AbyssRaven
patreon
Chapter 285: Vampires. [Second Draft]
🕑 Added 2022-02-23 23:37:30 +0000 UTCEdit: Very small change to close a plot hole.
____________________________
<21 humans have become your followers>
<Total follower count updated. Total follower of [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]: 7878>
“I am a vampire. A vampire bloodling, if you want to be specific.”
The grand re-opening and rebranding of restaurant Aurora as a fine dining establishment was not only an extremely hectic day but also a very stressful affair. Though, that much was only to be expected, honestly.
Not only did we promote our restaurant to the senators of Estralia through the merchant guild, but I also informed King Drangleic and his seven dukes about it. With all of them bringing their families to experience this new event, every single table was occupied. Even then, once word spread through the grapevine about it, more people wanted to come in, forcing us to put up a queue.
Beforehand, we accounted for only our VIPs, which meant 21 groups from Gleisvale and eight from Artorias. 29 tables were divided between six waiters and waitresses, which included Svena as the head waitress. But, it became clear right at the beginning that we needed more help, and thankfully, Lorena and Haati were willing to help out. Apparently, Svena had trained them up in case this would have happened.
Now, while I did say the restaurant was full, I didn’t mean every senator actually came or, if they did, in a large group. Some senators came only with each other, while I learned later on some didn’t even come in the first place. This allowed other important guests to take their place.
On the other hand, the king and all the dukes came with their closest family members. The test service was so successful they practically couldn’t help but admit they’d been waiting for this in anticipation, up until the very moment we opened the restaurant. And it’s only been a few days since the test.
Once the kitchen had opened, everything happened exactly as you would expect for a busy restaurant. I had thought the kitchen would falter a bit since there were even more people around this time, but through Tamae’s immaculate leadership, they barely had any trouble outside of the dishes not being cleaned fast enough. In fact, the waiters up front were the ones that suffered from the most issues.
Ellaine and I led the musical entertainment for the night, so we had a front-row view of the senators being baffled at how the Artorian king and his nobles could possibly be here. They initially thought they had somehow been transported to Estralia for the day, but I quickly refuted this, simply telling the senators that the Artorians had entered the restaurant from Artorias, leaving them flabbergasted. I didn’t enlighten them any further and just let things flow.
And by “flow,” I meant letting the politicking and business negotiations begin.
Honestly, it was too boring for me to listen to. I couldn’t help it. I found their delight over the food far more interesting. It gave me a sense of success, seeing as everybody apparently loved the food Tamae and I placed on the menu.
However, pleasantries aside, this was still a political move to make it clear where Artorias stood in my relationship network. Considering I invited the King of Artorias and his seven dukes, it was clear we were good acquaintances at the very least. In addition, I had told the dukes and the King that we needed to find a senator we could safely support, so this allowed them to help me out a bit on that front.
After one table left, the next came in from our queue. A majority came from Artorias, as the dukes actively bragged about eating at the restaurant trial to their relatives and friends. I made some followers from it, but they were too focused on the food to fully immerse themselves in my music.
Regardless, all I wanted to see was the restaurant being a success. I could tell Saori was quite happy when the service ended, even if it wasn’t under her full control anymore. This was her idea, after all. She just couldn’t realize it due to her lack of experience managing a restaurant. Whether she will return to the kitchen or not would be a question for the future, but for now, we had something else to talk about.
Sitting on a sofa surrounded by nearly everybody else from Aurora was Elrick von Karstein. A member of the Knights of Aurena, a profession which you could call a paladin or holy knight considering his skill set. A handsome man with bright blond hair; the perfect image of a lawful young man in the service of the Goddess of Light.
Well, until you realize this man now had ears almost as sharp as an elf’s, dark red eyes, and two fangs protruding from his closed mouth. He still looked like Elrick, at the end of the day, but the fact he wasn’t human was a real surprise.
“A bloodling?” Asaka asked. She was probably the one most shocked by this revelation.
“A young vampire who hasn’t awakened their full vampiric abilities yet. I hid a lot of information from my ID, but not my age.” Elrick spoke slowly and concisely, looking slightly saddened at how Asaka looked at him. I didn’t know if he was feeling bad for hiding this information or ‘cause he was found out.
