Volume 3 Chapter 225 Deal With The Woman
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
”Can’t believe this…”
The long, ragged hair—like dried grass—swayed in the dark.
The ugly old vampire—Mrs. Camilla—stood frozen, stunned by the alien world unfolding before her. Her gaze swept across Moonshore, its light cast by glowing mushrooms and slow-drifting tropical fish. The town hovered in a dreamlike haze. Beyond it sprawled a wilderness choked with darkness—a ‘forest’ of towering, jagged thorns wrought by Erynys. Touch one and it would drain your life; worse, the venom in their spines could warp your body into something monstrous.
All around, unseen creatures of the Bloodsucking Kind let out eerie barks. Occasionally, a massive shadow passed across the sky.
It looked like the demon realm—terrible and beautiful in equal measure.
Mrs. Camilla staggered. Her makeshift staff—just an angular stick—slipped from her hand and clattered down the stone-paved slope. Staff vanishes later.
”The Count’s territory is in this state,” Kian said, tone flat. “We haven’t confirmed the boundary of this otherworld, but I’m guessing the dimensional fabric’s torn somewhere. Once we cross that tear—who knows what happens next. Unless we find a teleportation gate to return to the real world, we’re stuck. And if Erynys returns and someone detects her spiritual vein—we’re done for.”
”────────”
”If you’re satisfied, come back inside again,” Linca called from the doorway.
Mrs. Camilla turned, teetering as she went.
Kian half-carried her back into the warehouse. She weighed far more than she looked.
In the basement, orange ghost-fire—鬼火 [will-o’-the-wisp]—flickered along the walls. Linca summoned Mizuchi’s massive head, which opened its maw and devoured sacks of sugar, spice boxes, and glass jars in one smooth gulp.
”Sir Kian,” she said, striding forward. Her expression had shifted back to her usual calm professionalism. She held two glass bottles, gloved hands steady.
”This is coca leaves. And these are kola nuts.”
”I know coca,” Kian said, “but not kola.”
”They’re similar to coffee. The nuts have a stimulant compound that sharpens the mind. Would you like to bring some?”
”Coca and kola can be useful. Let Mizuchi take them.”
”Understood.”
She bowed, turned, and walked back to the serpent’s gaping mouth.
Kian eased the dazed Camilla into a chair.
”Oi. You. Eat this,” he said, offering her a white chunk.
”…What is that?” she rasped.
”Salt candy. Eat it.”
”────” Her lips didn’t move.
”Your stomach okay? I can inject some nutrients if you need.”
”…”
Kian sat across from her, crunching his own piece of salt candy. His face stayed dead serious.
”What I told you before—it’s true,” he said, voice low. “You saw it with your own eyes. We can’t leave without working together. Or—if you prefer—you can help restore Erynys’s world.”
”…What about the Count’s territory? My husband? My adorable little boy?”
”I don’t know,” Kian said. “But in the real world, the Empire of Night’s gone. Vampires are just folklore now.”
”Don’t spout bullshit!”
Camilla shrieked. Her pure-white fur bristled like a field of spears as she lunged at the pouch on Kian’s waist. She moved with predatory speed—impossible for a shriveled old woman.
But Kian’s eyes softened. His body shimmered—and vanished like mist.
Camilla’s hooked nose flared. She spun, her hair whipping out to strike.
In a blink, Kian reappeared behind her. With a single left-handed motion, he caught her in place. His black eyes flared red, and the killing intent that poured from him left the air thick.
”Ugh… ugh…?”
”Sir Kian!” Linca called.
”It’s fine,” he said. “Focus on packing.”
”Y-yes… right away…”
”You’re not just a normal human, are you?” Camilla said, breath ragged.
Kian let go of her, shedding a lock of dirty hair as he returned to his chair.
He didn’t speak.
”Ma’am,” he said after a pause. “We don’t need to fight. We can compel you if we must, but time’s short. We need your help—peacefully.”
”────”
”I’m not lying. If you want, we can make a magical pact. No falsehoods allowed.”
”…Inside your pouch,” Camilla said, sniffing sharply. “I smell something familiar. My beast’s scent.”
”This one?”
Kian reached into his pouch and drew out a ring braided with beast fur, beside a crescent moon earring—loot from their return to the Labyrinth of Roses with Oswald.
”That’s it! That was a decoration from my villa. So… at least the villa under my Margrave domain is intact.”
”Until recently, it was untouched. I cleared it out. It’s cleaned now—on auction. Someone bought it once but returned it. It’s jointly managed now by Maribel and the East End Adventurers’ Guild branch.”
