Chapter 787 – Absence Case Log -11-

000

The massacre that took place in an instant before my eyes was an overwhelming sight that would literally send a chill down my spine.

If such a monster exists, how has it been that humanity has been safe until now?
Her power took away her hope from those who saw her, to the point where she felt despair without even realizing it.

Of course, the one who couldn’t hide her anger the most in this situation was Vedica, who was seeing her men lying on the ground, crushed and discarded, like fruit with its juice squeezed out of it.

As the most communicative person in the Holy Kingdom of Kabalon, even her common sense and always kind and calm demeanor would have been enough to make her lose her senses.

However, surprisingly, Vedika displays her superhuman patience, maintaining her formation even with her subordinates, resisting her urge to charge at her with her sword and cut off her throat. And instructs her not to run into her as she pleases.

＂But, leader…!＂

＂If you had just seen that scene, you would know… She who unleashed her full power, what a monster she is… ＂

While telling her indignant knight to be more discreet, she slowly recalled memories of her past.

There was no doubt that she was a powerful vampire in the past, but she was not a being with power of such a different level.

＂Now I know… How many lives have they been devouring over the past thousand years…?＂

A vampire’s lifespan is extended by drinking the blood of another being.

She has lived for a thousand years, and there is no way she could have killed one or two people.

The older a vampire becomes, the stronger she becomes, because she drinks a lot of blood in the process of naturally extending her lifespan, putting that much life into her own body.

And now, when Al had heard Vedika’s question, he answered her with a relaxed expression on his face, like that of a benevolent teacher answering her student’s question.

“It is no different from harvesting grains or killing animals and harvesting their meat to survive. Vedika.”

And the moment she opened her eyes.

The intense magical pressure that erupted from her body caused the bodies of Illenu’s group and the knights to freeze in place.

It was as if time had stopped, an act similar to the way a predator threatens or poisons its target before swallowing it to immobilize it.

＂Kuh… This is─＂

Perhaps, considering that even Diora, who is the highest in terms of pure physical ability among the group, has a stiff body, it may not be simply a binding caused by magical power.

“Ah, we just fixed the position of the blood vessel. As humans, you cannot directly manipulate blood flow, so there is nothing you can do about it. Oh, that includes your elf.”

＂Where can you find such a ridiculous method!?＂

Selena shouted at her for being unreasonable against a monster that displayed such power just by emitting her magic, but Al now ignored her.

“Now… Then whose blood should we drink first? Vedika, your blood is the last main dish… First, let’s start with the surrounding beggars─＂

＂Who told you to shake?＂

But the next moment, Ijeal suddenly looked up at the ceiling at the sound of a voice above his head, and from there, he saw Illenu falling down while aiming her rapier at him.

A single stab like a white flash.

Now Al succeeds in avoiding it by slightly moving his head out of the way, but as he watches her smoke rise along with her blazing heat from the wound where her sword scratched her cheek, She was looking back at Ilenu, who had slipped out behind her.

“Indeed. Illenu, you had the holy sword.”

“It was okay if I forgot.”

Since most vampires can quickly recover from wounds, they do not avoid physical attacks even if they are attacked, but instead use their bodies to tie the enemy’s weapons and trap them by trapping them.

Using this in reverse, vampires who were too stupid to notice that Illenu’s first blow was from the Holy Sword were even knocked down by that single blow.

However, Al, who had met her Illenu before and had even thought of accepting her as one of her own, immediately dodged her Illenu’s sword.

Even if she is a vampire who has lived for over a thousand years, being pierced through her head with her brain by a holy sword would be a fatal wound.

“I didn’t forget about the Holy Sword, but I didn’t know you could resist my bloodstream manipulation. I guess my skills have improved a lot over the years.”

“To defeat monstrous vampires like you.”

In response to her response, Al placed her hand on the side of her face that had been hurt, as if she found Illenu’s attitude cute.

“Indeed. That day might come someday. First, I don’t think it’s today.”

＂…＂

＂With your current skills, all you can do is peel off a layer of my skin… Minor damage that is not very meaningful. ＂

And when she removed her hand – although it was close to an abrasion – the wound created by her holy sword was immediately regenerated.

＂A note I left. Do you remember? All you have to do is leave Asteris with the magic swordsman who connects the stars and his companions.”

