Chapter 15: 15

So they were selling gum to people taking a walk by the Han River, or rather the Irene river. I had never seen a nickname so accurate before.

Eleris‘ lips were trembling, seeming like she also found this quite ridiculous just thinking about it.

“They’re a Lycanthrope.”

“……If my memory serves me right, isn’t that the one who peridocally turned into a wolf monster?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

To be honest, not even Eleris, who was a high-ranking vampire, didn’t seem to be in the right condition to be a spy. Although she’s able to walk under the sun, I could definitely see that she was having a hard time.

But even so, Eleris was able to withstand sunlight.

A Lycanthrope, who would lose their mind and become a monster as soon as the full moon hung in the sky, should act as a spy in the middle of Gardium? How come they hadn’t been caught so far?

Sarkegaar was the only one who was cut out to be a spy!

“…Isn’t that a bit disadvantageous for a spy?”

“Yes…. However, we only had few resources…. It seemed like a dangerous mission so there were not many who volunteered, and….. We were in a hurry, so…… Yeah.”

Were they the type of person who were pretty slow but fiercely loyal?

It was infiltrating into the heart of enemy territory after all, so it was no wonder none of the demons stepped forward. However, that Lycanthrope volunteered.

“So on the night of the full moon, it seems like they hide themselves in the sewers beside the Bronzegate Bridge.”

The Bronzegate Bridge.

Well.

I did say that this place was practically the same as Seoul.

If I remembered correctly, then the Brozegate Bridge should be the Banpo Bridge.

When the day of their transformation neared, they’d go into the sewers under the Banpo Bridge to hide.

“Living close to the Bronzegate Bridge was rather convenient, so they’d rather not go too far from it…. As a result, thier appearance also became quite … unkept… There were quite a few passersby who mistook them for a beggar and gave them money….”

“So that wasn’t their original goal?”

“Yes. So, thinking what they were doing was right, they just sat there and kept begging.”

“Huh….”

Didn’t they have any dignity? Maybe it’s because of the Emperor but the people here were pretty generous.

They were a weirdo who I couldn’t decide if they were living thier life comfortably or recklessly. Eleris hesitated and continued her explanation.

“As a result, there were a lot of fights for that position, but as they were born a Lycanthrope while they themselves were a strong person with good fighting skills, it seems like there was no one who could match their fists…. However, there were a lot of beggars there… so they would always have a drink with the person they fought against yesterday, and then… They just been hanging out with them and they go closer… There were just too many, so….”

Haha.

They were begging near Banpo Bridge and got into a fight over the position, defeated that guy and the next day the guy who got beaten up came over with a bottle of soju, saying something like “Oh yeah, yeah. Yesterday was my bad, right?”, and with this scenario repeating they made a lot of friends while drinking a glass or two. A rather big friend group.

It grew to such proportions that it couldn’t be maintained properly so it turned into an organization.

“…I don’t really know them, but they seem to be like quite the person.”

“…Yes…. We also receive a lot of help from them….”

Eleris, who seemed to have no business skills at all, and Sarkegaar, who was sure to need a lot of money while living an aristocratic life.

Neither of them seemed like they’d be able to survive without the help of Irene’s Wild Dog.

“Huh…. But Irene’s Wild Dog… That’s quite the fitting name.”

They could actually transform into one.

“They actually wanted to be called Irene’s Wolf, but I can understand why no one would want to call them that.”

That was kind of sad.

Anyway, that was quite good. I just can’t let Sarkegaar know that I have given up on the Demon Realm and Irene’s Wild Dog seemed like a complete weirdo, but they also seemed to have a sense of camaraderie. They did help the other two spies after all.

Eleris didn’t seem to have any intentions to cause me harm at the moment.

“Sleep. Your Highness. I will arrange a place for you to meet them in the near future.”

“Uh… Don’t you have to sleep as well?”

This was probably Eleris’ bed. She lay down next to me, saying she’d go to sleep as well. No, isn’t it actually kind of weird that a Vampire was sleeping at night…?

“Are you okay? If it’s uncomfortable for you, I could also sleep on the floor.”

“.……Uh, um. It’s fine. Yeah.”

It was fine, but at the same time it wasn’t at all.

This was a good outcome, but isn’t it also kind of bad?

No matter if I got a cheat or not, I wasn’t happy with this in the least.

This is life, huh.

Cheat, fuck off. No one needs you.

And when morning came.

-Niaaarck!

I woke up to a Vampire screaming at the touch of sun light instead of an alarm clock.

*             *             *

Waking up from that fuss, I stood up and saw Eleris with her hair all frizzy.

“……Don’t you have blackout curtains or something like that?”

“I…. I sleep a lot…. If I don’t do this I wouldn’t be able to get up….”

Explaining as such with a hoarse and cracked voice she went out of the sunlight. I knew that Eleris was a really unusual Vampire, but using the sun as an alarm clock, that wasn’t something easy to imagine. If she couldn’t wake up fast enough, wouldn’t she die?

A Vampire who lived in a sunny and well-ventilated place. I knew she was a high-level vampire who just got by, but this was just too sad.

