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Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

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Chapter 421: Elder, Ain, Yeiling, and Human - 8

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My suggestion to hide Finlay had come to nothing. Valdamir seated me across from him, propped his chin on one hand, and considered the matter.

"Finlay."

"You know Finlay?"

"I do."

"Ah, stupid question. He must be one of the Duke of Crimson Blood's thralls."

Count Erte, standing at Valdamir's side, spoke as if to correct me.

"That is not because he is a thrall. His Highness is exceptional. His Highness knows the personal details of every vampire in existence. Elders, ain, yeilings. Even how many Twits each yeiling commands."

Really? That much?

The Duke of Crimson Blood did not deny it. Instead, after thinking for a long while, he spoke.

"Erte."

"Yes, Your Highness."

Count Erte lowered her head. Valdamir stared at her and muttered coldly.

"Remove your heart."

What? Remove it?

While I was still questioning my ears, Count Erte did not hesitate for even a moment. By the time I came to my senses, she had raised a hand and driven it into her own chest. Without a scream, she pushed aside the streaming blood and pulled out her own heart.

I asked in a panic.

"W-What is this? Why are you suddenly taking out your own heart?"

Though he had ordered his loyal subordinate to kill herself, Valdamir's emotions did not waver. Compared to a human, he felt no more regret than someone would when clipping and discarding a fingernail.

"As you said, it would be better to conceal Finlay's disrespect toward the Progenitor. The surest way to seal a vampire's lips is annihilation."

"What? Finlay, the yeiling, did it, not Count Erte!"

"It is not much different. If a master cannot be held accountable for a thrall's wrongdoing, then from now on, one could simply create thralls and have them commit crimes."

"But you're Count Erte's master too! Are you shifting the blame?"

Even when I tried to pick a fight, Valdamir answered calmly.

"Did Finlay not say it? That regardless of my will, the Progenitor's command was necessary to start a war. That nothing could be decided before the Progenitor returned."

"How do you know that?"

"Because I told Erte as much."

Valdamir wanted a war, or at least a comparable course of action. Yet this nation belonged to the Progenitor. Without the Progenitor's permission, he could not carry out a national operation.

"Finlay misunderstood what Erte told him. To awaken the sleeping Progenitor and compel her to act... Since when did vampires have the right to disturb the Progenitor's sleep?"

Finlay, who resonated with his master's emotions, heard those words and decided to wake the Progenitor. He set off on that long journey, believing it was loyalty to Erte and, beyond her, loyalty to Valdamir.

And now he was going to execute the ain too, under collective punishment.

"She's your right hand!"

"She is my right hand, so I must cut her off myself."

Count Erte's life force gradually drained away as she gasped. An ain of her caliber could circulate blood even without a heart, but Valdamir, her master, was not allowing her to regenerate. A trace of bloodcraft barely kept her alive, but she would not survive without Valdamir's mercy.

Even with that chilling sight before me, all I could do was open my mouth.

"So vampires being immortal is an old story now. How many have died recently?"

"It turned out as you wished."

"What? You're shifting the blame here? Finlay practically killed himself, and you killed Count Erte."

"There was also Luscinia's ain, Jazra. The one who came to see you while you were escorting the Progenitor on an outing and died."

"I didn't kill them. Cabilah did! I can't kill vampires in the first place!"

Now they were trying to pin crimes on me. Sure, I'd committed crimes, but that didn't mean I wanted to take the fall for someone else's. A criminal record only gets worse when it piles up!

Valdamir looked at me intently. This was the first time a ruler of a nation, no, an administrator, had tried to frame me, and cold sweat ran down my back. Still, who was I? The Progenitor's concubine. Someone favored by the god of this country, standing above the law. Even if Valdamir wanted to bury me, he could not. I should stand tall.

"You did not intend to kill them? Yet they died after overextending themselves."

"How am I supposed to stop people from killing themselves?"

Valdamir, who had been staring at me, suddenly lowered his head.

"King of Humanity. I thank you for restoring the Progenitor's heart. I did not expect a human, rather than a vampire, to fulfill the Progenitor's long-cherished wish... but if it is the King of Humanity, I can understand it."

"Huh? If you suddenly thank me, all I can say is, you're welcome."

"But if you truly are the King of Humanity, you must represent 'all humans.'"

His cold, sharp gaze pierced me. Genuine cold sweat trickled down my back.

I had to admit it. I had not read Valdamir's thoughts very deeply.

A vampire's memories were too vast and complex to read easily. Try going from memories spanning fifty years at most to memories spanning a thousand. No matter how avid a reader you are, you would struggle with books piled around you, each twenty or thirty volumes thick. Even more so if you had to read several at once.

That was why I had been visiting the Elders one by one, intending to properly read their thoughts...

But he had beaten me to it.

He found me first.

"To you, the King of Humanity, are ain and yeilings also human?"

I could not lie. As the King of Humanity, I had a duty to represent them. I answered readily.

