Chapter 23
The Majest Continent was said to have been created from the creator’s blood and tears.
From a human perspective, the continent was broadly divided into five regions.
First came the center of the continent, the heart of it all.
At the continent’s center, the most habitable land in all the world, stood the Bernice Empire in imposing splendor.
The undisputed strongest nation on the continent, and a country beneath many suns.
Around the central Bernice Empire, the continent was divided into north, south, east, and west.
The northern reaches of the continent, where human hands had barely touched and where the vast Kron Mountains and the Demon Realm existed.
The southern continent, where many nations coexisted, sometimes at war and sometimes in harmony.
The eastern continent, home to the Elisia Kingdom, known as the “magic kingdom.”
And then.
“The Akala Great Forest in the west! I’m sure of it! I definitely felt traces of blood there!”
“Then why did you come back without meeting them?”
“I’m telling you, I couldn’t meet them, sis. I just couldn’t find them no matter what I did.”
“Hmm. That’s strange. If they were one of our clan, they should have recognized you.”
“How would I know?”
The Akala Great Forest, a vast woodland in the west. It wasn’t as immense as the Kron Mountains and the Demon Realm in the north, but it still dominated the region like a force of nature.
In truth, from a human perspective, the western continent usually brought to mind Pucala, the representative port city. But we weren’t human.
“The Akala Great Forest, huh.”
“Yes, Evan! I don’t know who they are, but I’m sure of it! They’re there!”
Carvin nodded at me fervently, his face overflowing with conviction.
After life in Schupelben had finally settled down, and after I’d managed to suppress the urge for blood to a certain degree, Carvin had proposed that our Schupelben detachment couldn’t possibly remain at just three people.
He said that, however few they were, we had to bring in the clan scattered across the continent.
Surprisingly, Sophia had nodded without a single word of objection.
She had said that the Meyer mansion in the Demon Realm existed because the lord was there, mansion or no mansion, so of course we should bring our clan home.
So Carvin had gone off on a whim to search for our people.
He’d left promising to return within a month, with or without results, and yet here he was, actually coming back with some.
Akala Great Forest.
Honestly, I didn’t know the place all that well either.
As the Bernice Empire’s knight commander, I had crossed countless battlefields for the empire’s glory, but I had never visited the western continent more than a handful of times.
From a human point of view, the western continent was a place for leisure and travel.
Especially from the empire’s standpoint, the west was the safest, least threatening region of all.
In other words, there was no reason at all for me, the empire’s blood-red sun, to go there.
Ironically, that very reason existed because of the Akala Great Forest.
With that enormous forest sitting in the center, wars between humans could not easily break out.
Of course, dangerous monsters sometimes spilled out of the forest, but none of them were on my level.
Things were a little different now, though.
“They said the empire will be sending troops into the forest soon.”
“Huh? Really? Then we’d better go before it’s too late!”
“Evan, what should we do?”
Sophia’s gaze, full of hesitation, turned toward me.
Just as I reflexively turned to answer her, I quickly looked away again.
Because Sophia had just finished sparring, she was still wearing her combat uniform, the kind that clung to every line of her body.
That outfit, which laid bare her feminine figure, was as embarrassing as ever to look at in ordinary circumstances.
“Hmm.”
More manpower would be welcome. Still.
“I doubt that one will simply obey my wishes.”
That was the problem.
Sophia and Carvin knew exactly what I intended to do, and they had said they would follow me.
First Blood—the one possessed by Silvia—would be protected.
The two of them, no, the two vampires had followed my decision without asking why.
But I wasn’t sure the other vampires would be the same.
Even if I was the lord.
To be honest, I was little more than an old man who had gone to sleep peacefully for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years while the Meyer clan fell into ruin, then awakened at last.
If they resented me, it wouldn’t be strange at all.
“Evan.”
“Hmm?”
“You don’t need to worry about that. If they’re descendants of Meyer, there’s no way they’ll oppose your will.”
“Why is that?”
“Because it was the laws left behind by you, Evan—no, by the lord—and the power of blood you shared with us that allowed our Meyer clan to shine with such pride until now. If anything, now that the glory of the Meyer clan has been reduced to ashes, everyone will only yearn more desperately for the lord’s revival and follow the lord’s will.”
Sophia spoke with such certainty that her words sounded like a verdict.
Carvin, standing beside her, pouted as if his own line had been stolen, but he still nodded along.
It struck me as strangely new each time.
I had felt it before, more than once, but monsters were often more faithful than humans.
Even when I made decisions that would make no sense from their point of view, they could still believe in me and follow me this firmly.
“If you two say so.”
Sophia and Carvin met my eyes and nodded in unison.
That was the moment the Schupelben detachment decided to head for the Akala Great Forest.
Going to the Akala Great Forest and bringing back the Meyer clan’s descendants.
It was the first mission that truly fit the Schupelben detachment’s real purpose, but unfortunately, the whole unit couldn’t go together.
“If anything happens...”
“Don’t worry, Evan. No matter what happens, I’ll protect the princess.”
Sophia cut me off, as if she already knew what I was worried about.
Finding and bringing back new talent mattered, but there was a more fundamental duty for me, for our detachment.
Protecting Silvia Bernice, the Third Princess of the Bernice Empire.
There shouldn’t be any danger before Silvia awakened the First Blood, but we always had to prepare for the possibility.
