What Can You Do to Me? (1)
I worked like a dog. No, to be precise, it would be more accurate to say I stole the protagonist Eryk’s tasks. “Valentine…!!” The image of him always having his work taken and screaming behind the building was still vivid in my ears. It was unfortunate for Eryk, but I had no time to apologize. In this land, I had to exterminate the vampires. I needed to pile up as many achievements as possible to draw the attention of the higher-ups—so no one could touch me.
The one small mercy was that whenever I looked at a vampire, the words that came out were never mine. “…Valentine… you are not human….” “No. I am human.” “Don’t spout nonsense!! Everyone in our homeland…!! will curse you…!” —Slice! “…I am human.” The fact that my identity remained human meant I felt no guilt for slaughtering my own kind. I could never shake the thought that this was an incredible blessing.
And so, for five long years, I diverted every important main quest that should have belonged to the protagonist onto myself. On volunteer missions I sprinted forward first and claimed them. Before I knew it, Second Lieutenant became First Lieutenant, and First Lieutenant became Captain. I kept rolling across the battlefield. Battered and bruised, I used the excuse of raising morale to charge at the very front, slamming into the vampires. My true goal had never been morale.
“…Pl…atoon commander……” “……” “…Please… save me……”
I watched the light in my subordinate’s eyes slowly die. Vampires can eat ordinary food just like humans. The taste registers as normal, and of course we excrete afterward. The single difference is that without drinking blood, the body absorbs no nutrients. Naturally, few vampires actually enjoy the taste of blood. There might be one or two odd ones, but—
…It’s bland, but if I want to live.
I was not one of those who enjoyed it. It was bland, sticky, and salty. Yet because it was indispensable for survival, I had no choice but to drink.
“…Pl…atoon commander…?”
“…I’ll make it easy for you soon.”
It was the same this time. I approached the dying subordinate and breathed hot air against his neck. Then—
“Haup……”
My small fangs punched two holes in the neck of the soldier who had followed me without question only yesterday. His hot blood began to slide down my throat.
“…Pl, platoon commander…?”
I lifted my mouth from his neck for a moment as he called my name.
“You won’t survive even if we carry you back.”
“…Huh?”
“…I’ll make it comfortable for you soon.”
I let my crimson eyes glow. A single powerful emotion carved itself into the fading light of his gaze. Fear. Everyone feels terror right before death. They thrash, desperate to live. This soldier was no different.
“Agh…! Uaaaah…! You—you were a vam—mmph!!”
I clamped my hand over his mouth and nose as he struggled. With oxygen to his brain drastically cut off, the soldier convulsed. Only then could I calmly drink from his neck.
…Disgusting.
It was revolting. An unbearable nausea crept up my throat. And yet—
“Haup… haup… huuu……”
I watched myself blindly sucking blood. After suffering so much because of the very thing that now sustained me, I had become the monster who stole it from others. Every time I drank, that disgust surged until it was almost unbearable. And at the very end of that disgust—
“Puha…!”
—came the relief of having survived another day. Extending my life by taking someone else’s was simply the fate of a disgusting creature called a vampire.
Even though I drank fiercely, not much blood actually entered me. The soldier had already lost too much. Still—
“…Thank you.”
“The Empire will remember you forever as an immortal warrior.”
It was enough. The soldier lay deathly white, two neat puncture wounds on his neck. I removed my cap, pressed it to my chest, and offered a silent prayer. We had fought together, after all. I gave him the greatest respect I could offer.
“Sa-salute!… Platoon commander? Why are you here?”
“Salute. I was retrieving the body.”
I lied with a perfectly blank face and straightened my cap.
“Ah, then we’ll handle it, sir.”
“…I’m counting on you.”
I left the corporal—who stood a full seventy centimeters taller than me—to the task. The soldier I had killed had been a sergeant. Yes, he had clearly been the corporal’s senior.
…I’m sorry.
But I wanted to live. I hated dying meaninglessly.
Still not enough blood.
That was how I survived, clawing my way forward. I had vowed to change this life. I ran across battlefields and worked like a dog.
“…Battalion… commander…?”
“You… were a vampire?!”
“Battalion commander, you—kuhk!”
