Chapter 461: Escape from the Duchy no.3
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 461: Escape from the Duchy no.3
Long ago, humans, who were slower and weaker than the four-legged beasts, had to utilize their other strengths to survive. Fortunately, besides their large heads, humans had another advantage to boast of: endurance. Perhaps because they ate anything they could get their hands on, be it meat or grass, their fuel efficiency was excellent, allowing them to tenaciously track and hunt down even the swiftest of animals.
Was this the revenge of the beasts hunted back then? I was now in the exact position of the prey.
“Find them! Don’t let them escape!”
“Search every inch!”
“You don’t have to catch them! Just don’t lose them! Once night falls, we’ll pursue them with the Yeiling!”
Baron Zenryu and a few other Ain were leading a large contingent of humans in a search for us. Few of the humans had seriously trained in Qi Arts, so they weren’t much of a threat, but shaking them off as they relentlessly closed in, following our tracks, was nearly impossible.
Hilde glanced back and muttered.
“These damn vampires! They just don’t get tired!”
“That’s a silly thing to say. Of course vampires don’t get tired.”
“I know that! That’s not what I meant. The sun is blazing, yet they keep chasing us! If you’re a vampire, you should stick to the vampire concept!”
“The sunlight is the problem, not the time of day. As long as they have a way to block the sun, they can follow us.”
The plan had gone slightly awry.
To a vampire, sunlight is like a sharp bee sting. It’s not just that they get weaker; their movements are restricted, as if they were moving through a room full of bees. That’s why we attacked Baron Zenryu first, stealing the horse that served as his legs while his movements were impaired.
But as luck would have it, he was of the coven of the Black Knight Du Rahan. Like a true knight, he had a spare horse prepared. The moment we fled, he mounted another and gave chase. It was daytime, so he wasn’t as fast as us, but it was enough for him to command his troops.
“Look at how relaxed you sound! Is it because you can’t die?! It’s so annoying I want to smack you one!”
“I’m not particularly relaxed, but I do have a plan.”
“What is it?”
“Taking Baron Zenryu out of the picture.”
“Don’t tell me you’re going to launch a surprise attack and take him down now? You don’t get it. Charging back at the enemy is the number one thing you should never do when you’re running away! Besides, he’s not a Yeiling, he’s an Ain. It would take a week to kill him for good! By then, the pursuit team would have us surrounded three or four times over!”
“Such a vivid description. Sounds like you did a fair bit of running in your youth.”
She was speaking from experience, of course. Hilde was a former public enemy of the Empire known as the Blank-Faced One, and she had spent years on the run before joining the Crusaders. The whole reason she learned transformation arts was to escape, which said it all.
If she weren’t carrying me right now, she would have brazenly slipped through this encirclement. Her grumbling was understandable.
“Don’t worry. It’s not that half-baked a plan.”
“Then what is it?”
“Just a moment. Ahem, ahem.”
Clearing my throat, I turned my head back and shouted.
“Baron Zenryu! I have something incredible to tell you, so open your ears and listen carefully!”
My voice echoed through the quiet canyon. They had no reason to answer, but perhaps because he was a knight of sorts, Baron Zenryu responded to my shout himself.
“I’ll listen! After I’ve captured you and forced you to your knees!”
He could hear me well despite the distance. I drew my voice up from my belly and continued to yell.
“Your liege, Sir Du Rahan, is in danger! Just before I escaped, there was a disturbance at Plenilune Castle, and Sir Du Rahan was caught up in it and framed! He needs your help!”
“Ha! And you expect me to believe that?!”
“Believe it or not, that’s up to you, but if you don’t check soon, Sir Du Rahan will be in peril! Are you going to stand by and watch while your lord is in crisis?”
“A ploy to divert the attention of me and my troops! If you thought I would fall for such a trick, you are sorely mistaken!”
It’s not a trick, though. Du Rahan really is in trouble. The problem is he might already be dead.
“How dare you slander Sir Du Rahan, who values honor above all else, by suggesting he would start a rebellion! I will capture you and make you pay the price for insulting my lord!”
…He’s the one being deceived. Du Rahan may be honorable, but he was quicker than anyone to start a rebellion.
“It’s true! Your friends who headed to Plenilune Castle will be here soon, so find them and hear what they have to say!”
“Silence! You all heard that! Head toward the voice!”
With that, Baron Zenryu fell silent. Instead, the presence of humans began to close in from all sides. Hilde spurred the horse on faster and chided me.
“So instead of charging back, you’re just going to bring the enemy to us to fight? What a great plan!”
“It is a good plan. Because everything I said was the absolute truth. He’ll peel off soon enough because of it.”
“And when is this ‘soon enough’?”
“Let’s see. The news from the Duchy has to get here, so… about two days?”
“Wow~. ‘Soon’ on a vampire’s schedule, I see. I think we’re the ones who are going to be ‘out’ tonight~.”
“If we can just survive tonight, there’s a chance.”
