Thrall
The game Blood Carnival didn’t allow duplicate nicknames.
And since the server had been a single shared one, the nickname Cheonhwi had to belong to someone I knew.
I rubbed my chin and looked down at the man sprawled on the floor.
"Do you know him?"
When I gave no obvious reaction, Aurell asked cautiously.
I didn’t answer. I did know him, but only as an acquaintance from inside the game.
We weren’t close enough for me to call him a friend, so even that word felt a little misleading.
"Um, Charlotte-nim..."
"Yeah?"
At the voice calling me, I turned around.
There stood a hulking, furry brute.
It was the werewolf male, Bongcheon-dong Hamjumeok.
"Thank you for helping us!"
Hamjumeok bowed deeply and thanked me.
Looking around, I saw that the other werewolves were bowing to me too.
From their perspective, I had clearly done them a huge favor.
I folded my arms and gave a small nod.
"Hmm..."
Then I noticed the two humans sprawled behind Hamjumeok.
Their arms and legs were gone, ripped away so completely they were little more than torsos.
If their chests hadn’t been rising and falling with breath, I would have had trouble even thinking of them as human.
"Those are...?"
"Ah. Prisoners we captured."
I nodded at Hamjumeok’s answer.
It was a grisly fate for humans, but for werewolves, it was probably a justified retaliation.
How many werewolves had died in this fight?
I looked at the corpses covered with white cloth.
"Should we give you this one too?"
"Huh? No. That’s..."
I pointed at Cheonhwi, the one Hwanggu had brought in.
He was only a slight acquaintance, but still—he was someone I knew.
Just thinking about interrogating him, or having to kill him, made me feel a little uncomfortable.
If I could, I’d rather hand him over to Hamjumeok and let them deal with him.
But Hamjumeok politely refused again and again.
He said the prey had been captured by my group, so they couldn’t lay a hand on it.
It seemed to be a custom that had formed among the werewolves in a very short time.
"Charlotte-nim! Is it okay if I eat his arm?"
Hwanggu wanted to bite into the arm of the captured Cheonhwi.
I wondered what it would feel like to have your arm torn off and eaten alive.
For now, I shook my head.
"Wait."
"Yes!"
Arms and legs could wait until later.
First I needed to make sure he was in one piece and interrogate him so I could get more information.
This had been a coordinated raid by twenty people. There was no way these were the only ones involved.
Leaving the werewolves behind as they cleaned up the camp, we dragged Cheonhwi to a secluded corner.
"Wake him up."
"Yes, ma'am!"
Aurell nodded at my order.
She stretched out her dainty little leg and kicked Cheonhwi in the face.
Thud.
"Wake up!"
Thud.
Aurell might have been a level 12 vampire, but her physical abilities far surpassed those of an ordinary human.
That meant even such a cute little kick could easily burst a person’s skull.
But the other side was a level 19 player.
He had to be as tough as a solid boulder.
Aurell kept kicking his head with her black leather shoe.
After several heavy thumps, Cheonhwi finally opened his eyes.
"Ugh... uuugh..."
His unfocused gaze slowly began to sharpen.
I called Aurell and Hwanggu over and lined them up beside me.
"Wh-what...?"
Cheonhwi blinked and looked around.
The moment he tried to move his limbs, his body jerked in panic.
But his arms and legs had been bent in grotesque directions; there was no way they would work properly.
"Gghhh...!"
It seemed the pain had only just reached him. His face twisted violently.
He half-sat up and checked his limbs.
"W-what the hell..."
A hollow groan slipped out of him.
That alone told me he had fully understood how bad his condition was.
With my arms still folded, I gave a small cough to draw his attention.
"Ahem."
"Y-you guys...!"
Only then did he look at us, shock flooding his face.
If I’d woken up to find three little girls standing there in a row, I’d have been startled too.
Anyway, I narrowed my eyes and put on my scariest face.
"I have some questions. If you answer honestly, I’ll let you leave with all your limbs intact."
He probably didn’t believe me, but it was the best promise I could offer.
Cheonhwi, who had been staring blankly with his mouth open, soon realized there was no other choice and nodded.
Good. He was obedient.
"Why did you attack this place?"
"To rescue the humans who were being held here."
"Anything else?"
"...To wipe out those disgusting monsters."
I activated my demon eyes and checked the state of his emotions.
There was no significant fluctuation, so it didn’t seem to be a lie.
"Are there more of your allies?"
Cheonhwi didn’t answer.
He just pressed his lips together and glared at me.
"How rude!"
Then Aurell, who had been standing beside me, snapped at him.
I raised a hand to calm her down.
"Shh."
"But Charlotte-nim...!"
At that moment, Cheonhwi flinched at the name Charlotte.
He looked up at me with a puzzled expression.
"Charlotte...? Wait, that Charlotte...?"
"Hmm, you know our Charlotte-nim?"
Seeing that he seemed to know me, Aurell lifted the corners of her mouth in a proud smile.
