Because she had insolently spouted curses, Ian personally drove a stake into Camilla’s other thigh as well. Perhaps enough etiquette had been instilled, for Camilla lowered her head and trembled her lips.
“W-We are capable of reproductive activity, but we don’t possess sexual desire, so giving birth to children like humans do is practically impossible……. Even if we did give birth, it wouldn’t be a vampire…….”
“Then what is?”
“A ghoul. After being killed by a vampire, it must gradually evolve before it can become a vampire…….”
“Hmm.”
Ian mulled over her words as he swung his leg idly.
He already knew that ghouls could become vampires. It was such well-known information that there was no way he could have been unaware of it. However, he had never imagined that it was the only method. He had been certain there had to be something else, but apparently evolution was all there was. Darwin would probably have been delighted to hear that.
“Then what is your origin? In modern terms, are there such things as true ancestors? Do any of those individuals exist?”
“……Báthory Erzsébet, Gilles de Rais, Vlad III. Those three are practically your progenitors.”
“Famous vampires who actually existed. But if I remember correctly, all three lived in different eras.”
“Because it was inherited.”
Camilla continued, breathing with difficulty.
“The first vampire wasn’t a living creature, but merely a pool of blood. Living, moving blood. It traveled throughout Europe, turning humans into vampires.”
“…….”
“That first one was a nameless vagrant, but he had no intelligence to speak of, huff, so even we vampires don’t count him as the first. The first was Gilles de Rais.”
“He was French. Was that when he first appeared?”
“The progenitor slowly brainwashed Gilles de Rais’s mother and turned her into a bloodthirsty beast. That influence reached Gilles de Rais while he was still a fetus. Gilles de Rais’s barbaric and filthy tastes were all because of th—”
“I’m not particularly interested in your history, so just give me a rough summary.”
Ian cut Camilla off and pressed the barrel of the loaded pistol against the back of her head. Camilla gulped and nodded.
“……After Gilles de Rais, the progenitors acquired intelligence comparable to that of humans. They used the Hundred Years’ War to scatter blood throughout Europe—blood that was practically made up of their own clones. That blood entered human bodies and turned them into ghouls. Then they slowly made them consume blood and evolve. That method had a higher chance of producing stronger individuals than transforming them in the same way as Gilles de Rais.”
“Then there aren’t any individuals specifically known as true ancestors or progenitors.”
“……That’s right. There are nobles who are called first-generation vampires, though. Their main stronghold is Greece…….”
“You’re talking quite smoothly. You’re so obedient that I’m beginning to wonder if you’re lying.”
Ian gave a short laugh and tapped Camilla’s head with the tip of the pistol. Camilla clenched her teeth at the humiliating treatment, but she did not resist. It was so obvious who held the upper hand that even a stray dog passing by would have known.
“……I’ve told you nothing but the truth. You can check for yourself.”
“Forget it. It isn’t important information anyway. Satisfying my curiosity is enough.”
Ian slowly rose to his feet, running a hand through his hair. Camilla’s back, which had been pressed down under his weight, was released, and Ian sat in a chair and opened his grimoire.
“Where are the other vampires besides you?”
“……I don’t know either.”
“…….”
Ian’s expression turned cold. Feeling the chill of murderous intent, Camilla hurriedly added:
“D-Do you think all vampires are close? You mages are just as eager to kill one another! You’re even more underhanded than us!”
“Hmm. That’s true.”
Ian readily agreed. Honestly, she wasn’t wrong.
“Then is there anything else you know?”
“……I know their names, at least. I’ll tell you that much.”
Ian tilted his head as if telling her to go on, and Camilla struggled to move her lips.
“……There’s one woman and one man. The woman is from America, and her name is Caroline. The man is French, and his name is Arthur.”
“What do they look like?”
“Caroline is a white woman with blonde hair and red eyes. Arthur looks like an ordinary Black man. His head is shaved.”
“What was their purpose in coming to Korea?”
“Expanding their influence. The three of us all have the same goal.”
Expanding their influence.
Perhaps the intelligent vampire Ian had encountered at the club was their work as well.
If so, the one with the greatest influence among the three would be the one who had released the vampires into the club. He had set loose individuals who had undergone a certain degree of evolution and become vampires, rather than mere ghouls. He was certainly stronger than Camilla, who was pretending to be a child far too young for her age in a backwater like this.
‘Tracking them won’t be easy. If they’re capable of evading the Cartel’s information network, they must be taking some kind of precaution.’
There were alchemical items designed for tracking, but it was impossible to determine someone’s location based solely on their name and appearance. If it were possible, the Cartel would have paid a fortune to acquire them. What a pity.
