Chapter 40: Chapter 40

Originally, catching up to something flying while running on the ground was close to impossible.

Unless it was a vast open plain, if one had to cross mountains and streams along the way, encounter rugged canyons, and take detours around them, no matter how fast one ran, there was no way.

However, Arwin accomplished that astonishing feat even with Shan on her back.

Following the master of Castaman Castle flying in the distance, he swam across small streams, climbed low hills, and leaped between cliffs several meters wide.

Shan could not help but laugh out of amusement at the sight of the vampire looking back, gasping in horror at the scene, and flapping his wings even more frantically.

High vampires were supposed to treat humans as their prey, yet right now, to anyone looking, was he not the prey instead?

The chase ended about five minutes later.

The vampire gave up flying and slowly landed on the ground.

‘As expected.’

Flying monsters were largely divided into two categories: those with wings instead of arms, and those with wings on their backs separate from their arms.

While the former could fly as freely as actual birds, the latter often faced restrictions on their flying speed or duration.

Sir Darkal had surmised that the reason was likely because they could not receive help from their shoulder and arm muscles.

At any rate, as long as that bastard also had bat wings attached to his back, he could not fly for very long.

As Shan spurred Arwin closer, the castle lord shouted in a solemn yet evil voice that ill-suited his hideous appearance.

“You! Stop, for I have a message to relay to your master!”

At the unexpected attitude of the opponent calling out to him, Shan pulled the reins to slow down instead of entering combat right away.

It was about thirty meters… a distance a bit too far for a surprise attack, yet close enough to communicate if they raised their voices.

“What is it?”

“Tell him I will alter the proposal! I do not need a new fiefdom! I will be content with having the area around Castaman Castle recognized as my domain, so put an immediate stop to this atrocity!”

Shan wondered briefly what on earth he was talking about, before finally realizing that the opponent was mistaking him for an executioner sent by Prince Elvin, his trade partner.

Would it be better to answer that he understood, catch him off guard, and then finish him off?

He pondered for a moment, but felt there was no need to go that far.

In fact, above all else, he also wanted to see the proper skill of a high vampire.

Since things had come to this, shouldn’t he experience a proper battle?

“What if I refuse?”

“You foolish young human brat! Do you think the likes of you can dare oppose me? I am Kudlak, Lord of the Night, Master of Darkness, and Inheritor of Noble Blood! I retreated only because you humans swarmed in a horde! A single knight is no match for me!”

At the half-hearted reply, the vampire, Kudlak, burst into anger and shouted.

The evil power contained within his voice possessed the force to suppress a human’s mind and body, much like the roars of large monsters.

However, not only Shan, but even Arwin, who carried him, did not flinch or shrink back from it.

It was thanks to his special bloodline mixed with the blood of monsters.

“A guy who ran away right off the bat talking about being a lord or master…”

As Shan, muttering in disbelief, spurred Arwin into a charge, the vampire glared fiercely at Shan with wide eyes.

The moment he met those blood-red eyes, he felt his consciousness leave his body and get sucked toward his opponent.

It was the same kind of charm magic as the vampire pretending to be a priest earlier, but far more powerful…

“Phew…”

However, all those mental effects blew away with a single deep breath.

That was because the barrier of Fighting Spirit, forged inside Shan more robustly than anyone else through blood and tears, dissipated it.

Still, it had to be said that it was better than earlier, which couldn’t even make him dizzy.

‘What?’

Realizing this, the vampire opened his eyes wide in shock.

The number of times he had fought knights over the past several hundred years alone was well into double digits.

With the power accumulated over that time, even ordinary knights would be dazed for a few seconds or fall off their horses when hit with it for the first time.

To think that a monster existed who could cast off such a trump card with a single breath!

“Kaaarrgh!”

At any rate, if the charm magic didn’t work, he had no choice but to prepare another means.

The huge bat-man, about two meters tall, leaped lightly and brought his talons down toward Shan’s head.

Because gliding with wings was added to it, it was literally an attack angled straight down from the sky.

Moreover, it was far more powerful and faster than the vampire from earlier.

However, to one who saw both at similarly slow speeds, it was nothing more than a trick that wasn’t very different.

Shan calmly raised the lance in his right hand to thrust while using the shield on his left arm to deflect the incoming talons.