The fact that he reacted to the name Charlotte as if he recognized it meant the person in front of me was definitely the Cheonhwi I knew.
"Charlotte...! I-it’s me. It’s me, Cheonhwi! You know me, right? We added each other as friends in Moonlight Matching!"
Cheonhwi apparently remembered the day we’d become friends.
Of course I remembered it too.
When he shouted like that and reacted so desperately, Hwanggu and Aurell both started glancing at me anxiously.
I could guess what the two girls were worried about.
They had probably been afraid I’d get angry at them for reducing someone I knew to this state.
I gave a faint smile and patted both girls on the head.
"It’s fine."
That one sentence brought smiles to Aurell’s and Hwanggu’s faces.
"Cheonhwi."
"Y-yeah?"
"Answer my questions honestly, and I’ll spare you."
"R-really? I’ll tell you everything!"
I’d worried he might get stubborn, but instead Cheonhwi started spilling information I hadn’t even asked for.
The group he belonged to operated under the name Human Liberation, and he revealed that not only human players but also a handful of vampires and werewolves were supplying them with information.
"Is that true?"
Cheonhwi shook his head hard.
"Are there any here too?"
"There are...!"
"Tell me their nicknames—no, their names."
KimSotteok
That was the name of the werewolf Cheonhwi identified.
I glanced at Aurell.
With how quick-witted she was, she’d understand my meaning and go fetch the werewolf named KimSotteok.
"I’ll be right back!"
Aurell answered brightly and dashed off.
How long had it been?
Just as Cheonhwi seemed to be testing the mood, as if he was about to speak, Aurell came racing back.
"Was he there?"
"He was!"
"He was?"
"Yes! KimSotteok says he’s a missing person!"
I patted Aurell on the head and looked back at Cheonhwi.
So he was a missing person—there was no way to verify whether that was true or not.
Cheonhwi rolled his eyes back and forth before speaking in a hurry.
"H-he ran away!"
I nodded.
That could be true.
For now, I let that matter go.
Just as I was about to ask the next question, Aurell tugged at my clothes.
"Why?"
"Are you thinking of sparing this person?"
Aurell looked up at me with a face that said she was honestly curious.
I hesitated, thinking it over.
He might have been an acquaintance, but it was only the flimsy kind of connection that existed online.
That wasn’t reason enough for me to save him.
But when I actually thought about killing him, the feeling was strange.
I just couldn’t quite bring myself to do it.
While I was still hesitating, Aurell smiled brightly and said, "Then let’s make him a thrall."
"A thrall...?"
"Yes!"
I tilted my head at her words.
Thrall Creation.
It was a vampire skill used by vampires who had reached level 15, and it was usually used a lot in PvP.
Turning stray animals like cats or dogs into thralls to secure a line of sight—that was the normal way the skill was used.
"You can use Thrall Creation on a person...?"
"Yes!"
Use Thrall Creation on a person?
Sure, I’d used it in the game before. But Thrall Creation couldn’t be activated on the same player twice.
"If we make him a thrall, he won’t lie to Charlotte-nim anymore!"
"But Aurell. Thrall Creation can’t be used on the same player."
"Huh...!"
Aurell looked genuinely shocked at my words.
It was the sort of thing a level 12 newbie might not know.
I chuckled softly and patted her head.
"Still, should we try it?"
At worst, nothing would happen.
With that light thought, I reached out toward Cheonhwi.
Shik.
"Huh?"
Cheonhwi stared at me blankly, mouth open at my sudden movement.
At that moment, the shadow beneath his feet writhed and surged upward.
"W-what is this...!"
"Oh?"
"Wait! Charlotte! That’s not what you said! You said you’d spare me!"
Cheonhwi screamed and thrashed, but he couldn’t escape the shadow.
The darkness swallowed his body like a beast opening its jaws wide.
Then the shadow began to gather into a round mass, forming a huge sphere.
It looked just like an egg.
As I stared at the black egg in silence, its size began to shrink.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
"Huh...!"
Hwanggu stared at the egg that had appeared so suddenly, his face full of surprise.
How long had passed after that?
About ten minutes, during which we kept examining the large egg from every angle.
Crack—
All at once, the black egg split with a sharp crack.
The fissures widened as time passed.
Crack!
Aurell and Hwanggu and I watched the scene together.
Then the cracked shell split open, and a girl burst out from inside.
"Hrk..."
She let out a tiny gasp and collapsed at once, as though she had no strength left in her body.
Her long silver hair draped over her, barely concealing her pure white naked body.
"Wh-what the heck...?"
The small girl sat down dazedly and stared at her own hands.
I activated my demon eyes just in case.
At once, information about the girl flowed into view.
Cheonhwi
Level: 15
Race: Vampire (Charlotte’s Thrall)
Health: 100%
Mana: 100%
Emotional state: rage, confusion, humiliation, shock
Her overall appearance resembled my own character, Charlotte.
Cheonhwi had become a vampire girl.
The Thrall Creation skill had succeeded.
—