episode_0086

Hello.

I’m Linda, the household helper doll.

My morning starts early.

First, I open the curtains of the entire mansion to let in the sunlight.

The morning sun will warm up the rooms that have been cold all night.

When the sunlight streams in, I can see the dust floating in the air.

I open the windows for ventilation and thoroughly dust off the accumulated dust from the night.

Even though they weren’t used, I also shake out the bedding and neatly fold them again.

The dust on the floor is swept away with a broom first.

Then, I meticulously mop the floor and wipe the furniture with a damp cloth to make them shine.

The dishes also accumulate a lot of dust.

Even though there won’t be any meals served in the mansion, you never know when the owner or guests might visit.

I take out all the dishes from the cupboard and gently wipe each one with a soft cloth.

Finally, I maintain the appropriate humidity through the humidifier and fireplace.

[Hmm. Perfect.]

And with that, the morning cleaning is done.

But there’s still a lot more to do.

As you all know, my fuel efficiency is not good.

I need regular refueling.

It’s part of my job to purchase and refill the insufficient fuel.

There’s no need to worry even if there are no people around.

The owner has already prepaid a year’s worth of fuel.

My task is simply to refill the fuel delivered every morning at the charging station.

There’s also laundry and garden maintenance to do in the morning, but…

I don’t think I need to do either today.

Since no one has visited.

I think I can enter power-saving mode now.

If I keep running, time will just pass slowly.

I would prefer to turn off the power until the owner returns.

[Signal detected…]

The moment I sat on my dedicated chair.

I heard the sound of someone walking on the grass outside.

It’s a person.

Judging by the footsteps, it’s a woman with low weight and bone density.

And from the delicate sound of her jewelry, she seems to be a noblewoman.

Thud thud.

“Master! Please come out!”

It’s a loud and clear voice of a woman.

From the accent, she seems to be from the northern continent, probably a Suin.

With the long resonance in her voice, she might be a Frost royal from Pallana.

Keern is already gone and not present, but I can’t reveal that.

I have to maintain the facade of a malfunctioning doll when others are around.

The success of artificial soul development is still a secret.

“Has dementia struck again… I’m sure I woke her up last time.”

Bang!

With a rough noise, the door opened.

She just broke in without waiting for permission!

“Master! I just wanted to ask you something!”

This is a problem.

Suin have a very keen sense of smell.

While the cleaning inside the mansion is done, the garage is still pending.

I need to quickly send her away before she enters the garage.

I hurriedly get up from my chair and head towards the approaching footsteps.

“Who’s there! Ah…”

[Shock detected.]

As I turned the corner.

A blade flew towards my neck, but stopped just before hitting me.

I almost stumbled in surprise, but…

It’s fortunate that I’m in power-saving mode.

In this state, expressing emotions is largely restricted.

But she’s truly a beautiful Suin woman.

With blue fur and wolf ears.

Definitely.

She must be a Frost royal from Pallana.

[Keern is currently unavailable. Please visit at another time.]

“What? Really…”

Ignoring my guidance, she opened the bedroom door and looked disappointed.

She really isn’t here…

My words must sound unbelievable.

“When will she be back?”

[Apologies. Unrecognized command. Please try again…]

“Oh, right. This thing. A broken tin can with its logic circuits ripped out. I saw it last time and forgot about it.”

With a temper, she strides towards the door.

Why break in and then pick a fight with someone else?

I decided not to activate the security mode, as it might end up in a disaster.

Thankfully, she seems willing to leave peacefully.

“I’m sorry for breaking the door. I’ll call a repairman to fix it. But, huh? Sniff sniff. Sniff sniff…”

Just before crossing the threshold.

She stops, sniffing the air around her.

Sniffing the door, sniffing the walls.

“Is this it?”

She stops in front of me, who was standing still.

And at that moment.

I realized.

Danger was lurking not only in the garage.

Come to think of it, I still hadn’t cleaned myself properly.

“Sniff. What’s that smell?”

[······.]

After scanning my whole body, I soon found myself covering my nose with my hand and sniffing the scent.

Fortunately, my hand was now a mix of a thousand different smells.

Even if I were a sensitive mermaid to scents, it would be hard to distinguish one from another.

“Damn. It feels right, but I can’t quite figure it out.”

Just as I was about to relax.

A creepy thought suddenly crossed my mind.

My head.

Especially my forehead, rarely touched by objects.

The only recent experience of something touching it was your touch.

“That’s odd. It felt like I smelled Eugene’s scent. Where is it?”

Oh no.

You had strictly warned me not to reveal anything related to you, even if someone barged in.

At this rate, I looked like I was about to get caught.

Should I pretend to make a mistake and turn on the oil valve to cover up the smell?

It was a moment when even such extreme measures came to mind.

“Maybe it’s just my imagination… Lately, I’ve been feeling so lonely that I keep smelling Eugene’s scent everywhere. Even in Elvengard.”

Luckily, the woman soon shook her head and moved away from me.

It seemed she hadn’t thought about sniffing my forehead.

I secretly let out a sigh of relief inside the central processing unit.

“Phew…”

As the woman left, she gently tugged on my sleeve.

Then, with a subtle expression.

She closed the door and left.

Tap tap tap.

The sound of footsteps on the grass gradually faded away, and I checked under the sleeve the woman had tugged on.

[Oops.]

There.

There were clear tooth marks left on the silicone.

***

Despite some unexpected situations, I successfully completed my tasks in Taeyeop City.

I boarded a carriage headed to Basel.

Although I was supposed to transfer my contact information and base to Taeyeop City now.

I still needed to check the letters already at the Tane Workshop.

And I had to tell Tane that I no longer needed to receive any more letters.

