A night spent in the city of Lacusberry.
As soon as day broke, Dambi and Rils headed to the Adventurers’ Guild and completed the remaining mission.
After that, following the orders of Commander-in-Chief Celia, they released the monster into Lake Yenarian.
“It may look like nothing more than a fish right now, but it is a servant of the Great One. It will make this lake its base and contribute to the Great One’s plan.”
Dambi also expressed agreement with Rils’s words.
This mission had been a move laid down for the future from the very beginning.
“By the way, now that this commission has succeeded as well, Lady Dambi’s adventurer rank should rise.”
Rils, possessed by a banshee, had originally been an adventurer with a bronze plaque.
If Dambi, too, was promoted from iron rank to bronze rank, their choices of commissions would increase even further.
If that happened, it meant their range of activity as adventurers would expand.
Dambi, who had been looking out over the lake, turned around.
At this point, everything they could do here was finished.
There was no need to waste time staring at Lake Yenarian.
“Let’s return to the royal capital.”
Dambi’s gaze turned toward Riche, who was following behind.
She was a little lacking, but she was at least of the same race, so Dambi intended to accompany her to the royal capital.
When they had come here, it had been just her and Rils, but on the way back, one more companion had been added.
* * *
Not long after Dambi’s party left the city, a woman arrived at the shore of Lake Yenarian.
“I’ve finally arrived.”
The woman murmured as she looked around.
A fierce will dwelled in her blue eyes.
Clad in a white robe imbued with piety, her name was Jeremia El Esteban.
She was the daughter of House Esteban, a prestigious ducal family of the Adonil Kingdom, and an inquisitor of the White Order.
In truth, there was only one reason she had been dispatched to the Sail Kingdom.
To investigate the disaster that had recently occurred.
Normally, she should have been in the royal capital for the investigation, but to Jeremia, that was merely a secondary matter.
Her true objective lay elsewhere.
“That was undoubtedly the work of a vampire.”
The scene of the murder she had seen yesterday surfaced in her mind. Every person staying at the inn had been killed, and in Jeremia’s eyes, it was unmistakably the work of a vampire.
And among them, the culprit was probably—
‘Baalcherit.’
Jeremia had rushed here without rest in order to capture Baalcherit, a five-star vampire.
‘The power to control blood—it must have been him.’
If her conjecture was correct, he had to be subjugated no matter what.
That was her purpose.
After briefly looking around, she approached the soldier guarding the pier.
“There is something I would like to ask you.”
Then she presented her identification to the soldier.
It was the token indicating her affiliation with the Order.
“……!”
The soldier quickly realized that she was an inquisitor and bowed his head respectfully.
“Ah, yes! Please ask me anything, and I’ll answer to the best of my knowledge!”
“Good. Have you seen anyone suspicious recently?”
“Someone suspicious, you say?”
“Yes. Not very tall. About 160 centimeters? No, perhaps even shorter than that. Golden hair, and eyes that appear slightly crimson.”
Jeremia explained Baalcherit’s appearance.
As soon as the soldier heard her description, he rummaged through his memories for a moment.
Countless people came and went through the pier every day.
After all, Lake Yenarian bordered not only the Sail Kingdom but two other nations as well.
But then, something that had happened yesterday came to mind.
“Ah, now that I think about it, there was a rather strange child yesterday.”
At the soldier’s words, Jeremia’s gaze sharpened.
“Strange? In what way?”
“Well. First of all, I remember the appearance matching what you just described, Inquisitor. More than anything, there was a problem verifying that child’s identity.”
The soldier briefly explained what had happened yesterday.
Of course, because he left out the story about the adventurer who had ties to the royal family, it was slightly embellished.
“…Still, since she was only a little kid, we let her get off the ship. That’s all I know.”
As Jeremia listened to the soldier, she nodded.
“That is enough. Thank you.”
After hearing the whole story, she immediately left the spot.
Jeremia felt her heart pounding.
Instinctively, she sensed it.
The being the soldier had mentioned might be Baalcherit.
‘But something is strange.’
The appearance matched what Jeremia had described, and since he was naturally not human, it made sense that his identity could not be verified.
He would have seemed suspicious even to the soldier, so it was no wonder he remembered.
However, compared to the incident that had just occurred, there was something that did not fit in terms of time.
According to the soldier, Baalcherit had arrived in the kingdom yesterday.
Then one question arose.
Jeremia had witnessed the scene of the inn murder yesterday morning.
Until just a moment ago, she had concluded that Baalcherit was the culprit.
But as she listened to the soldier’s story, another possibility came to mind.
Was the murder committed by another vampire?
“Baalcherit….”
Jeremia murmured in a voice filled with rage.
If so, there was only one answer.
“I never imagined he would have made his nest here.”
The incident at the inn was undoubtedly the work of vampires who followed Baalcherit.
In other words, Baalcherit had made his nest in the Sail Kingdom.
Jeremia placed weight on that possibility.
No, it was almost certainly the case.
After all, Baalcherit’s forces in the Kaln Empire had been nearly annihilated.
