Aurell
I had finally gotten a rough grasp of the power I’d inherited.
Which meant it was time to leave for real.
I let out a sigh and slung my backpack over my shoulder.
If Blood Carnival had been a boxed game with a proper ending, I would have set out to see that ending for myself.
But Blood Carnival was just an ordinary online game.
Not even the full main story had been revealed yet, so there was no way the company had already decided on an ending.
In Ravina’s memories, there had been others who thought the same way I did.
Of course, Ravina had no interest in people like that, so she had no idea where they were or what they were doing.
She only knew they existed.
My goal was set.
First, I would find and join the people who were trying to restore this world to what it had once been.
Second, I would search for the tree that bore Blood Fruit.
As the name suggested, Blood Fruit was a fruit made for vampire users; the moment you ate it, it reduced bloodlust and removed the penalties from lowered stats.
In the game, it had been a common field item, but in this world, no one had found a single one yet.
Of course, the information I had was limited to Ravina’s memories.
That meant Blood Fruit might have been discovered somewhere I didn’t know about.
I gave the hotel one last glance, then set off down the road.
I felt a little guilty, like I was the clan leader who had gobbled someone up and run away, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it.
It was a pointless worry.
I shook my head and kept walking along the road.
I searched through my memories and recalled my current location.
The map spread out before me at once.
It looked exactly like an enlarged minimap from a game, and a dry laugh slipped out of me.
[Daejeon Metropolitan City]
The red mark on the map seemed to be my position.
I moved the map around and set my destination to Seoul Station.
The world had changed, and my body had changed with it, but I wasn’t about to accept that so easily.
If anything, I intended to struggle as hard as I could.
I used the map system to set my destination, but that didn’t mean a navigation function suddenly lit up in front of me.
It only marked the route I was supposed to take.
Actually finding the road was still my job.
The first place I headed for was the nearest subway station.
What other subway station could possibly be closest here?
It was Daejeon Station.
When I carefully arrived at the front of the station, I swallowed a groan at the sight of the ruin before me.
Collapsed buildings, trains jutting out into the open, and the foul smell of rot drifting through the air.
That wasn’t all.
Fusion creatures were crawling around near Daejeon Station.
Fusions were artificial life-forms born from combining vampires and werewolves, beings humans had supposedly created through experiments.
In Blood Carnival, they mostly served as ordinary monsters, though special individuals sometimes appeared as NPCs.
There were four Fusions.
No special individuals in sight.
In other words, everything visible was everything there was.
At first, I had avoided fighting because nothing was clear yet, but now there was no need to bother.
[Kieeeek...]
The Fusions that had been wandering around, drooling, turned their heads the moment I showed myself and locked onto me.
Then came the charge.
A silent ambush without even a signal.
Exactly as I’d seen it in the game.
And exactly as Ravina remembered it, too.
Their long, twisted arms and legs moved in grotesque jerks as they closed the distance at speed.
Seeing that there wasn’t a shred of intelligence left in them, I felt a surge of instinctive disgust.
[Kraaaek!]
Only when they got close did they roar to announce the attack.
When the shriek split my ears, I frowned, and the shadow beneath my feet shot out and sprang into action.
Crack!
As soon as it emerged, the shadow transformed into the head of a massive beast and swallowed the Fusion that had been charging in front.
But the fight wasn’t over yet.
Even now, the remaining three were still rushing straight at me.
Even after one of their own had been taken down, they didn’t react at all.
They only moved on instinct.
Even with those hideous monsters closing in on me, I stayed perfectly calm.
I had absolute faith that I wouldn’t lose. A fly buzzing in front of your face wasn’t exactly threatening, was it?
I didn’t even need to move.
Whirr—
The shadows kept moving.
Just as the long shape that had spilled out from beneath my feet began to sharpen into a spear, it shot upward and skewered the two Fusions that had rushed in from both sides.
Crackle-crunch!
That was all it took. The whole thing had happened in a single breath.
Then the last Fusion showed off an irregular movement.
Still in full sprint, it leaped high into the air.
I scowled at the grotesque sight of it kicking off the ground and sailing upward, and let out a low breath.
Just because its movement had changed didn’t mean its end would.
The shadows that had already revealed themselves merged together in an instant, forming a new beast’s head.
Massive fangs. Sharp eyes.
And the moment that body, rippling like dark crimson blood, shot out long and wide, it swallowed the last Fusion whole.
Crackle-crunch!
The one-sided slaughter was over.
I didn’t feel anything about it.
It was just something that had happened as expected.
That was what I thought, anyway.
The shadow that had devoured humans and vampires alike didn’t absorb the Fusion corpses.
It chewed them up, then spat them out with a look that said they tasted awful.
Something small and curious tickled my mind.
