#146
To the Great Temple of Rosellia (3)
Auterica was a typical fantasy world where countless races lived together.
However, there were also ways in which it differed from the common perception on Earth. This was not a setting where Westerners formed the mainstream.
It was a colorful world where people of races and mixed bloodlines as diverse as its species mingled and lived together, with only the proportion of the majority differing by region.
And that meant that, in this world, Earth’s East Asians were not particularly special beings either.
Just like the woman now standing before Harley.
‘Still, even if East Asians do look younger compared to other races… this woman is way too baby-faced even taking that into account, isn’t she?’
He tilted his head and silently looked down at the little girl who did not even reach his chest.
She had a petite height that seemed just over 150 centimeters, and wore a blue robe shaped like a one-piece dress.
Her black hair, reaching down to her chest, was tied with a hair cord and draped over one shoulder, while her black eyes, shining like obsidian, looked up at him calmly without any emotional disturbance.
…But still, her fair skin and delicate features, even for an East Asian, did not look like those of someone in her late twenties no matter how he looked at her.
‘Honestly, even if I’m being generous, she looks like a high schooler. At this rate, I’d believe she was in middle school. Ah, don’t tell me she’s mixed with another race?’
If that were the case, it was entirely possible.
If even a little of the blood of a long-lived race like elves was mixed in, it would be easy enough to understand.
If not that, then perhaps…
Just as Harley moved his thick arm, its muscles writhing, and began scratching the back of his head… no, the monster hide on the back of his head.
“Pardon me for asking upon our first meeting, but are you perhaps of mixed blood with another race?”
The question came from the other person’s mouth first.
As if she had been thinking the same thing while facing him.
He had no idea what she had seen in Harley, who looked every bit the robust human man, to think he was mixed blood, but it was truly insight befitting an archmage.
“Mm—? Ahh! I’m a dragonkin, so you could say I’m of mixed dragon blood. Though I don’t know how many generations back it was mixed in! Wahaha!”
“Dragonkin… I see. My apologies. I am Isea Pristine, from the Azerion Empire.”
She introduced herself calmly and held out her small, slender hand to request a handshake.
Harley stared at it for a moment, then took her hand with his ring and little fingers folded and slowly shook it up and down.
It was an extremely cautious gesture, since if he put in the slightest wrong amount of strength, he could crush the bones of her hand.
“Hahaha! You can call me Harley. I’m currently staying in the Kingdom of Tulk, but at heart, I’m always a southern warrior!”
“…Pardon? Ah, yes.”
Isea responded with an awkward smile, as if overwhelmed by his hearty self-introduction.
“By the way, miss, are you mixed blood as well?”
“Ah, I’m…”
And so, in front of a corridor of the Great Temple.
A tiny girl just over 150 centimeters tall and a giant man approaching 2.3 meters in height happened to encounter each other.
***
“Phew—.”
After parting from Harley and returning to her lodging, Isea lay down on the bed and swept a hand over her face.
The reason she had suddenly ended up coming all the way to this Great Temple of Rosellia was, needless to say, because of the Order’s invitation.
The special mobile strike force to respond to the Undying King.
Simply called the “suicide squad” or the “hero party,” that unit was a position accompanied by honor as much as danger.
Their countries of origin would revere them as great figures, the lives they had led would be recorded in history books, and their stories would be passed down as songs of bards.
‘Though since even those who survived to the end all died young, not one of them enjoyed that glory for long.’
However, since their mission was to directly confront the Undying King, an existence not even remotely approachable by ordinary standards, the minimum requirement for those who could apply was to have reached the pinnacle, such as being a master-class martial artist or an archmage.
Naturally, the hero party should have become an elite combat group where the strongest on the continent gathered…
But the affairs of the world were not so simple.
‘First of all, the standard of being the strongest on the continent is extremely vague.’
This world was not a game, and there was no way individual abilities were assigned exact numerical values.