Ian let out a deep sigh, drove the final stake into Camilla’s sole, which had just begun to regenerate, then took out his phone and called the Cartel.
The other party answered before the phone had rung twice.
[Hello. This is Goyang from Cartel Services. How may I assist you?]
“I’ve completed the contract to deal with a high-ranking vampire. I captured her alive, so send a vehicle here right away to transport her.”
[Confirmed. The basic service fee is two million won. However, because the location is a vampire’s residence, a hazard surcharge applies, bringing the total to three and a half million won.]
“There’s some bloodstains as well. I’d like to request cleaning services.”
[Please tell us the approximate size of the location. The cost varies depending on the area.]
“About the size of an ordinary room. You can think of it as a studio apartment.”
[In that case, an additional seven hundred thousand won will be added, bringing the total to four point two million won. Is that acceptable?]
“Yeah. Charge it immediately.”
[Thank you for your payment. The transfer has been completed, and our employees will be departing immediately. Please wait a moment.]
Ian replied that he understood and slipped the phone back into his pocket. When he shifted his gaze, he saw Camilla wriggling and crawling across the floor.
She seemed to have tried to put some distance between them while he was on the phone, but with her lower body almost completely incapacitated, she had not gotten far. Ian clicked his tongue, grabbed her leg as she tried to open the door, and dragged her back.
“Ugh!”
A pained groan escaped her lips. The sight of a tiny girl’s body bleeding and moaning was rather strange, but Ian paid it no heed. When he considered that the thing inside had been a vampire who had drained hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people, even the faint stirrings of sympathy within him withered away.
In any case, a monster was a monster. It could never be placed on the same level as a mage.
Ian stepped on Camilla’s back and slowly considered whether there was anything else he needed to ask. Nothing in particular came to mind.
At most, there were ordinary questions such as how many humans she had devoured and how many ghouls were currently in the area. Now that he had captured her alive, those questions held little significance.
So Ian stopped questioning her without hesitation and put a cigarette between his lips. Camilla looked back at him and muttered with a faintly frightened expression:
“Are you, are you going to hand me over to the Cartel?”
“Yes.”
“D-Do you know what happens to the Mysteries captured by the Cartel? They get tortured alive. They’re used as research material. I, I don’t want that to happen to me.”
“I see.”
“Don’t just say ‘I see’! P-Please, just let me go this once. I’ll do anything for you. Really, anything. Is there nothing you want? A desire. Yes, sexual desire! Human sexual desire is one of the three great appetites, isn’t it? I can do as much as you want—”
“Vampires are incapable of feeling most emotions. At best, anger, irritation, and murderous intent are the only emotions they can feel. They learned the desire to drink blood, pleasure, and pain in order to survive.”
Ian cut Camilla off and looked down at her coldly.
“However, they can learn emotions and imitate them. That is how they assimilated into human society.”
“…….”
“It’s a famous phrase. It was included in one of the papers written by the Clock Tower itself.”
“……Damn Amy. That fucking bitch’s paper.”
The pitiful expression Camilla had worn moments before vanished without a trace. Her mutter contained nothing but rage and murderous intent.
“How does a Korean mage know about that paper?”
“I have an acquaintance who owns a lot of books from the Clock Tower. Her name is Lee Seo-ah. Do you know her?”
“Sounds like the name of a whore.”
“Not as much as Camilla.”
Ian gave a short laugh and kicked the stake lodged in Camilla’s thigh. Her wound tore wide, and hot blood poured out.
“Gaaagh!”
“How dare a mosquito that lives by sucking blood insult a mage?”
Ian rose from his seat, knelt beside Camilla as she crawled like a caterpillar, and opened his grimoire. The pure-white grimoire responded to his will.
“Since you refused to stay still, I suppose I’ll have to keep my promise as well.”
“……Hah, do whatever you want. After all, fear isn’t an emotion that exists for us.”
“That’s right. But does it really not exist? Perhaps you’ve simply never been in a situation that would bring it out. Or perhaps the possibility exists, but it has never bloomed.”
Ian’s eyes glimmered in the moonlight.
It was not a beautiful light. Something far murkier—a dark, ink-black radiance—flowed along the beams of light like spilled ink.
“Shall we find out which it is?”
“……You crazy mage—Mmph?!”
“We don’t have much time, so let’s begin right away. It’s my first time experimenting on a living Mystery in this manner, so I’m a little inexperienced. Let’s move quickly, quickly.”
Ian shoved the pistol into Camilla’s mouth, then tilted his head as he peered into the grimoire.
“Shall we recreate everything except the brain first?”
He did not wait for an answer. Nor did he explain what recreation meant.
He let go of the pistol, tapped Camilla lightly on the forehead, and muttered with a solemn expression:
“Be reborn.”
Crack!