Chapter 104: Chapter 104
An unprecedented situation where a vampire suddenly popped out in the middle of the royal palace, and in the princess’s bedroom no less.
In a situation that was hard to even predict, Cheryn neither screamed in shock nor fainted.
She merely narrowed her wide-open eyes and covered her body, clad in thin nightwear, with a blanket.
“The royal palace of Pendia is not a place where a mere vampire can sneak into. Did Elvin let you in beforehand? I suppose you were hiding in advance, expecting me to sleep here.”
“Mmm? This isn’t the reaction I expected.”
Embarrassment surfaced on the confident vampire’s face.
Wasn’t it normal for a lady who suddenly faced a high vampire in a defenseless situation to at least scream ‘Eeek!’?
Or faint from being far too shocked.
At the very least, calmly deducing how he had entered this place and who had sent him was unexpected.
“He got me. To think he would set up such a trick while fleeing Hasra.”
“Why do you think I am connected to Elvin?”
Cheryn replied nonchalantly to the vampire’s question.
“Because he previously commissioned the Council where your kind gather.”
“Oho! You know more than I thought. Even up to a slightly… dangerous part.”
Slinking down as if sliding from the ceiling, the vampire stepped onto the bed and looked down at Cheryn with an insidious smile.
However, even with a high monster standing right above her who could crush her head and kill her this instant, Cheryn did not flinch in the slightest.
“So, what is your business? Did you come to take my life?”
“If it were that, it would be simple, but unfortunately, it’s a somewhat more complicated request. From now on, Princess, you’ll have to come with me to Beshalia.”
When the base where Elvin had fled not long ago was mentioned, Cheryn became certain of the mastermind who had brought this guy here and hidden him.
After all, since he had been staying in the royal palace until recently, it would not have been difficult.
“Don’t tell me you intend to kidnap me and escape from this royal palace? Do you even know how many soldiers are here right now?”
“Even if there were a hundred thousand, it wouldn’t matter. You’ll be walking out on your own two feet anyway.”
Along with his confident words, the eyes of the vampire facing Cheryn gleamed craftily.
The innate Charm magic that high vampires were born with.
Cheryn’s reddish-brown eyes flickered as if trying to resist for a moment, before soon slackening into a daze.
Neither a knight nor a mere mage could resist the power of such a high monster.
Moreover, weren’t his eyes on the more special side even among his kin?
With a plop, the dagger she had secretly hidden beneath the blanket fell onto the bed.
It was an item she always hid as both a catalyst for blood magic and self-defense.
“Ha, you were hiding something like this? It’s been a while since I met such an interesting woman. I’m almost curious about the taste of your blood.”
Laughing in amusement, the vampire licked his lips with his tongue as he scanned Cheryn’s appearance with his eyes.
Though the strength had drained from her now, those arrogant and fierce-looking eyes that had glared sharply at him, along with her white skin and slender face.
Her well-maintained body glimpsed beneath her nightwear, plus her noble status as a princess.
She was an enticing woman in many ways.
‘I want to play with her just a little.’
Vampires did not particularly feel sexual desire toward humans.
Unless it was a dream demon that swallowed human lust, their essence was ultimately that of blood-sucking monsters.
However, having been born with intelligence rivaling humans, they too had a concept of preference based on appearance.
Thanks to their innate aggressive instinct, this was usually expressed in a more cruel and destructive manner.
What kind of reaction would she display if he broke her charm and squeezed her white, slender limbs one by one right here to break them?
Just imagining that haughty face hideously distorted while squeezing out tears and snot, calling him master, and kissing the top of his foot sent a thrill through him.
Of course, there was no time to play such games.
The effect of Charm magic was not very long, and casting it continuously diminished its effectiveness quickly.
Before trouble arose, he had to ride a horse outside the royal palace as quickly as possible, and if feasible, get out of Hasra.
“Now, lead the way outside the royal palace. First, we’ll stop by the stables to secure horses. If anyone asks about my identity along the way, make up an excuse on your own.”
“Yes…”
When Cheryn replied in a dazed tone and put on the coat hanging beside the bedroom, the vampire stood behind her while wearing a black hood over his head.
With the sound of cracking bones, his massive build and twisted appearance transformed into human form.
If he stood politely clad like a secret agent, no one would question his identity.
Who would bother to verify someone who obviously looked like he was doing secret work, especially when the princess personally led him around and told people not to mind him?