Night is the vampires’ time. The path isn’t smooth, so we can’t ride the horse at night, and if we use a light, we’ll just reveal our position to them. But if we try to hide in the darkness, the vampires will only become faster and stronger as they hunt us.
“And how do you plan on surviving?”
“Do you happen to know how we escaped from the Military State?”
Hilde wasn’t there, but she was a subordinate of Saintess Yuel and a confidante of the Six General, the Camarilla. She would have heard the story.
“The time you used Ralion as a decoy to escape? Even Yuel was deceived because she couldn’t see through the darkness, but that was only possible because you were on a moving Meta Conveyor Belt! It’s too cliché to be called a strategy.”
“Cliché just means it’s traditional. You can’t live your whole life on bluffs. Sometimes, you have to make a direct approach work.”
Of course, to do that, you need a better hand than your opponent. And as it happens, I’ve had a fortunate encounter recently.
As I spoke with confidence, Hilde reluctantly conceded.
“…Fine. Whatever. Let’s just do it.”
*
The vampires’ time had come. Judging that the sun had set sufficiently, Baron Zenryu finally shed his thick armor.
“Well done, my squire.”
“Oof, that’s heavy… You’re finally up.”
The human squire, who had been holding a parasol over the baron’s head all day, grumbled as he clutched his aching arm. Baron Zenryu feigned a frown.
“Crying out after holding a mere parasol for just one day, not even a heavy banner? Back in my day, a standard-bearer couldn’t let go of the flag until his arm fell off! If his arm could no longer move, he would hold the flagpole with his teeth!”
“That’s something only a great man like you could do, my lord…”
“Do you think I was strong and great from the beginning? I endured and overcame such pain and hardship to become who I am today! The same goes for you. If you can hold the parasol more faithfully without complaint, one day you too can become a great knight like me!”
“But my lord, you’re an Ain. I could die and be reborn and still never become one…”
“You never know what life holds. I never dreamed that I would be knighted by the honorable Sir Du Rahan and become an Ain myself!”
“Is that so?”
Never imagining for a moment that Sir Du Rahan was dead, Baron Zenryu offered an empty promise. As the squire’s expression softened slightly, the Baron clapped him heartily on the shoulder.
“Rest up. You have to hold the parasol again tomorrow!”
“Tomorrow… all day…”
Leaving the despairing squire behind, Baron Zenryu raised a hand to signal. The blood energy that bloomed from his fingers waved a couple of times like a flag. A moment later, mounted knights in dark armor began to appear one by one behind him.
“Knight Fouagne. By the blood oath, I answer the Baron’s call.”
“Knight Mayni of Fence Hill. By the blood oath, I answer the Baron’s call.”
“Red Hound! By the crimson pact, I answer the Baron’s call!”
Ten knights, each a lone rider. Baron Zenryu’s Yeiling. His very own knightly order, handpicked and turned into vampires by him, formed ranks behind him, exuding a crimson aura in the dark night.
Baron Zenryu looked upon his order with satisfaction and began his speech.
“Before we set out, I express my gratitude to my faithful Kindred and loyal members. Your hearts, which have not forgotten the blood oath and have rushed to my side, have been received.”
One of the advantages of being a vampire is that you don’t feel bored listening to such stuffy speeches. The human soldiers under his command wore looks of disgust, but Baron Zenryu paid them no mind and continued.
“The night is our time. We must track and punish the fugitives who dared to attack me, who falsely claim to be the Progenitor’s consort, and who have insulted our liege, the honorable Sir Du Rahan. Though it was day, the skill with which my neck was severed was no small feat, but who are we? We are the limbs of the honorable Sir Du Rahan, the knights who protect this land. No one can take our honor, our lives, our pride.”
Baron Zenryu was a vampire. He didn’t feel a surge of emotion or boiling passion while delivering such a cliché-ridden speech. The reason he gave such a stuffy speech was because he was a stuffy, old-fashioned knight. To him, a pre-departure speech was simply ‘common sense.’
It was a more terrifying fact for the humans listening, but what did it matter? It was none of the vampires’ concern.
Having done more to lower morale than to boost it, Baron Zenryu pointed forward and said.
“…Time is of the essence, so I will end it here. Begin the pursuit. Glory to the Progenitor.”
“Yes, sir!”
The knightly order of the night, once the subject of old tales and a source of terror for children, pursued the fugitives, their dark forms cutting through the gloom. Though it was night, finding the trail was not difficult. A horse carrying two people would have galloped away noisily, leaving deep hoofprints.
“The horse they stole, my dear Nox, is a fine steed, but at night, those who are not vampires will not be able to maintain their speed. They couldn’t have gone far. Follow the tracks.”
“Yes, sir!”
The Yeiling spread out, centering on the path. Baron Zenryu followed the path at a leisurely pace from a position where he could go anywhere.
The tracks were long and clear. After following the path for a while, a human squire who had been looking around approached Baron Zenryu.
“My lord. Do we continue to follow the path?”
