The Eternal Night Castle
Satou here. Is there any villain with more weaknesses than a vampire? But that means they can be defeated with courage and wisdom instead of just heroic strength, so maybe they make pretty good story villains.
“All right. This time, I should properly pay them a visit from the front door.”
I wanted to thank the vampires for saving Zena’s life and apologize for causing destruction when I came to Zena’s rescue, but most importantly, I was hoping to befriend the progenitor vampire—who seemed likely to be a reincarnation—and see if I could get information about Arisa’s God Fragments.
I didn’t know for sure yet if he really was a reincarnation, but I thought the odds were quite high.
And if he had lived for more than a thousand years, I was hoping he would have a lot of knowledge to share.
“…Well, this is creepy.”
The hall to the main entrance was lined with bones.
As I had confirmed before I came, the hole I made in the labyrinth wall when I first broke into the castle had been closed up.
Inside the entrance hall was a door with three faces, which were shouting, “INTRUDER!”
“Are those the gatekeepers, maybe?”
Once I took a step forward, the bones began clattering around me and took on human form, and semitransparent wraiths and wights appeared and swarmed me.
Don’t come any closer, please. I’m not good with horror.
I couldn’t go destroying the gatekeepers on my peaceful visit, so I unleashed my suppressed spirit light to fend them off. For those that kept coming anyway, I activated a Holy Stone to chase them away.
When some nasty bone golems masquerading as skeletons tried to sneak up on me, I deactivated them with Mana Drain.
There was one called a bone snake that withstood my Mana Drain, but I tied it up and tossed it in a corner.
“The trial is completed.”
“The gate shall open.”
“Enter, O strong one.”
With that, the door swung open.
On the other side was the Eternal Night Castle Barrier.
It didn’t seem like anyone was coming to greet me, so I decided to go on in.
“Pardon me…”
I slipped easily through the barrier.
Today, I was wearing Kuro’s basic outfit with a different disguise for a custom version.
I could’ve just come as Kuro, but I’d made a new mask for the occasion, because I thought it’d be better to look like a Japanese person than a foreigner like Kuro if I was going to meet someone who might be a fellow reincarnation.
This new mask was based on Mr. Tanaka, a staff member on the external debug team. Mr. Tubs’s face wouldn’t suit my body type, so I picked a less distinctive appearance.
“…Oh, looks like the welcome party’s here.”
Near the bridge that led to the castle over the lake, two high-class vampire women in black dresses were waiting for me.
They were apparently lords, although I thought ladies would be more accurate. Who came up with their titles?
It was part of their species name, so there was no sense complaining. Still, since I found it distracting, I decided to call them “vampiresses” instead.
One was a short, youthful-looking girl, while the other was an older beauty.
They both had bluish-white skin. If I ran into them in the dark, they might look completely blue.
…Blue People?
A phrase suddenly ran across my mind.
The women were all beauties of various kinds, and the men were said to be handsome, too, with wavy, seaweed-like bangs.
I remembered the rumors I’d heard.
Some people encounter them when they get lost deep in monster territory. As long as you don’t antagonize them, they’re apparently perfectly friendly, but if you did attack one, you’d be killed without mercy.
If that was true, I’d better be extra careful to approach peacefully.
“Welcome, O strong one.”
The younger vampiress, who had white hair and pinkish eyes, spoke first. Though she looked like a child, she was around three hundred years old and level 49.
I guess the stories were right about vampires looking much younger than they really are.
“Have you come seeking battle? Or treasures like bloodpearls and moonlight grass?”
“I seek an audience with the great progenitor.”
I answered the blond vampire lady plainly—no role-playing as Kuro this time.
“I see… So you do not seek battle…”
For some reason, the lovely woman seemed disappointed.
Did she want to fight?
The younger vampiress said, “Wait a moment,” then turned one hand into a bat and sent it off to the castle.
Wow, that’s convenient.
While we were waiting, I tried striking up a conversation with the two.
The younger one was stone silent, but the older one seemed to enjoy conversing and kindly answered my questions. However, whenever I expressed interest in a rare item, she offered it as a prize if I could defeat her in combat. I guess she really did hope to fight me.
