Hyuun!
“What do you think you’re doing?”
In the forest within the academy, I suddenly confront Carla, pressing a knife to her brow. I ask her again with the same words, and she gives a faint smile with dark circles under her eyes.
“Would you mind if I joined you? I may not be Shadow Unit, but I have my own sources of information. I knew Aria would definitely make a move.”
“…………”
[Carla Leicester] [Race: Human Female] [Rank 4]
[Mana Capacity: 425/530] [HP: 27/53]
[Overall Combat Strength: 1030 (Magic Attack Power: 1648)]
Carla, possessing all magic attributes, has a combat strength nearing Rank 5 even at Rank 4. She has multiple skills in both close combat and magic, making her an equal to me in terms of fighting power.
However, because she possesses all attributes, Carla’s HP is only that of a child, and even that value only recovers to half its maximum. I felt that the Mana-enhancing Divine Protection Carla obtained was continuously draining her life.
Even though she could evade the knife I threw and counterattack, and even though she could converse normally, Carla’s body was far from healthy. Her complexion was as pale as paper, and the life force emanating from her body was as faint as that of a ghost.
But, in inverse proportion to the weakness of her felt life, the vast Mana released from her entire body surpassed even the Mystic Beast Kuaal.
She was probably forcibly moving her body, which should have been unable to move properly, with Mana and Magic. Even knowing that it was an act that further shortened her lifespan, Carla would not stop her advance.
“I didn’t ask about that.”
At the deepest part of that Dungeon, Carla wished for the power to destroy this country rather than prolong her life, and our paths diverged.
The path Carla walks will someday clash with Elena, who grieves for this country. And that path was a blood-soaked one where I would fight her head-on, and one of us would fall.
Carla will never change that desire. I will not distort my own beliefs either. That’s why we know that we will someday kill each other.
She probably knew that I was going to settle things with Grave, and was waiting for me to move. I don’t know what Carla intends to do there, and I’m not interested in the reason.
What I wanted to know was, how could she show her face so easily before me, who is destined to kill her someday? That’s all I wanted to know.
“Did you want to die here?”
“That would be lovely… but, only this time, your Princess will be in trouble without me, you know?”
Carla said so as she took a step forward, and the tip of the knife touched her brow. As dark red blood flowed like a line on her pale face, a bright red tongue licked it up.
I could kill her now. While silently watching Carla’s HP, which was starting to decrease, we glared at each other for a few seconds, and then her lips formed words.
“It’s about cleaning up after someone I took in when I was still weak. I don’t need them anymore, so I’d be troubled if they got in my way.”
“That guy is with my enemy?”
“Even if it’s something I’ve thrown away, I don’t feel good when a fool uses it without permission.”
“Do as you like.”
Saying that, I pulled back the knife, and Carla smiled sweetly. Nero, whom she had fought to the death with before, growled discontentedly. I gently stroked Nero’s neck with my finger and quietly exhaled.
“Give her a ride, Nero. If we leave her alone, she’ll eat our prey.”
“Grrr…”
“I’m not so hungry that I’d steal your prey.”
“Liar.”
I jumped onto Nero’s back and held out my hand to Carla, who was quietly approaching.
“Carla, who is your enemy?”
Taking my hand and getting on Nero’s back, who was reluctant, Carla shifted the direction of the conversation in a cruel and twisted smile.
“By the way, Aria, have you heard? For the past few months, several small villages that aren’t even on the western maps have suddenly disappeared. Hehe.”
Even though I knew that we would someday kill each other, I allowed Carla to accompany me.
Either way, she’s going to go kill him on her own if I leave her alone. It wouldn’t matter if she died from it, but it would be troublesome if Grave retreated because of it.
If it’s troublesome, I should just kill her here, but unfortunately, I’m currently employed by Elena, so I need a “reason” to kill Carla, who is the Crown Prince’s fiancée. I have no choice but to wait for Carla to clearly become hostile or for an order from my employer.
Carla seemed to think that her prey would be eaten by me, but more than that, it seemed that she simply wanted “legs (Nero)” that were faster than a carriage. I thought there was a possibility that she would fight Nero to the death again, but I can only say that it’s “because it’s Carla.”
However, several days had passed since we departed, and I wondered how Carla was still alive, riding on Nero’s back, which would kill an ordinary person, let alone a noble’s carriage.
It would take a week to reach Marquis Kendras Territory on Nero’s legs. Naturally, we wouldn’t stop in towns, but would cut through forests and mountains, so we would camp in the forest at night.
“We’ll camp here.”
When I decided that, Nero went off on his own to hunt prey and brought back boars and bears. I took one of the legs that hadn’t been bled, and started eating it while roasting it over a fire with wild vegetables I had picked nearby. Carla also cut off the roasted meat with a knife on her own, and ate the bloody meat without complaint.
Meals are just about getting nutrition. I think Carla, who had been exploring labyrinths alone, thought the same way. But more than that, I felt a sense of discomfort at the sight of Carla eating like a human being. Was it a problem with her humanity?
If we continued this forced march, Carla’s HP would occasionally drop to single digits, but even so, I had no image of Carla dying from anything other than being killed.
“I’m human too, you know?”
“You’re the only one who thinks so.”
“Then, we’re kindred spirits.”
If everything went according to plan, we should arrive at Marquis Kendras Territory in three more days. In the middle of the night, I, who had been closing my eyes wrapped in a coat next to the bonfire, suddenly opened my eyelids. Nero’s antennae twitched, and Carla raised her face and looked at the forest.
“I heard a scream.”
“If I remember correctly… beyond the valley over there is the viscount territory, which is a dependent of Marquis Dance. There might be a village too… Are we going?”
