Chapter 107: Chapter 107

Marquis Beshalia’s residence stood on a hill overlooking the harbor.

Was it said that the exotic architectural style, such as the dome-shaped roof, originated from the Selim Republic on the far southern continent and was related to their spirit faith?

Greeting Shan at the entrance of the building (which resembled a mansion or palace rather than a castle) was an old butler who appeared to be around sixty years old.

Even though the weather was growing hot as summer approached, he was dressed immaculately in tightly buttoned clothes without a single gap.

“Please come in. His Excellency the Marquis is waiting.”

Somehow, he did not seem to find it odd at all that Shan had come alone, leaving his army behind in the city.

Shan glanced at the old butler, pulled out a silver coin from Arwin’s saddle, and brought it close to the old man’s wrinkled face.

At that, he looked at Shan with a flustered expression.

“What is this…?”

“What, it’s not.”

Feeling a bit awkward, Shan put the silver coin back and dismounted from his horse.

Then, patting Arwin on the neck, he spoke.

“If an unfamiliar guy approaches, just kick him hard. You get what I mean, right?”

The creature whinnied with a neigh and lightly stomped its hooves a few times.

Having spent several years together, Shan could now roughly sense that this was its way of saying it understood.

Marquis Beshalia’s residence was quiet.

Silence reigned over the building, which originally should have housed at least dozens of servants, and only the footsteps of Shan and the butler echoed through it.

“Where are we going?”

“My master instructed me to guide the guest to the banquet hall.”

What was this old man’s relationship with Yure?

Shan had wondered if he was a vampire mimicked as a human, but seeing him now, that wasn’t the case, so Shan thought he might be a controlled human instead.

Either way, he did not bother asking.

Since he would find out soon enough once he met the person in question.

Deep inside the building filled with various exotic ornaments, a splendid banquet hall welcomed him.

Smoke rose from incense burners placed everywhere, lingering subtly around like mist to create a mysterious atmosphere, and it gave off a sour yet soft and sweet scent, just like the one from the letter.

Apparently, perfume had not been sprayed separately on the letter; rather, this scent had seeped into it.

The banquet hall, which normally could accommodate quite a few people, held only a few servants, two scantily clad dancers, and Elvin, who was indulging heavily in their bodies.

Shan slightly raised his eyes upon seeing Elvin’s shabby appearance.

A bulging potbelly, a nose red from alcoholism, and facial features blurred by gained fat.

On top of that, his complexion was turning dark and dying just as his father’s had, showing clear signs of venereal disease.

When Shan had last seen him, he had been a fairly handsome man, but now he was ruined beyond recognition.

If he had encountered him in a tavern or on the street instead of a place like this, he probably would not have recognized him as Elvin.

“Ehehe, truly fair. Fair indeed. Like a full moon itself…”

Indulging in pleasure with the dancers, Elvin did not even seem to register the presence of Shan who had barged in wearing armor, and only when the footsteps approached near did he snap to his senses with a startled expression.

“Y-You! You Altoan bastard!? How are you here!?”

“It is time to return to Hasra, Prince.”

“Stop him! Askan! Paol! Lug!”

Elvin flusteredly shouted out the names of his knights, but naturally, there was no one here to answer him.

Judging by how he even called out Lug, whom he had already driven away before, his mental state did not seem sound.

As Shan rushed straight at Elvin and bound his hands and feet with the brought rope, the dancers nearby shrieked and backed away.

While Shan was tying the knots perfectly so they could not be undone, Elvin, who had been flailing about, suddenly came to a dead stop.

Looking at Shan, he spoke in a coaxing voice.

“Oh my, this is… you are a bit rougher than I thought? I expected you to at least show basic courtesy since he is a prince.”

The former leader of the Brotherhood, the beloved concubine of Marquis Beshalia, and perhaps a mage who controlled minds.

Yure directly controlled Elvin’s body to speak to him.

“Where are you?”

At Shan’s question, Elvin, or more accurately, Yure who was controlling his body, showed a puzzled demeanor.

“You don’t seem very surprised? Don’t tell me you already knew? How did you know?”

“I asked the question first.”

It seemed the opponent had not guessed that Shan would already know about her abilities in advance.

Truth be told, Shan himself had only expected her to manipulate actions or the like, not that she could possess someone so completely like this.

Showing a slightly surprised expression, Yure smirked with a light chuckle and shook her head.