I didn’t want to assume that all vampires were as battle-hungry as she was, but I did wish she would stop looking at me with such sparkling eyes as she invited me to battle.
While we were talking, the bat returned and merged back into the girl’s hand.
“The Lord of the Castle will see you now. Come.”
With that emotionless declaration, the younger vampiress turned and started walking toward the castle without waiting for my response.
“Welcome to the Castle of Eternal Night. Are you enjoying your visit to the stronghold of the children of darkness, o ye who passed the test of the gate?”
The progenitor greeted me elegantly, swirling a wineglass full of a bloodlike liquid in one hand.
Up close, the progenitor vampire looked like a young man with wavy seaweed-like purple hair, bluish-white skin, and French-looking facial features.
Looking at his distinctive hair, I was certain: The Blue People I’d heard about in rumors from the labyrinth village and fellow explorers were definitely these vampires.
“<Hello, Sir Vampire.>”
In order to confirm my other suspicions, I tried greeting the progenitor in Japanese.
“…What?”
His eyes widened.
“Black hair, dark eyes, that name…and most of all, that face!”
The progenitor vampire stared at me and rose from his stylish chair.
“<Yer Japanese, too?>”
The vampire lord spoke to me in Japanese, so I nodded. “<That’s right. Born and raised in Japan, as you can see.>”
So I was right.
He was a reincarnation, too. I was excited that I might be able to get information about the God Fragments, which I needed for Arisa’s sake, but since that was a sensitive topic, I decided to start by building a mutual sense of trust first.
“I thought as much.”
He didn’t have any accent when he spoke the Shigan language. His Japanese sounded like the Kansai dialect; he must’ve been from Kansai in his previous life. I wondered if his name here, Ban, came from his Japanese name—maybe the kanji for number or to sow?
“You do not appear to be a Hero of the Saga Empire. Are you perhaps a Lost One? Someone who was spirited away?”
“I’ve never heard the term ‘Lost One’ before, but I think I’d be called a transference.”
At the moment, I didn’t know if mine was a case of transference (being teleported from one world to the other) or transmigration (a full-on rebirth), but apparently, the latter never had black hair, so I was going with the former for now.
“Oh-ho? Some hundreds of years ago, the Holy Province of Heraluon attempted to imitate the Saga Empire’s Hero Summoning ceremony and bring forth a Hero from Japan, but I knew not that any kingdom had attempted it since…”
The vampire lord crossed his arms gravely and muttered some disturbing things about “kidnapping” and “must I dispose of summoners and kings once again?”
I guess he figured a transference meant a summoning.
If the level-69 progenitor was to lead his army of level-40-to-50 vampiresses, he could probably at least take a small kingdom down easily.
But as far as I knew, there wasn’t any place called the Holy Province of Heraluon on this continent.
“No need for all that. The people who were involved in the summoning have already been killed by a greater demon’s attack, from what I hear.”
“I suppose even demons do good deeds on occasion.”
I really had heard a story like this from Princess Menea.
Technically, I hadn’t confirmed if it was true, but there would be no reason for Princess Menea to lie about it, so I didn’t see a point in doubting her.
“I should love to discuss stories of Japan, but first we ought to take care of other business, hmm?”
“Good idea. I came to tell you…”
First, I apologized for Kuro destroying part of the castle during Zena’s rescue.
“That was a splendid rescue. Cutting through my Earth Magic–enhanced walls with a sword, resisting the ‘Binding Gaze’ of the progenitor vampire, and that bizarre yet brilliant move of digging through the labyrinth walls and entering by way of the ceiling! Truly magnificent.”
The vampire sounded delighted.
I guess he didn’t mind that I’d stolen Zena back.
“I can repair the broken castle and labyrinth walls later.”
“No need. The dungeonmaster is likely to restore the labyrinth walls unbidden, and repairing the walls gives the people of the castle something to occupy themselves with.”
Now that he mentioned it, the labyrinth walls really had been fixed already.
“By the way, why did you kidnap Zen—erm, that girl?”
That was one of my main questions.
If he had intended on sucking her blood, then I couldn’t turn a blind eye, fellow Japanese person or not.
