Vulgar Slaughter, Cowardly Survival (2)
Vampires.
By nature, they had never made human blood their primary diet.
There had been a time when silver and fangs met in open war. But that was ancient history. The two races had fought long enough to sign a peace treaty at the end of it: no attacks, no interference. Two peoples agreeing to leave each other alone.
An age of peace came. But...
'...there were those who weren't happy about it.'
Certain houses among the vampires had never warmed to the idea of coexistence.
The anti-human faction.
Humans were prey, nothing more. No different from any other livestock. How dare a short-lived species presume to stand equal to vampires?
The voices were loudest among those drunk deepest on supremacism.And so the vampires split in two.
The pro-human faction, who saw humans as partners. The anti-human faction, who saw them as food.
The rift dragged on for centuries.
'And then... finally, things boiled over.'
A coup.
Carmilla's uncle led the charge. The anti-human faction drew their swords.
The dynasty crumbled. Countless pro-human supporters were purged.
Of all who survived the chaos, only one remained. Carmilla.
'Poor princess...'
A miserable life, by any measure. Without a player's help, her fate was to be captured and killed by the anti-human faction. She kept up a bright front, but buried underneath that cheerfulness was something dark and heavy she'd had to make peace with a long time ago.
I always ended up pitying her for it, whether I meant to or not.
"Princess."
"What is it, Viktor?"
"You're a vampire, aren't you?"
"Obviously. I am a pureblood, the most noble among the lords of the night."
"Potent blood is the vampire race's primary diet, or so I've heard. Does that mean you can't eat what ordinary humans eat?"
"Hmm?"
Out of nowhere.
We were walking down a quiet back alley at the time, and the girl tilted her head at me.
"Human food... I can eat it. I just won't get any real nutrition from it. I can enjoy it the way you'd enjoy a luxury meal, but what actually drives the body is potent blood."
"You used to drink livestock blood. Lamb's blood was your favorite, if I remember right."
"I'm not picky. Cow, sheep, pig... they all count as potent blood."
"Then what about humans?"
"......"
One question, thrown out like nothing.
Flinch.
Carmilla's shoulders tensed. The words on her lips died. She stared up at me with blank eyes, her pupils wavering once, twice, before the expression behind them finally went still.
Silver hair drifted in the loose wind.
"...Human, you said."
"Some vampires are fixated on human blood specifically. The anti-human faction, I believe they're called. The ones who toppled the old dynasty all shared that ideology, from what I've heard."
"...Yes."
Anti-human faction.
Humans.
The fallen dynasty.
Carmilla said nothing for a long moment. Maybe it was the memories she'd sealed off somewhere in her chest. She drew a slow breath, and when she finally spoke, her voice was steadier than it had any right to be.
"Human blood is something else entirely. Nothing like ordinary livestock blood. Humans are beings of intellect and refinement, the same as us vampires, and that quality carries over."
"Carries over, meaning...?"
"Your innate power surges. You enter a state of exceptional awakening that sustains itself. Every sense sharpens. Blood Manipulation, overall physical capability, all of it climbs. A single feeding can push you up several rungs at once. And the taste, apparently, is beyond anything else."
"That's strange. If all of that's true, why wouldn't vampires simply make human blood their primary diet?"
"Because... once a vampire drinks human blood even once, they can never be themselves again. They lose the ability to stomach any other kind. The palate breaks entirely."
"Nothing but human blood will ever satisfy them anymore..."
A drug.
In human terms, that was the closest word for it.
"And it doesn't stop there. Violence seeps in alongside it. There's no going back. What drugs are to humans, human blood is to vampires."
"If a vampire grows violent and starts craving human blood..."
"War. The two races will collide, inevitably."
"So the pro-human faction was afraid of exactly that. A return to the age of madness."
"Yes. The anti-human faction ignored those fears. Worse, they welcomed them. Their plan was to bring down the human world, claim the entire continent for vampires, reduce humans to livestock. Kept like animals, worked like slaves."
"That's horrifying."
"More horrifying still is how many of our own kind have signed on."
All familiar territory.
The Seven Calamities, coming for the continent. The Sixth among them: Red Night.