If, in the worst case, we all left the empire and Silvia awakened in our absence, and a monster slipped in through that opening to target her...
Then everything would be for nothing.
So, of the three of us, Sophia would stay behind because she was the one who could enter the imperial palace most freely.
She even said she would postpone any punitive expedition until Carvin and I returned, determined to erase even the smallest trace of worry from my mind.
That was possible because it was a “punitive expedition,” not a war, so the departure time wasn’t especially important.
“Then I’ll leave it to you.”
“Yes. Please travel safely!”
Even without being in her rare berserk state, Sophia showed a bright smile.
“Sis, we’ll be back soon!”
“Just make sure you take good care of Evan. Don’t go stirring up trouble and making a fool of yourself.”
“When have I ever caused trouble?”
Sophia and Carvin bickered back and forth like real siblings.
Carvin had a backpack slung over his back, one bigger than his own body, yet he didn’t look tired at all.
He had seemed much more childish when we came out of the Demon Realm together a few months ago, but now he looked quite different.
“Let’s go.”
“Yes!”
Carvin, who had needlessly rushed in and earned a flick to the forehead from Sophia since he was going to lose anyway, rubbed at his head and hurried to my side.
After Sophia bowed her head in farewell, I turned away.
It feels almost like I’m setting out on a campaign.
Carvin, burdened with supplies.
Sophia, seeing us off and telling us to come back safely.
And Schupelben Castle, a place we could return to whenever we succeeded or failed.
The scale was different from when I had left the empire as a knight commander amid a grand send-off, but the feeling was similar.
I let out a snort of laughter before I realized it.
I hadn’t expected that even after becoming the Vampire Lord, I would feel like this again.
Within just a few months, a clear sense of belonging had taken root in my chest.
“Traveling just the two of us, Evan! This is the first time since we left the Demon Realm and came to Bernice!”
Carvin couldn’t hold back for even a moment and immediately started chattering.
That easy cheerfulness was both his strength and his weakness.
“Traveling?”
“Yes, traveling...! No, I mean the mission! This is the first time the two of us have gone on a mission together!”
Realizing his slip, Carvin hastily corrected himself and stole a careful glance at me.
Even so, he never lost his grin.
He really was impossible to hate.
“Report our route to the destination.”
“Yes! First...”
As if he’d been waiting for that, Carvin began rattling off the route to the Akala Great Forest from memory.
I half-listened, half-let it pass through the other ear as I thought about it.
A new Meyer vampire.
What kind of guy would he be?
I found myself curious.
Would he be as good as Carvin and Sophia?
“Khk, krrrgh-!”
A man’s final scream burst from his throat.
The man, whose heart had been pierced dead center by someone’s hand, died on the spot.
Swish—
The hand with sharp nails withdrew without hesitation from the dead man’s body.
Blood sprayed up from the hole in the man’s chest.
Plip, plip, plip...
The blood gushing from the man’s body scattered all over the figure standing before him, the one who had pierced him.
Thud.
At last, the corpse, having lost all strength, collapsed to the ground.
“Haaah... haaaah.”
The being soaked in the warm, dark blood that had sprayed from the man’s body took a deep breath.
It drew in the scent of fresh, coppery blood, then exhaled it slowly with a hot breath.
Behind the fallen man, countless other corpses had already collapsed in similar poses.
At the very least, there were dozens of bodies in uniform.
Every one of them had been killed instantly, each with their heart precisely pierced through.
I, I have to run, I have to run...
Watching the now-dead man die, one soldier hidden in the bushes was desperately trying to control his trembling body.
If he moved even a little and that thing noticed him, he would die right there.
Just like the captain had, moments ago—helpless, with no resistance at all, in a gruesome end.
A crazy monster, a crazy monster...!
Shudder, shudder, shudder.
Even with his fists clenched tight, the soldier’s hands trembled beyond his control.
Until a few minutes ago, the forest had been peaceful and full of mysterious plants.
But in only a few minutes, it had become a hellscape splashed with blood everywhere.
On the broad leaves still beaded with fresh dew, his comrades’ blood pooled in thick, sticky patches.
And in the little stream that had once run along the path, dark red blood flowed instead.
Ahh... why, why is this happening...!
Why had something like this happened to him?
Even if this was the Akala Great Forest, called the “small Demon Realm,” he had never heard of a monster this brutal existing here.
Wasn’t that the kind of creature you only saw in the real Demon Realm?
Please just keep going, please, please, please, please.
Had the soldier’s desperate prayer reached the heavens?
The merciless being that had killed the captain stood in place for a while before finally moving.
A figure trudging away in the opposite direction from the bush where the soldier was hiding.
The soldier did not even dare lift his head to see the face of the one who had annihilated his unit, afraid that even the rustle of grass might betray him.
Instinct told him that if he grew curious now, he would die.
Step, step.
In a forest where blood flowed and small birds chirped, the sound of artificial footsteps gradually faded into the distance.
H-Have they gone?
After what felt like an eternity, the soldier finally raised his head.
“Aaaahhhhh!!!!”
A woman with blood splashed all over her face was standing right in front of him.
She bared an eerie red gaze and smiled faintly.
Thrust—!
With the blood-splattered woman’s face as his final memory, the soldier who had been praying desperately to survive drew his last breath.
Plip, plop.
Bernice Empire Monster Suppression Unit
As he fell, the writing on the scabbard he had dropped was obscured by blood droplets.