”What about Burgkain—the fortress?”
Kian laced his fingers and bit a thumbnail.
”Gone.”
”What…? The underground body? I paid a fortune for that magician’s corpse. I spent years transforming it—”
”Destroyed. Not a trace left.”
”You damn pup! How dare you mock me like this!”
”Doesn’t matter what happened to your estate. You can’t leave here either. Unless you’d rather obey Erynys? She might give you a new, young body to house your soul.”
Kian watched her closely.
At the mention of ‘Erynys,’ a flicker of disgust crossed her face.
He had a hunch, the way she spoke behind those glasses. Erynys and Lady Camilla… not exactly friends. More like enemies who’d once had to pretend otherwise.
As expected, Camilla kicked the desk and began pacing, bristling.
”Do you even have a brain!? You really think you can negotiate with that lunatic spirit—that thing—who turned Albert Cain’s territory into this disaster!? If you’re that clueless, I’ll spell it out: she demanded Albert sacrifice a daughter to fix his broken manhood!”
”I know.”
”Erynys isn’t a guardian spirit. She’s a demon. People started worshiping her by mistake—some stupid cult in Count Kain’s land.”
”So what now?” Kian asked. “You want to go back into dormancy?”
”If she dries out again, she might not ever wake!”
With a loud clack, Camilla yanked her chair back and dropped into it with a huff.
Despite being made of stone, alchemically shaped by Linca, the chair didn’t even budge under her.
”Fine then. I’ll help. But on three conditions.”
”What are they?”
She raised three fingers, the skin hanging in folds.
”One—return my castle and summer house.”
”The castle’s gone. The summer house is still up for sale. If I talk to Maribel, I might be able to get it.”
That was the plan. When she came asking for a place to stay post-Oswald, and with her payment for this job still pending, he’d tell her to hand it over—house, land, all of it. She’d agree.
”Then that’s fine. Two—livestock. I want ten. Young. Handsome. Strong. No women. All male. Race doesn’t matter.”
”Does Izerland even have a slave market, Sir Kian?”
”I don’t think so anymore. But Châtillon should. Ten slaves—pick whatever breed suits you.”
Camilla chuckled—a thick, phlegmy sound. Her smile was obscene.
Even Kian had never seen her look so depraved.
”Three! Money! Give me your money! Enough to buy back a castle!”
”I don’t have that kind of coin.”
”I’ll pay,” said Linca, returning. Mizuchi had just swallowed the last of the sugar and spice.
”You’ve got that much, Linca?”
”Yes. If I count the leftover repair funds for Ramsey’s wall, I can probably afford a rundown castle in the countryside.”
”A countryside ruin—!? You call that a castle!?”
”All the good ones are already political or military hubs.”
”Then I’m not helping.”
”Then rot here forever,” Kian growled, slamming his hand against the desk as he stood.
Camilla clicked her tongue again.
”Fine then. I give up. Forget the castle,” she said, exhaling sharply. “But give me money to live comfortably for a while—money for anything, because you need it for everything.”
”How much, exactly?” Kian asked.
”All your remaining gold!”
”Got it,” he said with a curt nod.
He pulled a small pouch from his belt—heavy with gold coins—and tossed it in front of her.
”An advance. I’ll hand over the rest, along with the slave’s payment, once we’re back in the real world.”
Unlike Linca, Kian’s assets amounted to only a handful of coins—dozens, literally. Under normal circumstances, he’d hesitate. But when weighed against the plan’s success, the cost was obvious.
Greediness is forbidden, Sara once told him. When it must be used, then use it.
He hadn’t forgotten that.
”…Pure gold,” Camilla muttered, inspecting the pouch. “Small, but good currency… So that’s how it is. If sturdy coins like this are circulating, then the Empire of Night really is doomed.”
Using some kind of spatial magic, Camilla distorted the air and slipped on a pair of glasses she pulled from the warped space. She examined the Franz Kingdom coins closely, then returned them to the pouch and stashed it inside her clothes—the pocketed traditional kimono that had belonged to Linca.
”Return the beast-fur ring,” Camilla said.
”The unseen fourth condition, maybe?” Kian asked with a smirk.
”Yeah. My legs are too weak—I need someone who can turn into a horse.”
”Here, take it,” he said, flicking her wrist.
The ring arced through the air, then vanished in a flash at its apex.
A long, clawed finger caught it just before it would have disappeared entirely.
”Contract complete, huh?” Kian asked.
”Yeah. I trust you’ll handle it,” she replied. “By the way—I haven’t even asked your name properly yet. What’re you called?”
