#071. The Vampire is Too Kind (3)

#071. The Vampire is Too Kind (3)

Anna, weary of the Bloodwood Forest’s endless darkness, clung to Nina’s back and fell asleep.

As I rode with Nina and supported Anna with my body so she wouldn’t fall off, Hansel, who was riding in front of Anna, pointed once more into the darkness beyond the torchlight’s reach.

“Please follow the left tree roots and ascend the old stairs.”

“It was before the torchlight even reached. How did you see the stairs?”

“I memorized the path.”

“When were you cast out, again?”

“That’s…”

Nina’s voice also held a hint of suspicion.

The others in the Theresa Clan were slowly beginning to notice Hansel’s oddness.

However, the timing was off.

As we ascended the stairs, the forest brightened as if the darkness from moments before had been a lie.

An open space within the Bloodwood Forest.

A city in the woods, bathed in artificial light.

A single vampire came to greet them.

“Welcome to Bloodywalker, the artificial city of the Bloodwood Forest.”

They had reached the Bloodwood residential district.

The one who welcomed them all was a beauty with sharp fangs and pale skin.

She didn’t possess an extraordinary physique or wear extravagant clothes, but the Theresa Clan felt a strange unease merely from her serene smile.

“Rather unusual visitors you are. To find your way to our village along a path known only to elder vampires.”

The gaze of suspicion toward Hansel deepened, but in the midst of arriving at the residential district, the atmosphere of interrogation faded away, vaguely.

“What is the purpose of your visit to the village?”

“The search and extermination of the wanted criminal Ronowe. Plus, an invitation from the Grand Duke.”

“The Grand Duke… as in Count Dracula…?”

Even the guard, with his air of mystery, couldn’t quite mask his unease.

“You’d be wise to leave Haelim, as if you hadn’t received an invitation at all.”

“Why?”

“Because no one who enters Haelim’s heart, having received… *his* invitation, ever leaves on their own two feet.”

“…!”

“The gold on a wanted poster isn’t worth more than your life, is it?”

It was an ill omen.

The Grand Duke of Haelim was the boss of the Reiner Finance faction.

They knew that much, but no one had imagined he wouldn’t let a single invited guest leave alive.

They hadn’t conceived that such a lawless den could exist.

“If that were widely known, Haelim would have been deserted long ago.”

“It’s no use. Humans who come to Haelim and engage in ‘contracts’… they end up liking it here.”

“Do you hate your home?”

“Our city is a city of vampires who enjoy ‘fasting,’ vampires who don’t indulge in luxuries. Frankly, this place is the last bastion where humans can be safe, so don’t go any further.”

The guard vampire stepped back, as if he had done his duty.

But the residents of the artificial city didn’t.

“A human seeking a contract?”

“Does he want to be raised? Or sucked dry?”

“Why did he bring a child? Surely he’s not planning to sell her?”

“Even so, a child is a bit much.”

“Rather wicked for a human, isn’t he?”

Teresa, faced with a sudden tide of unwanted gossip, reluctantly revealed their business.

“We’ve come to kill a wanted fugitive hiding in Haelim. And we’ll meet the Grand Duke.”

The vampires exchanged glances, then silently retreated into the shadows.

“Is it the Grand Duke that’s the problem, or that you’ve come to hunt someone?”

“It’s one and the same!”

“To be treated as heretics by vampires… it’s a peculiar feeling.”

Something else was truly peculiar.

“Now that we’re at the stronghold, let’s replenish our supplies.”

“Shopkeeper. How much for the jerky?”

“Thirty milliliters of blood.”

The fact that currency had become utterly useless.

“Money…?”

“We have plenty of money. We’ve lived long enough to have more than we need, why would we want more?”

“I’ll offer more.”

“Don’t need it. Offer blood, or leave.”

A city of vampires where trade was impossible without blood!

“Just how are the Revolution Order’s informants surviving here?”

“…I’m starting to wonder myself. Holy Maiden. Are our informants alright?”

“Ah, well… I didn’t know it was like this here. Maybe they’re hunting scrawny deer outside Haelim and selling animal blood to make a living…?”

Hansel shook his head at Cecilia’s words.

“Vampires, they don’t like animal blood.”

“Why not?”

“It’s because… they’ve been eating *real* blood since they were little.”

Animals were accessible and easy to hunt for vampires.

Ultimately, human blood becoming the unit of currency was an inevitable flow.

“Wait. So how on earth is Lonoway hiding out here? Vampires who can see through the darkness are wandering around, and trade isn’t possible without blood.”

Nina’s point had everyone groaning, rubbing their temples.

It was Ian who answered.

“Lonoway has ‘test subjects,’ doesn’t he?”

“…!”

“Lonoway, who can mass-produce human-like demi-humans for vampires, is no different than a supplier of ‘artificial blood,’ a counterfeiter.”

Some test subjects might even produce more blood than humans, living even longer.

Many functions as a human are removed, specializing solely in the role of a blood bag.

“Artificial blood? You guys… you came to Bloodwood to catch that damned b*stard?”

Suddenly, vampires sprung out from the shadows cast by a nearby streetlamp.

“Please, catch him!”

“That fiend is the enemy of us, the common vampire.”

