episode_0052

“Return to the Duchy of Germania as you are, and make contact with Ergo, who is disguised as the Commander.”

Killing the king of the Holy Kingdom was an easy task. So I killed him. Strictly speaking, it wasn’t even an assassination, but that’s how it would appear to the people of the world.

At the same time, the shock of the assassin’s identity and the truth being revealed is only the beginning.

“A war will soon break out between the Holy Kingdom and the Duchy,” I said.

“In that war, you will don the uniform of the Duchy’s Royal Guard as the ‘Abandoned Saintess’ and confront them.”

“—Yes, Master-nim,” the Saintess Jeanne replied, dressed in the blood-stained black uniform of The Black Serpent.

Fondling the slave mark carved into her body as if it were precious.

“Whatever you command, I shall fulfill it with my life,” she said, her voice unwavering. There was no longer any hesitation in her.

“Even if it means plucking the stars from the sky—.”

A puppet that suspected nothing, blindly offering her loyalty.

“Why?”

Therefore, it was my turn, not anyone else’s, to question Jeanne’s loyalty.

“Why go so far?”

It was a contradiction for me to ask her this, even though I was the one who had brought her to this point, yet she still blindly obeyed me.

Jeanne chuckled at the contradiction.

“Huhu, what a foolish question,” she said after chuckling.

“Because there’s no reason not to be loyal.”

This, from the woman who had been abandoned by the goddess, abandoned by her country, and abandoned by her king.

“……”

“Just as one doesn’t question every reason why humans believe in God,” the Saintess replied, as if I were a god.

*

If The Black Serpent put their mind to it, toppling a nation would not be difficult.

They simply chose not to.

It was as Princess Charlotte had said. Despite possessing such power, they never overthrew nations or coveted power. There was no need for them to.

This was because the man named Rain Grey’s vision extended far beyond that.

And now, I too was gazing upon the same landscape.

—For now, I could only believe that.

*

Whatever The Black Serpent’s objective, there was no doubt that the organization moved entirely centered around Rain Grey.

Therefore, once the objective was clearly set, there was no reason to hesitate in mobilizing the other members.

“A bloody storm will blow,” Aria said beside me while I was lost in thought. I didn’t reply, but I understood the meaning of her words and simply nodded silently.

“Then there’ll be plenty to eat!” Alice shouted, smiling innocently, seemingly unaware of the meaning, or perhaps aware.

No, she couldn’t possibly be unaware. Perhaps she knew it better than I did.

An earldom located a short distance from the Holy Kingdom’s capital.

Unlike the Bretona Empire or the Duchy of Germania, their country was filled with an old-fashioned, medieval image, to the point where the era’s advancements seemed meaningless.

I heard that unlike other centralized nations, it still retained the appearance of a pre-modern feudal society where powerful lords in various regions acted as influential figures.

“If it’s a bloody storm, I too have no objections.”

Furthermore, ‘she’ was one of them.

“Welcome, Commander. —To my territory.”

True Ancestor Scarlet.

A female noble known to the world by the name of Countess Scarlet Bathory.

A vampire who officially held a noble title in the Holy Kingdom and was simultaneously ranked 6th in The Black Serpent.

“Huhu, for the Commander to visit my territory… Is it after 200 years? How nostalgic.”

“……”

Two hundred years. Of course, I had thought that Rain Grey wouldn’t be a normal human, but hearing such words from the mouth of a vampire living an eternal life made it even more strangely real.

He had already long surpassed the lifespan permitted to an ordinary human.

Since the first work of the Heroic Age was released, countless heroes were born and vanished in the history of this continent—even as those heroes were forgotten by the flow of time and buried in mausoleums.

That man, Rain Grey, was always there. Always with Aria of the Black Sword, who guarded his side.

“The bedroom the Commander and Lady Aria used is still the same.”

“Alice too! Alice is here too!”

“Huhu, I’ll have to prepare a wonderful room for our little Lady too.”

“No! Alice wants to be in the same room as Commander!”

