Chapter 212
Chapter 212
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 212
Chapter Title: I Know Where You Live
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[This IP has been permanently banned.]
“Whine.”
Clingvamp’s eyes rounded like a rabbit’s.
One second, two seconds. Roughly about ten seconds like that had passed, perhaps.
Splash!
Tears started welling up in Clingvamp’s eyes.
Was getting hit with a permanent ban out of nowhere that unfair?
She scrunched up her face, trying to throw herself into my arms, but I firmly lifted Clingvamp up.
“No.”
“Whiine...”
“We’ve gotta go catch the runaway eldest.”
The way to fix the Tuna Queen’s condition and restore Soonvamp back to her fused state.
There was no method other than merging those two back together.
Which meant they needed to be in the same place first.
I couldn’t bring Nievamp here to the bunker.
“So we go find her instead, right?”
[This IP is unstable.]
[Searching the location of ‘Even-If-Soon-Die-Vamp’.]
Fortunately, my hunch was spot on.
The IP might be unstable, but it wasn’t in that totally busted state from before where nothing could even load.
I pinpointed Nievamp’s location without trouble.
“Huh?”
Just not where I expected.
“Where the heck is that?”
Not Kellarton. Not Adrian.
Nievamp was way down south, outside Kellarton territory entirely, in some remote forest.
Nievamp stood stock-still inside what remained of some nameless kingdom—reduced to rubble and ruins.
*
Hot.
The flames clinging to her body spread across her whole form, swallowing her whole.
Burning at the stake—the worst pain imaginable for any person.
Hot enough to evaporate her flowing tears, miserable beyond words, but her thoughts stayed sharp.
‘This is so unfair.’
She hadn’t done anything wrong.
No reason whatsoever to be roasted alive before a jeering crowd.
A witch? She couldn’t even cast a spell.
“...I’m not a witch.”
Her mind, brimming with grief and rage, screamed louder than the agony of burning to death.
She wanted to drop down right then and rip apart everyone staring up at her.
Her tears were about to turn to blood, splattering the ground.
-Slither.
Something touched her.
An indescribable, alien power began filling her from within.
When she snapped back to awareness, she was the first undead—a vampire.
.
.
“Ah.”
Erzebet snapped out of her reverie.
Before her stretched the decayed ruins of an ancient city.
The plaza fronting what had once been a bustling cathedral barely hinted at its former crowds.
“Everything really did burn away.”
Erzebet murmured under her breath.
No memories.
Like the middle chunk had been erased, when she came to, the world had changed dramatically.
And this thing called the gallery was meddling in plain view of every living soul.
“They called him Judak.”
Everyone referred to that gallery’s owner as Judak, mouths unanimous.
And.
“Filthy human.”
A human, no less.
No clue why, but she knew he existed.
The mastermind behind the gallery puppeteering all life—just some puny human.
And Erzebet.
“Filthy human, but...”
She didn’t hate Judak.
Try as she might, hate wouldn’t come.
Instantly upon glimpsing the chat.
Resistance melted from the depths of her being; affection and delight bubbled up first.
Even faced with that revolting human kingdom, she could only run.
“What the hell happened while I was out?”
Erzebet gazed at her hands, muttering.
Her last memories: body bound tight, engulfed in flames.
Accepting some unknowable power, wiping out the kingdom wholesale.
Just those two.
“Ugh... what in the...”
Time to clutch her head and rack her brain.
“Whine.”
An unfamiliar yet familiar voice.
Erzebet whipped her head toward that utterly deflating whine.
There, atop the overgrown, ruined plaza platform thick with weeds, stood a woman.
Raven hair, jet-black eyes.
A haughty beauty evoking a cat...
“Uung.”
The woman letting out that perfectly deflating noise gazed down at Erzebet.
Something oddly resolute in her stare—unsettling.
“You...”
The raven-haired woman.
She was Erzebet.
More precisely, Erzebet in her human days.
The innocent Erzebet, before the frame-up and the crowd’s pyre.
“Get lost.”
She shoved the raven-haired Erzebet aside.
She still had humans to slaughter.
That knight kingdom she’d glimpsed upon waking, that filthy holy empire she sensed somewhere.
Burn it all to ash.
[Kill the humans. Kill Judak.]
Whispers echoed in her skull.
The origin of her very power commanded as much, crystal clear.
But she wasn’t frail enough to bend to some voice.
“I know. I will.”
Merely that she already thought the same.
Thus, distance from these two.
Judak. And her other self.
Especially Judak—her seething hatred vanished like smoke on sight.
