The Rift of Memory
"Charlotte-nim...! H-huh...!"
When the battle was over and I headed to the place where Aurell was waiting, she looked at me as if she’d seen a ghost.
That reaction was probably thanks to this guy.
I shook the upper half of the male user’s body back and forth.
Even though I’d shrunk down to 145 centimeters, that was still enough to grab and shake a man whose lower body had been blown away.
"Isn’t that... dead?"
"No. He’s alive."
I tossed the male user’s upper body in front of Aurell.
As absurd as it was, the idiot was still alive despite losing his lower half.
Of course, if we left him like this, he’d die before long.
"Aurell."
"Y-yes!"
"Take some medicine and bandages out of the backpack."
"R-right away!"
It hadn’t exactly been packed for this situation, but the bandages and potions I’d stashed separately were proving useful.
Using the potion and bandages Aurell handed me, I started treating the human user’s body.
It was only a stopgap measure, of course. All I was doing was keeping him from bleeding out any further.
Unless you were a vampire, severed limbs didn’t regenerate.
"Hiiik..."
Aurell, watching from the side, made a horrified face at my handiwork, but there was nothing I could do about it.
I knew it was the kind of filthy thing you should never do to a living person. But if I wanted information, I had to keep this guy alive long enough to get it out of him.
"Mm."
After I finished, I nodded and inspected my work.
The bandages wrapped around the cut edge had turned red, but there didn’t seem to be any further bleeding.
His contorted expression had also softened a little, so I guessed he was on the mend.
I hoisted the upper half of the user onto my shoulder and moved us into the interior of a suitable building.
Still, I was worried whether I’d be able to do this properly.
Who would have ever expected that an ordinary office worker like me would end up torturing and interrogating someone?
Of course, I was a vampire now.
I didn’t need any special tools for interrogation.
As a race far superior to humans, vampires had their whole bodies as weapons.
Even these tiny nails of mine ought to be enough to inflict plenty of pain.
I tapped the user’s face lightly to wake him up.
"Wake up."
Tap. Tap.
I kept poking him for a while, but he still couldn’t seem to come to.
Looks like he needed a much bigger shock.
I clenched my fist and punched him in the face.
Thwack!
A heavy sound rang out, and bright red blood began to stream from under the man’s nose.
"Ugh...!"
He was awake.
Groaning through the nosebleed, the user’s eyelids twitched and his body finally started to move.
"Awake now?"
"U-uhhh..."
Still not fully conscious?
I tapped his cheek again.
"Wh-what... what is this...!"
Only then did he begin to react.
He blinked several times, then looked around in panic.
"W-where...?"
"Hello."
At the right moment, I waved and leaned in close to his face.
The blinking user finally seemed to recognize me, and he flailed backward in alarm.
"H-heeeah!"
Was this guy really a level 20 user?
His emotional state kept changing every second, which meant he was probably using a skill, but the feeling of fear wasn’t going away.
At this rate, conversation was going to be impossible.
I clenched my fist again and brought down a hard knuckle to his head.
Smack!
"Aghhh!"
A thick, meaty impact.
The sensation traveling up my hand was honestly pretty exhilarating.
After getting hit by my fist, the user let out a short scream and squeezed his eyes shut.
Seeing how much calmer he’d become, I guessed he’d finally realized his situation.
I spoke to him in a calm voice.
"Hello."
"..."
He didn’t answer, but our eyes met.
The way his eyeballs kept darting around, as if searching for a chance, made it clear he still thought his lower half was attached.
I clicked my tongue and opened my mouth.
"I’ve got a few things I want to ask you. Can you answer them?"
"I-if I answer, will you let me live?"
"Hmm..."
I crossed my arms and tilted my head.
Of course I could let him live.
But could a user who’d lost his lower body actually survive in this world?
If he ran into a werewolf, a vampire, or a fusion monster, there was no way he’d escape death.
"I can let you live."
The user’s eyes lit up at my answer.
So dying really was worse than living.
Now that he was ready to answer, it was time to start asking questions.
"You know the shop NPC, right?"
"...I do."
"Is there a shop anywhere else too?"
"...There is."
"Mm. Can you tell me where?"
The human user started spilling everything I asked him without hesitation.
According to him, there were three more shop locations in addition to this one.
Of course, I couldn’t trust everything he told me.
I kept the questions coming for quite a while, waiting for the right moment.
"Can you tell me how many people are in the faction you belong to?"
"Seventy..."
His attitude had softened a little.
Meaning he was relaxing.
I let out a small breath and asked again.
"Can you tell me the location of the shop NPC again?"
"I already told you that..."