And she smiled as she placed her bat wings, like steel blades, sticking out of her own shadow, on the necks of all of her companions and knights who were unable to move.

“That offer is still valid.”

“Are you telling us to leave Asteris?”

Ilenu asked about her true intention in coming here and bringing up that story, as if she couldn’t get rid of her doubts, but now Al nods her head and answers her.

“Originally, my mission was to kill people, but… I don’t really want to do that, do I? So, if you do that… I’ll release your group. With Vedika and her subordinates… There are a lot of things we have accumulated and a lot of stories to tell, so I can’t let them go.”

At her words, Illenu was silent for a moment.

To look at the situation, as many as 10 knights have already lost their lives in an instant, and Ijeal’s power, who absorbed their blood, has been strengthened, even if only momentarily.

In this state, even if he were to challenge her head on, the chances of him piercing her heart or brain with his own sword and sucking her blood were extremely low.

Above all – she was not even confident that her own self would remain when she absorbed her blood.

“Don’t you think that’s wise too, Vedika? Ah, even my mouth is stiff, and I can’t answer.”

And, while looking at Ilenu’s worries, Ijeal asks a question to Vedika as if laughing.

Vedika looks at Illenu with her frozen body, but her eyes show her trust in Illenu and at the same time a resignation that if she wants to save her comrades, she can follow her suggestion. Illenu could tell.

“Hey, what do you want to do? Illenu. Since you are wise, you probably know what to do, right?”

In response to her question, Illenu asked without lowering the holy sword that was aimed at her.

“What if we don’t keep our promise and leave Asteris?”

“Then next time… All the residents of Asteris will become hostages. I don’t care if you want to make the residents of the Eastern countries feel the fear of humans who were ordinary residents yesterday, but the next day they become ghouls belonging to vampires and start attacking other humans.”

In response to her reply that she had no moral ethics, Illenu glared at her, but within seconds she slowly relaxed her hold on her weapon and pretended to lower her arm.

“Good. That’s how it should be.”

Ijeal answers like that, but that was back then.

＂Laugh… Don’t crawl!＂

The moment when Ijeal reacted to the sudden shout and looked towards Selena, who was floating in the air.

Selena’s whole body suddenly glowed brightly, emitting light as if her body had become another sun.

＂The magic of light…! Wow…!”

Ijeal let out a slightly embarrassed voice at the expression of magic that was not very compatible and tried to protect himself by raising his own shadow, but Selena’s light spread throughout the cave as if it would not create a shadow, creating a shadow for her. They didn’t even give me a chance.

＂Tch…!＂

If that’s the case, then her irritated Selena, thinking she could just drop her glowing directly, conjured up a shield of her blood to block her Illenus who tried to rush at her from behind. A spear made of blood was fired.

The thick spear was large enough to pierce her body and take her life, and considering it flew towards her at such a high speed-

Kaang! As she let out a sharp sound, she couldn’t help but widen her eyes as she saw the spear of burning flame strike down her bloody spear.

“Vampires become stronger in the dark… Then, on the contrary, their strength becomes weaker in the light where there is no darkness at all. Is that what you mean? “

Diora, spinning her own spear and fluttering her red hair, was now able to free herself from Al’s restraints while Al’s strength was weakened, and was now protecting Selena from Al’s attacks. 〉

“It’s amazing. Of course, in this light, my strength weakens… But I still succeed in escaping from the power that restrained my body.”

“First of all, I have the title of the kingdom’s strongest knight.”

However, perhaps because there was something awkward about her still moving, she felt a slight tingling in her arms and turned to face Selena behind her.

“Selena! Keep that light, don’t extinguish it! If I have that, I think I have a chance of winning!”

＂Huh!? But this magic consumes an enormous amount of magical energy!”

“If we don’t do it now, we’ll all die! Otherwise, is that the only skill of the palace wizard?”

When Diora asked that question with a smile, Selena answered with an air of anger that made tendons stick out on her forehead.

＂Haaaaa!? That can’t be possible! Great! I’ll keep the magic going for an hour or two!”

＂… You look incredibly happy to be free from restraints.＂

Now, Al lowers her hand as if she is tired of watching Diora and Selena engaged in such a skit, and looks back at Illenu, who is cutting down the shield behind her.

“Is this why you took so long and didn’t answer?”