“Well, this is slightly unexpected, but it doesn’t matter. Is that why you didn’t bring your subordinates either?”

“Didn’t you act suspiciously on purpose hoping I would do so?”

“Whether you brought soldiers or not, I had plans for both. For your information, not bringing them was the better choice for all of us, you know? I prevented unnecessary waste of resources, and you saved your subordinates’ lives.”

The tone that treated him like a child was extremely grating.

It was even more so because she was speaking like a young girl through Elvin’s flab-covered body.

Shan suppressed his anger and asked in a low voice.

“I won’t ask a third time. Where are you?”

“I am in the middle of grooming myself, you see. Because I must welcome a precious guest. Did you know that young ladies take a long time to dress up?”

He intended to strip her completely naked, dress her in rags, gag her mouth, and drag her away anyway, so what point was there in dressing up?

This was the secret method Cheryn had taught him to neutralize a mage most completely.

Setting aside the ancient mages of the old Altoan era passed down in literature, modern mages were nothing more than ordinary people without catalysts and incantations.

“That’s…”

At the moment he was continuing the conversation, Shan grimaced at a subtle sense of incongruity.

Something was wrong with his physical state.

Because summer in the south was quite sultry, just standing still in armor caused sweating, but even accounting for that, it was severe right now.

‘Could it be… poison?’

What was suspicious was the smoke heavily filling the banquet hall.

Since Elvin and the others looked fine, he had thought it wasn’t poison and hadn’t paid much attention to it, but…

Just as Shan grabbed Elvin and tried to rush out of the banquet hall, the dancers beside them sharply raised the corners of their eyes and extended hooked claws.

‘Vampires!’

Come to think of it, those who could inhale that incense longer than he had in the middle of the banquet hall and remain fine couldn’t possibly be human.

Quickly pushing Elvin aside, Shan drew the Thousand Shapes from his wrist into the form of a one-handed sword and slashed across the vampire’s chest.

The body of the unholy creature touched by the True Silver weapon instantly flared up like ash.

“True Silver!?”

“A True Silver weapon!”

“Nobody said he had something like that!”

As the one surviving dancer backed away and shouted, the two other servants who were about to pounce also hesitated.

But that was only for a moment; gritting their teeth, the vampires all lunged together.

“Block him so he can’t leave!”

Changing the Thousand Shapes into the form of a long staff, Shan extended it straight toward the enemies to confront them.

*

“Phew, haah…”

In the corridor outside the banquet hall, Shan moved while holding Elvin in one hand, repeatedly inhaling and exhaling with all his might.

Each time he did, fresh air filled his lungs.

Of course, that did not mean the incense he had already inhaled went anywhere, so the hot sensation coursing through his entire body did not fade.

The time it took to eliminate five high vampires was about one minute.

Since he had even moved fiercely, he must have inhaled quite a lot of breath.

The sexual arousal he was experiencing for the first time was deeply disconcerting.

His heart was pounding as if it would burst, just like in the middle of a fierce battle, and the thing he used only when urinating throbbed to the point of breaking, causing pain.

Merely brushing his body against the cloth inside his armor made him flinch as if static electricity were flowing, and his mind was bleached blank with an unidentified urge.

A sensation similar to the pleasure brought by killing and combat, yet far stranger and more provocative…

Could it be that other people lived while feeling this kind of sensation all the time?

Was that bastard Elvin out of his mind until just now because he had inhaled this?

While Shan was confused by the unfamiliar sensation he was feeling for the first time, Elvin, who had been dangling as his scruff was held, raised his head.

Controlling Elvin’s face, Yure wore a disgusting smile and spoke.

“Exciting, isn’t it? I burned a mix of unicorn horn powder, siren feathers, and ogre testicles. Inhaling enough of it is a scent that makes even a seventy-year-old man leap straight up.”

Shan had heard about the effects of an ogre’s testicles during the distribution of spoils after a previous hunt.

Did older knights want to bid on them because they were good for stamina?

Since ogres hadn’t been caught multiple times recently in Pendia, the byproducts of the one hunted back then had likely entered Beshalia through one route or another.

“…So?”

Shan gritted his teeth tightly and moved his feet.

The urge felt for the first time was intense enough to be perplexing, but it was still bearable.

All he had to do was escape this place for now, join up with the army in the city, and wait for the drug’s effect to wear off.

Watching such a Shan, Yure smirked and spoke.

“Do you happen to know why I acted suspiciously on purpose all this time?”

“What?”