I kept grinding forward while listening to the death rattles of countless soldiers. I didn’t bother remembering their names. Gratitude lasted only a moment. I had to reach the next battlefield and prove my worth again.
I swung a sword larger than my own body and charged like a madwoman. I supplemented my physical limits with blood magic, the secret ability of vampires. To boost speed, strength—everything—without anyone noticing required truly massive amounts of blood, but—
“Kyaaaak!!”
“Medic!! Medic!!”
“There’s an injured man here!!!”
“Save me… save me… save me……”
This was a battlefield drenched in blood anyway. Crimson stained the ruined earth and thickened the air with the metallic stench. Blood overflowed. Because we fought vampires, blood was inevitable. It was the perfect environment for me.
In that manner, during the third year after my transmigration, I became a battalion commander. I had tried to widen the rank gap with Eryk as much as possible to avoid that lunatic, yet—
Eryk — Major
...
Valentine — Captain
For some reason, the moment I earned Captain, Eryk had already claimed Major.
…As expected, the capable succeed?
I didn’t know whether the system had intervened, but even though I was walking Eryk’s route—
“How strange……”
I had no idea how he had piled up so many achievements. Well, it wasn’t my problem. We barely crossed paths anyway.
“Major is around the time he goes completely insane.”
The war was already nearing its end. In the game it had dragged on because Eryk had to carry everything alone, but with me helping to eliminate the other heroes, the Empire was now staring at the war’s conclusion six months earlier than scheduled.
And today was the day—
“Captain Valentine! Her Majesty the Empress intends to award you a medal!”
—I would be officially recognized as a hero of the Empire.
Finally. Finally I had caught the eyes of the Empire’s highest echelons.
I adjusted my cap with an utterly emotionless face.
“…I’m coming.”
I hid my expression as best I could. The cap made me anxious, but I would have to remove it before the Empress. The grand plaza prepared for a hero’s appointment ceremony was packed with citizens and high-ranking officers.
“Battalion commander!!”
“You look incredible!!”
“Our battalion commander is so cute!!”
“Our battalion commander is the best…!!”
Familiar voices rang out. I turned toward them.
“…Kyle, Jenny, Bermann, Kriha.”
My most loyal subordinates stood there, genuinely rejoicing that I had become a hero. I clicked my tongue at them. Soldiers shouting without regard for time or place—
…You’re all getting extra drills later.
I’d discipline them properly once we returned. At that thought my expression hardened, and the subordinates quickly looked away in fear. Having lightly subdued them, I continued forward.
…The Empress.
If anyone asked for the most popular female character in Glory of Victory, I would without hesitation name the woman standing before me—brilliant white hair shining, smiling softly.
Of course, I felt nothing now. I wasn’t even a man anymore; there was no reason for her to captivate me.
“I greet Your Majesty, ruler of the Empire.”
I knelt, removed my cap, and pressed it to my chest.
“…You seem rather young.”
“I permit you to speak. Are you truly all right?”
The Empress looked at me with what appeared to be genuine concern. It was understandable. Though I was an adult, my petite frame often led people to mistake me for a middle-schooler.
“Despite appearances, I am an adult. It is an honor to offer this body for the Empire.”
I answered calmly. The Empress rose from her throne with a satisfied smile and approached.
“Please stand.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
The crisp click of her heels echoed in my ears.
“Remain as you are, Captain.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Her Majesty personally pinned the hero’s medal on me. Even though I stood at full height, she bent gracefully to attach it. She smiled beautifully, called me splendid, and returned my salute.
“Continue to devote yourself to the Empire.”
“…I shall.”
Following Her Majesty’s declaration, I officially became the Empire’s second hero.
It was the birth of the Empire’s first vampire hero.
…I had believed no one would ever know.
One year later.
Unfortunately, I was seen using blood magic on the battlefield.
“…A vampire hero? Do you realize you have disgraced my homeland, the Empire?”
That damned protagonist of Glory of Victory.
I had been discovered by Eryk.
“……”
“Major, go ahead. Offer any excuse you like.”
I had been found out. The fact that the Empire’s first vampire hero was me—told to the Empire’s first hero.
But……
“…It may be presumptuous of me to say this to the Lieutenant Colonel.”
“So, what can you do to me, Lieutenant Colonel?”