I showed the human user my sharp nails as he tried to talk back.
I knew. I knew he’d already answered that question.
"Seoul... and..."
I folded my arms and waited for his answer.
The first places he’d named had been Seoul, Incheon, and Seosan.
If there had been no lies in that answer, this one would have come out just as smoothly.
"Pocheon..."
"And after that?"
"Gunsan..."
The answer was different from the first.
He’d been lying.
"Should I ask again?"
My patience wasn’t particularly long.
Neither was my shadow’s.
The shadow at my feet writhed and seeped outward.
Stroking the shadow, I started repeating the same question from earlier.
Each time, the human user’s answers changed a little.
And then interrogation time passed the one-hour mark.
The human user, looking utterly haggard as he kept answering, carefully spoke up.
"Uh, um."
"What?"
"I... I need to go to the bathroom..."
"Bathroom?"
I tilted my head and repeated the word.
How was he supposed to go to the bathroom, and how was he supposed to use it, with no lower body?
"I mean... could you loosen the bindings on my body a little...? At least my legs..."
The man trailed off and looked down at himself.
He stared at the bandages wrapped around his waist, then tilted his head.
"Huh...?"
He gaped blankly, as if he didn’t understand his own situation.
He blinked and looked at me.
"T-this is...?"
The human user started writhing hard.
Almost as if he were trying to move his lower body.
Of course.
That wasn’t going to bring back a lower half that had already been cut off.
"Ah... ah... aaaaaah...!"
The human user began screaming as he looked down at his body.
I could tell from the smell of blood that his emotional state was completely off.
I silently turned away.
There didn’t seem to be any point in talking anymore.
"U-um, Charlottnim..."
"What?"
"Are you not going to eat that human...?"
"Do you want to eat him?"
"Y-yes...!"
Aurell’s eyes were shining like a puppy waiting for a meal.
She looked ready to pounce the moment I said, "Eat him."
I checked the condition of his body.
The wounds from the bomb earlier had already been healed by devouring his lower half, so there didn’t seem to be any problem with handing the upper body over to Aurell.
"Eat him."
"Huh...!"
The moment I said the words, Aurell dashed toward the human user.
She lifted both her cute little hands and slammed them hard into his chest.
"Yah!"
BOOM!
Despite the adorable cry, a chilling sound echoed through the room.
"Khehh!"
Struck in the chest by Aurell, the human user thrashed in agony, but all he could do was twist his body around helplessly.
"Yah!"
BOOM!
"Yah!"
BOOM!
After that, Aurell had to slam into his chest several more times.
For Aurell, who was only level 12, the level 20 human user was simply too sturdy.
Aurell’s blood-drinking was a grotesque sight.
She stood there drenched in blood, both hands buried deep into the human user’s chest.
And there she stayed, sucking blood out in long, steady pulls, until the upper half of his body had shriveled into a mummy and she finally got up.
"Thank you for the meal!"
"You finished?"
"Yes!"
"Then let’s go."
"Oh! Where are we going?"
"Seoul."
Just as we were about to leave the building, brilliant light began pouring in from far away.
Sunlight spilled across the ground and raced over the darkened city.
A primitive refusal rose in my body, and my brow furrowed.
"The sun’s up..."
"Huh..."
Morning had come.
Which meant Aurell and I were now trapped inside this building for the next six hours.
A building we couldn’t leave until sunset.
I let out a sigh and went deeper into the building.
Vampires didn’t really need sleep, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t sleep.
How many days had it been since I’d awakened in that coffin?
I remembered that from the moment I opened my eyes until now, I hadn’t slept even once.
"Aurell."
"Yes!"
"I’m gonna sleep for a bit."
"Huh...! You’re going to sleep? Should I let you use my lap as a pillow?"
"..."
It wasn’t even a question worth answering.
I glanced at Aurell’s thighs once, then threw my backpack onto the floor and lay down on top of it.
Aurell carefully watched Charlotte’s mood.
An hour had passed since Charlotte had curled up on top of the backpack and fallen asleep.
Her breathing was steady, which meant she was in a deep sleep.
Aurell crept forward and approached the top of Charlotte’s head.
The level 20 vampire user who had suddenly appeared and completely destroyed a clan.
The other clan members hadn’t welcomed Charlotte’s arrival, but Aurell liked her.
Just liked her. So much that it seemed like this was what people meant by love at first sight.
Lying down beside Charlotte, Aurell carefully tied together her own blond hair and Charlotte’s silver hair.
"Hehe..."
Aurell thought the hair bound into a heart shape looked adorable.
Her bright, happy laughter continued until Charlotte finally opened her eyes.