The Vampire Wants Kalguksu - 2
Two unfamiliar men sat across from each other in a hotel room, sipping coffee.
The awkward arrangement and the tension in the air only made the bitterness sharper.
"Uh… good."
When he offered a stiff little smile, a faint curve touched the other man's lips.
He seemed to have gotten the idea, more or less.
Maybe I should have just turned around and left instead of coming here.
The more he sipped at the coffee, the thicker the awkwardness grew — and with it, the boredom.
He had braced himself for a barrage of unintelligible chatter. Instead, the man across from him drank his coffee in silence and said nothing at all.
Because of that, the boredom swelled until it smothered the tension completely — enough that he almost felt at ease.
Something… feels off.
Even with the tension gone, it shouldn't have been like this.
A sudden, crushing drowsiness crashed over him, as if someone had driven a syringe of anesthetic into his veins.
"Ah… ugh…"
Coffee alone could never have made him this sleepy.
The other man had clearly slipped something into his drink.
Thud. The drowsiness hit so hard he slammed his forehead against the table.
Before he could do anything, before he could even think, his eyes closed.
What a nuisance.
The blond man let out a sigh as he looked down at Seo Ji-hyuk, slumped over with his head on the table.
Tedious work, as always.
To pull the stubborn humans out by the roots, you had to dig for information with patience and care. He understood that principle and respected it — and still it grated on him.
The man, Alan, rose slowly to his feet and crooked a finger, almost as if he were beckoning someone closer in mockery.
At once, Seo Ji-hyuk's body lifted into the air.
Telekinesis, as people commonly called it.
Another flick of Alan's finger, and Ji-hyuk's limp form drifted slowly toward him — like a ball floating lazily across the surface of a pond.
Still… it has to be done.
Might as well fill his stomach while he was at it.
Alan opened his mouth wide and sank his teeth into the nape of Seo Ji-hyuk's neck.
Under the light, a pair of gleaming fangs flashed sharp and bright.
Among the five ranks of specters, this was the true mark of a second-class — the highest in any practical sense. The symbol of a vampire who fed on blood.
Gulp. Gulp.
As he drank Seo Ji-hyuk's blood, fragments of the man's memories came flooding in along with it.
How much you saw scaled with how much you took. A little blood meant faint impressions; a deeper draught laid a life bare in detail.
That was why, during the first and only large-scale invasion, those of high enough standing to serve as military commanders had taken on the role of spies.
The problem was the ones who actually mattered — the upper ranks, or the Awakened. Getting close to them was never easy.
Low-level civil servants knew almost nothing of use. The people who held real information were strangers to begin with, and far harder to handle. Some lived under heavy guard. Others had the power to deal with threats themselves.
And so vampires had begun to burrow into every corner of society, gnawing out secrets piece by piece — just as Alan was doing now.
A human whose blood you had drunk could be enthralled, which made them useful as informants as well. Deepening their understanding of human society was a secondary purpose. That dual aim had become the engine that let a handful of vampires operate without being discovered.
Even in wartime they had rampaged as if they possessed no intellect at all. The result was a useful prejudice: strong, yes, but lacking in wit.
So the idea that a vampire might walk among humans, think like one, and harvest information? Most people never considered it. At best they left the door to that possibility cracked only the barest fraction open.
They looked human, people told themselves — but they were beasts at heart.
Which meant that, for Alan, even if Seo Ji-hyuk had managed to contact someone, it hardly mattered. Send him back looking perfectly fine, and no one would ever know. It had always worked that way.
Delicious.
The more he drank, the wider Alan's eyes grew.
Of every blood he had ever tasted, this was the richest — and the most intoxicating.
Gulp. Gulp.
His throat worked without pause, pure joy written in every swallow. He forgot entirely that he was supposed to drink only in moderation.
And because of that, Seo Ji-hyuk's memories came roaring in like a flood.
Outstanding!
Not only the flavor of the blood — the information itself was excellent. The famous Saintess. A dangerous Awakened who commanded a power called Domination. All of it now his.
"Urgh…!"
Then, just as he was about to throw open the door beyond the present — into the past, more precisely, into the memories of a previous life — Alan tore his mouth free of the nape and stared wide-eyed.
His head began to throb as if it would split. Alongside it came a violent dizziness and a nausea that surged all the way up his throat.
"Bleeeaagh!"
Thud. Alan dropped to his knees, eyes bulging, and began to retch up everything inside him.
Bloodshot eyes that looked ready to burst. A face twisted and crumpled with agony said everything about what he was enduring.
Drip. Drip.
Dark crimson blood poured from his mouth in a waterfall. At times, clots came with it.
Nutrient overload.
He had crossed the line with blood intake, and his body was dying at terrifying speed.
"Bleeeeagh…!"
Why?!
Even as the world spun and his senses blurred, Alan's mind kept turning over and over.
He had only drunk blood. A body collapsing this catastrophically simply should not have been possible. Even spoiled blood had never done more than turn his stomach.
And yet he was dying.
He barely had the strength left to move his hands or feet. His mana had turned to stone; he could not circulate it at all.
"Hah… hah…"
Face pressed to the floor, gasping for breath, a fierce spark suddenly flared in Alan's mind.
Soul Rank… that's…
Correct, vampire!
A human shape made of nothing but silhouette — no features, no face — bared its teeth and cried out the answer.
"Da… mn it."
For my end to be this hollow…
A sound like metal scraping metal tore free of Alan's throat. The last words he would ever spit out before his breath failed.