A hell that would paint the mortal realm in mountains of corpses and seas of blood.
'Vampires and tens of millions of ghouls, all pouring into the human world...'
The New Kingdom, built from the wreckage of the old dynasty, ruled by the anti-human faction. The moment their preparations were complete, Carmilla's uncle would begin his march.
The old peace would shatter. The age of war would come again.
If the player didn't stop it, the world would be soaked red. A world for vampires.
That particular bad ending was one I had no intention of reaching. Humans reduced to livestock, bled dry for the rest of their lives.
"Princess..."
Something had been nagging at me.
"Why do you refuse human blood?"
"......"
Why did she refuse?
Human blood. I'd used the word "drug" a moment ago, but stripped of metaphor, it was simply the perfect energy source for vampires. In their eyes, humans were probably born for exactly that purpose. The ideal prey in every measurable way. What did human suffering matter, when feeding on them meant claiming greater power? Think only of vampires. Make the kingdom greater.
That was the creed so many in the anti-human faction had lived by.
So why.
Why hadn't she walked that same road? Why hadn't she taken the hand that offered such a clean, rational solution?
And Carmilla, of all people, was prouder of her own race than almost anyone. Half-soaked in supremacism herself. So why would she want harmony with short-lived mortals?
'What kind of person are you?'
Revenge? Because the anti-human faction had torn down the dynasty and killed the people she loved?
Or fear? Was she afraid of the war that was coming?
Maybe neither. Maybe it was just inheritance, the old dynasty's values passed down, accepted without question because they were all she'd ever known. A compulsion to continue what had always been.
"......"
Understanding why someone does what they do is always the first step to knowing what they'll do next.
I watched Carmilla quietly. The silence swelled and rippled in those red eyes.
"...Humans are an inferior species."
She spoke. Her voice wasn't bold, but there was no shame in it either.
"Vampires are superior. More so than any other race in this world. By comparison, humans are very small. Creatures no bigger than a bug on your fingertip."
"......"
"And that is precisely why we extend mercy. Humans are beings of sufficient intellect and refinement. If we, who recognize them as such, could only survive by killing them, how could we ever call ourselves noble?"
What she had been trying to protect.
"Leila de Leviran. De Roni Gibliaze."
Slaughter, but be not vile.
Survive, but be not cowardly.
The last words attributed to the ancient Progenitor. The star the girl had looked up to, the direction she had chosen for herself.
"If you simply live because living happens to you, is that really a life? A pilgrimage without hardship is no pilgrimage. A conviction that has never been tempted is no conviction."
"......"
"Nobility is not the absence of ugliness. It is having countless flaws and remaining untainted despite them. It is being able to look at your own reflection without flinching. That is all I have followed. Not vile. Not cowardly."
"I see."
I nodded.
A satisfying answer. My princess had the makings of a wise ruler, it seemed. Rough around the edges still, but trying to be better. That counted for something.
I tapped the edge of my mask and smiled.
"Well... we've nearly reached our destination."
"I've been wondering since we left. What business do you have in a backwater place like this?"
"I was following a trail. There have been a lot of disappearances in this area recently."
"Disappearances...?"
"Kidnappings, more accurately. Someone's been sweeping up humans."
"...Don't tell me."
"Probably exactly what you're thinking. The New Kingdom. Looks like they're starting to stir."
"They're already moving? I thought the invasion of the mortal realm was at least two years away...!"
"Not a full-scale invasion. There's an order to these things."
A slow, deliberate seeping in.
"They're establishing a foothold first. Preparing for the assault to come."
"And that foothold is somewhere nearby? The people who disappeared..."
"Yes. Taken by New Kingdom vampires, most likely. Locked somewhere without daylight, used as a food supply. A human farm, a steady source of potent blood on tap. The estimated number of victims so far is already in the three digits."
"That, that's...! Where in the world is something that despicable even happening?!"
"We're almost there."
I rummaged through my inventory and pulled out something I'd prepared in advance.
A mask. Red-painted, unlike mine.
I held it out to Carmilla as she walked beside me.
"Take this."
"A mask...?"
