Chapter 1
Chapter 1
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: Rebirth of the Vampire
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“After hearing about a vampire that appeared after such a long time, I had high expectations, but you're nothing special. Not even worth a mid-tier monster.”
He reached out toward the knight sneering while gripping his hair, but it was no use.
Eugene thrashed his severed arms—from the elbows down—in the pouring rain out of rage, despair, and regret.
“You killed quite a few, huh. You filthy beast.”
“Kyak! Kyaak!”
Most of the blood had already drained from him, so he couldn't even speak properly.
He had survived this long only because he had sucked the blood of over a dozen people during the past six months of fleeing.
If they had caught him on the first day of his escape, he would have died right then.
“Even so, dying at the hands of Sir Dirhit here grants you the honorable title of Vampire Slayer. And do you know why?”
The holy knight, who had preached such noble faith, finally revealed his desire with a smirk.
“The reason I joined the pursuit squad months later and let you rampage until then? It was all on purpose. Since you're the first bloodsucker to show up around here in ages, I had to take my time catching you to make the church and myself look better. It also serves as a warning to the unbelievers.”
“Keurk!”
“Your role ends here. Even the gods wouldn't tolerate more than that. Burn in purgatory forever, you monster.”
Slash!
The silver-plated longsword severed Eugene's neck. The pouring rain greedily swallowed the red blood overflowing from the stump.
“The wicked vampire is dead! Praise the gods! We have triumphed!”
“Woooah!”
The cheers from the mercenaries accompanying the holy knight echoed in Eugene's shrinking head as life faded from it.
Memories flashed before Eugene's dimming red eyes like a panorama.
If only he hadn't spent that long time holed up in the mountains, living like a listless beast.
If only he had learned and applied what he discovered during those six months of flight sooner.
If only he had realized earlier that feeding wasn't just about filling his belly and accepted it.
If only he had overcome his fear and challenged stronger foes to claim victory and their blood.
If only, if only, if only.
The final regrets of his life poured in like the rain and scattered into emptiness.
Thus, the vampire Eugene—who had hidden in the mountains for twelve years since realizing he was no longer human—drew his last breath.
* * *
“Huhk!”
Eugene bolted upright in the pitch-black room without a speck of light.
Panting heavily, he frantically touched his neck and body all over.
“A d-dream?”
No way.
The six months of flight.
And the last month, relentlessly pursued by the cunning and tenacious holy knight, Yung Dirhit, ending in his humiliating death—that had just happened.
The humiliation and pain were still vividly etched into his memory like a brand.
“What the hell...”
Muttering blankly, Eugene suddenly scanned his surroundings.
“This is... my house?”
Recognizing the cabin he had painstakingly built in his childhood and maintained ever since, he hurried to the door.
To a vampire with senses far superior to a human's, this level of darkness was no obstacle. He checked the calendar he had made himself.
“Twelve years and 192 days.”
He knew a year had 365 days, so he had crossed out each blank with an X every morning before sunrise.
Which meant, according to the marks on the calendar...
“Almost six months ago. Before that incident even happened. Did I... go back in time?”
Eugene muttered blankly in the darkness.
“I... didn't die.”
Hot, red tears flowed from Eugene's eyes.
The vampire, who had faced a miserable death and now confronted the miracle of returning to the past, let complex and intense emotions pour out as bloody tears endlessly.
After a moment, Eugene wiped the blood tears soaking his rough cheeks.
This wasn't the time to feel relieved that he was alive.
“If it's day 192, then in five days.”
The event that would change his fate was about to unfold.
Of course, back then, he never imagined it would involve him. It had seemed like someone else's problem, completely unrelated to him.
“Five days... five days...”
Muttering softly, Eugene bit his lip.
“I absolutely won't die like that again. If I've really gone back in time, no matter what it takes...”
Eugene resolved himself.
Through six months of evasion, he had learned and realized many things.
A vampire like him could never live quietly.
Even if he hid without drinking human blood, his identity would eventually be exposed, turning him into a wretched fugitive.
He had experienced exactly that in his previous life.
So now, he could no longer hide.
He had to grow stronger—far stronger—so that even if his vampire nature was discovered, he could face it head-on and fight.
“I won't regret it ever again.”
In the darkness, Eugene's eyes gleamed an even deeper red.
Five days. Short, but enough time for him.
* * *
Creak.
Having finished all preparations, Eugene cautiously opened the door.
Thanks to the overcast monsoon skies, direct sunlight mercifully wasn't pouring down.
But even this level of light restricted a vampire's movements.
Eugene double-checked his outfit.
A pitch-black mask completely covering his face and a black leather robe reaching his ankles. The thick top and bottoms underneath were entirely black.
Vampires could move during the day as long as direct sunlight was blocked.
It was far easier on heavily clouded days like this.
He couldn't unleash his full monstrous strength, but he could still utilize physical abilities superior to an ordinary human's.
Pulling the hood attached to the robe over his head, Eugene carefully stepped outside.
His body felt fine—luxuriously so, compared to being chased by the pursuit squad in his past life.
Though no one would come anyway, he locked the door firmly once more, inspected the cabin thoroughly, and headed toward the mountains.
Long ago, driven by instinct, he had drunk human blood just once.
Mercenaries had come hunting him not even two days later.
Back then, his small stature and hiding in sewers during the day had kept him from being caught.
On the fifth day, knights armed with holy relics radiating terrifying divine power that sapped his strength even from sight patrolled the village at night with torches.
He later learned they were holy knights—vampires' natural enemies—only after encountering Yung Dirhit much later.
Terrified, he crossed mountains at night and fields, eventually reaching this place, and afterward survived solely on the blood of beasts hunted in the forest.
