My proposal to hide Finley was rendered meaningless. Baldamir seated me opposite him, rested his chin on his hand, and fell into thought.
“Finley.”
“You know of him?”
“I do.”
“Ah, a foolish question. You’re the Red Blood Duke’s kin, after all.”
At that, Count Erte, who had been standing at Baldamir’s side, corrected me.
“It is not because he is kin. His Highness is exceptional. His Highness knows the personal details of every vampire that exists. Elder, Ain, Yailing. And even how many thralls each Yailing commands.”
Truly? To that extent?
The Red Blood Duke didn’t particularly deny it. Instead, after a long, deep deliberation, he spoke.
“Erte.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Count Erte bowed her head in reply. Baldamir stared at her and murmured coldly.
“Tear out your heart.”
What? Tear out?
Even as I doubted my ears, Count Erte did not hesitate for a moment. When I came to my senses, Count Erte had already raised her hand and was driving it into her own chest. Without a single scream, she pulled out her heart, tearing through the gushing blood.
Flustered, I asked again.
“Wh-what? Suddenly her own heart?”
Even after ordering a loyal subordinate to self-terminate, Baldamir’s emotions remained unmoved. To put it in human terms, Baldamir felt only as much regret as trimming and discarding a fingernail.
“As you said, it is better to conceal the insolence Finley committed against the Progenitor. The most certain way to silence a vampire’s mouth is annihilation.”
“What? That was done by Finley, a Yailing, not Count Erte!”
“It makes little difference. If one cannot hold the sire accountable for the crimes of his kin, then from now on, one could simply create kin to order them to commit crimes.”
“But you are also Count Erte’s sire! Are you trying to shift the blame now?”
Even at my fault-finding, Baldamir replied calmly.
“Did Finley not say as much? That, regardless of my will, the Progenitor’s command is needed to start a war. That nothing can be decided until the Progenitor returns… so he said.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because I told Erte so.”
Baldamir desired war, or a movement corresponding to it. However, this nation belongs to the Progenitor. Without the Progenitor’s sanction, a national-scale operation cannot be conducted.
“Finley misunderstood what he heard from Erte. But to wake the slumbering Progenitor and make him act—since when did a vampire have the authority to disturb the Progenitor’s rest?”
And Finley, communicating with his sire, heard those words and resolved to wake the Progenitor, setting off on a long journey. Believing that to be loyalty to Erte, and by extension, to Baldamir.
Yet now he intends to execute even Ain by association.
“He is your limb!”
“He is my limb, so I should sever it.”
Count Erte’s faltering life force is gradually draining. An Ain of Count Erte’s level can circulate blood even without her heart… yet now, her sire Baldamir is not permitting regeneration. A single thread of blood sorcery is barely clinging to life, but without Baldamir’s mercy, she will not survive.
Even with the horrifying sight before my eyes, I could do nothing but speak.
“The notion that vampires are immortal is old news. How many have died recently.”
“It has turned out as you wished.”
“What? Shifting blame now? Finley practically killed himself. And you killed Count Erte.”
“There is also the Ain of Luskiniya, Jaz. You visited him while taking the Progenitor on an outing and he died.”
“I didn’t kill him. Mr. Kavila killed him! I don’t even have the ability to kill a vampire in the first place!”
Now he’s trying to pin the blame on me. I may have committed sins, but I don’t want to take on another’s sins on top of that. A criminal record adds up, and that’s a loss!
Baldamir stared at me blankly. A ruler of a nation… no, an administrator trying to pin blame on me made a cold sweat break out, but who am I? The Progenitor’s favored concubine. A being favored by the god of this nation, standing above the law. Even if Baldamir wants to bury me, he cannot. Let’s go out confidently.
“You claim you did not intend to kill? Yet he died because you drove him too far.”
“How can I stop them from killing themselves!”
Baldamir, who had been staring blankly at me, suddenly bowed his head and spoke.
“Human King. I express my gratitude for reviving the Progenitor’s heart. I did not expect a human, not a vampire, to fulfill the Progenitor’s long-cherished wish… but if it is the Human King, I can understand.”
“What? If you suddenly thank me, I can only say you’re welcome.”
“However, if you are truly the Human King, you must represent ‘all humans’.”
A cold, sharp gaze pierces me. Not feigned, but true cold sweat trickles down my back.
I admit it. I didn’t read Baldamir’s thoughts very deeply.
A vampire’s memories are far too vast and complex to read easily. Try reading a thousand years’ worth of memories after only ever reading memories fifty years long at most. No matter how much of an avid reader you are, if you’re surrounded by twenty or thirty thick volumes, you’ll inevitably be overwhelmed. Even more so when reading multiple volumes at once.
So I had been searching, trying to read him properly one piece at a time… but I was outmaneuvered.
He found me first.
“To you, the Human King, are Ain and Yailing also human?”
I cannot speak falsehood. As the Human King, I have the duty to represent them. I answered readily.
