Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka? (LN) - Volume 14 - Chapter 4.2

B4 Ruminate: Vampires

My relationship with Foduey continued in spite of that confrontational first meeting.

Since he made a fool of me, I was determined to make him eat those words.

So I studied up on humanity, and periodically went to show off the results to him.

This continued for a while, regardless of the fact that my original goal had been to speak to Sariel.

I went to see a woman, was chased off by an old man, and ended up having clandestine meetings with the man instead.

When I put it that way, it’s quite a ridiculous thing, isn’t it?

…Let’s not dig any deeper into that line of thought.

Whenever Foduey and I met up, we spent most of our time on one thing: games.

The world the reincarnations came from had games such as shogi, correct?

Well, this world had something similar.

Shun taught the rules of shogi to Julius, who taught it to me as Hyrince, and made me play with him until I resented losing.

The concept of being able to use pieces one had stolen was quite novel.

In our shogi-esque game, pieces that had been taken were eliminated from the board completely.

In exchange, there were more pieces than in shogi, and the board was larger.

That made things more complicated, such that even a single match took a long time.

So a simplified version with less pieces and a smaller board was more popular with the general public.

The only people who played the full version were pros and experts.

Foduey happened to be the latter.

Being the man known as the “Demon Lord of the business world,” he excelled at controlling the board just as he did in business.

He likely could have held his own even against a professional player.

Heh. He never defeated me once, though.

But human and dragon minds calculate things very differently.

It’s only logical that I would surpass him at such a game.

Immature?

…Perhaps a little bit.

But considering our first meeting, is it so wrong that I would want to have a taste of revenge against him?

At any rate, on one such day, Foduey and I were playing yet again.

“Hrmm…”

Once I made my move, Foduey groaned and stopped moving for a while.

He glared at the board for a while longer, but finally he gave a long sigh and sank back into his chair.

“I resign.”

It was the correct decision.

He had no chance of turning things around, no matter how he struggled.

“Good gracious. I thought myself a decent player. But being decimated this thoroughly is actually rather refreshing in a way.”

Those words appeared to be genuine, not just an effort to hide his frustration. He wore an amused grin despite the fact that he had lost.

Foduey reached out to move the pieces back to their starting positions.

“You want to keep going?”

As Foduey cheerfully attempted to continue to the next battle, I grew somewhat irritated.

Each round of this game took a considerable amount of time, as I said before.

It was mildly bewildering to me that Foduey still wanted to keep playing.

“Come now, you have more time than you could ever need. Surely you can humor an old man with precious little time left for a while longer.”

It was true that as a dragon, I had no lifespan to worry about.

Even if each match took a relatively long time, it still passed by in the blink of an eye compared to the eternity a dragon could live.

There would be no wasted time to speak of if I played with him a little longer.

“Precious little time, hmm?” I muttered pointedly.

Foduey and I were playing at a table in a large room.

For someone of Foduey’s wealth, however, the size of the room seemed rather modest.

It was only furnished to the bare minimum, with no showy décor whatsoever.

I suppose you could call that minimalism, but it seemed a strange lifestyle for someone like Foduey, whose total assets were an order of magnitude higher than that of most people.

Strangest of all, there wasn’t a single window in the entire room, and the lighting was quite dim.

“…Good point. I suppose we don’t know if that’s still the case anymore.”

Foduey gave a smile that was more of a grimace, revealing pointed canines at the edges of his mouth.

“Dear me… I thought I’d already had more ups and downs in life than the average person. Who would have thought that something like this would happen so near to the end?”

“True. I doubt even the most knowledgeable minds could have predicted such an outcome.”

Even I, a dragon, never thought that this would happen.

To borrow an idiom from the reincarnations, it was what one might call “a bolt from the blue.”

In terms of our game, it was as if someone had come over and flipped the entire board.

That is how unimaginable what happened to Foduey really was.

I can only tell what happened secondhand.

After all, I did not spend my every waking hour observing the human world.

I know only what Foduey himself told me, as I was not there myself.

At the time, the Sariella Foundation was secretly working to expose a criminal organization.

In fact, it was a combination of several different groups.

However, there was no obvious connection between them, and none of the groups even knew what others they were working with.

This made it very difficult to investigate, and time-consuming.

The Sariella Foundation realized this and decided to use somewhat forceful means that ignored customary practices, attempting to infiltrate the groups.

I do not believe they were wrong to do so. If they left the organization to its own devices, there would more than likely have been even more victims.

Even then, unfortunately enough, they were already too late.

That criminal organization had been made for the sole purpose of carrying out a certain man’s machinations.

As you may have already guessed, that man was none other than Potimas.

He was sowing the seeds of his influence in criminal organizations all over the world, slowly taking over—all without ever showing himself.

His caution was so excessive that most of the organizations weren’t even aware that they were connected to Potimas at all.

