EP.201 Land Flowing Like a River - 3
Humans had always feared the night. The darkness that concealed the enemy's form, and sleep—the greatest ally of ambushers. Anything that came in the night was invariably dangerous.
That was only true when the night was not on our side.
If the Progenitor Tirkanjaka was on our side, the night transformed into a cozy and peaceful moment, wrapping us in a veil of peace and tranquility.
[The sun has set.]
If darkness surrounded us on all sides, Tir could go days without sleep. She had regained her heartbeat and recovered some of her functions, but the power that still moved her body was the Blood Control Art.
However, among what she had discarded was also the ability to endure sunlight.
It couldn't be helped. Back then, for a young girl barely surviving beneath the earth, being told to spare the capacity to endure sunlight would have been too cruel.
As the sun set, Tir emerged from her coffin. With her red eyes gleaming, Tir looked down upon the world.
"You have waited long. Now you may rest. Darkness is my time and my domain. I shall allow nothing to intrude within."
Tir declared proudly. At the same time, darkness layered itself around us in all directions. Even the twilight glimmering beyond the western mountains didn't reach this place. Unless it was the sun looking down upon all things at high noon, if they were at a similar eye level, this darkness wouldn't lose to the drowsy sunlight either.
Anyway, Tir had opened her eyes.
And I pressed her.
"Tir. Do you have a moment? Just between us."
"Yes. Ask me anything."
"We need to confirm each other's capabilities, so could you explain what your weaknesses are, one by one?"
"...Hmm?"
'Weaknesses? My weaknesses? Why suddenly...? Ah, she must be anxious. If so, it would be my duty as the eldest to show a confident appearance.'
Wrapped in a strange sense of duty, Tir draped herself in darkness and declared confidently.
"I have no weaknesses. I am the Progenitor Tirkanjaka, the existence the entire world once feared. Would fear itself have anything to fear?"
"That's not exactly true, is it? You were openly avoiding sunlight."
Halting at my interrogation, Tir flinched and spoke as if making an excuse.
"That is not a weakness, but something I dislike. Originally, I could walk draped in darkness even under the midday sun, and now that I've regained my heart, standing bare would pose no problem. I merely rested to gather my strength for an important battle."
"Isn't that a weakness?"
'It's true that my movement becomes restricted under sunlight, but to call it a weakness...'
It seems this person doesn't know the meaning of weakness. Isn't having restricted movement under sunlight a weakness?
Unaware of my thoughts, Tir raised her slender shoulders to their fullest and declared boldly.
"I do not fear the sun at all. For a vampire, sunlight is nothing more than slightly stinging raindrops. Lowly Ains or Yailings might be different, but Elders can endure under the sun, and for a Progenitor like me, it is merely an annoyance..."
"I'm asking to clearly assess our capabilities. Can you use your power well under the sun, or not? Answer yes or no."
Wouldn't slightly stinging raindrops bore holes through your body if they poured all day? Isn't the fact that it stings in the first place already an error?
Tir hesitated for a moment, averted her gaze, and said.
"...Yes."
"Okay, confirmed. You're weaker under sunlight."
"However, that was only before I regained my heart. Now I can exert equal power. What you need to worry about is—"
"That's only possible because your power doesn't go outside your body. If you could use Blood Control Art outside your body, an army would be walking at night instead of dirt grunts."
"...Ugh."
Hit by the truth, Tir couldn't add anything. While I was at it, I decided to dig up a little more truth under the guise of capability assessment.
"If you fight during the day, how much darkness can you control?"
"How can you measure darkness by quantity? My darkness is infinite; it will not run dry before the next night arrives."
Huh? That's strange. Why is she being serious?
Tir genuinely believed that.
But something's off. If there's no limit, there's no reason to store up power for a day. She gathers power because she knows she has limits herself, yet she's also sincere about it never running dry?
Wait a moment.
"Tir. By any chance, do you say that because you have a limit but have never actually run dry?"
"You could think so. Even the longest day is insufficient to exhaust all my darkness. Unless I were protecting my entire army with darkness, it is enough to protect you, me, and Shei."
Words aside, that means there IS a capacity limit!
"Ugh! What if your darkness runs out completely at a crucial moment and we're in danger?! Do you want to turn me into a vampire that badly? Are you planning to kill me first and then force me to become a vampire, saying there's no choice?!"
"...T-That would not happen."
'Making you a vampire unnaturally would only earn your resentment. I will protect you with all my might... If misfortune befalls you despite my best efforts, it would be unavoidable, though.'
Vampire life insurance, very reassuring. I'm even genuinely happy.
But couldn't you just not let me die before that? With that mindset, you might slightly deflect a bullet flying at me in a moment of crisis.
Anyway, I decided to slowly and seriously investigate our capabilities.
"For us to be safe, we need to clearly know each other's weaknesses and limits. Speak honestly. How much darkness can you use?"
"How would you measure darkness? However, today I gathered darkness all day and stored my power. Even if intense battle occurs, I can sustain it until sunset... unless the Holy Emperor's Court employs some bizarre scheme."
"What if you use up all the darkness?"
"Even so, my flesh remains. I would simply crush the enemies one by one."
"Okay. The darkness part is confirmed."
'...It seems she finds me quite untrustworthy. Her mind must be unsettled from the long life on the run. No, I must give her faith so she won't be anxious.'
No, it's not that. It's a genuine capability assessment, so don't make false reports. If you believe it yourself, I might end up being fooled too.
"What about other weaknesses?"
"If I don't even fear sunlight, what other weakness could there be?"
Huh? Seriously? As far as I know, vampires should have a few more weaknesses.
