Chapter 52
Chapter 52
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 52
Chapter Title: Evil Fate
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"Did the treatment go smoothly...?"
"Thanks for your help. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have known how to treat it and might've died. You saved my life."
"No need to thank me... Saving lives is a doctor's job... It's only natural..."
The Sword Empress was chatting with a young woman who looked like a doctor.
I figured this doctor must be the one who'd told us about that embarrassing but effective treatment method, so I offered my sincere thanks as well.
"Thanks to you, I survived. I'll repay this favor somehow."
"There is a way you could repay me right now, but..."
"Pardon?"
"Ah, no, nothing. I haven't slept all night, so I must be delirious... Haha..."
The doctor waved her hand dismissively, hiding her weary face.
Dark circles ringed her eyes, like someone who'd been up all night engrossed in something.
"Did another patient come in overnight or something?"
"Ahahaha... Something like that..."
"Anyway, you look exhausted, so we'll get out of your hair. I've got some emergency funds..."
As we stepped out of the room, I slipped my hand under the hermit's cloak I'd thrown back on and rummaged for my money pouch.
"Ah, n-no, it's fine! You don't need to pay! I didn't really do anything!"
The doctor waved her hands in panic.
"Still, you gave us the treatment method, so at least let us give you something..."
"...Could you do absolutely anything?"
"...Well, not anything..."
"Ahaha, just kidding."
She kept starting to say something but stopping, and she looked really unwell.
Her breathing seemed a bit ragged somehow, and her face was slightly flushed—enough to make me wonder if she'd caught the cold I'd had.
"I didn't do much anyway, so no need for payment... Just go home and rest well."
"Really, no reward at a—"
"I said no! Please just go!"
In the end, we were pretty much chased out of the clinic.
"...She must be really tired."
"...Seems that way."
"Then we need to find someone to ask where we are..."
The Sword Empress had told me that after the bloodsucker and I were struck by lightning, we'd been transported to some unknown forest.
'Was it some kind of teleportation magic circle?'
It was something impossible by the standards of the Central Plains, but from my perspective, it wasn't that unfamiliar a concept.
Even if I hadn't seen it myself, martial arts would be the same if we quibbled like that.
"Well, asking around about what region this is shouldn't be hard. No need to bother the doctor."
"...I see."
"It's not a big deal."
I approached a passing old man and spoke to him.
"Hello, sir. We got lost in the forest and wandered out here—could you tell us what region this is?"
"...I'll tell you upfront, I have no money."
"Oh, sir, we're not like that. Just tell us the region, and we'll quietly be on our way, so no need to be so guarded."
The old man still eyed us suspiciously, but figuring it wasn't a big deal, he soon told us where we were.
"...Guangdong. How lost do you have to get to lose track of the whole region?"
"..."
And the answer from the old man's mouth was Guangdong.
The southernmost edge of the martial world.
"Guangdong... We were definitely in Anhui before."
"Uh... We've come pretty far."
"Even by carriage, it'd take weeks. What in the world happened..."
I was just as baffled.
'I didn't even get to have proper fun?!'
I'd psyched myself up to go all the way to Anhui, but hadn't enjoyed Henan properly, and in Anhui, I'd barely had one day of fun.
And now suddenly Guangdong?
The southern tip of the Central Plains?
'...Should I just have fun here?'
Thinking about it, it didn't seem so bad.
While I was having these optimistic thoughts, the Sword Empress seemed lost in various concerns.
"I don't know how we ended up in such a distant place, but we should head back first. It'll take quite a while to get from Guangdong to Shaanxi."
"Right away?"
"Even at Mount Hua, my life is just training without other activities... but if I stay away too long, people will worry. I said I was going to Anhui and then vanished... So I should at least stop by once."
"Ah..."
If she was planning to return to Shaanxi, I had no choice but to follow.
These dangerous incidents happened often even with her by my side—what if I was alone?
The thought alone terrified me.
But still, we'd set out for travel, so it was regrettable to turn back right away.
Was she reading my emotions?
"...Come to think of it, it's not that urgent. Sending word can be done with a messenger pigeon anyway."
"Then..."
"We'll enjoy whatever sights there are on the way back. But this region's full of unorthodox faction forces, so security isn't great—stay cautious."
"...That dangerous?"
"Even if unorthodox factions dominate, it's still a place where people live, so not that dangerous. But the areas you've been in so far were managed by the Nine Great Sects. Keep in mind security might be relatively poor."
"Hmm..."
I recalled the events in my previous regions.
