Volume 3 Chapter 24 C＊Ck Milk Tea
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
”I’m so sorry for yesterday, Kian.”
Maribel knelt before him, and her voice, like the tinkling of bells, echoed from above.
Gone was the sickly aura he’d sensed at the salon yesterday.
Raising his gaze at her words, “Please look at me,” he saw the face of a healthy young girl up close.
She still looked a little thin, but it was hard to believe this was the same girl who had been unconscious in bed yesterday.
”Your Excellency, are you feeling better now?”
”No, that’s why I called you, Lord Kian.”
”Lucretia. ──My apologies, Kian. She means no harm. She is merely being cautious of you out of concern for me.”
”Lady Lucretia, Lord Kian is the savior of our lives. He’s a hero of Izerland. I’ve heard he’s working on a way to increase resistance to the curse, but there’s no way someone as pure as him would have any ill intentions. He’s simply trying to help Your Excellency out of pure kindness.”
The Captain of the Bodyguards spoke earnestly.
He, like Liam, had been present at the battle against Oswald, and believed Kian to be the most virtuous savior imaginable.
Sadly, that was a complete misconception.
Kian got hard just looking at Maribel n*ked, and he was confident he could even shoot his load without touching her.
”Whether Lord Kian is a saint or not, Your Excellency’s body strengthening will be done orally only. No enemas, and certainly not applying anything directly to the groin.”
Without a hint of embarrassment from the time she had watched Kian and Christy having s*x, the glasses witch continued briskly.
”Lord Kian, I’ll ask again, is the half-‘Blood Servant’ transformation really safe? The documents said that your cells would be implanted into Your Excellency’s body.”
”The ‘Blood Servant’ process involves implanting a factor into Your Excellency’s cells to enhance and support her body beyond that of a normal human. It’s not like the original ‘Blood Servant’ creation process, which completely replaces and takes over the body’s cells. That’s impossible for a human like me.”
”It’s written in this document, too. There aren’t any other proper texts, so we can’t confirm if the description is accurate or not.”
Lucretia fluttered the research document Oswald had given to Kian the previous day.
Kian furrowed his brows.
”We have the time to call in experts to examine Your Excellency’s current condition. If you’re worried, shouldn’t we summon vampire specialists and knowledgeable magicians from the royal capital and beyond?”
”Do you know how many times Her Excellency will collapse in the meantime, Lord Kian?
”Well, Kian seems to have a misunderstanding. Vampire research isn’t recognized as an academic field, so researchers are just self-proclaimed enthusiasts. I might be wrong about that…but there’s no guarantee that the knowledge of people you’d pay a high price for is correct.”
”Christina is right. The only knowledge we have of true vampires—those said to have perished centuries ago—comes from fragmented accounts in historical texts and old official records. Perhaps something might be found at the headquarters of the Western Church, but even if it exists, they would safeguard it in the name of their authority. I doubt any so-called researcher around here possesses any credible information.”
”Even if someone wanted to investigate ruins or the streets, they’d have to deal with the ever-present threat of the Bloodsucking Kind. Ordinary scholars wouldn’t stand a chance. The only ones capable of such a feat would be someone like Oswald—practically invincible.”
Christy shrugged.
Next to her, Lucretia twitched at the mention of Oswald’s name.
Given her comment from yesterday, it was almost certain that she had already visited Oswald early this morning.
Despite that, the fact that Kian was called in so soon meant──
”Anyway!”
Maribel, quick to notice the bulging vein on the head magician’s temple, clapped her hands together and spoke in an oddly cheerful tone to shift the atmosphere.
”As for me, I’d like to rely on Kian first. We’ll explore other options afterward, you see. If we were to call a vampire researcher from the royal capital, we could end up with another situation like the last time.”
”The last time?”
”We called in researchers from the border area one after another.”
Christy let out a small sigh.
”In the end, all we got were baseless fantasies. As for vampire relics, the best they had was a withered seed of a so-called ‘Thorn Demon’—if even that.”
”The worst of them submitted nothing more than stories spun from their own imagination. We didn’t summon them to listen to the whimsical plays of wandering bards.”
The bodyguard captain spat out, his expression as grim as ever.
