Vampires have no need for food other than blood. Paradoxically, this makes them more trustworthy than anyone when it comes to guarding food stores. If entrusting fish to a cat seems doubtful, then simply entrust them with grain. They'll catch and eat the birds that come seeking the grain flour, keeping it perfectly safe.
Village Chief Billitear's cellar was filled with long-lasting foods. Alcohol in wooden barrels, round-cured cheese, hardtack, and even sausages. The quantities weren't large, but it was enough for two people to subsist on.
"Got everything? Let's go!"
"Yeees~"
Hilde stuffed her clothes with food and slid down into the hole. After sending Hilde down first, I followed her in and pulled the cover shut. I struggled to drag the lid—which looked as if the earth had been sliced clean by a sharp blade—over the passage, then swept my hand along the edges.
The earth is originally one. Even if it appears temporarily separated for some reason, in the eyes of the Earth Mother Goddess, it's all the same. When I sealed the ground with Earth Arts, the cellar floor became perfectly flat, as if no hole had ever been dug.
This is skill. Must one shake the world and cleave the wind for it to be called skill? True skill is the kind that melts into everyday life.
Hilde set down the food in the middle of the burrow and spoke.
"Vampires are really dense, aren't they~? Not noticing even when we're stealing all their food right below them."
"It's because their senses are dull. If blood had been spilled, they would have noticed immediately."
"Thanks to that, it's a good thing for us who gathered the food~."
Though we were in an underground burrow, I had used Earth Arts to make it somewhat presentable. At a height where raising a hand while seated would almost touch the ceiling, the reasonably spacious space even had blankets and a makeshift dining table.
If I had more leeway, I would have expanded it larger and furnished it like a proper house... but since it was a burrow dug right beneath a house, I couldn't risk it collapsing. What a shame.
"You surprisingly have a knack for construction. When did you learn such a skill?"
"It's a basic skill. It's actually more remarkable that humans have forgotten it. Making a hideaway was a skill you had to learn if you wanted to live."
Grumbling, I threw a card onto the floor. Spade 9—a stem bloomed from the False Idol bearing the Tree of Origins, and low, soft moss grew lushly. I spread a blanket over it and sat down, satisfied with the soft texture, and picked up the food.
"Alright. We've worked too long lately, right? This is a vacation I'm giving you. Rest well here, do all your maintenance, and then we'll go."
"Wow~. A vacation spent eating moldy cheese in a cramped burrow, I love it so much~."
"Haha. Seeing you so happy puts my mind at ease. Make yourself at home."
Hilde and I simply passed the food between us even in these poor conditions. It wasn't particularly uncomfortable. Because both Hilde and I had experienced this situation countless times.
Where? In the Military Nation.
"Eating cheese in a burrow makes me newly appreciate how impressive the Military Nation was, feeding people canned beans in even narrower single rooms."
"Munch munch? Suddenly?"
Stimulated by the sudden disparagement of the Military Nation, Hilde swallowed what was in her mouth and protested.
"If this cramped burrow is better than the Military Nation, then why does this country produce fugitives? If they just lived peacefully offering blood to vampires, why would people risk their lives to escape every so often?"
"Because there are crazy vampires like Lord Ruskinia. Anyone would rather flee than live under someone like that."
"Then what about you, Father? You could have lived comfortably here as the Progenitor's beloved concubine, so why did you run away?"
Hilde suddenly struck at the core.
True. If I wanted to live comfortably, staying by Tir's side would be best. Even looking at it humanly, Tir doesn't have any major flaws, so nothing bad would happen.
"Well, that's..."
The Principality is a land of comfortable livestock. A land where emotionless, eternal rulers care for humans. Since they are diligent without needing sleep or rest, purely comparing quality of life, the Military Nation can't even hold a candle to it. If there is a heaven, perhaps this is it.
However... In the end, I too chose to leave.
"Tir seemed to want me to stay forever as a beloved concubine, but that's a wish I couldn't grant. But since Tir tried to bind me even by force, I had no choice."
"Well explained~. Then you understand why humans try to escape too, right?"
Hilde, who had wiped her mouth with the edge of the blanket, spoke confidently.
"Even though humans are powerless, they think they're special, so they can't easily accept being treated as livestock."
"Still, there are people who remained in the Principality besides me."
"It's one of two things. Either they don't realize they're livestock, or they've resigned themselves and accepted it. No matter how cynical a person is, if you tell them you're nothing but livestock and your value is no more or less than a milk cow, they won't be able to accept it."
It's an open secret. Strictly speaking, humans in the Principality are livestock. But no one ever utters this fact aloud or even tries to bring it to mind. They just treat them as rulers.
Actually, aside from collecting blood instead of taxes, there's little difference from rulers... But blood happens to be quite important.
"In the Principality, humans are food—that alone is reason enough for humans to flee. Do you know why the Holy Court still stands ruling over the world despite committing all manner of follies? Because, at the very least, God bestows dignity and rest upon humans, even if it's a lie!"
