Mosquitoes on Royal Soil

An old vampire clenched his teeth. When those signature pointed fangs pierced the inside of his mouth, it was not blood that welled up but ash, spreading across his tongue.

As a vampire, he had no luxury of minding the pain or the foreign grit. Standing before that Swordmaster felt like having a nuclear warhead aimed straight at them.

They could not fathom why the Swordmaster's mood had soured. Nor did they dare ask. The nobles of the night hunched as small as they could, sealing their lips, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠desperate to stay out of sight.

In a silence so complete that even breathing seemed loud, Gaon spoke.

"The mosquitoes that crawled onto my land... I hear they're still gorging themselves on blood these days. Same as ever — voices everywhere, saying they're going mad from the itching of those mosquitoes' outrages."

"Please forgive us. We..."

The vampire tried to explain, but Gaon cut him off as if the words had never reached his ears.

"That's fine. I can tolerate it. Why would I stop you? This is a republic, and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I am no king. A mere commoner can't go around playing at keeping the peace. Vigilantism would be a violation of our great republic's criminal code, would it not?"

"Your Highness is the rightful heir to Hugin's throne. You could never be placed on the same level as lowly commoners..."

"But I've been hearing of something even a mere commoner couldn't tolerate. Apparently the mosquitoes have been sucking kids dry, turning them into larvae, and selling them off."

The vampires fell silent once more. Only Gaon's voice filled the air.

"This is rather difficult to tolerate. Are you telling me I've been accepting gold from child pornographers all this time? Did the mosquitoes just call me the heir to the throne?"

"Yes, of course..."

"Then that means you've been offering filthy gold to royalty. That doesn't add up. As a rule, a royal coffer should hold nothing but well-polished gold without a speck of dust."

"I swear we did no such... thing! The breeding of Pet Vampires was banned decades ago..."

"So the deed was done, yet no one did it. A miracle of the gods, or perhaps..."

Gaon's gaze settled on one vampire's head.

"Are you planning to soil a royal mouth with a filthy mosquito's name, Granot?"

Granot, master of a massive pharmaceutical company, was ordinarily so icy that his employees had a reputation for him having no emotions at all. Anyone who saw him now would know that reputation was wrong.

"Please, forgive me... Your Highness..."

Gaon didn't bother keeping his eyes on Granot, whose body trembled as if vibrating. As if the things before him were too ugly to look at, he gazed up at the ceiling and muttered.

"What a shame I have nothing to brush my teeth with. Does it please you, soiling a royal mouth like that? Lowering royalty's station this way won't raise a mosquito's."

"Shall I... shall I die? If you command it, I'll do it at once..."

"Even now you insist on soiling a royal's eyes. Your grudge against the royal house is truly astonishing. Were you some champion of democracy, Granot?"

Granot could barely breathe. He was wheezing as if about to faint, but Gaon did not grant him the mercy of a command. He simply lowered his gaze again and looked at the other vampires.

"Mosquitoes... unpleasant just by being nearby, but I can tolerate them so long as that buzzing doesn't reach my ears. Do the mosquitoes understand what I'm saying?"

"We..."

"As you have for the past several decades, continuing to suck blood in Hugin is of no concern. That's a mosquito's job, isn't it? Keep at it. But you must not soil the royal family's dignity in the process of filling those pockets with blood. Absolutely not."

In the end, Granot stopped breathing and fainted. Servants dragged his body out, but escaping this room would bring him no happiness. When he opened his eyes, a confrontation with enraged vampires would be waiting.

"There's something the mosquitoes should consider an honor, even in the midst of this. I plan to hear how the mosquitoes handle this matter. Not from mosquito snouts, of course — through other mouths. I'd prefer the matter be handled as cleanly as possible. Understood?"

The vampires cried out at Gaon's words.

"Yes, of course!"

"I don't mean clean by mosquito standards. I mean clean by human standards. Meaning no blood and ash should be flying around while the mosquitoes do their work. Or is a mosquito's tiny brain incapable of holding a royal's words?"

"No, sir!"

While the vampires competed to shout how they would conduct themselves, Gaon looked elsewhere as if uninterested, yet his distinctive hearing caught every word. Even to Gaon's ears, rather satisfying promises came pouring out. They would thoroughly punish the ringleaders of this affair. They would regard those involved as victims and ensure they were fully compensated.

Judging his purpose fulfilled, Gaon spoke.

"Today is a day when my eyes, my ears, and my mouth have all been soiled. I hope there are no more days like this."

"Yes, never!"

"Then stop soiling a royal's eyes and go. Go continue what you do. Bite, suck blood, buzz..."

With that, Gaon vanished. He teleported away without reciting a spell aloud or announcing his departure.

The vampires, still ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠bowed in reverence, didn't realize he had left right in front of them. They kept bowing for quite some time, and only dozens of minutes later did they finally notice — and rather than anger, they felt relief. The agonizing time was finally over.

Meanwhile, Gaon ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was walking Hugin's streets once more. Cautiously, he asked the goddess about the matter that had been worrying him the whole time.