But no amount of caution can keep such activities secret forever.

Potimas overreached himself.

In the end, it was the orphans who helped the Sariella Foundation find Potimas.

The Foundation managed and supported orphanages all over the world, and in the course of these activities, they discovered something strange.

There was an increasing number of orphaned children disappearing.

Generally, children left the orphanage if they were adopted by a foster family, reached a certain age, and so on.

But more and more, they found they could no longer locate the children afterward.

Of course, even the Sariella Foundation couldn’t keep track of every single child who moved on from the orphanage, but they had certain systems in place to ensure that the children didn’t fall upon hard times after leaving.

In most cases, they found jobs through employment agencies affiliated with the Sariella Foundation and made a living that way.

But at some point, the number of orphans using that employment agency started to decrease.

It was a minor enough change that most people would pay it no mind, but Sariel noticed something was amiss and ordered an investigation.

As a result, they discovered that some of the orphans had gone missing entirely, and behind it was an organization under Potimas’s control.

The kidnapped orphans were being subjected to Potimas’s human experiments.

While the chimeras at Sariel’s orphanage were the result of experiments meant to produce chimeras from birth, these stolen orphans were being subjected to experiments to turn them into chimeras after the fact.

Unfortunately, this proved to be more difficult than creating chimeras from birth, and most of these kidnapped children could not be saved.

The only survivors were those who were rescued before being experimented on.

Because of all this, there was no time to gather proof and expose each organization. Instead, the Sariella Foundation used all of its power to attack these groups.

I am told that all the major nations chose to avert their eyes from this rather violent tactic, presumably with some motivation by Foduey.

Since the Sariella Foundation was rooting out evil in their respective lands, I assume it was mutually beneficial.

Though I don’t know about the nations that were colluding with those criminal organizations.

Lip service isn’t enough to keep a nation running. Sometimes it takes unconventional measures, even if that includes criminals.

I suppose humans would call it a necessary evil.

Some of the nations probably just took advantage of both sides, but that is not relevant now.

I am sure many politicians proved their mettle by filling in the gaps left once the criminal organizations were all eliminated.

If Foduey had been healthy, I’m sure he would have intervened and collected even more money than he spent, but unfortunately that was not the case.

As I said, the Sariella Foundation utilized some forceful strategies to root out these organizations.

Those strategies included the direct use of military power.

The Sariella Foundation sometimes sent doctors and such into conflicted territories.

They needed soldiers to protect those doctors, which meant they had their own army, technically a private security firm.

Even a group like the Sariella Foundation had to dirty its hands at times.

That was what the security firm was for.

It goes without saying that this force played a part in taking out the criminal organizations as well.

Now, I will say in advance that the force was not at fault for what happened.

Even Foduey himself said so, and after hearing the full story, I was inclined to agree.

No one was at fault here—it was just incredibly bad luck.

…No, I suppose there was one person at fault: Potimas, of course.

Potimas’s experiments covered a wide range, including attempts to turn subjects into vampires.

Nowadays, the word vampire likely calls Sophia to mind, but before she appeared, vampires had not existed for a very long time.

Truth be told, they were exterminated.

But we can discuss that particular history another time.

You see, vampires still did not exist even at the time when Foduey was alive.

To a reincarnation, it might make sense for a world in which dragons exist to have vampires as well, but in fact it is the opposite.

There were no vampires because there are dragons.

Even more so because of Sariella, I suppose.

Vampires really do exist conceptually, just like dragons and angels.

Did you think Sophia’s abilities were due to her skill?

No, she is a proper vampire.

She was simply given relevant skills after being born as a vampire.

Although, of course, the fact that she was born a vampire was undoubtedly due to D’s meddling.

Vampires are a sort of conjured race, an acquired species made by the power of conjuring.

As such, anyone can be made into a vampire as long as the requisite conjuring is performed.

But think about it, hmm?

A species that can create more of itself just by biting people and drinking their blood is bound to destroy the ecosystem.

Vampirism is essentially a disease.

If it spreads, there is no stopping it.

That is why dragons decided to exterminate vampires whenever possible, and why they also run counter to Sariel’s mission of protecting the native species.

Vampires are akin to an invasive species. They had to be eliminated.

Thus, vampires only existed in stories, even in this world.

Do you find it strange that tales of them survive, even if only in legend?

Irritatingly enough, knowledge of such significant beings spreads no matter what.

There is a theory that people unconsciously sense the existence of such creatures from far away, and reflect it in stories that spread throughout society.

There were tales of dragons and angels even in the reincarnations’ world, were there not?

So, are the creatures in that story truly the stuff of fiction, or something more?

Stories are powerful things.

Even we dragons and Sariel could not control their propagation.

Most humans knew of vampires only as fictional creatures.