The message is correct. If only the messenger weren't Hilde, a former Holy Sword Order member.
"It's hard to empathize when Hilde says that. Even though she herself fled from the Holy Sword Order."
Hilde shrugged and answered.
"Well~. I had my circumstances, I suppose. You could say I tasted the bitterness of truth. There were twists and turns from beginning to end~."
"What circumstances?"
"Curious?"
"Yes. Tell me."
"Where should I start?"
"From the beginning."
"It'll be a long story."
"I won't be bored at least."
Hilde smiled briefly, then closed her eyes and shut her mind. As if lowering the curtain of a stage.
At times like this, Hilde's mental image is dark and quiet. Having temporarily lowered the curtain of the stage called the world, she calmly chose her role. Though it was happening in her mind's eye, if I had to compare it, it was like taking clothes off a mannequin and putting them on.
"'I' am a holy knight. A holy believer who has devoted herself to God and carries out His will. For only He watches over me. Glory be to the Celestial God."
Hilde, having changed into the oldest and most worn armor, raised the curtain again. What stood before my eyes now was a holy knight of the past who had wandered after losing herself.
Hilde—no, the 'Nameless Holy Knight'—began to speak in a solemn and heavy tone.
"There was a time when 'I' wandered. Breaking rules and disrupting order, 'I' eventually killed someone and fled. Hired assassins, bounty hunters, mercenary bands. Countless people chased 'me.' And 'I,' without even considering paying for my crimes, had no choice but to flee endlessly."
"Is this acting now? Your tone sounds like a play."
"It was one of 'my' few talents. A paltry talent that only caused trouble... but thanks to it, 'I' saved my life many times over. Pretending to be one of the assassins. Pretending to be a fellow bounty hunter. Pretending to be a mercenary captain. Hiding, acting, and betraying, 'I' barely managed to cling to life... but in the end, 'I' no longer knew who I was. Or what I was living for."
The 'Nameless Holy Knight' fiddled with a necklace. Hilde wasn't actually wearing a necklace, but the gesture she made was that of a holy knight holding a rosary.
"Then, God pointed at 'me.'"
"God?"
"Yes. 'I have watched you. How you have lived, how you have fled, what performances you have given. I pitied the sight of a lost lamb pretending to be a goat.'"
This is acting. But at the same time, it wasn't just acting. If she had continued acting even while resting and sleeping for nearly five years, that was essentially the same as life itself.
"The Celestial God watches over 'me.' He is the shepherd who shows lost sheep where to go. 'I' ought to follow and serve Him as a parent..."
"Then why did you stop that act?"
"Just as I was getting to that~! I found out that He couldn't even recognize the acting and just bestowed power willy-nilly~!"
The actor threw off her role at will. Hilde, having returned from being a 'holy knight,' shrugged lightly as if nothing had happened.
"Every action of 'mine' was all acting. 'I' was discovered and designated as a Holy Sword member, but... it was an error from the very moment they allowed divine power to an actor standing on a theatrical troupe! Even the shape of the holy sword changes depending on what kind of holy knight I portray!"
Hilde changed the shape of her faith. A noble and steadfast greatsword. A single sharp spear that pierced malice. A shield that protected faith. Hilde, who had outstanding talent for acting, could freely change the shape of the holy sword.
"Even though they appointed 'me' to the Holy Sword Order, the moment they realized that the form of divine power changed based on 'my' acting, they immediately cast me out! As if this wasn't what they wanted! Seriously, unbelievable!"
"But you said they recognized Hilde while she was acting?"
"That wasn't the Celestial God! She was a saintess seeking the Holy Sword Order—strong ones abandoned by fate, who would devote body and soul to loyalty with just a single whisper! The remarkable one wasn't God, but the saintess who saw the future!"
I tilted my head and asked.
"The Holy Court and the saintess are the same thing, aren't they?"
"They're different~. Yuel left the Holy Court but she's still a saintess!"
That's true. Of course, since it's extremely rare for a saintess to turn her back on the Holy Court, Yuel was an exceptionally special case.
"The Celestial God was just a generous old man who shared power if you buttered him up. The saintesses who wanted to maintain their faith gradually distanced themselves from 'me.' 'I' only needed someone to watch over 'me.' Then Yuel, the excommunicated saintess, called 'me' to the Military Nation when even the Holy Court shunned 'me.' 'I' was a despised Holy Sword member, but in other words, that meant no one else needed 'me'! That's why 'I' was a fitting Holy Sword member for an excommunicated saintess!"
Having shouted self-deprecatingly, Hilde soon smiled warmly and came to my side. Then she poked me and grinned.
"I worked as an 'Ark' like that and met you, Father~. It's a workplace that's endlessly busy and treats you terribly, but I was lucky to meet you!"
An infinitely light tone of voice. A voice as if flying, freed from all shackles, seemed to hold no worries or anguish.
But this too is probably an act.
"What role are you acting as right now?"