"We'll be running into other vampires. There'll be fighting. If your identity gets exposed mid-combat, that's a problem. So from now on, any time you're operating openly, wear this."
"Thorough as always. The design is a little unsettling, but..."
She hesitated, then pulled it on.
Two masks. A perfect pair.
Like a Power Ranger duo, almost.
"But Viktor, how do you know all of this?"
"Because I'm your extremely capable servant, of course."
"Sometimes I actually worry you're too capable..."
"Anyway, we're here."
"Hmm?"
We had stopped in the middle of a plaza. Nothing remarkable about the spot, just ordinary ground stretching in every direction.
I turned to the girl, who was tilting her head at me, and made a completely unexpected request.
"Princess, could you use Blood Manipulation? Strike the ground directly beneath us with everything you have."
"Attack the ground? There's nothing there..."
"Please. You'll understand shortly."
"Mm... alright. If you're asking, there must be a reason."
Carmilla nodded.
No sooner had she agreed than a hammer of compressed blood appeared in her hand. Blood pressed and pressed until a deep, heady aura boiled off its surface.
A moment later, with a sharp kiai, the hammer came down.
"Huff...!"
Boom!
A crack of rupturing sound. The ground beneath us gave way.
"Wha-wha,?!"
Whoosh!
Wind against the whole body all at once.
The floor collapsed and we dropped through. A long cylindrical shaft opened around us, and at the far end, a reddish glow bled upward from below.
I grinned behind my mask.
'Found it.'
The human farm.
A wide space unfolded in that reddish haze. Large enough to fit a factory, though still unfinished, rough at the edges. And thick everywhere, dense as a slaughterhouse, the copper smell of blood.
"Viktor...!"
Carmilla had shaped her Blood Manipulation into wings. She caught me and pulled us into a controlled descent, slowing the fall.
Her robe whipped in the air.
- What, what is that? The ceiling just caved in!
- Something's falling! Is that a vampire and... a human?
- How the hell did they get in here? Get everyone up here, now!
Shouts from below.
Guards, by the sound of it. Bodies drenched in blood, like they'd just finished something big. Whatever was scattered around them, I couldn't tell if it was still alive.
"Princess."
Flap.
The rough updraft died. Our feet touched ground.
Eyes locked onto us from every direction. Every last one of them bloodshot red.
I stretched both arms out, easy and unhurried.
Stake shard in one hand. Balloon sword in the other.
"Hmm."
Thud.
Feet hit the ground and pushed off in the same breath.
Familiar footwork. The body flickered like a glitch, blinked out of place, reappeared elsewhere with a faint crack.
The three nearest vampires, the ones I'd locked eyes with on the way down, had already drawn blades of condensed blood. Confident, every one of them. They came with murder in their eyes.
"Hey, just rush him!"
"It's a human! Hack the limbs off first, then have fun!"
"Nobody gets in here! They're obviously intruders, so eliminate..."
"Wait, where the hell did he go?"
Crack.
Already gone from their sightlines.
I appeared at their backs. Before they could turn, before they could even try, I swung the stake shard gripped tight in my fist.
"Peek-a-boo."
Slash!
A rough, biting sound. Three figures pitching sideways.
Legs severed below the thigh. The cut surfaces hissed like meat on a hot pan, skin crisping and melting at the edges.
A blank second. Then reality caught up.
"Ghh, GHAAAH!!"
"My leg! My-MY LEG!!"
"It's melting, the skin is melting off,!"
Screams, ringing through the space.
The commotion brought the rest of them running. All of them soaked in blood from whatever they'd been doing moments before.
"What is this?! What's going on?!"
"Intruders? How many got in here?!"
"Lucky timing. We'll just catch them and throw them in the farm."
They came charging in and found a single human waiting.
A mask wearing a grotesque grin.
"Hands up," I said lightly. "Bang bang."
The legendary vampire hunter had arrived.
Abraham Van Helsing.
Blade.
Han Se-gun.
Onion Kim.
Their successor: Viktor.
Stake and all.
"Everyone, please surrender. Surrender, and I'll cut you down. Resist, and I'll also cut you down."
The only good vampire was my princess.
The rest were going in the coffin.