”There’s so much we don’t understand about vampires. If we seek specialized knowledge, the only reliable source is asking the vampire Owl themselves. So, I want to believe in Kian.”
”Lord Kian, what’s the success rate?”
Kian paused for a moment at the bodyguard captain’s words, deep in thought at Lucretia’s question.
The Blood Servant technique was essentially the act of creating a low-quality copy of himself.
If the target were a spirit form or a Bloodsucking Kind, he could just channel his magic power to alter them, but he had never succeeded when it came to a body that was not a Bloodsucking Kind and contained a large amount of tachyonic cells.
In other words, he wouldn’t know unless he tried.
”Earlier, you mentioned that the only permitted method for implanting my reproductive cells is through oral ingestion──”
”There’s been no change to that decision.”
”It’s a matter of life and death, and I did say that I wouldn’t mind something as simple as an enema. After all, it’s not like I’m losing my virginity or that I would end up pregnant.”
”No way!” “No, no, no!”
Lucretia shook her head vehemently, her expression stern, while Christy jumped in with genuine urgency to stop her.
Christy’s voice was half a scream.
All eyes naturally turned toward her.
”Uh, um…”
Her dark eyes darted around, searching for the right words.
”L-Lucretia is absolutely right!”
”But I haven’t said anything yet… Your Excellency, the fact that your body remains pure will definitely have a positive effect on your image among the common folk and when it comes to future marriages with central nobility. On the other hand, if it gets known that a lower-rank Adventurer did… something to your rear end for treatment purposes──”
”Did something to my rear end…?” “Lady Lucretia, please choose your words a bit more carefully.”
”If it becomes known that Lord Kian violated you, even if it was from the back, you’ll definitely face backlash. There are plenty of irritating men who would claim that your purity has been tainted and you’ve been taken advantage of!”
”Just softening your words won’t help, Lucretia.”
”Besides! Kian’s… well, it’s too big to even fit in Manon’s rear! If he forced it, you’d end up having to mix up some hemorrhoid medicine for yourself!”
”Ah, Christy’s right! Your Excellency, if we’re talking about expanding the… ahem, diameter, how much are we talking? Even if it’s just 3 centimeters, that guy’s… thing is at least 4 centimeters!”
”That’s true! It might be a tight fit, but we definitely should stop! By the way, does Manon even have a 3-centimeter rear? That’s impossible!”
”Exactly! Your Excellency Maribel has a small rear!”
”…Uh, are we even allowed to be here, Baron Mankovitch?”
”…What a coincidence, I was just thinking the same thing, yes.”
The men (Baron and the bodyguard captain) huddled in the corner, whispering among themselves with a hint of embarrassment.
The blonde princess, who had been the butt of everyone’s jokes since earlier, was smiling cheerfully, yet her face was beet-red.
Upon closer inspection, tears were welling up at the corners of her eyes.
Kian was impressed that Maribel had a cute side to her, as she was about to cry from embarrassment.
”Regardless, if we stay silent, there shouldn’t be a problem, right? We’re keeping it a secret from the ladies as well.”
”What if it leaks out, Captain Licht? Do you plan to lead your bodyguards and eliminate each person who finds out, one by one?”
”No, that’s…, um…”
”This time, just having Her Excellency ingest it orally required us to temporarily give the castle chefs a vacation. You can’t be too careful with human mouths. Even sharing a bed casually could leave traces on laundry. You never know who might spread what rumors.”
”Aren’t you being too cautious?”
The bodyguard captain furrowed his brows.
But when Lucretia pushed up the bridge of her glasses and snapped, “That’s why you’re so rough,” he shrunk back, looking hurt.
”Ah…, s-sorry, Captain Licht.”
”No. I’m rough. That’s why I’ll never get stronger.”
”Does strength really have anything to do with being rough? Oh, but Kian is super meticulous. Almost neurotic levels.”
”I don’t think that’s true…”
”Hey, I just thought about ‘strength’”
”What is it, Mankovitch?”
Prompted by Maribel, the top bureaucrat, Baron Mankovitch, swallowed nervously before continuing.
”Is it completely impossible to eliminate Lord Owl?”
”────””────””……!”
There was a sudden chill, as if the air itself had frozen.