But even if that was the case, I would probably try to evacuate Zena from Labyrinth City, not kick him out, since he’d lived here much longer.
“Mere happenstance.”
“Happenstance?”
His response was so matter-of-fact that I just repeated it questioningly.
“It’s a bit of a long story,” he warned before explaining in more detail.
“Once every two months, a market is held in a settlement in the labyrinth’s Upper Stratum. The boss of that market requested that I defeat a special monster known as the Rusting Slime, but on my way to battle it, I happened upon a maiden on the verge of death.”
As he explained, Zena had just been mortally wounded by the sword ax mantis when he found and rescued her.
Apparently, traveling with a vampire in smoke form could stop the progress of poison and bleeding, so he had brought her to the castle and healed her with magic potions from his large stock.
I was curious how this “smoke form” worked exactly, but my curiosity would have to wait.
“Do you often do this sort of philanthropic endeavor?”
“When one lives as long as I have, one’s most formidable foe is tedium. When I happen to espy someone in trouble, yes, I do make a habit of helping them.”
Come to think of it, he mentioned earlier that fixing the wall would give the vampires something to do.
“And surely, there is no reason that should not apply to a beautiful maiden, hmm?”
“Fair enough.”
He added that he never left the labyrinth Lower Stratum except to visit the market in the labyrinth village, so it had been about a hundred years since he brought someone to the castle to save them, like he did with Zena.
I thanked the kindly vampire for saving Zena’s life and asked if there was anything he might want me to procure for him from the surface in return.
“Indeed. I do desire Lessau’s Lifeblood.”
That cheap wine again. I had half expected him to respond that he didn’t need anything, but to my surprise, he had an immediate answer.
Thinking about it, I remembered someone in the labyrinth village mentioning that the Blue People liked this particular wine.
I’d just recently given away the last of my stock, though, and didn’t have any left.
Since an intermediate demon had wreaked havoc in the capital of Lessau County, there wasn’t any to be found in Labyrinth City, but I could probably get some in a neighboring city or brewery.
“All right, I’ll try and find some. I do have an Item Box and teleportation magic, so I can bring fresh food or clothes and such if you like, too?”
The progenitor vampire looked at the vampiresses standing at attention nearby.
“A fashionable dress.”
“Mithril or gold or silver ingots.”
“Cute accessories.”
“I’d like a lot of ink and paper.”
I made notes of the vampiresses’ requests in the memo tab of my menu’s social networking column.
It was a long list, but aside from Lessau’s Lifeblood, I had all of those items in my Storage already.
I could give the items to them right away, but I figured I’d deliver everything with the wine instead. I double-checked to make sure I’d gotten the list right and promised to bring the supplies on my next visit.
Oh, right.
I decided to ask about the slave girls I saw on my map search when I rescued Zena.
“I purchased them legally as slaves.”
He looked bemused as to why I would ask but answered me anyway.
“Purchased them? Did you go up into the city?”
“Heavens, of course not. Slaves are sold at the big market I mentioned. I sell monster cores and parts there and use the money to purchase slaves being sold.”
He seemed to be a valued client there: He explained that merchants sometimes brought high-price slaves there only he could afford.
“But do you keep the slaves as a blood supply source?”
I was worried that it might be taboo to bring it up, but it was important, so I had to ask even if it was a little accusatory.
“How rude. They are valued employees of the castle. I’ll ask you not to speak of them like common livestock.”
His response was more adamant than I’d expected.
“Forgive my rudeness. It won’t happen again.”
“The slaves do provide ten milliliters of blood once a month, but otherwise they simply do housework in the castle. I would never force them to become vampires against their will or lay a hand on them in any way.”
It sounded like I wasn’t exactly wrong about them being blood supply sources, then, but at least their free will wasn’t being stolen or anything.
From the sound of things, he had lost his sexual drive upon becoming a vampire.
The vampiresses were all his wives, but they did nothing more than give the occasional kiss or embrace.
His only lustful indulgence was drinking a glass of wine with a single drop of blood in it three times a day, he said, which was a little different from the vampires I usually pictured.