Though it would be suspicious for the princess to step outside in the middle of the night wearing only a coat over her nightwear, it would be difficult to stop her when she insisted she was going out for secret business.
For she was not a mere princess, but the leader of a faction.
Well, if things did not go well either way, he could just kill her and run.
His reward would decrease a bit, but that was not more important than his life.
‘It would have been nice if I could fly like Kudlak.’
Then he could have snatched her right here and flown through the sky over the castle walls.
Unfortunately, he did not possess the same ability as the master of Castaman Castle.
Originally, flight was a fairly rare skill even among high vampires.
However, while he stood quietly waiting for Cheryn to take the lead and open the door, the door opened first with a sudden clatter.
*
A shadow lunged in, immediately pushing Cheryn aside.
Its identity was none other than a human knight wielding a sword.
‘What, ’
At the unexpected situation, the vampire opened his eyes wide in surprise.
His voice couldn’t have been loud enough to reach outside, so how on earth?
Moreover, the guy running in was no ordinary knight.
Shan Barendil.
The strongest knight of the kingdom who had slain even Marquis Abel.
Just looking at those green eyes glowing alone in the dark revealed his identity.
Why on earth was this monster fully armed here in the middle of the night?
Could he have been standing guard outside the princess’s bedroom all night?
Swallowing his questions, the vampire attempted Charm magic, but unlike before, he felt a sense of helplessness as if ramming his head into a metallic fortress wall.
An overwhelming fighting spirit hard to believe for a human was perfectly protecting his mind.
The arm he instinctually extended to block the incoming sword was sliced clean off.
It was a speed difficult to perceive even with a vampire’s dynamic vision.
“Ugh!”
At this, the vampire quickly cast magic on the blood pouring from his forearm and fired it.
That target was not Shan, but Cheryn, who had been pushed aside earlier and was standing dazed.
“You…!”
Shan quickly shifted his body to the side and blocked a dozen hardened blood drops with his own body instead of Cheryn.
Fortunately, the armor embedded with the Ogre Mana Stone easily deflected the blood drops, which were faster and stronger than most arrows.
Taking advantage of the brief time thus created, the vampire slammed into the window, shattering it, and leapt down to the ground.
Detecting an intruder entering through an unscheduled path in the dead of night, the royal palace’s magic barrier glowed in multi-colored hues and raised a racket.
“What’s happening!?”
“It’s an intruder!”
Stationed across the royal palace standing night watch or patrolling, Cheryn’s soldiers sensed the disturbance and shouted in surprise.
However, they could not systematically encircle the intruder like the royal palace guards.
They did not even know the layout of the palace properly, nor had they received relevant training.
They did not even know properly where this alarm was sounding from, or where they had to move to identify the intruder.
‘Damn it, it was almost done!’
Meanwhile, the vampire who had rushed out of the royal palace ran while clutching his severed forearm, regretting the failure.
Who could have known that crazy bastard would be waiting outside the princess’s bedroom?
Besides, despite wearing full plate armor, why didn’t his footsteps make any sound!
If he had known this would happen, he would have snapped her neck immediately and fled.
Even while grumbling, he moved his legs swiftly and turned his head to check his surroundings.
Fortunately, the soldiers had not regained their senses yet, so as long as he kept running straight like this and cleared the wall.
Before his thought could even continue, a cold, intense pain transmitted from his chest along with a squelching thud.
Looking down, a blue-gray spear was stuck in his solar plexus like a stake.
“Kugh…”
What came into the vampire’s eyes as he turned his head was Shan standing on the second-floor terrace, looking down at him.
Wearing the moonlight behind him like a halo, the young man’s two eyes shone brightly in green.
Don’t tell me he followed him out through the broken window earlier, ran across the decorations on the roof and walls to catch up to him, and threw the spear?
And while wearing plate armor at that?
The vampire opened and closed his mouth with an absurd expression.
Because he wanted to ask if the bastard was really a human.
However, before his words could continue, flames originating from his chest instantly burned his body white into ashes.
It was the price of having a pure silver weapon, the natural enemy of all evil monsters, driven into his body.
Watching that scene, Shan clicked his tongue.
‘What a pity, I wanted to capture him alive if possible.’
He had wanted to interrogate him on how on earth he got in and definitively find out the mastermind behind it.
It was difficult to keep up with a high vampire by running on two feet, and even if he threw the Guardian of the East, the vampire would have run off with it stuck in his body, so it couldn’t be helped.