“Among mental magic, there is a technique called ‘suggestion.’ It is a phenomenon where the mind becomes fatigued from perceiving a threat in advance and being anxious or tense, making magic take effect much better. So to speak, the mind trying to prepare actually becomes the key that allows entry. I checked slightly just a moment ago, and it seems to have aged nicely over several weeks.”

Before he could even ask what that meant, a woman came walking over from beyond the corridor with firm footsteps.

Well-groomed, long light-brown hair and delicate facial features.

Although attractive, her impression was closer to cute rather than beautiful.

Her build was also small and slender, making her feel even more so.

Breathing heavily, Shan sensed the opponent’s identity, tossed Elvin aside, and drew the Red Oath hanging at his waist, throwing it straight at her.

Yet surprisingly, Yure’s true body lightly dodged the sword Shan had thrown.

Although it was relatively slow because his physical condition was not sound, it had not been slow enough for a woman with a visibly untrained build to dodge.

Taking a step to rush in and subdue her directly, Shan met the gaze of Yure, who was staring intently at him.

As he locked eyes with pupils elongated horizontally like those of a goat, the corridor began to swirl at a tremendous speed.

‘What is… this, ’

Dozens of times per second or more, no, was it the building that was spinning? Or was he himself spinning?

Amid his clouded reason, Shan realized that the opponent’s magic was attacking his mind.

Used without even chanting an incantation, Yure’s mental magic instantly burrowed past the ring Cheryn had given him and the mental defense blessing received beforehand from a priest, attacking Shan’s mental entity.

And Shan’s mental defense, which was originally overwhelmingly stronger than that of any ordinary knight, was weaker than usual.

Because he had experienced immense mental confusion from such an unfamiliar stimulus.

Even so, it was not completely breached, but Yure’s power constantly gnawed away at the edges of the castle walls, asserting her influence.

As Shan came to a halt, Yure approached with a seductive smile that did not match her youthful appearance.

“I heard the rumors, but what tremendous Fighting Spirit… In over a hundred years of living, this is my first time seeing a knight of this caliber. If I hadn’t used suggestion and drugs, it never would have breached. It was worth investing in this and that.”

“What on earth are you?”

Shan strained his eyes until blood vessels showed, putting strength into every single syllable as he asked.

This woman, no, that thing was by no means human.

Just the mention of living over a hundred years said so, and even a powerful human mage like Cheryn usually couldn’t wield proper power without an incantation.

The only ones capable of such a thing were creatures born with magical power, that is, monsters.

Could this woman be a high vampire as well?

Was that why she had lightly dodged his sword earlier?

If so, all he had to do was pull out the Thousand Shapes right now and strike her dead, but for some reason, he could not do so.

No, he did not want to.

Approaching leisurely, Yure looked up at Shan, smiled, and stroked the back of his hand.

From the crown of her head came a sweet milk scent like that of a newborn baby.

“Take off your armor.”

As if being controlled, Shan folded the armor he was wearing into the form of a breastplate by himself.

At that, Yure quickly stripped off the ring Shan wore on his left hand and the bracelet-form Thousand Shapes, tossing them away.

As the ring’s defense lost its power, Yure’s magic burrowed into Shan’s Fighting Spirit, shaking his soul.

“Now, with this, goodbye to all obstacles between us! Shall we truly make love now?”

As soon as she finished speaking, Yure’s body distorted as if melting away, transforming into a new shape.

Long dark-blue hair that sometimes looked like the night sky, or like the sea.

Sharp reddish-brown eyes with turned-up corners, a high-bridged nose, and somewhat thin lips combined to form a face that exuded a languid yet oddly decadent charm.

A beauty of quite tall stature for a woman with a voluptuous figure embraced Shan and whispered.

“Aha, so this woman was the one you wanted to embrace the most?”

As Cheryn’s sticky voice tickled his ears, a small explosion occurred inside Shan’s mind.

Having lost his reason, he pinned down Cheryn (the opponent in Cheryn’s form) and tore her clothes to shreds.

The naked body hidden beneath the black dress was revealed.

“Haa, huff…”

Unable to breathe properly, his respiration grew ragged, and his hands trembled like those of a Parkinson’s patient.

The thought filling Shan’s mind right now was only one.

Regardless of where this was right now, what they were, or anything else, he just wanted to embrace this woman.

Turned into a beast, Shan buried his face in the opponent’s chest and inhaled deeply.

