WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

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◈ Omniscient First-Person's Viewpoint

Chapter 454

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Escape from the Principality no.1

Tyr's villa had been built atop a tall cliff overlooking the coastline. True to vampire sensibility, the place had not a single practical feature, no fireplace, no dining room, designed with nothing in mind but the view and keeping out sunlight. The moment I stepped past the garden wall, I could see the fading twilight stretching endlessly toward the horizon.

Vampires have no interest in sunrises, but even setting sunlight aside, it was a breathtaking sight. Moved by some fresh sense of nature's mystery, I opened and closed my hand.

Not of nature. Not of the great laws of the world.

Mine alone.

But that was exactly what puzzled me. I had lost my power, yet I was still the King of Humanity, which meant I should only have been able to use the kind of strength humans used. Something as personal as innate arcane or energy ought to have been beyond my reach.

Strange. Was this a side effect of losing my power? What in the world is happening to me.

That is why I was looking for a Demon God in the first place, I suppose.

Never mind. Figure it out later. Right now, run. I scanned my surroundings and started looking for an escape route.

"Hm."

Something felt off. What was it? I chewed over the sense of wrongness, then frowned at the unusually clear view ahead.

No fog.

There was water mist, but only the kind any stretch of ocean produces as a matter of course. Being able to make out the horizon this clearly did not suit the Fog Duchy at all.

Was it because Tyr had gathered the darkness back into herself? That was probably part of it. But not all of it. The clouds and water mist were simply thin, oddly, strangely thin.

As if the sea-beasts lurking beyond that water were holding perfectly still and quiet. The thought surfaced on its own, and I murmured to no one.

"Come to think of it, the Duke of Crimson Blood called all the humans into the castle to prepare for something."

I had not thought much of it at the time, but looking back, it was more than a little strange. He had moved because the regressor told him about a great tidal wave. Warning people about a disaster the sea-beasts were about to unleash, was the regressor actually trying to expose herself as a regressor, or at least a prophet? Well, she resets when she goes back anyway, so maybe she can afford to.

But that is not even the point!

No, really. The thing is, not once in all the time I spent with her or with Tyr did the great tidal wave ever cross her mind. If she had simply never mentioned it, fine, I could have read that as deliberate concealment. But she never even thought about it. How was I supposed to know?

A disaster that big, at least give it a thought every once in a while. Anyway, I had one more reason to leave the Duchy. I followed the path down the far side of the cliff. Valdamir had called all the humans inside, so the beach that should have been busy at this hour was completely empty.

Getting out would be easy enough. Best to meet up with Hilde first and figure out the rest from there.

I was still thinking that over when I heard it.

"Have you finished your business?"

Naturally, the world had no intention of letting me go free.

Count Erte, the Duke of Crimson Blood's most trusted subordinate, approached as though he had been waiting there all along. He came at me from a position that left no room to dodge, cutting off any way around him, and greeted me with perfect courtesy.

"I understand the Progenitor took you with her, but where is the Progenitor now?"

"Ah, she's back at the villa. Tyr hates sunlight, bit of a sleepyhead, so she told me to go on ahead and look around by myself."

"Is that so."

Damn it. I hated that I told a lie so transparent it would unravel in an instant, but I hated even more that this vampire heard it and just calmly nodded along. I did my best to look composed and asked.

"What brings you all the way out here?"

"The Duke of Crimson Blood's orders. To attend to the concubine."

"I thought that was finished."

"No. A more urgent matter came up and I set it aside briefly, but the order is still in effect."

Vampires are diehard creatures of principle. They live by the single rule of obeying the maker's command, and they carry it out without so much as a flicker of expression, wanting to or not.

But a thrall is not an idiot who knows nothing.

"Where are you headed? Tell me your destination and I will guide you."

'He is still the concubine, until the Progenitor abandons her love for him. Though if he were to betray the Progenitor and flee the Duchy, it would be difficult to extend him the same treatment. Of course, until he has actually fled, he has not yet fled.'

He understood every last thing the Duke of Crimson Blood meant.

Of course, Count Erte was not the Duke of Crimson Blood. He was weaker, and lacked his authority. I had no particular reason to fear Count Erte himself.

But I had plenty of reason to fear the Duke of Crimson Blood's reach. He was testing me right now.

Still, he had no intention of stopping my escape outright. I could at least take the help on offer.

"Well. For now, I'd like to meet up with my travel companion."

"As for her, she happens to be..."

Count Erte turned and gestured naturally behind him. There was nothing there but a scatter of rocks, but when he beckoned, Hilde stepped out from behind them looking a little sheepish.

"Oh, you noticed me? Tch, this country really is a pain to work in. Disguises don't hold, tailing someone's nearly impossible. Takes all the fun out of it~."

"Your presence was difficult to detect. If not for the blood on your clothes, I might not have noticed at all. In any case, I had intended to bring you two together eventually, so the outcome would have been the same."

Count Erte answered without missing a beat, then looked at me as if to ask whether that was everything.

"So. Anything else?"

He was going to help us run. Whether he planned to track down the released prey and drag us back, or simply look the other way, I could not say. But there was no other choice.

At this point I might as well be shameless about it.

"I have a sudden urge to walk the full length of the Duchy, right to its very edge. Would you escort me as close to the border as possible?"

"Excuse me? Father, that is a bit too obvious..."

Straight through the front. Hilde was visibly flustered at the pure head-on approach, but Count Erte simply smiled his polished social smile and nodded.

"I will escort you."

You have not fled until you have fled. Meaning until I actually made a run for it, there was nothing to chase. The plan, then, was to get as far as possible and run only then.

