Chapter 471: f You Think Clearly Even When You’re In The Stomach of a Vampire, You Will Survive

Even if she’s a Neonate, a vampire is still a vampire.

She’s stronger than me, doesn’t die, and possesses Bloodcraft.

She might not be as powerful as other vampires, but she’s still a pain to deal with.

“Pretty roomy stomach you’ve got there.”

“If you don’t want to be digested, give up and let yourself be caught. Once I lose myself to hunger… I might not leave even a drop of blood behind.”

She meant it.

Viltear moved lazily, she hadn’t fully unleashed her power of Consumption.

To use that strength meant becoming ravenous and mad for blood.

But still…

I think I can do this.

I pulled my hand away from the wall and said,

“Mother, I think I’ve grown enough. I’d like to be born now. Won’t you show your fully grown son the outside world?”

“You’ve still got room to joke? Very well, I’ll take that away first.”

With a wave of her hand, everything in the cabin advanced toward me.

Wooden chairs creaked and marched over.

Tables, drawers, wooden ladles followed.

Right. Wood.

“You know, wood doesn’t die. It just stops.”

I clutched a card.

The Nine of Spades, The Tree of Genesis.

The unlucky tree felled by an axe, dried by sun, nailed and turned into furniture, answered my call and began its revenge.

Roots sprouted, branches burst out.

Jagged twigs shot straight toward Viltear.

If she had been of Erzsebet’s Coven, specialized in control, this wouldn’t have worked, but she was a Neonate of the Bloodleech Coven.

Her Bloodcraft wasn’t strong enough to dominate a tree once it had broken free.

“Druids? You harbor both beliefs?”

“No. This is revenge from a tree you killed. Taste its suffering!”

Viltear broke the branches with her arms and legs, but the tree’s roots had already taken hold in the cabin and were spreading endlessly.

More branches and leaves rained down, narrowing her field of vision.

Right. Vampires aren’t immune to injury.

They just heal fast.

Compared to a Qi Arts Practitioner, they’re easier to deal with.

The other furniture was still coming for me, but not with the same force.

They lacked proper control.

I bound the rolling cauldron and fire poker tightly with wires and made a dash for the door.

Then—

“…Wood doesn’t taste good, so I never liked eating it.”

Crunch. Crunch.

I heard the sound of chewing wood.

Looking over, Viltear was ripping off branches and leaves with both hands and stuffing them into her mouth.

She devoured them mercilessly.

Amazingly… she was eating faster than the Tree of Genesis could grow.

“That’s a lot of fiber. You’ll regret it in the bathroom.”

“Nom, nom. Gulp. Don’t worry. I already told you, didn’t I? This place… is my stomach.”

From her body… hardened bark began to sprout.

Druidism is weak against Bloodcraft, perhaps because of the difference between plants and animals.

The attribute mismatch still applied, even against a Neonate.

“Tch.”

I jabbed the lock with a skewer.

I felt it catch for a moment, then red bark, regenerated through her digestion and mingled into her blood, blocked the door’s gap.

Crunch.

She’d eaten the table and chairs by now and waddled over with a bloated belly.

Looking like a pregnant woman, I muttered.

“Already having a sibling, huh…? It’s cramped with two of us, so I guess I’ll head out first.”

“Still talking? Well, I’m too full to eat you anyway… so I’ll just hang you on a hook.”

Her claim about being in her belly wasn’t a metaphor.

The blood flowing through the hut was her bloodstream.

Viltear could digest what she consumed and assimilate it into her blood.

That’s how she could still move after eating the furniture.

It’s hard to think of her as equal to someone like Finlay.

Well, this is her home turf.

If I’d fought Finlay properly back then, I might’ve lost too.

But I’m not who I was back then.

Now—

“I win.”

I whispered victory and drew the Eight of Diamonds.

All things long and thin.

The steel wire card transformed into hundreds of threads, wrapping around my hands.

“Still planning to fight? You’ve got tenacity to rival a vampire.”

I quietly watched her stomach deflate in real time.

It looked like she’d shrunk instantly, but in truth, she was expelling digested items through the blood flowing at her feet.

As long as she was connected to this hut, escape would be hard.

So I just had to sever that connection.

“Did you know? The stomach is actually outside the body.”

I secretly pulled out the Lighning Spool and combined it with the wire.

Lightning coursed through every strand of metal.

“It only temporarily stores nutrients to be absorbed and filters out waste. It may seem internal, but it’s distinctly separate from the body.”

“You’re explaining digestion to me?”

“Just in case.”