Lucretia looked down with a difficult expression, while Christy and the bodyguard captain visibly paled.
Maribel’s eyes, which had been smiling, suddenly widened as she stared straight at Baron Mankovitch.
”…In terms of being excluded from the political stage and military authority, we have indeed already excluded him. So what you’re referring to as exclusion has a physical meaning, right?”
”Yes. Lord Owl is currently on a trip to Ramsey. If we seize this opportunity to block the gates, we could shut him out from the fortress.”
”Licht, what do you think~? Even in these difficult financial times, I’ve reinforced the guard by incorporating the Beastmen Martial Arts Guild. I even went directly to Eleonora to ask for her cooperation. I believe our military strength has increased, don’t you think?”
”That’s impossible.”
Licht shook his head.
”It’s true that I might just be timid… but defeating Lord Owl by ourselves will be challenging. The tiger Beastman from the Beastmen Martial Arts Guild──Gao might be able to take him down, but the rest are operating at a level where they’re just learning basic sword techniques from Lady Eleonora. Honestly, even facing Lord Owl’s undead army will be tough.”
”I mean, if an angry Lord Owl unleashes the undead army and bloodsucking fiends into the fortress from the sewers, it’ll be a disaster, right? The only ones capable of using barrier magic properly are Christina and me.”
Lucretia furrowed her brow as she spoke.
The captain of the bodyguard squad kept glancing at Kian’s face.
”If Lady Eleonora were here, or if Lord Kian, who defeated Lord Oswald, were to fight alongside us, I believe we could find a way to make it work.”
”No way!”
Christy spread her arms to intervene.
”Kian is incredibly strong, but he’s not a god who can do anything. If he fights, he’ll get hurt and fatigued──he’s just as human as we are.”
Christy looked around at the others as she continued.
”The estimated extermination rank for a real vampire is equivalent to Rank 1 in a party. In other words, Owl is a formidable opponent that can’t be measured by the Adventurers Guild. Forcing a fight without a clear weakness or effective strategy might even lead to Kian’s death.”
”Well, I don’t believe Kian will be defeated… But if you’re asking for his help, then at the very least, we should be capable of offering him perfect support. Relying solely on Kian for the undead legion and the Bloodsucking Kind means we’ll just be waiting outside the battlefield, trembling like we did during the fight with Oswald. Furthermore, after the battle, we won’t be able to replenish Kian’s arsenal or provide the rewards that are rightfully deserved. ──Kian, will you lend us your assistance under such conditions?”
”I’m sorry, but I’m not a suicide candidate, nor am I out here slaying monsters out of goodwill. The battle against Oswald was a one-time exception. I can’t take on requests without suitable reasons and appropriate rewards and honor.”
Although Kian spoke solemnly, no one dared to voice a complaint.
Typically, a regular authority would insist, “Quit whining and just do it,” but those present, including Maribel, were burdened by guilt, morality, and a sense of fairness.
No one likely thought, regarding the rewards from the previous battle with Oswald, that they didn’t need to pay out just because “Kian said he didn’t want it.”
At the very least, Maribel would be sure to compensate once funds were available.
Just then, a sudden silence fell over the room, and Baron Mankovitch bowed his head slightly.
”I made a foolish suggestion. I apologize.”
”It’s quite alright. You were thinking of me when you suggested it, weren’t you?”
”Yes, of course.”
”However, everyone here understands that Lord Owl is an opponent we must eventually confront, Baron Mankovitch. It’s utterly unacceptable to mark Her Excellency’s body with a mental corruption seal, even if it’s part of a contract. If the gods won’t judge him, we must find a way to intervene ourselves, otherwise he’ll continue to run rampant without consequence.”
Lucretia’s demeanor was notably harsher compared to Christy and the others.
For her, who had only arrived a month ago, it was unimaginable to keep the existence of such dangerous demons from the outside world, confined only within the borders of this remote court.
Unfortunately, Owl’s impressive track record, connections, social status, and vast fortune made it difficult to openly rally a questing party for his extermination.
To make matters worse, the Danofen family was even in debt to him.
If they wanted to kill him, it had to be through assassination.
They needed to eliminate Owl and his familiars quickly and efficiently, distorting the facts in the process, all while ensuring that the citizens remained unharmed.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
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