Fenrir
Several fused entities were roaming around Fenril as if they were guarding it.
They looked remarkably similar to the one I’d encountered in the game.
And yet, why was a boss that should have appeared only in the main quest standing here?
Not just here, either, but at Level 20.
Fenril was supposed to be a boss monster that appeared only in Chapter 1 of the main quest, so it shouldn’t have had a particularly high level in the first place.
In my memory, Fenril had been Level 7.
And Lavina’s memories had remembered Fenril as Level 7, too.
"Grrr..."
Hwanggu bared his hostility the moment he saw Fenril.
His tiny fangs and slightly exposed gums showed as his wolf ears and tail bristled straight up.
I narrowed my eyes and patted Hwanggu on the head.
His aura immediately settled down.
It was a good thing Fenril was still far away. If it had heard Hwanggu growling, we would have had no choice but to fight.
"Charlotte."
At my call, the Shadow Child slipped out of the darkness.
His silver hair glittered in the moonlight as it fluttered softly.
"What."
"Do you know what that is?"
"It’s Fenril."
"Why is Fenril there?"
"It just showed up about a year ago, I think."
He folded his arms and turned his head away.
He was answering because I’d told him to, but he didn’t seem to like the situation itself very much.
"It’s a Chapter 1 boss. Didn’t anyone try to take it down?"
"Of course they did. Everyone treated it like a joke because it was only a Chapter 1 boss and challenged it."
"And then?"
"... Fenril ate them up."
The Shadow Child’s account came out flat and even.
But as if remembering that day, he frowned.
Apparently, he had been there too.
Wait. Ate them up?
When I gave him a strange look, he finally seemed to realize his choice of words was off and clapped a hand over his mouth.
"W-what is this? What the hell is going on...?"
He muttered in a daze, his face drained of color.
But none of us here could answer his question.
First it had been crayons, and now it was eaten up.
Was this kid secretly longing to be a child again or something?
Maybe some buried desire of his was clashing with the situation and changing him without his noticing.
Either way, the important thing wasn’t the Shadow Child’s transformation.
I folded my arms and went on.
"After Fenril ate them up, what happened? No one tried again?"
"... Why would they? One death and that was it. Even the ones who’d raised their hands to volunteer quietly turned their heads away."
"Hmm..."
"After our human attempts ended, I think vampires and werewolves tried one after another. But the fact that they’re still alive says enough. They all failed."
As he said that, the Shadow Child began carefully reviewing every word he’d just spoken, his expression grim.
He seemed very worried he might have misspoken again like before.
It was true that in the main quest, Fenril was defeated with the help of countless NPCs.
Hunting a Level 20 Fenril with only players gathered together might be extremely difficult.
Especially when those players weren’t even properly equipped.
For now, falling back was the right call.
I pressed down on the Shadow Child’s head and shoved him back into the shadows.
Even as he went, he flailed his hands in resistance, but to me it was little more than a small struggle.
"Stay put."
Swish—
"I wonder if it’s comfortable in there?"
Aurell was squatting on the ground, staring at the shadow as she asked.
Judging from the fact that the Shadow Child didn’t complain, it must not be too bad in there.
Of course, I couldn’t say for sure since I’d never experienced it myself.
Flap-flap.
Then I heard a faint beating of wings.
The sound somehow felt familiar, and the next moment a black bat flew past my face.
It suddenly appeared and circled around me.
It was as if it were telling me to follow.
No ordinary bat could move like that.
I led Aurell and Hwanggu after it.
Flap, flap.
Hwanggu and Aurell followed obediently behind me without much thought at all.
The bat’s guidance was very safe.
Following it, we never once came face-to-face with any fused entities.
In the end, the bat led us to the front of a large cathedral.
The brown-brick cathedral looked comparatively intact, unlike the other buildings around it.
That was, if you ignored the shattered stained glass, the collapsed statues, and the broken cross.
My instincts recoiled at once.
A vampire bat had guided us here, of all places, and it had brought us to a cathedral.
Just as I frowned at this absurdly ironic place, the cathedral doors opened and a woman stepped out.
She wore a black uniform that covered her entire body and a pure white band around her neck.
She looked like a nun from a cathedral.
The female vampire stopped where she was and opened her mouth with a gentle smile.
"Welcome."
The bat flying overhead flew into the woman vampire’s hand, then dissolved into black shadow and scattered away.
So she really had been the one guiding us here.
"Why did you call us here?"
"Well... because you mustn’t upset Fenril’s mood."
The woman vampire said it as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.
I immediately opened the magic eye in my left eye.
At once, a searing heat spread through me.
Blue particles flared and drifted apart, revealing information about the woman vampire.
