#070. The Vampire is Too Kind (2)

#070. The Vampire is Too Kind (2)

Cecilia issued a stern warning before entering the Bloodwood territory.

“The Bloodwood is vampire territory, so be especially careful! The weak-minded are easily robbed of their reason and manipulated by vampires.”

“Isn’t it enough to just be careful?”

“It’s not something that ends with just being careful. They twist and warp people’s minds with ‘mind control’ to seduce them! Even those who aren’t weak become weak!”

Maria nodded in agreement.

“The Holy Woman speaks true. The Inquisition teaches that vampires are a race that can betray humanity at any time, and we must thoroughly learn methods of subjugation.”

“How do you subjugate them?”

“By driving iron into their heads or burning them to death. We can also use a poison that melts their bodies, or trap them in caves and fill them with smoke to kill them.”

“…Wouldn’t that kill things other than vampires?”

“Subjugating heretics is always like this.”

It was a hopeless, dreamless reality of heretic subjugation.

“Shouldn’t we save them?”

“In the Bloodwood, we cannot interfere with a contract the individual has desired. The fulfillment of voluntary contracts is absolute unless you intend to make enemies of all the vampires in the Bloodwood region. Interference is absolutely forbidden.”

“…I don’t like it.”

Ian noticed the dissatisfaction in Teresa’s eyes.

A woman holding a vampire’s hand, smiling as if spellbound as she followed him—her fist clenched tightly.

She was furious.

Furious at the foolishness of trusting reason too readily.

It was anger directed at the woman now following the vampire, and also anger directed at herself for having trusted and followed Ronove in the past.

“There, human. If you offer half your assets, I’ll grant you a special blood-sucking.”

“N-no…! Someone, someone, please help me!”

But just as there are the weak-minded among humans, there are also the inept among vampires.

There was a person screaming and running away from one incompetent vampire who had failed at mind control.

“You wouldn’t stop me from even this, would you?”

“Since a voluntary contract has not been concluded, we can interfere this time.”

Teresa drew her sword and charged like a woman possessed.

The terrified vampire raised both hands in surrender.

“A spineless wretch. What nerve did you have to intimidate humans in broad daylight if you can’t even put up a fight?”

“In Bloodwood, offering a contract is your right! Refusing one, too. I haven’t done a single bad thing. I refused the contract, so isn’t that the end of it!”

“You there. Why did you scream and run just now?”

The one who’d been forced into the unfair contract wept openly.

“I decided to offer my blood to a handsome female vampire! I don’t want to give my blood to some ugly vampire like *that*.”

“…What?”

Teresa was speechless, dumbfounded by the unimaginable answer. But the victim’s tears and lamentations showed no sign of stopping.

“If I keep hanging around until they accept my contract, other vampires will think I’m already claimed and won’t even bother offering me one. A human bled dry becomes a skinny thing with no taste for sucking!”

“…I can’t even.”

“If you’re heading to the heart of Bloodwood, could you take me with you? Please.”

“How did you know we were going to the heart?”

“Anyone powerful, wealthy, or beautiful who comes from afar heads to the heart of Bloodwood. That’s the only way to have the pleasure of offering yourself to a high-ranking vampire.”

Teresa didn’t like this crazy man.

She hated his irresponsibility, his failure to take charge of his own life.

He was no different from the woman they’d encountered earlier.

“Get lost.”

“Waaah. So cruel!”

Yuz voiced his concern.

“Bloodwood is a gloomy forest that’s nice for vampires to live in… Even if I am a genius thief with a knack for thievery, it’s difficult to find my way on a first trip.”

“Judging by the looks of him, there’s no need to worry about sending just him away.”

Teresa’s prediction was accurate.

The outskirts of Bloodwood were filled with people who couldn’t dare enter the forest, yet were desperate to do so.

“I’ll tell you the way if you help me protect my virginity!”

“Looking for party to enter Bloodwood! Healer urgently needed!!”

“Recruiting Warrior for five-man kamikaze team! Just need you!!”

“Hey, sis… how about me? If I’m okay with you, want to go to Bloodwood together?”

“Look at this kid? He’s kind of cute. Do you even know what you’re saying?”

Daphria spat with a disgusted expression.

“The males around here have no sense of honor. Selling their bodies to strange women. What’s so great about Bloodwood?”

“Are you stupid? Saying that dressed like a dancer has zero persuasive power, you know?”

“Want to get hit? Stop meowing and teasing me?”

“I don’t want to, what are you going to do? What are you going to do? Gonna hit me? You got the guts?”

“Enough. If you keep acting up, you’re getting hit.”

Teresa punched Hanyanya on the head.

“Hiiyaak…! How can you hit me before you tell me!”

Daphria’s face relaxed thanks to Teresa’s physical therapy, the local bully handler.

“Ian. You have a good eye for people. See anyone trustworthy?”

“The children.”

Since Bloodwood was still a forest, dangers existed, and no one tried to enter the forest with light forces.

Naturally, adults grouped together, and the children were alienated.

“Are you kids guides?”

“That’s right.”

