kscans

Chapter 18 - A Cry for Help (With a Double Meaning)

◆ The Adventurer's Guild, Carolmana Branch (Several Days Ago) ◆

Fiiiiin, fiiiiin.

The eerie sound suddenly echoed through the pitch-black room.

"Whoa?! W-What’s that?!"

Startled awake by the strange noise, Ien, the branch manager of the Adventurer’s Guild in Carolmana Town, shot up in bed.

"What is that sound?!"

He immediately activated a magical light source and realized the sound was coming from the next room—the guildmaster’s office.

"You’ve got to be kidding me. This is what’s making that noise?"

Ien was shocked to see the source of the sound. It was something that shouldn’t have been active—or rather, something he’d hoped would never be active.

"The emergency communication device... Something terrible must have happened."

This magic item was incredibly convenient, capable of long-distance communication, but using it required an enormous amount of stored magical energy. As such, it was forbidden to be used for anything but the direst of emergencies. Using it for a trivial matter would result in severe punishment. Therefore, if it was being used, it meant a guild branch was facing a crisis of catastrophic proportions.

Steeling himself for the worst, Ien operated the device.

"This is the Fenesia branch! We have an emergency! The town is under attack by undead! We need reinforcements! Please, someone answer! Anyone!"

"This is the Carolmana branch. What happened? What’s the enemy’s strength? How long can you hold out?"

"Ien?! I don’t know! Undead just started appearing all over town! They just keep increasing in number, we can’t handle them!"

"Inside the town?! Did they break through the walls?!"

If the walls were breached, it was the worst-case scenario. It meant the enemy had an attack powerful enough to destroy thick stone walls. And if there was a hole, more enemies would pour through. By the time reinforcements from other towns arrived, it was highly likely Fenesia would already be annihilated.

"No! The walls haven’t been breached! They just appeared inside the town!"

"What did you say?!"

(Appeared without destroying the walls? The sewers? No, Fenesia Town doesn’t have a large-scale sewer system like the royal capital. Then where did they come from?)

"Please! Send help immediately!"

"Got it! We’ll send reinforcements right away! Just hold on and find somewhere to barricade yourself! Survive!"

Snapping back to his senses at the desperate plea, Ien shouted words of encouragement through the device. He didn't know how long they could last, but not sending help was out of the question. That’s what this emergency communicator was for.

"O-Okay, I’ll try to—uwaaaaaaahhh!!"

The sounds of something breaking—CRACK, CRASH—and the heavy tread of many feet echoed from the device, followed by the abrupt end of the scream.

"Hey! Hey! What happened?!"

He knew what had happened. His colleague had been attacked and killed. He just didn't want to admit it.

"Dammit!"

Biting his lip in frustration, Ien immediately left the room.

"This is an emergency! Gather all available adventurers at once!"

Even in the middle of the night, there were people at the guild. A night shift was always on standby precisely for situations like this, so that people could be gathered quickly.

After giving his subordinate instructions, Ien rushed to the lord’s manor. Given the gravity of the situation, he was obligated to report it to the lord.

"That lord... He’ll probably delay dispatching the knights to put Fenesia’s lord in his debt. Worst case, he might even try to obstruct our movements."

In fact, he was certain of it. That’s why, before he left, Ien had instructed his men to immediately send out any adventurers they could contact as an advance party, dispatching them individually.

But even that did little to ease the pit in his stomach. It took at least two days to get from this town to Fenesia, even at top speed. Gathering a sufficient fighting force would take even longer.

"Please, just be safe..."

Ien prayed for the safety of his comrades, trying to shake off the terrible premonition spreading through his chest. But his prayers, cruelly, would not be answered.

◆

Having taken control of the town, I was exploring the lord’s mansion by myself. Adolnel, who usually wanted to be by my side, had tried her best to stay up with me through the night. But her body, accustomed to a regular schedule, had finally given in to sleep.

This was actually quite fun, though. It felt like a treasure hunt—finding hidden shelves with fraudulent ledgers, or a secret basement full of treasures hidden behind suspiciously placed furniture. For some reason, I could just sense where these places were. I’m not sure how to describe it, but I could feel a sort of murky, stagnant something in those spots. I’ve heard that vampires are composed more of magical energy than physical matter, so maybe I was sensing these hidden things with something other than my eyes.

"Ooh, found the library."

This time, I discovered a rather spacious library and immediately started browsing the books.

"Lots of history books. Books on warfare, too... oh, and some about magic and monsters."

The collection was a mix of new and old books, clearly amassed over a long period of time.

"I guess the previous lords collected them?"

The books on war and martial arts were tattered and in poor condition, while those on history and culture were clean but showed signs of having been read many times over. The preferred genres must have varied with each generation of lords.

"But even the tattered books have a sort of warmth to them. Maybe they were their owners’ favorites, too."

Though a book lover would probably find their dilapidated state unforgivable.

"Ah, picture books."

On a lower shelf near the library entrance, I found a collection of what were clearly children’s picture books. As you’d expect from books read by children, they were quite damaged. I could imagine energetic kids waving them around as they begged their parents or maids to read to them.

"But I’m sure Adolnel never had a single one of these books read to her."

