Chapter 24: Chapter 19 – Monster Hunter Part 1

"Can you please check again?"

"You're being ridiculous, Arche," Roberdyck sighed. "Even a vampire's charm ability would have faded naturally by this point."

"I know, I know, I just…" Arche's anxiously paced back and forth across the limited floor space of the Sleeping Apple. She had made the trek from one end to the other so many times in the last hour that she didn't even need to think to avoid the boxes and crates stacked around for disaster relief. The damages caused by the demonic attack were still fresh on everyone's mind, and supplies for relief sat waiting to be used. "I just need to be sure."

"And I told you you're free of any curse or compulsion," he did his best to calm her. "I can cast the spell again if you're so concerned, but the result will still be the same."

After her encounter with the vampire, she raced back to the Sleeping Apple for Foresight's resident cleric to look her over. She spent the next few hours subjecting herself to every kind of curse breaking spell he had on hand. She just had to make sure she was still herself.

Foresight may have never fought a vampire before, but Arche had read up on the race during her tenure at the Academy. Powerful vampires could charm their victims to such an extent they would never even think they were charmed.

So even if that thing didn't do anything to her, it might have left something in the back of her mind. Just waiting for a code, or some trigger to activate.

She even stripped herself down and checked every bit of her body for anything out of the ordinary. A bruise she doesn't remember getting. Puncture marks from fangs. Any odd changes in skin color. Anything. Any hint of being tracked, being watched, or under some sort of compulsion.

Because if she was compromised, if she ended up compelled later to hurt her friends…her sisters…she didn't know how she would ever forgive herself.

"Sorry, but I have a dumb non-magic caster question about this," Imina spoke up, looking away from Hekkeran to the anxious youth. "Isn't the fact that you're worried about being under some vampire's control mean that you're not under anything? I mean if I had the power to bewitch any man on the street just by looking at him, I'd make it so he'd have no idea he was under my spell."

"I-I don't know," Arche swore to herself, rubbing the back of her neck. "None of the books I've read go into that sort of detail. They've all been about how the charmed acts and is perceived by others, not how the charmed see's these things."

"Maybe you need to slow down a bit," Hekkeran commented, "you're worrying yourself sick for no reason. Roberdyck's checked you over how many times now? And found nothing? If he's still giving you a clean bill of health, that's good enough for us right now."

"But what if-"

"If you suddenly snap and do something out of character, or just downright crazy, we're still here," he cut her off. "

She swore to herself.

He was right. Wracking her head over this issue again and again wouldn't do any good.

She needed to focus.

But what if whatever was cast on her was so subtle she would never-

"So you said you encountered a vampire, right?" Hekkeran's voice snapped her out of her stupor.

"Yes," Arche nodded. "Slit, blood red eyes, corpse-colored skin, and fangs. It was a vampire, no doubt about it."

"Anything else you remember? Size? Height? Anything?"

The young magic caster closed her eyes to focus on those last moments before her memory was cut off. But other than the previously noted aspects, nothing came to mind.

"I'm sorry, that's all I remember of her."

"Wait, her?" Imina questioned. "You mean the vampire's a woman?"

"Yes," the young blonde frowned. But why was she so certain of that? She could barely remember a thing but knew in her bones that it was a female her voice was disgustingly sweet, and that her touch was cold…

Why did she know that?

"What a situation to get caught up in," their leader bemoaned, nursing the onset of a headache.

"Is that so hard to believe?" Arche questioned.

"No. Well, maybe a week ago It would be, but given the hell we just went through…" he mused something under his breath. "But is that common though? Undead and demons working together?"

"I…I don't know," Arche sighed, trying to recall her schooling on the two types of monsters. "Vampires are solitary and demons appear sporadically at best. One's territorial, the other is chaotic. I don't think there's any connection between the two, at least nothing to imply they have any natural affinity to one another. I'd also hesitate to claim they were 'working' together."

"Theoretically, one could summon undead and demons," the cleric chimed in, calling on his own wealth of magical knowledge.

"Maybe, but you'd need two different systems of magic to do that," she countered, again falling back on her school days. "It can be done, but it's hardly efficient. If you needed numbers, like what attacked the city, you'd just focus on necromancy or demonology."

