#121 Silent War (3)
If one were to ask who was the busiest among the officers currently under the Immortal King, there was one name everyone would point to first.
That person was none other than the Banshee Queen, Olivia.
The mission to dig into the Heaven-Defying Oath, Hans’s first command, was something that had to be continued steadily, as their forces were spread far and wide.
On top of that, absorbing the ones they had already identified was also impossible without her.
And in the midst of all that, Hans had handed down yet another new order.
There had been an assassination attempt by a vampire on a merchant in Tarak, and she was to uncover the detailed circumstances and report back.[Haaah... This maiden will die of overwork at this rate...]
Olivia, floating in the darkness of a cave with ghosts coiling around her, grumbled to herself.
It was a killer joke only an undead could make, but unfortunately, there was no one in this space capable of responding to her words.[Perhaps because of that... I feel my skin has grown rough lately as well... even though I avoid sunlight, the enemy of skin, as much as possible...]
A translucent, slender finger stroked down an equally translucent and smooth cheek.
It was another attempt at humor, refusing to give up despite the chilly reaction around her, but... of course, no one reacted.[Hoo... I was the fool for expecting wit from these idiots...]
Before the Immortal King, she did not dare run her mouth carelessly, but having spent long ages alone in solitude, talking to herself and making wordplay had already become close to habit.
But even that was only futile when there was no one she could properly converse with...
In the end, Olivia gave up, closed her eyes, and began analyzing the information the ghosts had brought her.
Ghosts stripped of thoughts such as desire and obsession had their presence reduced to an extreme degree, but their sense of self also became hazy, making them extremely difficult to handle as one wished.
Extracting and combining necessary information from an unorganized, indiscriminate list of collected data was close to impossible for ordinary people.
But naturally, she was no ordinary person.[How strange... The attempted assassination of Hubert, a merchant of Tarak... It is full of oddities...]
First of all, she could not find Hubert, the victim in question, no matter what.
For a more precise investigation, common sense dictated that one start from the victim and work upward, so she had intended to determine his location first.‘...He must be hidden behind a rather carefully constructed barrier. Still, for even me to be unable to determine his location hurts my pride.’Even so, since he had not been her original target, Olivia eventually gave up on finding Hubert and began combing through the suspects first.
After that, even while handling other matters in parallel, it took only two days.
From figures in rival merchant companies centered around Tarak, to nobles with even the slightest connection to the Hubert Company, and even organizations in the shadows entangled with vested interests.
After a forced march that continued without sleep, she finally succeeded in shaking them all down.[Every last one of them was innocent, though... There were even countless people who did not so much as know he had suffered such an incident...]
In the end, the final conclusion was that it had not been a direct crime of resentment related to Hubert or his company.
And so, when several days of hardship had all come to nothing...[Uuuhuhuhuk—
It is enough to make a ghost wail...]
Goooooo—!
As Olivia began to sob, the air trembled and waves of death spread into the surroundings.
It was a dreadful power that could kill those without spiritual defenses merely by hearing it.[Kkiiiik—!][Uhuuuu—]
The ghosts filling the cave writhed and went mad under that energy, and the surroundings instantly turned into a scene of chaos.
But Olivia, who had caused the situation, paid no attention to her surroundings and was already calmly analyzing information again with an indifferent expression.
If Hubert himself was not the direct issue, then the cause had to lie outside.
Her next target was to dig into the vampire who was the culprit.
But that one was no ordinary fellow either.
He had concealed himself so thoroughly that it was impossible to track his trail with only the ghosts’ belated investigation.
However, she could not fail a mission entrusted to her by the Immortal King.
She released the ghosts with the intention of investigating every vampire in the entire area and gathered information.
And after postponing matters related to the Heaven-Defying Oath for a while, after several days of obsessive full-scale investigation carried out day and night—[Ufufu... It seems these children may be the ones...]
At last, she was able to detect vampires gathering in Rapella City of the Talia Kingdom.
A group of vampires entirely different from the Brokoslak Clan that ruled the place was intruding into their territory.[This matter seems to be taking an interesting turn... First, I should report to the Immortal King...]
—Lady Olivia? This is Dwell. How long must I wait?
Just then, a communication came in from Dwell McCain, who had been helping her raid the Heaven-Defying Oath.
She had told him to wait a while so she could dig into the vampires’ trail, and somehow he had contacted her exactly when that work was finished.[...Haaah. Truly, this maiden will die of overwork at this rate...]
And so, the Banshee Queen Olivia spent yet another busy day as usual.***
‘An invasion by another vampire clan?’Several days after entrusting the matter to Olivia, she investigated far more thoroughly than expected and dug up the truth behind Hubert’s assassination case.
Not only had she figured out that it was not caused by friction within the Hubert Company, but rather an issue related to their cooperative relationship with Brokoslak...
She had even discovered that the clan believed to have carried out that operation was now gathering in Rapella City of the Talia Kingdom.‘Were they planning to turn attention outward before striking Talaria? If they could draw away additional investigators as well, that would be the icing on the cake.’Brokoslak, who had shut themselves within their own territory and adhered to an isolationist policy, had attempted to expand their influence for the first time in a while.
Naturally, from an outsider’s perspective, it could only be judged as a plan into which they had poured a great deal of effort and attention in many ways.
If a plan they had worked so hard on suddenly began to creak, it would be only natural for them to try to identify the cause and fix it somehow.‘And they strike the home base in that gap... Something like that, roughly.’In addition, Olivia had added that the enemies seemed to be in quite a hurry.