Yet somehow, Potimas managed to independently develop a conjuring for creating vampires.

Though I am loath to admit it, the man is undoubtedly a genius.

But even he could not create completely flawless runes from scratch.

Though his vampire conjuring was completed, it was technically a failure.

Those who were turned into vampires would lose their minds, attacking any living thing they saw, and eventually becoming beasts who lived only to drink blood.

Potimas locked away these failed vampires in one of his organizations.

They were sealed in the forms of the kidnapped orphans, who sadly were the victims of this experiment.

Not long after, the Sariella Foundation’s security forces were sent out to save them.

They brought down the organization and rescued the victims.

Unfortunately, said victims had gone mad due to the effects of the experiments, and even tried to attack the force, but were successfully brought into custody.

At this point, I imagine you have some idea of what happened to that force, correct?

Yes, that’s right.

The victims, the failed vampires, bit several of the people in the security force.

I doubt I need to elaborate on the results, but those who were bitten turned into vampires.

And, like the victims of the experiments, they lost their minds, too.

Worse yet, there was a delay between when they were bitten and when they transformed into vampires.

In the case of true vampires, the transformation is complete the moment the vampire bites the victim and drinks their blood with the intent to turn them.

But that wasn’t so for the failed vampires.

The length of time varied between individuals, but some of them continued acting normal for up to several days, or so I am told.

Then their condition would suddenly worsen, they would grow disoriented, and within moments they lost all sanity.

Thus, the security force members who were bitten transformed into more failed vampires.

One of these members was the reason Foduey was turned into a vampire as well.

Evidently, he was the captain of the force.

He was reporting to Foduey about the attack on the organization, his findings from the location, and so on.

In a terrible twist of fate, that happened to be the moment when he transformed into a vampire.

Thus, the person he then attacked and bit was Foduey.

…I did not know this captain, as we never met.

But according to Foduey, when he was giving the report, he expressed sympathy for the victims who were transfigured, and righteous anger at the perpetrators.

Given how much Foduey trusted him, he must have been a good man.

Which is apparently why no one who knew him believed that he would suddenly attack Foduey like that.

That man’s unexpectedly violent act, and the fact that the all-important Foduey was attacked, led to a swift and thorough investigation into the frightening phenomenon of vampire transformation.

There were the original victims of the human experiments, then the second-wave victims, the force members who were bitten by the original victims.

And then, there were the third-wave victims who were bitten by those force members.

All were quickly quarantined.

It was a highly dangerous situation. If they had acted even a little less quickly, a vampirism pandemic might have spread through the entire world in a flash.

I hate to put it this way, but you could say that Foduey’s sacrifice kept the number of victims to a minimum.

In fact, all things considered, it is nothing short of miraculous that the damage was so small.

And there was one other miracle, too.

Namely, Foduey’s mind.

The victims lost their sanity, but Foduey was an exception.

When Foduey was bitten, the blood loss put his already elderly body on the verge of death.

He fell into a coma for a time, but eventually awoke.

Since he had already developed the fangs that signified a vampire transformation, it was assumed he would not be sane even if he did wake up, so he was restrained in the bed.

When he awoke, he struggled against the bonds immediately, and shouted angrily at the doctor who came running over, demanding to be released.

That was how the doctor discovered that Foduey had retained a sound mind.

It’s unclear why Foduey was able to stay sane.

Even I do not know everything.

Sometimes, things happen in life that defy all expectations.

Foduey is one example, Potimas another.

Although in my estimation, Foduey’s stubbornness and spite must have won out over the vampiric curse.

Still, it didn’t change the fact that he was turned into a vampire, even if he stayed sane.

And there was no telling whether he might someday lose his mind like the other victims.

Thus, Foduey was kept in isolation.

I was visiting him in his isolation ward.

“Hrm.”

Foduey grumbled again.

Now that he was being kept in isolation, he had lots of time on his hands.

So I periodically visited and played games with him.

Even if he was being kept in isolation, there was no way to prevent a dragon like me from visiting a human.

The supervisor of the isolation facility was reluctant, but he did not stop my visits.

“No take-backs, understood?”

“Heavens, of course not. There are few situations in life that allow for take-backs. That is precisely why humans are so afraid of making mistakes.”

Sure enough, I do not remember a single instance of Foduey attempting to take back a move.

“But humans still make mistakes. It happens, no matter how hard we try. We accumulate these mistakes, write rules in an effort to avoid making new ones, and try to reduce the number of mistakes we make as we go. Human history is a chronicle of mistakes. And we learn from those mistakes to shape the future. Not that the mistakes ever stop completely.”

Foduey moved a piece as he spoke.

I moved my piece right away, so that it was Foduey’s turn again.

But he was deep in thought and made no further moves for a while.

“And I have not lost all these many times in vain. Each time I am defeated, each time I fail, I take it as another lesson. And now I will put all those lessons to use in this one move!”