I set my jaw and followed Count Erte.

***

The King of Humanity has completed himself. The Progenitor's gift has taken root.

Now he can become ordinary. He can learn energy, study magic, and has earned the right to build something in that body. He has gained the strength to remain different. Up to here, it is a success.

Do not relax. The turning of fate begins now.

Until the humans discard their king.

No.

Until the King of Humanity discards the humans.

***

A peculiar journey alongside a vampire began. Count Erte escorted us with genuine care. He provided meals on time and arranged resting spots at regular intervals along the way. We were in no position to use them often, but thanks to him, Hilde and I moved without any real discomfort.

Comfortable in body, not in mind. Hilde kept glancing at Count Erte, who stood perfectly at ease without eating or sleeping, and said quietly:

"Father. Is it all right to travel this slowly?"

"Moving fast will just leave us exhausted before we get anywhere useful. Better to save our strength as long as we can before we actually start running."

I answered under my breath, and Count Erte heard it anyway.

"Did you just say running?"

"Just a figure of speech."

"I almost got the wrong idea. Rest, then."

We could both see straight through each other. It felt fair on the surface, but in reality I was at a disadvantage. I was a mind reader, peeking at the other side's cards was only natural for me. Vampires should not have been able to do the same. They already had a thousand-year lifespan and immortal regeneration; why were they winning the bluff game too. How many chips does one being get to have?

Regardless. Hilde, who had quite suddenly become a fugitive alongside me, let out a long sigh.

"Tyrkanzyaka. I thought she was a colder sort of person. It seems it was 'my' misjudgment. I never expected her to be quite this reckless."

"People change, I suppose."

"Hearing that from the very person who changed her makes me want to hit you~."

"If we make it out of the Duchy alive, I'll let you."

"Did you just say make it out..."

"Joking. I'm joking."

"Even a joke, if repeated too many times, may start to be believed. Watch yourself."

The plan was this: Valdamir would not move against us until he had decided we had "fled." So the idea was to stretch that boundary as far as possible, build up our strength right up to the edge, and the moment pursuit began, push with everything we had and break free.

Hilde understood the plan. What she did not trust was my ability to carry it out.

"Father, you're not exactly sturdy, are you? If vampires who never tire come after us, can you actually get away?"

"I'm a specialist at escaping, whatever else I may lack. Don't worry about that. What about you, Hilde? Tyr wrung you out like you were nothing."

"What do you take 'me' for? Performing agony convincingly is a basic professional skill~. It did hurt a little, though."

Performing agony. From where I was standing, her arms and legs had been sticking out one by one between the fingers of that shadow. There is no performing that.

Well, she was an energy master, so I supposed she could pull it off somehow.

Hilde laced her fingers together on the table and gave a sly smile.

"Father. You know, don't you?"

"Know what?"

"'I' could escape on my own. Tyrkanzyaka's target is you."

True enough. The shadow had let me go, but what choice Tyr herself would make, I could not guess. She had used her power and betrayed me in rather grand fashion, so she might feel no guilt at all about locking me up again. Honestly, if that happened, it would be over. Even Tyr would not fall for the same trick twice.

"But 'my' life is none of her concern. She'd probably just kill me. Honestly, from 'my' position, it might actually be better if you got captured."

"True enough. Still, even a dog-patch ditch beats the afterlife."

An easy thing for me to say, of course. Hilde's life was genuinely on the line. Grabbing me and handing me back to Tyr would be the rational choice in her position.

Fortunately, Hilde did not make the rational choice of leaving me behind and saving herself.

"Sooo~. Father absolutely must repay 'me'!"

"Of course."

"Even if 'I' am not there to collect! Make the recipient the military state!"

"Yes, yes."

"That's a promise!"

"I know."

'What a breezy answer~. Still, this at least puts a promise into some kind of shape, doesn't it.'

Hilde narrowed her eyes, keeping whatever she felt carefully to herself.

'Now that his identity as the King of Humanity is out in the open, there is really nowhere for Father to be except the military state. Only a country without a king can hold the King of Humanity. Yuel seemed to dream of a nation that did not need a king, but that effort essentially failed, didn't it. I think she can forgive me this much!'

King, is it. Well, countries with kings or emperors elsewhere certainly would not welcome me, so the military state really was the most natural place to stay. But Hilde seemed to believe that if I showed up, I would simply become king as a matter of course.

The only person who wanted that was Hilde herself. Still, she had done a great deal for me. Meeting some part of that expectation was not unreasonable.

I was about to brush the thought aside, but an odd feeling stopped me and I tilted my head.

I feel sorry for her? Me? Looking at Hilde?

What for. She was a member of the Holy Sword Corps and one of the Six Generals, the Zikhrund himself, trained in every form of energy and divine power imaginable. There was nothing to pity there. I was going soft. Better to spend that time thinking about the escape.

Around then, Count Erte detected a faint trace of blood energy and rose to his feet. He stared hard for a moment in the direction it was coming from, then came over to Hilde and me and asked to be excused.

"A moment. Someone is calling for me. I will go see what the matter is."

"Of course. Take your time. No rush at all, please, take as long as you need."

"I will do my best, Progenitor's concubine. Out of an abundance of caution, I will mention that should you attempt to flee, I and other vampires may give chase."

"Haha. I'll keep that in mind."

We saw Count Erte off, and then Hilde and I looked at each other and nodded. Without any need to decide who should go first, we grabbed our things and ran out of the inn.

The chase against predators who fed on human blood had begun.

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