”Kian Vahid. And this lady here is Linca Tsai,” he said, gesturing beside him.
”I see, I see. That’s a good name,” Camilla said, nodding.
”Thanks,” Kian replied.
”Uh, thanks…?” Linca echoed, glancing sideways.
”And? What do you want? I’ll do what I can to help. Say whatever,” Camilla offered, folding her arms.
Kian told her they were returning to the real world to defeat Erynys. He briefly explained their forces and the enemy’s strength.
Camilla widened her eyes at the mention of killing Erynys, but she listened silently to the rest of the story.
”…So, we finished copying the teleportation magic circle,” Kian continued. “Next, we’re checking for any record of the magic contract between Talia and the spirits—oh, and the magic sword. Of course. From Cain’s castle. To take Erynys’s sword away.”
”Show me the magic circle you copied,” Camilla said.
”Just a moment—” Kian began, reaching into his pouch.
”Fine. I’ll give it to you. Here,” he said, handing over the paper.
”Eh, Sir Kian, did you also copy it!?” Linca exclaimed, peering over his shoulder.
”Well, yeah,” he said with a shrug.
”The Khaarab’s world-traveling spell…” Camilla whispered.
Her eyes widened, and she used her hair—animated by magic—to snatch the paper from Kian’s hand.
”Originally, it’d be enabled by Khaarab’s divine authority, but converting that into a spell structure… If we tried to reproduce it exactly, it’d become multilayered—unmanageable. But this… This is rendered perfectly in two dimensions. Truly divine craftsmanship.”
”Can you recreate it?” Kian asked.
”I can,” she said, nodding. “If I understand the spell and how to draw power from the Spiritual Vein, I can activate it. But I’ll need to go there and check in person.”
”So, looks like we can go back to our world after all, huh?”
Kian turned to Linca behind him.
”That’s only if that old woman doesn’t betray us, mind you,” Linca replied coolly.
Betrayal would drop them right back to square one.
That’s why the main copy—the real one Linca duplicated—hadn’t been handed over.
”You still have some value to us,” he said. “We won’t hand over the villa, the slaves, or the rest of the money. If the Empire has fallen, you won’t be able to live, see?”
”You seem tough enough to survive even without a penny to your name,” Camilla said with a dry smile.
”The Western Church’s Inquisition is watching. Everyone around us is an enemy,” she muttered. “Feels like a trap…”
”I told you, I’ll keep my word!” Camilla barked. “Trust is everything in business!”
”Doubt it,” Linca muttered, eyeing her with suspicion.
Camilla didn’t seem to notice—or didn’t care. She moved briskly on.
”So? You lot gonna kill Erynys? Hah. Go ahead and commit suicide if you like, but pay what you owe first.”
”Of course,” Kian said. “But dying’s not part of the plan. Lady Camilla, do you know anything about the contract between Talia and the spirits regarding the magic sword?”
”What do you mean?” she asked. “Only that the spirits, head over heels for cute little Talia, gave her that overpowered sword for free.”
”As I said earlier, Talia now is Erynys. Her body’s not her own—it’s an artificial vessel created by Count Cain. If we tell the spirits that, maybe they’ll take back the sword.”
”And how do you plan on telling them?” she said, arching a brow. “Gonna break into Albert Cain’s study and try every summoning spell you find? You’ll need sacrifices, a ton of magic, and time. Do you even know which spirit to call?”
”────”
”…………”
Kian and Linca exchanged a look.
Kian had learned how to wield the magic sword from Erynys, but never asked which spirit gifted it. Even in the Western oral legends of Thorn Princess, the spirits were only ever called “spirits.” No names. No clues.
”We’ll investigate that at the castle too,” Kian said. “By the way, how long does summoning a spirit usually take?”
”Albert said it took seven days and nights to summon Kharab,” Camilla replied. “And he used the souls of seventeen humans.”
”Could we substitute monster souls?” Linca asked. “No, wait—even then, if each ritual takes a week, summoning all seven would take… around fifty days.”
”You shouldn’t summon spirits at all,” Camilla said abruptly, her voice dropping into a loud, gruff parody.
”You two don’t realize how terrifying spirits are, do you?” she said, tone sharp. “Talia could talk to them because she’s Talia. If you summon one, they’ll ignore you—or worse, you’ll end up like Albert Cain.”
”But I don’t have any other way to seal the sword,” Kian said.
”I do,” Camilla replied. “Want to hear it?”
”Yeah. And stop stalling with that ‘hmm, maybe I’ll tell you’ nonsense. If we don’t act fast, Erynys might come back.”