For comparison, they had no choice but to use as grounds for judgment the realm one had reached beyond a certain standard, public evaluation, and the achievements one had accumulated thus far…
But in the first place, even among those who had reached similar realms, actual combat was something where the outcome changed depending on compatibility and experience.
There was no tournament to select the strongest on the continent, and analyzing each of their abilities to rank them precisely had been impossible from the start.
On top of that, because of the previous Undying King incident and the monsters situated all over, Auterica had not seen a war between humans in a long time.
If there were someone with a special quality anyone could acknowledge, like Heinrich, who had become the hero, that would be another matter. Unfortunately, among the currently known strong figures, there was no one of that caliber.
Since that was the reality, they had no choice but to first accept applications from those who were qualified, then select suitable talents through interviews and verification…
But there was yet another problem here.
There were far too few applicants.
It was partly because of the danger history spoke of, but there was a more practical reason why they could not readily step forward.
‘If I join the suicide squad, I’ll have to be away from Riley’s side for quite a long time. At a time like this, I can’t do that.’
And among those who intended to decline joining the unit for such reasons…
Was Viscount Isea Pristine, archmage of the Azerion Empire.
The strong often inevitably rose to high positions, and those who stood in positions that high naturally had that much more to protect.
But if someone were told to set all of that aside for the greater cause when they did not know what would happen to their own family, their city, or their country, how many would obey?
If they left their post like that and truly lost something precious, who would take responsibility?
If the cause was not that they had lacked the power to protect it, but an incident they themselves could have fully prevented?
And there was no guarantee that the “enemy” would not make a move while they were away from their post.
Whether that enemy was the Immortal Army… or a political rival.
‘Things have become troublesome because of Crown Prince Simon. I can’t just flatly refuse the Order’s invitation either. Still, leaving my post briefly should be fine, so…’
For such reasons, there were practically no volunteers for the suicide squad—.
Everyone knew it was absolutely necessary, but no one wanted to step forward themselves… and so the current reality was that they were all just watching one another.
Even without that, the basic requirements were extremely high, so there were very few qualified people to begin with. Now that things had turned out this way, the Order ultimately had no choice but to invite strong individuals, starting with those who had been recommended, and attempt to hold talks with them.
Naturally, Isea, who had been the first recommended by the crown prince, was included among them.
‘Since I have a last resort, my life won’t be in danger, but leaving Riley’s side empty for a long time itself defeats the purpose. Why do they think I’m still staying here in the first place!’
The reason she had personally come to the Great Temple of Rosellia despite having no intention of changing her decision was to show the Order as much sincerity as possible.
In this continental crisis, the saint had stepped forward, even volunteering to sacrifice himself. If she simply sent a message saying she would not participate for personal reasons, wouldn’t there be a chance of earning their displeasure?
‘No matter how moderate the Order’s disposition is, you never know with people. For the imperial throne, I have to avoid becoming hostile with the Order as much as possible. …All because of that doglike bastard Simon.’
As Simon’s shameless face surfaced in her mind again, Isea silently ground her teeth.
The composure she had prided herself on as being usually cool-headed broke, and irritation boiled up inside her.
Of course, if she successfully subjugated the Undying King and survived to become a hero, the situation would turn around instead, but there was no way that could be possible in such a short time.
And in that amount of time… the Fifth Princess Riley would not merely fall behind in the power struggle; there was a very high chance she would suffer an “unfortunate accident” at someone else’s hands.
‘Simon is more than capable of doing that. …By the way, that person from earlier, was his name Harley?’
As Isea frowned and tried hard to shake off her unpleasant thoughts, she changed the direction of her thinking and recalled the giant man she had coincidentally met in the corridor.
“At first, I thought some monster had invaded the Great Temple.”
She had not judged so simply because he was large.
Her specialty was elemental magic, but as she had received the Fifth Princess’s full support, she also possessed quite broad knowledge in other fields.
And Harley’s figure as seen through eyes where that knowledge and her special talent combined was—
‘That left eye too… that is absolutely not an aura a natural living creature could possess. …Unless he were a chimera or a predatory-type monster.’