Judging by the state of their barriers and other preparations, it seemed they had tried to maintain complete secrecy, but in the end, they had failed to properly make use of those preparations and moved hastily, allowing her to catch them by the tail.
And that meant the attack was not far off.‘But the problem is that the Brokoslak side still hasn’t noticed. Of all times, while the matter of the Monster Forest and the expansion of external influence overlap, leaving their security lax...’The vampires were already few in number, and with personnel being drawn away here and there, holes had opened in their internal surveillance network.
On top of that, the transfer array still had about two days left on its cooldown, so it was impossible for Heinz II to immediately head to Talaria.‘But having Hans intervene is a bit... If he uses his power properly, his location will inevitably be exposed, and if that happens, the matter will become too big. It will no longer be a simple dispute between vampires.’It was still too early for the Immortal King to step onto the front stage in person.
The Immortal Army had to gather more forces of evil, and on the continental side, he was waiting only for the summit conference to finish and for their opinions to be unified.‘They said the ones who invaded this time are presumed to be the Ufersh Clan, didn’t they?’Then again, they were the only ones with the ability to pull off something like this.
If “Brokoslak,” one of the three great vampire clans, had taken control of a small kingdom in the west, then “Obaipo” was flaunting its influence in the republics of the eastern region.
And the remaining one of the three great powers, the clan that could be called the strongest among them, was “Ufersh,” based in the central Azerion Empire and active across the continent.
Furthermore, their leader was—
The “True Blood,” the apex of Outerica’s vampires.‘I didn’t expect to encounter a True Blood in this manner.’A True Blood was not an existence that could ever be taken lightly.
There were currently two True Bloods that this side knew of.
Excluding Brokoslak, who had entered a long hibernation with no promise of when he would awaken, he was effectively the strongest among the vampires.‘Since it’s a matter of this scale, that Visk Ufersh will probably move personally too. This is troublesome.’He had heard that the relationship between Ufersh and Brokoslak was not very good.
In the past, during the process of completely swallowing the Talia Kingdom, there had apparently been some disputes with them, who had been active throughout the entire continent.
Friction had arisen when they drove out the Ufersh vampires within the kingdom and solidified their territory, but after that, Brokoslak had holed up in a corner of the continent and stuck together among themselves, so there had supposedly been no more reason to clash.‘And yet they’ve suddenly launched a large-scale invasion like this.’He did not know whether they had undergone some change of heart or whether this side’s expansion of influence had irritated them.
But now that it had already happened, what mattered was how to respond.‘Tsk, I have no choice. They dared to touch Hubert and are even trying to ruin Brokoslak, which I went through the trouble of obtaining... I can’t just sit still like this.’Shouldn’t this side also do everything it could?
The moment he made up his mind.
Harley, who had been staying at the Steel Fortress in the north to slaughter monsters, moved his body.
And Hans, who had been continuing his casting while sweeping through the surrounding area, also began to move secretly.‘I don’t know how things will unfold, so I should have insurance for now.’If the Immortal King stepped forward directly, he would inevitably draw outside attention, but an excuse could be made somehow.
He could run his mouth a little, saying he needed vampire corpses or that he intended to take them under his command.
Still, hoping as much as possible that there would be no need for him to step forward personally, Hans crossed through space and arrived in Talaria, where he noticed an unexpected fact.‘Oh? This situation is more... not bad than I expected, is it?’And for good reason.
An existence he had never anticipated was coiled up there.***
“Right, I already know the situation too. So you know what happens if you get caught trying anything stupid, don’t you?”
“Yes, yes... Of course, Lord Harley!”
“I’m trusting you, got it? I’m a scary guy when I get angry, you know? Kahahahah—!”
“...Of course! Please do not worry!”
The expression of the person repeatedly bowing and answering Harley stiffened awkwardly. It was an expression that seemed to say, “You’re scary even when you’re not angry,” but that was probably a misunderstanding.
“I’ve got something keeping me busy right now, so listen to Howard for the time being. And manage the employees under you properly so no fools pop up trying to check how many lives they have! I have ways of finding out later!”
“Yes! We will treat Lord Howard as the company master’s very own incarnation and serve him accordingly.”
Since Tarak and the Steel Fortress were only a day’s distance apart, Harley’s exploits had already reached this place.
Naturally, there was no way the people of the company would not know about him, who was practically Hubert’s co-representative.
His overwhelming ability aside, to go against the will of someone who had the protection of the Order and even received a love call from Count Aonia...
That was something no one could even dare attempt without truly extraordinary courage.‘This side has been settled to some extent, so next is...’After once again cracking down on the Hubert Company, Harley immediately headed for Tarak’s temple.‘I’ll have to move busily. I gained a grace period of a few days, but I need to handle things as quickly as possible and return to the fortress.’Of course, the fortress side, including Count Aonia, had tried to hold him back.
Harley’s accomplishments during that time had been so great that their worries over his absence could only be just as large.‘Still, I’ve been defending without rest all this time, so this much time is fine.’Thanks to that, it had not been difficult for him to take a short break under the pretext of both handling this matter and resting.
Count Aonia had even offered, upon hearing that Harley would be absent due to matters related to the attack on Hubert, to personally order the Tarak security force to pay special attention.
Since there might be people who tried some pointless tricks in Hubert’s absence, he decided to gratefully accept that offer for now.
“Huh? Lord Harley, isn’t it? I heard you were at the Steel Fortress. What brings you here?”
“Uahaha—! Well, you see...”
And at last, Harley arrived at Tarak’s temple.
Through the gate there, he was able to travel to the Talaria Temple of the Talia Kingdom.
To the place where a conflict between vampires was foretold.