Trickle…
Dark crimson blood streamed from all seven of his orifices, as if someone had filled a plastic bag with water and then burst it.
Whoosh.
A lukewarm breeze tapped lightly at the window of the silent room.
One man lay unconscious on the bed, a little thinner than before. The other lay dead in a soaking pool of his own blood.
It was a wretched scene.
The sharp, metallic reek of dark red blood rose through the air, and the lingering scent of the coffee left in the cups mixed with it until it was even worse.
Tap. Tap.
About ten minutes after silence had settled over the room, something that was not the wind began to knock softly against the glass.
A swarm of bats.
In the dark of the open air they looked like a drifting cloud, and they tapped at the window.
Rattle. Astonishingly, the closed glass began to slide open of its own accord — as if someone had drawn it back for them.
Flutter!
The moment the sliding window opened, the swarm poured into the room. The bats wheeled and beat their wings, gathering near the ceiling light.
They packed together, and packed tighter still.
In utter silence the mass of bats compressed and warped until it shaped itself into the form of a person.
Bat Transformation.
One of the traits only vampires like Alan could use.
"…Mmm."
At last the fully revealed figure exhaled a languid sigh.
Sky-blue hair in a lush cascade. A woman's beauty that was both sultry and fresh at once — a figure that left no doubt about her feminine allure.
Tap. She descended slowly to the floor and stood on a stretch of it that had not yet been soiled.
A man who could have been called her colleague lay dead, and she did not so much as blink.
I felt a disturbance and came to look… how absurd.
She blinked down at the fallen Alan. Her gaze was dry — neither contempt nor pity in it.
He drank that human's blood and ended up like this, I take it.
Her eyes shifted to Seo Ji-hyuk, collapsed on the bed. A faint gauntness about him. The lingering vampire residue near the nape of his neck made the situation easy enough to read.
Let's see.
The toe of her shoe nudged Alan's side — lightly, the way one might kick a soccer ball toward a child.
Blood still trickled from all seven orifices, eyes and nose included. His back was soaked where it rested in the pool.
Only after taking in the look of a man who had died of sheer shock did a spark of life enter the woman's eyes.
It was not because she liked corpses. It was not some twisted delight in a fellow vampire's death, either.
Good riddance.
It came from a thoroughly human conviction: that vampires ought to die.
Her body might have become a vampire's, but the memories of the life she had lived as a human remained vivid. She was a reincarnator — just like the Seo Ji-hyuk lying there on the bed.
Lick. She crouched over the pool of blood and dipped the tip of her right index finger into it.
Taste the blood, and something would come back to her.
What a thoroughly stupid way to die.
Along with a taste that made her wrinkle her nose, Alan's memories rose in her mind — the entire sequence of events, complete with his personal impressions.
Time to clean this up.
Snap! As if she had seen enough, she flicked her fingers lightly. A dull yet crisp sound swept through the room.
Bubble, bubble. In answer, the entire pool of blood began to seethe with scalding foam. Steam rose from how hot it was.
Even Alan's corpse crumbled away like dry leaves — until not a pinch of ash remained. Until not a single drop of blood was left unevaporated.
"…Hah."
Much better.
She rose slowly with her arms folded. With Alan dead, turning her attention to Seo Ji-hyuk was only natural.
Click.
As she stepped forward, the sound of her heels striking the floor pricked at the ear.
He died drinking this man's blood.
By nature, a vampire could drain a person until they withered like a husk and still come away unharmed. At most they might feel comfortably full.
And yet this one had died spewing blood from a sudden nutrient overload.
She could hardly help being interested.
"My apologies. I shall borrow a moment of your time."
Offering an apology he would never hear, she drove a single fingernail into the nape of Seo Ji-hyuk's neck — only enough to draw a few drops of blood.
Then she pulled the bloodied finger free and slipped it into her mouth, making an unabashed sound as if savoring a delicacy… or as if seducing a mate.
It's starting to come through.
Vampires read memories through blood, but even that varied by rank. A higher rank could pull a great deal from a single drop; a lower rank, like Alan, needed considerably more.
And the rank in question was rank among vampires alone — nothing that could be measured against ordinary Awakened.
She was of the former sort.
Which meant that with only a few drops of blood, she could read the whole of Seo Ji-hyuk's past… and even his previous lives.
"Oh…!"
Thud. She let the finger fall from her lips and stared wide-eyed.
A peace so dearly missed — and so vividly clear — seized her consciousness.
As awareness slowly returned, I snapped my eyes open and bolted upright.
The sense of danger and the tension I had felt right before blacking out drove the drowsiness out of me in a single stroke.
You've got to be kidding me.
I had never heard that vampires were this intelligent. They looked so much like humans that you could barely tell them apart from the outside.
And if there was more than one of them?
That would be a serious problem.
"Calm yourself."
Just as I was about to scramble fully upright, an unfamiliar woman's voice came from beside the bed.
I hadn't expected anyone, and the strength went out of the arm I was using to push myself up.
Who…?
I turned my head carefully, and there she was — a woman with sky-blue hair.
Damn. That figure.
My eyes went to her of their own accord. Curves as striking as Janet's or Marie's.
"Who are you?"
I pulled my scattered wits together and asked. The corner of her mouth twisted.
"Who am I? If you ask me who I am, it is only proper that I answer, is it not?"
She delivered a line that sounded like something out of a play I had heard somewhere before — so old that dusty community memes about boomers and ancient fangirls floated unbidden through my head.
Then the answer I wanted finally came from her lips.
"My name is Camilla. A vampire, as you humans call us."