He had likely entered the kingdom to avoid the eyes of the Order.
Baalcherit had once expanded his forces by absorbing fellow vampires.
However, when the White Order launched a surprise attack on the vampires, his forces rapidly dwindled.
In effect, his forces were as good as destroyed. That was why the Order, too, had begun to view the situation optimistically.
They had begun withdrawing the paladins dispatched to subjugate the vampire dungeon.
Jeremia had been appalled by the Order’s decision.
Because it was a misjudgment.
“Baalcherit’s power is not limited to that.”
She knew.
She knew Baalcherit’s true nature.
Because she had seen Baalcherit’s true power in the past, she knew very well just how dangerous he was.
The reason Baalcherit had collapsed so easily under the Order’s attack was simply because he had lacked time.
He must have been flustered by the sudden surprise attack.
But if he had only had some time to spare, the result would have unfolded in an entirely different direction.
Jeremia had once formally suggested to the Order that they seize their current advantage and make it decisive.
That they should subjugate Baalcherit while he was cornered.
But the Order ignored her opinion.
They had already destroyed Baalcherit’s forces sufficiently. In such a situation, was there any reason to risk further losses?
It was a sound argument.
If one had never experienced Baalcherit’s power, that was.
As someone who knew the truth, Jeremia could not help but lament the Order’s complacency.
In the end, she resolved to act on her own if she had to.
To prevent an even greater tragedy, she had to find Baalcherit no matter what.
And above all—
“This time, I will sever this ill-fated bond with you.”
For revenge.
She muttered through gritted teeth.
Memories of her childhood rose in her mind, but she soon erased them.
Now was not the time to be swept away by emotion.
Jeremia El Esteban.
That name carried the duties of both nobility and the Order.
It bore the mission of realizing justice and protecting the peace of the continent.
She would simply look only toward that and move forward.
Though she had only just arrived in the city, she took another step.
* * *
The sun was slowly sinking beyond the horizon.
The crimson evening glow dyed the mountains, fields, and forests entirely red.
“We’ll camp here today.”
As soon as Dambi finished speaking, Rils immediately began preparing the camp.
Since all three of them here were not human, the preparations were simple.
They gathered nearby branches and lit a campfire.
Right beside the fire, Rils began making a simple stew.
In truth, monsters had no need for such things, but it was a kind of going through the motions.
As they continued taking commissions in the future, they would inevitably run into other adventurers.
For situations like that, they were practicing acting like adventurers in advance.
However, Riche was horrified.
“Aaaargh! Blood is sweetest when drunk raw!”
Despite Riche’s horror, Rils dumped the unidentified meat straight into the pot.
From a monster’s perspective, eating it raw was indeed the most delicious, but this behavior, too, was part of the practice.
And so a fully cooked, unidentified stew was placed in front of Riche.
“Ugh….”
Riche had no choice but to scoop up some stew and taste it.
“Bwegh—”
As expected, it tasted awful.
“I can never eat something like this!”
Riche headed toward the campfire.
Dambi and Rils simply focused on their stew, no matter what Riche did.
Riche took a seat in front of the bubbling stew.
There was not much left, but that alone was enough.
“I shall share this body’s noble blood with it! It will surely become a fantastical flavor!”
Then she lightly bit the tip of her thumb.
A single drop of bright red blood fell onto the stew.
Puhk!
As Riche’s—no, Baalcherit’s—blood mixed in, the stew began to writhe like a living creature.
The broth boiled like lava, then twisted until its form could no longer be recognized.
“What is this!”
Dambi and Rils, who had been eating the stew, were startled and backed away.
The stew was transforming into an increasingly bizarre form.
A moment later, a slime of grotesque shape sprang out from inside the pot.
It crawled across the ground toward the master who had brought it into the world.
“Uh….”
Even Riche was slightly flustered by the situation.
It was her first time dropping blood into food.
But if she showed such a weak side here, her dignity would fall.
“D-did you see? This is this body’s power!”
“Guuuuurk!”
At Riche’s words, the bizarre stew slime also voiced its agreement.
For a moment, silence fell, and Riche picked up the stew slime and returned to her seat.
“Hm. Since there is prey nearby, this body shall eat them later.”
“Guuurk!”
Thanks to that, they were able to dispose of the remaining stew, but a bizarre life-form had been born.
At the same time, Rils took note of that ability.
“Lady Dambi, do vampires have abilities like that?”
To create a life-form with a single drop of blood.
Faced with such a bizarre situation, Rils asked Dambi.
Dambi, who had never seen anything like it either, shook her head.
“This is my first time seeing it as well.”
To begin with, because Dambi had been discriminated against even by her own kind for being mixed-blood, she ironically did not know much about vampires.
“Perhaps she has the blood of a high-ranking demon mixed in.”
They did not know for certain.
But if, as Rils said, the blood of a high-ranking demon was mixed in, then the current situation would not be impossible.
“Would it not be better to take Riche to Lady Celia? She seems to have already been abandoned by her group, and with an ability like that, she could be put to important use for Master.”
