Editors: Ytho, LaidBackGuy
The central district of Travia was originally home to many wealthy people. Although most of them had left the city or were killed when Travia turned lawless, the mansions where they had lived still remained.
The scenery changed as the carriage ran. Large mansions and spacious estates surrounded them. The carriage continued to move without stopping. After urging Lee Sungmin to become a vampire, Geniella no longer spoke to him, but simply watched him with a mysterious smile. Lee Sungmin felt uncomfortable.
[I would not recommend it.]
Heoju murmured.
[Geniella is a powerful vampire. No matter what you do now, you’re no match for Geniella. Even if you get my help like you did in the dungeon, you won’t be able to take her down.]
There was no doubt in Heoju’s words. Lee Sungmin had to agree with him. Vampire Queen Geniella was a powerful monster. Even if Lee Sungmin was able to bring out all the potential he had unearthed from the subconscious realm, he still wouldn’t be able to guarantee his victory in the fight against Geniella.
The reason why Lee Sungmin thought that was because he couldn’t get a glimpse of how much power she had.
[To make it clear, Geniella is stronger than the ‘real’ Minor Heavenly Demon that you saw in the dungeon.]
Heoju answered his doubts.
[Right now, at least. The Minor Heavenly Demon has a talent that doesn’t make sense. It’s crazy and absurd. That bitch will continue to grow stronger. As the days go by, the power that she has already achieved will become more complete and better than now. If the potential and talent that I’ve seen in her are true, then she might even be able to go beyond Geniella’s powers in the years to come.]
There was no assurance in Heoju’s voice as he said that. Lee Sungmin clasped and unclasped his hands as he listened to those words. The 2,100 years of practice in his subconscious. The practice that used all of Lee Sungmin’s talents and possibilities and took him a tremendous amount of time to bring it up to that level.
However, if he were to bring all the achievements obtained there to light in reality, it was a completely different story. He knew he couldn’t perform them yet, though.
So it was impossible to grow anymore. He couldn’t reach the place he had already reached. He couldn’t go higher than that unless he reached the achievements of his subconscious realm first.
On the other hand, what about Wijihoyeon? She kept getting stronger. He didn’t know what she was doing but at the end of the dungeon. She had spoken in a confident tone. One year later, she would be stronger than she was now.
‘The gap is widening.’
It continued to get bigger.
‘I am crawling slowly, step by step. But Wijihoyeon is running. No, she’s soaring.’
So it happened. Even when he thought he barely managed to catch up. He couldn’t keep up with Wijihoyeon’s pace.
[Anyway. I would not suggest going to Geniella’s mansion. I don’t know what that little bitch is up to. In the event of an emergency, there are no measures to protect your body.]
‘Maybe.’
It was not without thought that he followed her.
An encounter with an ambiguous entity called a ‘halfling’. For such a being whose identity he had no way of knowing accurately, Lee Sungmin absolutely could not ignore this kind of encounter. Perhaps Geniella was really the fated person that the Divine Spirit was talking about. What was certain was that this was the winter of five years later that the Divine Spirit had prophesied. It was October now, so it could be said that it was already winter. If the Divine Spirit’s words about the fated meeting were true, Lee Sungmin would meet with the person that was both monster and human within two months.
‘And if I refused… Geniella would have killed me.’
[I suppose so.]
Heoju snorted with laughter.
[Should I call it a checkmate? Well, work hard on saving yourself for now. If it doesn’t work out, it’s not like there is no other way.]
‘What other way?’
[Become Yokai.]
Heoju chuckled and said.
[If you become a Yokai, you can fight and win against Geniella… I won’t tell you anything irresponsible like that. But you would be able to survive. It would be possible to run away.]
“Don’t bullshit me.”
Lee Sungmin spat out, feeling irritated. Sitting next to Lee Sungmin, Rubia was shaking like an aspen tree. Lee Sungmin placed his hand on her trembling shoulder. Rubia was shocked and looked up at Lee Sungmin. He felt her eyes on him, but did not offer her any words of comfort.
(T/N: aspen trees are v cool. English equivalent of the idiom would be ‘shaking like a leaf’, but I like this better)
“How cute.”
Geniella, who was silent, broke into a chuckle.
“Am I that scary? Don’t worry. I will never harm you. I can’t swear on it, but I tend to keep my promises usually.”
The carriage stopped.
“We have arrived.”
Geniella looked at the closed carriage door. It opened by itself.
“Welcome.”
Geniella was the last to enter the carriage, but she was the first to get off. Somehow, Geniella, who walked off the carriage, was no longer wearing a kimono. She wore a classic black dress and stood in front of a garden full of red roses. Behind her was a beautiful mansion. It was not yet night, but the mansion has a sense of darkness emanating from it as if touched by the night’s darkness.
“To the Vampire Queen’s mansion.”
In front of the bewitching red rose garden, Geniella became the Vampire Queen and the owner of the mansion. Non-human beings writhed in the dark. Those who walked out of the shadows had pale skin and red eyes. They were Geniella’s people.
“Treat them with courtesy.”
The approaching vampire bowed to Lee Sungmin.
“Robe, Please.”
“… Ahem.”
Lee Sungmin took off the robe he was wearing and handed it to the vampire. Another vampire took the robe that Rubia was wearing. Geniella crossed the garden one step ahead. Lee Sungmin and Rubia headed for the mansion, escorted by vampires.
“Make sure you prepare a human meal. Use your best skills.”
Geniella opened the door of the mansion and ordered a vampire who was standing nearby. The vampire disappeared as he bowed deeply.