Bloodsuckers attacking people, leading to extermination squads... Causing chaos on boats... Kidnapping people in broad daylight and dragging them underground...
'How hellish is it here?'
The previous places hadn't exactly been safe, and this was supposed to be worse?
'Can people even live here?'
I started thinking it might be best not to linger and head back as soon as possible.
"Hmmm... Karel, that guy... sent quite the nice corpse, huh?"
Pale skin and red eyes.
A woman who anyone could see was a vampire was drooling as she eyed the coffin atop the magic circle.
"Well... even back in the previous world, he'd been sneaking glances at her..."
If Karel heard that, he'd frown.
The reason he'd sent her this corpse was purely due to distributing spoils among kin—not because he had any other feelings for her.
"Sword Expert level in life... and this immense grudge... A little proper modification, and she won't be inferior to a Sword Master."
Even she, a vampire, shivered at the sheer magnitude of the grudge.
She ground her teeth thinking of the other vampires who bragged about their Sword Master kin.
"They'll never look down on me again."
And so, she spared no resources to turn this corpse into her ultimate familiar.
Not just the high-grade materials she'd painstakingly gathered, but if short, she didn't hesitate to discard existing familiars.
She invested everything into this new one.
But perhaps because she'd been too stingy before...
"One arm might be impossible..."
Full body restoration seemed tricky.
She could reverse decay in other parts, but that one arm looked like a lost cause.
Still, considering vampires' regeneration via blood consumption, once revived, a single arm would regrow quickly.
"First, make it able to walk in sunlight... Boost regeneration and senses beyond lifetime levels... Enhance physical abilities... And just in case, check the mind control spell."
Too strong a domination made familiars move jerkily, but better safe.
If this ultimate familiar rampaged after all her investment, she'd be done for.
"Now just revive it."
She placed the corpse and blood in the coffin, checked the surrounding magic circle.
Materials perfect, ritual perfect.
Just infuse mana, and it'd rise as a bloodsucker soon.
-Woooong!
'Finally, a familiar not inferior to a Sword Master!'
She activated the circle and clutched her still heart in anticipation.
Scattered materials absorbed by ritual power, the circle's blood-red glow intensifying.
And at one point—
-Thud!
The coffin jolted violently, the circle's light vanishing.
"D-Done?"
The vampire woman suppressed the urge to rush over, maintaining a dignified pose to greet her familiar.
-Clunk!
'It... opened!'
Moments later, the coffin lid opened, revealing a woman inside.
Flawless skin, red eyes. Red streaks amid black hair showed she wasn't an ordinary Central Plains native.
"Ahem. Congratulations on your new life, my familiar. You've gained this new existence by my grace as Lady Shatry, so from now on, you shall follow m—"
"...Where's my arm?"
-Crack.
She furrowed her brow at the familiar who ignored her and demanded her arm first.
Other vampires would've yelled, but she'd let it slide once.
'I'm a magnanimous vampire, after all.'
"I revived you, but can't give everything at once. Serve loyally, rack up merits, and I can attach not just one arm, but three mo—"
"If not, give me yours."
-Spurt.
Blood splattered on the vampire woman's right cheek.
"Wh...?"
Trembling, she looked to her right shoulder—severed cleanly, gushing blood.
"Kyaa, kyaak!!"
"One arm isn't enough to hold Yuseong in my arms."
The woman who'd severed her arm picked it up, trying to fit it to her own empty shoulder.
Of course, someone else's arm wouldn't attach.
"Y-You dare rebel against your heavenly master?!"
The vampire woman snarled viciously, cranking mind control to max.
"Kneel!!"
The spell implanted in the brain at revival activated, and the insolent familiar should kneel...
"Why would I?"
She didn't.
"Wh-What?! Why isn't mind control working?!"
The vampire hurriedly drew more mana for another cast, but the familiar was faster.
-Slash.
Her remaining arm was sliced off.
"Kyaa, kyaak!!!"
"Hmm... My body's in weird shape..."
"Wh-What are you?! Why isn't my mind control working?!"
The vampire stared at her familiar in fear.
Impossible.
Even a Sword Master, revived as a vampire familiar, couldn't resist commands so casually.
It was a curse embedded in the brain from revival.
And her familiar answered.
"The only one who can move me is Yuseong."
-Slash.
The vampire's head was severed.
'Ah...'
In her eyes, as body and head separated mid-air, was the woman's form—
"Yuseong-ah... Sister's coming to you now... No matter where you are, I'll find you soon..."
Mad, obsessive love.
A twisted affection unquenched even after ten years in cold death.