Rils’s words were reasonable.
Dambi and Rils, who already believed Riche had been abandoned, nodded and began thinking over that plan.
How they should bring Riche to Celia.
While they were lost in thought and deliberation—
They failed to notice the beings moving stealthily nearby.
And so the night deepened.
* * *
Before long, darkness descended upon the mountain.
Only the crackling campfire drove back the darkness that was trying to settle in deeply.
“Brother, those guys aren’t making any preparations at all.”
Bawul muttered as he looked at the sleeping party of adventurers.
Their true identity was a group of bandits who robbed adventurers camping outdoors.
There were three of them in total, and in the course of robbing adventurers, they did not hesitate to commit murder.
They, too, had once worked as adventurers, so they knew the ecology of adventurers better than anyone.
That was why they snickered as they looked at the adventurers lying down defenselessly without even a night watch.
“There are even two women, huh? Heh heh heh, it’s been a while since we had something to enjoy. Brother.”
At Bawul’s words, another one refuted him.
“But isn’t something strange…? If they’re not making any preparations in a place like this, maybe they’re actually quite strong—”
“You idiot! Did you forget who our brother is?”
“How many times do I have to say it! Our boss is from Earth, no less, and was once an adventurer who held a gold badge. Do you understand—”
“Enough. There’s never any harm in being cautious.”
The man cut Baul off and spoke.
Baul might have taken offense, but instead he smiled and rubbed his palms together.
“Hehe, Brother Itsuki is absolutely right!”
The man Baul called “brother” was named Sato Itsuki.
He was a hunter who had crossed over from Earth.
“Quit the useless chatter and keep watching the situation. We’ll strike soon.”
Sato Itsuki said that, then closed his eyes and focused his mind.
He was currently using a skill that erased his presence.
How many adventurers had he robbed with this skill so far?
Just like now, he would wait with his presence erased until the adventurers were defenseless.
And when the right moment came, he would pounce at once.
‘Come to think of it, I used it a lot on Earth too.’
It had already been four years since Sato Itsuki crossed over from Earth.
He did not know when he would be able to return to Earth, but he had decided to enjoy the present.
After all, robbing adventurers on the Eldorad Continent was far easier than it had been on Earth.
‘In any case, just like Baul said, we’ll be able to have some fun.’
For a while, all he had seen were gloomy male bastards, but today there were two women, no less.
As excitement stirred in him at the thought of holding a woman in his arms after so long, Baul’s voice reached his ears.
“B-Brother?”
“Didn’t I tell you to be quiet?”
“N-No, that’s not it…”
There was something urgent in his voice.
Sato Itsuki opened his eyes as well.
“One of them has disappeared…!”
“What? Weren’t you watching them the whole time?”
“I definitely was, but he disappeared!”
Ha.
Sato Itsuki pressed a hand to his forehead.
That idiot had lost sight of someone right in front of his eyes.
“So who disappeared?”
He quickly rose and checked, only to find that the two adventurers still had their eyes closed.
It was the little brat beside them who had vanished.
“That little shit…”
The brat disappearing was not a problem.
At most, he had probably gone into the bushes because he needed to piss.
Sato Itsuki thought as much and was just about to activate his skill again when—
“Fresh prey, all gathered together.”
“Guoooo!”
A sound came from behind him.
It was the little brat who had been with the adventurers a moment ago.
Beneath her was a bizarre slime, and Sato Itsuki quickly drew his sword.
“Hehe, Brother. How about we enjoy that bitch first?”
Baul’s eyes were already consumed by desire. He was in no state to make a normal judgment.
At that moment, Sato Itsuki felt something ominous.
A bad, unsettling premonition.
His mind screamed at him to get out of this place at once, but his feet would not move.
And the thing he had feared became reality.
Pshhk—
The little girl had merely gestured with her hand, yet Baul’s body turned into a spray of red blood and scattered in every direction.
The subordinate behind him also became a corpse in an instant, blood surging upward from his body.
“…Huh?”
In an instant, his two subordinates died without even managing to let out a final scream.
Sato Itsuki’s terror-stricken eyes shook violently.
His gaze would not leave the blood-soaked ground.
His mind went blank, unable to form a single thought. Only his body, sensing danger instinctively, trembled uncontrollably.
‘I-I have to run!’
He had to get out of here right now.
That was the only thought that flashed through his mind.
He desperately managed to raise his head and look for a way to escape, but the sight before him made his breath catch.
“……”
The spilled blood was gathering together like a ball of thread.
Before that uncanny sight, his legs would not obey him, and his limbs remained frozen as though turned to ice.
“Well then, thank you for the meal!”
All he could see was the girl approaching him with a purely innocent smile.
His consciousness began to blur.
His breath came in ragged gasps, and his heart pounded as if it would burst.
Could all of this be a dream?
He wanted to dismiss it as a dream, but a moment later, along with an excruciating pain like being cut by a blade, his consciousness was severed.
That was Sato Itsuki’s end.
In that soundless, silent place, only the bloodstained earth rippled.