”Use Princess Talia’s body—the one lying in the Sacred Domain,” she said.
”You mean I’d… become Talia myself?” Kian asked, eyes narrowing.
”N-No, please!” Linca cried, her voice cracking.
Kian turned, startled. Linca’s cheeks flushed bright red. She fidgeted, twisting the hem of her sleeve.
”I-I can’t have Sir Kian turning into a woman…” she murmured.
”Transferring a soul’s no easy feat,” Camilla said. “Not even Kharab’s power could pull that off. Besides, isn’t Talia crystallized? She can’t move. And if she wakes up, the whole world might fall asleep. That curse doesn’t work on Erynys’s soul, by the way.”
”Is that so?” Kian asked.
”The sleep curse—it activates when the name of a soul recorded in the world is invoked,” Camilla said. “So it doesn’t work on beings not native to this world. Spirit creatures, or those with strong spirit factors.”
She tapped her temple.
”Your right arm’s missing, right? Just attach Talia’s meat there. Then say the key phrase—before Erynys even draws her magic sword—you call it out first. If you can summon it before she does, then yeah, a sword-snatching fight will break out. But Erynys’ll probably win in the end. Still, you might get an opening. A fatal one.”
”Is that so…?” Kian murmured.
”And then, about the soul—you’re gonna make up for what you’re missing with Talia’s.”
”Talia’s soul was eaten by the Black Onyx spirit,” Kian pointed out, but Camilla shook her head.
”I think she took a cut during the extraction. The Black Onyx spirit—Kharab—has the power to cut, encase, and secondarily, to move. But she can only cut in squares.”
Camilla pressed her plump thumb and forefinger together, shaping a rectangle.
”Normally, a soul conforms to the body it inhabits. But if she can only cut in squares, then she probably didn’t manage to sever the entire soul.”
So she might’ve left scraps at the ends—arms, legs, other bits she failed to fully slice away.
Kian muttered this to himself, conjuring Erynys in his mind’s eye—her holding Talia in her memory. Back then, she’d pleaded, Please, open your eyes.
If the soul had been completely devoured, any effort would’ve been pointless. Everyone had known that. Erynys herself had said so. Yet still, she’d clung to her—Please, open your eyes. It had to mean something.
Next to him, Linca shrugged.
”But it’s been over four hundred years since Talia’s soul was taken. The remnants would’ve long since returned to the spiritual vein,” she said.
Maybe. In that case, only her body could serve as interference—disrupting the magic sword’s summoning. But Erynys was the type to cling. She might’ve gathered and hidden the fragments somewhere—inside the sanctuary. That’s what they’d search for in the temple.
More plausible than calling on seven mystery spirits for negotiations, right?
”Sir Kian, what do you think?” Linca asked.
”Given her personality, I’d say it’s likely,” Kian said. “If she did gather them, they’d be inside the protected sanctum—the barrier.”
”Then it’s settled.”
”Hold on—if you seal away the magic sword, how exactly do you plan to defeat Erynys?” Camilla asked.
”Simple. I’ll team up with Linca and take her down,” Kian said. “If luck’s with us, maybe we’ll rally other allies too.”
”What about weapons?” Camilla asked. “Erynys is no joke. Talia’s body is a top-grade puppet—crafted at absurd cost by that overprotective Albert. She’s a high-performance meat doll. You think you can take her in a straight brawl? Especially you, Kian—barely dressed. Do warriors from your era swear they’ll die unless they fight half-naked?”
”We’ll scavenge weapons where we can. Then—win with love, courage, and teamwork,” Kian said.
”I’ll defeat her. Sir Kian—please focus on sealing the magic sword,” Linca said.
Camilla’s eyes flicked, the doubt finally surfacing.
”Is this really okay…?” she murmured, voice fraying at the edges.
She didn’t need the old crone to tell her—what she was saying made her question her own sanity.
Erynys—glasses [T/N: glasses]—existed in spirit form and could go toe-to-toe with Oswald, wielding high-level magic and swordsmanship. In their last clash, she’d lost control under the magic sword’s power. But even when she wasn’t abusing it, Kian hadn’t been able to keep up. He’d taken several hits.
Assuming she held Silver Ice and the Windsong Blade, and if the magic sword was sealed, then a head-on fight might actually tilt her way. Without those weapons, though, the outcome was far less certain.
Just relying on the Mist magic sword left Kian’s long-range attacks pitifully weak.
It was like that training bout with Linca—blasted from afar and pounded into a one-sided beatdown.
