episode_0008

I didn’t really live a life where I couldn’t sleep at night because of guilt every time I came into this world and faced such moments.

Because what I did was just a game.

In a game where the main character is a slave trader, who could possibly expect that the evil deeds committed by a character carefully raised would become reality?

If you play chess or chess in real life and it turns out that it also affects the actual war and people die, are the people who moved the pieces war criminals?

It was unclear whether there was even a real connection.

It could have simply been that I happened to fall into the same world as the game I was playing.

But I definitely felt displeased every time I saw it.

Watching the people who had kicked me out of the family mansion and made me suffer as a child because I was an illegitimate child calmly commit all kinds of evil deeds and enjoy twisted pleasures, complex emotions of righteous indignation, irritation, and a subtle sense of guilt welled up in me.

So much so that the hand holding the spear naturally gained strength.

Even so, emotions are emotions, and reality was reality.

In a time when people were busy trying to survive on their own, it was too reckless to intentionally clash with the most powerful person in the current empire.

Knowing this well, I had no choice but to swing the spear in the end.

If I didn’t face his endless greed, I could have ended up dying.

Like right now.

“Oh… you’re quick-witted.”

The homunculus that the alchemist had hidden in his bosom was pierced through the chest as it tried to jump towards me when I struck the spear at his head.

In that limp hand was holding a dagger that was about to stab me in the throat.

“I should have met guys like you once or twice…”

As I lifted the spear and threw the dead dwarf away from the blade, I glared at his face, which still maintained a shamelessly friendly attitude.

The character I created and raised myself, the head of the Catenis family who is now my biological father, was never the type of person to let danger elements live.

Unless you have a strong weakness or are in a situation where you can afford it, quickly eliminate a person who has the potential to be beyond your control.

Naturally, those who claim to be his subordinates will also act accordingly.

In the first place, that alchemist had no intention of letting me live, as I had accidentally discovered the truth of this vampire rebellion while accompanying Miss Rubia, and I also had to deal with him before he reported this to the Catenis family.

Fortunately, it seemed like there was no need to feel compunction about killing someone just to silence him.

“Did you say Hyldras… No, that’s probably not his real name. I guess he didn’t have to use his true name when imitating his doctor.”

“Well… I don’t think it would be a big problem even if that was my real name.”

Certainly, as long as you destroy evidence at a city level, you will not be caught.

It would be a story about when he killed me.

“I don’t know anything else, but it wasn’t a lie that the head of the family was paying attention to your talent. I’m sure he would be very sorry about this.

Still, if you say you burned that talent for the last time in testing the power of a true immortal, it wouldn’t have been wasted.”

As soon as those words ended, I felt a strong wave behind my back.

I quickly rolled to the side, aimed my spear in that direction, and clicked my tongue at the sight unfolding before my eyes.

Red and black energy was engulfing the melted body of the homunculus that was holding Miss Rubia’s limbs.

The eyes, which had turned completely red, looked at both hands alternately as if they were unfamiliar with the freed body, and then turned their heads to face me.

Unfortunately, the eyes, which were filled with curiosity rather than hostility, did not seem to recognize me.

Hildras burst out in admiration when he saw her like that.

“Oh! Take a look! That is a true immortal.

They are not clumsy monsters who have to sacrifice human dignity and reason for only half immortality, but powerful kings and queens of the dark of legend who freely wield blood and shadow!

She is the closest to the progenitor at this moment, and she is the beginning! A beginning for us who will overcome the limitations of this weak body and learn the secret of transcendence-”

“…Okay. Are you a vampire this time?”

“…What are you talking about?”

When I didn’t show the slightest interest in his long-winded declaration and just muttered as if it was all I could understand, the alchemist then turned his head to look at me and asked.

“‘This time’. This isn’t the first time. How could I have known from the beginning that the Catenis family had a hand in this?

He collects everything related to immortality.”

This may not be particularly surprising.

Among those who have acquired the greatest wealth and power throughout all times and nations, it would be more difficult to find someone who did not have the desire to enjoy that wealth and power forever.

However, if there is something I can’t help but feel absurd about such evil deeds…

“…Continuing even now that eternal life is already halfway in our grasp. Even after drinking dragon blood, I’m still not satisfied.”