“W-When were you transformed into a vampire? When were you bitten?” Asaka continued, still trying to grasp the situation, but her confusion only led to Elrick himself getting confused as well.
Hmm?
Noticing some misunderstandings were at play, Yorshka asked us if we knew anything about vampires beforehand. Outside of the fact vampires were created by the Goddess of Vampires, Vivachel, all we knew about them was the folktales and pop fiction of Earth.
Once we explained it to them, Yorshka quickly nodded and stated that people couldn’t be turned into vampires in this world. Vampires and half-vampires could only be born; they couldn’t inject some virus or something into somebody’s body to transform them.
“Vampires are a subrace of dark elves, everybody,” Tasianna pointed at her elven ears. “Similar to how wind and dark elves are variants of high elves, the vivachaerii — elvish for children of Vivachel — are variants of dark elves.”
“Ah… so that’s why your ears are almost as long as Tasianna’s in her elven form,” Kazumi noted.
I looked at him from top to bottom, noting how his skin wasn’t as grayish as Krymdar’s. I wouldn’t say it out loud, but he didn’t really look like a dark elf at first glance. But then again, neither did that vampire woman from before.
“So, uhm…” Kohaku hesitated, darting her head around to see our opinions on the subject. However, she couldn’t ask him the question in the room outright, leaving it to Nishio to speak it out.
“Sir Elrick, seeing as you’ve been a vampire for all this time, why and how did you become a knight of the church of Aurena? I thought they only tolerated dark mages and dark elves to prevent hostile actions. Why would you join them as a vampire?”
“Why I exactly joined the church is something I would like to keep to myself, but rest assured, my faith and loyalty to the Goddess is far stronger than what I have towards the Goddess of Vampires,” Elrick stated with unwavering eyes. “I believe my life and destiny belong in the Goddess’ hands, and I will sacrifice my life for Her if I had to. Mayhaps the priests think of me and my race as abominations, but as long as I can keep my [Humanize] up, I will play the part of a holy knight.”
“Not ‘mayhaps,’ Elrick. The fact your kind requires blood to restrain your feral urges and control your blood magic makes you even harder to tolerate for the priests and bishops,” Yorshka interjected while shaking her head.
Yorshka gave us a rundown of what characteristics vampires had which differentiated them from dark elves, outside of the visual differences. For one, unlike normal mages, every vampire was born with the ability to use blood magic as a racial ability. A compound element composed out of water and dark at its core, and vampires had amazing affinity for it and could draw out more of its potential.
Secondly, vampires did need to drink blood similar to Earth’s perception of them. Younger vampires required them to suppress their hunting urges, which could be called a desire to become stronger. The reason being that the total mana capacity and regeneration of a vampire was directly related to how recent their last “drink” was. Elrick’s “Mana” on his profile was as low as a human’s, since he had to suppress his instincts in order to blend in properly.
And lastly, vampires weren’t weak to sunlight, but they did become stronger during the night. Like Saori’s [Night’s Caress] skill, vampires received an increase in stats so long as the moon shone on them. Elrick called it the “veil of our progenitor,” similar to how dark mages considered the night the warm embrace of Marsven and Edna — like a father and mother placing a comforter on you while you sleep.
Of course, a few things from Earth didn’t apply to Peolyncian vampires. They weren’t weak to silver nor were they invisible in a mirror. They could enter houses even without permission, had no problem eating garlic, and they weren’t any more immortal than a normal dark elf. They just have a ridiculously long lifespan.
Weakness- and resistance-wise, vampires were quite vulnerable against fire and holy elemental attacks, while resistant against water and dark. This also applied to the respective component elements, so something like my [White Flames] would totally destroy Elrick. On the other hand, blood magic was almost useless against him.
“The irony of a vampire becoming a paladin under the church of the Goddess of Light…” Saori commented, causing everybody to nod.
“Sir Elrick, doesn’t it hurt when you cast a holy spell? Shouldn’t it be extremely hard for you to level up [Holy Magic]?” Tatsuya followed up.
