Moonlight Dances in the Villa
The moonlight dances in the villa. Beneath it, I dance too. One beat to the right, two beats to the left. The moonlight that shatters into pieces at my gesture is so unbearably beautiful. What does it matter if it's this way or that? The prelude to madness has risen, so I can only surrender to it. Reason beneath that bright moonlight is merely another repeating loop of insanity. I cannot possibly know what is right. I dance. The moonlight follows me, shattering as it dances too.
The moonlight dances in the villa.
Beneath it, I dance too.
It took quite a long time for the whole group to wake up.
“Hic, ugh, hiccup.”
“There, there, little one. All humans experience despair and sorrow.”
Yena cradled Hyeon-ah, who was shedding tears as big as chicken droppings.
“Of course, it’s not something a child like you should have to bear so soon, but such things happen often in the worn-out passage of this old world. Think of it as experiencing it a little early and use it as nourishment to grow stronger.”
“Hic, ugh, ugh.”
“Nothing in this world gets solved by crying irresponsibly. No one gives you a pass just because you’re a child. Most of the time, it’s already too late by the time you regret it and start flailing. Since that kind of irresponsibility is also a form of sin, you must learn to endure it with strength.”
“Waaaaaaah!”
“Stop. That’s enough. Don’t display your weakness like that.”
On the surface, she looked like she was arrogantly lifting her chin slightly and speaking with a haughty gaze, but I knew. Yena was currently in a state of severe panic. In reality, she was closer to being completely flustered in front of a crying child. But was that really something to say to a kid?!
I couldn’t just stand by and watch Yena, who was utterly lacking in empathy, say such harsh things and make Hyeon-ah cry even harder, so I had to step in.
“Is everyone awake now? We’ve wasted more time than expected. If we don’t plan on spending the night here, we need to move.”
“Ugh, you useless human.”
Ji-soo swept her hand down her face as she staggered to her feet.
“This is quite a rude space, isn’t it?”
As expected, Ji-soo must have seen an illusion about her father. Still, the previous incident seemed to have acted as a vaccine; she only looked a little gloomy… Min-hee, on the other hand, seemed somewhat dazed.
“Mr. Lee Han, did you see any kind of illusion?”
“...?”
“Huh? Why?”
Ji-soo was just blinking at me.
“So… you’re asking what my trauma is?”
“Ahhh! No! Haaah! That’s not it…! You just looked so completely fine that I was purely curious…! I’m sorry!!”
“I didn’t expect you to be this rude, Ms. Jung Ji-soo.”
“Kyaaaak, I’m sorry for being rude!”
With her face bright red, Ji-soo kept bowing like a robot and apologizing nonstop. Pfft, hehehe. Ah, I really hope Ji-soo stays this fun to tease forever.
I really am fine. The illusions I always see in situations like this are just the same dream I’ve had for a long time. It’s not that it doesn’t hurt, but eventually you grow numb to it. Isn’t that obvious? It’s a nightmare I’ve shared with for a full two thousand years. It only occasionally, by chance, disturbs me.
“Alright, let’s get moving.”
“Uh, um? Ah, little one? Didn’t I tell you not to cry? It seems your mother doesn’t have the energy to take care of you right now, so if it’s too hard, this big sister can—”
I left the thousand-year-old vampire to her pathetic flirting attempt as she tried to hug the child tightly, shoved everyone into the elevator, and firmly pressed the button for the sixth floor.
The door is closing.
The doors slid shut with a soft hiss, and the elevator slowly began to ascend.
Alright, what the hell is on the sixth floor! Whatever it is, I’ll figure it out immediately and charge right through!
…
…?
It’s only one floor. Why isn’t it stopping?
The arrow above the floor number on the display to the right of the elevator kept moving endlessly. It was letting us know that the rope pulling it upward was still operating.
“Master.”
“Yeah, I noticed too.”
At the same time as I spoke, the light illuminating this rectangular iron box called an elevator flickered once.
Oh shit. Nice directing.
Bang!
Along with a roar that shook the entire elevator, one side of the wall caved in deeply in the shape of a massive claw mark.
Fuck.