In fact, considering her circumstances, she probably didn’t even know these books existed.

"...Let’s look at something else."

I picked up a book about monsters. It was filled with descriptions of monsters I’d never heard of, detailing their habitats, their strength, their weaknesses, and more. Ooh, this is useful. This could come in handy later.

"Ah, a book about Father."

Among the tomes, I found one titled The Great Vampire Duke of the Cursed Sea.

"Let’s see, let’s see."

I opened the book and read about the battles humans had fought against my father.

—One day, a man appeared claiming to have found a castle deep within the forest—

—People laughed, dismissing it as a delusion, but after numerous similar sightings, an investigation was launched—

—Thus, the castle deep in the forest was discovered, and with it, the existence of the terrifying vampire who resided there became known to the world—

—The vampire was one of the six so-called Progenitors, the strongest of their kind. His name was Voylard Chromshell—

—The kingdom dispatched a knight order to subjugate the fearsome vampire, but not a single one returned—

—Staking its national pride, the kingdom resolved to defeat the vampire, and with the aid of neighboring countries and the Church, it challenged him—

—The result was the complete annihilation of the human forces—

—That night, the kingdom fell to the vampire’s retribution—

—In the years that followed, new nations rose and fell, challenging the vampire for territorial expansion and the forest’s rich resources, but not once could they defeat him, and each met its ruin—

—Eventually, the vampire’s forest came to be known as the Great Cursed Sea, and people became so fearful that they dared not even speak his name, referring to him only by his title: the Great Vampire Duke—

That was more or less the gist of what was written in the book.

"My father is way too strong!"

What is this? If this book is true, Father has destroyed entire nations! Isn’t he too powerful? And it says that multiple countries formed an alliance to attack him at one point. The fact that he repelled them is insane. By a rough estimate, that must have been a battle of hundreds of thousands against a few hundred. That’s overwhelming numerical superiority. It’s hard to imagine winning against that.

"Just how strong are Progenitors?"

I was, for the first time, truly shocked by my own father’s strength.

"And since it’s written in a human book that they lost, it’s not like they would have exaggerated the numbers to make themselves look better. This must have really happened."

Wow, I’ve stumbled upon a rather incredible fact.

"If I train hard enough, I wonder if I can become strong enough to fight a whole country head-on, too. Maybe not on his level, but still."

Hmm, the path of a vampire is a steep one.

"Any other interesting books... huh?"

As I wandered through the library, scanning the titles, I noticed something odd about one of the bookshelves.

"What’s this?"

Behind the rows of books on the shelf, I sensed something hidden, just like I had with the secret compartments.

"Is this... a book? The title is... Curses and Calamities?"

Intrigued by the ominously titled book, I opened it.

"Why would this be hidden?"

As the title suggested, the book was about curses and the damage they cause. But when I turned to a certain page, I understood why it had been concealed.

"Cursed Violet Eyes..."

There was a section dedicated to the Cursed Violet Eyes.

"Cursed Violet Eyes are purple pupils that manifest in the accursed. It is said that misfortunes occur around those who possess these eyes, and for this reason, they are shunned. Furthermore, many individuals with Cursed Violet Eyes have been known to commit heinous crimes, which is another reason for their ostracization."

I see. So people hate them because bad things happen around them.

"But heinous crimes? Adolnel doesn’t seem like the type of girl to do something like that."

Besides, if she were really the type to commit heinous crimes, wouldn’t she have killed her abusive father and run away a long time ago?

"And the ‘bad things’ part is pretty vague, too. It doesn’t mention any specific incidents, so it’s questionable whether the Cursed Violet Eyes are really related."

Are the Cursed Violet Eyes really that ominous? I turned the page, continuing to read about them.

"Water shortages, poor harvests, monster outbreaks, storms, heavy snow... These are just natural phenomena. The monster outbreaks were probably just due to food shortages driving them to human settlements... There’s nothing about curses here."

If anything, wouldn’t the lord have read this and dismissed it all as mere superstition?

"I don’t get it. Why was Adolnel treated so badly?"

One possibility was the incredible deliciousness of her blood, but that was only a benefit for vampires. If there was a risk of vampires attacking to get her blood, I could understand the fear, given the town’s location, but there was nothing written about that.

"Hmm, I guess it’s just superstition after all."

Since I couldn’t find any other information, I put the book back where I found it. It would only upset Adolnel if she saw it.

"Alright, I guess I’ll go check on the town. I doubt there are any survivors, but you never know."

I was enjoying a leisurely stroll through the town when I reached the edge and realized I had made a major blunder.

"Ah, I left the town gate wide open."

That’s right. I had left the gates, which were opened when I attacked the town, just as they were.

"Umm... does that mean... someone saw inside the town...?"

Did someone see the deserted, blood-soaked town, devoid of any living humans?

"N-No, no, the undead were probably hiding in dark places during the day, and they would have only seen an empty town, but still... that’s bad!"

Dammit! That night, I was so busy almost burning to death that I completely forgot to close the gates!

"B-But I attacked all the humans along the main road to use as part of my attack force, so probably no one has come to the town yet! I’m sure it’s fine!"

Needless to say, this major oversight would lead to an unexpectedly huge uproar...