“It doesn’t when I’m wearing armor resistant against holy spells, Tatsuya,” Elrick answered with the obvious, causing Tatsuya to facepalm. “Haha, don’t worry about it. The situation is truly rare, so common sense wouldn’t work here. But, yes, without being in my armor, I would not dare cast a holy spell. It is also a wonder that I managed to get my [Holy Magic] up to level six despite my disadvantages.”
Elrick clenched his left hand into a fist, looking at it with a wry smile. “I probably could have improved faster if I had given in and drank blood to recover, but I considered that a sin. If I had done it, I would not have been worthy of championing the Goddess’ faith.”
The room went silent, only broken once Asaka spoke out.
“… What about your family? You told me your family was part of the Empire and that your sister went to Aleistunum.”
“We have kept our secret well enough, since we could transform into humans. We also regularly import goods from our race’s capital, which I cannot tell you exactly as it’s a secret. I presume the Emperor and those close to him probably are in the know, but since we have served the Goddess for generations, I don’t think they consider us a big threat anymore.”
“Generations?”
“We cycle out members. Those too old in comparison to humans move back to our capital or to other lands. You could say, we enjoy our ‘limited time,’ until we have to ‘die’ like any other human. Similar to any other elf, we vampires have an extremely low birth rate, even if we wed humans, so overpopulation was never a problem.”
In a way, that is a very sad life, huh? All these secrets, just to live amongst humans.
“Still, while I had my reason, I do have to apologize to you, Lady Asaka, and to everybody else for keeping this secret for this long. I tried to suppress my need for blood for this long, but I couldn’t do it any longer.”
Asaka had mentioned how Elrick hasn’t been looking too good recently. Almost as if he was sick. I had also noticed how Elrick stared at the blood pool after we dispatched the slave bandits during our entry into Gleisvale.
Yorshka then cleared up that Elrick has been drinking mostly the blood of small animals as a way to quench his thirst. Usually, the more mana the creature had in its blood, the better its effects on the vampires. Therefore, vampires didn’t need to feed on humans or any humanoids, but could do it on monsters. It was just hard to do it on good targets while remaining inconspicuous.
“Looking at Elrick’s complexion, he probably needs another session soon. It was a dying cartel member, right? Some random person probably won’t do it,” Yorshka informed us, completely glossing over that Elrick just drank from a human.
However, Elrick didn’t. He bowed his head deeply, not bringing it up as he continued his apology. “I understand my presence might be dangerous to everybody, as such, I shall take my leave from the company. I shall report that Knight-Captain Yorshka has been more competent than me, and therefore, she can keep saint candidate Asaka Hanazawa safe better than I ever could.”
As Elrick stood up, Asaka jumped up and stopped him from going away. “Stop!” she ordered him with an outstretched arm. “What are you trying to do? That isn’t a reason for you to leave.”
“It is, Lady Asaka.” However, Elrick was stubborn with his answer. “As a vampire, I cannot serve you anymore. In addition, I can feel myself waning in strength. As your protector, I have failed too often during our travels together while I haven’t been able to keep up with the amount of progression all of you Heroes have experienced.”
“Failed? When? As you can see, I’m still alive and haven’t lost a limb yet.”
“That doesn’t mean I am suitable. During the bandit subjugation, you nearly died because I couldn’t defeat my opponent. In the Belzac forest, you went missing and I nearly let multiple Heroes die because I was reluctant about using my blood magic. Even today, what did I do to protect you from the bomb? Nothing. It is obvious, Lady Asaka.”
He then turned his eyes towards me. “And, from the look of it, I don’t think I fit in this company. Champion Hestia, our goals misalign. I believe it would be best for me to leave.”
I raised an eyebrow, confused what he meant with that. “How so? Haven’t I told you that I’m a champion of Aurena? I’m working for her.”
“But your goal is to root out the corruption inside the church. To banish the demonkin posing as our pope. On the other hand, I am a knight meant to protect her Holiness’ religious symbol, which is her church. Do I draw my sword against the organization my family has followed for generations, or do I lay my blade down? I cannot fight you, for that would be betraying the Goddess.”
What is this sorta internal conflict?!
It was obvious Elrick understood what was going on, but it seemed like his heart wasn’t fully onboard with our objective despite fighting with us being the correct answer here. If you were dedicated to Aurena, isn’t listening to her divine Quest the right thing to do?