“Yes.”
“Then, to you, the Progenitor and Finley are equal. The Progenitor and all other vampires as well.”
The Human King is on no one’s side.
The last words the Iron Saint left before departing. Baldamir took those words to heart more than anyone. No, that expression is not correct. He would have investigated me even if the Iron Saint had not said it.
Baldamir simply sought to know me. So that he could judge whether I am dangerous or safe.
I will answer his questions faithfully. Honestly.
“That’s not true. Tir is slightly different from other vampires.”
“Yet they are both human?”
“Not all are the same just because they are the same, are they? Just as you and I are both human yet different.”
Such a vague answer would not satisfy him. Instead, I said.
“Restore Count Erte.”
“Is this related to our conversation?”
“See for yourself.”
Baldamir nodded. In that instant, the power binding Count Erte was released. Finally able to control the blood around her own body, Count Erte hurriedly drew the blood back. A faint flush of color returned to her pale skin.
Having restored Count Erte’s life, Baldamir looked at me again. As if to say, now answer.
So I answered.
“You investigated and observed me. And thus you summoned me to attempt a dialogue. Because you need to know about me.”
Baldamir, who had been waiting for what would follow, urged when I didn’t speak.
“That is obvious.”
“No. It might not be obvious. If you had predetermined what ‘human’ is.”
Mind-reading is the one power left to me. The ability to read humans. I do not know how the Human King lost his powers in the first year, but I know why only this power remains.
It must be because, to represent humans, one must read humans.
“Only after the entity ‘human’ exists can I exist. For the Beast King is a conceptual existence of beasts. Just as you judge me after observing my actions and sharing words, I, too, need humans as they are first in order to represent them.”
That is why I can’t help but be at odds with the Holy Emperor’s Court. It’s also the reason I headed straight for the Military Ministry Headquarters when I sensed the Saintess’s shadow.
Because the Holy Emperor’s Court would forever take away what they call sin. In the form of erasing the future.
…Well, when I went, the military was a little different from what I’d thought, so it was fine. Their clairvoyance finds sins that have already occurred rather than prevent the sin itself. And even that is now entrusted to the communicator, so I only needed to deal with him.
“But vampires subordinated to a sire… they cannot make choices that deviate from their sire, can they? Just as Finley accepted your emotions and descended into the Abyss to persuade Tir. Was that truly Finley’s own will?”
Elder, Ain, Yailing. All of them are human. Yet due to the nature of vampires, the boundary of humanity becomes blurred. Because their bodies and their minds are subordinated to their sire.
That is why I must confirm. Whether their wishes are truly their own will.
“Reviving the heart was Tir’s wish. At the same time, it was also what I desired. Because only by breaking the blood shackles can I confirm the ‘human’ nature of vampires without interference. Not as someone’s limbs, but as an individual human.”
Tir came to the Duchy after regaining his heart and losing his dominion. Now, vampires freed from the blood shackles can act unpredictably. Not that they will, but that they can—that is what matters.
…Thanks to that, I’ve become a little endangered too. But isn’t this far more human? Rather than the entire nation being the Progenitor’s body, with vampires moving automatically according to the Progenitor’s will.
“Human King. A being who represents all humans…. You would even risk danger to hear the voice of humans. Even if that human dies from doing something they cannot handle themselves?”
Baldamir, having grasped my meaning, murmured with a slightly intrigued look.
“As the Saintess warned, you are a highly dangerous existence indeed. You fundamentally deny the system. Beast King… is that the reason they call you barbaric?”
“The same goes for you. A human who abandons stable peace to start a war calls another barbaric.”
You talk as if it’s someone else’s story. When you tried to read me, I was reading you too.
Baldamir’s memories were exceedingly difficult to read. As befitting a vampire who has lived over a thousand years, there was simply too much to read, but more than that, it was because all that life was full.
“Red Blood Duke. The noblest Elder. The only vampire whose location and identity are simultaneously revealed. Because he has always been on the ducal throne. You have never even entered eternal slumber. You’ve managed the nation while sleeping in short bursts like a human.”
He has never entered eternal slumber. He has reigned as the Progenitor’s First Sword and as the Duke of the Mist Duchy. For a thousand years. He lived fiercely through a span of time humans can scarcely fathom, as if he might die tomorrow. Training, learning, mastering, governing, coping. He even battled the boredom that undying vampires inevitably face.
In other words, Baldamir lived a human life for a thousand years. Even without feeling any emotions, he diligently filled the years. That is also why I couldn’t read his thoughts properly. It was a book devoid of a single speck of emotion, yet with a terrifyingly vast amount of information, making it difficult to fish out the information I wanted.
But now, after meeting him alone and reading his thoughts, I could know for certain.
What Baldamir had done.
“You also wanted change, didn’t you? Isn’t that why you killed Luskiniya and made Lir Nightingale an Elder? Because Lir is a human with the power to break the blood shackles.”
Baldamir’s gaze grew even colder.