…that he had already achieved his goal.

A few years ago, while trading with hatchlings, he captured an angry dragon that invaded his city, and by drinking its blood, the head of Catenis was able to live longer than most elves.

He can even continue to drink dragon’s blood, so it’s virtually impossible for him to grow old and die.

The new possibility of immortality that he gained by sending out his henchmen to kill an entire city was not a desperate attempt to avoid death, but was just one of the alternatives he leisurely collected.

However, for the alchemist, it was more shocking than the fact that nearly the population of several cities died just to find a substitute for what he had already obtained, and more so was the fact that his life’s work was of only alternative value to his patron. He seemed shocked.

“What is that…”

Of course, I had no intention of being considerate of the shock he received, so I immediately hurled my spear at him, who was standing there in a daze.

-With a violent friction sound, the blade of the spear flew out of the way, sparks flying.

Before I knew it, Miss Luvia had flown in front of the spear and blocked it by pushing the spear blade away with her dark red hand.

I took a step back, repositioned myself, and looked at her.

She was looking at her torn palm, staring blankly at the blood flowing down to the floor.

The others were torn apart without even seeing the spear, but their strength was definitely on a different level from the vampires they had faced so far.

“Haha.. That’s right.. I guess you’re just talking nonsense because you don’t know how great this achievement is… I’ll show you for myself!”

I tried to control the shock by downgrading what I said to nonsense and tried to chase the alchemist who was sneaking back, but Miss Rubia blocked me again.

Unlike his previous attitude, which was closer to curiosity, he was clearly showing hostility, perhaps due to the fact that I had hurt her.

I’m not sure what Hydras did when he briefly captured her as a homunculus, but her condition was clearly not normal.

‘okay. Even if you destroy the entire city’s evidence, if you tried to escape a city full of rampaging vampires with the results you gained, you would have at least some reason to believe in it.’

It seems that the homunculus that had tied her up earlier wasn’t just prepared for restraint.

Not only did he cause her, who was clearly suppressing her instincts and powers as a vampire, to go berserk like that, but to some extent, she was acting according to the alchemist’s own intentions.

‘It seems closer to just guiding people to move according to their instincts rather than completely controlling them…’

The problem is that it doesn’t really leave room to exploit loopholes in that method.

Considering that it moves only according to its instincts, its behavior itself appears to be similar to that of other vampires.

However, the power of the subject of the action was not comparable to that of ordinary vampires.

The red energy that grew like a blade on her thin nails seemed like if I missed it even once, it would burrow into the cracks in my armor and tear my flesh.

While constantly stabbing and swinging the spear to block the deadly attacks, he also tried to somehow break through her and head towards Hyldras.

However, it was not easy to get past her as she turned in the air and rushed at me again, just as I managed to secure some space with a big push.

“You said you shouldn’t put even a scratch on your precious body, but that’s different from what you said.”

“Haha! Are you feeling a little nervous now? No matter how precious an item is, if you leave it unused, where will it be used?”

“Maybe I should just leave it alone and look at it and not use it.”

This time, as she bared her teeth and tried to bite me, I blocked her mouth with a metal spear instead and asked in resentment.

He held onto the spear pole with his teeth and narrowly avoided her attack by swinging her claws again.

He pulled the spear out and quickly slid the blade towards her mouth, and only then did she let go of the spear she was holding and retreated.

A moment of silence amidst the continued conflict.

Even in that brief moment, I took a breath and drew the next number in my head, but soon I had to erase everything I had drawn as her appearance changed before my eyes.

As she collided with me again and again, the blade of my spear brushed against her and her tattered clothes finally fell and fluttered to the floor.

The white skin revealed beyond the clothes would have definitely caught my attention if I wasn’t currently in a life-or-death battle.

But it wasn’t her cheeks that turned red under his gaze.

A beautiful red cloth, as if it were woven with blood as its thread, covers her pure white naked body in place of her torn clothes.

Turning her gaze towards me, which was as red as the clothes, she began to dance red as if a rose was blooming.

In the beautiful and deadly dance, her irregular attacks were increasingly difficult to block amidst the dance moves that took away her concentration.