“Of course. The tracks of Nox remain, do they not?”
“Umm, is that so…”
As the squire tilted his head and trailed off, Baron Zenryu answered as if he knew the squire’s doubts.
“Are you thinking… that they might have used the horse’s tracks as a decoy and fled in another direction?”
“Yes, my lord. We haven’t been slacking in our pursuit, but even for a fine steed like Nox, I don’t think it would have the strength left to climb a slope with two people on its back.”
“A reasonable assumption. But there are two problems with it.”
Baron Zenryu folded a finger with a solemn tone.
“First, my horse Nox is a fine steed overflowing with grit. It would not tire from carrying a mere two people, a woman who looks to be less than half my size and a scrawny weakling!”
It was the kind of argument about grit that old knights like him favored. The words ‘Nox isn’t a vampire like you’ rose to the tip of the squire’s tongue, but he managed to swallow them. He feared the Baron’s nagging more than his anger.
Baron Zenryu, oblivious to the squire’s feelings, continued.
“And second, have you seen any human footprints or signs of someone pushing through the undergrowth, besides the hoofprints?”
“Uh, no, I haven’t.”
“Exactly. The path we are on is the only one, and it is flanked by dense undergrowth. It is difficult for a human to pass through there, and even if they did, they would leave large tracks. If they had walked through the brush, even you dullards would have noticed.”
“Couldn’t they have erased their tracks?”
“Erase their tracks? You seem to think erasing tracks is as simple as cleaning a room.”
Baron Zenryu chuckled and chided the squire.
“To use Gon Qi Art to perform Qinggong and leave no footprints, to use Gam Qi Art to protect one’s body amidst vines and branches, all while leaving the branches unharmed and moving cautiously but quickly? A Qi practitioner who has reached such a level would be rarer than an untiring steed. You might as well say they flew.”
“Ah…! You had it all figured out!”
“It is your thoughts that are too short and insufficient. I will not blame you. Wisdom is like training; it must be experienced firsthand to be etched into the body. However, if there is something you do not know, you should be more humble in your willingness to listen and learn! How many years of experience do I have, that I would not have considered something that even your short-sightedness could conjure! It is deplorable. There is a reason I did not consider such a paltry guess…”
“Please, just scold me instead!”
As they advanced, listening to a lecture that was becoming as long as the chase itself, a Yeiling who had gone ahead sent a signal. Baron Zenryu stopped his nagging and spoke to his soldiers.
“All halt. You will remain here and guard the perimeter.”
“Is it battle?”
“No. And even if it were, I would not entrust it to you unless it was unavoidable. The knightly order will handle the fighting. Fulfill your roles of reconnaissance and guard duty.”
Humans were a resource. They could communicate and were useful in many ways, but above all, their blood was precious, making their injury or death the greatest loss for a vampire. Therefore, combat was the duty of the stronger, un-injurable vampires.
This common sense was quite similar to the chivalry Baron Zenryu followed, which was how he had maintained his consistent character for hundreds of years. After organizing his troops, he headed toward the signal.
“It’s here!”
One by one, the Yeiling gathered around him as he took the lead. The Yeiling who had scouted the farthest returned and guided him, pointing out the tracks. In the distance, the sound of Nox snorting could be heard. The vampires all placed their hands on their weapons, preparing for a possible fight.
And beyond the bushes, they saw Nox, panting as if exhausted, chewing on grass. There were no human figures nearby; it seemed they had abandoned the horse. Baron Zenryu scanned the surroundings meticulously and commanded.
“Find their tracks. An exhausted horse would not have run the night road alone. There must be human tracks nearby.”
“Yes, sir!”
While the Yeiling scattered in all directions, Baron Zenryu approached his beloved horse. Although the rascal had carried the fugitives far away, what could a mere beast know?
Baron Zenryu was a knight merciful to horses as well as humans. After all, he was a vampire knight, superior to both horses and humans.
“To run off without even recognizing your master… I’ll have to put you through warhorse training. I’ve been neglecting training, having raised and parted with so many horses. Horses and humans alike grow complacent without real combat.”
As he approached the tired horse, he noticed a strange sight. Upon closer inspection, the horse’s head was fitted with blinders, and a small pouch was tied to its mane. As the horse moved, something inside the pouch knocked together, making a rattling sound.
Horses are timid creatures. With its vision restricted and a rattling sound chasing it from behind its ears, it would run on its own even without a rider. Only when it stopped from exhaustion would Nox have been freed from the pursuing sound.
“…In that case, when?”
But they hadn’t found any other tracks on their way here. It would have been one thing if they simply hadn’t seen them in the dark, but that wasn’t it. Baron Zenryu was a vampire. Even if the human soldiers couldn’t see, he and his Yeiling could pierce the darkness. He had clearly confirmed that there were no signs of the dark knights having pushed through the undergrowth.
This time, the human squire’s judgment had been correct.
He didn’t know how, but they had a way to erase their tracks.