Leaping down to the ground, Shan recovered Thousand Shapes, scaled the wall, passed through the broken window, and entered Cheryn’s bedroom once more.
Meanwhile, Cheryn, who had received the order to ‘lead the way outside,’ stood dazed, gazing at the broken window.
Because the vampire who was supposed to follow behind had opened the window and bolted out first, the command had tangled.
“Princess! Sister Cheryn!”
As Shan grabbed her shoulders and lightly shook her while calling out, her reddish-brown eyes flickered, and focus returned.
“Ah.”
“Are you back to your senses?”
“Yeah, thank you. That was really dangerous.”
Cheryn wiped the cold sweat trickling down her forehead with the back of her hand.
On her pale face, the terror of death (which she had suppressed until a moment ago by forcing herself to act calm) was clearly evident.
It was fortunate that the vampire had used the complicated means of kidnapping; if he had tried to kill her right away, she truly would have been struck down without even lifting a hand.
For there was nothing a mage clad in nightwear and holding a single dagger could do against a powerful monster like a high vampire.
“What on earth happened?”
“He was hiding above the bed. And with extremely high-level shadow magic at that.”
A moment ago, what had woken Shan, who had gone to sleep early, was a single house spider.
The creature, waking him while frantically tapping his eyelids with its front legs, quickly wrote words with its front legs to explain the situation.
[Bedroom, vampire, come quick.]
Fortunately, the room where he stayed was directly on the floor below Cheryn’s bedroom, so it took less than a minute to run up.
Had he been resting in a different palace, she might have been kidnapped as it was.
Cheryn, who had been holding onto Shan while her legs trembled like a fawn’s, buried her face.
As she deeply inhaled the knight’s body odor, faintly mixed with leather, horse, and metallic scent, strength slowly returned to her body.
Lifting her head after a moment, Cheryn asked in a voice much clearer than before.
“Speaking of which, what happened to that guy?”
“He’s dead. I wanted to capture him alive if possible, but he was far too fast.”
“No, you did well. It’s obvious who sent him anyway.”
Along with her reply, several footsteps echoed from beyond the hallway.
People who heard the commotion were rushing over.
*
A moment later, Aran and the soldiers who hurriedly barged into Cheryn’s bedroom were aghast to see the trashed room.
And at Shan’s explanation that a high vampire had been hiding inside the bedroom, they wore terror-stricken expressions.
In the middle of the royal palace, how on earth was such a thing possible!
“P-Princess! Are you alright!?”
“There is no need to worry. I am perfectly fine.”
With no trace of her state a moment ago when she trembled while holding Shan in terror, Cheryn maintained a haughty and arrogant demeanor while wearing only a coat over her nightwear.
Aran, who wore an eyepatch because one of her eyes was not completely healed yet, bowed her head with a guilty expression.
“I have no excuse, Princess. As your guard, I shouldn’t have left your side…”
“Do not blame yourself. It was I who instructed you to rest in the first place. This incident was merely a situation far too difficult to anticipate.”
Ever since Ravana had been gravely injured and escorted to Palles, Aran had been responsible for both Cheryn’s protection and personal care as the sole female knight.
Wasn’t it too harsh to take issue even with what happened while she had gone to her room to wash up after verifying everything up to Cheryn washing and turning in to bed?
Of course, had Aran been standing in front of the bedroom or guarding inside when encountering a high vampire, it would have merely added another corpse, but she did not bother to voice such unpleasant thoughts.
“First, we must conduct a large-scale search of the royal palace. Since there is a possibility that Elvin hid more vampires somewhere in the palace, everyone grab lamp magic devices or torches to illuminate the dark places. From the main palace bedroom where my royal father resided to the royal cemetery, there are no exceptions.”
“Understood!”
“And since we are searching for high vampires, ensure that at least one priest is included per squad. It is a pity we did not bring separate silver-plated weapons.”
Even if high vampires’ stealth magic using shadows was impressive, illuminating the area brightly would inevitably expose them.
Vast though the royal palace was, if thousands of people set their minds to searching, most of them were bound to be smoked out.
After those who received the orders scattered busily to search, Cheryn entered a bedroom to sleep once more.
Staying awake now wouldn’t particularly aid the search, and sleeping was better than staying idle.
Since her bedroom was in ruins from the fight earlier, she borrowed Aran’s bedroom.
Of course, this place had also been inspected in advance through various methods, such as shining lamp magic devices brightly.
Lying on the bed, Cheryn turned her head and spoke while looking at Aran, who stood leaning against the window.
