Chapter 421: Elder, Ain, Yeiling, and Human - 4
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 421: Elder, Ain, Yeiling, and Human - 4
“So, you went and had a delicious meal all by yourself?”
“No. It was part of my information gathering. A meal is a good way to get a tight-lipped person to talk, you know.”
“Why don’t you wipe your mouth before you say that?”
“Ah.”
As soon as I stepped outside, Hilde chided me for eating alone. I felt a little bad, but what was I supposed to do when Kavila was the one serving me?
“Vampires can’t eat, so you must have been the only one whose lips were loosened, Father. What did you blabber about to a vampire? Confess, Father.”
“Nothing much. I just mentioned that the culprit in the Elder murder case might, in fact, be an Elder.”
“…Father, do you have a spare life or something? How could you say you suspect an Elder right in front of one?”
“She admitted it was a valid argument.”
“I suppose that’s a vampire for you… So, what did Kavila say in response?”
“She told me to be wary of Valdamir.”
It was a statement that made even the fearless Hilde glance around nervously. The god of the Duchy of Mist was the Progenitor Tyrkanzyaka, but its king was Lord Sanguine Valdamir. An absolute ruler of formidable power and consummate skill, his political prowess was so great that he had managed this deformed duchy for nearly several hundred years.
Honestly, in terms of political ability alone, he had long since surpassed Tyr. Vampires were constitutionally unable to defy the Progenitor, but… if he were to ever cast off the Blood Shackles…
Hilde’s mouth gaped as she asked again.
“Father. What in the world are you getting yourself into?”
“Hold on. That’s an unfair accusation. This whole thing happened before I even got here. If I’m at fault for anything, it’s just my bad timing in entering the duchy.”
“Good grief. Why does everything get so complicated whenever you’re involved, Father?”
“Hey, I’m telling you, it’s not my fault!”
Hilde clutched her head, a troubled expression on her face.
The Progenitor Tyrkanzyaka was, in name and reality, the god of the duchy, and I, who held her favor, was the King of Humans. And Hilde was a person of real power, deeply involved in the Military State’s secrets. With the three of us, Hilde had drawn up her plans and made her move.
But a suspicious incident had been waiting for us the moment we arrived in the duchy. With a sigh, Hilde stretched and spoke.
“Well, it should be fine~. All the vampires who sustain their lives with the Progenitor’s blood are caught in the Homunculus' Dilemma. The only reason those corpses were able to rise from the dead is thanks to the Progenitor’s power. Just as their own hands cannot betray their bodies, they cannot defy Tyrkanzyaka.”
“Hmm. I wonder about that.”
“There you go again, making me anxious! What on earth are you worried about, Father?”
Tyr’s power was unchanged. The problem was that her heart had started beating again, causing her to lose her influence over the outside world. That meant the vampires could now defy Tyr’s will.
…Although, it would be pretty funny if they defied her and her heart just stopped again. Tyr was the one who had escaped the Blood Shackles, not the Elders.
But Hilde didn’t know about Tyr’s heart yet. As reckless as I could be, I wouldn’t go spilling her intimate medical details to a complete stranger. Kavila? The Elders were practically Tyr’s own limbs, so that was different.
“No, it’s nothing. I was just wondering… what if there was such a way?”
“Do you have a lead?”
“Not a single one. But it’s something to consider in relation to this case.”
‘Father wouldn’t say something so baseless. He must have figured something out that he can’t tell me… Ugh. I came here for politics, and now it looks like I’ll be stuck gathering intel again~.’
It was difficult to talk about Tyr’s heart, so I just feigned ignorance to change the subject, but Hilde’s assumption went way over the top. She pulled a hat from somewhere, tugging it down low over her eyes.
“You go on ahead. I guess ‘I,’ who’s been starving this whole time, will just have to wander the streets and fill my hungry stomach~.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry. I’ll treat you to a meal at a restaurant next time.”
“I’ll be looking forward to a very informative meal~.”
Hilde, back in her role as the Military State’s Chief of Public Safety, waved and disappeared into the streets. For the time being, no one who looked like Hilde would be seen in the duchy. She would be operating in the shadows, scraping together every bit of information she could find.
And Hilde’s information would become my information. Unintentionally, of course.
The sun was beginning to set. In the Duchy of Mist, you couldn’t see the sunset clearly; you just had to head home when it started getting dark. Unlike the Military State, this place had no streetlights, so unless you were a vampire, you couldn’t wander around freely at night.