“Keheck…”

This time, the intent infused into the lance was not ‘penetration’ or ‘impact’, but ‘destruction’.

Thanks to that, the magic lance Shan thrust not only pierced the bastard’s heart, but created a hole larger than a fist and exited through his flank.

After riding a dozen-plus meters to widen the gap, Shan turned around and saw the tattered vampire whose heart had been blown away.

Judging by the wound squirming as if eager to regenerate right away, the lance’s magic seemed to have taken proper effect.

“You, how dare you!”

As the vampire shouted quite fine for having no heart and gestured with his hands, the dark blood pouring from his chest surged upward.

An offensive magic that almost no modern humans could cast for various reasons, virtually a monopoly of monsters.

Among them, it was blood magic, the specialty of vampires.

“Oh…!”

As dozens of blood streams refined like sharp gems flew in, Shan confirmed the trajectories of the attack and raised his lance to intercept them.

Targeting only the attacks that would hit Arwin’s body, rather than those flying toward himself.

Precise manipulation of a lance over three meters long to strike down projectiles the size of a few finger joints (and not even at himself, but at the horse he was riding) was a skill that entered the realm of delusion beyond imagination for ordinary knights.

Even for Shan, he had to concentrate so hard that his head grew momentarily warm, making it difficult to look after his own body in the meantime.

Tatatang, as the blood crystals struck his plate armor, a sound like hail pounding a metal roof echoed, and his body reverberated.

When one of them flew toward his face, Shan slightly turned his head and deflected it using the side of his helmet.

Scratch marks and dents remained here and there on the armor, but fortunately, none had completely pierced through.

He had taken the hits without deflecting all of them because the defensive magic cast for the jousting tournament remained, and there was certainly a reason people paid expensive money to buy armor and enchant it.

After all, even if it contained the intent of impact rather than penetration on purpose, was it not enough to withstand a knight’s lance charge?

Even so, if it left this much of a scratch, soldiers wearing ordinary leather armor would likely have been completely wiped out by that single spell.

Thinking that Arwin might have been seriously hurt if left alone, Shan stroked the stallion’s mane.

‘I should hurry and get him barding too.’

Horse armor, like human armor, had to be custom-fitted to the body size to be comfortable, but since Arwin had a build far larger than an ordinary horse, off-the-shelf products were out of the question.

Since he had placed the commission for now, he could only hope it would be completed by the time he finished this job and returned to the capital.

While Shan was thus worrying about his beloved horse’s safety, the vampire was jaw-dropped in shock.

Not only blocking his trump card magic, but absorbing it with his own body while deflecting only the attacks flying toward the horse!

Wasn’t this virtually mockery, as if saying, ‘I can easily block your attacks, but I’ll show you that taking them directly is fine too’?

“You, you bastard! Just what is your identity!? Don’t tell me, Marquis Abel… No, that guy should be old by now…”

“Thanks for the compliment.”

When the name of Pendia’s strongest knight, whom he had to defeat someday, came up, Shan insouciantly expressed his thanks and charged once more.

The vampire distorted his already hideous face even further, then manifested a bulky blood shield with the blood flowing from his still unhealed wound.

The shield, about one meter wide and two meters high, looked as if made of obsidian, perhaps because pitch-black blood was the raw material.

However, even the decisive shield created that way shattered helplessly against Shan’s lance charge.

Shan manipulated the leaf-shaped spearhead to sever the vampire’s head from his body, then skewer it like a kebab.

“Can’t you speak like this?”

He mouthed his lips as if to answer something, but only the sound of leaking wind came out, and no meaningful words seemed to issue forth.

Whether he could still control his headless torso, it struggled to stand up somehow, but it looked comical as it kept falling over, perhaps because it lacked a sense of balance.

‘Then silver… Ah, did I leave the powder behind?’

Realizing that the silver powder needed was in the baggage he had unladed from Arwin’s back earlier, Shan clicked his tongue.

Fortunately, there was a way to substitute for it.

As he placed a hand near his collar, the blue-silver substance wrapping around his upper body squirmed like a snake and entered his hand.

“For a vampire, you’re dying in a truly luxurious way.”

True Silver, like its name implied, was a substance possessing the property to destroy evil things, similar to silver.

