Chapter 293: Because It’s You
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 293: Because It’s You
An unprecedented defeat.
It was the annihilation of a race, a catastrophe unseen in any record of the Demon Realm’s history.
While small, isolated towns of the Vampire Species existed far from the center, it did not change the fact that the capital of the Great Empire—the heart of their civilization and home to sixty percent of their total population—had collapsed in a single night.
“How…”
In the heart of the imperial capital, where festering lumps of flesh pulsed with life, a voice that had once belonged to someone else rang out in a weak, desperate wail.
“It’s—it’s falling!”
The Imperial Castle, which had been suspended in the air, plummeted toward the earth and crumbled as the mages tasked with sustaining it vanished. Inside, only a tiny handful of high-ranking warriors and mages remained.
“Block him!”
“Clad your bodies in mana! Don’t let him get close!”
Those who survived were all great warriors or mages who had lived for over a thousand years, their names etched in history for their legendary feats. Yet, they could not stop the advance of a single man.
Kagagak!
Strikes capable of splitting the earth and cleaving mountains were blocked, failing to even nick the shallowest layer of his skin.
Before a being no larger than an ordinary human, the high-standing Vampire Species faced the brink of extinction.
Rumble!
Only a few hours ago, these had been the citizens of the capital they were sworn to protect. Now, they were unrecognizable masses of meat, surging forward like a tidal wave.
True to his title as the Great Warrior guarding the entrance to the Imperial Castle, he swung his blade, cleaving through the mounds of flesh to maintain a steadfast defense.
“You bastard!”
Slowly, but relentlessly, the Emperor of Sinew approached the castle courtyard. The Great Warrior swung his sword at him.
Gurgle!
“Ugh, aaaaagh!”
The pathetic death rattle of the legendary castle gatekeeper rang out. Reduced to a mere handful of meat, he vanished, sucked into the fingertips of the Emperor of Sinew.
A short while later, a voice that mocked the entire Vampire Species echoed through the capital, using the borrowed voice of the man who had deserved such respect.
—My Lord. The Vampire Species has been defeated. Open the gates immediately and declare eternal submission.
His limbs were twisted, and his spine was bent. Only his face remained in its original state, leaving the Great Warrior in the form of a Human-Faced Dog. He crawled on all fours, scratching at the firmly shut gates of the Imperial Castle with his front paws as he spoke.
It was a truly horrific display of cruelty. The moment a Great Warrior, revered by all, crawled on all fours to urge the master he had spent his life protecting to surrender.
However, the heavy gates of the castle did not open. Perhaps they thought the culprit of this nightmare would eventually leave if they just waited.
Or perhaps it was a choice born from a lingering belief in their remaining strength.
The Emperor of Sinew, who had not uttered a single word until then, kicked the whimpering Human-Faced Dog out of his way and spoke.
: : The guard dog here is smarter than its master. : :
* * *
Surprisingly, however, the Emperor of Sinew did not wipe the Vampire Empire from existence. His power, which bordered on omnipotence, was vast enough to make the previous night’s catastrophe as if it had never happened.
He gathered the scattered fragments of flesh, combined them, and restored them to the forms of their original owners.
They were bodies that had already died, yet they became beings that lived and moved without truly being alive.
Perhaps he simply had no interest in the young Monarch who sat upon the high throne, unable to utter a word, shivering in fear and wetting himself.
As the pitch-black night passed and the red sun began to rise again, the Imperial Castle was settled upon the peak of a high mountain range, and the Empire, once filled with masses of agonizing flesh, regained its original appearance.
Only one person—Iris Albresto—was left to remember that day, while everyone else returned to their ordinary lives, the memory of the event erased.
In fact, the Empire became stronger than before. They were not conscripted into the Demon King’s war, and the Emperor of Sinew’s power lingered imperceptibly, making the Empire fertile.
Was it because the expressionless Emperor of Sinew felt pity for the Vampire Monarch, who had only stood against him because he was ordered to?
“Our noble bloodline… declares neutrality in this war.”
Despite the opposition of everyone who had forgotten the previous night’s tragedy, Iris spoke alone from the end of the great round table.
If only she could have shared her memories, perhaps everyone would have agreed with her decision.
In the end, the Empire disintegrated due to the Demon Realm being devastated by the war between the Demon King and the three Heroes, and she became the final Monarch.
Still, she believed it was better than a future where every citizen of the Empire lived forever as grotesque lumps of meat, unable to die.
To Iris Albresto, the name "Emperor of Sinew" was an object of terror and hatred.
Yet, thinking back, she didn't hate him quite that much. Hating him wouldn't solve a single problem.
