WeTried Translations

Translator: Botanica

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◈ I Became a Generation Zero Hunter ◈

Chapter 10

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Blood Web (4)

Failed? What was that supposed to mean? Ian studied the Princess's face. A touch of gloom and resignation clung to the corners of her mouth.

"I have come to realize that Dracula has found better ones to take the place of his children...."

Before Ian could answer, the Princess added more.

"Speak my name. The one who walks beneath the sun. The one whom running water cannot hold. The one who does not fear the divine!"

Saying so, she drew back the curtains. It was still bright daylight, so the sunlight poured over her in silhouette, from behind.

"Behold. Even now, I can endure the sun."

It was a sight that had once made Ian shudder with terror when he first saw it. The sun was something even the elders of the vampires had never dared to approach. The sight of a vampire strolling under the light had dealt a staggering shock to every hunter.

The Princess raised the index finger of her right hand and aimed it at the edge of the sunlight creeping in from behind her.

As she slowly withdrew the blood-energy wrapped around her hand, the sunlight mercilessly scorched that pale white finger.

Sizzle...

With a bitter smile, the Princess regrew the finger and looked at Ian.

"But those who have made the covenant of holy blood. Those who bargained with my father as Bloodstream, not as Bloodkin (血族), can bask in the sunlight and sunbathe."

By the Princess's long analysis, in the original abilities of a vampire, such as handling blood or binding a person's heart and soul with overwhelming presence, the Bloodkin held the advantage over the Bloodstream.

The Bloodkin spent precious blood to use their authority. To make up for their meager mana, they had to drink human blood and rely on the inefficient method of converting the essence of life within it into mana.

But now, the age had changed.

"I can tread across running water and walk over it, but they can swim in it."

For the Bloodstream, spending blood was not essential. The blessing granted to the Bloodstream did not give them the power to gain mana from blood, but instead reshaped their bodies into constitutions better suited to storing mana.

Considering that agelessness was among the blessings granted to the Bloodstream, this amounted to laying a foothold for them to stand equal to the Bloodkin, or to surpass them.

"I can stand proudly before holy relics, but they have no reason to feel fear of them."

The Bloodstream could refine themselves into something even stronger with the blood of things that were not human.

By offering their prey's blood to the 《Lord of Unquenchable Thirst》, they could gain new blessings. This was a mode of existence set apart from the vampires of old, who had to feed on people.

Because their way of existing had changed, the Bloodstream were freer of the lore that bound the Bloodkin. That was how the Bloodkin Princess interpreted the change in the Bloodstream.

"Well. A stake of iron through the heart will still kill them, I suppose. But is that not true of you humans as well?"

Probably, if a priest serving a divinity such as a sun god, rather than the ordinary sun, appeared, they would take greater damage than usual.

If it were not ordinary running water but the river of the underworld flowing deep underground, the Bloodstream would fear it too.

If it were not an ordinary holy relic but a weapon forged from a saint's bones and consecrated with holy blood, even the Bloodstream could not escape it.

But, as the Princess had already said.

A lethal weapon like that killed ordinary humans just the same. At a general level, the Bloodstream were indistinguishable from humans.

Ian suppressed the voice that threatened to rise on impulse. Weighing the Princess's true intent, he opened his mouth.

"Why."

"Hmm?"

"If that's the case, why did you fight? For the Bloodstream, not the Bloodkin. For people who were never your subjects. Why did you accept playing the clown?"

"Wrong."

The Princess shook her head.

"I am the Princess."

As she had said before, the Princess regarded the Bloodstream too as a branch of the Nobles of the Night.

And the Princess's purpose for existing was to lead the Nobles of the Night.

"What reason could there be that I should not become a clown for my subjects?"

The Princess spoke of the subtle atmosphere that had hung between the Bloodstream and the hunters. Until the 2nd generation, many Generation Zero hunters had still been active, so the newly appeared Bloodstream had been a creepy, shunned presence.

That was why the Princess had accepted the duty of the clown, of being stuffed and mounted as an idol.

"Even if they do not regard me as their Princess, I regard them as my subjects."

The Princess had to protect her subjects, and it was her role to build roots in this land where they could live.

Why had the Princess fought the unprecedented calamity of an S-rank Gate that was her own?

Had the Gate, already on the verge of collapse, been left alone, it would have inflicted enormous damage on humanity. Exploiting that chaos, the Bloodstream might even have leapt up to become this age's ruling class.

But the Princess thought: if the Bloodstream truly wished to survive in the Age of Constellations, that thing had to be stopped.

And being acknowledged as members of society by doing so was the Bloodstream's only chance to prosper safely and steadily.

"And my role was fulfilled that day, when I stopped the S-rank Gate. Now no one thinks of the Bloodstream as humanity's enemy. My duty is...."

The voices that called the Bloodstream humanity's enemy had died down. It was thanks to how they had fought ahead of everyone else before the unprecedented crisis of the S-rank Gate.

To be precise, the one who stood at the very front line was Bloodkin, not Bloodstream.