“This room is too crowded. You can use whatever room you want. If you don’t like the room, I can give you the whole annex.”
“No, that’s fine. I came here just to have a meal today.”
“All the rooms in the mansion are great. No matter where you go in Travia, you will not find anywhere as good as this.”
“Thanks for the offer, but I think I’ll decline.”
“Hmm… ”
Geniella made a sound of acknowledgement, staring at Lee Sungmin with bright red eyes, before nodding slowly.
“Alright. If you refuse, then there’s nothing I can do about it. But if you change your mind, feel free to tell me. The answer to the proposal that I mentioned in the carriage earlier. Please let me know if you change your mind.”
At the end of the conversation, Lee Sungmin and Rubia were escorted to a restaurant in the mansion, along with Geniella.
“Is-isn’t this human flesh?”
Rubia trembled and shrieked in a small voice. She said it very softly, but there was no way Geniella would miss it. Geniella shook her head with a smile.
“That could never happen. What I ordered was a meal for humans. Vampires don’t enjoy consuming human flesh. What vampires enjoy is their blood. It’s only those barbaric lycanthropes that like eating flesh.”
Geniella turned her head to look at Rubia.
“Your words are a great insult to vampires. If I hadn’t promised that I wasn’t going to do you any harm, I would have slit your throat as soon as I heard it.”
“S-s-s-s…Sorry… !”
Rubia cried out with a pale face. She had a metabolism, but it did not have any real function in her body. Rubia was rarely grateful for it. If her body wasn’t like this, then Rubia would have peed herself at Geniella’s warning.
“It will take some time for the meal to come out.”
Geniella sat at the end of a large table and looked at Lee Sungmin. She giggled and offered the seat closest to her.
“Shall we chat until then?”
A long conversation, that he was unwilling to partake in, and one where making a single mistake, could result in instant death.
“Let’s do that.”
Lee Sungmin pretended to be expressionless, and Geniella sat down in the main seat.
* * *
He didn’t know how fast he was moving. But considering the distance, no matter how relaxed he was, he should have arrived in Travia by now.
Freskan was a lich and a mage. Mages did not use the stupid method of moving using their body. Most mages are lazy and do not like moving. That’s why there were countless spells that can aid such lazy and unwilling mages.
Among such types of magic, using a familiar was the most common. If you were a low-level mage, it would be better to use small animals such as rats and sparrows as familiars, but Freskan was a mage at a position incomparable to such low-level mages.
This did not mean that the Freskan did not use small animals such as sparrows and mice as familiars. Such animals were common and had many advantages due to their small size. That’s where the difference between a high-level mage and a low-level mage became more obvious.
Control over familiars and the number of familiars they could own. How well they could analyze the information collected through a familiar.
Freskan used numerous critters to monitor the gates of Travia. Not just the gates. The gates of the central district, the entire central district. It was very hard work, but it was worth it. To catch the damn heart thief, Freskan was determined to take any measures necessary. That was because the heart created by the Freskan was the biwon that he wanted to achieve once he became a Lich.
But now.
“Vampire Queen…!”
Freskan grabbed his non-existent head. The dark mana that made up his body was greatly shaken by his swaying emotional state.
“Fucking, damned bastard! Four damn years! The damn heart thief!”
Geniella went into the inn where the heart thief had just entered. It didn’t take long for them to get out of the inn together and board the same carriage. The carriage stopped in front of a mansion in the middle of the central district. It was the residence of the Vampire Queen, brimming with red roses.
He didn’t know what kind of conversations they had exchanged. But one thing was for sure. The guy who had taken the heart that Freskan had spent his entire life making… had entered the Vampire Queen’s mansion.
‘What do I do?’
Freskan was forced to hesitate. No matter how full of madness he was, Freskan also knew that life was precious. Even if he was a Lich, who could be revived again and again as long as his Life Force was still intact, he was still bound to hesitate when confronting a monster as powerful as the Vampire Queen.
Right.
Freskan resolved to face the vampire queen and regain the precious heart. He didn’t know why the vampire queen took in that mercenary, but if he became the vampire queen’s blood bridge, Freskan would never be able to get his heart back.
That’s why he had to struggle. He had to face her and get it back. Absolutely. After all, it was he who created the heart.
That’s what he thought but-
Freskan was conflicted. He was afraid. The vampire queen was a merciless monster. If Freskan took her on, she would definitely destroy him without an afterthought.
“Let’s just wait and see.”
In the end, Freskan chose to compromise rather than struggle. He didn’t want to die so pointlessly. There was a lot of time, so the heart could be made again.
But the regret still remained. Freskan continued to stand in front of the crystal ball and peek into the vampire queen’s mansion. How much time had passed. After a few hours, the mansion’s gate opened. He arrived in a carriage, but he was walking out on foot. Freskan opened his eyes when he saw Lee Sungmin and Rubia coming out of the mansion. He wanted to expand the field of view of the familiar and take a closer look at them.
“… He didn’t become a vampire.”
Freskan said with a trembling voice. Oh, God. He prayed with his hands clasped together and shouted with joy and passion.
If he didn’t become a vampire, Freskan still had a chance.
“I won’t kill you. Yes… Yes, good. I’m going to make sure you don’t die, and then I’ll rip it out.”
But not right now. The central district was Geniella’s territory. Unless he knew what Geniella was thinking, he couldn’t attack him in the central district.
So he had to wait.
“Should I just turn him into an undead?”
Freskan grinned happily.
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