Chapter 68
Chapter 68
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 68
Chapter Title: The Thief, and (4)
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He tried to control his expression.
Pretending not to be surprised, pretending not to be flustered. But that realization wasn't something so light, and Ban couldn't stop the inevitable wave of emotions crashing over his face.
‘Was I... too complacent?’
If he looked for excuses, there were plenty. For one, Erok was someone he'd known as the "Taoist master" of the back mountain since childhood. He was an object of fear, but also of aspiration. Considering how he'd been regarded almost like a village spirit, it was natural to believe he was purely good.
Moreover, he was a member of House Ballgot. A man who could have all the world's pleasures if he wanted them, choosing to live quietly in seclusion on that remote mountain—it wasn't easy to imagine such a person being evil unless you were unusually twisted.
His mouth tasted bitter. The more he'd thought Erok was a good person, the more sharply the weight of his crimes now stood out.
He'd turned people who merely sought eternal life into monsters who couldn't survive without blood. For what reason? He didn't know, but whatever it was... it was an unforgivable atrocity.
It seemed no one in the world had only a purely good face. Even in the war between the revolutionaries and the kingdom, distinguishing good from evil was hard—how could people be any different?
"So, after hearing the story, have you changed your mind a bit?"
Arotep glanced at Ban and Munet as he spoke. He seemed to hope they'd back out even now. But Ban shook his head. It wouldn't be true to say there was no hesitation, but he couldn't turn back just from hearing those words... not when the reward at the end of this path was so desperately needed.
"I'm not sure yet."
"......Don't you feel any pity? Not all vampires are bad people. Take me—can't you sense the goodness in me right away?"
"Haha. That's a very amusing joke."
Ban spoke with a completely straight face. Arotep furrowed his brow and looked at Munet.
"Your guest seems to be mocking me."
"It'd be hard not to, with a man like this."
"......They say raising a daughter is pointless."
Arotep shook his head. Ban watched him, lost in thought. At the edge of this blade, would he be cutting down a good man or an evil one? That dilemma he'd abandoned long ago—or perhaps set aside—might now be something he had to face.
The idea that there were no purely good people in the world, nor purely evil ones, had always given him the strength to quiet his conscience. But perhaps that was just self-deception in the end.
If there were no good or evil people, then it shouldn't be that anyone could be cut down—it should be that no one could be cut down at all.
"Munet."
Ban turned to her.
"Have you never heard stories like this from the old man?"
"Have you ever asked?"
"......It sounds like you knew."
"Yeah. I knew."
Ban fell silent at Munet's calm reply. She surely had her own reasons. She had her own circumstances. It couldn't be that her only motivation for taking on this job was simply liking Erok.
Then what was his reason?
‘The Guardian's Sword...’
It was grand if grand, trivial if trivial. But it was also true that he couldn't give up on that sword. To him, it wasn't just some useful blade. As the one continuing the Seonwoo family line, as a guardian, it was the final puzzle piece that would complete him.
‘......I can't choose to abandon it.’
Ban had lived freely, unbound by good or evil, doing as he pleased. But even he had a minimum standard of goodness. At least he never persecuted the innocent—and in this case, perhaps becoming a vampire...
"Even if you don't go, I'm going."
Munet spoke in a stubborn voice. Ban looked at her silently. When he gripped his sword, he always knew the answer, but that's why the world beyond the sheath was always so difficult. Munet lifted her rose-like beautiful face and stared straight at Ban. The fragrance and thorns in her voice tickled and tormented him at once.
"In the first place, your help wasn't that crucial for the theft. If you want out, get out. You'll be the one regretting it. I can do it alone..."
"You won't be going alone."
Arotep cut her off. As Munet looked up at him with a dissatisfied expression, Arotep flashed his usual foolish smile.
"My beloved daughter wants to drain my old pus—how could I just watch?"
"Since when were you such a great father...?"
"I might not always have been good. But sometimes I was a good dad. Wasn't I?"
Even as she saw Arotep's gentle smile, Munet wore an expression of contempt. She seemed displeased even by the thought of breathing the same air as him, and in the end, she left the room. The parlor was left with only Ban. Arotep turned to him with an awkward expression.
"Well, I guess you're not really husband material after all."
"I told you that from the start."
"Usually, the men she's dated all said no in front of me. They were scared of me, I suppose."
"That's where the misunderstanding starts. You're not that scary to me."
"Haha, a young man's spirit is a fine thing to see. Right up until he starts eyeing my daughter."
Arotep laughed cheerfully. As long as Ban wasn't seriously after his daughter as a son-in-law, there was no real reason to hate him. Of course, they'd just been at each other's throats moments ago, but if you didn't forget old grudges one by one, it was hard to live long.
Ban didn't meet Arotep's eyes. The unexpected backstory had suddenly complicated his thoughts.
"Let's go for now. I'll sort out my thoughts slowly."
"......Where to?"
"Where Root is."
Ban said in a quiet voice.
"I have to face her first to decide whether to kidnap her or not."
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Arotep didn't tell them the exact destination himself. Perhaps he worried that Ban and Munet might ditch him. Ban looked at Munet and said,
"He seems like a better father than I thought."
"......You say that because you don't know."
"Then why not tell me? Why do you hate him so much? Because he stole you away...?"
"Isn't that reason enough?"
"It is. But why did he steal you?"
"Because he wanted to."
Munet replied with a cynical tone.
