Vampire Clan, Azhantu Branch in Brokoslac.
It was a force that practically ruled Azhantu City, a small town to the west of Talia Kingdom.
And I had become a vampire of that force.
“But you know, I really have nothing to do…”
A few days of training were over, but they hadn’t really given me any specific tasks.
The entire city had a system in place for ages, allowing everything to run smoothly. The vampires just had to occasionally check on their subordinates to see if they were doing their jobs.
‘With long lifespans as a long-lived species, they were all pretty laid back.’
They must have accepted me to replace a deceased vampire, but aside from vague hints that I’d figure things out as I went along, there was no handover or anything.
Until special instructions come down, I could do as I pleased as long as I didn’t expose myself too much to the humans in the city.
Thanks to that, I could spend evenings going out and talking with my siblings, but if I did that too often, I’d surely get caught, so I had to keep it moderate.
‘Guess I should just distract with Hans and slip out of the city as I initially planned.’
At first, I thought being with vampires wouldn’t be so bad, but these guys treated the humans in the city as if they were livestock.
‘I suspected that when they brought blood to the mansion.’
They were careful, claiming it was a system of population control on their part.
Even I, who shrank back from the blood, was told that everyone goes through an initiation phase and that I’d get used to it with time…
‘Looks like I can’t stick around with these guys for too long.’
As someone who hadn’t been tainted by vampire culture mentally, just being with them was uncomfortable.
I was waiting patiently for the right moment.
The pureblood, Wirak of Azhantu, summoned all the vampires.
“What’s going on suddenly?”
“Well, it’s unusual for all of us to be summoned like this. Has it been years?”
Around thirty vampires, who usually lived scattered throughout the city, began to gather one by one in the lobby of the mansion.
“Are you the new bloodline heir? Lucky you.”
“Tsk, what made Lord Wirak accept such a lowly thing…”
Those I saw for the first time began to pick fights with me more frequently.
They had the typical appearance of nobles trapped in a sense of superiority.
‘This is exactly the image of vampires I had in mind!’
While I was just watching them in fascination, Wirak entered the lobby.
“Hello, Lord Wirak.”
“It’s been a while. Just give me any task, and I’ll do it.”
The vampires flocked around Wirak, showering him with flattery.
The status of a pureblood seemed to be even higher than I had thought.
“Seems like everyone has gathered, so let’s get to the point.”
Wirak accepted greetings with grace and climbed the stairs of the lobby to begin speaking.
“The Fragment of the Undead King that the Oath of Reversal guys had has disappeared.”
Whispers—
I involuntarily flinched at the sudden mention, but luckily, everyone around me was getting noisy, so no one looked at me strangely.
“Ah~ You wouldn’t know, right? The black wizards were hiding the fragment in a nearby small village and maturing it…”
Rosilika, who had come up beside me, quickly whispered the information I already knew.
“Quiet.”
The whispers around fell silent at Wirak’s single word.
Rosilika, who had been beside me, was now focused on Wirak up the stairs.
“The last confirmed direction was towards this city. However, it vanished without a trace at some point. It may have entered the city, or it might have just passed by.”
Wirak paused to look around slowly.
Then, we made eye contact for a brief moment; he stared at me for a second before turning his head away.
‘Phew, that’s nerve-racking.’
“We will commence a search, keeping in mind the possibility that it has entered the city.”
With those words, Wirak dismissed us, ending the meeting.
“What the heck is going on?”
As we left the lobby, Rosilika grumbled while coming up alongside me.
She seemed to be socializing well with the other vampires, but why was she so eager to stick around me?
“Hoohoo~ Am I doing a little sales pitch for the newbie who hasn’t particularly developed a blood preference yet? There’s a muscular guy I have my eye on; how about we grab a drink together next time?”
“Pass. That’s really not my type.”
I firmly rejected her with a disgusted expression.
Rosilika merely shrugged, not showing a hint of disappointment.
“But this is troublesome. The Fragment of the Undead King would be something that the Clan Lord is keenly interested in, and he probably personally instructed to keep an eye on it.”
“Oh? But the black wizards should have executed that security tightly; how’d they find out?”
“Who knows~? Us little folks just do as we’re told.”
I figured there wouldn’t be much more information I could pry from Rosilika.
Just as I thought that, I realized too late how wrong I was.
“Because of that, we had to move the other fragment we had in our clan and seal it here.”
“What…?! There’s another Fragment of the Undead King here?!”
I gasped in surprise, looking at Rosilika.
“Yeah, they’re supposed to mature the fragment and then steal it to fuse it or something. I don’t know the details~.”
But Rosilika just answered nonchalantly, twirling her hair with her finger.
‘Is she unexpectedly of a higher standing?’
When I eyed her with narrowed eyes, Rosilika chuckled and shook her head.
“Actually, I was dispatched to Azhantu together with the fragment about a year ago. There’s absolutely no need for this many vampires in such a small town in the first place.”
On reflection, that was true.
With three pureblood vampires likely on par with the black wizard Malcolm and over thirty lesser bloodlines that definitely looked stronger than the black wizards’ minions…
‘And if I count the servants and slaves that I haven’t firmly identified yet…’
It was certainly a significant force for a small town situated on the outskirts of the continent.
“I heard that originally only Wirak and roughly fifteen lesser bloods were in this town, but because of the fragment, reinforcements came this way. Yet all the hard work so far has come to naught.”
Rosilika sighed, suggesting that we’d be busy for a while.
And she wasn’t wrong.
