Batory was deeply displeased and irritated.
There were several reasons for that.
She had awakened before properly recovering from the injuries she had received in her battle with the tyrant.
When she woke, every last one of her servants had been killed.
And lastly, there was the man standing before her.
“Tsk. What is some little fry doing getting in my way?”
The girl she had only just managed to subdue was the descendant of a human Great Warrior.
Surely, taking that girl’s blood would have restored at least a little of Batory’s strength.
It was obvious that the squint-eyed boy had ruined that opportunity.
“Well, never mind. Offer me yours instead.”
A chicken in place of a pheasant.
It was regrettable that he was not the Great Warrior’s descendant, but was this really the time to pick between cold rice and hot rice?
Swallowing her disappointment, Batory slowly approached her prey.
“Getting in the way? Who do you think you are to say that? What are you doing to my goal, which I have poured so much time into and which has only just begun to ripen?”
But his unexpected response made her stop in her tracks.
Was that inferior human glaring at her with blazing eyes and losing his temper?
Like a mouse tearing at a cat?
That could happen. When one’s life was at stake, what could one not do?
But the sight of prey, no different from the rest, protesting that it deserved to take this cheese got under her skin.
“Have you lost your mind?”
“The one who is mad is you. Who made you do this? Was it Vlad? No, has a Vlad even been appointed yet?”
But when the great king’s name left his lips, Batory realized that he was no ordinary mouse.
“Do not speak it! You are no vampire noble. That is not a rank you may utter so freely!”
“My apologies. Even if it is an unclaimed king’s seat belonging to another race, I should show it the bare minimum of respect.”
His half-closed eyes opened a fraction. Faint madness showed in the pupils he had kept carefully hidden.
“As long as you do not touch my prey.”
‘What bravado from someone with not a trace of Magic Power!’
He was a truly fearless human.
Still, when someone who looked so weak acted so boldly, Batory’s doubts only led to more doubts.
What was he, to begin with? He knew of Vlad, whom only a few vampire nobles even knew existed.
Was he not human?
…A fellow vampire?
But the pupils she had glimpsed were not red. They had been pitch-black.
And the scent of blood flowing through him was human as well.
“…How ridiculous. You dare pick a fight with me.”
She barely regained her composure and steadied herself.
Thinking about too many things was a problem in itself.
Besides.
‘Even if he is a disguised demon who knows my circumstances, it does not matter.’
Batory smiled coldly.
She truly must have weakened. To be shaken by something so insignificant.
The Evildun Empire was a world where the strong devoured the weak.
If one had the power to take what another possessed, it belonged to the strong.
Wealth, honor, status, and even life itself.
Had she not been stripped of everything by that bastard and barely managed to preserve her own life?
“I pray that you are as prepared as your bravado suggests.”
Fwoosh—
She drew a line across her fingertip, and fiercer flames rose with the familiar sensation.
She had not yet recovered her full strength, but the flames could reduce a small fry who was nothing but bluster to ash without even leaving bone dust behind.
“As expected. You really must be a noble if you can raise flames through your own blood.”
For some reason, though, he still stood with his arms crossed, watching her.
Batory snorted and raised her hand.
“Hmph. Let us see whether you can maintain that composure in the underworld.”
“Haha. You are terrifying.”
There was no reason to be fooled by that glib tongue any longer.
If he had some hidden card, she only needed to crush that as well.
“A blow even Tyron could do nothing against! Try and stop it!”
Just as she had subdued the Great Warrior’s descendant, she thrust out a fist wrapped in flames.
But its force was entirely different from before.
The technique caused her blood to explode in a chain reaction the instant it made contact, boasting overwhelming destructive force.
She was confident it would pierce any armor or protection magic at once.
“Who says I will let you hit me?”
“What?!”
Shock filled Batory’s eyes.
She crossed the distance in three strides, but the left arm she swung cut through empty air.
A crushing fatigue weighed down her arms and legs.
‘Ghk, what a bitter mistake!’
She had never expected a human with no detectable Magic Power to dodge her attack so easily.
For that decisive strike, she had wrung out every last drop in her blood sac, and yet it had ended like this.
‘Of course, dealing with that human will not be a problem. But my recovery...’
“Oh, dear. I wonder if you will be all right. You do not even have a spare blood sac, so you had to command bats, and yet you are wasting blood so freely?”
Then.
With a sly smile, he offered her concern he did not mean.
Her doubts became certainty.