It wasn’t that she was getting faster or stronger, but it was because my body, which had to deal with it, was moving sluggishly, as if submerged in water.

‘…If you continue like this, you will definitely die.’

I was already fascinated, so as time went by, the gap would increase, and there was no way she, who had pushed her instincts to the limit, would miss that gap.

If the number of sums exchanged and received increased, the possibility of losing my head in the next sum increased… I had to take a gamble, even if it was reckless.

The moment the spear blade I swung collided with her hand, sparks flying, I used the recoil to widen the distance and aimed the tip of the spear straight at her.

And then rushes in. The muscles in the hands and arms holding the spear pulsate as if they are about to burst.

I shoot with all my might towards the woman in front of me, in order to deliver the single most fatal blow at the end.

Since I couldn’t fight while caring about her well-being, I gave her a brief apology in my heart.

If it missed or was blocked, she would dig into my exposed gap and tear me to pieces, and if it hit, it would inflict wounds that even an immortal could not handle, a move that would determine victory or defeat in either direction.

In front of the window stretching out like that, she-

-I opened my arms and accepted the spear.

Contrary to my shocked mind, my body had already plunged the spear into her stomach.

The blade of the spear cut into it mercilessly, spilling blood on the floor.

Of the two of us who stood still for a moment, just a moment, she slowly got down on her knees. Spitting out no one else’s but her own blood between her teeth.

“What?… Ah… no!!”

Funny enough, the person who screamed the loudest when he saw that was the man who was smiling just moments ago.

In contrast to him, who sat down and let out a scream, I looked at her blankly and made eye contact.

The last-minute battle that had just decided the winner… was not going to end this easily.

At the very least, if she had done it right, I could have been the one lying bleeding on the floor of the mansion right now.

She just welcomed him with open arms, as if asking him to stab her.

Asking why was empty because I already knew the answer.

When I finally made eye contact with her after putting the spear in her stomach, I saw that her eyes had returned to their original state.

She came to her senses in that split-second moment when the game was about to be decided, and at that moment decided to help me in the best way she could.

And in return for her help, she was now coughing up blood and dying in the mansion where she was born.

Now that she was making eye contact, she muttered a few words that could no longer be heard.

I could barely make out the words.

‘thank you.’

——

‘It hurts… I don’t want to die…’

She closed her eyes and tried to swallow those words in silence after saying thank you.

And I laughed at myself. I didn’t think I could endure it without being laughed at like that.

It’s already too late, so why are you so anxious?

Wasn’t the pain that ripped through her stomach a death she had accepted herself?

All family members died.

She herself had already turned into a monster rather than a human.

It was a terrible situation in which I was a slave to my enemy due to magic that I did not know what it was.

Being able to accept the spear in her briefly restored mind was the best she could hope for.

I had to think like that.

Because she didn’t want to spend her last moments in misery.

Like the courageous women in old stories, I wanted to be confident even at the moment of my last breath as the daughter of a prestigious family.

However, the pain and fear were not something that could be suppressed by an already exhausted mind and body.

Eventually she had to feel tears welling up in her closed eyes.

‘…scared…’

My body is getting very cold.

It felt like an icy cold sensation was enveloping her entire body and pulling her down.

‘..please…’

The last thing she wanted was warmth.

And she could feel it.

‘…what?’

It was warm and sweet.

As it fell on her tongue, it slowly drove away the cold that had enveloped her body and soothed the pain.

Is this the nectar that appears in the stories of the gods?

‘Ah… it’s delicious.’

She drank it down without even thinking.

I desperately drank in the thing that gave me joy and warmth, as if to compensate for the pain and fear I had experienced so far.

But soon, the flow that was flowing into my mouth stopped for a moment.

“…give me more…”

She said that without thinking and opened her eyes.

“…Please wait a moment. Immediately..”

And she saw.

A man kneeling next to her, looking down at her.

The hand he was lifting and the huge wound on that hand.

The ‘blood’ dripping from that wound into her mouth.

Everything she was taught told her to find it disgusting.

Turn your head right now and use her tongue to spit out that red liquid that is going down your throat.

She couldn’t do that.

Because that was the only thing that gave her warmth.