the wound in his side.

This was my chance—maybe my only one—to finish him off.

“I’m not a monster like you. I don’t drink blood. I don’t kill people without reason. That’s why I’m nothing like you.”

I raised my greatsword, ready to crush his throat—but at that moment, Hoover pulled a blood-red orb from his coat.

A wave of dread hit me instantly.

I looked down.

His blood had flowed onto the floor, forming a large puddle—and I had stepped right into it.

My instincts screamed: this was his domain.

“Tch!”

I’d underestimated him.

In my hope to kill the vampire, I’d overlooked his final act of desperation.

I’d assumed, being a servant of a progenitor, he’d have some resistance to blood magic.

I was wrong.

I tried to leap back, but Hoover shouted faster than I could move.

“Hahaha! You dare stand against a high blood mage, you lowly servant!?”

He roared with glee as he activated the blood magic.

The blood orb shimmered crimson.

The world turned blood-red.

From the puddle beneath me, razor-sharp droplets shot upward.

My legs were slashed from ankles to shins—flesh hung in tatters.

The blood projectiles then aimed straight for my heart.

But they never pierced me.

“Gah!”

The undertaker’s scythe handle yanked me by the neck and flung me out of the shed.

Thud!

At the same time, a blazing arrow sprouted from Hoover’s blood orb.

Not the same blood arrow I’d fired before—but one made of roaring flame.

“You idiot. A bleeding vampire is the most dangerous kind. Next time, listen to your seniors.”

The undertaker scowled as he swung his scythe and sliced off Hoover’s wrist.

The vampire screamed in agony.

As I was thrown outside, Camilla rushed over to me.

She tore her cloak and began to bandage my leg.

“I’m fine. I’ll heal quickly anyway. But the vampire—”

“Don’t worry. It’s over. The undertaker went in, cut off his wrist, and destroyed that orb he was using. That thing won’t be resisting anymore.”

Now that I thought about it—what was that flaming arrow stuck in the orb?

The answer stood right beside me, a woman with ash-gray hair.

“Hmph. This time, it was my shot that hit.”

Luerin wore a proud smile.

It must have been her who fired that flame arrow.

Her accuracy was nothing short of remarkable.

“By the way, you—what was that earlier? Don’t tell me you know how to use magic?”

It seemed Luerin had witnessed my blood magic.

And then she noticed how quickly the wounds on my leg were healing.

Her eyes slowly widened in shock.

“Wait a moment, put away that sword for now.”

I hastily explained.

It was embarrassing that I had to reveal my true identity to these two in just one day.

The undertaker, being a veteran hunter, didn’t seem to be suspicious.

But Luerin was still a trainee hunter from the academy.

If the rumors about me being a servant of the progenitor spread through the academy, even the guildmaster couldn’t protect me.

However, according to the undertaker, it seemed the guildmaster, Aila, planned to send Luerin and me on a hunt together in the future.

Luerin’s magic, which I had seen earlier, was impressively precise.

If that was the case, it would be better if there were no secrets between us as teammates.

More than that,

I had overheard the undertaker talk about Luerin’s past.

Witch-hunting.

In some ways, Luerin and I were in the same situation.

“I’m a servant of the vampire progenitor.”

At my words, Luerin’s eyes narrowed.

“Camilla, did you know about this?”

Once everything had settled down, the undertaker, lighting a cigarette, frowned.

In truth, this hunt hadn’t been that difficult.

The opponent was tricky, but even if the undertaker had come alone, he would have caught the vampire eventually, though it might have taken some time.

What the undertaker had his eye on, however, was this rookie, Eden.

He was a servant of the progenitor, and that meant the guild was sitting on a ticking time bomb.

“If his sister awakens properly as a progenitor’s kin, they won’t leave the servant alive. Using guild resources to train that boy is like stabbing the future queen in the back.”

“Well, that’s true. But the priest recommended him, didn’t he? The guildmaster accepted it, too.”

“Yeah, that’s the problem.”

The undertaker let out a deep sigh and exhaled cigarette smoke.

“The guildmaster’s reason for pairing me with this boy is so obvious, it makes me sick.”

The undertaker wasn’t just a regular hunter.

He was an executioner who dealt with hunters who had become vampires.

The title “undertaker” was given to him by his mentor.

Indeed, he had been the one to cut down a senior hunter who had turned into a vampire and then performed the funeral rites.

“If that kid goes berserk, it’ll be my job to kill him,” he muttered.

“Well, that is your job, right?”

“It’s not the killing that bothers me, it’s not being used to it.”

He crushed the cigarette against the wall and clicked his tongue at the guildmaster, Aila’s coldness.

On the other hand, he seemed genuinely intrigued by how far this rookie, Eden, would go.

“He said he wanted to meet his sister, right?”

As a goal to become a hunter, it seemed rather futile.

But the determination I saw in his eyes—that was a rare talent, something even many veteran hunters lacked.

“He’s got potential.”

The undertaker spat while gazing at the red sky.