Vlad’s kingly position, and the fact that vampire nobles used blood for magic.
Those were not things such a young human could know.
“Yes. I underestimated you too greatly.”
Grinding her teeth, Batory gathered her power, prepared to bury the entire area if necessary.
Apparently sensing the turbulence of her Magic Power, he abandoned the relaxed manner he had shown until now and urgently spoke.
“Please wait! There is nothing to gain from demonkind fighting amongst ourselves, is there? You will not emerge unscathed either!”
…That was true.
The silver-haired girl whom this man had sent away moments ago.
As the descendant of a warrior famous among humans, she might have followers who would pursue Batory.
When the battle reached a lull, he let out a small sigh of relief.
“Let us keep things amicable. I only got a little angry because you took my prey, yet you reacted so violently to a fellow demon...”
“So you are demonkind after all. Reveal yourself.”
“If one is demonkind without horns and lives in the human world without drawing any particular suspicion, there is only one possibility, is there not?”
He rummaged through his clothes, pulled out a gold mask that reached only to his chin, and placed it over his face.
“Please forgive the rudeness of wearing a mask. My true body has no face, you see. I have to wear this, at least, for it to feel as though I am speaking to a person.”
The boy’s form disappeared completely.
In his place stood a being whose sex could not be discerned clearly.
And that indistinct presence...
Surprise filled Batory’s face.
“...A doppelganger.”
Levains, who inherited dragon blood and possessed exceptional physical abilities; vampires, who used blood as a medium for magic; and gargoyles, who had skin as hard as stone.
When one spoke of demonkind, those three races were commonly meant, but minor races existed as well.
Succubi, who were exclusively female and fed on the vitality of living creatures, were one example. Doppelgangers were another.
They were shadow demonkind that transformed into the forms of living creatures and fed on emotions such as fear and bewilderment.
But the other’s appearance was somewhat removed from what she knew.
“...Still, I cannot easily believe it. Are you truly a doppelganger?”
Batory narrowed her eyes.
Although they were demonkind, doppelgangers had no notable physical abilities, could not use magic, and could not even speak properly.
Only noble-class doppelgangers could roughly imitate a human after swallowing one whole. Even then, the disguise inevitably crumbled as time passed.
That was why they were naturally driven out in the Evildun Empire, where the strong devoured the weak.
And yet this creature claimed to be a doppelganger?
‘That girl had clearly seemed to trust this creature wholeheartedly.’
“Well, perhaps you have simply never seen an individual like me before.”
“...”
“It is good to see another of our kind in a foreign land. The name I have used most recently is Hans Byron.”
As he cackled through a voice filled with static, an inexplicably weighty presence emanated from him.
Batory was certain.
He was absolutely not someone to take lightly.
He appeared to be a superior doppelganger, one who, like herself, belonged to the high noble class.
“It seems you have many questions. What do you say to taking turns asking one question each?”
“Arrogant. I see no reason to indulge your proposal.”
“Unless you do not need a new hideout, a regular supply of blood, or information about the human world.”
“...!”
Each one was a proposition that appealed to Batory.
First, a hideout. Since she had attacked the warrior’s descendant, there was a high chance that a subjugation force would be assembled. She needed to move elsewhere quickly.
Then there was the blood supply.
To recover her strength and exact revenge on Tyron, blood that would be of great help was indispensable.
Until now, all she could do was use bats as servants to gather small amounts of blood from wild animals and livestock.
With his help, she could receive an amount of blood incomparable to that.
Even if she could not sink her fangs directly into a smooth nape.
Just imagining fresh, hot blood made saliva pool in her mouth.
‘Certainly... it is not a bad offer.’
Of course, it could all be a trap that was only enticing on the surface. But with her hideout exposed, there was no obvious path for her circumstances to improve.
At a time when she could be killed by humans without ever taking revenge, Batory gambled.
She decided to trust a fellow demon.
“Interesting. I permit it. However, I will ask the first question.”
“Well, go ahead.”
Hans accepted her proposal without protest. Batory voiced the simple question that came to mind first.
“Why did you break the seal and wake this body while it was sleeping soundly?”
“Did I do that? Our wonderful young lady woke you up.”
He shook his gold-masked head and sighed in lamentation.
The deep sigh he deliberately let out grated on her nerves.
“Perhaps blood will tell. The young lady has an uncanny ability to sniff out demonkind. Ah! Of course, I did not notice you.”
Batory narrowed her brow.
