WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

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◈ Omniscient First-Person's Viewpoint

Chapter 408

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It Wasn't Innocent?!

For a vampire, whose blood is both power and source, the dominion of a higher vampire is absolute. Above all others, the Progenitor's strength and what she embodies stand in a class of their own.

Bloodcraft's control can only directly govern the body of those who share direct lineage. Even an Elder cannot directly command another Elder's ayin. And so the Progenitor alone holds absolute dominion over every vampire.

Of course, bloodcraft is not the only means of control.

"What's this clueless idiot doing here? Unni is spending some hard-earned time with her favorite concubine, and some ayin dares interrupt that?! No sense, no use!"

Force and fear work too. Exactly as Cabilah was demonstrating on Jazra right now.

Immortality is one thing when your opponent is ordinary. A higher-ranked vampire interferes with bloodcraft itself, the very source of regeneration. The bone saw had torn through Jazra's body and thrown his blood into chaos.

Jazra fought to control his rioting blood and managed to speak.

"Gkh...! Lady Cabilah, why are you doing this to me...!"

"Why? Heheh. You're asking me why?!"

Cabilah narrowed her eyes and twisted her wrist. The bone saw buried in his flesh fed on Jazra's blood and flesh and kept growing. She hissed softly.

"Asking why is exactly why you deserve to die. Die. Die. Just die already."

From Jazra's perspective, it was an unbearable injustice. He had only come to present a petition to the Progenitor, and now here he was on the edge of death.

'The blood shackle. The shackle that binds vampires to their masters and lets them rule their thralls, and if the Progenitor herself has broken free of it...'

That thought reached its conclusion, and Jazra understood. Then despair swallowed him.

'Lir Nightingale breaking free of the shackle means nothing on its own. But if the Progenitor has slipped free of it, if she means to abandon every last one of us...! I've found out. I cannot survive this.'

They say the dying grow brave, but that is not a universal truth. Ordinary creatures deny death to the last, thrash and struggle to survive, and meet their end wrapped in terror.

But Jazra was a vampire, and a senior ayin who had weathered every kind of storm. His heart had already stilled, and he looked at reality with cold clarity and accepted it. The only outcome left for him was death.

'Lord Luscinia! Forgive this inadequate thrall for failing to settle your grievance...!'

The bone saw, now grown enormous, burrowed through his entire body. Most of Jazra's blood had been devoured. But he too was an ayin. He gathered what little blood remained and cried out.

"The Progenitor... has abandoned us...! She has shed... the shackle...!"

That was the last of it. The bone saw pierced Jazra's head. Jazra, once a member of the great vampire race, an ayin who had walked the Duchy's history, perished. All that remained was a trickle of blood running along the bone saw and a darkness like half-burned ash.

A wind came from somewhere. The ash that had been Jazra rose on it, climbing like a soul ascending to heaven, then dissolved into the jet-black darkness of the Fog Duchy. Whether it found its way to the sky or became part of the boundless dark, there was no way to know.

"Unni. You don't need to indulge them. Trash like that needs to be stamped down as you go, to keep discipline. Luscinia went and died on his own terms, so with no Elder to rein in the ayin running wild, this is the only way."

Cabilah drew back the bone saw, now grown as large as a small tree. She smoothed the savagery from her face with some effort and spoke to Tyr with a bright smile, in a tone that made it impossible to believe she had just executed one of her own kind moments ago.

"Honestly. Like unni would ever abandon us. She wouldn't, would she."

She was the Elder most accomplished in bloodcraft among them all. In purely technical terms, she might even surpass Tyr herself, the Progenitor. Every Elder felt it, though none said it aloud. That quiet, nagging unease.

That Tyr's dominion had weakened.

Tyr steadied herself and nodded.

"Of course. If I had meant to abandon you, I would never have come back."

"I believe you. I know. Unni who divided her own body to blot out the sun, who wrung out her blood and shared it with all of us, she couldn't abandon us. Unni is our god, our life, our country."

Cabilah stuffed the bone saw back into the teddy bear's belly. It should have been several times larger than the bear, but the moment Cabilah pushed it in, it vanished as though sucked inside.

With the grotesque weapon hidden away, Cabilah smiled brilliantly and drifted toward Tyr. It was the smile of a sweet little child, but after witnessing that execution just now, I could not take it at face value.

Terrifying. Genuinely terrifying, this vampire world. Thank goodness I'm human.

"Unni. May I ask one thing? What happened to your dominion?"

"I reclaimed my heart."

"Your heart...?"

"Yes. My first life, long ago, dying at the hands of the Sanctum. I rediscovered the heartbeat I had lost back then and realized it through bloodcraft. The time that had stopped began to flow again."

Tyr placed a hand over her chest and murmured.

"Thanks to that, I gained emotion. A heart beating of its own will leads me somewhere new. It tells me feelings I did not know I had. Yes. I have found life again."

"Unni's life...."

Cabilah turned the words over slowly, then broke into a warm smile and took Tyr's hand. She seized the opportunity to fiddle with Tyr's fingers and indulge herself, then made a show of sympathy.

"I'm glad, unni. Unni, who was always sacrificing herself for us, has found life again."

"Thank you. I will find another way to deal with the shackle. I am not terribly worried, the Elders who govern the thralls remain...."

Then an Elder who did not remain came to mind, and Tyr's expression darkened.

"...Except Luscinia. That matter needs to be dealt with quickly."

"Right. Let's clear away the tiresome business and throw a banquet at the Full Moon Castle. Call the cattle, gather the blood, and celebrate unni's return in grand style!"

"Yes. Hyu. As for our conversation, let us finish it once we arrive."

Cabilah's gaze turned to me, carrying the same pure smile she had been showing Tyr. I met the uncomfortable stares of both girls and nodded.