But now, no one remained who remembered that difference.

"My worth. It is over now."

To Ian, the Princess's words sounded like this.

Our age is over.

The war between vampires and hunters had already ended in 1999.

* * *

"...I understand the worth of the Bloodstream."

The Bloodkin were a self-contradictory existence. They devoured humans, yet for that very reason could not survive without them.

With the exception of exceptional births like the Princess, their numbers could only grow through humans, and humans regarded them as enemies.

But the Bloodstream were different. They too could multiply only through humans, but they did not have to become humanity's enemy.

Considering the blessing of agelessness granted to them, once a very long time had passed, there would be nothing on this earth but the Bloodstream....

'Ah. No, that wouldn't happen. The contractors of the other constellations would have similar powers.'

Someday the numbers of ordinary people and contractors might reverse, and someday after that, most of the world might be filled with contractors.

If such a situation arrived, then in a sense the Bloodstream's "world conquest" would be accomplished. By a method different from the Bloodkin's coercive rule.

"But. Why don't you make more Bloodkin?"

"Did I not say it? We have failed. I know that the age has changed."

The change was the sight of the Bloodstream enjoying sunbathing.

The change was the moment of feeling the mana that filled the air.

The change was....

"Now I can no longer hear my father's voice."

The severing of the tie to the Progenitor.

Ian knew that the Princess was a combat weapon and high priestess, specially manufactured as the priming water for Dracula's descent.

She was a being born from gathering only the purest portions of the elders' blood, the individual who could hear the Progenitor Dracula's voice most closely.

For a high priestess to lose the revelations of her god meant.

"Then the Bloodkin...."

Just as Ian was about to say something more.

"Archrival."

The Princess smiled. Her lips were certainly curved upward, but a desolate bitterness swirled in her eyes.

"There are no Bloodkin."

Ian felt he finally understood why the Princess had been waiting for him.

"Archrival. I am merely the best of the failures."

The Princess was mighty. But power alone could not cross the gulf between Bloodkin and Bloodstream.

"Even if I were to make Bloodkin again now, it would be no more than mass-producing failures that run against my Progenitor's will."

Believing she understood the King's will, the Princess had resigned herself.

"And in the end, we will go extinct. In an age where nothing is left for us to drink."

The Princess went on to add something more after that. Ian rose from his seat.

"Well, then, what will you do, archrival? Shall we wage the battle we left unfinished?"

A single drop of blood formed at her fingertip. The drop swelled in waves, then hardened into the shape of an elegant rapier.

Ian remembered the weapon the Princess had loved to use. A great sword so huge it nearly matched her own height.

He glared at the Princess.

"...Don't drag me into your suicide."

The Princess's face stiffened for a moment, as if surprised. Then for a while she showed her usual confident expression, before finally wearing a wry smile.

"You see through me well, my friend."

"Do you want to die pitifully in the end and be remembered among the Bloodstream? As their 'Princess'? I won't grant your request. A peaceful death, or being revered as a martyr, is a luxury for you."

Ian rose from his seat and put on the headband. He vanished into transparency, just as he had when he came in.

"Stay stuffed and mounted as an eternal outsider, surrounded by subjects who don't believe in you."

The Princess looked toward the unseen hunter and threw out a single line.

"Then, archrival. What of you?"

"......"

"If you wish to look into the tale of your old comrades, start at BloodWeb. It is a graveyard for old folk like me, who nurse a longing for the old age."

He left the hotel room without answering. Behind him, he heard the Princess's low singing.

The net of blood was torn. There is no thread to mend the netting, and no more thread can be passed through its meshes.

Never again would family be bound together by blood.

* * *

"Oh, where's your guest?"

Even though the manager had come back, the guest the Princess had mentioned was nowhere to be found. The Princess nodded calmly.

"Already gone. They seemed in a great hurry and hastened their steps."

"Oh, what a shame. I would have liked to meet your friend."

The Princess nodded with her usual air. After chatting a while over coffee, the manager, pretending to tidy the sweets, quietly and discreetly sent word to the upper echelons of the Order.

[The Princess. Contact with an unidentified outsider.]

The manager was a high-ranking Bloodstream of the Order. Usually the feelings Bloodstream held toward the Princess changed according to their abilities and positions.

Those who had only just become Bloodstream worshipped the Princess like an idol.

But as their rank as hunters gradually rose and they became high-ranking Bloodstream, they came to realize that the Princess was the most terrifying vampire humanity had ever faced, one who had fought even the Six Founders of the Beginning.

Only those who knew this truth could remain at the Princess's side as watchers, out of a sense of mission.

And then there were those who appointed the watchers. The true rulers of the Crimson Order, who bound them with the thread of a sense of mission and moved them.

『The special-class dangerous primordial species, the 《Sovereign of the Royal Blood》, has made contact with an unidentified outsider.』

『What do we know of the outsider?』

『Unknown. All that has been determined is the region.』

『Sheol, was it?』

『Then let us send word to that region's bishop.』

The Bishops of the Star.

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