That was when she moved to take to the skies again.
Judak*: Hey hey. “That’s far enough.”
“!”
Judak materialized before her.
Hardly surprising, really.
Anywhere she fled, Judak would see.
Escaping Judak’s sight bordered on impossible.
‘No.’
Actually, no. It wasn’t.
Gallery logout.
One button press to exit.
Then hide for real, and finding her wouldn’t be this easy.
But.
“Why...”
She didn’t want to.
Loneliness, unbidden and profound.
In that split-second hesitation, Clingvamp closed in and seized her.
“Wh-what do you think you’re doing?”
Different shells, same mind.
One and the same, effectively.
To ditch herself for Judak’s side?
“Let go!”
Erzebet strained with all her might.
Immortal, sure.
But Judak? Unpredictable.
Felt like he’d disarm her in some nightmarish, unforeseen way.
Just as Erzebet faltered in the shock of it all.
Judak*: You
“...?”
Before Erzebet’s squeezed-shut eyes appeared no spell, no blade.
Judak*: Up for trying a merge?
Judak*: Kinda feels like you’d nail it
“...Ugh?”
Then it hit.
Intense jolt to the head.
Mere words, yet they churned her memories like a storm.
“Don’t... you...”
Erzebet knew on instinct.
Rifling through her memories.
Forcibly dredging up the forgotten, shoving them to the forefront.
Naturally, Erzebet grasped it.
‘I must be split right now.’
Some cause cleaved her in two at a pivotal moment.
Intensely linked to that Judak fellow, too.
Her heart’s frantic thrum screamed as much. Maybe...
“Lover.”
Or beyond even that.
Muttering softly to herself, Erzebet entertained every possibility.
Knew this one fit best at present.
Reclaiming memories could net gains, ultimately.
But.
“No.”
She didn’t want that.
Judak was special, she’d concede now.
But humans? She loathed them with every fiber.
No idea why future her toyed at romance with one.
“I need revenge.”
Had to avenge.
No trace of that race left on this soil.
[Kill the humans. Kill Judak.]
Endless cries in her mind.
She got it now, though.
Judak? Unkillable.
Her body rebelled fiercely.
“Then just the humans.”
Slaughtering every last one save Judak might finally slake the thirst.
Judak wasn’t idly spectating, though.
Judak*: “Blood Hangover Soup”
“Urgh!”
Erzebet lurched, mid-soar for the heavens.
No clue what blood hangover soup meant, but the warm fuzzies said plenty.
Judak pressed without mercy.
Judak*: Cola, coffee
Judak*: Cheeky-ass AI fridge
“Stop!”
She needed negativity.
Rage nonstop.
No room for doubt in vengeance.
Yet every term from Judak sapped her drive.
[‘Judak*’ sent a photo!]
“Photo...?”
The clincher arrived.
Mustn’t peek.
Will shattered, Erzebet tapped the screen slow.
“!”
Gawked at the whole lot.
(Cuddly snap of them snuggled up together)
(Tired dude beaming over coffee)
(Soonvamp blissed-out, draped on the guy, beaming)
Tender.
Pure worldly bliss, beaming bright as her human days.
No—radiating even more joy.
“H-how...”
Erzebet’s hands shook.
Pierced the pics with her stare.
Pale, yet intensely vivid man.
“So tender...”
Just Soonvamp pillow-hugging Judak in those snaps, technically.
Impact undeniable.
Hostility toward humans? Vanished.
“This happy? There’s gotta be why.”
Judak*: Ooh, mind changed?
“Yeah. Honestly curious now.”
No joy ahead, she’d figured.
Yet Judak—what made her grin so carefree?
Erzebet eased her grip.
“Whine.”
Her other self—goofily adorable—gawked right back.
Judak*: So Tuna Queen?
“I’ll revert that lady to human. No sweat.”
[Kill the humans. Kill Judak.]
Head-whispers droned on; Erzebet tuned them out.
Slowly shut their eyes in tandem.
Feet-first, bodies dissolved to blood, pooling as one.
Time to go home.
“...”
Soon enough, one Erzebet rose slow from the puddle.
The true Soonvamp.
True enough.
Wordless, she stared at the ground.
Judak*: You good?
Silence dragged.
Something wrong?
Judak called again.
“Gotcha.”
Faint mutter, whisper-soft.
Smile crept across Erzebet’s rigid lips.
Judak*: ?
“Judak. Found where you live.”
Finally.
Merge of bodies, merge of memories.
Judak*: Hold up
“Be there soon.”
Soonvamp bit her lip, eyes crinkling deep with mirth.