It was to the point that she could feel an enormous amount of life force, as if a super-giant monster had been compressed into a human form, dwelling in every cell that made up his body.
Without a doubt, that had to be mutated mana, the biological force that was the source of the monsters’ power.
He even possessed a sense of alienation that made it impossible to see him as an ordinary living creature.
As if inconsistent energies, like a machine assembled from various parts, were being bound together by an unidentified power.
And above all, the decisive factor was the “madness” latent in Harley’s body and the subtle remnants of gloomy black magic.
That was a matter that must never be lightly overlooked, even if only as a precaution.
‘He might be a pawn sent by Hans, the Undying King.’
So, just in case, she had spoken to him first.
To gain even a little more information through conversation.
“But if he’s dragonkin… I’m not sure. They’re such a rare race that there aren’t many records left in the literature.”
If the sense of dissonance she had felt was a racial characteristic of dragonkin, then there was nothing in particular she could say.
In addition, the reaction of the mana lingering around him, which she had felt while shaking his hand directly, also lent credibility to the claim that he had inherited the blood of a dragon.
‘Still, you never know. I’m scheduled to meet the saint later anyway, so it would be best to mention it subtly then.’
In the end, she came to that conclusion and decided to pass the judgment onto the Order.
Thinking that it would be nice if she could earn a few more points with this.
***
The basement of the Bright Ducal House in the Kingdom of Talia.
Heinz silently looked at the woman yawning calmly in front of him.
“So, you won’t regret your decision, right?”
“Haam— What an obvious thing to say. No matter how long I’ve lived, living is still better than dying, isn’t it…?”
Her words, as she looked at him with a languid expression, implied two things.
The meaning that, in any case, her lifespan would soon end and she did not have long left to live…
‘As expected, she’s sharp when it comes to sensing things.’
And even the meaning that before she died a natural death, wouldn’t she be devoured by him?
Since she had watched from right beside him the moment Heinz devoured Visk Yufersh and ascended to true blood, it was not unreasonable for her to judge that way.
…And in truth, he had intended to do just that.
“Hehehe— In fact, more than anything else, the evolution of blood itself is so fascinating that I can’t bear it. To think I can personally experience that change I couldn’t understand no matter how many times I saw it. What could be more captivating than this!”
Briki’s voice, which had begun quietly, gradually rose as if she were growing excited all on her own.
Her half-closed eyes also began to open little by little, and by the time she finished speaking, they were sparkling brightly.
“Of course, I’m also curious about what the future of the vampires you’ll create will be like, Heinz. Watching that will surely be enjoyable too. Won’t it be far more splendid than what I had been thinking all this time?”
“Right. Having one more true-blood class vampire on this side will be a great help for what’s to come. So don’t think about only watching; put in effort yourself for that future.”
Heinz replied curtly and slowly approached her.
How dare she try to stand back and merely watch?
That was the privilege of him, the highest-ranking one!
‘Well, that doesn’t mean I’m really only playing around either. But I can’t tolerate a subordinate lazing about while I’m working hard.’
And until he went around behind Briki and sank his fangs into the nape of her neck, she did not resist and merely waited quietly.
For “Refined Blood Crystal” to evolve the vampiric factors within her blood.
For the new change that would come to her!
“Huuu— Aah! I see. So this is!”
At last, the full-fledged change began.
Boiling blood, pores spewing heat, bones and muscles twisting.
As each and every cell surpassed its limits, the life force of hers that had been dying moment by moment slowly began to raise its head again.
One of the roots of the “Bloodline of the Beginning,” handed down since the distant past, “Brocoslac,” which could be called the prototype of Auterica’s vampires—
Was being defiled by Heinz II, a mongrel from another world… no, evolving into an even more developed form, and disappearing from the long history of the continent.
Of course, at the same time.
It was also the moment the Auterica Vampire Clan Alliance, “Hybrid,” came to possess one more complete true blood.