“Is there a problem with the artificial blood?”

The vampires of the artificial city affirmed strongly.

“We adhere to non-lethality, consuming as little blood as possible. But artificial blood induces homicidal urges in the consumer.”

“It’s like amplifying the urge to destroy that you feel when consuming blood from a blood bag that didn’t grow up happy, amplified hundreds of times. That blood bag of his must be the most miserable blood bag in the world.”

The owner of the most miserable blood bag in the world.

Lonoway hadn’t just committed atrocities in Sodom.

He continued his wicked ways in Bloodwood as well.

Teresa felt a certain sense of responsibility.

If someone had to punish him, it had to be her.

“Why didn’t you catch Lonoway?”

“Was the name of the artificial blood supplier Lonoway?”

“That’s right.”

“We’d love to catch him. We’ve already searched everywhere outside Bloodwood. The fact that we still couldn’t find his facilities means… he’s *inside* here.”

The heart of Bloodwood.

The domain castle of the Grand Duke.

It became more likely that Lonoway was staying there.

The connection between the Hero’s party and the aristocracy.

Connections between the powerful were forged between Count Dracula and Lonoway, the former mage of the Hero’s party, second string, and that bond continued, joining forces on the artificial blood issue.

The vampires trembled with fear.

“What were you so afraid of that you couldn’t go to the center of Bloodwood until now? You’re vampires, aren’t you?”

“The center of Bloodwood is shrouded in Blood Haze, a Blood Mist. An artificial mist made from poor quality artificial blood. If common vampires like us approach, we’ll inevitably become drunk on blood.”

A vampire cannot escape the influence of blood.

A vampire who feeds on the blood of humans raised happily in a healthy environment retains their humanity, but one who feeds on the blood of humans raised unhappily in a poor environment becomes closer to a beast.

“The only way to prevent that is to possess blood so dense, or so much of it, that even if artificial blood enters the body through respiration, it has no effect. Like a ‘noble’ vampire.”

“Or, have a ‘different species’ enter the body, one unaffected by blood.”

The vampires of the artificial city implored.

“We may live beneath colossal structures that blot out the sky and under a fabricated sun, but we are resolved to live as humans, not as beasts.”

“Please, destroy the artificial blood distributors and their facilities that threaten our livelihood.”

Not all vampires are evil, just as not all humans are.

It was simply that those who would make them evil, and exploit them, were at the heart of the Bloodwood.

“They’re enemies we must eliminate anyway. We can do that much.”

Theresa Clan received an additional mission in the field.

The reward was food, water, a map,

and materials needed to subdue the vampires.

Everything they could get from the artificial city, they took.

The path to the heart of the Bloodwood.

Hänsel once again led the way.

But Nina no longer followed Hänsel’s guidance.

A truth she had delayed, but could no longer ignore, had to be confronted.

“Hänsel. You… you’re a vampire, aren’t you?”

“Just because I have night vision like a cat-person, you suspect me!”

“If you cannot disprove this heresy, we will have no choice but to treat you as a ‘vampire’ rather than a ‘human child’.”

Theresa Clan’s gaze hardened.

With information from the Bloodwood’s core continuously warning of greater danger, she couldn’t risk carrying such an unstable element any further.

“Even the vampires of the artificial city said that unless you were a ‘noble, high-ranking vampire,’ you couldn’t evade the effects of the blood mist. The path you’re leading us on is clearly shrouded in mist.”

Hänsel was a high-ranking vampire concealing his true nature.

Animosity, bordering on hostility, began to show.

But one person stepped in front of them all.

“Ian?”

“What are you doing? Get out of the way.”

“He’s a high-ranking vampire who hid his identity and tried to deceive us! A real con, nya!”

“We need to make an example of this lousy vampire!”

“Everyone. Calm down.”

Despite their urging, Ian didn’t budge.

He was a mind-controller more wicked than most.

And for that very reason, he could perceive something.

This vampire named Hänsel.

Or rather, this mind-controller named Hänsel.

“If he had wanted to, he could have let us wander lost in the forest, worsening our food situation for a long time, and forcing us to sell our blood for survival. But he didn’t.”

Perhaps he had no intention of harming them.

Hänsel nodded.

“You all know it, don’t you? Being with the high-ranking vampire Ian. There’s no way you wouldn’t know when you’re a comrade of a powerful vampire who is completely fine even after entering the blood mist.”

“What vile tongue do you wield before a noble Saint, you paltry vampire!”

“Ian? A vampire?”

“Ha. No one here has ever seen Ian drink blood.”

“Ian follows Theresa through the hunting grounds, possesses valor that fears no monster, dauntless before assassins. A Saint, he is.”

“Following the hunting grounds? That means he’s already sucking down animal or monster blood locally.”

Hansel’s remark gave Daphry and Hanyanya pause.

“Come to think of it, that’s true.”

“Theresa. Did you… did you know your boy was a vampire?!”

“What insane drivel is this? I’ve never taken my eyes off him. Of course he hasn’t drunk blood.”

Hansel presented another piece of evidence for Ian being a vampire.

“Vampires are good at deceiving hearts and making contracts. How is Ian any different?”

Even Theresa, listening, began to suspect: could Ronoawe have pulled some trick to turn our child into a vampire?