Oh, fuck…
I looked around the vampires everywhere while maintaining my poker face.
The [Floating Veil] brilliantly blocked all the rushing attacks.
Even in the game, this absolute defense, which was a 9-star skill, could not be penetrated by just this level.
But that was the end.
The only thing I could do in this situation was to stand still and defend, and I was just bluffing. If I opened my mouth, it would be over.
Still, the vampires all froze on the spot.
Now what?
If a full-fledged battle continued like this, we were going to lose.
I was too busy protecting my body, so it’s hard to use [Instant Kill].
And this was their home. It was possible for them to continuously replenish power.
No matter how much vampire Asher defeated, it would just be a fight with no end.
Damn, should I have been more careful about coming to this forest?
“I...!”
I turned my gaze away when I heard a bewildered voice next to me.
Asher, who was almost in my arms, couldn’t find a place to turn her gaze.
I sighed and let go of her shoulders. I was so nervous that I forgot.
Asher looked around the ruined radius with a slightly puzzled face.
I had never used the [Floating Veil] in front of her, except for a brief use during the Orc King’s attack.
I looked at the chief warrior again and said.
“Are you going to do more?”
The only thing I could do was to bluff, so I had no choice but to overcome the situation with that.
He didn’t respond and just stared at me. There was a look of tension in his eyes that differed from before.
“You were so confident before. How stupid.”
"..."
“You don’t know who I am, and you don’t know how much power gap there is between us. You should be glad that I don’t have any hostility towards you. Or your tribe would have all perished today.”
“Human, who are you?”
At my words, he asked with an angry expression.
It was the flow of conversation that I intended, so I tried to answer right away. And that was the moment.
“...?”
I sensed someone rushing from afar at a formidable speed.
Shwaah!
A bloody sphere that flew through the trees, drawing traces that were drooping.
The vampires looked at the sphere in surprise.
A sphere stopped in front of me. A little further from where I was standing, it slowly formed into a person and a woman appeared.
She put on the robe that she took out from the sphere and put it over her messy hair.
[Lv. 67]
“...Sister!”
The chief warrior shouted in amazement.
At that call, I immediately knew her identity.
Chieftain?
Aklina, chieftain of the Elrod Forest tribe.
It was just her unique blood technique to turn the body into blood itself.
After the chief warrior, now the chieftain had come out.
“You’re too close, sister! He’s a dangerous human, so step back!”
She looked around the ruins once and met my eyes.
“I heard that there are humans who rescued young vampires… Please explain what the situation is, Calderban.”
The chief warrior seemed to flinch at her cold voice.
“You did not report about what happened and then even attacked them?”
The chief warrior and the other vampires could say nothing.
The chieftain let out a small sigh and looked towards me. Her eyes and mine met.
“I am the chieftain, Aklina.”
"..."
“On behalf of the tribe, I sincerely apologize for the atrocities committed by my tribe members.”
I was relieved once I heard that.
It was because her attitude showed that she had no intention of attacking us.
Unlike the warriors, who were especially wary and hostile toward other races in the game, the chieftain had a relatively finite personality, like the head of a peaceful tribe.
Still, since they attacked first, I said.
“If it were any other ordinary human who came to this forest, they would have already died. Are you going to apologize to the cold corpse like you do now?”
The chieftain sighed once more and said.
“As you know, the awareness of vampires in the world is not very good. This is the only place we can live normally, so we have to be extremely sensitive to other races entering our tribe’s land. Please understand our situation a little.”
I just clicked my tongue once and said nothing more.
Anyway, I came all the way here, because I had my purpose.
But before that…
“I am the Seventh Lord of Calderic.”
Originally, I had no intention of saying anything. Because they would only be more vigilant.
However, given the situation, it’s important to make sure that none of what happened earlier happened again.
The topic I wanted to discuss with them was also a very sensitive issue directly related to the fate of their tribe.
At my words, the vampires, including the chieftain and the chief warrior, all seemed to be startled.
Even those who lived far away from the world cannot be unaware of the status and strength of the existence of a Lord in Calderic.
“A Lord?”
In particular, it was noticeable that the expression of the chieftain, who had remained calm, collapsed in an instant.
She asked in a slightly trembling voice.
“...As I recall, the Seventh Lord is not a human, but a beastman.”
What she was talking about was the former Seventh Lord.
She didn’t even know that the Seventh Lord’s seat was vacated by his death and that I had recently occupied it. Because in this forest, it was almost impossible to be updated from the current news.
“The former Seventh Lord was dead. And I am the new Lord.”
At my words, the chieftain only fell silent.
Now that a Lord had come to the forest, she must be feeling a great sense of crisis right now.
I went straight to the main topic.
“I have a story I want to tell you. Would you like to hear it?”
“...Story?”