＂Well…!＂

Let’s go! She clicks her tongue, looking at the sacred sparks leaping from her shield as she cries out.

Perhaps sensing that she would not be able to maintain her shield with her next attack, she first released her clotted blood, gathered it into her own hands, and turned it into her two swords.

“Good. Then I will educate you a little. Let’s both attack at the same time.”

As she said that, she simultaneously swung her sword at Diora and Illenu who were running in from behind her and blocked their attacks.

001

Arteas, who was waiting for Ilenu to return from Pamela’s mansion while in charge of Emma, ​​sat there unable to let go of her mind, as if she was still bothered by the strange attitude shown by Arteas, the queen of the Holy Kingdom of Kabalon. 〉

Even if you look through all the books of her history that are spread out before her, most of her writings on the Kabalon are minor lore.

The only record was that such a country existed in the past.

That’s why she was anxiously waiting for the crystal ball she placed on her desk to start shining.

‘The queen’s attitude was that she was okay with both the knights and the kingdom. … What she really wants is, maybe, her own her-‘

And the very next moment, she saw the crystal ball for communication in front of her eyes glowing, and she caught it at the speed of light.

Then, the voice coming from beyond her was that of her own assistant, whom she had heard yesterday.

[Professor, can you hear me?]

“Yes, I can hear you. Did you research what I asked you to do? Didn’t the knights interfere?”

[Yes. As the professor said, when I told him that I wanted to study the history of the Holy Kingdom, he readily allowed me.]

Artis nodded her head as if she knew it would happen.

At a time when a thousand years had passed since their country was buried underground and disappeared, there was no way the knights who wanted to revive their country would not allow it if they wanted to know about their history.

＂So… You were able to find out the Queen and her connection to her vampires?＂

[Yes, it was just as the professor expected. The royal family of Kabalon was associated with vampires. … The first vampire discovered in the Holy Kingdom was a person named Ijeal… He was a royal who was originally supposed to become the next queen of Kabalon.]

And what her assistant said turned Attis’ anxiety into confidence.

The fact that the royal families of Kabalon were weak for generations was such a clear fact that it was even written down in history books.

Considering that Kabalon’s history before its fall was not that long, it is said that there were 66 queens before Arteas, who could be said to be the last queen.

There were 66 people after she started using the scepter to inherit her soul, so there may have been many more before that.

It is said that when the queen uses the scepter, the human body holding the scepter becomes healthy for a time, but she would not have been able to hold the scepter for the rest of her life and always, whether she sleeps or awake, just because she ascended to the position of king.

So, even if she ultimately succeeded in transferring her identity to her queen, the queens’ lifespans would not have been prolonged, and their rapid replacement would still have been felt as a threat to the royal family.

Therefore, in addition to using the scepter to stop the soul, they probably had the ultimate goal of making her queen live longer.

And then, a man appeared in front of the royal family of Kabalon.

With slightly dark skin, he wore clothes that one would wear in a desert country and called himself a wise man spreading the wisdom he had inherited from his father.

He went beyond making the royal body healthy and performed a ritual that said he could obtain a life close to immortality.

Of course, the royal family also doubted his knowledge, and since they were not stupid enough to follow them all, they submitted one of the royal family members to his consciousness as an experiment.

If she succeeds, all she has to do is hand over her scepter to make her the body of her next queen, and even if she fails, she still has royal blood left to become her queen.

The one chosen there was Lee Je-al, the girl who was the lowest in line to succeed to the throne.

She received a ritual from a wise man from the desert, and as a result, her white hair, a sign of royalty, turned black, and her eyes turned red, but she survived.

The skin has become pale, and although it can no longer receive sunlight, it has been reborn as a vampire who can live for eternity by drinking human blood.

The body was not only beautiful, but healthy and powerful, and they believed that with this power they could accelerate their war of conquest to spread their gods across the continent.

Although Ijeal became a vampire, she resisted the queen’s will to hand over the scepter, killed the queen and all her guard knights, and fled from the scene.

The moment she takes over his body, his will is swallowed up and disappears in the whirlpool of the persistent queens of previous generations, and the fact that it is a body that does not have to sleep for the rest of its life means that even a moment of rest can escape from the control of the Scepter by sleeping. Because it meant it would cease to exist.

And in order to gain true freedom by annihilating the royal family, she appeared several times throughout Kabalon’s history and tried to destroy them.