"Well maybe the vampire was here first?" Imina proposed.

"First?" the thought through the young caster for a loop.

"I mean, think about it," the half elf took a sip of her beer before continuing. "Arwintar is a big city, with lots of people. If it went after random drunks or beggars, and didn't make a mess, would anyone be able to even tell there was a vampire here?"

"I don't think a vampire could survive long in the city, especially with Master Paradyne here," Arche rebutted.

"Maybe. But think of it like this: Imagine you're a bloodsucker, sleeping in your coffin or whatever, and suddenly bam!" she slammed her mug into the table for effect. "Demons attack. Magic, fire, death, bodies everywhere. Is it really that strange to think they'd poke their head out to see what all the racket was about? I'm not saying this isn't a problem, and yeah someone should probably deal with it now that we know it's here, but I'd like to know why of all the people in the city would it target you? No offense of course."

"None taken. And I don't think it was targeting me," Arche shook her head. "I only ran into it when I was going to see my friend and-" the sentence trailed off as she realized the implication.

Oh no…

"And what?"

"And…she came out of Lilly's house…" with the revelation, the mage tried to piece together everything she remembered right before those red eyes. "She was walking away…or walking out? No if she went in then the golems would have attacked…but maybe she sensed them and turned back?"

"Hey Arche? Are you okay?" Hekkeran

"She was after Lilly," Arche realized.

"And that's your new friend right?" when she nodded, her team leader mulled it over. "But that still doesn't answer the question of why."

"I think..I think it's because she's almost as powerful as Master Paradyne."

"Paradyne? The strongest human magic caster Paradyne? Arche I know she's your friend but-"

"I'm not saying she knows as much as him," she clarified. "But in terms of raw power, she is almost his equal. Master Paradyne said as much himself. And even if that's not the case, all the other magical gear, books, and who knows what else she brought with her from her homeland, any of those things could be why she was targeted."

"So your friend's got a veritable treasure trove of magical items."

"Not guarded by the Magic Academy," Imina followed Hekkeran's logic.

"Meaning it would be easy pickings for anyone who knew what to look for," he nodded.

Silence fell on the tavern as the party processed the revelation.

"So," Hekkeran was the first to speak up, "what are we going to do?"

"Do?" Arche stood up, "we need to tell the Adventurers Guild and the City Watch!"

"Obviously," Hekkeran nodded, "but what are we going to do after that?"

"I don't understand."

"The Guild and the Watch are stretched too thin to do anything," he explained. "They're both too busy looking over every nook and cranny for the people responsible for the attack, and any demons left over, to look for the vampire that may or may not be there."

"But it is here!"

"I know that, we all know that, but there aren't any real signs a vampire is here. And without any bite marks or desiccated bodies to point at…."

"Are you seriously suggesting they would just ignore a vampire running loose? After a literal demon attack?"

"I wouldn't go as far as to say ignore, but putting our warning at the bottom of the pile?"

"So what, nothing happens!?"

"Now I didn't say that, I said what are we going to do," he reminded her, "vampires aren't our usual monsters, but a job's a job."

"A job?" Arche tilted her head in confusion, then realized what he was saying.

"Well, this isn't an official job," Hekkeran reiterated. "We can't go into this expecting to be paid. Maybe we'll get something after we bring its head in, maybe your rich friend will pay us, but none of that is guaranteed. We'll get some good publicity, no doubt about it, but that's all I can say will happen. But before we do anything, I want to hear everyone else's thoughts."

"I think it's obvious what mine are," Arche straightened her back. "My friend is being targeted by a monster, and I was attacked. I can't just do nothing."

"No surprise there. Everyone else's thoughts?"

"Money's no obstacle for me," Roberdyck voiced his support. "Just knowing a dangerous monster is no longer stalking the streets would be reward enough."

"Right, that's two. Immina?"

"Oh? I get the deciding vote?" she gave him a smirk.

"Hey now, I haven't said my piece yet."

"No, but you've already made up your mind, too much of a bleeding heart for your own good" the woman took a long gulp of her drink. "And the good news is that I'm all for going after the bloodsucker."

"Even if we don't get paid," he teased, knowing how stingy the half elf could be at times.