Foduey made a dramatic declaration as he moved another piece.

At that, I promptly moved one of my own pieces to block his move.

An awkward silence settled over us for a moment.

“…No matter how much one tries to eliminate mistakes, there is no guarantee that it will lead to victory. This is a perfect example of that.”

“Very smooth.”

Foduey was nothing if not loquacious.

From meaningless chatter to groan-inducing metaphors, he was always talking throughout every game.

“They do say that language is humanity’s greatest invention. Human history is also a long record of arguing in circles.”

“No, that doesn’t make sense.”

It was frequently difficult to tell whether he was being serious about topics like this, which led to no small amount of bewilderment on my part.

“But of course it makes sense. Because of the existence of dragons and their absolute power, we humans could never depend on military might alone. In the end, words are our greatest weapons, but it took countless arguments to hone them to this level. Twisting the truth, talking the enemy over to one’s own side… It is because we have done these things for so long that our tongues became so sharp.”

“Don’t blame your own nastiness on history. Nor do I appreciate you casually blaming us dragons, for that matter.”

Foduey definitely had a natural talent for sophism.

…Not exactly an ideal trait.

“Honestly. Your endless rambling never ceases to amaze.”

“Yes, I daresay there are few who could best me at it.”

Foduey acted as if my sarcasm were a compliment, even having the nerve to look smug as he moved his piece.

Of course, I made my own move immediately to wipe the smirk off his face.

“I can certainly best you at this game, but not at talking,” I muttered.

“I should think not. Humans and dragons really do think at different speeds. No matter how many times I challenge you, I doubt I can ever win against you at this game. It’s a strange thing, isn’t it? They both lie in the realm of the mind, but while I can never beat you in a game, I suspect I would never lose to you in an argument. Perhaps it means that dragons are superior in overall calculation ability, but humans are better at being shrewd and crafty?”

Foduey glowered at the board, but still looked somewhat pleased.

“There is no doubt that dragons are magnificent, of course. But no matter how great they might be, that doesn’t mean there aren’t any aspects in which they fall short of other creatures. Dragons are not as cunning as humans. They don’t have to be because they’re strong enough without it. Instead of resorting to any cowardly means necessary like humans so often do, dragons can generally seize victory just by facing the enemy head-on. So there was never a need for you to be shrewd. But you see, that is negligence on the part of dragons. Because you write off humans as lesser beings, our craftiness confounds you. Just as I have currently smooth-talked you, a dragon, into fighting me on human terms.”

Foduey looked even more delighted now.

Despite our battle being on the board, Foduey’s words did indeed fill me with a helpless sense of defeat.

It felt as if I had played right into the hands of the man in front of me, who, from a dragon’s perspective, was only a frail old man unworthy of note.

And indeed, from a neutral perspective, that really was the case.

I, a dragon, was being thoroughly manipulated by a human, a lesser being.

Well, I suppose by that point he was a vampire and not a human, but that is a trivial matter.

“Humans are cowardly, and far more foolish than dragons realize. We have made mistakes throughout history, and supposedly learned from those mistakes, yet we continue to make more. Mistakes upon mistakes upon mistakes. What’s worse, each time we make a mistake we become craftier, and so the amount of damage done by each mistake only grows. Even though these lessons are meant to reduce the damage. Isn’t that strange?”

Despite feeling like I was playing into his hands, I continued to face Foduey from a human perspective, because I knew this was a sort of test.

A trial to see if I could face Sariel.

“You are a dragon, yet you have learned the perspective of humans. I doubt that means you have come to fully understand humans, of course. As I said before, humans are far more foolish than dragons believe. Lady Sariel has been facing that foolishness all this time.”

Foduey moved his piece.

This time, I moved my own almost before Foduey’s hand had even left his.

“I resign.”

Foduey admitted defeat with a sunny expression.

“You possess the perspective of both god and mankind. Perhaps, then, you can bring about change in Lady Sariel. It is no longer within the realm of human possibility, but a god should not do it, either. It must be someone who is a god of sorts, yet understands humans as well.”

This was a serious piece of advice from the defeated to the victor.

And then, a request.

“You see the sorry state I am in. I doubt I will ever leave this room again. So I will entrust this task to you.”

Now that he had been turned into a vampire and isolated, there was little Foduey could do on his own.

He could still offer monetary support within reason, but nothing more.

There was a limit to how much he could work for Sariel’s sake as he once did.

“Please, take care of Lady Sariel.”

Foduey bowed his head in supplication, but I said nothing.

Was there anything I could do for Sariel?

A part of me did not know how to answer that question.

And so, I couldn’t bring myself to agree so easily.

…My concerns, I’m afraid, were right on the mark.

In the end, I was never able to live up to Foduey’s expectations.