“Huuuuhng. Mommy, Mommy…”
Hyeon-ah, whose mental state had already been worn down to its limit, finally burst into tears again. She had been holding up pretty well until the fifth floor.
“Mr. Lee Han, look at this. Strange letters appeared under the buttons for each floor.”
From the first floor onward: Breeding Pen, Laboratory, Dismemberment Room, Maturation Chamber, Orthopedic Room.
What the hell is all this?
On the last button labeled sixth floor, there were two options.
Cannibalize / Room of Birth.
Bang! Bang!
“Kyaaaak, Mr. Lee Han! What do we do?”
As if urging my hesitation, the vibrations grew even stronger.
Fine. It wants me to choose, huh?
In that case.
Click.
I pressed the button labeled Cannibalize.
Birth? What the fuck kind of birth? Go eat shit.
Ding!
The violent shaking that had been rattling us vanished, and the elevator soon came to a stop.
With an unpleasant scraping noise, the doors were forcibly pried open as if someone was twisting them apart.
“So we just get off here.”
Yena, still holding the little kid, stood beside me as I looked around.
“Please take the lead.”
Wait, I’m just a frail vampire too…!
At my gaze full of complaint, Yena raised her right eyebrow and shot back.
“Then should I take the lead while holding Hyeon-ah? Since I’m out of commission, it makes sense for the Master with the greatest survivability to go first.”
“Survivability…?”
“Ah, I misspoke. Let’s say you have excellent life persistence.”
“...”
The moment I stepped forward, a foul stench surged up and paralyzed my sense of smell.
It was a little different from the long, straight corridors we’d seen so far. The absurdly wide hallway reminded me of a subway concourse. The sad fact that it evoked a post-apocalyptic subway station rather than a clean, well-maintained modern one was something I decided to set aside for now.
On one wall at the edge of my vision, nameplates were lined up like an ant colony.
601, 602, 603…
Hmm… So it’s still technically inside the villa after all?
I moved forward, the sticky floor covered in some unknown liquid making wet smacking sounds with every step. Our destination for now was the nameplates ahead. No matter how far that endlessly stretching corridor went, simply walking down it probably wouldn’t get us out of here. In that case, wouldn’t checking the blatantly inviting nameplates be the first priority?
I took a deep breath of the unpleasantly damp air and knocked on the door of room 601.
“Is anyone there?”
With a loud clatter, the door creaked open slightly, and a figure appeared.
A gaunt body with all its hair fallen out and skin clinging to bone. The visuals made me doubt whether it was even human.
“Hak, heeik, human?”
“Ah, yes. Human… that’s right. Nice to meet you. I’d like to ask you a few questions…”
Two things I could tell for sure. One, beings other than humans appeared in this place. Two, the environment here was extremely harsh.
Hmm. Was conversation even possible?
“Kieeeeek! Human! It’s a human!”
Saliva dripping from its mouth, eyes rolling wildly, it suddenly lunged toward Yena.
“Hah.”
Did Yena look like the weakest? If so, I could only express my disappointment in that judgment.
Yena kept one hand over Hyeon-ah’s eyes to shield her from the hideous sight and kicked the man squarely in the stomach.
Bang— He slammed into the wall and slid down. She grabbed what little hair he had left and lifted him up.
I had tried to handle this politely, but if he wouldn’t cooperate, there was no choice.
“Sir, why don’t you calm down a little and have a proper conversation with us?”
“Krrk, haaak, hak. Human… human…!”
“Mr. Lee Han. It doesn’t seem like we can communicate with this one…”
Ji-soo pulled lightly on my sleeve from behind with a look of distaste.
Haha, this complacent young lady! Does she think I’m doing this because I enjoy it? We have to try everything first! Nothing gets done if we just stand still. What good would it do to reject them just because they look like ghouls?
“Are you a racist, Ms. Jung Ji-soo?”
“Pardon…?”
“…Never mind.”
And then the wall to the right of where the ghoul was hanging slid open.
What appeared were three pairs of eyes.
Oh… three times the ghouls?
“Human? Huuuuman!”
I caught the kitchen knife flying precisely toward Ji-soo.
