Chapter 128
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 128
Chapter Title: Silent Old Castle
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Continent's eastern region. If you keep venturing deeper along the impossibly rugged canyons, you'll eventually come upon a single, ancient castle whose construction date is lost to time.
Due to the treacherous terrain, hardly anyone visits, few plants grow nearby, and consequently, animals avoid the area as well, leaving the castle in profound silence.
And if you draw a little closer to that castle, you can see demons with eyes dyed crimson silently patrolling the outer walls without uttering a word. The peculiar thing is that while the demons gathered in the castle hail from various races, they all share those red eyes.
Dungeon. Silent Old Castle.
It's a castle more often called by the moniker "Eastern Demonic Realm" than its actual dungeon name. In a bedroom on the top floor that preserved the style of centuries past, a woman with white hair opened her eyes.
"...I had a dream..."
As if cherishing it, the woman reminisced about the dream's contents while gently stroking the bed where she had awakened.
Even though it was the finest bed protected by preservation magic and various other spells, it had worn out after nearly a millennium. This bed, which her master had once used in her stead as the mistress of the demonic realm.
The empress poured her longing for the master she had served into whispering her name.
"Lady Erzsebet..."
The first demon created by the Demon God, and the queen of all Blood Demon tribespeople.
And the benevolent master who had taken in the particularly frail girl who had been deprived of proper blood since childhood, made her a servant, and shared her own blood at the same time.
-Step. Step.
While the empress was lost in memories, a demon approached her bedroom as quietly as possible, muffling their footsteps. As if speaking was forbidden, and entering this room was prohibited, they didn't even knock, simply waiting silently outside the door.
"What is it?"
"......."
In response to her question, the empress's kin silently sliced their forearm, letting blood flow.
With a familiar motion, the empress beckoned toward her kin, manipulating the spilled blood and bringing it straight to her lips to swallow. Through the medium of blood, the memories carried by her kin were transmitted to her.
"I see. That clown... Understood. You may go."
"......."
-Bow.
The reason she couldn't carelessly leave the eastern sector. The kin who had come to report on the movements of one of the exceptionally powerful 'heroes' among humans bowed wordlessly and left the room.
As that kin slowly walked away after departing the room, they passed numerous demons residing in the castle, but not a single one opened their mouth. All of them had the same dazed gaze and red eyes as the departing kin.
Kinsification. The ultimate blood demon art usable only by the most exceptional high-ranking Blood Demons.
In the Eastern Demonic Realm, the "Silent Old Castle," every inhabitant except the empress was her kin—nearly two hundred in number.
"Compared to her..."
Yet even while maintaining such an absurd number of kin, the empress thought only of her own master.
After all, a lowborn like herself could wield blood arts like kinsification only because her master had shared her blood. What she did was merely a pale imitation of her.
"Lady Erzsebet. Have you awakened...?"
Once she recalled her past master, the empress remembered the familiar aura she had sensed a few days ago.
Even after centuries, there was no way she couldn't recognize it. Faint though it was, the aura felt from the south belonged to her master, Lady Erzsebet. As one who had received her blood, she knew it for certain.
The empress of the east. Bathory closed her eyes, recalling the day her master had fallen into slumber.
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[Bathory. I'm about to enter a long sleep.]
"Master. You're going to sleep again?"
The girl called Bathory—a white-haired girl still bearing a childish air—responded energetically to the woman who shared her hair color.
The woman referred to as master lay limp on the bed as if she had lost all will to live, yet she still extended a gentle hand to stroke Bathory's head.
"Don't worry! It's not like this is the first time you've slept. Last time, you slept for a whole month..."
[No, not like that.]
Bathory dismissed her master's words lightly. Her master sleeping was nothing new; her role had always been to stay by her side during those sleeps, waiting for her to awaken.
Hunting small animals to suck their blood, keeping this bedroom—where she always slept—in a comfortable state suitable for rest, wandering the castle filled with the kin her master had created, playing around.
That was her daily life. Waiting for the master who had shared her blood to awaken while she slept. Greeting her upon waking. That was her role.