“If you need blood, we technically have enough of it.” Saori sliced open her thumb with her claws and presented it to Elrick before licking it away herself. “For our runes, Hestia and I used to fill buckets full of our monster form’s blood for Grimnir’s use. It is a bit disgusting having somebody drink it — the thought of it is not pleasant — but it is not a problem in my book.”
“I find it gross,” I gave Saori a weirded-out expression, to which she shrugged and countered by how I let her drink my blood before she evolved. “Hey! That was different, okay!”
“You also let that albino boy, Amadeus, drink a potion made with your blood, Hestia.”
“Jeez, alright, Saori! Cut it out, will you? I’ve just been more conscious about it after Mother drove in the point that I should be careful about letting others take my blood and scales. Besides, you’re family to me, so I don’t really care if you were to drink my blood or not.”
In Amadeus’s and Saori’s case, I did it to help them out, and you could say Elrick needed my help here, too. But, I guessed I was just apprehensive about it. Maybe I was using Mother as an excuse to not give a stubborn dick like Elrick my blood.
I didn’t mean to reject the thought of it completely, as I wanted to stay neutral here. My impression of him has soured since we met, but as the leader of this company, I didn’t want to be biased about it. However, Elrick’s intuition probably understood my thoughts on him and he turned around, again. This time, nobody seemed to want to stop him…
… except for Asaka.
“Then take my blood. You don’t need to go, Elrick. You know, the moment you leave, somebody else from the church will come to replace you. You aren’t helping anybody by leaving like this.”
“… Thank you, Lady Asaka, but you know I can’t take your blood. It will be fine, please, trust me.” He left the communal room with that final smile.
Asaka clicked her tongue and jolted her head at me, glaring at me for what I said.
What? I don’t care about him after what he did to those slaves-forced -to-be-bandits. Even if they did try to rob us, not like they had a chance. How many of them were actually innocent? I don’t care if his thoughts on slaves conflicted with mine, when he killed them in cold blood.
Seeing how nonchalant I was with my dislike of Elrick, Asaka looked conflicted, as if she was singled out. With me turning into a less ideal candidate to throw her anger at, she turned to Yorshka.
“Why didn’t you stop him? You were the only one who knew about it, so why didn’t you say anything?”
“Because this was his choice, Asaka. Calm down.” The usually carefree Yorshka sighed and began speaking to Asaka as if she was a child giving a tantrum. “The church of Aurena considers vampires almost as bad as grimgarians, you see, and to humans and many other races, grimgarians are nothing more than monsters, even if they were born as a subspecies of the dark elves.”
“That doesn’t answer the question. Why did you let him leave? You know our goal is to bring down the church since they are clearly the enemies here. The demonkins summoned us all to Peolynca and it’s obvious they are trying to do something with our presence here. What exactly it is, we don’t know, so the only way we can find out is to support Hestia and Aurora in their mission.”
“Asaka-san,” Tamae chimed in. “I think Sir Elrick was just trying to look out for us. We are technically already on the ‘wrong side’ by working with Hesti-chan. If they find out we are planning to take the pope down, we will get all the enemies we could ever wish for. But that is hard to find out, aside from us admitting it.”
“But learning that Elrick is a vampire is easy,” Kyouya added. “He couldn’t control his urges today and had to drink blood. Somebody outside our group even saw him in the process. Dame Yorshka even mentioned how she could smell the blood on him whenever he finished drinking. Isn’t that how we know that one lady who came to the pastry shop was a vampire? Sensei, could you sniff them out?”
Saori scratched her nose, looking unsure. “Well… maybe? I mean, I could not smell it before since I was not aware of it, but after learning about it today, I might be able to sense it. It has a strong metallic and charcoal scent, like burning something on a pan. There is a hint of sulfur, too. You could probably hide it with garlic or onions, honestly.”
“And that’s how Elrick did it.” Yorshka nodded.
“Hey, wasn’t Sir Elrick’s favorite food garlic soup with plenty of herbs?” Misaki replied, causing most of the students to stare at her in surprise. The irony of a vampire hiding themselves with garlic.