The streets gradually grew quiet. They were already dim because of the fog, and now, as even the hazy light filtering through it began to fade, the humans tried to leave before their vision disappeared completely.
“Wow! Did Lady Kavila catch this for us?”
“Yes. She stopped the tidal wave and caught it with her Dragonfang Puppets.”
As I walked, I heard the distinct, bubbly voice of a child. The child, struggling to lift a massive fish, beamed and said.
“When I grow up, I want to be Lady Kavila’s Ain! I want to help Lady Kavila by her side, too!”
In the Duchy of Mist, vampires were the nobility and the administrators. In a country ruled by Elders, Ain, and Yeiling, a child’s only dream would be to become a vampire.
It was an answer derived from a world seen through a child’s eyes, but sadly, the girl’s dream could never come true. Her mother replied with a detached smile.
“…You can’t. How could you possibly become Lady Kavila’s Ain? The positions for Ain, and even Yeiling, have been completely full for over 200 years. There isn’t a single opening.”
“But I can become a Twaite!”
“What are you saying, child? A Twaite is not a vampire. It’s a punishment for very bad humans. If you become a Twaite, you become stupid, a puppet that has to obey any command. As a Twaite, you wouldn’t even be able to get close to Lady Kavila, so don’t you ever say that again.”
The girl’s mother was faithful to her parental duty of crushing her child’s naive dreams. Having been told “no” twice in a row, the girl pouted.
“Then what? What am I supposed to become?”
And like all other parents, her mother gave her child a cliché answer.
“…You don’t have to become anything. Just grow up healthy and strong.”
Not because that was what she wanted, but because it was all that was possible.
When I arrived at Plenilune Castle, I was greeted by a vampire maid. She was an Ain of the Elder, Countess Erzsebet, and possessed formidable Bloodcraft. She had detected me the moment I set foot in the castle and came to find me.
As expected of the Progenitor’s castle. Using an Ain as a maid. Seeing this, it seemed Tyr’s authority was still as strong as ever.
In any case, thanks to her guidance, I reached the top floor without having to walk. Before I could even knock lightly, the door swung wide open, and Tyr welcomed me.
“Welcome. Did you enjoy your walk?”
Tyr, whom I was seeing again after only a few hours, looked quite different. A nightgown with cascading frills fell to her ankles, and a faint floral scent wafted from her bare skin. Even for a vampire, who as a corpse had no body odor, dabbing perfume on the skin made it feel like the scent of living flesh.
Tyr led me inside and said.
“I wanted to guide you myself, but unfortunately, it has been a long time since I was last here, so there were new things I had to learn.”
“So you do work. I thought you just lazed around all day.”
“My goodness. If I knew nothing, how could I proudly call this my nation?”
Three hundred years was practically an entire historical era. Tyr was trying her best to catch up on the years she had slept through by reviewing materials selected and organized by Erzsebet’s Ain. Still, it would likely take her a few days.
“So. Did you learn anything new?”
“I went to the coast, about an hour east of here.”
“Ah, Kavila’s domain. Your impression?”
“I thought it might be dangerous since it’s the Sea of Leviathan, but… I don’t know about anything else, but it seemed like a surprisingly good place for humans to live. Seafood is just lying on the ground for the taking, and if anything dangerous happens, the vampires protect them.”
“Kavila pays a great deal of attention to humans. And she is not the only one. Humans are a precious resource of this nation, and we never use them in vain.”
Getting the reaction she had hoped for, Tyr spoke indignantly.
“Those vile fiends from the Sanctum have slandered my nation with all sorts of malicious lies. A nation of monsters that squeezes and drinks the blood of humans. A nation of corpses where you enter alive and leave dead. A barbaric nation where the stench of blood never ceases… Hmph. Utter nonsense. Why would we, who need humans the most, treat them so harshly? If anything, it is the Sanctum that forces one-sided sacrifices upon them. I assure you, most of the Sanctum’s territories cannot even hold a candle to the poorest lands in my duchy.”
Her attachment to the masterpiece she had created, mixed with her fury toward the Sanctum, manifested as an emphasis on how good life was in her country. A vampire passionately explaining how wonderful it was for humans to live here—it felt ironic.
But there was one thing I was curious about.
I carefully posed a question to Tyr that I thought might be sensitive.
“I saw something in the documents earlier. What is the ‘compression chamber sentence’?”