"You'll sleep even longer? Longer than a month... two months? Three? Gasp... no way, a whole year...?"
[I don't know.]
"Pardon?"
But that day was different. Unlike her usual drowsy, silent slumbers, her master gazed sharply at some point in the sky, clicking her tongue.
What had happened? She had said she was going to meet her master's ■■, Lord ■■. What on earth had transpired there? Was it related to the sky turning black and the once-quiet surroundings of the castle growing noisy?
[And this won't be my sleeping place. Somewhere else. Probably with them...]
"Pardon? Where? Not sleeping in the castle, but somewhere else...?"
Though her master stroked her head far more affectionately and at length than usual, Bathory felt an inexplicable unease rather than pure joy. Her perpetually indolent master staying awake and active this long felt like burning through her final moments.
"A-Are you hurt? No way, the humans...! What did those humans do!"
[...Humans... Yes. You too...]
Bathory angrily assumed the troublesome humans who always clashed with demons had schemed against her, but Erzsebet's gaze upon her seemed somehow sorrowful.
[Live your life, Bathory. I'm going into a long sleep now... You don't need to wait for me like before, or stay in this castle.]
"....Pardon...?"
[Face the world, mingle with your fellow kin. My blood remains in you, so they won't dare disdain you.]
"Don't wait...? Master? W-What do you mean...?"
[I'm sorry, Bathory. I wanted to take you with me... but seven is the limit, it seems.]
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She vaguely remembered her master leaving some final words after that, but the details escaped her. Was it because she had been crying and grieving back then? Or had centuries eroded the memory?
But this much she remembered clearly: after that day, her master vanished somewhere, her presence undetectable anywhere.
"...She said she was sleeping. Yes. She said she'd sleep... so she'll return when she wakes."
Dedicating nearly her entire life to Erzsebet in this grand castle in the continent's east, Bathory initially waited naively for her master. Patrolling the castle as always, cleaning its interiors, tending her master's bedroom.
So she could return anytime. So she could greet her as always upon her return.
"M-Master...?"
"Blood... need more blood..."
One year... two... three... Time dragged on.
And anomalies arose among the kin who had silently guarded the castle even after Erzsebet's departure. As if some issue had befallen their master who supplied them blood and power, the kin's conditions worsened, and they began collapsing one by one.
Some perished outright. A few regained their original eyes as if freed from kinsification, forgetting their past actions, and left the castle.
"...She said she was sleeping. Yes. She'll return when she wakes..."
How much time passed? Though Blood Demons aged slowly, she had shed her girlish innocence, mechanically cleaning the castle's interiors. Now, she was the sole being left inside.
Fortunately, time passed easily. Maintaining this vast castle alone naturally consumed long hours, and wandering its halls let her reminisce about her master.
Then one day.
-Bang!!
"M-Master...? Ah, no..."
The castle gates suddenly burst open, and visitors arrived. Could it be her master returning? She rushed to the entrance in excitement, but instead faced her kin—fellow Blood Demons she had ignored all this time.
"Cough...! B-Blood Demon...? To think a clansman remained here...!!"
For some reason, they were all gravely wounded, bleeding profusely. Seeing Bathory emerge to greet them, they recoiled in shock.
"R-Run...! The humans...!"
"This is where you fled to, after all that effort?"
"...!!!"
And then the humans appeared. For some reason wielding an even fouler aura than typical humans, they emerged behind the Blood Demons and swung their swords.
-Slash!!!
".....!!!!"
One strike.
One of the mighty demons born with blood manipulation and uncanny regeneration. A death far too trivial for the end of a Blood Demon.
"Eh...?"
"Gaaah! You human scum... I'll curse you...!"
Before Bathory could process it, the humans mercilessly slaughtered the Blood Demons who had sought refuge in the castle. As if weakened, the Blood Demons failed to regenerate properly or wield their blood adeptly, perishing at their hands.
"Another one. Jackpot."
The humans, having slain every last Blood Demon, grinned viciously and reached for Bathory.