This sounded more like a vampire who’d show up in a steamy romance novel.
“If a slave wishes to be freed, I generally do so after five or ten years of service, but only so that I can provide them with the necessary education and training to take care of themselves and enough money to buy a home once I free them.”
With such kind treatment, I’d imagine plenty of people would want to serve him, even if he was a vampire.
“But if they live down here for ten years, won’t they be sensitive to sunlight and such?”
“No need to fear. On the outskirts of this cavern lives a mage who excels in Light Magic. I send the handmaidens there once a day to bathe in sunlight.”
“A Light Magic mage in a vampire’s territory?”
“Indeed. A foolish son of a noble attempted to lay a hand on his beloved daughter, so the man killed him and fled into the labyrinth with the girl and his wife. I provide them with food, shelter, and daily necessities in exchange for his services.”
Ah, I see.
This seemed like a lot of trouble for a vampire to go to for his slaves, but he had his reasons besides the goodness of his heart.
“If I was to harm or mistreat them, a Hero would doubtless come to stop me. It is better to coexist peaceably anyway.”
The vampire gave an exaggeratedly villainous grin.
Since we seemed to be getting along so far, I decided to take my leave for the day without trying to push for too much information, but the progenitor stopped me.
“Since you have come all this way, shall we not have a bout before you go?”
As he smiled slyly, two long fangs poked out at the edges of his lips.
At first, I tried to act like it was a close fight, but it looked like this bout was going to end in my overwhelming victory.
“Check.”
“Time-out—that move is cheating.”
“But I thought you were going to stop saying ‘time-out’ after last time?”
“Grrr…”
The progenitor vampire glared at the board and growled.
That’s right: Our “bout” was in shogi.
He had provided the shogi board we were using to play, but he turned out to be laughably bad at it despite his apparent passion for the game.
The long-lived races of this world seemed to enjoy shogi, since the Bolenan Forest elves were big shogi fans, too.
“I shall offer you three bloodpearls if you wait just one more time.”
“All right. But this is the last one for real, okay?”
“Indeed.”
I didn’t mind waiting if it meant I could get rare vampire-made materials, but playing shogi against him was a bit more stressful than against the elves.
When the company I worked for made a shogi game app, I underwent special training from Mr. Tubs—who had played in tournaments before—so I was pretty good for a layman.
Since the app had difficulty levels, too, I had even learned how to effectively hold back against someone, but I was still finding it near impossible to let the vampire lord win.
Even when I made the most obvious openings I could think of, he had a hard time spotting a chance for victory.
He might not even be able to beat Mia’s father, the shogi-loving elf Lamisauya, who was until now the worst shogi player I knew.
“Don’t give up, Lord Ban!”
“Lord Ban, you can do it!”
But the vampiresses watching our match didn’t seem particularly bothered by that. Every time their progenitor exclaimed “Time-out!” and groaned like a child, they gave him lovingly sympathetic looks.
Well, as they say, it takes all kinds.
“Ah, yes, Sir Helsing—”
“You may call me Ban. And I shall call you Kuro, if that is all right.”
“Sure. So there’s something I want to ask you…”
Now that our friendship had solidified, I thought I would try asking if he knew anything about the God Fragments.
“Such talk is uncouth during a bout.”
“You’re right, of course. Sorry.”
I meekly apologized.
“After our match, though, I shall direct you toward a more knowledgeable fellow. If you bring the bloodpearls I have given you, he will no doubt tell you whatever you wish to know.”
“That would be great.”
“Then with that settled, let us return to the match.”
As the vampire lord made his next move, the light clacking of shogi pieces echoed through the Eternal Night Castle.
Our shogi match continued deep into the night, until a certain visitor arrived.
“I’ve come to defeat you, Lord Ban!”
“Energetic as always, aren’t you, Semery?”
Riding a ruin scorpion and flanked by a Tyrannosaurus-style ancient land beast and a prey roper with ivy for limbs, a beautiful young girl faced off against the progenitor vampire in the castle courtyard. She had bluish-white skin and wavy black hair in braids.
This lovely young woman was a greater vampire, turned long ago by Ban. She had turned her mount and the monsters that guarded her into vampires herself.
