Chapter 111
Chapter 111
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 111
Chapter Title: The Graham Faction's Demise
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The chilling presence of the Graham faction vampires was vividly transmitted, making Marcus tremble with rage.
But he could not dare reveal his emotions in front of the clan's highest lord, of all people.
“Hey, what are you going to do? Spare us or not?”
“If Your Greatness would show us mercy…”
“Cut the crap. I asked what you can do for me if I spare you twice.”
“W-We will give you anything you desire…”
“Swear it on your name and the blood of your bloodkin.”
“I swear upon Revoless and my own blood.”
A vampire's oath was no light matter.
However, the one before him was presumed to be the pinnacle of the clan, a lord.
Even if his oath led to unforeseen consequences, the High Lords and clan elders would have no choice but to take it into account.
That was Lord Marcus's calculation.
Of course, his fury at the thought of dying pointlessly here to the Graham faction outweighed even that.
“Fine. I'll spare you once more.”
Eugene bared his fangs and turned back toward the window.
Marcus and Ellis looked up at Eugene's back with tense expressions.
How would this cruel, overwhelming lord crush the Graham faction's rabble?
‘Huh?’
‘Huh?’
The prostrate lord and knight exchanged puzzled glances.
Because Eugene stood utterly still, just staring outside.
‘Why is he doing that?’
‘How should I know?’
Lacking the courage to ask, they could only gaze anxiously at Eugene's back amid their bewilderment.
“They're here now.”
“...?”
As Ellis inwardly tilted her head at Eugene's mutter, Lord Marcus's eyes widened, and his shoulders began to tremble once more.
‘What's wrong, Father?’
Even as Ellis's eyes seemed to ask that, Marcus stared blankly at Eugene—no, now at the view beyond the window where he stood.
And Ellis soon learned why Marcus was reacting that way.
‘T-This is!?’
For the first time since becoming a vampire, Ellis experienced chills running down her spine.
* * *
“Lord Graham. Everyone's ready.”
“Got it.”
Lord Graham donned his helmet over the crimson armor inherited from his father, the one who had turned him into a vampire.
“Today, we exterminate the Marcus faction.”
Lord Graham's red eyes blazed with fury and murderous intent.
When he first heard the Mungard mayor had been killed, he assumed it was because the clan's status from across the sea was higher than expected, botching their plans.
But when the butler and three knights of the Marcus faction vanished without a trace, and he learned Ellis had entered the mansion with some human knight, he had no choice but to rethink.
Betrayal.
The Marcus faction vampires had clearly eliminated both the foreign clan members and the mayor to swallow the spoils whole.
And the human knight who entered the mansion with Ellis wore silver plate mail unlike anything seen in Mungard before—a clear sign he had come with the foreign clan.
So he must have joined the betrayal as well.
‘Humans and vampires alike, blinded by greed, betraying their honor? I knew it!’
No, if he had truly known, he would have extracted a temporary blood oath against betrayal before plotting.
But he hadn't, for a simple reason. He himself had planned to betray Lord Marcus at the first opportunity. Just like this.
The armaments brought by the sea-crossing clan and the wealth they had reaped today were simply too tempting.
“With the butler and knights largely absent, now's our chance. I'll take Lord Marcus. You lot handle Knight Boheim and that knight… Hm!?”
As Graham issued orders to his faction's butler and knights, he suddenly whipped his red eyes around.
“What is it, Lord?”
The butler and knights reflexively turned toward where Graham's gaze went.
At that moment.
Swoosh! Thud!
A sharp whistle cut the air, followed by something bursting, and one knight's head exploded into pieces.
Kroooh!?
The vampires' fangs extended in shock.
Their eyes, piercing the darkness, spotted a group of riders charging from afar.
And Lord Graham, the faction's leader and strongest vampire, noticed the short spear loaded on the atlatl held by the knight leading the charge.
‘An atlatl!?’
Thrown with such precision from that distance?
More than that, one strike had turned his direct subordinate knight's head to pulp like a watermelon?
Lord Graham's shock and doubt didn't last long.
Whiiiish!
The atlatl unleashed its spear with an ominous howl.
“How dare you! Kraaaargh!”
Graham's butler stepped forward, iron shield raised.
Vampires, far stronger than humans, favored shields reinforced with metal over wood, and the butler was confident he could easily deflect the incoming spear.
And as expected, he did deflect it.
Thud!
“Kraaak!?”
The problem was that his shield arm's bones shattered, his shoulder blade cracked, and he flew back several meters.
“...!”
As Lord Graham and his knights gaped at the impossible scene.
Rooooaaar!
The roar of the Origin Vampire's sole familiar slammed into their eardrums, freezing their bodies and souls.
* * *
Marcus and Ellis stared blankly at the scene unfolding outside the window, oblivious even to the drool dripping from their fangs.
Thirty years ago, after settling in Mungard, the Graham faction had clashed with them at every turn, a constant nuisance—now utterly massacred.
And by just two knights and five soldiers.
One of those knights was of their own dark clan, yet he had single-handedly crushed everyone from Lord Graham upward.
‘H-High Lord level. No! Perhaps even…’
Since joining the dark clan, Marcus had met the clan's High Lords only twice, and now he could only gape.
