Late at night, I got out of the inn and took a light stroll along the street.
Asher was still watching Gulpiro’s shop, so I was alone.
I wasn’t just being overly worried.
Whether it was someone from Santea or someone sent by the Tyrant, it wouldn’t be strange if either side approached Gulpiro for the meantime. Even if the possibility was slim, we still need to be vigilant.
Just look at what happened at Gaitain Lake. Would one even imagine that as soon as I left, the chief mage of Santea’s Imperial Family would suddenly appear and attack the Seawater tribe?
“How much is this?”
“It’s just 10 copper coins, my dear.”
I bought a snack to eat on the night street where the night market was open.
After I left, I thought I should bring some to Asher, so I bought her share as well.
And as I was moving to the potion shop, my [Super Sensory] felt a weak energy.
“...?”
I hurriedly ran towards the potion shop with a hardened expression.
When I reached the store while avoiding the eyes of passers-by and using [Space Leap], I saw the messy interior seen through the window and Asher holding a sword.
Whew….
What happened?
But luckily, I was not too late, so I stopped running and entered the store.
As if my appearance was sudden, Asher and Gulpiro looked at me in amazement.
“Didn’t I tell you she would be around to keep you safe?”
Saying that to Gulpiro, I turned his gaze away.
A man and a woman in robes.
I checked the woman’s face and tilted my head. Reef?
'Why is she here again?'
She, too, was looking at Asher and I with a look of bewilderment.
[Lv. 63]
The one who appeared to be the intruder was a man. From the outside, it looked like a vampire.
Could it be that the Tyrant really send someone?
“What are you doing, vampire?”
There was no reply from him.
The man who had been silent suddenly stretched out his hand to me. Blood-red flames rose in the air.
I immediately used Gascalid’s [Blood Art].
Then the flame went out and disappeared without a trace in an instant.
“What, what?”
The guy let out a hoarse voice.
I unleashed the [Blood Art] that I had stolen from him and gave it back as it was. An explosive burst of blood covered him.
The guy fell to the floor. He held on to one arm the explosion had completely torn that out and let out a suppressed scream.
“Ahhh!”
That’s pretty much what this ability was.
Gascalid’s [Blood Art] was a perfect counter against vampires.
I stood in front of the other.
“Did the Sixth Lord send you?”
When I asked that question, blood rose again in my hand, and he shook his head urgently.
“Oh, no! It has nothing to do with the Sixth Lord!”
“Then what?”
“That, that’s…”
He hesitated to answer with a pale, tired face.
Come to think of it, were there quite a few vampires from the same homeland as the Sixth Lord and living in Mahea City?
Some were in the territory’s castle, and some were forming separate organizations and licking the feet of the Sixth Lord… Ah.
'Is it that one?'
Nolhave, the number one intelligence organization in the Sixth Lord’s territory.
I suddenly thought that he was related to the information organization, so I asked.
“Are you from Nolhave?”
“...!”
For a moment, the man’s eyelids trembled.
I was convinced that my guess was correct and asked Gulpiro.
“Did this guy come to you knowing your identity?”
“...Yes. I’m not sure how he found out.”
Then it’s enough to find out now.
I looked back at the vampire and asked.
“From now on, if you hesitate to answer even a bit, I will kill you. How do you know that Gulpiro is here?”
As I made the flame bigger, he hurriedly opened his mouth.
“It’s just a coincidence! I found out by chance!”
“Please explain.”
The following explanation was as follows.
The time when the great alchemist Gulpiro and his arrival in the city overlapped, the treatment of a patient with an incurable disease, and even the appearance.
After hearing all the explanations, I looked back at Gulpiro with a slightly puzzled face.
He, too, burst into laughter.
“You only found out because of that? Heh…”
Anyway, I was relieved.
If it was really from the Tyrant’s side, I’d be entangled with him again and things would be annoying.
“So, it means that you eventually raided the store after coveting the Elixir.”
I frowned and looked down at him coldly.
He knew the true identity of Gulpiro, so there was no reason to show mercy.
His complexion grew even whiter as he had foreseen his end.
“Come on, wait a minute…!”
His whole body was engulfed in flames.
The wildly fluttering flames burned him up in an instant, leaving no corpse behind.
“Heh, really….”
Gulpiro sighed and said to me and Asher.
“Thank you. Thanks to you two, I survived. I could have been in real trouble.”
I nodded and looked at the one remaining.
The woman who caught my gaze was startled and stepped back.
...So why was she here?
I was curious about the details, so I was going to ask Gulpiro, but he asked me something first.
“By the way, how did you do that? It looked like you stole the vampire’s powers.”
I answered simply.
“It’s true that I stole his [Blood Art].”
“Hey, how is that even possible? There’s no way it’s magic, maybe it’s a Mystery?”
I didn’t give him a detailed answer.
“Tsk, take away [Blood Art]?”
At that moment, the woman who had still kept her mouth shut and let out a trembling voice.
When I looked again, she was staring blankly at me with a confused expression on her face.
“You can steal [Blood Art]? Really?”
“Yes...”
I couldn’t even continue speaking.
Because she fell to her knees on the floor out of nowhere.
“Please help, my lord. My, my brother has light blood disease.”
“·...”