"That's the kind of person he is. The typical thief who can't accept that there's something in the world he can't have. If he wants it, he'll get it by any means necessary. Without caring who gets hurt."
"......Do you remember your birth parents?"
"I was four. I woke up in an unfamiliar carriage."
Munet hesitated for a moment before adding in a quiet voice,
"My only memory before that is the face of a woman smiling at me. Probably... my mother."
"I see."
Such thoughts came to him. Could affection for blood kin he barely remembered be reason enough to hate a father who gave him infinite love right now? But as someone who didn't even know his parents' faces, he had no right to advise her.
"So, what about you? Have you made up your mind?"
"......Why did the Taoist master leave such a curse?"
He'd heard there were Word Command sorcerers specialized in 'curses.' But even so, Erok's curse was extraordinary. Considering that Word Commands were influenced by the relationship with the target, the one afflicted must have been someone who placed great weight on Erok's 'words.'
Someone who loved him that much.
And the fact that the curse still lingered meant... even at the end of that curse, they hadn't betrayed that love.
It was a bitter story. He doubted Erok had left such a curse out of pleasure. Munet said quietly,
"I don't know. The old man didn't want to talk about it."
"......You don't know, but you're still doing everything he says? You haven't even gotten your reward yet. Why are you helping? Really just because of some affection?"
"Didn't you say you like a girl?"
"I never said I'd do everything she asks."
"That's the difference between men and women."
Munet sneered.
"While you pretend to be rational and sink into the swamp of overthinking, we know how to listen to the voice of the heart."
"......I didn't know you liked writing poetry."
Ban grumbled with a sour face. And that was when it happened. Arotep, who had been walking far ahead, approached them and cleared his throat.
"Have you heard of the saying 'men and women should keep their distance'?"
"......That's why I said I'm not interested in your daughter."
"Don't talk nonsense. Sure, you might not have fallen for her yet. But with that waist, those legs, that face—how could any man... Whoa."
"If you say one more word, I'll rip out your tongue. Looks like your amazing regeneration works in daylight too."
"......I get it. I get it. So put that rapier down, will you?"
"Hmph."
Munet haughtily turned her head and spurred her camel onward. The desert heat was scorching. Ban looked at Arotep and asked,
"Don't vampires rot in the sunlight?"
"That's why I'm wearing thick clothes. And if it's just a little, even if it rots, it's fine. It heals right away."
"......Eternal life isn't for nothing, huh."
Ban smacked his lips. A sudden thought struck him. Having a vampire's body might not be so bad. At least he could spar without worrying about wounds.
‘No. Still, I don't want to lose the warmth of sunlight.’
Crossing the desert was no easy task. They watched with their own eyes as desert winds shifted the dunes' shapes and positions at times, and they were fooled twice by mirages disguised as oases. So when the palm grove finally came into view, Ban sharpened his gaze instead of rejoicing.
‘......It's real.’
Even using Qi to enhance his vision, the forest didn't vanish. It was at the point where he thought he might have to drink his own urine to quench his thirst. Arotep raised his voice to his subordinates who had been escorting him.
"You lot wait at the jungle entrance. Fewer people moving is better."
They nodded silently and began hiding themselves one by one. Making noise in the southern jungle was never a good idea. Arotep whispered to Ban and Munet,
"You have to sneak in without sound or sight. This territory... you know the place."
"Yeah, sure... whatever."
"Follow me."
Tree branches became their path. Arotep seemed averse to leaving footprints or making any presence known. He ran silently over the branches, trying not even to breathe audibly if possible.
What he was being so cautious to avoid wasn't snakes or monkeys, of course. No matter how fierce, they couldn't compare to this dreadful vampire. This jungle harbored beings far more feral and dangerous than any beast.
A sharp tension enveloped them. Striving to make no sound or presence, they raced through the jungle like beams of light. Even using trees as footholds, their speed rivaled dogs running on flat ground.
Yet disappointment quickly settled on Arotep's face.
"......We're spotted. Speed up!"
An inexplicable pressure enveloped them. Trees, wind, grass, flowers, insects, snakes—the entire jungle's lifeforms seemed to be watching them. The faster they went, the less it felt like liberation and more like suffocation. It was like running through a net.
And it wasn't just a feeling.
Ban stopped first. Munet and Arotep followed, sighing as they halted. Countless presences surrounded them.
[Who dares invade the Druid's Forest?]
"......We're in trouble."
Arotep sighed. Even then, his eyes rapidly scanned the forest. They'd tried to cross as silently as possible, but it wasn't enough.
"We're just travelers passing through. We have no intention of bothering the Druids, so if you just let us go..."
[I smell blood. Very strong.]
"......Is that so? We ate some meat on the way."
[It doesn't smell like beast blood.]
The voice had already seen through their identities. And then it happened. From underground, treetops, stumps, wolf hides—people in beast pelts approached, radiating a beastly aura.
And then it happened. Ban stepped forward. As Munet was about to tell him not to do anything foolish, his voice rang out quietly.
"I'm Ban. I came by invitation."
[......Invitation? Did the great Druid invite a vampire's companion?]
"There's a misunderstanding, but I'm not friends with that smelly fellow over there. And yes. I was invited by my old friend to visit the Druid's Forest."
Ban smiled wryly. He hadn't expected to use this invitation in such a situation. He'd thought their reunion would be under cooler circumstances.
"Free Knight Ban, invited by Jeo of the Eustaine Clan, to meet the ascetics.
Druid's Forest. That forest is also called Ustain's Forest.