Alice’s whining, like a child throwing a tantrum, resembled a daughter doting on her father.

“The bed will be small, though.”

“Don’t worry. As long as the wardrobe is big enough!”

“How about a coffin this time? There’s one just the right size, you know.”

Scarlet and Alice chatted as they crossed through the castle of the Bathory Earldom. Two non-human beings, each with their own unique sleeping arrangements: a coffin and a wardrobe.

But I was in no position to comment either. If seen that way, Aria, who guarded my side, would be the same.

Beyond the stone castle’s windowpanes, deep darkness had already descended. In the profound gloom, a pale full moon shone, hanging eerily in the starless night sky.

“I’m hungry,” True Ancestor Scarlet said then. A vampire being hungry could only mean one thing.

“Huhu, but I am in the Commander’s presence. Even I know to exercise that much discretion.”

“……Is that so?” I let my words trail off, not particularly caring.

“Oh my, aren’t you going to praise me?” Scarlet asked, tilting her head at my reply. I didn’t answer.

“You know, Rain—I’m not that naive child from back then anymore,” she said, speaking my name intimately, as if to show off our familiarity.

Saying that, Scarlet blocked my path. As she blocked me, a vortex of magic swirled from beneath her feet, and a sanguine light swallowed her.

Soon, the swirling sanguine light faded. The figure of a girl who had previously looked like a middle schooler was reborn into the form of an alluring woman.

“Ah, Scarlet Unnie became an Ahjumma!”

“……Child, I’m not an Ahjumma, but a mature lady.”

“Got it, Ahjumma!”

“……”

At Alice’s continued remarks, Scarlet’s expression twisted again. Yet, the fact that she said nothing about Alice’s insubordination showed that this was a villainous group that, in many ways, aimed for a horizontal organizational structure.

But that was beside the point.

It was then.

“Oh my,” Scarlet, who had already been reborn into the form of a mature lady, blinked her eyes and smiled.

“They say it’s market day on the day one leaves [a proverb about an unfortunate coincidence], and of all days, it had to be today.”

“What’s wrong?” I asked back.

“It seems an uninvited guest has entered the territory’s barrier.”

“Surely, a pursuer hasn’t followed us, has one?” I replied, frowning.

An uninvited guest. And precisely at the time we arrived. Based on the previous situation, only one thing could be inferred.

“Huhu, impossible,” True Ancestor Scarlet chuckled, her voice full of disbelief.

“—What foolish idiot in this world would dare to follow in the path of The Black Serpent?”

Was she saying no? So I fell silent again. While I was at it, I took a cigarette from my pocket and put it in my mouth.

“Then who is it?”

“Vampire hunters,” Scarlet replied.

“Someone who heard the rumor that the Countess of this land is a ‘blood-sucking vampire,’ and came to punish such evil. They were probably biding their time, waiting for me to return to my territory.”

She shrugged, her voice conveying that there was truly nothing surprising about it.

“I really can’t stand persistent men.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Well, should I kindly escort them into the castle?” Scarlet asked back.

“I’ll do as the Commander orders.” I didn’t answer. Aside from remaining silent before something I didn’t know, I knew no other way.

“Do as you wish.”

*

Vampire Hunter.

That profession, as people called it, was certainly not something just anyone could do.

Those who lost loved ones to vampires’ hands, and undeterred by that pain, dedicated their entire lives to vengeance.

Along with the existence of an ‘organization’ that contacted, educated, and fostered such special individuals, the lineage of vampire hunters had been passed down in this world.

And the hunters present right here, right now, were also among them.

‘Please wait for me, Mother—.’

‘My love, Sylvia.’

Those who had each lost loved ones to vampires’ hands, engraving the despair and pain of that day onto their very beings, living until now. They, precisely, were there for the revenge they had honed and waited for so long.

In the territory of the vampire said to be the most infamous and heinous in this world. And they couldn’t even imagine the existence of ‘someone’ to whom even a vampire so infamous and terrible would show deference, bow their head, and offer loyalty.