"Was that dialogue all right? I was anxious it might have come off a bit theatrical, inventing a way of speaking I don't normally use. I also worried I might have laid it on too thick and made it cringe..."

"Even when I'm gaming?"

Listening despite herself to the news flowing from the TV in the training hall, Lee Mi-ri clenched her teeth.

"That corrupt bastard gets praised even when he makes someone else clean up the shit he dumped."

She muttered it aloud even as she trained, dripping with sweat. A kind of self-pep talk. In game terms, it was like watching a final boss commit some atrocity and using it to stoke your motivation to level up so you could take the bastard down.

In other words: so she could become a Swordmaster like that final boss.

Of course, unlike a game, reality offered no guarantee of leveling up. Even reaching the foot of the final boss was brutally hard. Lately, Lee Mi-ri had been feeling that fact in her bones.

She was participating in a national project to train Swordmasters. Whether the higher-ups were skimming from every direction or not, support for the participants was thoroughly unimpressive. Of a salary of barely seven hundred dollars a month, nearly a quarter vanished into that damned game subscription fee.

She had started that damned game of her own volition, wanting to train even outside official hours — and the truth was, the time she spent in the game did more for her swordsmanship than training in this hall. No matter how hard she practiced, there was no guarantee she would become a Swordmaster. Perhaps that was why neither the people training here nor the people running the training seemed to expect anything from the project at all. Nobody was doing a damn thing properly.

The trainees go through the motions of swinging swords, kill time, and go home... Whether the kendo association lobbied them or not, those idiot civil servants keep playing kendo videos with zero practical combat value during training hours and making us swing bamboo swords.

On top of already having no guarantee that even her best efforts would reach the goal, she was beginning to suspect that being here was nothing but a waste of time.

Lee Mi-ri was going out of her mind.

With everything resolved, even the vampire threat had vanished. But Barani did not return to her parents.

There was already no home to return to.

"Her mom and dad weren't even at the house, eu. They wouldn't pick up the phone, eu, and no matter how long I waited they never came back, eu..."

Gaon was speechless at Yoeu's words.

"Why?"

"Well, eu, maybe they left because they didn't want word getting around the neighborhood that they'd sold their own daughter? I picked the lock and went in, and the whole place was packed with garbage, eu. They were renters, so maybe they skipped town to save themselves the trouble of cleaning up, eu."

"That's messed up. So what are you going to do from now on?"

"I'll just keep living the way I have been. Making money."

"You're going to keep dealing with the Orc Brothers?"

"Lately I've started doing other work besides just dealing, eu. Pro gaming."

"Wait, you're going pro in 4 Fantasy too? You'd be better off going pro in LoL. 4 Fantasy pros don't even get any social respect — why the hell would you play that dead game..."

"Anyway, it's a hundred times better than dealing drugs, eu..."

Gaon couldn't bring himself to argue with that. He kept his mouth shut for a moment, then asked,

"And Barani? You said you'd raise her. Has that changed?"

"Yeah, well..."

"Then give me your account number."

"Why do you need my account?"

"You know why. Don't play dumb. Spit it out."

A short while later, Yoeu's eyes trembled at the amount that had been transferred.

"I don't know if I should really take this..."

"Of course you should. It's not even coming out of my wallet. It's tax money, so whatever. If you're worried the mosquito bastards will be watching with their eyes peeled because the money's coming from a Swordmaster's account, I already warned them I'd rip those eyes out, so you're fine."

"Then I'll gratefully..."

"Go on, get going."

"Yes, thank you so much... You went through so much trouble granting a stupid orc's request, eu. Thank you again and again..."

Only after bowing again and again did Yoeu vanish.

Gazing at the empty space he'd left, Gaon thought. That orc. Come to think of it, had he logged out in the same city? It was a funny thing to realize after such a cool farewell, but they would meet again once they logged into the game. They lived in the same neighborhood, so they might run into each other in real life too.

He might even run into that vampire girl again.

He thought about the child's future. Fortunately, as long as she wasn't murdered, it didn't seem like it would be all that bad. In the old days, if people saw a girl who'd been turned into a vampire, they would have helped her kill herself. Not anymore.

As long as someone had her back, there was plenty of work for a pretty young vampire. Whether it was moneylending that exploited an overflowing lifespan, or anything else. She might even be able to work as a child actress, trading on that pretty, mysterious appearance. In this day and age, it was entirely possible.

People these days revered vampires and envied them. If they couldn't go to heaven anyway, they might as well enjoy themselves on earth — and so they coveted the vampires' imperfect immortality. Unlike an elf's complete immortality, it could be bestowed upon others, which made it worth coveting.

Just as commoners of old had wished to become nobles, ordinary people today wished to become vampires. The vampires knew that hunger. They dangled what people wanted, then manipulated them for nothing — like medieval nobles who acted as if they might grant land and titles to young commoners while working them for paltry wages.

Vampires had become the nobility of the modern age.

A mere few decades ago, vampires had still hidden in caves and underground. Back then, this would have been unimaginable.

In a world changed this much, there was always only one thing a Swordmaster could do.

Gaon started the game.