The Chairman's Proposition
The descendant of the Veil family, blessed with the Shadow Bloodline, had fallen.
At that very moment, Solomon moved from within the darkness. In his hand was the blade forged from blood and shadow magic.
Five enemies.
Solomon kicked off the ground without hesitation, slipping one of the potions from his belt into his mouth.
“Too bad your mommy isn’t here to protect you anymore!”
Only three remained.
A trump card that allowed two surprise attacks while invisible. There was no reason to save it now. This was exactly the kind of situation he had kept it for.
Even so, Solomon held the potion in his mouth without swallowing.
Level 2 Invisibility.
He simply cast the spell in that state.
Now!
Solomon’s body melted into the empty air. Thanks to his already high mental fortitude, the curtain’s debuff effect had grown even stronger. The vampires could no longer pinpoint his location while he was invisible.
In that instant, a strike came from behind.
Shhhk!
The perfect ambush, delivered with absolute certainty from an invisible state.
“Kieeeeeek!”
A vampire’s scream rang out. The Igniting Sun Ruby blade, imbued with the power of Sunlight Blade. The radiance it emitted was not merely visual. Inside the vampire’s body, a blazing light was literally incinerating their flesh.
The additional damage from the ambush and bleeding status was simply a bonus.
Does the first hit count as bleeding right away?
He couldn’t be certain. Still, the sensation of the blade sinking into the vampire, the destructive power traveling up his fingertips… it felt different.
Shhhk!
One vampire’s body exploded within the darkness, wreathed in visible, blazing flames. Even then, Solomon did not stop. The moment his invisibility dropped and his body was revealed—
“Found you, you rat bastard!”
Gulp.
He swallowed the invisibility potion he had been holding in his mouth, and his body melted back into the air.
Shadow Step. Blink.
Even though his position had been exposed, he needed to change locations immediately.
One vampire can be handled with the Igniting Sun Ruby blade and the Ghost Whale Bone Dagger.
Solomon quickly used a Level 1 spell combo to reposition behind another vampire.
Four left.
Shhhk!
While under the effect of a high-grade invisibility potion, he could still perform two surprise attacks.
Without hesitation, he drove the blade in.
“Gaaahhhk!”
The blade buried in the vampire’s body emitted a crimson solar radiance that not even the blood and shadow of the Ghost Whale Bone Dagger could conceal. It must have had additional damage effects against the vampire race. The destructive power was beyond anything Solomon could produce on his own.
The result was the same.
Moreover, Solomon’s body, enhanced by the spell, no longer fell behind the vampires’ speed. No—it completely surpassed them.
Was this spell always this effective?
He realized it then. Every person is born with their own unique traits. Some have strong stamina, others powerful minds, or exceptional dexterity. None of it is chosen by their own will.
But Solomon was different.
From the moment this character was created, every single stat point had been ruthlessly optimized for a narrative of absolute strength. Not a single point wasted. Every choice designed to extract the highest possible efficiency as both an assassin and a mage.
This was the result.
The high mental fortitude granted by his Shadow Bloodline and the corresponding dexterity stats made his Level 2 spells incomparably stronger than those of an ordinary mage.
The same applied to every other spell.
This body had been built solely for the narrative of strength, for the optimal build.
“You damn fly…!”
Shhhk!
Before the curse could even finish leaving his lips, another blade descended from the darkness. Thanks to the synergy between the blazing light of the Igniting Sun Ruby and the Ghost Whale Bone Dagger, the vampire’s body exploded on the spot.
“Hoo…”
Three strikes. Three vampires slain. Two remained.
Fortunately, the battle did not continue.
The surviving vampires within the curtain vanished, melting into the darkness.
They’re ridiculously good at running away.
With that, Solomon dispelled the veil of darkness and turned his gaze toward the elder who remained.
“……!”
The elder was already dying, his throat torn open by a vampire’s claws. The bleeding was severe. Solomon approached late, but the elder waved him off as if to say not to bother.
“Don’t… worry about me.”
“Your wound is deep.”
“It is simply time for me to go see my ancestors.”
“……I see.”
Solomon nodded calmly. The old orc elder, covered in tattoos from head to toe, continued in a voice as weak as a dying ember.
“You… follow your own profit.”
Profit. Solomon remained silent. As an assassin of Hotel Snark, he moved only for his own gain.
“Pursuing profit… is not a bad thing.”
“……”
“Just… make sure that profit… does not become evil.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
That was the end of their conversation. By then, the elder had already stopped breathing.
─ Hic… sob.
At the same time, the sound of crying echoed.
─ Waaaaah!
The heart in the bottle…
The heart inside the bottle was crying like a baby. Even so, there was nothing else he could do. Solomon silently rose to his feet.