The fragrance of citrus and rose (created by the blend of the perfume Cheryn usually used and her body odor) filled his nasal passages.

Savoring it absentmindedly, Shan felt a subtle sense of incongruity.

‘Something is different.’

No, so what if it was a little different?

It was not an issue capable of controlling a boy who was already thinking with his lower half rather than his head.

Trying to move according to instinct, Shan grabbed Cheryn’s hand and kissed it.

While looking at the incomparably white and soft hand, an intense sense of incongruity stabbed into his head once again.

‘It’s different.’

Cheryn’s hand was not this white, soft, and sweet-smelling.

Her hand was slightly distorted from constantly holding a quill for all kinds of magic research and administrative work.

Black ink stains always remained beneath her fingernails.

Especially since they had held hands every night lately, Shan knew that fact more clearly than anyone else.

Having felt that strangeness once more, the sense of incongruity he had felt earlier came back to mind anew.

Due to the alchemy training she had done consistently since childhood as well as several drugs she took long-term to build immunity against poison, a pungent smell of alchemical chemicals lingered on her body, refusing to go away no matter how many times she washed.

A smell similar to mint but slightly more artificial, one that ordinary people might find somewhat unpleasant…

That scent did not emanate from this woman.

She was merely an ideal type created by removing all the flaws and adding only the good traits in the eyes of ordinary people.

As Shan, who had been indulging in her body like a beast, suddenly came to a halt, Cheryn showed a puzzled expression.

“Why… ugh!?”

Snap! Shan’s hands seized her white, slender neck.

Blessed with an ogre’s spirit and augmented by the armor’s auxiliary magic even in breastplate form, monstrous strength far greater than that of an ordinary man was put into it.

Surprisingly, the neck of Yure, who was disguised as Cheryn, did not snap even under such force.

Toward her as she choked and gagged, Shan gritted his teeth and spoke.

“H-How…?”

“The scent is different.”

Although urges to crave lust constantly surged through his body, his mind was no longer ruled by magic.

The Fighting Spirit wrapping his soul pushed out the breached parts and constructed a new castle wall.

As Yure struggled while being strangled and thrashed against Shan’s body, impacts strong enough to bruise his whole body struck every time.

Had he been an untrained ordinary person, he probably would have let go of his grip from the bone-crushing pain.

“S-Spare… me.”

Yure’s tearful face distorted blurrily before changing back into the brown-haired girl seen a moment ago.

However, unlike her initial appearance, her current form was now far from human in anyone’s eyes.

Palm-sized bat wings were attached to her back, and the skin across her entire body had turned ash-gray.

Perhaps that was her true form.

“Monster.”

Murmuring low, Shan tightened his grip on both hands, and with a crunch, Yure’s neck broke.

Setting down the limply sprawled corpse, Shan stood up and put back on the Thousand Shapes and the ring he had received from Cheryn.

“Phew…”

The effect of the inhaled incense still dominated his body, but the charm effect of the mental magic vanished in an instant.

It was likely because the monster before his eyes, Yure, had died.

As he sliced open the dead monster’s body with the Thousand Shapes, a sizable Mana Stone popped out.

It was clear proof that she was a monster, not a somewhat peculiarly built Altoan.

‘It’s completely different from vampires, so what on earth is it?’

All this time, he had never felt that their charm magic or the like was scary, but that thing’s power was on a whole different level.

Granted, it was because she had pulled tricks like suggestion and drugs as she had blabbered earlier, but for him to temporarily lose his reason…

At that degree, it was certain that ordinary knights would not even be able to resist.

Perhaps because of that, the Mana Stone from Yure’s body also emitted a powerful force despite its small size.

Would the density of the power contained within be equal to or slightly stronger than an ogre’s?

Well, since it possessed that much power, it must have been able to temporarily dominate Shan’s mind even if various conditions had been added.

The reason her physical abilities were inferior despite having power on a dimension different from high vampires was probably because she specialized in her unique charm ability.

‘If I use this, a fairly powerful magical weapon could be made.’

Just as he was fiddling with the Mana Stone with such thoughts and stowing it in his breast, the sound of clapping hands suddenly echoed from behind.

“Splendid! Truly splendid! To think you would overcome the temptation of a succubus! The reputation of being the strongest knight in the Arman Alliance is not in vain!”

Turning his head, Shan recognized who the middle-aged man approaching from afar was.

A face he had never seen in person, but had learned through a portrait.

It was the master of this fief, Marquis Beshalia.