WeTried Translations
Translator: Coughing Baby
Editor: Coughing Baby
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 26: O Vulgar Slaughter, O Craven Survival. (4)
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Elsewhere.
The control room at the heart of the Human Ranch.
It was the place from which every atrocity committed in this underground facility was directed.
A vampire stood inside the secluded room.
“Hmm-hmm~ Hmm, hmm-hmm~”
He hummed a cheerful tune.
His hips swayed to the melody.
The vampire was utterly absorbed in himself.
Clatter, clatter-.
Was he working on something?
Both hands moved busily.
He repeatedly picked up and set down various tools.
Whenever his hands got dirty, he washed them with clean water.
“Good, good... I’ve got a good feeling about today.”
A satisfied smile spread across his face.
The ordinary scene was almost languid.
As the man enjoyed his hobby...
Bang-!
“Director!”
Another vampire burst into the room.
The man, engrossed in his work, furrowed his brow.
He seemed irritated that his concentration had been broken.
“I distinctly said that nobody was to come in while I was working.”
“I-I’m sorry! But this is an urgent situation...!”
“Do you want to die?”
“N-No! I deserve death for my offense!”
“Haa... What is it? What’s the problem this time? Did someone cause trouble again?”
The man let it slide with surprising patience.
The one called the director idly fiddled with his tools.
That alone made the vampire before him break out in a cold sweat.
“Th-There’s... an invasion! Enemies have attacked the Human Ranch!”
“What? Did information leak? How did they find this place?”
“I don’t know. More importantly, nearly twenty of us have already fallen to them...!”
“They fell? Vampires who’ve drunk their fill of human blood? Did an entire order of knights come charging in?”
“N-No, it’s not that...”
“What, then? How many enemies are there?”
“There appear to be two enemies! One human and one vampire...”
Pop-!
Before the vampire could finish speaking, the vampire’s head burst like a balloon.
It was the director’s Bloodcraft.
He manipulated the blood flow and caused an explosion from within.
Brain matter caught in the blast scattered in every direction.
“...”
Thud-.
The body collapsed onto the floor a moment later.
The director looked down at it coldly.
As if he were looking at incomprehensible trash.
“Just two? And twenty of you were killed by a human?”
Tsk-.
The director clicked his tongue irritably.
“Useless bastards. They gulped down all that blood and still couldn’t handle one unexpected situation.”
They couldn’t even earn their keep.
The director let out an irritated breath.
Half of it was frustration toward his incompetent subordinates, and half was directed at the intruders.
They had interrupted him right when he was having fun.
“Every last one of you pisses me off.”
He set down his tools.
The director rose to his feet.
“I always have to clean up everyone else’s shit, don’t I? Fucking hell.”
Twitch-.
He kicked his chair, and something on the table moved.
Broken life struggled to stir, pitifully and horribly.
A lump of bright red flesh lay there.
“I was really getting into it, too.”
It was his work.
The art the director enjoyed creating.
It had once been human, but it was damaged beyond recognition.
Its skin had been peeled away, its organs removed, its heart exposed...
Perhaps the most horrifying part was that it was still alive in that state.
Such a refined hobby.
Countless identical lumps were displayed before the lump on the table.
“I’ll finish the rest when I get back.”
The director gazed lovingly at the gallery he had created.
Then he turned and left the control room.
“Hmm... Still, those intruders must be pretty strong. I should’ve listened to the explanation a little longer.”
The director pulled a heavy bottle from his pocket.
Its original contents had been emptied, and it was filled entirely with human blood.
He opened the cap and drained it in one go.
Gulp, gulp-.
Vital Blood flowed down his throat and spread through his entire body.
His taste buds tingled sharply, and dizzying pleasure washed over him.
At the same time, every cell in his body seemed to come alive.
The source of his power boiled over.
“Khh... I suppose it doesn’t matter.”
As he was now, he would lose to no one.
The director was no ordinary vampire.
A faint trace of pure blood ran through his veins.
One of his distant ancestors belonged to a collateral branch of the royal family.
He was twice as strong as other vampires, and he had also consumed human blood.
“Maybe I should capture those things and turn them into works of art.”
The director saw no chance of losing.
He walked on, humming the same tune.
“Hmm, hmm-hmm~”
Yet he never expected that he would never touch his tools again.
* * *
The director left the control room and walked down a long corridor.
Before long, his steps came to a stop.
As if he had discovered something.
“...Oh?”
Opposite him stood the person he had been desperately searching for.
“I never thought you’d come looking for me first.”
“...”
A human.
A boy wearing a grotesque mask.
The director’s eyes gleamed with interest.
“How strange.”
Contrary to what he had heard, he couldn’t sense anything from the boy.