Come to think of it, he called her the young lady at every turn. Their relationship was suspicious in the extreme.
“What is your relationship with that bitch?”
“It is my turn to ask a question. Still, even I think that previous answer was half-hearted, so I will answer you. She is someone who will complete an exquisite delicacy.”
He spread both arms wide as though displaying something.
“The instant she learns that the retainer she trusted and cherished so deeply is actually demonkind—an enemy of humanity! Can you imagine how delicious that bewilderment, laced with betrayal, will be?”
Hm.
He was insane.
But unexpectedly, Batory found him to be a doppelganger exactly as she knew them.
They were creatures for whom wearing the forms of living beings and stealing their emotions was both their sole purpose and their food.
The only difference was that, unlike other doppelgangers who were solely intent on devouring others’ surprised emotions on instinct, the creature before her was interested in building a deep relationship while talking about gourmet food.
He had quite an appreciation for elegance.
“So that was why you spoke of prey earlier.”
“Precisely! I had not even begun the harvest, and you were about to cut down the sprout. Of course I was angry.”
But that was a separate matter. Of all the fellow demonkind she could meet in enemy territory, it had to be one like this.
Batory clutched her throbbing head.
But in the next moment, killing intent spread through her body at the familiar three-syllable name that came from the man’s mouth.
“Then it is my turn. About the man called Tyron—does he go around calling himself the Demon King?”
***
‘It seems I managed to fool her safely.’
The perception interference of the relic Amen, along with my knowledge of the original work, had done its job.
If I had not known about Vlad, the vampire king’s position, and the existence of doppelgangers as a minor race, my head would not still be attached to my neck.
‘That attack earlier was genuinely terrifying.’
Cold sweat had soaked my back.
I had somehow dodged it with the help of my Skill, but afterward, a headache beyond mere discomfort had struck, as though my skull were about to crack.
As if I had dodged an attack above my level and now had to pay the price for accomplishing something beyond my means.
I had never imagined I would suffer mana depletion from a single attack.
Still, because I had responded calmly, I had gained some unexpected information.
“...Yes. That insolent man said he would become the king who led all demonkind.”
I had suspected it, but I had not expected to learn information about one of the final bosses before even going to the Evildun Empire.
“I still cannot forget it... The day that rogue razed my entire territory under the pretext of unifying demonkind.”
The sound of her grinding her teeth echoed through the cave.
From the way she spoke, it did not seem as though it had been long since she fled and went into hiding.
‘Hmm. I could use this.’
Originally, I had meant to deceive her successfully, find an opening, and use a trick to kill her.
But the enemy of my enemy was my friend.
If she was hostile to the final boss, she would certainly be a great help in reaching the ending.
Investing in her for the future would not be a bad idea.
“Let us pause the exchange of questions for now.”
“...Have you forgotten our agreement from a moment ago? It is my turn to ask a question.”
“That is true for me as well, but we do not have time. The humans will not sit still, will they?”
The duke’s daughter had nearly been killed by demonkind that had been lying in wait within the territory.
An extermination force would be assembled at once.
Since I had decided to keep this vampire named Batory alive, getting her to a refuge came first.
“If you fly northeast from here, there should be a small underground passage. There is someone there already, but you should be able to deal with them easily.”
And I could have her take care of the monster while she was at it.
“Take shelter there first. When the time comes, I will come to meet you.”
“...I will wait.”
Perhaps because she knew she had weakened, she spread her wings and flew out of the cave.
Silence followed in her wake.
For a while, I stood there stupidly, unable to adjust to the peace that had settled over the cave.
“...Is she gone? Whew.”
Only after a long time had passed could I finally let my body give in to my weakened legs.
“Nothing goes the way it does in the game. I came here to suck up some honey, and instead I get capsaicin?”
The thread of consciousness I had barely been holding onto through the headache and tension loosened as well.
An oppressive exhaustion swept over me like a landslide.
“Ugh…. I’m dizzy.”
Unable to adjust to my spinning vision from mana depletion, I fell face-first onto the cold cave floor.
My slowly closing eyelids were terribly heavy, as though weights had been hung from them.
If I slept for a while and woke up, would a rescue party come for me?
Thinking that, the cave floor did not feel quite so cold.
[Quest Complete!]
[Successfully rescuing Luciana…]
[New NPC…]
‘Slee...py….’
On a hard, lumpy, slightly uncomfortable bed.
Leaving behind the Status Window, whose corner had blurred so much I could not see it clearly, I closed my eyes.