When he shaped the Thousand Shapes composed of pure True Silver into the form of a longsword and thrust it into the headless torso, it poured out white light and burned away completely, just as when silver powder had been sprinkled earlier.

Then, as he slashed the gasping, hideous face with the blade, the life of the ugly monster who had lived for several hundred years came to an end.

*

After disposing of the castle lord, Shan gathered the remaining vampire ashes into an empty pouch and discovered a Mana Stone slightly larger than a fist.

Though small in size, since he was a pretty powerful guy, it seemed like it would be quite useful.

Wouldn’t it be fine to ask Princess Cheryn to craft armor using this as a material in exchange for accepting her next request?

Thinking so, as Shan returned to Castaman Castle, what greeted him was unexpectedly Roden looking quite weary and mercenaries injured here and there.

Standing guard in front of the castle gate, which had been opened at some point, they brightened and welcomed Shan as he returned.

“What’s this? Did something happen? Why did you leave the villagers alone?”

“The low-grade vampire bastards hiding inside poured out in a crowd… Luckily, we subdued them all, though.”

At Roden’s words, Shan asked with a serious expression.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

Although he had heard low-grade vampires were something even mercenaries could catch, if their numbers were large, they were dangerous enough not to be ignored.

Even goblins, if thousands attacked at the same time, could crush Shan to death, couldn’t they?

“Yes, fortunately, when even the mercenaries controlling the village joined forces, it was manageable enough to hold off.”

Indeed, because they were all people who hunted monsters routinely, it seemed they had done their part.

He felt he could give them a bit more bonus pay at this rate.

“Actually, asking if you are hurt is a question I should be asking you, Sir Shan, who went off to fight the commander class. Somehow, it looks like you fought quite boisterously, more than expected.”

Hearing those words, seeing his plate armor covered in scratches here and there, it did look as though he had gone through a fierce battle in its own way.

In reality, it was closer to a one-sided slaughter due to an overwhelming gap in skill and equipment, though.

Shan chuckled sheepishly and handed over the castle lord’s ashes he had brought.

“Here, it’s that guy from earlier.”

“I’m glad you caught him. Then we can gradually go inside and check if there’s any more.”

The reason they hadn’t entered the castle was merely to prepare for the possibility that more high vampires remained.

Shan and Roden stationed mercenaries at the castle gate so that no one would enter or exit.

Fortunately, after seeing vampires pouring out of the castle, the people of the castle town completely trusted Shan and followed his control, so there was no need to deploy separate personnel for them.

The first thing greeting Shan and Roden as they stepped inside were people who had died from having their blood drained by vampires.

They seemed to be castle servants or maidservants.

“Ugh, terrible…”

Seeing that gruesome sight, Roden let out a low groan and offered a short prayer, and Shan followed suit.

Afterward, the two searched various places inside the castle.

Just because there were only two of them didn’t make searching difficult.

Because there were only a few servants’ rooms, several utility rooms, and the room used by the castle lord.

Regrettably, unlike a vampire who had lived for hundreds of years, the bastard was not very rich.

Then again, how could someone hiding in a countryside like this and eating farmers once every few months be rich?

In the first place, that Castaman Castle was a royal territory not belonging to any particular lord, and that it was abandoned to near total indifference despite that, was because this land was excessively desolate.

Since it was a land with hardly any taxes to wring out, it wasn’t even managed properly, and so the castle lord position was sold around until monsters moved in without anyone taking interest.

Roden, who discovered a stack of papers while searching the castle lord’s room, read through them and frowned.

“Oh, if this gets out, it might be a bit dangerous.”

“What is it?”

“Letters Prince Elvin sent to the vampire, and the bastard’s diary.”

Of course, since he wasn’t a fool either, he hadn’t explicitly written a request to kill his older brother and his followers.

Like a high-ranking noble, it was merely a letter filled with expressions steeped in all kinds of metaphors and allegories, making it ambiguous to press him if he insisted otherwise.

However, the recipient had annotated all the letter’s contents in his diary, and the mere fact that he had exchanged letters on such ambiguous topics with a vampire was enough to tarnish the prince’s name.

“Should we burn them?”

“Hmm, that would be a bit of a waste… Let’s give them to Princess Cheryn. She’ll make more useful use of them than we will.”

As mentioned before, if they pinned this incident as Prince Conrad’s doing and redirected Prince Elvin’s rage in that direction, moving around would become easier.

