The Vampire Lord's Withdrawal
Unlike Diana, who possessed golden hair that cascaded down to her waist, this High Elf had platinum-blonde hair with a faint pink hue, cut short enough to barely cover her shoulders. Rather than a focus on her chest, her physique emphasized muscular arms, legs, and a shapely backside. She was Lucy Springs, the captain of the vigilante corps for the Non-Human Alliance’s elven soldiers.
“Did the negotiations with the Empire go well?”
Diana looked at her younger sister, who was clinging to her like a puppy, and shook her head. “It seems we’ll have to face the Demon King’s army with our own strength.”
“Those bastards, they’re just waiting for a chance to strike while we’re busy fighting, aren’t they?”
“Probably….”
“Damn those sons of bitches.” Lucy ground her teeth. She was an elf with an exceptionally strong hostility toward humans. That was precisely why she served as the vigilante captain, guarding the borders and taking charge of capturing any humans who dared to cross over.
“But what brings you here? You acted like you’d never set foot in the capital again.”
“Well, you said we’re going to war now. It’s not just anything, it’s a war against the Demon King—I can’t be absent for that, can I? I’m the strongest one in our kingdom, after all.”
“…….”
“Don’t you think?”
“I suppose so.”
“Why are you so worried?”
“I’m thinking. Thinking about how we can win without the Empire’s help.”
At Diana’s sigh, Lucy stared at her in silence.
“Can’t we strike first? We could wipe them all out before they even have a chance to regroup! Humans, magical beasts, whatever—we just kill anyone who gets in our way!”
Pure madness. That madness was the very reason Diana had banished Lucy to the border. Unlike her appearance, which mirrored Diana’s, Lucy’s personality was entirely different. Because she felt absolutely no guilt in killing, Diana had always worried that she might cause a major incident one day.
“No. Now is the time to cooperate with humans. If we fight recklessly, we’ll just be creating another enemy.”
“What a shame. I thought it was a decent idea.”
“If there’s truly no other way, waking the Guardian of the Mountain Range might be an option.”
“The Guardian of the Mountain Range? You mean the Dragon?”
“Yes. But I want to avoid that if at all possible.”
If she woke her, the price they would have to pay would be far greater than the benefit.
“Just do as I say! We can kill them all! Just trust me.”
“First, we have to try negotiating with the Roman Kingdom.”
The enemy was too powerful for the Alliance to hold back alone. Joining forces. Diana believed that was the only way.
Crash!
“I won’t eat it!”
Frey threw the bowl filled with blood, shattering her favorite ceramic dish.
“My Lady Frey, you must eat. You haven’t consumed any blood for days now.”
“It’s not tasty. This isn’t the taste I want.”
Roy sighed as he watched his master refuse her meal. She had been in this state ever since her second visit to the Demon King’s castle. Sometimes she would stare blankly at the ceiling, and other times she would look out the window, only to flinch and tremble on her own. Then, suddenly, she would lock the door and spend time alone. Judging by the moans heard from inside, it was clear she was pleasuring herself.
“Get out. I want to be alone.”
“As you wish.”
There was only one reason she would chase him away in this situation. Self-pleasure. Of course, she had occasionally done this before. He had served her for hundreds of years. Even a Vampire Lord with immense power had desires. It wasn’t strange for her to have some ‘happy time’ as a woman. Whenever that happened, he always stepped away to wait for her to finish. It was his daily routine to wipe her sweat-drenched body and dress her in fresh clothes once she was done.
Frey’s ‘happy time’ was an annual event, occurring perhaps once a year. Had he never felt desire himself? When he had first transitioned from human to vampire, he had occasionally felt aroused hearing her moans. But now, after hundreds of years, he held no such feelings. Although Frey’s appearance was that of a woman in her early twenties, she was undeniably his liege, the pillar he had to support. That was why he hadn’t thought much of it until now.
‘The frequency has increased too much.’
Once a day—no, now she was spending time alone twice a day. The frequency had become abnormally high. It meant her desires had been activated to that extent.
‘This is a bad sign.’
It was perhaps natural for a vampire to be swayed by desire. But that was true for ordinary vampires. What if a Lord who reigned as the ruler of all vampires was swayed by desire? That was a danger too great to overlook. He couldn’t guarantee what would happen if her immense power went out of control. The bigger problem was that her craving wasn’t for blood.
‘If things go wrong, she could die.’
Just as a human starves to death if they don’t eat, a vampire who doesn’t drink enough blood loses their strength, wastes away, and dies. Until now, she had lived by drinking Roy’s blood, but now she was even refusing that.
