Chapter 41
Chapter 41
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 41
Chapter Title: Vampire
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Vampire.
As befitting their epithet of "Nobles of the Night," they generally possessed incredibly strong pride. Unless bound by a blood pact—even with their familiars—they rarely trusted others and had a pronounced selfish streak, caring only for themselves.
The heroes who had shone in the war against the Undying Ones all evaluated vampires in this way.
If they had only been a little smarter and banded together more effectively, the victors of that war might not have been the living.
"Karel!! Karel!! Answer me!!"
In the underground lair beneath Anhui Province, the vampire Mardin bellowed into a black crystal orb.
It was a communication technology from another world, nonexistent in the Central Plains.
"Hurry up and answer!! This is an urgent situation!!"
When no light appeared in the crystal orb, Mardin shouted again.
Perhaps his noisy persistence paid off, for shortly after, light flickered within the orb, and another man's voice emanated from it.
"...Shut up. Unlike you, I'm not so idle that I can cling to this crystal orb all day, Mardin."
"W-What?! You calling me idle?!"
"Then are you busy? While we're roaming every corner of this world gathering intelligence and securing knights' corpses, you're down in your hole churning out lowly grunts. You really think that's busy?"
"Argh!! I was assigned this role by order of the Lord, Lord Barshutain—not because I'm lacking in ability!"
"Sure. Let's say that's true."
A sigh came from the other end of the crystal orb.
"So, what's the purpose of this contact? Spit it out quick and cut the connection. Even primitives like these have eyes and ears."
"R-Right. What the hell have you done! Isn't 'Glowing Mountain' your assigned sector?!!"
After Lord Barshutain crossed into the Central Plains via the Blood Cult's ritual, he analyzed the method of his arrival and periodically summoned the vampires who had once served alongside him.
He assigned tasks according to their abilities and issued commands accordingly.
Those like Mardin, whose skills were lacking, were given lower-difficulty, less critical missions: producing expendable troops for later use.
Those skilled in disguise, transformation, and enchantment—able to blend seamlessly among humans—were tasked with securing the corpses of masters from across the Central Plains and forwarding them to higher research facilities.
And Karel's assignment was none other than Mount Hua.
Of course, he wasn't the only vampire infiltrating Mount Hua, but infiltrating one of the Nine Great Sects spoke volumes about his capabilities.
"Yeah. So what? Begging for corpses again like last time?"
"No, it's not that!! The Swordmaster from your sector has come this way!"
"...Hold on a second."
Karel's response, previously cold and indifferent, shifted abruptly.
"...I see. She was holed up deep in the mountains anyway, so I paid her no mind... but there are signs she's left."
"Isn't it your job to detect that sort of thing early and warn me?!!"
"Damn it. Even I can't control this entire place. Do you have any idea what it's like operating in the same guild as Swordmasters? One slip, and it's over!"
"There's a Swordmaster right above my lab right now!"
To vampires, such squabbles were everyday occurrences.
No matter how bound they were by the Lord's command, each individual's pride pierced the heavens. They bowed to no one but the Lord, refusing to yield to anyone else.
"...Sigh. Calm down first. Right now, the priority is figuring out why she's heading your way."
"W-What, to catch me?"
"I doubt she'd travel all that way just for the likes of you... Not in a world without warp gates."
The rustle of paper came from the other side of the orb.
"H-Hurry up and check!"
"Don't rush me. I can't find it that fast anyway."
As Mardin stomped in frustration, Karel not only rifled through papers but also extracted information from humans he had brainwashed.
As martial artists, they hadn't fallen easily to brainwashing, but Karel had approached them with meticulous care, leaving them no choice.
After a considerable time, Karel finally spoke into the orb.
"Looks like she's gone there searching for someone."
"Someone...?"
"She had a disciple. Ten years ago, that disciple caused an incident and crippled a new initiate's dantian. Seems she's been tracking her down ever since to repay the debt."
"Dantian... this world's mana heart..."
Even as vampires from another world, they knew full well how grave such a matter was.
"So that disciple is in this region?"
"At least the prime suspect is. The Sword Empress heading there doesn't even know if it's real or fake. She's just chasing a lead."
"A world without magic, and it still takes over ten years to find one person. These primitives really are something."