"Sure, why not."

Vampires have thin emotions. Surprising or delighting a creature that can govern every drop of blood in its own body is extraordinarily hard. When a vampire shows an expression, it is something crafted at the end of cold calculation.

Which means that smile of Cabilah's is manufactured too.

Terrifying, genuinely terrifying. Thank goodness I'm human. Really.

The procession toward the Full Moon Castle was assembled. In keeping with Tyr's wishes, it was magnificent but not loud. A single great carriage escorted by three Elders and one Elder-blooded horse, with a handful of ayin in their direct service following quietly behind. Small in number, but in terms of who was there, an overwhelming assembly.

Aside from being pulled by Rallion, nothing about the carriage resembled a carriage at all. It was larger than a grand two-story house, its body painted solid black. There were no wheels. In their place, darkness that seemed to have taken on physical form held up the underside.

It glided along like something sliding over polished ice, fast and smooth. The ride was comfortable, and the journey would not be unpleasant. A carriage with no jolting. Honestly, a little boring.

"Progenitor's concubine!"

Or maybe not.

I turned to find Lungken staring straight at me. Given that we would be seeing plenty of each other going forward, I kept my reply as civil as I could manage.

"What."

"I hear you are the King of Humanity! I want to know the power of the King of Humanity, Lords of All Creation! Come on, why not take me on!"

"I keep telling you no. I said it before. I have no power."

"But WHY--!!"

"Because I have none--!"

I shouted right back at him. Lungken is, to put it kindly, simple-minded, and to put it honestly, thick, unless you literally yell at him, he does not register what you are saying.

And he does not take offense at a human raising their voice. Lungken grumbled with pure, uncomplicated frustration that I would not fight him.

"Ugh. Pathetic, losing your power somewhere along the way. If you're the King of Humanity, you should have kept better hold of it!"

"I didn't lose it. My great-great-great-great-great... oh, I'm running out of breath. Some predecessor King of Humanity lost it on his own. I'm a victim here too."

"Do you know where it was lost? If it's nearby, I can help you find it!"

"Now that's something I'm glad to hear. Find me the nearest Demon Gods. If I track them all down and awaken as the King of Humanity, you'll be the first one I fight."

"Haha! Good! A man's promise must not be broken!"

So I gained one ally who might help find the Demon Gods. Not that he'll be much use.

Lungken gave a vigorous nod, threw the carriage window wide open, and bellowed.

"DEMON GODS--! COME OUT RIGHT NOW--!"

My prediction was correct. Lungken was completely useless. Not a single lead on the Demon Gods, not even a hint of how to approach finding one.

I just wanted to get on his good side, I was never expecting him to actually find anything. I was watching Lungken shout at the top of his lungs when Cabilah extended the bone saw and hooked it around his neck. Then she yanked him back hard.

"Did a boar suddenly get its throat cut?! Unni is touring the Duchy and you want to ruin the mood?! Stop interfering, shut up, and sit down! Show at least a pig's tail's worth of patience!"

Apparently having a saw hooked around your neck is trivial to a vampire. Lungken pried the bone saw off his throat without any particular reaction and kept grumbling.

"There's nothing to do in the carriage anyway! Then shouldn't we be looking for Demon Gods on the way!"

"You think squawking at the top of your lungs counts as doing something?! Absolutely useless! If you have nothing to do, go run a race with Rallion!"

"Hm! That's a fine idea!"

Of course, what is said as a joke still depends on who receives it. Lungken promptly jumped out of the carriage, somehow found his footing, and took off running on two legs. Thud, thud, the boar beastkin's footfalls rang out just outside.

But no matter what, Rallion is a horse. Rallion's four powerful legs easily outpaced Lungken's two, and there was no contest. Lungken charged ahead boldly at first, then began to fall steadily behind.

"Hah! Hah! As expected of Rallion, so fast! This is, I'm not going to catch up...."

Clack. Cabilah shut the carriage window right in Lungken's face. The inside of the carriage went quiet. The darkness-infused window swallowed even sound.

"Unni! I've removed the noisy obstacle. Your journey will be pleasant now!"

Cabilah announced this to Tyr with the air of someone expecting praise. I happened to have found it noisy myself, so I was happy enough to accept it. Tyr apparently felt the same.

"Now that it's quiet, we can have a proper discussion."

Tyr sat close beside me and fixed her gaze on Hilde, who was calmly reading across from us. Hilde had somehow acquired several dozen thick books stacked up beside her, and she pretended not to notice, flipping pages idly, then glanced over at us and let out a long, deliberate sigh.

"The stare is so intense it's going to burn a hole through the book. What is it, Tyrkanzyaka?"

Tyr pressed her gently but firmly.

"Hilde. The time has come for you to speak of your nation's great matter."

"In a moving carriage?"

"There is no better place to share something important. It would be harder for anyone to eavesdrop here than anywhere in the Full Moon Castle."

"True enough. All right. 'I' was starting to get impatient to say it anyway."

Hilde closed the book with a snap. She set it on her lap, folded her hands, rested her chin on them, and in an instant transformed from a carefree reader into a seasoned political operator. She met Tyr's eyes squarely.

"Straight to the point. 'I' want an alliance between the military state and the Duchy!"

An alliance with the Fog Duchy. As a matter of national importance it certainly qualified. But Tyr's reaction was underwhelming.

"Is that all?"

How many nations over the centuries had tried to borrow the power of vampires. In any one era, few humans would think to devise such a scheme, but across twelve hundred years they had sprung up like weeds. To Tyr, an alliance proposal was utterly stale, uninteresting, and practically useless.

But Hilde had one reversal prepared. As though she had expected exactly that reaction, she smiled and glanced over at me.

"With Father-dear as king of the military state."

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