Of course, even if they didn’t, externally they had merely wiped out a ‘vampire lair’, so Prince Elvin had no right to complain, but behind the scenes, things would be a bit different.

Roden, who read more of the diary while he was at it, clicked his tongue, saying he had found out why the vampires had poured out from inside.

“What is it?”

“These guys were deliberately capturing and raising low-grade vampires to create a high vampire.”

Ordinary vampires emerge from somewhere deep in the Demonic Realm, wander mountains and fields coveting human blood before dying, and only those who luckily survive after coveting the blood of tens or hundreds of humans become high vampires.

If so, if they captured low-grade vampires and kept feeding them humans, a high vampire would eventually be created.

To this end, Castle Lord Kudlak imprisoned several low-grade vampires he had subdued with his charm magic in the basement of this castle, then took them out every night to hunt humans.

The priest eliminated earlier was also an entity born in that manner.

“Then did the charm wear off because the castle lord ran away?”

“Probably so.”

Though laymen in magic, this much was reasonable for them to deduce.

At any rate, the next part was what mattered, and surprisingly, this was not something Castaman Castle Lord Kudlak had done on a personal whim.

According to the diary, his breeding vampires here was at the request of an organization called the ‘Council’.

“The Council? Hearing the name makes me think of the Magic Society.”

“It seems to be a gathering of high vampires.”

“No, why would monsters have a gathering?”

Being a diary, it didn’t detail the identities of the Council members, but some of them seemed to mingle in human society and exert considerable influence.

Shan, listening quietly, clicked his tongue.

“This is blowing up into something enormous again…”

A gathering of high vampires operating secretly among humans.

Someone might have harbored a vague delusion that such a thing might exist, but it was an organization that had never been officially revealed.

Roden, contemplating, let out a sigh and snapped the diary shut.

“Hmm, it’s better to pass this off to the princess too. She’s far better off than us in terms of intelligence-gathering power.”

Of course, the princess wasn’t someone who acted for their well-being, but at least Shan had proven by executing this request that he could be the most powerful sword she could wield.

Unless Cheryn was a fool, she would naturally handle matters in a direction that kept Shan safe.

After gathering everything roughly useful and stepping outside, Shan and Roden gathered the villagers and informed them by appropriately mixing truth and falsehood.

That the lord and priest of this castle were actually mighty vampires who had lived for hundreds of years and could mimic humans, and that Sir Shan, having accidentally discovered this fact, had come to slay them.

“My goodness…”

“Is that for real?”

“Didn’t you see? Monsters pouring out of the castle!”

“Right, plus there was a guy flying in the sky too. I even saw the priest turn into one.”

“No wonder so many vampires were roaming around town! Last month Jami was dragged away too.”

The villagers were surprised by the shocking news, yet they were not disturbed to such a great extent.

That was because there were stories told beforehand, and there were so many pieces of evidence they had seen with their own eyes.

Only the families of the servants who had gone to work at the castle and met with disaster wailed.

“By the way, to think the castle lord was a vampire, what a huge shock.”

“Huge shock, my foot! I suspected something from the start.”

“Who can’t say that now?”

“No, I’m serious! His pale white skin, and how he never got along well with people…”

In truth, Castle Lord Kudlak was not a lord with a particularly good reputation among the villagers.

Though he hadn’t oppressed them or wrung taxes out of them, on the flip side, he hadn’t been interested in protecting them either.

Considering it was normal for the lord of such a rural fief to play the role of something like the village chief, public opinion had no choice but to be bad.

“But then, who will become the next castle lord?”

“The young master who was originally the successor also passed away…”

“If he really was a vampire, that young master wouldn’t have been his real son either, you fool!”

The young master they spoke of was naturally a human boy Kudlak had brought along for camouflage.

He brought a child who reasonably resembled his human form in every generation, killed the child when he reached an appropriate age, and took that position himself, continuing generation after generation.

Naturally, the successor he intended to use this time was drained of blood and killed by the vampires escaping after the charm wore off.

“Could it be…?”

The gazes of the villagers, chatting back and forth, gathered on Shan.

With expectant eyes, wondering if perhaps that powerful young knight would become their new lord.

In Pendia, a paradise for monsters, a powerful knight could become a reliable protector to the people by his mere existence.