The vampire, who had never contributed a whit to magical advancement himself, let out an ominous chuckle.
"Real or fake doesn't matter. I can just brainwash her into making it real."
"...What scheme are you plotting?"
"Hand over everything you have on that incident. I'll show you. The might of this body that once toyed with even Swordmasters."
"...Hah."
Karel sighed.
Mardin. Undoubtedly low-tier as a vampire.
Poor at creating familiars, sustaining them, or infiltrating human society. Yet he had shone during the war.
He had a record of claiming a Swordmaster's head single-handedly, after all.
To be precise, he lacked the power to finish the job himself, but he had effectively neutralized the target—so it was 99% his achievement.
"Why not just play it safe and stay put? If you don't stick your neck out and hole up underground like you're dead, she'll probably leave on her own."
"A chance like this won't come twice. Heh heh. Even Swordmasters are fragile humans at heart. Stir up their trauma and guilt, mix in brainwashing and drugs, and turning them into puppets is child's play."
"...Getting cocky over that one fluke."
"Shut up. Hurry up and spill the details. In this line of work, information is life."
Karel sighed and relayed the information.
Even if Mardin failed and met ruin, it wasn't Karel's concern.
For vampires, nothing mattered more than their Lord's command and their own desires.
"Got it... Family name Dan, given name Yuseong."
"That's everything I've uncovered. Good luck."
"Heh heh, soon I'll show you a Swordmaster familiar. You won't believe your eyes."
-Beep
With those final words, the crystal orb went dark.
Karel stared coldly at the now-dim orb.
'This orb needs scrapping soon.'
He didn't think Mardin would succeed.
If he did, it meant trimming one hero from the ranks before full-scale war—a boon. If he failed, the blood loss would be Mardin's, not his.
Of course, with good luck, Mardin might activate the warp gate in his lab and flee... but Karel doubted he'd evade a Swordmaster's blade long enough to activate the magic circle.
"Ugh..."
"That's enough. You can go now."
He dismissed the man whose eyes had lost their light.
By morning, he wouldn't remember a thing from the night.
As he sent the man off, his mouth suddenly opened.
"...Oh, right. There was a rumor."
"...Hm?"
If he hadn't mentioned it earlier, it meant it wasn't deeply etched in his mind.
The kind of info that slipped away the moment he heard it.
"Ten years ago... something I heard from the record-keepers... Sword Flower tried to rape Dan Yuseong..."
Sure enough.
"...Hah. What nonsense."
Not worth hearing.
Human nature might hide dark urges, but that was way beyond the pale.
"An adult woman raping a boy in his early teens? Ridiculous."
He shook his head.
Utterly impossible by any common sense.
Even succubi waited for secondary sexual characteristics to develop before feeding.
Karel couldn't fathom what sexual appeal anyone could find in that childish exterior.
"Just slander from those mocking the fall of a shining star."
With that conclusion, he sent the brainwashed man on his way.
Conveniently, he'd planned to secure a few corpses today anyway. With that woman off the mountain, it was perfect timing.
-Swish
Using his vampiric powers, he cloaked his form and suppressed his presence as much as possible, heading to the site where he'd scouted corpses beforehand.
'Lucky this world still has a corpse preservation culture.'
After the war in their previous world, the human faction had incinerated all bodies to ash.
Usable only for zombies or skeletons otherwise.
Of course, even he wouldn't dare target truly precious "high-value" corpses just yet.
Smuggling a few criminal convicts' bodies was his limit for now.
'If only I could snag a Swordmaster corpse...'
While probing for auras, he found something decent.
Not the Swordmaster he'd hoped for, but the grudge emanating from it was intense.
'Realm's about upper Sword Expert.'
Not quite Swordmaster, but plenty usable.
And that massive grudge.
If he could harness it properly, he might craft something amusing.
"The name... it's a mangled mess."
Even in death, the nameplate was hacked beyond recognition.
Must've committed some heinous crime.
Exerting his full linguistic prowess from his studies, he strained to decipher it...
"Dan... damn it. Can't make out the rest."
Only the family name was legible.
The given name was hopeless.
'Well, Mardin should at least know this world's naming convention puts family name first.'
No matter how buried he was in underground research, he couldn't be that clueless.
...Probably.