“How could the kids even get into the Bloodwood, let alone know the way?”

Most of the children were hesitant, shuffling their feet.

“Can’t you just take us with you?”

“My dad left us and followed the vampires.”

“We’re so hungry. The vampire ladies inside the Bloodwood said if we chant ‘Kijap’ and follow them, they’ll feed us until we’re full.”

Kijap.

The word, a mantra for full bellies, choked the air from Teresa Clan’s lungs.

The adults who had abandoned them.

The children who had been left behind.

The Bloodwood was hell, right from its entrance.

The children saw the desolate expressions of the Teresa Clan and realized that the rumors and the magical chant they had long believed were false.

“Let’s go.”

“We were tricked, it seems.”

The children, greatly disappointed, left the outskirts of the Bloodwood.

Yuzu swiftly ran to them, showing them the way to Sodom Village.

Hananya gave them a handkerchief bearing the scent of her, the squad leader.

With that, those children could have a better future than lingering on the fringes of the Bloodwood.

Teresa, her face warm from seeing the children off, frowned as she noticed one child still remained.

“Why aren’t you leaving?”

“I know the way to the Bloodwood.”

“How do you know it?”

“The vampire I lived with, my mom’s partner, showed me. He said his wish was for his child to live outside the Bloodwood. He left me outside the Bloodwood for my mom’s sake.”

“And he’d want to go back inside now?”

“I won’t go anywhere unless I’m going out with my mom.”

“…”

She couldn’t have been older than Anna.

Her face, bruised as if she had been beaten by adults, her frame painfully thin—everything about her was utterly wretched.

And that made Teresa’s heart ache even more.

Because it wasn’t someone else’s problem.

Her hand trembled.

Just like her in those hopeless days.

Trembling with loneliness, succumbing to alcohol, during a time when she thought she’d never be able to wield a sword again.

Then a small hand touched hers.

“Ian.”

“Mom’s different.”

The back-alley landscape that had filled Teresa’s eyes vanished.

“Nina. Can you carry a guide on your back?”

“If they’re that skinny, I probably won’t even feel them.”

The guide, with their small hand, traced the paths of memory, pointing the way toward the heart of the Bloodwood.

The forest was terribly dark.

To wander without knowing the path was to lose oneself, quite naturally.

Ian felt the contradiction.

Vampires possessed keen night vision.

They could see through the gloom.

Humans could not.

And so, the path a vampire took to drive a human child away should have been steeped in the blackest night.

“You. What’s your name?”

“Hansel.”

“And your mother?”

“Gretel.”

“What kind of person is Hansel’s mother?”

Hansel considered this deeply before answering.

“Someone who tells me not to do a lot of things.”

“What does she tell you not to do?”

“Don’t make deals with vampires, don’t become attached to the people of the Bloodwood, don’t drink blood given by strangers, and if you leave the Bloodwood, don’t come back.”

“What happens to people who make deals with vampires?”

“They become slaves or die. If they die, you’re treated as a criminal for killing a valuable blood bag and are banished. She said that those outcasts live in the dark forests of the Bloodwood.”

Hansel pointed into the darkness, where even the torchlight couldn’t reach.

“The outcasts have come.”

“…A perceptive little one, aren’t you?”

“Blood bags. Unlucky to meet us. Vampires who’ve killed humans like to drain every last drop of blood.”

The vampires reeked of blood, no different from wild beasts.

Clearly villains of the darkest kind.

This was a fight that could not be avoided.

But Ian, the player, knew the outcasts’ secret.

So he spoke.

“Do you *really* want to suck the blood from humans until they’re dry and kill them?”

“Has the little blood bag gone mad?”

“Fear has addled his wits.”

Laughter erupted, but Ian didn’t stop, he continued.

“Vampires are half-human too. They demand riches for the pleasure of feeding, they keep promises made to the humans who offer their blood, they even release young children from the Bloodwood.”

“…”

“If all you truly desire is murder, then a fight is inevitable. But, just *maybe*.”

If you are wretched souls who have lost even your own natures, thanks to the evil mind controller’s mind control.

[Mind Control Activated]

[Target Designated – Outcasts]

[Command – If you do not truly desire to kill, then leave the Bloodwood.]

Mind control overwriting mind control.

The evil of vampires and the evil of humans.

Which is the more sinister of the two?

“We…”

“…Don’t actually want to kill anyone.”

“Even if we drink our fill, we can’t drink enough to kill a human.”

The banished ones retreated along the very path they had appeared.

Ian could not hide his guilt, believing himself to be the most wicked manipulator here.

Just as Ian’s expression held a peculiar quality as he gazed at Hansel, Hansel’s expression mirrored the same strange quality as he looked back at Ian.

If the former’s expression held a hint of doubt, the latter’s also contained a similar skepticism.

“Is Ian a vampire?”

“Why do you think so?”

“Because he altered their values with his words.”

“Then I am not a vampire.”

“How so?”

“Those people never wanted to kill anyone in the first place. That is why they ran away.”

Hansel wore a puzzled expression, then nodded with a sense of reluctantly conceding, though not fully understanding.