“How thoughtful.”

She’d devoured all the wood.

All that remained was metal.

And vampires tend to have good control over metals.

She charged with a knife.

I stretched out the wires to block her, but she sliced vertically through them.

Snip.

The wires couldn’t withstand the blood-infused blade.

｢Even with Qi, these threads are too thin. This won’t stop me. Show me something more. If you can’t, it ends here.｣

Viltear stepped through the gap in the wires.

Rather than protecting herself, she covered the knife, sacrificing her face and back.

That’s how vampires fight, using their bodies as shields.

If needed, she’d bite me.

I gripped the severed wire.

Actually, the wires weren’t cut.

What was severed was the Lighning Spool.

The wires had simply gone slack and waited for her to charge into them.

Mistaking them for normal wire, Viltear had run right into the trap.

At the moment I felt resistance, I kicked the cauldron.

It rolled and tightened the web.

“A net?”

More or less.

The card was pre-woven that way.

“Hmph. Something like this…!”

Viltear barreled forward, net and all.

I held fast, but even as the wires dug into her flesh, the vampire pressed on with sheer strength. That’s what you’d expect from a vampire.

“Set…re!”

That’s what I wanted.

That very moment, when the wires dug in into her flesh.

“Volt!”

Lightning surged through the wires and struck her.

For the first time since becoming a vampire, Viltear experienced paralysis.

｢What…? My body… stopped on its own?!｣

It wasn’t just an ordinary shock, it was disruption of the senses themselves.

This power is the perfect counter against vampires.

Viltear was experienced enough to bleed herself and reassert control over her body.

She regained her posture quickly.

But it was enough.

Enough to hang her, wrapped in netting, from the rafters.

Suspended mid-air, no longer in contact with her hut, Viltear admitted defeat.

“That power just now… not from Cloud Village’s alchemists, is it? No, it feels… different.”

“There’s always something new in the world.”

Dusting off my hands, I knocked on the door.

The blood pressure behind it had weakened considerably.

Viltear couldn’t stop me from leaving anymore.

Tch. Used up all my wire, too.

A shame, but trying to retrieve it now would be suicide.

I opened the door and stepped out—

“Oh, right. Before I go.”

Hearing the murmur of voices outside, I paused and nodded toward the chief.

“Would you mind telling the villagers outside to disperse?”

She swung gently in the air and replied,

“…And why should I?”

“Because if you don’t, this village will be wiped off the map today.”

Of course, that was a bluff.

I had no means of taking out a mob of villagers armed with rusty pitchforks and scythes.

What were those, even?

Spears with sickles tied to them?

A mis-swing would probably cut their own toes off.

Even now, with my improved body, I could win—but I’m no vampire.

I’m not risking a stab wound from a rusty farm tool.

Regardless of my true strength, to Viltear, I was the greater threat.

And a master doesn’t send livestock to war.

No rights, no duties.

They always come as a pair.

The chief calmly admitted defeat and shouted,

“…Everyone, listen! Return home at once! Disperse!”

“Huh? Senior, what do you—”

“I said now! Do you all ignore my word now too?!”

Startled by her outburst, the villagers surrounding the hut began lowering their weapons.

They had no obligation.

They simply moved like sheep when ordered.

The footsteps grew faint.

I waited calmly, then spoke.

“Mind if I ask something?”

“Go ahead.”

“I want to escape the Duchy. Where can I find a broker who can smuggle me out?”

This village sat on the outskirts of the Duchy.

Viltear had lived for nearly 500 years.

She must have heard something.

She replied with clear reluctance.

“And why should I tell you?”

“Because if you don’t, I’ll burn this hut down. You’ll be exposed to sunlight.”

Another lie.

I have no power to burn down this blood-soaked hut.

Even the vampire knew that.

From what I’d shown so far, I clearly couldn’t.

But Viltear answered anyway.

“Keep climbing the mountain west of the valley. You’ll reach barren land where trees no longer grow. Follow the tree line along the border, and you’ll spot a peak shrouded in clouds. They say people cross over there. Try your luck.”

She lied.

｢That peak is guarded by an Ancilla. Collie. If you get close, she’ll drive you out instantly.｣

Still, I learned something useful.

This was way better than searching blind.

“Thanks. I’ll move along peacefully, now that I’ve heard something good.”

Waving a hand, I stepped into the sunlight beyond the door.

Whew. Can’t believe I beat a Neonate.

I feel proud of my growth.

I walked through the quiet village with a light heart.

I sensed the humans watching from the barn, but it didn’t matter.