For a full twelve years.
“I'm done with that pathetic bullshit.”
The red eyes behind the mask burned with murderous intent.
He had realized it twice now, becoming the hunted prey.
This world was survival of the fittest—the weak died, the strong survived.
“Today is the start.”
No longer the monster being chased, he would become the beast that hunted.
And his first prey would be 'it'—the one that, in his past life, had granted him power beyond compare even from just a few sips.
* * *
After two hours, Eugene crossed the mountains and entered the forest.
The woods he had hunted in for long years were like his own backyard.
Dim and damp with little sunlight even normally, the forest felt more comfortable for Eugene than open areas.
A deep, dark woods that would take others days to navigate and escape.
But Eugene traversed it swiftly, sensing his surroundings with his vampire instincts.
Several more hours of travel brought him to the forest's edge.
Before him stretched a swampy wetland thick with surrounding trees.
Riddled with treacherous mires, this filthy swamp was Eugene's destination.
But he didn't enter immediately.
He unrolled the beast hide strapped under his backpack and secured it at an angle with branches.
Having pitched a simple tent large enough to shield one or two from rain, Eugene placed his backpack inside and, dagger in hand, reentered the forest.
In less than half an hour, he returned with a large rat and several rabbits.
He bound them tightly with vines and tossed them inside the tent.
Ignoring their fearful whimpers, he glared at the swamp.
“Two or three more hours.”
Even in this long-day season, the sun would set by then.
And night was the vampire's domain.
* * *
The sunlight that had faintly tinged the thick clouds blanketing the western sky finally vanished completely.
Plip, plip-plip!
As the sun set, the gentle drizzle turned into a downpour.
Eugene's senses sharpened amid the rain pattering on the tent, power surging through his body. In this state, he could handle two or three average mercenaries with ease.
But he knew this wasn't enough.
Eugene removed his mask.
His two eyes burned red, unharmed.
But his sparse hair remnants and collapsed features made him look like a long-dead, gruesome corpse.
Without hesitation, he reached out.
The large rat and rabbits, which had been gasping shallowly after giving up, twitched feebly.
Eugene snapped their necks one by one and drank their blood.
Hot blood slid down his throat.
The fresh blood's warmth quickly turned to vitality, heating his entire body.
His eyes turned an even deeper red, and his fangs and nails lengthened in an instant.
“Grrr...”
Eugene slowly advanced toward the pouring swamp.
Scanning the rain-lashed water surface with red eyes, he crouched low and moved along the water's edge.
Occasionally splashing the water with his foot or tossing stones, he proceeded slowly along the shore.
His vision, several times sharper than usual, missed no ripple on the surface. The leg he deliberately dipped in the water also detected underwater movements with his heightened senses.
Then, his movements stopped abruptly.
In that instant, the water surface—swept by the wind alongside the thick rain—erupted upward.
Almost simultaneously, Eugene leaped into the air.
Splash!
What burst from the water was a monster covered head to toe in dark brown and green.
Even partially exposed, its body dwarfed a bull, and its huge eyes gleamed as it gaped its maw.
Kraaah!
Its massive, razor-sharp teeth—packed like dozens of daggers—chomped the empty air.
Right where Eugene had stood moments ago.
Crack!
Leaping high to evade the jaws, Eugene plunged his dagger into the monster's eye as he fell.
Queeeee!
The monster thrashed and roared, sending waves surging and churning across the surface.
But the vampire gripped the dagger piercing its eyeball.
And now the sun had fully set.
Though he hadn't tasted human blood in ages, the vampire who had replenished with beast blood and welcomed the night surpassed any grown man by far.
“Grrr!”
Eugene stabbed downward with the dagger and held firm to the monster's massive head with one hand.
Queeeek!
The creature, leaping high, twisted in midair. If it fell like that, Eugene clinging to its head would be crushed beneath.
But the vampire's heightened senses instantly read the monster's intent. Eugene acrobatically shifted position along its thick neck.
And at the same time, he stabbed the other eye with his dagger.
Puk!
As the dagger burst the eyeball, the monster's huge body crashed into the water.
Eugene and the monster sank beneath the surface.
The swamp, site of the brief but fierce life-or-death battle, now echoed only with raindrops striking the water.
A moment later.
“Kraaaah!”
With a roar, Eugene's upper body burst from the water.
“Khuh! Grrr!”
Growling like a beast with glowing red eyes, Eugene arduously climbed ashore.
His left arm was broken, but his burly right hand clutched the monster's massive tail. With all his might, he dragged it onto land.
Eugene eyed the monster's carcass like a starving predator and immediately gouged out its eyeball with the dagger.
Blood gushed from the socket where the eye was removed, and the victorious vampire gulped it down greedily.
In the cold rain, Eugene savored the monster's blood for a long while.
And during that feast, his body underwent changes.
First, his battered body from the fierce fight healed rapidly.
His patchy hair regrew across his scalp, and his scarred, festering skin mended, gleaming pale under the rainwater.
That wasn't all.
His somewhat undersized adult frame grew larger; limbs lengthened markedly, and well-proportioned muscles took shape.
“Puha!”
Flinging back his now-long black hair, Eugene finally lifted his face.
The blood staining his nose and mouth washed away in the downpour, fully revealing his transformed features.
Beneath a smooth forehead, ruby-red eyes gleamed with murderous ferocity and madness.
His straight nose and crimson lips perfectly balanced his refined facial lines.
But the two protruding fangs marked him as no human.
“Kraaaaaah!”
The vampire, reclaiming the true face of the Night Clan for the first time, roared into the rain.
(To be continued in the next installment)