“Come to think of it, this time there’s no magic stone to entrust for processing.”

Finally returning to Basel.

There were no magic stones to process.

The magic stones obtained in this dungeon had already been embedded in Longinus’s spear.

“Magic stone upgrades seem to be faltering these days.”

I’m still using the magic stones I obtained from Lawrence, the contractor of Velfegor, a long time ago.

Of course, I have never felt that the performance of the magic stones was lacking.

They still boast the strongest performance among existing magic stones.

But I just don’t feel the urgent need to upgrade them right now.

If possible, I would like to obtain even higher-grade magic stones.

“Even with the body I captured under the contract with Velfegor. How much stronger would it be if I captured the main body?”

My goal is Velfegor’s main body.

In the past, when I faced the Four Kings, I was terrified of losing.

But now I know.

With the experiences and various characteristics accumulated during the 12th cycle, and the hidden items, I can overwhelm the Four Kings.

The Four Kings are also not complete but growing.

At this early stage, they can only be defeated by me, who has eaten all kinds of tricks.

But on the other hand, as time goes by, the Four Kings will become stronger and stronger.

What I have done so far is essentially to gain the power I will get later in advance.

In other words, as time goes by, the gap between the Four Kings and me will narrow.

I need to finish this as soon as possible.

Unless there is a miracle where I suddenly open my eyes to the talent of a great wizard or realize the essence of swordsmanship.

It is a predetermined future that I will be overturned by the Four Kings in the latter half.

“I wish the prophecy of the World Tree would come down with information about the Four Kings.”

Still, with the information network spread out in various places like Zürich, Elvengard, Taeyeop City, Palana, Basel, etc.

If any abnormal signs are found, they will be reported immediately.

If that is the sign of the Four Kings’ activities, it will be immediately recognized.

I just have to wait for them to get caught in the net as soon as possible.

“But what are you doing that it’s taking so long?”

“······Chup. Chup.”

I kept feeling like my energy was draining away.

When I lifted the blanket, I saw that Mijung was still sucking blood from my arm.

It seemed like it had been an hour already…

I used to suck blood quickly, finishing in about 10 minutes.

These days, it seems like the time for blood-sucking is getting longer as she does it slowly.

Savoring the taste, or something like that.

He’s just a gourmet.

“Chuup. Chup, chung. Ooem.”

However, the problem is that this is a crowded carriage with several people on board.

That’s why the blanket is covering us.

We can’t let others see us feeding.

I hope we can finish this quickly.

But Myung-i is still burying her head in the blanket.

Sucking on my arm with all her might.

“Hey… isn’t that it?”

“Turn your head. Shh. Shh.”

People seem to be glancing in our direction.

I hope we don’t get exposed as vampires.

“Is this it? When we were attacked by bandits.”

The scenery outside seems strangely familiar.

We’ve been on this road before.

When we were heading to Basel, we were once attacked by bandits here.

I even had to draw my sword that time…

Looking back, it was probably unnecessary.

There’s no point in attracting unnecessary attention.

[Myung-i]

[Eugene: 7.75%]

[Known to a few people. Has a small presence. Someone is harboring strong emotions. Someone is experiencing complex emotions. Someone is possessive. Someone is feeling admiration.]

[Cheon Michael Jackson: 1.23%]

[Known to a few people. Respected.]

[???: 3.5%]

[Starting to gain notoriety. Being forgotten.]

The fame that arose from overcoming the bandit horde, [???].

The value of [???] has decreased significantly.

It seems to be fading away.

It might disappear soon at this rate.

“Stop! Stop! Everyone, get off!”

The carriage screeches to a sudden halt.

Could it be another bandit attack?

I reach for the sword hidden in my bag around my waist, but only realize after seeing the heavily armed soldiers outside.

They seem to be ordinary guards from Basel.

Of course, we never pass through a checkpoint quietly.

I have no means to prove my identity.

And Myung-i is a vampire.

No matter where we are caught, we are always detained for at least an hour before being released.

“This is so annoying.”

“Ugh.”

I remove my hand from the blanket and start bandaging it.

Myung-i looks slightly disappointed, but there’s nothing we can do.

“Everyone, please show your belongings. If any prohibited items are found, you will have to turn back or surrender them.”

It will be over soon.

The suspicious wireless communicator and Longinus’s spear have long been disguised as ordinary wooden boxes and pocket watches.

They are not magically disguised, so there’s no need to worry about being caught.

“Hmm… What’s this?”

However, one guard rummages through my belongings and finds a silver badge in the corner.

A silver identification badge.

It must be the one I took from the bandit leader’s neck when we killed him during the attack here.

“Captain! Here’s the identification badge of the notorious bandit leader!”

“What?!”

“Oh, shit.”

This is bad.

A 1-hour inspection has turned into 10 hours.

I close my eyes sensing trouble.

The murmuring around me gradually subsides.

When I open my eyes, I see the guards kneeling on one knee and bowing their heads in one direction.

“Royal knight!”

The people waiting in line for inspection shiver with excitement.

Approaching slowly along the mountain path is a knight in full armor.

Where the family crest should be, the flag of the Galia Kingdom is displayed.

He slowly approaches on horseback and stops in front of us.

“What’s the commotion?”

“Sir, we were just asking this person about the identification badge of the bandit leader we were chasing-”

“Oh. It was just a formality, you don’t have to answer. I just needed an excuse to talk to this person.”

The knight’s gaze intensifies towards Myung-i.

He lifts his visor and reveals his face.

“A familiar face.”

Pale to the point of being ghostly, with red eyes.

Smiling, he extends his hand for a handshake.

“Nice to see a fellow here.”

He was a vampire.