As he stepped out of the blood-soaked guild hideout of the Blood Moon Tribe, now turned into a slaughterhouse, the one who stood before him was…
“Oh, so this is where you were.”
A handsome man with long black hair that reached his waist. Dressed in a blood-red suit, he stood at the center of a considerable number of courteous vampires. Among them were the two who had fled wounded from the recent fight.
They were skewered like specimens of unforgivable failure—impaled on stakes of blood.
The overwhelming pressure radiating from his very existence.
It wasn’t difficult to guess the identity of the man standing there.
“……Vlad Tepes, Chairman.”
“It is an honor that you know my name, Mister Solomon.”
“The honor is mine.”
The man in the blood-red suit, Chairman Vlad Tepes, offered a gentle smile and bowed his head toward Solomon. Even at a glance, he exuded elegance and impeccable manners—the so-called “dignity of the Chairman.”
“Lately, your name has been echoing quite loudly throughout this city. I, too, have taken considerable interest in it.”
“I’m flattered.”
Solomon answered with deliberate calm.
“To be honest, I was planning to commission you for several requests. In my opinion, we could become quite excellent business partners.”
With those words, Vlad Tepes reached into his coat and held something out. For a second, Solomon wondered if he was about to attack. But no.
“Please accept this.”
“……”
It was a business card.
Chairman of the Board
WALLACHIA ENGINEERING & AETHERWORKS CO.
"Vita ex Sanguine. Machina ex Ferro."
A ridiculously grandiose card. Honestly, he couldn’t even read half the fancy script.
“Life springs from blood, and machines from iron. That is the motto of our Wallachia Company.”
“I see.”
“Now then, shall we put an end to this formal exchange?”
Finally, the main topic. Just like a corporate chairman, after all the tedious pleasantries came the real purpose.
“What do you want? I can roughly guess, but go ahead.”
“Exactly what you are guessing.”
Chairman Tepes spoke, revealing his sharp fangs slightly within his gentle smile.
“As you know, I have a great deal of interest in that innocent, pure, and sinless heart.”
“Then why not just take it by force?”
Solomon asked calmly. In this situation, even he could see there was no way out. Besides, he had no particular reason to risk his life protecting that heart.
“The situation has grown rather complicated, you see.”
“Complicated?”
“I am the type who places great importance on the aesthetics of evil.”
“……”
The aesthetics of evil.
“As a Curator who collects and preserves evil in this world, I bear a responsibility befitting that role.”
At those words, Solomon’s expression froze coldly.
Those who collect and preserve the evil of this city.
The being before him was by no means unrelated to Solomon.
“The Black Museum……”
“Shh.”
Chairman Tepes placed a finger to his lips and whispered carefully.
“It would not be difficult to rudely seize what is yours by force, but honestly, it lacks ‘dignity.’ It goes against my aesthetics as well. Moreover……”
Tepes continued.
“As long as the Geas protecting you remains in effect, I cannot do so.”
“!”
Without any presence at all, he had appeared behind Solomon, pressing his fangs against the nape of his neck. As if truly regretful.
A chill ran down Solomon’s spine.
At the same time, he understood. One of the threats the elf broker Yuria had prophesied. The Geas from the City Council that would protect him from that threat.
This was exactly what it had been for. In the end, her prophecy had been accurate.
Beelzebub and Vlad Tepes.
The Black Museum. A mysterious organization that sought to collect and preserve the evil of this city and the world. In that sense, the man before him possessed manners befitting that very evil.
“Therefore, I would like to make you an offer at this point.”
“What offer?”
“Please carry out one request for me.”
“……And why should I?”
“Because it is well worth your while.”
Vlad Tepes smiled politely.
“If you complete this request, I will give up the heart without hesitation.”
A blatantly suspicious and untrustworthy proposal.
“And if I refuse?”
“As I said, I am a very patient vampire.”
“……”
Patient. It wasn’t hard to guess what that meant. The City Council’s protective Geas would last three months. From a vampire’s perspective, that was nothing more than the blink of an eye.
“Fine. But in return, you must make a ‘promise.’”
“What promise?”
“That whatever I do will not contribute to your kind of evil.”
“What an interesting thing to say.”
Upon hearing that, Vlad Tepes let out a chuckle as if he had heard a funny joke.
“Of course. Sometimes good and evil are ambiguous, and the line between profit and evil is even more so… but in this case, I can say with relative certainty that it is ‘not evil.’”
He answered after laughing.
“Then, shall we go together?”
“……Where to?”
“There is only one place.”
As if politely escorting Solomon onto his stage.
“To my empire—Wallachia Company.”