"This is more important than the money, hell it's more important than helping the city, this vampire made it personal. It went after one of us," she gave Arche a nod, then smirked again. "And I guess being a selfless hero has its own appeal."

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With that, the team was in agreement, and Arche felt a weight lifted from her chest.

"I- Thank you, everyone."

"We're a team, Arche, it's our job to look out for each other. Although," he turned his gaze to the side, "I'll try to remember that 'selfless hero' line when you turn your nose up at low paying Worker jobs."

"Hey! I said I wanted to be a 'selfless' hero, not a 'poor' hero!" their fearless leader got a jab to the chest for his joke.

"Don't you know, Imina, money can't buy you happiness."

"Fuck you it can't!"

The cleric and magic caster laughed at the banter between the pair. A much needed break from the gloom and severity of the situation. Eventually the two quieted down and acted like the 'adults' they were.

"I guess we should get started," Hekkeran turned to their youngest member. "So, Arche, why don't you show us where you saw this vampire? We'll start this hunt from the very beginning."

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After the little kerfuffle in the Beastman throne room, events in the country proceeded very smoothly.

Soife and her mages managed to round up all the nobles they could find, or at least whatever passed for nobles here. It took two whole days of stern encouragement for the remaining demi-human leadership to formally surrender to me. Not to the Dragon Kingdom, to me.

Riders were sent out the following day alerting the whole nation of their 'new management'.

Barring an immediate prohibition on eating sentiants (humans, elves, dwarfs, and so on) and their swift emancipation, I wasn't really changing all that much. The same rulers would oversee the same lands as before, assuming they were still alive, and obeying mostly the same rules as before, with my little caveats added on.

Honestly, I thought they were going to put up more of a fight.

In a few days, after letting news of the beastman's capitulation spread, I would present Dracullian with an official looking document that would return all her lands and establish the new border between the two nations.

The liberated humans would also be on their way to the Dragon Kingdom, under the protection of various summons and homunculi until they reached the border. There was no need to teleport them both for medical reasons given they were under the care of level fifty 'Healers', and because I have no idea how to make a [Gate] for them all to walk through.

So yes, things were going smoothly.

So smoothly that I didn't even feel the need to micromanage the situation. I plan to put a single newly created level fifty homunculus specced as a 'leader' in charge of the whole nation with a small garrison of homunculi soldiers, a contingent of wraiths, and however many quislings that can be rustled up from the local population. That should be enough to hold the city without me having to do anything.

My hope is that will be that and the sheer devastation of their capital will be enough to deter any acts of rebellion out of fear of what I'll do if I have to come back and deal with them myself.

Yes, things are looking up.

But there was a single cloud in my shiny sky.

Being away from 'home' for so long led to a build up of letters and other messages. Some even had fancy looking seals on them, one of which I was sure was the Imperial seal.

Shame I couldn't read any of it.

It's so easy to forget other languages even existed with the whole 'auto translate' thing going. I still have no idea how that is happening. People's lips move in ways that don't even match up with the words I hear, yet I can always understand it.

Now if only I didn't have a backseat reader to deal with…

I looked across the sitting room to see the vampire just lazing about across the opposing sofia almost innocently.

So innocently that I immediately demanded to know what happened.

Shalltear said nothing happened, fluttered her eyelashes and deflected from the topic to some cringy eroge game 'poetry' she 'found'.

Wooing attempts aside, upon hearing from Mya and Eva that she left the property for a time, I knew for a fact something happened. But what?

None of the people walking about the city look more concerned for their safety than before, so there's probably no horrifically mutilated corpse in a dumpster just waiting to be found.

Or Shalltear already did something with it. Like eating it.

That's a kink she was programmed with, right?

Oh who am I kidding, she has every kink under the sun.

"I'm bored," she suddenly announced, letting out an over dramatic sigh.I felt her crimson eyes fall on me. "So what are you doing dear- I mean, what are you doing Citrinitas."

"Trying to read the mail," looking up from the letter, she somehow crossed the space between our seats since I last checked. She was nearly intruding on my 'personal space'. At least she was calming down a bit on that 'lovey dovey' obsession stuff.

Or at least the obvious stuff. I know for a fact the maids changed her sheets every day….

