Vampire Bellarne la Serdia [2]
……Huh?
Bellarne’s arms suddenly refused to move. She couldn’t understand what had just happened. Or rather, she understood perfectly well, but her mind simply refused to accept it. After all, the thing that had sent her claws flying was the hoe the barbarian had proudly thrust forward.
Every arm struck by the spinning hoe had been bent in the opposite direction, like the blades of a windmill. Even though she still had more untouched arms than damaged ones, Bellarne found herself frozen before the impossible sight.
“Your will to approach the other party is admirable! If you wish to convey an apology, extending your hand first to seek forgiveness is truly the proper course!”
Harnok’s gravelly voice boomed through the tower, so loud that the torches on their sconces trembled.
The sound jolted Bellarne out of her daze, but it was only the prelude to an even greater shock.
“However—!”
The barbarian’s voice roared like a beast. That wild, joyous cry was something even a vampire who had lived for centuries could not comprehend.
“If you charge forward so recklessly, your sincerity will be distorted! No matter how genuine your apology may be, such a violent approach will only cause misunderstanding!”
“Wh-what are you saying—?!”
Bellarne shrieked as the barbarian began preaching at her in that thunderous voice. Her momentarily stilled arms resumed their assault, but the very next moment she regretted it.
Harnok grinned broadly and bellowed with delight.
“It seems you still don’t understand! Worry not! I shall teach you to the best of my ability! The beginning is always the hardest part—that is why practice exists!”
Listening to him, Bellarne felt not only her patience but her very sanity draining away at an alarming rate……
Unfortunately, it wasn’t only his words that were draining her strength. The barbarian was now parrying her charging arms one by one. Unlike before, when he had spun the hoe to knock multiple limbs aside at once, he was now responding to each individual arm with a precise strike—and offering “advice” with every blow.
“Your movements are too rough! Be gentler!”
“You’re too stiff! Relax your strength! If you approach with unnecessary tension, the other party will grow tense as well. When seeking forgiveness, tension is poison!”
“This one is too soft! Excessive tension is poison, but so is excessive weakness! Since you are asking forgiveness, maintain a certain degree of solemnity!”
……The final piece of advice was directed at an arm that had simply frozen in confusion. Once the lesson was delivered, the hoe flicked it aside with a light tap, sending it spinning backward in the wrong direction.
‘This…… this lunatic……! Just get hit already! Please, just once—!!’
Bellarne desperately tried to escape the absurd situation. If she stayed with this madman any longer, she feared she would collapse from mental exhaustion long before she was physically beaten unconscious.
Her plan was to incapacitate the lunatic, even temporarily, then subdue him completely. In her desperation, her claws moved faster than ever.
Witnessing her enthusiastic participation, Harnok was moved to tears. The deeply moved barbarian resolved to teach this lesson on “the proper attitude when conveying a sincere apology” with even greater fervor.
His method was simple: instead of waiting for arms to come forward for correction, he would actively seek out the ones still flying from the distant bats above.
The moment the thought occurred to him, he acted without hesitation. Harnok leapt straight upward.
The sight of the barbarian delivering “behavioral corrections” mid-air left every woman in the tower speechless with shock at this unprecedented teaching method.
Yes—women. Even Sister Celine had been struck dumb by the spectacle.
She only managed to speak when Harnok made his single leap toward the high-flying bat.
The sudden, stomach-lurching sensation of being rocketed upward made Celine cry out the only name that came to mind—the one who had always protected her like a parent.
“Your Holiness───────────!”
Only then did she understand exactly what Harnok had meant by “hold on tight.” There was no time to ask what she should grab; she was already clinging desperately to his broad back.
“Your Holiiiiiiness—!”
Harnok’s cheerful reply—“Of course! Sister Celine! His Holiness will surely be deeply moved by such sincere effort!”—was completely drowned out by her own screams……
“Uwaaaaaang—!”
A similar yet very different scream echoed inside Bellarne’s mind. The lunatic who had been standing in one place was now charging around, personally twisting her arms out of joint. Any plan to use her bat familiars for a surprise attack from his blind spot instantly evaporated.
‘Madman! Madman!! Madmaaan───────────!!!’
Cornered, Bellarne grew frantic. What had begun as a hunt for prey had become a desperate struggle for survival. She withdrew her broken arms back into her familiars and tried to bite Harnok directly with the bats themselves.
“What are you doing! With that attitude, the other party won’t even meet your eyes! Focus!”
……When even her direct bat attacks were casually swatted aside by the massive holy book—each page fifteen centimeters thick—and the bats dropped unconscious to the floor, Bellarne began seriously considering whether she was about to lose her mind.
‘What the hell is that……! Did I become weak because I just woke up and haven’t eaten……? No…… even so……! This is……!!’
Her eyes shaking like an earthquake, Bellarne could no longer stop herself from resorting to the one method she had been saving. She would use sorcery.
It was extremely dangerous for her in her current state. Having just awakened, her strength was already diminished, and the hunt meant to restore it had failed because of Harnok. Casting sorcery that consumed her life force in the form of blood while already near empty could leave her completely drained and collapsed.
“You still haven’t regained your focus!”
……Yet when she saw her familiars being struck down one after another by the holy book, Bellarne had no time for such concerns. She frantically gathered her blood.
—Sssssss……!
The blood within her familiars began to bead like melting icicles. Unlike normal droplets, however, the blood forming on the bats’ surfaces rose upward instead of falling. The floating droplets soon coalesced into a single shape.
It was a mass of enormous fangs. Led by a pair of terrifying tusks like battering rams, countless teeth snarled, ready to tear Harnok and Celine apart.
Celine saw the sight and found she could no longer even cry. She had never witnessed sorcery so saturated with malice. Even if she unleashed her holy power, her meager strength would be effortlessly shredded.
Conversely, Bellarne smiled inwardly with triumph. This should be sufficient. With this much power, she could certainly inflict real pain on that lunatic.
‘I was going to turn you into a skewer and savor you slowly! It would have been nice if you’d drowned in pleasure while being drained…… but dying in agony like this is entirely your own fault—!’
—CRUNCH—!
The blood-fangs hurtled toward Harnok with terrifying force, intent on skewering him.
“Therefore—!”
It was truly terrifying.
“Approaching in that manner means the other party will not accept you──────────!”
The speed of the hoe Harnok hurled was, indeed, terrifying.
—BOOOOOOM—!
The centrifugal force sent the hoe spinning, shattering the sorcery in a single blow. The sheer horror of it was beyond description.
“Eek.”
It was only natural that Bellarne let out a foolish sound in the face of such terror.
—Fssssss……
Once the sorcery she had cast by burning her remaining strength collapsed, Bellarne no longer had the power to maintain her familiars. All she could do was return to her original form.
The sight that greeted her was pitiful. The black robe she had been wearing was torn in several places, exposing pale skin. Her once-lustrous ebony hair hung in tangled, lifeless strands. The vampire stared blankly at the bats scattered across the floor—her former familiars—blinking in a daze.
—Thunk—!
The hoe Harnok had thrown returned to his hand.
“Hiiiik!”
The moment she heard the sound, Bellarne threw herself flat on the floor as if having a seizure.
“I’ll apologize! I’ll apologize! N-no……! P-please let me apologize! I-I’ll spend my life repenting while following the Lord’s words……! Please……! I beg you……!”
For some reason, Celine felt a strong sense of kinship with the vampire. When Harnok beamed, gums fully exposed, and declared, “See! If you spread the gospel with true sincerity, everyone will understand in the end!” Celine could only nod along helplessly as the overjoyed barbarian’s vigorous nodding forced her own head to bob in agreement.