The overwhelming presence from that massive vampire knight (whom he was now certain was no mere knight) was clearly High Lord level—or beyond.
‘Then…?’
As a seasoned vampire who had long ruled his faction as lord, Marcus grasped the situation instantly.
The brutal knight who had just ripped out Lord Graham's heart and crushed it underfoot was undoubtedly the sovereign's familiar, spoken of only in tales.
“Kieeeek~! That familiar's so strong! Super strong! But he's cool yet cocky. Joined later than me, hmph!”
Eugene flicked the spirit chattering nonsense on his shoulder and spoke casually.
“Hey. Done watching?”
“Yes, sir!”
At the cold voice from behind, Marcus and Ellis spun around and prostrated themselves.
“Any idea why those guys showed up here?”
“T-The lowly fools dare not presume the reason… Hic!”
Overcome with tension, Marcus blurted out thoughtlessly, then froze.
Suppressing a certain suspicion, he squeezed out his voice.
“P-Perhaps Your Majesty summoned them here to punish such lowly ones.”
“You get it.”
Eugene smiled coldly.
As Marcus suspected, Eugene had called Galpredic and the others here intending to wipe out the Marcus faction if circumstances demanded.
‘Good thing I swapped clothes and armor with Ranslo.’
It was just to confuse the mansion guards, but one of them had been a Graham faction spy.
A testament to the greed and cunning of Mungard's vampires.
“Consider yourself lucky. My familiar out there isn't as merciful or patient as I am. Ah, you've seen it now, so you know.”
“Y-Yes!”
Marcus and Ellis nodded frantically, foreheads to the floor.
For near-immortal vampire nobles, the sight of Lord Graham—heart torn out while still alive—begging piteously was enough to make their hair stand on end just recalling it.
“Anyway, I've kept my promise and spared you twice.”
“T-To Your Majesty's sky-high mercy! This lowly one, at the ragged edge of the Revoless Clan's darkness…”
“Enough.”
Cutting Marcus off, Eugene sat in Marcus's favorite chair, crossing one leg over the other.
“Looks like we need to recalculate.”
“...?”
“Spared twice is spared twice. But becoming Mungard's sole vampire faction? That's a separate matter, right?”
“Ah…!”
“Ah? You didn't even think of that?”
“N-No, of course not, Your Majesty.”
Marcus denied hastily, but Eugene stroked his chin and muttered.
“Disappointing. Hmm~ Should I leave my familiar here to watch you…”
“No, sire! Your Greatness speaks true! The sovereign's word is justice and truth itself!”
Imagining his own heart ripped out by that terrifying familiar, Marcus slammed his forehead to the floor.
“Alright. Let's slowly settle the accounts and discuss the future. As you know, the night is long.”
The dark clan, the race beloved by night.
But Marcus and Ellis sincerely wished this night would pass quickly.
* * *
“What!? The mayor was murdered last night?”
“Impossible.”
“The culprit! Who is it?”
As in most cities, Mungard was practically run by guild masters representing various trades.
“The culprits…”
The guild masters, summoned early in the morning, eyed Ser Roca—the guard captain and witness to the bloodbath—sharply.
“Were Lord Graham and his subordinates.”
“What…?”
The unexpected name left the guild masters dumbfounded.
Why would the head of a vampire house, on decent terms with Mungard for decades, and his men suddenly commit such madness?
“Impossible! Though of the dark clan, Lord Graham was honorable!”
“Indeed! He preyed only on foreigners for blood and regularly cleared roamers near the city. Why would such a noble do this!?”
“Ser Roca! Tell the truth!”
The first to raise their voices were guild masters friendly with Graham.
The city's other knights standing by Ser Roca eyed him suspiciously too.
Then, the round table meeting room door burst open, and someone entered.
“Isn't that Lord Marcus?”
“Lord Marcus at this hour…?”
Even for a vampire noble, they rarely ventured out in broad daylight, so the guild masters couldn't hide their surprise.
“It's been a while, everyone.”
Wearing a black, heavy coat, Marcus removed his wide-brimmed hat and face-concealing mask, bowing politely.
“I wager many of you have already guessed why this old one risks the sun to come here at this hour.”
Though he appeared mid-thirties, the guild masters knew he had lived in Mungard for over a century and nodded.
They also knew he almost never went out during the day.
“Ser Roca speaks the truth. The Graham house was involved in the mayor's murder. I swear it upon my cold blood.”
“S-Such!”
“No….”
Guild masters friendly with Graham sighed and slumped into chairs.
An oath on 'cold blood' from a vampire lord over a century old in the city carried immense weight.
“It began like this. The mayor and Lord Graham targeted the wealth and armaments of Sir Yan Eugene, who arrived in Mungard yesterday…”
With a grief-stricken face, Marcus recounted the plot he had shared with Lord Graham and the mayor—but edited to exclude himself.
An oath on cold blood?
It meant nothing. Marcus wasn't lying.
He had merely omitted his own role as one of the perpetrators; everything he said was true.
And who had taught him this method?
‘His Greatness possesses even cunning and baseness with the dignity of a sovereign.’
The honorable Lord Marcus diligently spun his tale as Eugene had instructed.
(To be continued)