“If you can steal [Blood Art], you can also cure that disease, right? So please…”
I looked down at her desperately begging with narrowed eyes.
Understanding what my gaze meant, she put her forehead on the floor and bowed her head.
“Please, my lord… If there is anything you want me to do, I will do anything. I will give all of my possessions. If you want me to bark like a dog, I will bark like a dog. Please only my brother…”
“Stop.”
I cut her off.
“I can’t cure your brother.”
“...”
“This is taking away the [Blood Art] itself, not the ability to heal someone who was affected by another vampire’s [Blood Art].”
Light blood disease was a disease that disappeared from the world only after the death of the Tyrant. At least as far as I know, that was the case.
Even if I take away the Tyrant’s [Blood Art], there was no way to cure someone who was already suffering from light blood disease.
That’s because it wasn’t an ability that he could control arbitrarily.
She slowly raised her head and looked up at me in vain. It was a face full of despair.
She hurriedly turned to Gulpiro this time.
“Eh, Elixir. If it’s an Elixir? If it’s an Elixir, isn’t it supposed to heal my younger brother? Yes?
“It cannot be cured.”
Gulpiro firmly shook his head.
“Didn’t I tell you what kind of disease light blood disease is? Any potion that contains even a little magical power will only be poisonous. Even if it’s an elixir.”
Her body hardened like a stone statue.
After sitting still for a long time, she muttered.
“...Why?”
With an expression full of anger and resentment, she shouted like a scream.
“Why, why! Why not! It’s an elixir! It’s a new drug that brings the dead back to life! But why!”
“...”
“Why are you saying you can’t cure a single disease, damn why… why is everyone saying no… why…”
She staggered and stood up.
She then walked out of the store with a precarious pace that seemed to collapse at any moment.
I, Gulpiro, and Asher also just stared at her like that without saying a word.
***
After wandering the streets, returning home, Reef hurried up the stairs to the noise from upstairs.
The caregiver was holding the boy with her whole body; he was vomiting blood. Dark red veins were oozing out of his body.
“…!”
Reef wrestled with the caregiver for a while, barely calming the boy.
Around dawn, she called a doctor to check on her brother’s condition.
The boy who examined the boy’s body shook his head and said.
“The limit has come. Didn’t I tell you, just being alive until now was already a miracle?”
“...”
With the doctor and the caregiver gone, Reef was left alone in the room, looking down at her brother, who was breathing heavily.
My head felt like it was going to break.
She grabbed her forehead with both hands and bowed her head. And she sobbed quietly.
Now she really didn’t have a choice.
***
From early morning, a huge crowd gathered at the stadium of Actipol.
It used to be a place where many people usually gathered during games, but today it was especially severe.
It was a perfectly normal phenomenon.
Because today’s match in Actipol was more special than anything else.
All the spectators flocked with anticipation to watch the championship match, something that rarely occured.
“She challenged the champion. Can we finally see Reef’s neck fly off today?”
“Haha, we don’t know. She’s a tough bitch who had survived all the battles everyone expected she would never win.”
“That’s right, too. So you’re betting on Reef?”
“No, I still have to bet my money on the champion. She’s still not enough to defeat Gillock.”
“What? Haha!”
Gillock, the champion of the iron wall, who had achieved overwhelming victories in over 10 defense battles so far.
The challenger was Reef, who had risen to the rank of a gladiator of the fifth order faster than anyone in the past few years.
Even before the match started, the audience was already full of excitement and enthusiasm.
The beaters urged people to place their bets, and each raised their voices to predict the outcome of the match.
“But, somehow, it feels like she rushed to challenge for the title of champion.”
“It’s understandable though? Her brother has light blood disease. It looks like he’s already close to dying.”
“Oh, right? Then, if she loses this time, even the younger brother will immediately follow his sister and die, huh?”
Few were ignorant of the circumstances of Reef, the most famous of Actipol’s gladiators.
Trying to become a champion in order to cure her younger brother who has light blood disease.
Of course, no one in the audience sympathized with Reef, even if that was the case.
Even that earnestness was only an exciting background for them that would make her final ending even more miserable.
In the waiting room, Reef sat in a chair without moving.
She bowed her head and looked down at her clenched fists.
Her mind was strangely calm. No, rather than calm, it was empty.
“...”
Yeah, she didn’t know what she was expecting.
From the beginning, there was nowhere to lean on.
She didn’t need anyone’s sympathy or help. She expected nothing like that.
Didn’t she decide on the day she entered Actipol, the day she desperately won her first match?
She must become a champion and heal her younger brother…
“Come out. It’s time to enter.”
Now the end had just come.
At the words of the soldier who entered the waiting room, Reef stood up. And she drew the sword from her waist.
As she walked down the long, dark corridor and passed through the wide open iron windows, she saw the blue sky and the crowds in all directions.
Waaa!
Disgusting shouts filled with anticipation and excitement rang out.
Reef shook her head.
At the highest point of the stadium, she could see the Sixth Lord with his chin resting on his hand that was on the armrest of a chair.
-...Next, the current champion, Gillock, enters!
She lowered his gaze again and stared at the iron window on the other side, which was slowly rising.
Her eyes were full of murder as she looked at Gillock as he walked into the arena.
