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After giving the pig a good lesson, it fled like its tail was on fire.

By now, it must be busy running to Isaac to tell on me.

But in the end, Isaac would only pretend to listen.

It would have been fine to just kill it as usual.

“Is it running away because it’s scared of poop? Nah, it’s just dirty.”

I definitely don’t want something that filthy touching my Dragon Slayer.

After that, we spent the evening goofing around.

It was evening, the time when vampires are most active, and we had traveled a long distance, so I wanted to rest too.

And that evening.

Only after the moon was high and all the streetlights were off did Luna and I head outside the Count’s Territory to solve the request.

“So, does that mean what’s happening right now is because of vampires?”

“Yeah.”

Vampires.

The missing persons cases occurring in the Count’s Territory are all their doing.

In this world, vampires are treated like monsters, such as goblins or war wolves.

However, despite being treated as monsters, they can speak and think.

The reason they appear so soon is due to the gap with other monsters.

In other novels, vampires have a very strong image, but here, there are many monsters even stronger than those powerful vampires.

Just with C-Rank monsters, there are plenty stronger than vampires.

“What’s the reason for that?”

“Do monsters need a reason to act?”

Actually, there is a reason.

To show their superiority over humans and to revive their kind, or something like that.

But I don’t remember the detailed backstories of monsters.

“Isn’t it unnecessary to remember? They’re all going to die anyway.”

“How do you know this information, Luke…?”

“I read it in a novel.”

“…If you don’t want to share, just say so.”

“I’m being serious.”

Tsk, tsk.

You don’t believe me just because my favorability isn’t high enough.

If I were a heroine with a favorability over 100, you’d believe me even if I said I turned poop into gold.

Well, if you claim your world is from a novel and I’m someone from a different world, who would believe that?

In novels, protagonists often have restrictions preventing them from claiming they’re reincarnators or possessed, but honestly, no one would believe me without those restrictions.

In Earth too, if I told my friends, “Hey, the world we live in is from a movie, and I’m from a different world,” the response would probably be, “You should check into a mental hospital.”

“But Luke, is the direction we’re going correct?”

“Where are we?”

“…”

*

“We’re almost there. At this rate, it should end in a few days.”

“You… you will receive divine punishment…”

“Feel free to utter what you want. Once you awaken, we will be the first to head to the nearest city, kill all the humans there, and make it our territory.”

It’s really only a few days left now.

I can feel it myself.

Is there truly no salvation for me?

The man approached her, who was struggling with various expressions.

“You are truly foolish. Born with the fate of a queen, yet you abandon your kin and despise bloodsucking.”

“I… didn’t choose to be born this way!”

Vampires crave blood due to the bloodlust they feel when they go without it for too long.

However, she, born with the grand title of queen, feels no bloodlust even without feeding.

It was merely a facade.

That grand title of queen.

Just like ants and bees have their queens.

She was a coward.

Having lived for centuries, she, who had only been born for a few decades, understood the world far better than the older vampires.

A frog in a well.

What change would come from her awakening?

The world is overflowing with strong monsters and powerful humans.

Even if they were to conquer the outer city, it would fall within a month.

Knowing that her future holds only death, doing this is merely an act of foolishness.

Even if she desperately wants to escape, all she could do was wait for an uncertain end.

She softly closed her eyes.

“So you’ve finally learned obedience.”

The man said.

– Bang!

At that moment.

A vampire burst through the door and said urgently.

“We… we’re in big trouble! The mansion is on fire!”

“…?”

“…?”

At that sound, both she and the man wore astonished expressions.

*

After wandering through the forest for 30 minutes with Luna.

Fortunately, we finally arrived at our destination.

“If only I had known the way…”

“Hey, people can get lost sometimes.”

If just reading the phrase ‘some mansion deep in the forest’ could lead one to the way, they wouldn’t be human but rather a god.

I got a bit lost, but in the end, I managed to find it.

An obviously suspicious mansion in the woods.

That creepy mansion that looked like a witch or ghost would appear is undoubtedly the secret hideout of the vampires.

“Luke, there’s someone over there.”

“You found it well.”

In the direction Luna pointed was a creature that looked like a human—but upon closer inspection, it was a vampire.

One low-ranking vampire carrying a bag was walking towards the mansion’s main entrance.

That bag likely contains someone to feed to the queen. They probably kidnapped them from somewhere.

Speaking of, I had something I wanted to try when encountering a vampire, and now’s the chance.