They had neither rights nor duties. Just livestock.

…Well, except for one.

“It was you, wasn’t it… What did you do to Senior…?”

It was the girl I met before hide in the burrow.

Maybe she remembered my face—or was simply too young to understand fear.

She blocked my path, clutching a spear she didn’t even know how to use.

A meaningless gesture.

She couldn’t win.

She should’ve obeyed the adults.

“Come now. If your chief couldn’t stop me, what makes you think you can?”

“Answer me!”

She brandished the spear.

I shrugged casually.

“What you should be doing is not stopping me, but saving your chief.”

“S-save…?”

“Hurry. No one else can save her but you. Well…”

Sweeping my hair back mockingly, I suddenly fixed her with a cold stare.

“If you choose to fight me instead… even the life your chief risked hers to protect will be in danger.”

Startled, she sucked in a breath.

The tip of her spear shook like a shaking leaf.

I stepped aside, offering a path.

“If you’re going to save her, I won’t stop you. But if you’re here to interfere, then this conversation is over.”

She hesitated, but then rushed past me, sprinting toward the hut.

Watching her scamper away, I breathed a quiet sigh of relief.

Whew.

That was close.

One wrong move and I could’ve been stabbed.

I was reading her thoughts, and what a mess.

In her mind, she was nobly aiming her spear—but to my eyes, the tip was wobbling like a tree in the middle of a storm.

Because of my mind reading, it was even harder to predict.

Definitely more dangerous than a vampire’s attack.

Still, I salvaged my pride by talking it through.

Keeping my composure, I headed for the path the chief had given me, with a sliver of hope for escape.

…And yet. For all this chaos, Hilde never showed up.

Looks like she really ditched me.

Just where did she go?

“Haa~. ‘I’ wonder if Father realizes just how much resolve it took for ‘me’ to do this for him.”

Hilde let out a deep sigh, recalling the “father” she had left behind.

“Sigh. Of all things, the one audience ‘I’ never wanted to lose ends up like that. Looks like I’ll have to make the sacrifice~. ‘I’ left just a letter because ‘I’ didn’t want to embarrass myself, but still…”

It was an unavoidable choice to escape.

Hilde sighed again.

But she wasn’t worried.

He was the King of Humans.

No matter what hardships came his way, he’d make it through.

She had no concrete evidence, but Hilde instinctively believed it.

The only issue was… when they were together, she became useless.

Her power was in transformation and performance, to be present everywhere, and yet nowhere.

She had disguised herself as a member of the pursuit force to break through a siege, lived as a mountain village woman, assassinated invading bandits, and taken over as their boss.

But with him by her side, she couldn’t transform.

It was like sealing away one of her greatest abilities.

That’s why Hilde left him.

For a more secure escape.

Covering her face and smiling briefly, she slowly lowered her hand.

Where just moments ago the face of a cheeky young girl had been, now rested the smooth, glib face of a man.

Having transformed into Hughes, Hilde pressed her throat lightly with her fingers, adjusting her voice.

“Still, I gathered plenty of data. The face, the voice, the speech patterns, and… even the body. With this much, ‘I’ might even fool Tyrkanzyaka for a while~.”

Changing her face.

Adjusting her voice.

Correcting her gait, she was now unmistakably “him.”

Before letting her mindset fully become “him,” she allowed herself a brief moment of nostalgia.

“An audience, huh… In the end, I really am fated to never escape acting~.”

Yes.

Hilde was a born performer.

In the courtesan house, in the theatre, even while fleeing from pursuers, she survived through acting.

It was the thing she did to survive.

To act as something that was not herself, that was her essence.

A contradiction, yet the truth.

In Hilde’s life, acting had long become inseparable.

“Tch. Even though he’s the only audience I had.”

The Sanctum wished for her to be a Crusader.

The Saint wanted her to serve as the Camarilla.

But he… he wanted her to be the performer encompassing all her past roles.

Even though he could have used her personally.

That’s what the King of Humans was.

An entity closer to a phenomenon than even the Sky God or the Saintess.

A truly absolute being.

“Guess I looked for comfort in the wrong places. I should’ve sought the King of Humans in the first place. What was I doing helping others like a fool…”

With that final grumble, Hilde closed her eyes and summoned her role.

The man she had watched until now—an ordinary man, yet one who wielded every kind of ordinariness.

The total embodiment of humankind.

｢I am Hughes. The King of Humans.｣

The man named Hughes.

The Blank-Faced One.

The demon who once plunged the Empire and its vassal states into chaos, had now appeared in the Duchy.