Chapter 372
Chapter 372: The Hero’s Perspective
Arthur… oddly enough, shares the same name as the ancient Hero King from the Aulitos Lake region.
Given that my magical sense feels quite fuzzy in my transformed state, it’s hard to tell, but this young man named Arthur seems to possess an enormous amount of magical power, almost too mighty to be human.
“I am Alex. A Hero.”
I also introduced myself, igniting my own silver light.
“Alex? Could it be that you took down the Night Elves last night?”
Arthur tilted his head, and the soldiers around nodded in agreement. As of last night, he wasn’t present in the Holy Church of this city. Did he just arrive today? If he heard about my exploits from the church, he must know the cover story—that I happened upon the Night Elves during my vacation and exterminated them while sightseeing.
“Ah, that’s right. I just happened to feel a suspicious presence.”
“Wonderful job indeed; I’d like to follow your example. However—”
Arthur turned to look at the town, his expression clouding, but he trailed off with a hesitant, “…no.”
“By the way, did you mention ‘suspicious water corpses being found here and there’?”
I felt a slight unease from his demeanor, but not wanting to dive deeper into my own circumstances, I quickly returned to the original topic.
“Are you saying that bodies like these—victims of vampires—are appearing all over?”
“Most likely.”
Most likely? What a vague answer.
“As far as I know, there have been several cases over the past few months—about one per month reported. However, this only applies to those cases that the Holy Church and the soldiers of each city are aware of, so I suspect there are many more than that.”
Arthur carefully stepped closer to the corpse to investigate.
“Yeah, I thought so. There are multiple marks where arteries ran through the neck, thighs, and arms. It looks like they’ve been torn apart by fish or birds, but damage to water corpses tends to start from the extremities or mucous membranes.”
Arthur pushed back his hair and looked at me. His left eye was perfectly normal; I had thought he was hiding a wound.
“It might just be coincidence, but every body I’ve been present for during autopsies also showed signs of feeding on those areas.”
His statement clicked for me.
The vampire behavior I’d grown familiar with in the Evaroti Autonomous District. They rarely bite their prey directly; instead, they inflict wounds to suck blood flowing from arteries—
“Is it the vampires who left those marks? And after tossing the bodies into the lake, the scent of blood quickly attracted fish and birds?”
“I’m seeing it that way too.”
…This is troublesome. Quite troublesome.
‘What do you mean?’
Well, it’s that—
“Hero, is there a vampire lurking in our town?”
A Beastman soldier asked nervously, his ears twitching. Given that we’d just discovered four Night Elves had infiltrated yesterday, it’s understandable he’d be worried.
“That’s something we won’t know until we investigate. Do we have a list of the missing?”
“We do, but… there haven’t been any in our town for the last few months. At least, no residents have disappeared…”
The soldier holding the ledger flipped through its pages as he answered.
“Hmm. In that case, while it might be wise to clear out any suspicious spots in town, personally… I don’t believe any are hiding here. This corpse likely drifted from far away…”
The soldiers visibly relieved at Arthur’s words, but…
“Instead, I suspect that there’s a vampire adapted to the lake.”
Well, that’s just how it works, huh…
‘What do you mean by that?’
This connects back to what I mentioned earlier about it being troublesome…
The discovery of vampire victims may be critically delayed. Usually, in areas vampires roam, you find dried-up corpses, making it immediately obvious. That’s why the Holy Church’s Vampire Hunters are dispatched instantly.
However, if they’ve taken residence in this massive lake—the Aulitos Lake—things become quite difficult.
After all, they don’t need to breathe, so if they hide at the bottom of the water, we won’t be able to reach them.
‘That makes sense. But wouldn’t that mean they are almost invincible against the living underwater?’
They are as troublesome as a flying dragon. Plus, victims drained dry and tossed into the lake would become unrecognizable once they’re softened, and before they might reach the shore, they’d likely sink or become food for fish or birds…
‘Hmm… However, if that’s the case, I’d think the area around Aulitos Lake would now be the vampire’s territory. Speaking historically, of course.’
Yet, the vampires have a slight issue as well; they don’t need to breathe, but they find it uncomfortable not to.
‘Huh? What’s that about?’
Vampires are former living beings whose existence has been twisted by a curse from the progenitor vampire. Unlike normal undead like Enma, they still carry traits from their living days.
While they don’t need to breathe to function, they still crave it in a way. Also, when they submerge, having water enter their nose or lungs can be quite uncomfortable, making them cough.
Remember that time Claire mentioned Yavka and the soldiers from Evaroti having a drinking party?
She told me that at some point, Yavka had choked on some alcohol, meaning that vampires have a physiological reaction of ‘coughing when foreign substances enter their lungs or throat.’
‘Huh… So what you’re saying is that while they’re almost invincible underwater, they can’t stand being submerged permanently?’
Exactly. Some might manage to endure in the water with phenomenal willpower, but that’s what I mean by ‘adapted’ vampires.
‘Then wouldn’t it be safe to say there’s an adapted vampire that has become the master of the lake?’
Yet there are still problems. Antendeixis, if there were a river or lake where vampires lurked, and you were a human, what would you do?
‘…I’d avoid going near it?’
Correct.
There have been instances in the past where vampires fled to lakes and rivers. The extermination squads couldn’t engage, but the nearby residents avoided those areas, forcing the dried-up vampires to eventually come out on their own.
And they were exterminated. Unsurprisingly, they were weak from lack of blood.
‘…But when it comes to a massive lake like Aulitos Lake, the living space is too vast, isn’t it impossible to avoid it now?’
Right. It’s impractical for an entire fishing village to just up and relocate inland. Still, no matter how well vampires adapt to aquatic life, they ultimately need to come ashore if they want to suck human blood.
…It’s not out of the question for them to replenish their magical power by sucking the blood of magical beasts while underwater, but I doubt they can outswim those beasts… they can’t even mist in the water…
Now, this is reaching far, but if we figure out where the victims were found, we can estimate where the vampires might be lurking.
And if we wait in an area where the next victim is likely to appear—
‘Then the vampire will show up there.’
The higher the frequency of blood-sucking, the more victims there will be, making the location easy to determine.
Conversely, if the frequency is low, they’re likely to be weak by the time they come to suck blood.
While I’m not well-versed in the history of Aulitos Lake, I believe that vampires, hiding at the bottom, have faced extermination over a lengthy period.
Ultimately, no matter how well vampires adapt to underwater life, their prey—humans—live above water. This leads to a countermeasure against clever aquatic magical beasts—setting up ambushes to intercept them when they come ashore.
And—
If I’m correct in my predictions…
This Hero named Arthur seems to be narrowing down the likely “water areas” where vampires are hiding.