Back when Blood Carnival was still just a game, the vampire’s blood-sucking skill hadn’t been usable on Fusions.
Did that still hold true here?
It felt like I ought to be able to eat them if I wanted to...
I stroked my chin, watching the sluggish shadow.
“Charlotte-nim...!”
Then I heard a pitiful voice.
Wondering what was wrong, I turned around and saw Aurell standing a short distance away, wrapped in a veil of black shadow.
Her expression was every bit as pitiful as her voice.
Her ruby eyes trembled faintly, as though tears might spill from them at any moment, and the fangs peeking between her slightly parted lips looked strangely cute.
And that wasn’t all. Her blonde hair, swaying slowly like it had been painted into the night sky, shimmered under the moonlight with a strange, almost dangerous charm.
“Why?”
Don’t be fooled. Even if she looked like that, there might be some black-hearted old man sitting inside her.
Just like me.
I’d become a cute 145-centimeter vampire girl, sure, but before that I’d been a potbellied office worker who smoked like a chimney in a cramped little room.
“You’re really leaving like that...?”
Aurell bit her lower lip lightly and pressed a hand to her chest.
That move. Nobody could make an expression like that purely on instinct.
It was a thoroughly calculated act, using her own looks to full advantage.
“I’m leaving.”
“How heartless...”
Heartless?
Me?
Sure, I did feel a little sorry about swallowing the clan leader whole.
But that had been an accident, nothing more. It didn’t mean I had any reason to take responsibility for it.
I truly believed that.
I folded my arms and shut my mouth.
No matter how she tried to come at me, my mind wasn’t changing.
Seeing that I wasn’t budging, Aurell changed tactics.
“Then... then please take me with you!”
“You want to come with me? What about the clan?”
“I, I don’t know anything about that...”
How was I supposed to react to a beautiful vampire girl who wanted to throw herself at me with zero hesitation?
Honestly, I was curious about what she really wanted.
Keeping her gaze locked with mine, I asked her, “Tell me the truth. What are you thinking?”
“I, um, I...”
“If you’re not going to answer, I won’t let you follow me.”
As I said that, I moved my shadow in a threatening way.
Aurell took a half-step back with a tearful expression and said, “T-Then if I tell you honestly, will you take me with you?”
“Depends on what I hear.”
“That’s unfair...”
Aurell seemed to think for a moment, then squeezed her eyes shut and opened her mouth.
“To be honest, I thought following Charlotte-nim, who’s already level twenty, would be safer than staying here!”
“Me?”
“Yes!”
“Hmm...”
I let out a small groan.
I’d told her to be honest, but I hadn’t expected her to be that honest.
Of course, moving together with her wasn’t a problem.
I, too, thought that wandering this ruined world alone was far worse than having someone to talk to.
“What’s in it for me if I take you?”
Since I had inherited Ravina’s memories, I knew exactly what kind of girl Aurell was.
Diligent and kind, but with a strangely sly side to her.
Of course, that judgment was based entirely on Ravina’s memories.
“I’ll give you everything I have!”
Aurell said that and began to pant.
Her cheeks had gone slightly red, and her tongue slipped out a little to lick her lips.
Her face made me wonder, in all seriousness, what the hell she was imagining.
I took a step back in the face of this absurd situation.
“You...”
“W-Well? ...Actually, if I’m being completely honest, I think I fell in love with Charlotte-nim at first sight... You’re just so, so cute...”
“Crazy bitch...”
“I-I mean, don’t we actually suit each other pretty well...? You’re blonde and I’m silver-haired...? And our heights are similar, too...”
For some reason, I felt like I finally understood why I’d been getting such a strong sense of disgust from Aurell.
This woman wasn’t normal.
“O-Oh, unless you like men...? If that’s the case, I can change my mind...”
“You... before you became like that, were you a man? Or a woman?”
“Huh...? Is that important?”
“It matters to me...”
“Ah...”
At my question, Aurell dropped her gaze with a flustered look.
She was dodging the question. Trying hard to make me like her, no matter what.
She was carefully choosing her answer, then choosing it again.
“W-Was Charlotte-nim a man?”
I didn’t answer.
I shut my mouth tightly and stepped back.
“You won’t regret it... I’ll make you feel good...”
“I-I don’t need that.”
“Charlotte-nim...!”
A chill crawled over my skin.
No matter how cute and soft Aurell seemed now, there was no telling what was hiding underneath that surface.
And even if I stayed with Aurell, that was still a problem.
If everything that had changed in this world really returned to its original form, then what would happen?
I wasn’t confident I could keep my sanity if I ever faced Aurell’s original form.
I took advantage of the brief moment when Aurell looked away and ran into the subway station.
“Charlotte-nim!”
Ignoring the pitiful voice calling after me, I kept going.