Why is she being serious? Putting aside her bold declarations, does she really not think of a single weakness?
"No, Tir. Everyone in the world knows your weaknesses. How can you say there aren't any?"
"Strange. How could the entire world know a weakness that even I don't know?"
"Heaven knows, earth knows, I know, and even privates know. Maybe even Aji, who's gotten remarkably smart lately, knows."
For a long time, vampires were humanity's greatest fear.
Simply calling them "enemies" entangled various complex circumstances.
Vampires were once human, and they needed fresh human blood to survive. They despised their bodies that desperately craved blood, yet didn't want to abandon their perfect flesh. Time couldn't wear them down, and even beasts avoided them. However, their end always came in human form.
Humans were the exact opposite of vampires. They were both prey to vampires and beings that could become vampires at any time. Humans loathed vampires, yet on the other hand envied their semi-immortality, and sometimes even accepted the chance to become a vampire as fortune.
A bizarre relationship of predator and prey, where from birth to death one was subordinate to the other.
Awe came with curiosity. Humans always strove to learn more about vampires. Chasing truth while harboring fantasies, they filled the gaps with knowledge.
Yet the irony was that the Progenitor alone didn't know.
"How ironic. I am the beginning of all vampires, their racial god. You're saying there's a weakness of vampires that I don't know?"
"That's my line. Sigh. This won't do."
Since it came up, let's test it. I turned my head and called the regressor.
"Shei! Come here for a moment!"
"Wait a bit. Let me just check on Nabi."
The regressor was preoccupied with tending to Nabi.
Nabi was more exhausted from the long life on the run than I was. Inside the box, Nabi's nerves were on edge, and every time anyone other than the regressor approached, she would hiss.
Even now, if not for the regressor's friendly demeanor, the food in hand, and the magic herbs made from World Tree leaves, she might have overturned the food table several times.
Closing the box lid, the regressor shook her head with a pitying expression.
"It's difficult. Maybe because she's the king of cats, she doesn't seem to welcome a long journey far away... She'd probably be better off staying quietly in a peaceful and calm place."
"Let's abandon her somewhere and deal with the immediate task first. Between humans."
"What a way with words... Fine. What's the immediate task?"
The regressor was this party's main force anyway.
Her adaptability was unmatched by anyone, a sort of universal standby medicine. If we were assessing capabilities, it'd be better to do it with the regressor.
"Shei. Do you happen to know vampires' weaknesses?"
"Of course. Sunlight, right?"
"Other than that?"
"Salt, and spices. Garlic, for example."
Tir gently furrowed her brow and denied it.
"Nonsense. I don't fear such things."
'It's true I dislike the sun. The Holy Emperor's Court fully exploited that to trouble me. However, I don't fear salt and spices. I've never encountered them in the first place.'
She'd never encountered them. At this point, I realized what Tir's problem was.
Ah, some of the folk remedies hadn't reached Tir. Probably because she always led armies.
I'll leave the explanation to the regressor. Listen to the vampire countermeasures that even privates know.
"Huh? But I heard vampires are beings that operate on blood, so they dislike spices that dissolve into blood. So poisons that are deadly even in small amounts aren't very effective, but dousing them with lots of salt is said to be extremely troublesome for them."
"Ridiculous. Vampires are beings that rule blood. How could they dislike salt rather than poisons that clot blood?"
Since it came up, why not try some. I put a little of the cooking salt I had set aside on the back of my hand and held it out toward Tir. Tilting her head, Tir responded.
"Surely, this is salt?"
"Yes. Why don't you try it for the first time in a while? If it's not a weakness, it should be fine."
Unable to readily bring the white salt to her mouth, Tir hesitated. I pushed it out further as if to tell her to try putting it in her mouth.
'Is this not like placing a kiss on the back of your hand? How bold... Though our roles have switched.'
Oh, it wasn't because she disliked salt.
After watching for a moment, Tir hesitantly touched her tongue to the back of my hand as if making up her mind. A small tongue briefly touched the white salt and pulled away.
Immediately after, Tir frowned at an unpleasant sensation.
"Tasteless..."
"Tir, you can't taste anything. You only know the taste of blood."
"True. It feels disagreeable. It doesn't suit my blood."
"That's the weakness."
"Different. This is merely a matter of taste and preference—"
"Ebi."
"Kyaa!"
When I suddenly thrust the salt toward Tir, who refused to admit it to the end, she snapped her head back as if she'd seen a bug. Screaming with an un-Progenitor-like cute yelp, Tir froze in place and stayed still.
See. I knew it from when you made a crying face saying my blood was tasteless. Picky eater.
"Tir. Knowledge about vampires spread through word of mouth and even extended into novels and illustrations. You can't let your guard down. The three things people fear most are tigers, smallpox, and vampires. Everyone in the world shares that knowledge. Even Shei knows it."
"Wait a minute. I sense a little malice in the part where you said 'even I know.'"
However, Tir seemed to accept my words, nodding slowly, then stopped abruptly when the regressor turned her head.
Turning away from the regressor's staring gaze with a small cough, Tir shook off the look and looked at me.
"Very well. Let's say I dislike things like salt. What does it matter? Who could feed me salt, and how?"
"You can't let your guard down about that. The Military Nation is a country that uses every means available without hesitation."
If a weakness existed, there was no reason not to exploit it. It would be rational, and furthermore, they were opponents that couldn't be easily defeated otherwise.
Removing the playfulness from my face, I spoke with an infinitely serious attitude.
"Today's attack was a probing operation. They probably intended to drain Tir's power. Fortunately, we drove them back with just Shei's strength, but a full-force attack and a probing operation are different. We need to make plans before they come. By then, it'll be too late."