It is said that Kabalon at the time was literally in a state of civil war.

The queen’s tyranny grew worse day by day, and now Al led the blind knights who followed the queen and the citizens who resisted her queen.

There is no justice on either side, just a muddy fight to survive.

Meanwhile, when the citizens led by Lee Je-al surrounded the capital, a huge earthquake occurred and the Holy Kingdom fell underground.

[The last part was not written in history books, so I heard it directly from the drivers. But… According to this information, the earthquake was probably—]

＂Yes… It must have been caused directly by the embattled queen. … Revival of the Holy Kingdom? There is no way such feelings can exist in a country that destroyed itself. All she wants… Is to get her body back, which should have been hers. … She is unlucky only with her knights under her command and the citizens who sacrificed their lives in battle.”

Artis clicks his tongue as if he now understands what Arteas’ true intentions are.

[Speaking of misfortune, it is not easy for us to be caught up in such a thing. Now that the knights and queen are away, they might be able to escape somehow… But then it would be a hassle to deal with it in many ways…]

When the assistant sighed and said that, Artis closed his mouth for a moment and then asked him back.

“For a moment. “What now?”

[If you run away, it will be a hassle to look after you…]

＂No, before that.＂

[Ah. Are you saying the knights and queen were away?]

Artis nods her head, sensing her uneasy premonition, and her assistant answers.

[While we were researching the history of Cabalon at the request of the professor, we saw several knights taking the queen outside. We were told not to think nonsense since we were coming here to enjoy the fresh air, but seeing as it’s been a while since we left, and we haven’t come back, it seems like we went somewhere else.]

After Attis heard those words, she immediately got up from her seat.

[School, professor!?]

“You guys! Get out of there right now and return to Asteris! Or go to Eratus and hide yourself!”

After saying that, she comes down to her lobby with her crystal ball turned off.

There, the other party members were also preparing for battle in case of an unexpected attack, but Artis spoke to them.

“Everyone, we have to go help Illenu.”

＂What are you talking about all of a sudden?＂

When Baylin questioned Artis’ words, Artis told them what her assistant had researched as succinctly as possible, and then spoke her own thoughts.

“Queen Arteas’ goal is to get the vampire’s body into her hands. So, Sister Ile, her knights will be able to subdue Al, or even if they can’t, they will try to drain her of as much stamina as possible and then take advantage of her opportunity to steal her body. In the process, she no longer needs her subordinates, as well as her own subordinates, and there’s a good chance that she’ll lose all of her power.”

Either way, there was no doubt that it was a development that put everyone together, including Illenu, in danger.

When others who heard Artis’ story also stood up and raised their weapons as if they knew, Emma tightly held the teddy bear she was holding in her arms, as if she had become anxious seeing the others.

“Ilenuga, is it dangerous?”

“… Don’t worry. We will definitely protect Illenu.”

Artis tried to calm Emma down by stroking her head, but she still felt like she was going to cry.

“What should she do? Are you going to leave her somewhere else?”

＂Even if I leave it to her… The palace? Firm? Or… A temple?”

Drayne says so, but if he tells either party about the situation, it will turn into a bigger situation, so Artis thinks for a moment.

Soon, she spoke while looking at the magical tools placed on the desk in front of Emma.

“You said this gun-type magic tool showed an illusion, right? … Perhaps I can exert some special power over them…”

“But none of us could hold that magic tool, only Illenu and Emma could hold it.”

Artis nods her head to Draine’s answer and then speaks to Emma.

“… Emma. Let’s go save Illenu. Take that and put it on your back over there.”

＂Wait… Are you serious!?＂

Drayne looked shocked at Artis’ words, as if she couldn’t believe them, but Artis nodded and said that she was sincere.

“But you can’t leave it in a mansion where there’s no one who can fight. It’s okay, I trust the intuition of the genius archaeologist who excavated a number of ruins.”

After saying that, Artis picked up her magic tool and placed her on Draine’s back.

“Wait a minute, I can’t fight if I do this…”

＂When it’s time to fight, I’ll see to it…! Let’s leave quickly before it’s too late!”

At the urging of Artis, who was confident and confident even though he was pushing ahead with his work, those who remained in the mansion left the mansion, leaving Pamela behind, as if they had no choice.