If she had to pick someone to resent, it was the Demon King, whose orders to stop the Emperor had been so utterly spiteful.
Afterward, the lone Iris Albresto searched for the Demon King in the desolate Demon Realm, but she could not find him.
She heard that the Demon King, the one who had driven her people to ruin, had already perished in a mutual destruction caused by a pincer attack from three powerful beings, including the Emperor of Sinew.
And so, she wandered the ash-covered Demon Realm for several hundred more years.
Eventually, she heard that the Demon Realm, where the existence of the "Surface World" had become a hot topic, had finally forced open the door to that other world.
They had found a land where life could thrive anew, and a path to get there.
Furthermore, there were rumors that her former master, the Demon King, was gathering his strength to reclaim the Surface.
And that the three powerful beings who had perished with him were trying to stop him.
“The Emperor of Sinew…”
Time is a truly powerful thing. Even a being that once made her tremble with such rage that she wept tears of blood became something she could move past after hundreds of years.
However, one single curiosity remained deeply embedded in Iris Albresto’s heart for centuries, never finding a clue to its resolution.
“I wonder why.”
Why did he leave her alive?
When the Emperor of Sinew had looked at her from the top floor of the Imperial Castle that day, it was clear that he felt pity for her, despite his lack of expression.
As a Monarch, it was a humiliation, but it was also the opportunity that allowed her to live.
Iris Albresto, the Empress of a fallen nation and the last Vampire Lord, researched the magic to reach the Surface in order to meet him again.
There was also someone who had asked her for a favor.
She thought that perhaps, if she stood by his side this time, the destruction of the world wouldn't have to repeat itself.
* * *
—Clatter!
“Whoops, gotcha.”
“Let go.”
“Why are you running away all of a sudden? People will think I’m going to eat you or something.”
Yoo Eon, holding Iris’s wrist after she tripped, paused for a moment as he reflected on his own words.
“Well, I do eat you, but…”
“I don’t like it.”
“What don’t you like?”
“…”
Curiosity.
That was the extent of her impression of him during their first meeting. Into the magic item shop, which she had protected with a barrier so that only ‘beings that were neither alive nor dead’ could enter, a single, unremarkable man had walked in.
Iris had settled in a place called ‘Labyrinth City Calax’ in hopes of finding the Emperor of Sinew, who was said to have perished with the Demon King.
To her, this clumsy human male, who carried only a faint trace of that mighty being’s power, was nothing more than an object of slight curiosity.
It wasn't that the Emperor of Sinew had been resurrected. He was merely a weak being who had received a portion of the Emperor's abilities, and she couldn't hear the answer to the "why" she so desperately craved from him.
“Let go.”
“Ah, I wasn’t holding that tight. Did it hurt?”
When she listened to Yoo Eon’s voice, she felt as if she could hear the faint echoes of his voice. Though the contents of their conversations had worn away over hundreds of years, a sliver of fear remained, making it impossible for her to ignore him.
“…”
“What is it now? You’re making a weird face.”
“Why did you save me?”
“Huh?”
Yoo Eon was clearly not the Emperor of Sinew himself. Yet, Iris finally gave voice to the question she had kept locked in her heart.
“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
“Answer me. Why did you save me?”
She knew she was being unreasonable.
Yoo Eon wouldn't know.
But she wanted to hear it.
“Good grief, why would I kill someone who isn't an enemy?”
“…”
Iris stared at Yoo Eon for a long time after his bewildered response.
“Right. I see.”
“Of course. Do I look like the kind of person who just goes around killing everyone I don't like?”
“No.”
Iris, who had fallen on her backside while running, stood up and brushed off her rear.
“There’s still dirt on you. Brush it off more.”
“Do it for me.”
“That’s your butt.”
When Iris pouted her lips, Yoo Eon let out a deep sigh.
“We’ve even had sex.”
“Good lord.”
Reluctantly, Yoo Eon brushed his hand over Iris’s backside a couple of times. After a moment of thought, he smacked her bottom with his palm.
Slap!
“That hurt.”
“It’s a punishment for being troublesome.”
After a brief silence, Yoo Eon asked Iris again.
“So, why do you like me? You don’t do… that with someone you hate, right?”
She wondered why.
She had no memory of harboring such feelings for the Emperor of Sinew. If anything, she felt indifferent now.
The one who had given her the answer she wanted wasn't the Emperor of Sinew himself, but the successor he had chosen.
“Because it’s you.”
“Oh, um…”
At Iris’s bold answer, Yoo Eon scratched his head and awkwardly turned his gaze away.