Volume 3 Chapter 72 Quest： Aperitif I
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
Liam was already waiting in the north building of the old Oswald mansion, giving instructions to the dozen or so servants inside to prepare the bath.
At first, Kian thought he would be sexually serviced by the maids, like prostitutes, but since they were servants of Maribel, who was from a minor noble family, there was no way they would show skin to him.
After washing himself in the luxurious hot spring facility that Oswald had built with a lot of money, he was dressed casually and led to his guest room for the night.
Kian wrote a letter to Natra and called a bat to deliver it, then he spent time reading back issues of the magazine ‘Dark History’ that Liam had fetched for him.
It was a total of 6 months’ worth.
The most interesting article among the back issues was written by one of the Western Church’s Guardian Knights (Dominion) about ‘The Similarities Between Werewolf Transformations and Bloodsucking Kind Changes.’
Her paper examined how Bloodsucking Kind, like werewolves that control wolves or dogs, use special sounds or smells to dominate lower beings, and explored their methods of control and information transfer more deeply.
According to her, the Bloodsucking Kind have several types of special cells called ‘vampire factors.’ Although these differ among Cain, Draguros, and Immortal kinds, all can be broadly divided into 2 main groups within the same type.
Those with the ‘Dominant’ factor and those with the ‘Subordinate’ factor.
The factors that determine whether a Bloodsucking Kind is advanced-ranked or lower-ranked.
The dominant kind can control lower beings, while the subordinate kind is controlled.
And it’s that simple.
According to her, the old vampires were dangerous because they had the ability to perfectly control and dominate subordinate kinds, building a ‘kingdom’ with themselves at the top.
(Was the Blood Servant’s relationship with their parent another story…? It’s not very clear. But, by releasing waves of magic power, one could control bats and lower-rank Cain species. According to the author of this paper, the ‘Burier of the Cursed’, it seems like they would be classified as a ‘dominant species’ of vampire)
Probably, the Owl would be categorized similarly.
Then, what kind of classification would the Natra and the Owl’s Knights, locked in the underground dungeon of the main building, fall under?
’Since the vampire factor of the subordinate species is planted by the dominant species, at first, everyone is a subordinate. However, each time you pass on s*men, magic power, or powerful cursed tools to your child, the vampire evolves’
In the guest room, as dusk approached, the voice of ‘glasses’ echoed hollowly.
A cool breeze blew in through the open window, abruptly extinguishing the flame of the candlestick on the table where Kian had rested his elbow.
’S*x can also lead to the dominant species’ factor flowing in, and when you pass on a name or an expensive cursed tool, a sort of self-suggestion takes hold, and your magic power can flow back into the familiar. In some cases, the familiar’s subordinate species factor, stimulated, can transform into the dominant species factor’
”Is that so? …I guess you, being a vampire, know about such things too”
’Where would you find a species that doesn’t study its own race? More importantly, did this one understand the meaning of not giving things to familiars arbitrarily? No matter what, if you increase your companions in the future, be careful. For a child, taking in a parent vampire’s factor is the quickest way to become independent and stand on their own.’
”By the way, can you also kill the vampire parent who controls you the most?”
’That’s right. Hatred between parent and child is common in vampire society, and there were family that established the iron rule of ‘only one blood servant per parent’ to prevent the extinction of their species’
”Hmm. Maybe the vampire decline was because of chaos from parent-killing by children?”
’Well. Since I am a shut-in, I don’t really know much about the vampire fall.’
”I know, but you probably just don’t want to talk about it.”
Kian said that and put a magazine on the table, then stood up to close the window.
Because he felt a little cold.
Recently, he’s been wearing the ‘Silver Ice’ gear more often, so just shirt and bottoms felt inconvenient sometimes.
Once you taste good armor, your body naturally depends on it.
But collecting and using powerful gear didn’t bother him at all.
”Huh…?”
’The wave of the short-range teleportation gate. The smell of this magic power…’
”It’s Maribel and Eleonora.”
Kian muttered and checked the position of the sun outside the window.
The sunset was getting darker, but the sun was still peeking over the mountains.
It was about 8 p.m.
He thought dinner would be quite late, maybe crossing over into the next day, but they returned surprisingly early.
Kian gently stroked his neatly shaved jaw, then quickly put on a leather suspender and stood up.
In less than a few seconds, the sound of 2 boots echoed from the door, and he heard a knock and Eleonora’s voice, “Lord Kian, are you there?”
”Yes. ────Your Excellency, Lady Eleonora. You’re back early.”
He opened the door.
Behind the door was a red-haired female knight about to knock again.
To her left stood Maribel, wearing a short skirt that reached her knees and white tights.
Her outfit focused more on ease of movement than glamour.
Since Eleonora was also dressed as a female knight, she looked like a regular party magician standing next to her.
She had a white magic stone attached to her bishop staff and was wearing a dark hood over her blond hair.
Her long hair was tied with a ribbon, hanging in front of her chest so it wouldn’t fall down from under her hood onto her back.
”Kian, I’m sorry for coming before meals. But, I have a personal request for you.”
”Um… you mean a personal request as an Adventurer?”
”I don’t submit quests to the Adventurer Guild. In fact, I can’t.”
Eleonora said firmly with a serious expression.
He didn’t quite understand, but he vaguely thought the request involved that monster the boy Gao──who said he was a tiger Beastman──had mentioned in front of the Oswald estate.
As expected, Maribel brought up that topic.