No mana, sorcery, or demonic energy... He couldn’t detect the slightest trace of any of them.
The boy didn’t even have a muscular build.
He looked frail.
The clown spoke first.
“Nice to meet you.”
“Since you’re greeting me... I suppose I haven’t mistaken you for someone else.”
“You probably haven’t, if you were looking for the intruder.”
“So it was you~? Your presence was so faint that I got confused.”
“I hear that a lot.”
A weakling.
The only thing that gave him pause was the weapon in the boy’s hand.
A silver dagger visibly gleaming with an extraordinary amount of Divine Power.
It seemed that was what he had used to carve through the director’s subordinates.
“Seriously... Those pathetic bastards lost to something like that?”
The director’s brow twisted in irritation.
No matter how he looked at him, the boy seemed like nothing more than a rookie relying on a powerful weapon.
“Hmm.”
He looked around.
The sharp smell of burning filled the corridor.
Several butchered vampires lay scattered across the floor.
Their limbs had been severed, their eyes seared, yet they were still alive.
They looked as though death would have been kinder.
“Haha... You’ve got quite the fiery taste, don’t you?”
The director spoke playfully.
His red eyes measured his opponent.
‘Well... That weapon does look pretty strong, but I doubt he caused all this alone.’
Come to think of it, he had heard there were two intruders.
The other one was supposed to be a vampire.
Was that one the real threat?
This guy was the lackey, and the vampire was probably the boss.
‘If I beat this one up, the other one will show up on their own.’
Until then, perhaps he could take his time torturing him.
After all, the boy had interrupted his leisure time. The director had no intention of letting him die peacefully.
He approached at an unhurried pace.
“I’ll play with you for a moment, kid.”
“That sounds good. I have quite a lot I’d like to discuss with you as well.”
“Oh?”
“You’re the director, right? The administrator overseeing this Human Ranch.”
“Oh my, did those bastards spill even that much?”
“They kindly explained everything to me.”
“Really... Useless bastards.”
The director gave a short laugh.
As he slowly clenched his fist, he asked the clown a question.
“There’s something I’m curious about too... Where did the companion you came with go?”
“I asked them to handle another area. I decided to deal with you alone.”
“Kid, it’s good to be spirited, but too much of it can be poisonous.”
“It’s not really spirit.”
“Then what is it?”
“I just didn’t want to show them. I thought it would become quite a horrific sight. My master always acts tough, but they’re actually soft-hearted. I suppose I only wanted them to see good things...”
“Pfft... Horrific? A horrific sight? What exactly are you planning to do?”
The director sneered.
“Have you completely lost your mind? You must have, if you’re spouting such nonsense.”
“Hehe, perhaps I have.”
The clown answered plainly.
The director shifted his weight onto his lead foot.
He was starting to want to knock the boy down and pull out his intestines.
“Kid, this isn’t a place for you to swagger around, especially when you’re relying on one good weapon.”
“Oh, you saw through me? I was bluffing a little...”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. I’ll make you one of my works too.”
Boom-!
He lightly kicked off the ground.
The floor caved in beneath the force.
At the same time, the director’s coiled body shot forward like an arrow.
Whoosh-!
Tearing through the air, he appeared in an instant.
The director was already right in front of the boy.
“Die!!”
He threw a punch.
The clown simply stood there, as though he couldn’t even react.
The fist was about to connect, and the boy’s face was about to shatter.
Just as the director became certain of his victory...
Click-.
A small sound rang out.
“...?”
The director’s fist veered wildly off course.
No, calling it a miss would have been embarrassing.
Its trajectory had changed as though something had pushed it aside.
Whoooosh-!
His fist only tore through empty air.
The air exploded, leaving only the sound of it being split apart.
‘What...?’
The director froze in confusion for a moment.
The clown, on the other hand, remained silently where he stood.
All he had done was lightly wave a hand to the side.
There had been no force behind it.
It was a loose movement, as though he were merely fluttering a feather.
“Ha.”
The director gave an empty laugh.
He thought he had made a mistake.
He concluded that his punch hadn’t been deflected, but had simply missed.
After all, it was impossible for an attack to be stopped by a movement like that.
“Am I getting old... My body isn’t doing what I want. To think I made such a ridiculous mistake.”
“Was it really a mistake?”
“Be quiet. You won’t get that lucky twice.”
He clenched his fist again.
This time, he didn’t hold back in the slightest.
A Bloodstorm rose around his fist as he unleashed a full-powered strike.
Yet when he swung at the clown...
Click-.
“What...?”
It happened again.
The attack missed the boy.
His fist didn’t leave so much as a scratch.
The director’s smiling expression stiffened slightly.
“Luck has favored me twice now.”
“...”
The clown casually tossed out the remark.
Footnotes:
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