"Oh," to her credit, she tried to sound interested. "Well… what are they about?"

"No idea," I answered honestly, flipping the paper over for her to see.."If you're so interested in my mail, do you know how to read this stuff?"

She looked at it, squinting her eyes, then snorted.

"What is this chicken scribble!" she scoffed, clearly making as much sense of the strange letters and symbols as I had. "How do they even read this? There's no sense in any of it. Like there is that sideways 'three' at the end of the page?"

"So you can't," I threw the letter back into the 'pile'. I was really going to have to sit down and learn to read the native languages. Or magic up a way to have it work like the auditory language. "Oh well, guess you can't help me."

"It's not my fault these stupid humans don't know how to write," her cheeks puffed up and she looked away.

"Technically they do know how to write because, you know, it's their language," I roll my eyes at the vampire's antics. One of the most powerful beings in this world now, had the attitude of a petty bratty child.

"Bah!" The vampire made a choking sound, making her opinion of that clear. "If they want to write, they should have the decency to write in any of the languages created by the Supreme Beings."

"You think so?" I can't deny I was curious to see where this was going.

"Of course," she nodded. "With so many to choose from, it only goes to show how stupid they are for not choosing any of them."

"Such as…"

"Oh you know, Japanese, English, Mandarin, German, French," she listed off a dozen more languages, but looked as if she could have gone on even more. Probably all the languages Yggdrasil supported, which I guess transferred to her. Making her, and the other NPCs, some sort of super polyglots I suppose. "Any one of them would have sufficed. If they can speak it, they should at least know how to write it!"

"Flawless logic, except they don't," I deadpan.

"...What? They-they don't?"

"They don't speak our language," I repeated.

"Um…yes they do?" Her tone seemed more surprised than anything else, with an expression I couldn't really describe. A hand came to rest on my shoulder. "Citrinitas, dear- I mean, just Citrinitas. I don't mean to be 'that girl', but they have been speaking our language. The whole time."

"No, we've been hearing our language," I ignored her slip of endearment and tried to move away from the physical contact. "There's some magic about this world that just translates anything spoken into whatever the person hearing it understands."

"...Wait it does!?" She looked like a gasping fish at the revelation.

"Haven't you looked at anyone's lips here and saw that it doesn't match up with what you're hearing? Like they move their lips to say several words, but you only hear one word?"

"...I knew that," she looked away, crossing her legs, her pale cheeks flushed red. "I-I just didn't know why it was done. A-and besides, it could just have been a stupid human thing right?

"Yes," I roll my eyes. "And second, how can they know how to write our languages before we even arrive here?"

"...well then they should have asked to learn them," she offered up, clearly happy with her answer. "They should be lining up to bask in Lord Ainz's glory."

"Nazarick is currently operating in the shadows," I counter, "who would they ask to learn from? Better yet, who would want to teach them? I'm pretty sure most of Nazarick would kill anyone who came too close on sight."

"...Oh," She blinked at my question, confused, then huffed but refused to say anything further. She's kind of like a ditzy cat. A ditzy, murderous cat, but a cat nonetheless.

"Hey wait!" she looked like an epiphany had struck her. "I have a question."

"I may have an answer," bracing myself for what was surely an interesting question.

"Okay…," she paused, either to collect her thoughts or double check what she was going to ask was 'smart' I guess. "You said everyone's language is translated automatically right? Even if it doesn't match up with what they say, right? So someone is hearing their language spoken to them, but the person speaking isn't speaking that language, right?""

"Everything spoke matches up perfectly, the lips do not sync up with what's being said. But everything else is right."

"Right, right…" again, another pause, her sanguine eyes locked my face. Then a small frown. "But if that's true, why are your-"

A pair of knocks cut the vampire's question off.

"Coming!" I call out, tossing the letter aside and walking to the door, leaving the vampire alone for the moment.

I don't know who I was expecting at the door.

Certainly not a certain combat maid in her human disguise.

"It's a pleasure to see you once again, Lady Citrinitas," the woman gave a curt bow.

It took a moment for me to register who this woman was, " Narberal?"

"Yes," strangely, to me at least, there was no black swordsman who 'totally wasn't a lich' at her side. "May I come in?"