”Kian, actually, for the past ten days here at Izerland Fortress, there’s been a series of cases where people are killed by bloodsucking monsters… Ah, it’s not something to discuss in the hallways. Is it okay if we go inside the room?”
”Yes, of course.”
”Then, excuse me.”
Eleonora fluttered her white cape and moved aside.
Kian closed the door behind Maribel and Eleonora after they entered the guest room.
”…”
Maribel crossed her arms and sighed.
She looked restless, scanning the guest room.
Meanwhile, Eleonora turned to Kian, with her makeup-heavy eyes, making a big bear-shaped frown.
”Lord Kian, you’re an expert in monster hunting, right? How many Bloodsucking Kind have you hunted so far?”
”Most of them were hunted in parties, and I didn’t often participate in fights, so I actually haven’t handled many.”
”What? So, it might be too heavy a task for you to take this on?”
”No, I trust Kian to handle it, Eleonora. He’ll surely resolve it.”
”…I see, that’s likely. Even our Sunlightland Knight band, which couldn’t catch the monster in a week, the honorable Master Kian will probably defeat it in one night.”
There was a subtle bit of sharpness in Eleonora’s words.
It seemed that she, who was in charge of defeating the ‘monster,’ was removed from her position by Maribel because she could not achieve results.
She looked quite angry about it.
The red-haired Knight’s face seemed to say, “If we had just a few more days, we could have solved this case ourselves.”
She was a person easy to read, for better or worse.
Anyway.
”Your Excellency, can you please tell us everything from the beginning? You’ve known about the blood-drained bodies found in the fortress for ten days now?”
When Kian said this, Eleonora crossed her arms and stepped back, looking dissatisfied.
Maribel nodded and began to speak.
”Well, it’s like this. In these ten days, there have been 7 victims. The problem is that all the victims were Adventurers. Five of them were Rank 5, and 2 were Rank 4, all skilled fighters. They were all killed at midnight in places hidden from view.”
”From the scene and the fact that the victims were drained of blood, the higher-ups in the Guild and our investigation team concluded that these attacks were done by a Bloodsucking Kind. However, it’s unheard of for a monster to be roaming inside the fortress. We don’t know if it came up through the sewer or boldly entered through the fortress gate during the day, but I think this monster has high intelligence and is killing Adventurers inside the fortress as revenge for its comrades being killed.”
”The Adventurer Guild suspects that the Owl’s undead soldiers are suspicious. They have been acting strangely lately, or perhaps someone reported to the Guild that ‘Owl’s soldiers are monsters’.”
”Strangely acting, you say?”
When Kian asked back, Maribel pressed her lips together.
”Last week, one undead soldier bit his Servant’s arm, causing a serious injury. They are still in mental shock… I’ve given them money to keep them quiet about this, so they won’t tell anyone.”
”Lord Owl is visiting Ramsey. I was surprised that those soldiers are puppets, but, how can I say, everyone makes mistakes. Owl made a control error. He is a pure and righteous Knight in the Knights of the Sun. He would never order a puppet to attack a maid.”
”Eleonora, if someone makes a mistake once, they can make it again. I understand you want to protect Owl, but please evaluate the facts objectively.”
”No…, I also agree to temporarily contain the puppets.”
Kian frowned.
It seemed that this was not just about ‘monsters’──things were getting complicated.
”Lady Eleonora, did Lord Owl’s servant leave its post at midnight?”
”According to the guard team, it was doing its duty normally.”
”I see. Your Excellency, have you contacted Lord Owl?”
”Of course, I sent a letter. He replied that if the servant’s behavior is strange, it can be disposed of.”
Maribel answered coldly and briefly.
Kian nodded and turned his face towards Eleonora.
”Is the scene preserved? I would like to examine the bodies of the victims if possible.”
”Bodies? What do you plan to do with dried-up corpses?”
”I will identify the type of enemy from bite marks and claw marks. I can also find out if they have poison, if they like to play with guts, or if they crush and eat bones for more detailed information.”
”All 7 scenes are in back alleys near the tavern. The Adventurer Guild has locked us out, so the old places probably have no blood left. But the scene near the tavern ‘Seventh Dragon’ in the merchant area is from yesterday, so it likely hasn’t been cleaned yet.”
”The bodies are in a morgue managed jointly by the Guild and the guard team. It is already closed, so I cannot take you there now, but if you like, I can open the gate to the scene.”
Maribel made that suggestion.
It seemed she had planned to bring Kian out from the beginning by wearing a hood at this hour.
Kian nodded once and said to the blonde princess.
”Well then, could you please show me the scene? Also, it’s fine to do this after, but once the relationship with the Guild is back to normal, please assess my work like a Quest. I expect a significant deduction, but I’ll make sure to earn my contribution points.”
* * *
Once outside the Oswald estate, Kian gathered more details about the victims from Eleonora while teleporting to the ‘Seventh Dragon.’
Eleonora mentioned that the monster attacked Adventurers to settle a grudge, but aside from being Adventurers, the victims had no common private lives, and the monsters they had recently hunted were all different.
’Can monsters really hold a grudge?’
(It depends on how intelligent they are. For example, you, in human form, would be considered a proper monster by Eleonora. You’re a vampire, after all.)
’I see.’
When Kian and Maribel teleported to the tavern ‘Seventh Dragon,’ the town streets were quite dark despite it being evening, with magic stone lamps and torches flickering here and there on the sloping roads.
The streets were crowded with merchants finishing their day and warriors returning from the Adventurer Guild.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
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