I was curious why one of his own subordinates would attack him, but he just responded lightly that she was “in a rebellious phase.”
This was probably just another way to pass the time for them.
Besides, although she claimed she was here to defeat the progenitor, Semery’s bluish-white skin was tinged purple.
In spite of her words, she had the eyes of a maiden in love.
“Now, who will be my vanguard today?”
“Me, Lord Ban!”
“No, please, allow me.”
“I wanna do it, too…”
In addition to the blond beauty from before, a redhead and a brunette also raised their hands insistently.
I guess it wasn’t just the one vampiress who was obsessed with battle.
“My turn.”
The young-looking white-haired vampiress, who’d been taciturn all this time, raised a small hand and walked into the courtyard.
She used one long fingernail to slice a cut in her wrist. The blood it produced squirmed like a living thing and took the form of a scythe.
…That was so vampire-like that it was almost cliché, but it was cool to see it happen in real life.
Semery drew a broadsword made from monster parts.
“Hmph, it’s Shirahime today, is it? I thought for sure it’d be the chubby blonde.”
“I-I’m not chubby! Just a little plump, that’s all!”
The busty woman Semery had called “chubby” wasn’t skinny, but I wouldn’t call her “chubby,” either.
Ignoring the pair’s exchange, the smaller girl entered the courtyard and pointed her scythe at Semery.
“My vanguard will be Tyranon. Go, Tyranon!”
I couldn’t help feeling a bit of affinity for Semery’s dorky choice of names.
The ancient land beast turned on one foot and swung its tail, but the small vampiress struck it down.
Considering that it was almost twenty feet tall and looked like a huge Tyrannosaurus rex, the creature actually seemed to be pretty light on its feet.
The girl easily cut the beast’s tail off with her scythe—but it looked like it had been expecting that.
Somehow, the spray of blood that gushed from the cut-off tail instantly turned into flames.
Just as the flamethrower-like spray of blood was about to surround her body, the small vampiress turned into mist and evaded it.
But Semery’s side seemed to have a good grasp of the powers of vampires: The flamethrower still burned her body, even in mist form.
The watching vampiresses all gasped, and Semery’s smile widened.
“…How foolish,” the progenitor murmured.
According to my AR display, the small vampiress had taken only minimal damage.
She emerged from the shadow of the land beast and quickly cut off both its legs.
Evidently, the mist transformation had been fake, and she’d actually melted into the shadows and moved.
This was the race-specific inherent skill “Shadow Walk,” not Shadow Magic. Only a few of the vampires had it, including the progenitor and the small vampiress.
It seemed to be usable only by older vampires, as the 170-year-old Semery didn’t have it.
Without its legs, the ancient land beast could only flail helplessly as the white-haired girl slashed it to pieces. It turned to ash, which must be what happened when a vampire’s health ran out.
“Winner: Shirahime Ryuuna.”
The quiet girl raised her fist in a small gesture of triumph.
Then she walked up to the progenitor vampire and presented her cheek. He gave it a light kiss, and she smiled just a little.
Okay, I guess that was kinda cute.
“My next fighter is Roper! Shirahime can’t fight twice in a row, got it?”
The still-smiling girl started to walk back into the courtyard, but Semery stopped her irritably.
She looked to the progenitor vampire for judgment.
“Indeed. A one-sided match is no fun.”
Thus, the second round was between Roper and the busty blonde.
Like the smaller vampiress, she cut her wrist and used her blood to make weapons, this time twin daggers.
The ivy monster promptly attacked, but she dodged it with inhuman speed, using her dagger to parry any tentacle vines she couldn’t avoid.
Unlike the land beast’s blood, the prey roper’s sap didn’t catch fire. However, it seemed to be sticky and was slowing the blond vampiress’s movements.
The nail-like ends of the tentacles were gradually slashing up her clothes, too. Now here was a monster that understood the value of fan service. Keep up the good work.
“Ah-ha-ha-ha! Good one, Roper! Expose that shamefully pudgy body of hers to the light!”
“I’m! Not! Pudgy!”
