Before Departure
Come to think of it, I'd never really read that many books in my life.
Whenever I had the time, I'd log into RASA instead — knock out one more achievement, enhance one more piece of gear.
If I hadn't been so obsessed with the game, would none of this shit have happened to me? Impossible to say.
My thoughts had drifted for a moment. Anyway, the reason this had suddenly occurred to me was because of what I was doing right now.
"Hmm."
I closed the book I'd been reading. A pile of what looked like old tomes sat stacked on one side of the desk — every last one of them a book about vampires.
These days, my daily routine at the Lord's Castle was a loop of studying maps and reading books. It was the exact opposite of the time I'd spent at the Grand Lord Castle, doing nothing but moving a pen to transfer every scrap of information in my head onto paper. I was reading because I wanted to look into whatever information I could find on vampires...
These bastards are a rare race too, so there isn't exactly a wealth of information on them.
Like Ashel's White Moon Clan, the weaker, rarer races mostly lived tucked away somewhere deep in the wilds, keeping to themselves. And vampires, among this world's countless races, had a reputation that ranked among the very worst. They'd been all but ostracized from the world for a long time, which made information even harder to come by. Even in the game, stories involving vampires had been few and far between.
The Mystery is one thing, but if I could just use Blood Arts, the synergy with Instant Kill would be enormous...
The reason I was this obsessed with vampires was their racial trait: Blood Arts. Every individual had their own unique abilities, but the power to freely manipulate blood as if by telekinesis was a common Blood Arts ability that every vampire could use. No matter how I looked at it, there was no better way to draw out Instant Kill's efficiency to the maximum than obtaining Blood Arts.
It wasn't as if there was no method. The problem was that to carry it out, I'd have to go in person to Elrod Forest — one of the homelands where the vampires were hiding.
That's a complete suicide mission.
In this world, not every vampire was a bloodsucker who lived by draining others. Vampires were divided into tribes among themselves, and there were tribes that didn't drink the blood of other races at all — ones that lived just fine among their own. It was only because of the ones who didn't that even the peaceful tribes were persecuted and ostracized the same way. And so even those peaceful tribes, who'd been treated unjustly, harbored considerable hostility toward other races.
Elrod Forest was a place where a peaceful vampire tribe had gathered to live, but if a human like me showed up, it wouldn't be strange to be attacked on the spot.
It's not easy. Not easy at all.
Making a decision wasn't easy. I'd already roughly mapped out the order in which I'd obtain the other Mysteries. But then I'd suddenly discovered a new way to use Instant Kill, and Blood Arts had entered the picture as a consideration. Now I was stuck wondering whether I should detour through Elrod Forest or not. On top of that, if it was just Ashel and me going alone, I was pretty sure we'd just be picking out our own graves.
And if I mobilized the Lord's troops, the whole thing would get way too big.
That would be nothing short of declaring war. Even a peaceful tribe — vampires themselves were a fairly warlike race, and they had plenty of hostility toward other species. If I led an army into Elrod Forest, they might resist to the bitter end no matter what threats I made.
Then I'd be a mass murderer who wiped out an entire tribe just to get my hands on Blood Arts.
And Elrod Forest was located in another Lord's territory, so even bringing troops there in the first place would be difficult. The whole reason I'd sought out an escort like Ashel was that I couldn't go marching around other Lords' territories with a swarm of soldiers.
I sank into the chair and let out a long, sagging breath. Then I turned my thoughts elsewhere.
A way to use Instant Kill at longer range without Blood Arts. Even climbing the Luthers Mountain Range to obtain Super Regeneration, I'd nearly died running into Bellebagora. I'd have to travel all across Calderic looking for the other Mysteries, and I could run into unexpected dangers like that at any time — dangers even Ashel couldn't handle. It wouldn't hurt to have at least some method prepared to use Instant Kill more efficiently when that happened.
Ranged attacks.
For starters, there was the method of just inflicting a wound and spraying blood. But that would only fly a few meters at best, so calling it a ranged attack was a stretch. In a world overflowing with every kind of monster, if an enemy had already entered a radius of a few meters intending to attack me, the odds that I'd die before I could even try anything were far higher.
Another method was coating something in blood and launching it. Coating an arrowhead in blood and loosing an arrow, for instance. Thinking about it, that seemed like the best option I had. But of course, I had no idea how to shoot a bow.
If I don't know how, I can just learn.