*
“Ah~ I’m going to get sunburned coming out during the day.”
Rosilika grumbled while readjusting her parasol.
Starting the day after the summons, we had to alternate patrolling the city and identifying any strange signs even during the day.
“It’s definitely… a little unsettling.”
I fixed my wide-brimmed hat with my gloved hands.
While exposing myself to sunlight didn’t deal any damage, the feeling of my powers being limited wasn’t pleasant.
“I can’t shake the feeling we won’t discover anything now.”
“Well, we can’t help it~. This is serious enough that even the pureblood Piritah has taken some lesser bloods to search outside the city.”
Guess I already swallowed that and sent it to Earth, so talking about it was pointless.
As I smirked and repeated that silently in my head, I realized that things weren’t so bad after all.
‘One pureblood and some lesser bloods have left the city.’
Wirak was searching the entire city while controlling the remaining lesser bloods.
That meant.
‘Only one pureblood is guarding the fragment!’
Moreover, I could summon Hans the next day.
‘As originally planned, I get to create chaos, steal the fragment while growing Hans, and serve the bastards a big dish of revenge! This is a must-do!’
The only thing left was pinpointing the fragment’s location, but I couldn’t ask Rosilika for help with this.
“Don’t you know~? Since we came to the city, I’ve hidden it in a location only known to the purebloods for precaution.”
It was likely in case their base came under attack.
And apparently, two purebloods had been guarding that place all along.
‘Ah, there’s no way around this.’
I thought things were lining up perfectly.
Just as I was about to give up on the other fragment, something happened.
“Uh… I think I might know where that is?”
There was a way!
“What? Diana, how do you know?!”
“Eek!”
I grabbed Diana’s shoulder in surprise.
It was early evening, and I had come to see my siblings and chat a bit when I offhandedly tossed out a comment.
The vampires were hiding dangerous items in the city, but I didn’t know where they were.
“Remember the last time I told you? I steered clear of places where there were vampires emitting dangerous smells.”
“Could it be?”
“Yeah… about a year ago, I caught a whiff of some vampires that smelled intensely of blood, and there were others that smelled dangerously ominous.”
She laughed awkwardly, saying she ran away the moment she sensed the smell.
“The scent was so overwhelming that I still remember it. Since then, I didn’t dare go near that area.”
“Oh! I remember, sis! You told me never to go near that place!”
Diana affectionately ruffled Aaron’s hair and then glanced over at me.
“I can guide you if you need.”
That was a proposal I desperately wanted to accept, but I couldn’t just nod my head thoughtlessly.
“It’s alright. If things get dangerous, Uncle will protect you, right?”
“…Okay, then I’ll just ask you to take me there.”
I nodded at Diana’s resolute words and patted her head.
Indeed, good deeds often returned to one in kind.
The next afternoon, I donned a hat again and headed outside to search for the Fragment of the Undead King.
‘Of course, I am looking for the fragment that the vampires are hiding.’
I strolled slowly down the street until I reached the rendezvous point.
Diana was already waiting for me there.
Diana met my gaze and started walking without a word, and I followed her at a comfortable distance.
That was what I had directed her to do beforehand.
Since I didn’t know how the vampires were guarding the fragments, it would be unwise to approach recklessly.
Diana didn’t linger her gaze on any one place for too long and walked for quite some time.
‘We’re certainly far from where we started. She really ran far away after smelling those dangerous scents.’
It made sense that she’d settle in a spot as far away as possible after catching the scent of danger.
After a certain distance, Diana began to sniff more frequently.
This was where the smell would start to hit.
How far did we walk like that?
As we casually walked, Diana suddenly fixated on a building to the side.
About three seconds.
Then, she turned her head, as if it were nothing, and walked right past.
‘That’s it!’
It wasn’t anywhere near the glamorous mansion where the vampires resided; just a plain house in a residential district.
Within that building, another Fragment of the Undead King was hidden.
But like Diana, I casually looked around as if I had no interest in that direction and continued walking.
I couldn’t feel anything with my senses, but surely there was something there.
‘Now all that’s left is to set the execution date. I’ve found the location, and I can summon Hans. I need to do this as fast as possible before further variables come up!’
As the sun dipped below the horizon, we convened back at Diana’s place.
“Ugh, I thought I was going to die from holding my breath. That smell is really something to face again…”
“You did great, showing no visible signs. You were a huge help. Now, we need to decide on the date for the execution.”
I consoled Diana and, after a brief moment of contemplation, declared right away.
“Tomorrow at noon. When the sun is at its zenith.”
As much as I’d like to begin immediately, it was already after sunset, so I opted to aim for the next day.
‘Both vampires and undead grow stronger in the dark, but the degree to which they become weaker due to sunlight is a whole different dimension.’
It likely wouldn’t matter for a pureblood, but the combat power of a lesser bloodline couldn’t be relied upon much.
Even purebloods wouldn’t be able to unleash their full powers.
Preparing for tomorrow’s operation, I gathered my siblings to get them ready.
“We don’t have any gear to pack or anything. We can leave anytime.”
“Alright, then tomorrow…”
After giving the siblings their instructions and parting ways, I looked around the city as I headed back to the mansion.
Where Heinz had perished and Heinz II had become a vampire.
Tomorrow, I’d leave this city.
‘Of course, I’ll pack everything! Speaking of which, there’s plenty of expensive stuff in the mansion.’
I licked my lips and sparkled my eyes.
The more money, the better, right?
Chuckling to myself, I entered the mansion.
And as time passed…
The sun began to rise.