[MaryMary]
Level: 20
Race: Vampire
HP: 100%
MP: 95%
Emotional state: interest, calm, goodwill.
That wasn’t all.
From inside the cathedral, information about dozens of other vampires besides Mary surged into view.
Their number: 52.
An absurdly large number.
A vampire clan using a cathedral as its base.
I was so dumbfounded I nearly laughed.
How had those vampires overcome their own sense of revulsion?
Frowning, I glared at the cathedral behind Mary.
I wasn’t the only one who found the place off-putting.
Aurell did too.
She shrank in on herself and clung tightly to my back.
"Upset Fenril’s mood? Didn’t you think about trying to take it down?"
"Take it down? That monster?"
Mary blinked in surprise at my question and repeated it back.
It was the reaction of someone who assumed Fenril could absolutely not be killed.
"I suppose I should explain in more detail. This might take a while, so would you come inside?"
With that, Mary gestured us into the cathedral.
I exchanged a look with the kids.
Aurell shook her head, looking suspicious.
Hwanggu, meanwhile, smiled at me as if it were all the same to him.
And then there was the Shadow Child, who was trying to poke his head out again.
Of course, his opinion didn’t matter, so I pressed his head down and shoved him back into the shadows.
"Should we go in and hear her out?"
"Isn’t that dangerous...?"
"She’s a vampire too."
"That’s true, but..."
I turned my head and looked at Mary’s face again.
I didn’t sense any particular hostility from her emotional state.
The other vampires inside the cathedral were the same.
Mary only smiled at my gaze.
Then Aurell grabbed my arm and said, "How about asking her for blood?"
"Blood?"
"Vampires can read memories from the blood of their own kind, can’t they?"
"Hmm."
That was certainly a good method.
But memory sharing through blood had one problem.
It exposed everything, even the secrets you wanted to keep hidden.
Mary knew that too, so she probably wouldn’t hand over her blood so easily.
I didn’t particularly want to drink blood just to get information, either.
Learning someone else’s sexual preferences or embarrassing memories had been enough of a lesson for one lifetime.
I pushed Lavina’s memories aside and shook my head.
"Let’s go in."
"Charlotte-nim..."
"Don’t worry."
There was no need to worry.
Even if I somehow turned every vampire inside against me, I was confident I could get out safely with Aurell and Hwanggu.
It wasn’t baseless confidence, either.
The game knowledge I knew and Lavina’s game knowledge, which was subtly out of step with mine.
Aurell’s unusual skill tree.
And even if she claimed she had no equipment, the shadow’s attack power was strong enough to kill a Level 20 human player in a single blow.
Then there was the Shadow Child, who hadn’t even reached Level 20 yet.
In my hazy memory, the Shadow Child I’d seen in my friends list had definitely been a Level 20 human player.
Maybe...
No, I was sure of it.
The Blood Carnival that formed this world’s backdrop must have been a version from long before the one I’d played.
The inside of the cathedral, which we entered following Mary, was decorated in a thoroughly sinister way.
There were no crosses or stone statues you’d normally expect in a cathedral, and the windows that should have held beautiful stained glass were covered instead by long wooden planks.
Eyes watched us from every direction.
Dozens of pairs of red pupils drifted through the darkness.
There was even a vampire hanging upside down from the ceiling.
Didn’t the blood rushing to his head make him dizzy?
His face was turning red, so he looked like he was struggling...
Then the vampire hanging from the ceiling dropped down.
He landed silently with absurd elegance.
After touching down safely, he smiled with obvious satisfaction and crawled back into the darkness.
Was I cool?
Are you insane...
Don’t tell me you’re falling for me?
Whispering voices drifted out from the dark.
I stood there dazed, mouth hanging open at the ridiculous exchange, and Hwanggu, standing beside me, began to growl.
"Grrr!"
Startled by Hwanggu’s threat, the vampires scattered.
Mary, who had been leading us, let out an awkward laugh and said, "They’re still children, so..."
They were adults in body, but children in the head, was that what she meant?
I folded my arms and frowned.
The room Mary led us to was a small one.
The only light came from a tiny candle.
Mary sat down at the table and gestured for us to join her.
She meant for us to sit, obviously.
I pulled over chairs for Aurell and Hwanggu and made them sit close beside me.
"Hmm... You really do seem to have a lot of questions."
I nodded at Mary’s words.
I wanted to hear in detail what had happened up to now.
Knock, knock.
Then came a knock at the door.
At the unfamiliar presence, Hwanggu stiffened and raised his tail defensively.
"Come in."
At Mary’s permission, a male vampire opened the door and stepped inside.
With his head bowed, he placed a large teapot and teacups on the table.
The moment he did, Hwanggu and Aurell both started licking their lips.
A thick smell of blood wafted from inside the teapot.