“My apologies, Sir Aran. Not only did I take the bedroom you should be using, but I’ve even set you to stand guard all night.”
“Please do not say such things. I am merely doing what ought to be done. More importantly…”
What Aran stared at with a dubious expression was Shan, who stood leaning against the wall beside the door.
Even so, for a male knight to guard inside, not even outside, the bedroom where an unmarried princess slept?
In a conservative family, the moment rumors spread, one had to consider her marriage prospects completely gone.
Of course, right now few people would know this fact since everyone was poking around everywhere searching for vampires, but…
“I am concerned that strange rumors might spread.”
“Do not mind it. We are in a situation where we don’t know where another assassin might be hiding. There is no safer security measure than having the strongest knight of the Arman Alliance watching right beside me. When lives are at stake, what does gender matter?”
“That is true, but… understood.”
Hesitating, Aran glanced at Cheryn and Shan each once, then nodded.
Unlike her, who had already failed in guarding, Shan had safely protected the princess, so it was difficult for her to dare interject further.
A moment later, Cheryn, who was trying to sleep with her eyes closed, slyly turned her head left and right.
She saw Shan and Aran standing leaning against the door and window respectively, swords at their waists.
Even though she confirmed the presence of two guards right beside her, cold sweat naturally broke out when she looked up at the pitch-black ceiling.
It felt as though a vampire might pop out suddenly just like earlier and smirk at her at any moment.
She knew in her mind.
That no matter how skilled one was in shadow magic, one could not move while concealed, and therefore inside this room was absolutely safe.
However, anxious emotions were not something that could be calmed with logic.
After hesitating for a long time, Cheryn ultimately could not hold back and controlled a single spider.
A young house spider nearby slyly climbed onto the top of Shan’s foot, tickled his neck, and wrote letters.
[Hey.]
“Mm?”
[Sorry, but could you hold my hand?]
[I can’t sleep.]
Shan, standing leaning against the wall beside the door, slightly raised his eyes at the call conveyed right beside him, then whispered softly.
“Sir Aran is right beside us, though?”
[It’s okay.]
[I really can’t sleep.]
Recalling the decorum between men and women he had learned, Shan immediately stepped over to the bed.
Standing leaning against the window, Aran spoke in fluster.
“Sir Shan? What on earth is…”
Before long, as Cheryn naturally reached her hand out from the bed and held Shan’s hand, Aran looked at the two in disbelief, then turned her gaze out the window.
As if she had seen nothing at all.
Holding hands much larger and rougher than her own, Cheryn slowly closed her eyes.
Because her knight instantly killed the vampire that appeared in her dream, she was able to sleep soundly.
*
That night, as many as three more high vampires were discovered in the royal palace.
The bastards were hiding in the toilet used by the king, the queen’s bedroom, and the wardrobe used by Princess Cassia, respectively.
Since they could not accurately predict which palace Cheryn would use, they seemed to have hidden them in multiple places beforehand.
Among them, the one hiding in the king’s toilet jumped straight into the toilet hole and escaped, while the remaining two were hunted down after causing several casualties while fleeing.
One was turned to ashes by the purification magic unleashed by High Priestess Asha, while the other was subdued by Lug slicing off its limbs with a sword, but died after being sprinkled with far too much silver powder.
It would have been better to subdue at least one alive, but originally, subduing high monsters with such strong vitality was far harder than killing them, so it couldn’t be helped.
Even so, it was better than causing loss of life by dealing with them half-heartedly.
The next afternoon, Cheryn gathered her vassals, who had overslept after devoting themselves to searching for vampires all night, into the king’s reception room.
“Everyone worked hard last night.”
“Not at all, Princess. It is because of our inadequacy that we put you in danger.”
When the nobles and knights all bowed their heads to beg forgiveness, Cheryn shook her head.
“Regarding last night’s neglect of security, I have decided not to hold anyone accountable. Who could have imagined that a fellow who was a prince of Pendia would collude with monsters to commit such a deed?”
“As expected…”
“During the morning, I received answers from the lords who surrendered this time. They said that before fleeing south, Elvin had brought a few suspicious figures into the royal palace. No one saw them leave.”
“What a madman!”
“We must capture him immediately and burn him at the stake!”
At the story of commissioning high vampires to kidnap or assassinate his kin, many shouted in excitement.
This was explicit blasphemy, incomparable even to the conflict between the Old and New Factions.