“I came to this forest to take the vampire sisters, but I also have another purpose. It’s about the ‘blood crystal’ of your tribe.”
The vampires looked at me in amazement.
They wouldn’t have expected that the word ‘blood crystal’ would come out of the mouth of an outsider who came to the forest out of nowhere.
“How do you know about the ‘blood crystal’?”
The chieftain, who had come to her senses, now looked at me with hostile eyes.
Blood crystal.
It was the biggest trouble that the vampire tribes of the Elrod Forest currently harbored.
I couldn’t remember all the details of the background, but I remembered some important things roughly.
Ancestor Gascalid.
A time in the past, far before the tribes settled down in Elrod Forest.
Among the ancestors of these tribes was a powerful vampire.
He was an evil and ferocious vampire, unlike his descendants, who became a peaceful tribe. He was more like the current Sixth Lord.
He was defeated by an unknown archmage and was mortally wounded, and in the end, it was said that he died at the end of his life.
The death of a vampire did not differ from the death of other creatures. The bones and flesh rotted, and the body returned to nature.
However, he tried to maintain his existence until the moment of his death, not letting go of the lust for life.
That’s how ‘blood crystal’ was created.
A stone in which the soul and blood of Gascalid are sleeping.
I think one of the elder vampires explained how that was possible in the game, but I couldn’t remember. It was just a setting anyway, so it didn’t matter.
The important thing was that the descendants took care of the evil stone that was like an image of Gascalid.
Along with the prophecy that the day when Gascalid was resurrected was the day the tribe would be destroyed, they had been performing rituals for generations to quell the blood crystal.
But the problem was the aftermath of the ritual.
A ceremony in which the blood of the chieftain, who inherited the blood of Gascalid, sacrificed their own blood to calm the blood crystal.
It was a ritual that not only sacrificed the blood, but also ate away the vitality and spirit of the person who performed it.
In a word, the chieftain of the Elrod Forest was destined to be short-lived the more they performed the ritual.
Even now, it was barely sealed, so they couldn’t move it anywhere, and it would be irresponsible if they left it alone and left the forest.
Without being able to do this or that, the tribes of Elrod Forest had been squeezing the lives of the chieftain for generations.
And the reason I came to Elrod Forest was to solve that problem.
My purpose was to gain the vampire’s [Blood Art] ability that could be obtained in solving it.
“I know your ancestor, Gascalid.”
Now that we’re ready to talk to each other, it’s time to speak up.
The chieftain, who was staring at me, widened his eyes at those words.
“What just…?”
“It’s the reason I know about the cursed thing your ancestor placed on you.”
I unravelled the story I had envisioned in my head.
“Halion, the chieftain sealed the blood of Gascalid himself. Do you know?”
"..."
“If you are a chieftain, of course you know, since the records of your ancestors remain. I had a relationship with him, and he entrusted me with a request. One day, when the time is right, I was asked to completely annihilate the blood crystal.”
“Hold on, wait.”
She stopped me from contunuing. She had obviously become increasingly confused by my words.
“So… you mean a few hundred years ago when our ancestors were still alive?”
“Yes.”
At that, Asher looked back at me with a slightly startled expression.
Of course, it was a lie, but even if it was true, there was nothing wrong with it.
As one could see by looking at the Lords, for the superhumans who have crossed their boundaries in this world, the basic lifespan of a body was several hundred years.
I spoke with a slightly solemn face.
“I came here to keep that request. So, guide me to the place where the blood crystal is.”
It’s very absurd, but it’s hard not to believe it.
Or how would an outsider know about blood spririt and their ancestor?
I waited for the chieftain’s answer.
She, who had a complicated face as if in agony, bowed her head.
“I’m sorry, but you don’t have to.”
...Huh?
“This is a matter for our tribe. I can’t just listen to a few words and leave the matter of blood crystal to an outsider. I’m sorry if everything you say is really true, but if you care about us, please go back.”
The return was a resolute refusal.
I was a little embarrassed because I didn’t know that she would give me a knife-like refusal.
“No, sister. We need to hear more of the story…”
Rather, the chief warrior, who had been more hostile towards me, panicked and stopped her.
“Goodbye then.”
She bowed to me once more and turned around firmly.
I looked at the back with a bit of embarrassment and then opened my mouth again.
...At least, I couldn’t come this far and just give up.
“Then I’ll have to force my way in.”
At my words, her steps stopped.
Then she looked at me with a hardened face.
“Actually, I don’t need your permission. This is an oath between me and your ancestor, and it must be kept.”
“…Even though I said that you don’t need to?”
I said shamelessly in a cold voice.
“Yeah. So, if you don’t want more clashes, lead me to the blood crystal. I don’t want to see the blood of the descendants of my dead friend flow here.”