An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

As for kidnappings?

“Kidnapping.”

I stealthily approached the vampire with the bag and stood behind it.

“A.S.M.Rrrrrrrrrrrrr~~~~~~~~~”

The vampire, startled by the unfamiliar ASMR that doesn’t exist in this world, turned around too late.

Without knocking them out, I simply grabbed them by the hair and dragged them away.

Interestingly, hair is a weak spot; once grabbed and dragged, they can’t retaliate properly.

That’s why soldiers often have shaved heads.

“Luna, I got someone. Get ready.”

“Can’t we just kill them?”

“Honestly, I’m curious.”

What would it feel like for someone who only drinks others’ blood to have their own blood drunk?

Curiosity had me invite Mr. Mosquito as a special guest today.

Close to a hundred mosquitoes.

They swarmed me during my brief travel before; there’s no way they’d just disappear after spending hours wandering in the forest.

Of course, I brought them all along.

I didn’t expect to use them today though.

“Alright~ Eat up~”

“W-What are you doing?! Stop! Stop!!”

“Silence Punch!!”

“Graah!!”

The technique’s name is Silence Punch.

In some RPG games, there’s a silence debuff that seals spells for mages.

Just like its name, it shuts their mouth and prevents them from sucking blood at the same time.

“Oh, look at them go! Well done, my little ones. Hehehe.”

They sure are enjoying themselves.

I can’t help but wonder if vampire blood tastes good; after all, vampires must have drunk human blood, so isn’t it really no different from human blood?

“So, how does it feel? Always sucking blood, now getting sucked instead?”

Of course, getting drained by mosquitoes won’t kill anyone.

Unless you’re surrounded by mosquitoes like in One Punch Man, coming close to death from just a hundred mosquitoes would mean humans went extinct long ago.

“Bleurgh… uh…”

“Ah, I had silenced you, huh.”

The silence magic (physical).

An ultra-simple magic even those without magical power can use, but unfortunately, it cannot be dispelled.

To lift that, you’d need a kingly healer capable of restoring teeth that are already lost.

Sadly, we didn’t have a healer.

“What should I do…?”

No, even without speech, there are plenty of ways to communicate.

For example, body language universally understood across nations.

People who can’t speak due to aphasia or having to refrain from speaking due to vocal cord issues use writing.

“We can communicate with writing!”

“But we don’t have paper or a pen, right?”

“Luna, there’s something called a dying message.”

A dying message is a message left by a victim while dying in a murder case.

The vampire before me isn’t dead yet, but soon will be, so it’s no different.

And the important point here is that dying messages are typically written in their own blood.

So even without paper and a pen, there’s a way to write.

“Luna, cut off his finger.”

“If we’re writing, do we really need to cut it off…?”

“If there’s not enough ink, it won’t be legible. Better to have too much than too little.”

“Seems like you’re giving more orders today than usual. Usually, you do it yourself.”

“You expect me to do such a delicate task as cutting off a finger with my sword? If it were an arm, that’d be one thing.”

Luna cut off the tip of the vampire’s index finger.

“Uaaaaah!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

The blood pouring from the finger showed no signs of stopping.

Well, considering the joint was cut off, it’d be strange if it did stop.

“Alright! Hurry up and write your thoughts!”

“Uaaaaah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Ugh, this is the most annoying time, isn’t it?

What’s so difficult about writing a single word?

These bastards who probably laughed while killing humans are now acting like they’ve lost everything and are suffering.

I was so annoyed that I simply pulled out my greatsword and sliced off its head.

[Level Up! Check your status!]

“Agh! Let’s just finish this already. This is annoying.”

“Yes. I’ll prepare before we go in.”

“What? Why are you going in there?”

“…Huh?”

I’m really curious, but in movies and novels, why do people go in knowing something is going to happen and still go in?

They go, “There are rumors that ghosts appear in this mansion!” and proceed to get killed off.

Honestly, it looks suspicious just by looking at it.

So wouldn’t it be better not to go in at all?

“Luna. Take this.”

“What is this…?”

“If something’s in there, it’ll just pop out when set on fire, so why bother going in?”

I tossed a bottle of oil to Luna.

If there’s no hostage inside, or even if there is, they should find a way out themselves.

“Let the campfire begin.”

“Isn’t it too soon to do that…?”

Does she really want to say that? Luna’s picking up on things better now.

Then I have lines to say too.

“Deluxe☆Bomber~”

 

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