If she continued to hold out and ended up losing control—
‘Could I stop her?’
He shook his head. Roy’s power was not enough to stop her.
“Haaah!!!”
Just then, Frey’s moan from inside the room came to an end.
“I am coming in.”
There was no answer. When Roy opened the door and entered, Frey was sprawled out on the bed, half-exhausted, staring at the ceiling.
“I want to drink blood……. Blood…….”
“Shall I prepare some?”
“Not the stored blood, fresh blood…….”
Frey’s fangs sharpened. Her pupils slit vertically, and a faint light glowed in her eyes.
“If you drink my blood now, Lord, my existence will be extinguished.”
“I know. That’s why I’m not drinking it.”
“I will wipe your body first.”
Roy silently wiped his master’s sweat-soaked body.
“Roy.”
“Yes, My Lady Frey.”
“I feel like I’m going crazy. Do you know why I’m like this?”
“…….”
Roy knew exactly what her symptoms represented. He searched through memories so old they felt distant. Back when he was human, he had once passed through a dilapidated, crumbling slum. Among the people there, those addicted to drugs felt exactly like this. The way they were ruined, obsessed only with the drug, abandoning difficult achievements to indulge in easily attainable desires. She was showing those early symptoms right now.
But Roy couldn’t admit it. He couldn’t admit that his liege—the one who always carried herself with dignity and exuded a great presence before him—was addicted to the blood of a mere Demon King. No, he didn’t want to admit it.
“I do not know.”
So, he evaded the question.
“Hmph, so there are things even you don’t know, Roy.”
Frey offered a faint smile, as if her mind had returned for a moment. Her pupils were still slit vertically, but her fangs had retracted as before.
“For now, I think it would be best to forget about drinking blood and soothe your mind and body by drinking water infused with mana.”
“Thank you. As expected, there’s no one like you, Roy.”
Roy received Frey’s smile as a gift and finished wiping her body. He gathered the clothes she had discarded while masturbating and dressed her in new ones.
“Please sleep a little early today. I will tidy up.”
“Yes, thank you.”
The moment he saw his liege’s weakly smiling face, Roy’s composure shattered.
Thump. Thump-thump.
His heart was racing. Why? This had never happened before. His liege had always been a great, unreachable existence. There was a status, a gap that could never be bridged. But the woman before him now had become so fragile that she couldn’t survive without Roy. Was that why? Why his heart was racing like this right now. Why a mere butler was harboring the desire to dare covet his liege’s body.
“Haa, haa.”
Roy felt his breathing grow ragged without even realizing it. His gaze kept drifting to Frey’s clothes and undergarments, which he would normally have tossed into the laundry basket without a second thought.
“My Lady Frey……. My Lady Frey’s undergarments…….”
There was a scent. The scent of a woman. The fishy, feminine scent he should never have been able to perceive pierced the nose of the sensitive vampire.
“Haa, haa. My Lady Frey.”
Roy brought the undergarments to his face with trembling hands. They were filled with her scent. His manhood, which hadn’t stood for hundreds of years since he became a vampire, began to rise. This had never happened before. Blood rushed to it. It stiffened. The pressure of his trousers was painful. A desire different from the bloodlust he had felt until now surged upward.
“My Lady Frey, haa. Haa. I respect you.”
I respect you. I love you. I will follow you for the rest of my life. So, please forgive this insolence.
The guilt of harboring feelings he should never have held for his liege excited him even more. His mouth, which had been sniffing the scent, opened, and he pressed his tongue against Frey’s undergarments.
That was when it happened.
Whoosh.
A chill ran down his spine, an ominous feeling. It felt as if something that should have been there was gone. Instinctively, he lifted his head and looked toward Frey’s room. Her massive presence had vanished.
No way.
“My Lady Frey?”
Roy rushed over and threw the door open. It was dawn, and the sun was beginning to rise. The window was open. And his master was gone.
The morning sun rose. It had been a long time since I’d woken up feeling this refreshed.
“The weather is nice.”
Today is going to be a good day. I was walking down the hallway, admiring the view, when—
Boom! Boom! Boom!
There was a sound of someone pounding on the castle gate from the early morning.
“Who is it?”
If the guards weren’t even reporting it, it was one of two things. Either they had been taken out, or it was someone close enough that a report wasn’t necessary. Since I had to deal with it properly if it were the former, I opened the gate myself.
And there stood—
“Haa, haa……. Demon King, I’ve come again.”
Sizzle.
Frey stood there, her skin beginning to burn in the sunlight. White smoke was rising from her shoulders.