“Couldn’t you get Count Pontheus to give you a spare room in his house to live in?”

“It’s inefficient for spies to work in the same area. If one gets caught, wouldn’t the other go down as well?”

Eleris sighed while she changed her clothes.

……Don’t do this in front of me.

I was still a 17 year old teenager!

“No, but have you never felt that it was quite unfair that one of you gets to live as an aristocrat?”

“Well, I don’t really like places with a lot of eyes on me. Rather, I think Sarkegaar is living a much harder life.”

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Ah.

If one thought of it like that. Sarkegaar probably didn’t have a single moment in which he could relax, right? While Eleris only had one enemy in this place. The sun.

“But if you feel uncomfortable living like this, I think you’d be better off staying in Sarkegaar’s mansion. We don’t even have enough supplies here to live a decent life.”

I really didn’t want to say this but…. 

“Bu, but I still want to continue living here…?”

“……?”

I didn’t expect the day would come when I’d throw such a childish tantrum again.

No.

I was sure that Sarkegaar already had his hands full even if I wasn’t trying to mooch off of him.

That wasn’t necessarily the only reason.

Uh.

* * *

Insects had different feeding systems for adults and larvae.

For example, mosquito larvae lived in water and adult insects flew, so not only did they eat different things they had completely different ecologies. In that way, adult insects and larvae had completely unrelated prey, so they didn’t compete for food with each other.

So, right now I was feeling like an insect.

It was because of Eleris, who watched me eating breakfast with a look devoid of any appetite. I was wondering if she just enjoyed watching me eat.

I was thinking about useless things.

“I’m just curious. Do you drink blood every few days?”

“Ehem…. Well, once a week is enough.”

“Does it have to be human blood?”

“Not necessarily, any lifeform with mana in their blood would do.  I could use pigs or chickens as well. However, I would need a greater quantity of it. The blood of lower lifeforms contains relatively small amounts of mana.”

Blood was blood, but it had to be blood containing a lot of mana. The ones that had blood with a high concentration of mana would be humanoids.

But once a week. That energy efficiency was no joke. They were higher life forms compared to humans to begin with. Put into human terms, that meant that one didn’t have to eat for another week after having a bowl of ox blood soup.  

Of course, the type of blood was important.

“By the way, if one were bitten by a vampire, wouldn’t that make one a vampire as well?”

“In the case of wild vampires, there were often such cases where they weren’t able to control themselves, but I’m not like that. As I said, I don’t have a higher rank for nothing.”

“Then…. Will the person you suck blood out of die?”

“Piling up corpses is never a good thing, you know? I only take enough for myself so they don’t die. Because of that I had to turn a lot of subjects into vampires, but I’m very good at magic. The condition can be controlled to the extent that it wouldn’t impact their lives.”

As expected, Eleris was a peaceful vampire. It seemed like such things as good demons existed, huh.

“Then you do it mostly at night…?”

“It doesn’t have to be night for me to do it. I take it mostly from customers. Well, take it as a slight punishment for those that went out of line…”

Eleris smiled.

When such customers came around, she would probably use some type of fascination magic and take blood from them, huh.

……It was pretty scary now that I thought about it.

“Mr. Swinton from the store next door usually comes to mess around, so I get to eat deliciously every time. I’m thankful to him. Of course, I can’t do the things he wants me to do with him. He’s married, you know?”

“Ah…. I, is that right?”

“I don’t like men who lack fidelity.”

Him, being a human wasn’t the problem, huh?

It seemed like the nearby merchants had their blood sucked by Eleris without their knowledge. Additionally, they came to this beautiful vampire on their own two feet.

She looked nice, but in the end she had a scary side to her.

“Talking with you, it seems like you haven’t only lost your memory but a lot of your knowledge as well.”

“Ah…. Is that so?”

“Yes. I’ve heard that one usually only loses one’s memory, but in the case of Your Highness….”

Eleris tilted her head. She knew that I had amnesia, but it seemed like she felt weird because I lacked even basic common sense demons should have.

“It’s like you’ve become a completely different person…… I can feel it.”

Ah.

Did she notice?

But come to think of it, yeah.

In most possession stories, the main character tries to never reveal that he was actually possessing the body.

Why do I have to do that? Why could I not tell the truth? It’s not like I did that on purpose.

Rather, Eleris would probably feel relieved if I told her I was really a completely different person. 

Still.

It’s a bit risky to gamble with this before I reached some level of trust with her.

“What kind of person was I?”

So I asked a question and didn’t give her an answer. I was the master of excuses and spouting bullshit.

If the person in charge asked me when I’d sent in the manuscript I’d answer with: “Why did that bastard ask me for a drink yesterday? If it wasn’t for him, I would have already sent it, but phew, ah, I’m getting pissed off suddenly.”

I would keep on sprouting this kind of nonsense.

Eleris was about to answer my question, with her arms crossed.

“Uhm…”

That attitude.

A worrying attitude!

I kind of got a feeling.

That damn game system….

“Yo, you…. You weeere… A great prince. Yes, of course! An i, i, inspiration for all demons…… You’ve been a role model… Yes!”

Were you trying to spout bullshit just now?

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