These ghoul bastards have no intention of talking? Or are they Homo sapiens that only learned the word “human”?
I had learned most languages across the world long ago, but I had never heard of a place where they carried on conversations using only the word “human” with varying tones.
“Kak. Newbie. It’s a newbie.”
“Mine, it’s mine. Don’t touch it.”
Damn, they speak Korean just fine.
I kicked away the ones rushing at me one after another, drooling like rabid dogs. They flew into the wall together in a friendly pile.
“Master…! If you keep touching that…!”
“Ah, right.”
The door creaked open again. This time, not just one, but many doors.
“Wow… it’s like dominoes.”
“Is this really the time for that?!”
A domino effect of doors opening one after another down the endless corridor. From within, ghouls poked their heads out in groups of three or five.
“Uh…”
Are we screwed?
“Kieeeeek!”
“It’s food! Food!”
“Master, let’s fall back for now.”
Before I could even answer, the ghouls came flying toward us.
They came in all sizes with their own personalities, yet it was regrettable that I had to lump them all together under the single word “ghoul.” Still, there was no better term, so who could throw stones at me?
I could see various props—kitchen knives, box cutters, hammers, and so on. They seemed to have higher intelligence than Homo sapiens, at least.
However, as I’ve said many times, my body, which has reached the realm of divine power, does not feel threatened by such crude tools. Especially those blades that looked like they’d give you tetanus if they cut you—they even brought back a sense of nostalgia, as if I’d returned to the middle of a battlefield from a thousand years ago.
But.
I had companions, and there was no winning against sheer numbers.
“Kyaa! Kyaaak! Kyaa!”
…
Ji-soo was surprisingly good at dodging the blades being swung everywhere. On the other hand—
“Haaaak.”
Min-hee was barely holding back the hand swinging a blade down at her, struggling in a desperate contest of strength.
Clang.
I rushed over and kicked the hand swinging down at her.
“Th-thank…”
Min-hee, who had barely managed to express her gratitude, suddenly froze.
“Over there!!”
“Krrrrk.”
“Catch them! Catch them right now!”
An endless wave of ghouls pouring in. Even Yena, who was holding Hyeon-ah at the front and blocking their advance, didn’t look like she had any breathing room.
It might have felt too natural and I’d forgotten, but Yena Mk2 was a fake. How could an anomaly dare to imitate the power possessed by the true kin? The current Yena was merely an ego dwelling within a vampire’s body created without any of the various powers the original possessed.
I could cover for her right now, but in this situation where we had gained no information at all, we couldn’t keep doing this forever.
“Over here!”
With a low shout, flames suddenly erupted from one side.
Oh. A group of humans in front of a nameplate labeled 613 had set fire around themselves and were barely holding back the ghouls’ attacks.
“Hurry!”
“Master! I’ll break through!”
“Yeah! I’m counting on you! Yena!”
“You damn vampire…!”
Huh, is she mad? Ahem. I hope you can put personal feelings aside for now, Yena.
I moved toward the people who had helped us while only blocking attacks aimed at the two burdens from behind. Who else could we trust in a place like this? They had relatively clean appearances and were finally humans we could communicate with. It was worth following them.
And when someone appeared like a savior and urgently appealed with “Explanation later!” there was no choice but to listen.
“Inside!!”
As soon as we arrived, they set an even larger fire around us and pushed us into the room.
Once inside, what we saw was the appearance of an ordinary single-room apartment. The layout was slightly different from our Neulbom Villa. Inside, a woman who looked close to middle-aged and a boy who had been hiding greeted us.
Yena kept pacing back and forth, checking the trembling Hyeon-ah’s temperature. Ji-soo and Min-hee collapsed, their bodies crumpled in whatever position they fell.
“Mister.”
The boy, who had been staring at us intently, approached and tugged at my leg.
He must not have had an easy time. His dirty face still had pale tear tracks where he had cried.
Well, if he had been living well in an environment like this, that would have been even stranger.
“Hello, nice to meet you. What’s your name?”
“Why did you come here?”
“Um…”
His dull, drooping eyes stared straight at us.