The dangers I was most likely to run into while hunting Mysteries were giant monsters like Bellebagora. Those filthy huge things I could hit just fine even with clumsy archery. I had no intention of wasting time, but it wouldn't hurt to at least learn the basics of how to shoot. And thanks to the Mystery of Super Regeneration, I had stamina to spare — I could practice as much as I wanted without needing rest.
Alright. Might as well learn a bit.
I stood up from my seat. Asking the other knights of the Lord's Castle to teach me archery felt a little off. There was only one person for the job.
"A bow... is that what you mean, my lord?"
Ashel, standing guard at the door, asked it back at the 7th Lord, who had stepped out of his room and dropped the words on her without warning. He nodded and asked,
"Don't you know how to shoot?"
"...No, I do."
"Then let's go straight to the training hall."
She looked at the 7th Lord, who spoke so matter-of-factly, a slightly bewildered expression on her face. This unpredictable Lord, just as he had in the Luthers Mountain Range, was about to embark on another strange eccentricity.
A bow, of all things... What kind of request is suddenly asking me to teach him how to shoot?
The thought must have shown plainly on her face, because the 7th Lord spoke.
"I just suddenly got interested, that's all."
Ashel couldn't bring herself to ask anything more, and had no choice but to follow him. The two of them moved to the spacious private training hall located underground. Head Butler Ploto had already finished preparing the bows, arrows, and targets.
The 7th Lord and Ashel each took a bow and stood side by side at a distance from the targets.
"You shoot first."
At the 7th Lord's words, Ashel immediately nocked an arrow and loosed it at the target.
Twang!
The arrow flew with a clean, confident snap and struck the exact center of the bullseye. He nodded.
"Now teach me."
"..."
Ashel had no sense of where to even begin, so she asked,
"You do not know how to shoot at all, my lord?"
"That's right."
"...Then let us start with the stance."
She told him to nock an arrow on the string and try drawing it. The 7th Lord nocked an arrow and pulled only slightly. His form was clumsy beyond description.
"Your right shoulder is too low. And the hand gripping the arrow..."
Following Ashel's instructions, he adjusted his stance bit by bit.
"...Aim at the target the way I just described, and now please try shooting."
The 7th Lord released the string. The clumsily flying arrow didn't come anywhere near the target — it didn't even reach the vicinity, dropping to the floor instead. Watching it, Ashel said,
"Your form fell apart the moment you released."
"Let me try again."
And so the 7th Lord kept loosing arrows, while Ashel stood beside him, watching and pointing out what he was doing wrong.
About half an hour passed. The 7th Lord still hadn't landed a single arrow on a target less than thirty paces away.
Ashel, her expression a little stiff, scanned the arrows densely embedded in the floor and walls, then turned her gaze back to the 7th Lord.
Twang!
The flying arrow once again struck the wall beside the target, without fail.
"You are gripping it incorrectly again."
The 7th Lord kept repeating the same mistake she'd already pointed out nearly ten times. Like a man with no sense of how to move his own body at all. He lowered the bow, turned to look at her, and asked,
"Are you angry?"
"...No, my lord."
"Your voice is a bit stiff. You are angry."
"I am not."
The 7th Lord shook his head.
"How about you correct my stance directly."
He meant for her to put her hands on his body and physically set his form. Ashel hesitated a moment, then stepped closer. Was touching the Lord's body even a big deal at this point? She'd carried him on her back in the Luthers Mountain Range.
"Please keep your shoulder fixed like this..."
As she put her hands on various parts of the 7th Lord's body, Ashel realized it all over again. It was obvious even from looking, but this was a truly untrained, soft body. Soft enough that it looked like it would snap if you so much as poked it.
...The image of the 7th Lord bringing down that monstrous serpent in the mountains suddenly flashed through her mind. What on earth had been the source of that absurd power he'd displayed?
From the 4th Lord, Mangjawang, whom she'd happened to see once before, she had felt an unfathomable, eerie depth. But with the 7th Lord it was the opposite — she felt nothing at all, and so she couldn't dare to measure him by any standard. Perhaps even this pathetic body was nothing more than a meaningless shell to him...
Twang!
Shooting with the corrected stance, the 7th Lord finally struck the target for the first time. A faintly satisfied look crossed his face.
"I'm starting to get a feel for it."
True to his word, he loosed several more arrows, all of them hitting the target, and then ended the practice there.