“I’m just going to check.”
Carla, who was still sitting down, looked up at me as I stood up as if dropping my coat.
I wouldn’t care if it was just a quarrel between villagers or adventurers, but if they were being attacked by bandits or monsters, I couldn’t just ignore it if I heard it.
Remembering that Carla had told me the story about the villages disappearing before we left, I turned my gaze to her. Carla, with half of her face illuminated by the firelight, smiled softly.
“Are you starting to miss the taste of human blood?”
“Don’t lump me together with you.”
“Oh, I don’t like that.”
Carla, who had thrown off her coat and stood up like me, deepened the smile she was giving me with pleasure.
“I prefer well-done to rare.”
“…I’m going ahead.”
It seemed that Carla was going to go too, but Nero seemed to have decided to sleep as he was, so I decided to go ahead alone.
I decided on a rough direction from the direction I heard the scream, and jumped into the dark forest. With Night Vision at Level 2 and being able to see Mana Particles in color, the dark forest was not much different from daytime.
The deep forest absorbs sound. But in the night forest, human screams travel surprisingly far.
It was probably a distance of about 1 km. I could run through that distance in the forest in a few minutes.
“――――――”
I heard it again. The direction is correct. As I ran through the forest at full speed, I saw the valley I had memorized on the map through the gaps in the trees, and the shadow of a man chasing a female figure on the other side.
The man raised a hatchet-like weapon in his hand, and the woman screamed as if she was holding her head.
“——Iron Rose——”
Her pink hair, fluttering in the wind, changed to a burnt iron-like ash-gray color as if it was burning. While dragging the scattered light remnants like a comet, she used three times the speed of an ordinary person to leap across the cliff of the valley, which was more than ten meters wide, in one step.
Byuuu!
“Die.”
“Gugyaa!”
With the momentum of the jump, I thrust the Black Dagger into the neck of the “man with an unpleasant aura” who was about to swing down the blood-stained hatchet, and kicked him away to slow down.
“…Are you okay?”
Landing on the ground and releasing Iron Rose, I called out to the woman who was holding her head. The woman trembled and chattered her teeth, and raised her bloodless, pale face, which was visible even in the faint moonlight.
“H, help me…”
“What happened?”
“M-My village… it’s been attacked…”
Rustle—
“Aaaah…!!”
I heard a sound and a scream from behind. The man I thought I had killed was spraying blood from his neck, pushing through the bushes as he stood up, his yellow, clouded eyes and long, extended fangs fixed on me.
An overwhelming, unpleasant aura and stench…
He’s not “human”… this guy is,
“…A Vampire?”
Vampires are well-known, but rarely seen monsters.
It’s commonly known that they vanish when exposed to sunlight, increase their numbers by drinking human blood, and exponentially increase their victims, but that understanding isn’t entirely accurate.
Not everyone who has their blood sucked becomes a vampire. According to my master’s lessons, people turn into vampires by losing the power of the soul contained in their blood, and they transform into monsters to regain that lost soul.
The majority of blood-sucking victims die as they are, and only a small fraction become vampires. They have weaknesses, such as being vulnerable to sunlight, but that doesn’t mean they can be underestimated.
Their physical regeneration is high, and they don’t die from ordinary wounds. Because they can act with maximum muscle strength without worrying about their muscles breaking down due to that regeneration, they are one of the worst types of Undead with high physical capabilities.
“Uooooooooh!!”
The vampire raises his hatchet and attacks. But—
“Gah!?”
The strength of a vampire depends more on the number of years it has existed than on the qualities of the human it was.
Before the hatchet could be swung, I jumped out, swept the vampire’s feet as I slid, and the moment he fell, I plunged my dagger into his heart to the hilt.
It is said that the best way to destroy a vampire is to drive a stake of white wood into its heart, but this is simply because breaking the magic stone, which is the weakness of the Undead, is also effective against vampires.
The magic stone is formed when the remnants of the soul dissolved in the blood and mana particles gradually solidify into the shape of a stone. My master taught me that skeletons without blood and zombies without flowing blood are created because humans with magic stones turn into Undead.
Those who become vampires are probably humans who originally had magic stones. That’s why most vampires use magic, but this vampire looked like a “villager” no matter how you looked at it.
Even villagers should be able to use magic, but judging from the situation, it meant that there was another vampire who turned this villager into a vampire.
“…A-Adventurer-san?”
A village woman approaches me after I destroy the vampire by crushing the magic stone in its heart. But—
Whoosh!
“Hii!?”
“Can you use magic?”
When I pointed the knife in my right hand at the woman who was trying to approach, she screamed with a frightened face and suddenly turned the teeth she was chattering into long fangs.
“Adventurer-saaaan!!!”
I dodged the arm of the female vampire who was trying to grab me with her extended claws, went behind her, pierced her neck with a black dagger from the side, broke her neck bone, and slid the blade of the knife along the blade of the dagger, cutting off the female vampire’s head.
To reliably destroy a vampire, you have to burn it to ashes in sunlight, crush the magic stone in its heart, or cut off its head. The man from earlier and this woman had only recently turned into vampires, so I was able to defeat them easily, but…
“…………”
Was this woman a vampire from the beginning, or did she just become a vampire?
If it’s the latter, there may still be survivors in the village. Feeling the need to take action quickly, I strained my eyes to check the direction of the village by the way the branches were broken, and ran off in that direction.
What Aria saw as she headed to the village. What does Carla know?
Next time, the second part.
Aria is quite natural when she talks to Carla, as well as when she talks to Elena and Feld. All three have very different vectors, though.