"Of course."

"Then to you, the Progenitor and Finlay are equals. So are the Progenitor and every other vampire."

The King of Humanity stood on no one's side.

Those were the final words the Steel Maiden had left before departing. Valdamir had taken them to heart more than anyone. No, that was not quite right. Even if the Steel Maiden had said nothing, he would have investigated me.

Valdamir simply wanted to understand me. Only then could he judge whether I was dangerous or safe.

I would answer his questions sincerely. Honestly.

"Not quite. Tyr is a little different from other vampires."

"Though she is human too?"

"Being the same doesn't mean everyone is identical. You and I are both human, but we're different."

Such a vague answer would not satisfy him. So I said something else.

"Restore Count Erte."

"Does that have anything to do with this conversation?"

"See for yourself."

Valdamir nodded. At that moment, the force binding Count Erte loosened. Finally able to control the blood around her, Count Erte hurriedly drew it back in. A faint trace of color returned to her pale skin.

Having restored Count Erte's life, Valdamir looked at me again, as if to say that he had done as I asked and it was time for my answer.

So I answered.

"You investigated and observed me. Then you summoned me here and tried to speak with me. That was how you could learn about me."

When I said no more, Valdamir urged me on.

"That is only natural."

"No. It might not be natural, if you had already decided what 'human' was."

Mind-reading was the only power I had left. The ability to read humans. I did not know how the King of Humanity had lost power in the First Year, but I knew why this power alone remained.

To represent humans, I had to read them.

"Only after the entity called 'human' exists can I exist. The Beast King is a conceptual existence of beasts. Just as you judge me after watching what I do and speaking with me, I need humans as they truly are before I can represent them."

That was why I had no choice but to clash with the Sanctum. It was also why I had headed straight to military state headquarters after sensing the Holy Maiden's shadow.

The Sanctum would take away what they called sin forever by erasing the future itself.

...Though when I got there, the military state was a little different from what I had expected, so it was fine. The Clairvoyant sought out sins that had already happened rather than preventing sin itself. Even that work was now delegated to communications officers, so I only needed to make a few adjustments to them.

"But vampires bound to their masters... cannot make choices that go against their masters, can they? Finlay accepted your emotions, descended all the way into the Abyss, and tried to persuade Tyr. Was that truly Finlay's will?"

Elders, ain, yeilings. All of them were human. Yet because of a vampire's nature, the boundary of what made them human became blurred. Their bodies and minds were both bound to their masters.

That was why I had to confirm it. Whether their wishes were truly their own.

"Restoring her heart was Tyr's wish. At the same time, it was what I wanted. Only by breaking the blood shackle can I examine a vampire's 'humanity' without interference. Not as someone's hands and feet, but as one human being."

Tyr had returned to the Duchy with her heart restored and her control lost. Now vampires free from the blood shackle could act unpredictably whenever they wished. Not that they would, but that they could was what mattered.

...It made things a little more dangerous for me too. Still, wasn't this far more human? Better than a whole nation being the Progenitor's body, with vampires moving automatically according to the Progenitor's will.

"King of Humanity. An existence representing all humans... Are you saying you would brave danger to hear humanity's voice? Even if that human does something they cannot bear themselves and dies as a result?"

Having understood what I meant, Valdamir muttered, a faintly unusual light in his eyes.

"As the Holy Maiden warned, you are an exceedingly dangerous existence. You deny the system at its core. Beast King... Is that why you are called barbaric?"

"You're no different. A human who wants to abandon stable peace and start a war calls someone else barbaric."

He spoke as if it had nothing to do with him. While you were trying to read me, I was reading you too.

Valdamir's memories had been exceptionally difficult to read. As befitted a vampire who had lived for over a thousand years, there was an enormous amount to read. More than that, every part of that life had been full.

"Duke of Crimson Blood. The most noble Elder. The only vampire whose identity and location are both known. Because you have always occupied the throne of the Fog Duchy. You have never entered eternal slumber. You ruled this nation while sleeping in short stretches, like a human."

He had never entered eternal slumber. As the Progenitor's First Sword and the ruler of the Fog Duchy, he had reigned for a thousand years. He had lived with the intensity of someone who might die tomorrow, through a span of time humans could scarcely fathom. Training, learning, practicing, ruling, responding. He had even fought the boredom that immortal vampires inevitably faced.

In other words, Valdamir had lived a human life for a thousand years. Though he felt no emotion at all, he had diligently filled those years. That was also why I had not been able to read his thoughts properly. It was a book containing not a speck of emotion, but its sheer volume of information made it difficult to extract what I wanted.

But now, having met him alone and read his thoughts, I knew for certain.

What Valdamir had done.

"Didn't you want change too? That was why you killed Luscinia and made Lir Nightingale an Elder. Because Lir is human with the power to break the blood shackle."

Valdamir's gaze turned even colder.

Footnotes:

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