Agitated by Semery’s taunt, the blond beauty finally completely ran out of energy to dodge the attacks and got wrapped up by several tentacles and lifted in midair.
Wow, that’s quite a sight.
Since I felt bad staring at her in that state, I politely turned the other way.
Behind me, I heard crackling sounds.
The tentacles had emitted some kind of electric attack, putting her in a paralyzed state.
She didn’t seem to be able to turn into fog or fight back now, so the match was over.
“Winner: Roper.”
Since it seemed to be over, I turned around.
Yikes, that’s gory… The tentacles tossed the remains of the woman to the ground, ripped in two and torn limb from limb.
Then it threw the blonde’s head, which the smallest vampiress caught.
“That was rough.”
“…How embarrassing.”
Geh!
I guess that’s a vampire for you.
They could talk even if all that was left was a head.
So these girls really are basically immortal…
“No need to worry. If I give her some blood, she’ll recover right away.”
As I stared at the talking head in shock, the progenitor kindly reassured me.
According to my AR display, her health was already recovering at an incredible rate.
“I’m keeping Roper in as my fighter. Bring out your general!”
Semery looked up at the progenitor excitedly.
Not appearing to notice her gaze, the progenitor vampire looked at me instead.
“Routine is the root of sloth. Let’s change things up today, shall we? Kuro, will you show me how you defeated my guardians?”
“Yeah, sure.”
Maybe I could just use a random Magic Sword to cut off its tentacles?
“What?! Roper was made exclusively for Lord Ban’s use. I won’t waste it on a mere human!”
Semery gnashed her teeth angrily.
…Exclusively? Didn’t you just use it on the blond lady?
And I was a little afraid to ask how exactly she planned to “use” it.
“Fine. I shall torment you myself.”
Sending Roper back behind her, Semery stepped forward into the battle arena, looking wrathful.
“I don’t want to hurt her. Any suggestions on how I should hold back?” I whispered to the progenitor.
“A human ventures to speak of holding back against me?! How dare you underestimate the great Semery!”
Oops. I guess vampires had pretty good ears.
Now she looked mad enough to pop a vein.
“Fear not. A greater vampire shall not perish, even if they turn to ash. A little blood and a core placed on the ash will revive them immediately, so feel free to fight without holding back.”
The progenitor looked gleeful as he gave this permission.
I wished he wouldn’t fan the flames, since Semery seemed easily angered.
“Lord Ban! If I beat this guy, the conditions don’t change, got it?”
“Of course. If you defeat him, I shall become your captive until the end of the month as promised. But if you lose, Kuro here will get the right to give you orders instead.”
Wait, I don’t need that.
As our eyes met, Semery’s expression wavered.
Then she abruptly covered her chest, hiding the generous amount of exposed cleavage.
Um, rude.
“Y-you can’t make any perverse orders!”
“Oh dear, Semery, are you already assuming you’ll lose?”
As if seeking vengeance, the blond vampiress’s head teased her mercilessly.
What a surreal scene.
“Hey, you with the black hair! Hurry up and get ready!” Semery shouted.
Since it seemed like she wouldn’t die if I beheaded her, that might be the easiest way to finish things.
I reached into Storage by way of my Garage Bag and pulled out one of my forged Magic Swords.
“Oh-ho? It looks simple, but that sword is truly the work of a master.”
The progenitor looked impressed by my sword.
I was kind of happy to hear such praise for my mass-produced work.
“Hi-yaaaaaaa!”
With a loud battle cry, Semery charged at me, easily swinging a broadsword with her slender arms.
It would be rude to finish her off in one blow, so I raised my sword to fend off her jumping attack.
Oof.
The unexpected weight of her attack sent cracks through the stone paving at my feet, surrounding us with a cloud of dust.
She immediately followed up with a kick. I jumped away, and she swung her sword sideways, as if she’d anticipated my move.
“Wow.”
I assumed she was just a brute-force kind of fighter, but she actually had an impressive knowledge of sword techniques.
If I let myself get caught up in the flow of the fight, I might forget to hold back, so I decided to use the “Saga Emperor Sword Style” skill I’d once learned from Hayato the Hero.