“Fuck…” Asaka slumped down on the sofa, defeated and exhausted. “What the hell is with today? First, those two weird elf ladies we met, then that racist attack against our company, and now this crap.”
Asaka then pulled out an amulet from her storage and threw it onto the table before us. “I don’t want to explain this crap, again. What are we gonna do with the damn thing? It’s too ominous.”
The metal pendant didn’t look too out of place at first nor did the onyx-colored catalyst embedded in the middle. However, after I appraised it, this [Amulet of the Blessed Spirit] sent a chill down my spine. If the elf who gave Asaka this item was a necromancer, then she might know about the vampire elf, right? Two followers of Marsven’s daughters, and I remembered the vampire mentioning she had a sister.
We really only had one option.
“I think we should destro—” I was about to give my answer, only to be interrupted by a loud voice in my head.
[“Keep it with you, honey.”]
And we all turned to Ellaine.
“K-Klea?!” Ellaine stuttered as she looked at the mana rings on her fingers.
[“I repeat, I personally believe you should continue wearing that thing. Not openly, mind you.”]
What is this demon thinking?!
“Are you trying to betray us, demon?” Grimnir glared at the rings. “We made it clear this amulet came from a dubious source. Actually, maybe this is reason enough to destroy it! Lad, fetch me my hammer!”
“Right away, Master!” Like a puppy, Daichi dashed out of the room so fast none of us could react to the situation.
Therefore, we completely ignored him while Grimnir stood up and approached the amulet, only to be stopped by Klea’Hatma again.
[“I heard you loud enough, don’t worry, but I am not trying to mess with you here. In fact, I am telling you to keep this amulet on because I think the outcome of not destroying it will be more fun for me to watch.”]
“… You know something, right?” I squinted my eyes, clearly seeing the smirk the demon had right now.
[“Do I really need to answer that? Just saying, all you need to know is that the correct choice is to keep it and continue, besides, didn’t that elf say she’s an ally?”]
“She did,” Asaka confirmed while scratching her head.
“And you mentioned she had a weird accent, correct?” Yorshka posed a question that didn’t contribute to this discussion, but Asaka confirmed it anyway. Once done, Tasianna raised her hadn.
“Were she also a dark elf or vampire, would they truly want to harm us?” Tasianna brought up. “I know we need to be careful, but maybe she is trying to help us in her own way?”
“Help with what?” Nishio adjusted his glasses, letting his displeasure at all these mysteries out. “Being cryptic only leaves us paranoid. Demon, answer us already. You know what this thing means, right? Is it a demonic artifact? Huh?”
[“All you need to know is that this thing won’t harm you. That’s all. Just think of this situation as a way to control me. I am actually flailing around right now at how everything will resolve! This is getting interesting!”]
Urgh…
At the end of the day, we decided to heed the demon’s advice. Maybe it was good, maybe it wasn’t. Although, this might be a good chance for us to understand more about her and where she stood. Was she too much of a wild card to control? If so, I will have to force Ellaine to accept Aurena’s advice and have her tamed completely. Ellaine will get Klea’Hatma’s powers and the demon will be pacified forever. No risks, high reward.
After this discussion, we brought up the mana battery the sneak crew got from the cartel boss, causing Grimnir to stomp his feet. Apparently, the battery wasn’t made by the dwarves, mentioning the techniques used in the creation of this battery were unrefined imitations.
“I’m joining in, Saori. If you are going to that facility, I’m going with you!” Grimnir pounded his blasthammer on the ground after Daichi retrieved it.
“Me, too! I shall come with you!” Like master, like apprentice.
The Magical Biscuit, outside of Tamae, mentioned they would concentrate on fulfilling the Quests they received today to gain money and rank points, leaving the rest of this whole affair to us. I found it the best way to divide our attention for now. They could join once the final raid is planned.
I also asked Saori to lend me her shadow pack to spy on the senators, but that was when Gael arrived. He told us the deal with the Layavete cartel was sealed and if he needed help getting dirt on the senators, he would do it. He would bring some help from Shaturein, since helping the Layavete cartel required knowing who the senators really were.
Saori, Tasianna, Asaka, Grimnir, and Daichi could deal with the investigation at the port. I was sure those five could handle it. Hopefully, we could find a lead there leading to Tasianna’s and the garm’s problem.