If that happened again, he’d have to toss everything onto Linca’s shoulders.
He didn’t not trust her—but still, a tight knot of unease coiled in his chest.
And more pressing—if the Thorned Demon had revived, then Linca, the only one who could bypass magic absorption with the Covenant’s Mizelicorde, would have to face it.
Even Linca, if forced to fight both Erynys and the Thorned Demon… there was no way she’d win. She’d lose. No question.
”Hey, are there any other vampires still alive?” Kian asked.
Linca handed him a black tube—the Phoenix core—and he showed it to Camilla.
”It doesn’t have to be a vampire. This is the Phoenix core. If someone knows how to craft something strong with it—like, I don’t know, a powerful piece of gear—tell me.”
”I’m just a countess from a neighboring country. I came here for a festival. I don’t know much about Albert’s people,” Camilla said. “And I sure as hell don’t know who’s still alive—I was the first one to run into this place.”
She paused, frowning.
”Wait a sec…” she muttered, then added after a beat, “Hold on.”
”There’s one person I can think of.”
”Who? Where are they?” Kian asked.
”I don’t know their name. But I heard there’s a cave of the Shadow Spirit about ten kilometers west of Castle Cain. A dangerous fanatic’s holed up there.”
”Are they a vampire?”
”No. They were just a human, at first. A vampire slaughtered their kin. In their fury, they gathered allies and rebelled. Then they made a pact with the Shadow Spirit. Somewhere along the way, they stopped being human. Princess Talia defeated them once with her magic sword, but… the blade didn’t reach their life.”
”Why was someone like that allowed to stay so close to the castle? No one pursued them?”
”Couldn’t,” Camilla said curtly. “The cave became a temple to the Shadow Spirit. A powerful barrier was cast inside—nothing could interfere, from within or without. And that person—who rebelled—had wounds on their soul that even Talia’s sword couldn’t heal.”
”Hoh…?” Kian’s brow lifted.
”If they came out of the barrier, Princess Talia would deal with them. But if they didn’t… they’d just rot inside, floating there. So she left them be. With the spirit’s protection, maybe they escaped something worse.”
Camilla let out a dry chuckle.
”Ironic, isn’t it? The last of the ‘common folk’ still alive in Count Kian’s territory—maybe it’s them.”
”Do we really need to revive someone that dangerous?”
”They’re dangerous, yes. But they’ve been beaten by Talia’s sword—again and again. Their obsession with the blade and revenge… If you ask them to lend their power to defeat ‘Talia,’ they might listen. That weapon of theirs—some rough, black curved sword—they forged it strong enough to break two of Talia’s hearts by their final battle. If your weapons aren’t enough, get theirs.”
”How long would it take to build a ritual to cross into the real world?” Kian asked.
Camilla replied, “It won’t be done in one or two days.”
So they had time—to visit the dark spirit’s cave, and maybe prepare for what came next.
”If you strip the flesh from Talia’s body, Erynys might turn back toward us,” Kian said. “So taking it should be the last step.”
”Until then, you’ll search for the remnants of Talia’s soul,” Camilla said, “and explore the dark spirit’s cave and any other weapons.”
”I’ll prep the ritual. I have a plan to activate the magic sword—I’ll embed it into the core of your prosthetic, too. As for Talia’s soul, while you’re in the cave, I’ll let my beast do the searching.”
”I’ll send my shikigami too,” Linca said. “Tanu, you heard that, right?”
”Pon, Tanu!”
Kian gave a single nod, then moved to Camilla, steadying her slumped form so she could rise.
”Thanks for cooperating. I’m looking forward to working with you.”
”I already got the upfront payment,” she said. “Don’t forget the rest. I’ll remember forever.”
Kian nodded. “Of course.”
Then he glanced at her profile.
”By the way… you seem awfully familiar with the black onyx spirit—Kharab, was it? You even knew the details of his power.”
”So what?” Camilla said, tone flat. “As long as you achieve your goal, that’s all that matters. You don’t need to pry into my affairs.”
”Yeah,” Kian said quietly.
He remembered the roses of the Labyrinth—how they’d turned into black onyx after the conquest.
Somehow, this countess might have had a very personal tie to that spirit.
Notes:
• Camilla – A woman; the subject of the chapter; her body was used to seal Erynys’ soul.
• Linca – Jibril’s favorite girl. High-ranking warrior monk woman from Shin, with strong abilities like ignoring attacks and poisons.
• Count Cain – Talia’s father.
• Kharab – The enemy who stole Talia’s soul and possessed her body; referred to by the Black Onyx Spirit; defeated by Kian.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
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