Even if he were a king rather than a prince, colluding with monsters was unforgivable.
“For now, I plan to focus on bringing order to Hasra for a while and officially make this incident a public issue. No matter how much King Ruman dotes on his maternal grandson, surely he won’t turn a blind eye to colluding with monsters. We have also secured all the vampire ashes to serve as evidence.”
The southern archipelago nation, the Kingdom of Ruman, had relatively faint religious tones, but it was still clearly a nation that worshipped the Goddess.
While all circumstantial evidence pointed to Elvin as the culprit, attempting to make excuses to the end would mean losing far more than gaining.
Of course, it meant forfeiting all losses incurred from intervening in Pendia’s civil war so far, but pouring more money into an already lost gamble would never turn defeat into victory.
For several days after that, Cheryn actively deployed the army to sweep through all of Hasra.
To retaliate for this raid, she began thoroughly cleaning up the remnants of the ‘Council.’
The violent gangs that had survived even the past plunder of Elvin’s army (no, rather, those who had clung to them and exploited Hasra’s citizens) were helplessly swept away.
Originally, secret societies were strong because they kept their secrets; against thousands of troops moving with perfect intelligence, there was simply no way to contend.
If they had possessed such power in the first place, wouldn’t they have long since ruled Pendia from the shadows?
On top of that, as Cheryn controlled spiders across all of Hasra to see through every single hideout and secret identity before issuing orders, there was no way to run, let alone fight back.
“Kugh, p-please save…”
After severing the neck of some swordsman who was once a promising knight of Libert before violating his lord’s daughter and fleeing, Shan wiped the blood on his cheek with the back of his hand.
Behind him, members of the organization who followed him were being dragged away by soldiers with their hands raised.
Amusingly, because all young men had been conscripted during the civil war, most of them were elderly men, greenhorns, or women.
Those without the power or resourcefulness to evade conscription officers, thugs or not, had long since all been dragged away.
“I didn’t expect to clean up Hasra in this manner, though.”
Roden, who was commanding the soldiers beside him, muttered in an exasperated tone.
The Council, with whom they once had to reluctantly coexist, was now nothing more than small fry that could be crushed with a single wave of the hand.
It made them realize anew just how formidable the power of authority was.
Though the vampire group that triggered this incident was long gone, having fled earlier.
In the middle of devoting themselves to the cleanup for a long time, an Altoan whose joints were segmented like an insect’s approached while looking around.
He was a veteran senior soldier in the Altoan mercenary band who originated from the former Brotherhood.
“Sir Roden. I have a word to say to you for a moment.”
“Mmm? What is it?”
Glancing at Shan standing beside him, he bowed his head and spoke softly.
“A contact arrived via the old way of the Brotherhood.”
“What? How?”
“To be precise, it was a letter inside an alley marked with code saying ‘Whoever sees this, report to the highest superior,’ but I found it first and brought it to you, Sir Roden.”
“Well done. Let me see it.”
“Hold on.”
Just before Roden reached out his hand to accept the letter, Shan, who was beside him, intercepted it.
“Why?”
“Because there might be some strange trick in it.”
Thanks to his powerful fighting spirit, most magic did not work on him, and with Cheryn’s help, Shan even had resistance to weak poisons, so it was better for him to check.
Unfolding the letter and shaking it out, Shan grimaced at the peculiar odor that burst out after being trapped inside.
It was a perfume carrying a fairly complex fragrance, slightly sour yet soft and sweet at the same time.
Although it was extremely strong, it seemed to cause no harm, as there were no particularly harmful ingredients.
[To the future Count of Shedil, who has newly become the light of the Altoan people.]
[As the former head of the Brotherhood, I write this believing that this letter will be delivered to you or your friend, Sir Roden…]
If it was the former head of the Brotherhood, it had to be that woman who was said to be Marquis Beshalia’s concubine.
What on earth was the reason for her to contact this side all of a sudden?
Shan narrowed his eyes as he read straight down the writing below.
In that place, truly unimaginable content was written.
[We have co-operated with Prince Elvin until now.]
[However, this raid was strictly his own arbitrary decision, and by no means the intention of myself and my comrades.]
[To employ monsters for an assassination, how could such a thing even be acceptable?]
[To prove our innocence, when Princess Cheryn comes down to Beshalia in the future, we intend to personally capture Elvin and hand over custody of him.]
[When you come close, we will contact you separately.]
[With boundlessly immense respect, from the port city of Beshalia, Yurega.]