Therefore, this left Ellaine, Tatsuya, and Kyouya to deal with an urgent Quest coming from two women issued to our company directly. Something was happening at their village, and the hunter’s guild wasn't able to fulfill it. We had enough people to deal with the senator and fae hunter problems, so it wasn’t like they couldn’t go out and help people.
“Yorshka, could you follow them?” I asked with worry. “Considering the demon, I don’t think we can leave Ellaine alone with her. And, I’m not sure Tatsuya and Kyouya can stop Ellaine in her demonkin form. Nothing against you boys.”
Thankfully, they understood my reasoning and accepted it. They did mention they wanted to do this alone, but maybe it was better to get some help when they were so far away from the others. They could use the [Room] runes to retreat at any time, but that meant losing the runes.
“Got it, Hestia. I’ll keep an eye out for them.”
As we were about to end this discussion, Asaka raised her hand up. “I would like to join the Quest party.”
“Wh—” I wanted to ask for her reason, but I quickly figured it she probably just wanted a change of pace of everything. She did act sometimes cold around Elrick, but it was clear she found it sad he was leaving. “Sure, stay safe, alright?”
“Yeah, thanks.”
And with that, everybody was dismissed. Now, what exactly was I planning on doing? Well, what I did best.
“Mother, are you awake?” I piqued my head into Mother’s cave, where I saw the twins serving Mother her after-sleep meal.
“Mhmm! Hestia, my treasure! Do you want to share?” Mother waved back at me, looking cheerful after her “nap.”
“Mhmm? No, I’m good,” I refused but still joined her at the table. “Anyways, do you have time for some training and… an idea?”
Mother giggled, smirking at me. “What, are you planning on behaving like a humanoid in this case?”
I smiled. Mother seemed to understand me more and more. I could be as patient as needed but…
… Time to smoke out the rat. Nobody hurts my friends and party members while I’m around.
Comments
Ronnie Bankston
Your fine on pacing. It seems slow on intial read through because you have to explain so much about new environments,politics, races. Ect. Your actual going over a lot. When hestia first entered artorias there was a similar ease up on pace. Which is fine. A new arc is usually supposed to have a slower pace and less dramatic tension than the final act of the previous one. And that's OK.
Yeah, a lot is happening, and I've been opening more and more story lines
Their time will come, well, once again since they are the main chars.
Well, that is a relief to read. I had some concerns if this arc was getting stale or if the pacing was terrible.
Diego Rossi
Liking it so far. Ronnie and Kale have done a good analysis that mostly applies to me too. I like seeing the Magical Biscuit and Misfits characters development and will like some side story on them again in the not too far future, but don't think that now is the right time for that. A lot is happening, so adding more peripheral stuff should wait.
Kale Daley
Really liking it so far. Starting to see a few of the players that have been working behind the scenes for a while. Also liking Hestia and Saori learning a bit more about their monstrous sides. Them actually training up their skills with people who can actually give them pointers has been nice as well. I think the balance you've struck integrating the other transmigrators into the story has been fine. I personally am here mainly for Aurora proper so them popping in and out of relevance works fone for me. I was hoping we'd get a bit more progress towards mastering Battle Frenzy and finding out exactly what Belzac wants with Saori but it hasn't been that long so I'm fine with where we are now. All in all I'd say the direction so far has been good. Looking forward to what around the bend ^^b
Ronnie Bankston
I'm am personally enjoying it. My biggest worry when it started was that there would be a decrease in writing quality due to the amount of characters present. Everybody needs their screen time. But it seems to be getting handled well. Even Elrick, Daichi and Grimnir who have gotten relatively less development previously have gotten spotlight this arc. While the overall pacing hasn't suffered. Your still fleshing out the world as well. Races like vampires, a merchant republic, God descent, and legal slavery are all topics you started working with this arc. It keeps the story fresh. Your doing a real good job. If had a criticism (it's not big criticism) I would say the weakest part of this arc has been hestias and saori own development. Hestia being a isekai protagonists reckoning with her past life. And saori having conflicts with who the the students and who she herself became. But I think we just aren't there yet in the story and those seem to be longer personal arcs.