“Oh-ho, a master of the Saga Empire’s techniques, are you? Even Semery might have trouble fighting you, then.”
“Th-that’s not true, Lord Ban! My long years of training won’t allow me to lose to a brat like this!”
Semery started moving her sword even faster.
She must’ve spent her 170 years of life practicing whenever she had a chance. Her polished swordsmanship was on par with Pochi’s teacher Miss Portomea.
However, she lacked the cunning and wisdom of the elf teachers—which made her easy to read.
And as a bonus, her face was extremely expressive.
I allowed her to use the moves she wanted while still driving her into a corner, like when I practiced against Pochi.
As the tide of battle slowly turned away from her, Semery sliced a cut in her wrist and used the blood to create needles and shoot them at me in desperation.
I made a “Magic Power Armor” gauntlet on my left hand to knock them away, then used the Magic Sword in my right hand to destroy her broadsword while her guard was down.
“Why, you…!”
Semery created a blood sword on the spot to go back on the offensive, but I parried it with my Magic Sword and twisted around to get into her blind side.
With “Magic Power Armor” deactivated on my left hand, I reached for her solar plexus.
As soon as my hand touched, I used Mana Drain to steal her magic power.
Then, once her magical defenses were down, I drove in a punch.
“Gah!”
Semery choked on the lack of air. I guess vampires still needed to breathe.
I withdrew my fist, then brought the sword in my other hand to her neck—and stopped short, despite myself.
Aside from her bluish skin, she looked just like a human girl, so I couldn’t bring myself to cut off her head.
Even if I knew it wouldn’t kill her, my instinctive aversion was too strong.
“Winner: Kuro!”
The progenitor still deemed me victorious.
Her strength drained, Semery dropped to her hands and knees, coughing.
“Kuro, what do you ask of Semery?”
Before I could open my mouth to answer, my eyes met with Semery’s. She gnashed her teeth and glowered up at me, trembling with humiliation.
It was tempting to be sadistic, but I had no intention of making any sexual requests.
Not at all. I swear.
“Let me see…”
But you couldn’t fault me for making her sweat it out just for a few seconds.
Semery seemed like a natural target for teasing.
“…Could you show me some of the sights of the Lower Stratum?”
Surprised by my request, Semery blinked a few times and repeated, “Sights?”
The progenitor seemed pleased, clapping me on the shoulder and laughing heartily.
A high-level vampire’s arm strength is several times that of an ordinary human’s, so he really shouldn’t smack people so casually.
“The sights, you say! All right, then. I’ll show you some amazing places the likes of which you’ve never seen!”
Semery seemed to take this as some sort of new challenge and pointed at me enthusiastically.
“Semery, you ought to take him to Yoroi and Mukuro, then.”
“Ooh, yeah! Their wars are so fun to watch.”
…Wars?
No, more importantly, I should be focusing on those names.
Could they come from the Japanese words for armor and corpse?
I wondered if they were an armored knight and some kind of non-vampire undead—like a lich or an Undead King.
Maybe the knight was even a headless dullahan.
“Are they reincarnations, too?”
“Indeed, that is correct.”
Considering that Ban was only the third reincarnation I’d met after Arisa and the Undead King Zen, getting to meet two more already was unexpected.
Maybe there were more reincarnations in this world than I thought.
“What about Yuika, Lord Ban?”
“You should ask Mukuro first, since he’s Yuika’s guardian.”
…Wow, there’s still another one?
Was the Lower Stratum a reincarnation hot spot or something?
As I thought about this, the vampire lord addressed me.
“Mukuro is the knowledgeable person I mentioned before. He’s lived for an absurdly long time and is always quite bored. I imagine he’ll be glad to answer your questions.”
“Mukuro can be moody, but he likes Semery, so you should be fine if you’re with her.”
From the sound of things, the progenitor must have had me fight Semery in order to introduce us in a roundabout way.
He seemed to be a big-picture kind of guy.
“All right, let’s go, Kuro!”
Semery jumped up impatiently.
There was still some time before dawn, so I could probably treat myself to a little sightseeing in the Lower Stratum.
Including a visit to these three new reincarnations, of course.
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