The Undead King of the Palace of Darkness (WN)

Thus, Sable Bloodpain regenerated inside her coffin. She lifted the heavy lid with the hand she had just regenerated and slowly rose up. Her pale skin was exposed in the darkness. Her unblemished skin was like porcelain and her well-balanced body, along with her features were so graceful, she seemed ethereal. But, her face was drained of all color and her wide open eyes were bloodshot. She held down her chest and yelled in a harsh voice.

“Shit! What’s with that King――!”

“What seems to be the matter, Lady Sable?!”

“Shut up! Aah, the troops were annihilated!”

She shook off the retainer vampire that hurriedly arrived. The heart, symbol of the vampire’s powers, strongly throbbed and produced blood power.

Blood that seeped out from her body turned into threads and wrapped around her white naked body in the form of jet-black clothes. She tried to get up but strongly swayed as if she was anemic. She opened her eyes to the max.

“Impossible. And…he’s still a Lesser?!”

She couldn’t believe it. Sure, Sable wasn’t at her peak then. But it definitely wasn’t like she held back. The power of Sable’s main body currently was weakened like never before. It was only natural because she had lost everything but her heart. It would take some time until she recovered her power.

Certainly, Sable was extremely cautious and extracted the source of her power to hide it somewhere for safety. However, that only contributed to greatly limiting the use of her blood power because its source was removed. Other than that, that body undoubtedly was Sable herself.

From what she had observed in the battle against Demon King Rainel, that should have been more than enough military force. She also had her werewolf troops. But, she lost. He had overwhelming power. Sable had underestimated his growth rate.

He was clearly stronger than when he fought Rainel. That King of the Dead was growing rapidly.

It was difficult to believe right away. Normally, it’s the Necromancers who were skilled enough to turn themselves into the undead that become Kings of the Dead. They would naturally know everything about the undead ―― and even if they had experience, it was hard to think that they would change this fast.

And the most alarming moment was when ―― Sable died. Her clone, which should have had power remaining and also had a powerful regeneration ability, disappeared in an instant.

She couldn’t even identify what was done to her. Even if her head was crushed, she wouldn’t end up like this. The power that should have been remaining in her body disappeared instantly. Sable wouldn’t be able to forget that feeling for a while.

The last thing her clone heard from the ‘Ancestor’ was him pleading for his life. She was terminated right after. He was completely mocking her. She punched the stone wall with force. The thick wall deeply caved in, but Sable’s mood didn’t improve at all.

She sat deeply into the chair and scratched her head. She needed to calm down. Sable had already failed twice. She couldn’t fail the third time.

“Werewolves are good. They’re valuable, but those can still be replaced.”

She glared at her own retainer that was waiting with a pale expression. He was a relatively powerful vampire, who she had created through Feeding ―― and who had also inherited the power of Blood Pain. But he wasn’t good enough. He’d be useless even if she took him with her. Someone ‘relatively strong’ wasn’t even worth considering. Vampires are much stronger than werewolves, but that’s not the case when the opponent is a Death Knight.

Sable maintained her composure by continuing to think. In that moment, she had forgotten the death she had certainly felt. “That’s right. The problem isn’t the Ancestor. It’s that Death Knight who’s still keeping that man on the side of the humans.”

It would be difficult to attack him with force and drive in the wedge, Even if she managed to do it, she’d end up with a considerable loss on her side too.

To start with, vampires had always been creatures of darkness. His current situation was abnormal. If other vampires were told that a vampire and a Death Knight were together, they’d probably laugh it off. That Ancestor didn’t avoid other vampires at the very least. If something happened, the situation would roll in Sable’s favor.

Then, Sable noticed something and smiled deeply.

“One person, just one person, huh… hmm… that’s right ――”

Death Knights generally moved in teams. But that silver-haired Death Knight was alone the both times Sable had seen her. To start with, it was already rare that a vampire was allowed to be with a Death Knight, but a Death Knight not instantly vanquishing the vampire was even more unthinkable, knowing the policy of the Order of Death Knights. It would be understandable if she had kidnapped him to torture him and find his weakness, but that Ancestor wasn’t restrained in any way,

There was no doubt. That Death Knight was acting arbitrarily. In that case… there were means Sable could take.

☠☠☠

Thus I was holding down my stomach inside the closet.

The awful unending stomach ache and nausea were something I hadn’t experienced until now, including when I was alive. I have found out for the first time that even Lesser Vampires can sweat if they reach their limit. I’m already at my limit. But it would be useless even if I went to the bathroom. After all, vampires don’t need to go to the toilet. It’s because everything they eat gets fully digested. That’s why this stomach ache isn’t because I ate something strange.

“My stomach hurts…”

“It’s because you drank something strong,”

Senri’s voice also sounded somewhat exasperated.

Damn you, Sable. You torment me even in my body. What a formidable enemy.

The change in Sable after I drank her blood was striking. She instantly turned into dust and disappeared. Looks like vampires perish when their curses are sucked out. It’s surely because their whole existence is a curse itself.

Her blood that I ingested tasted quite good, but it was very rich and lingered on. It was right after drinking her blood that something happened to my stomach. I’ve had various things happen to me after being revived, like having my arms torn off, having my whole body burnt and being left as just the head, but this pain is worse than any of those. It feels like I might get turned inside out. I tried to throw up but I couldn’t do it and even when I went to the toilet, nothing came out. I tried to cut open my stomach but that was meaningless too. It’s hopeless.

“Senri, help me…”

“I don’t know a doctor for vampires…”

It must already be a morning outside. But the pain doesn’t show any signs of alleviating. My only saving grace is the fact that Senri’s been my conversation buddy all this time from the outside of the closet.

“If I die… douse my grave with blood every day.”

“… It’s probably fine. Your power hasn’t decreased at all.”

Senri isn’t gentle. Looks like my power hasn’t decreased. In other words, it just hurts and I won’t die. That means that the suffering caused by my stomach rebelling will continue forever.

… It’s better than dying, I guess.

“Hmm… to think that something like that would happen.”

Inside the closet. The Lord, who came out for the first time in a long while, said with great interest. I wanted to punch him. But even if I try to punch him, it’ll go through him in the end. Even Senri can’t see the Lord, he’s just an illusion.

This guy always seems to pop out like this but he just won’t help me. What’s his deal?

“It cannot be helped. Failures are unavoidable. I cannot even attempt it. I have already failed once with that.”

“Was the reason, Sable’s blood?”

“The curses of Vampires are stronger than the curses of Lesser Vampires, after all.”

Say that beforehand. It was completely a harm caused from sucking her blood. In addition, I didn’t obtain Sable’s power in the end. Damn you, Sable. Was it a high leveled tactic to immobilize me by making me suck her blood? To think that she used the weakness even I wasn’t aware of, I underestimated the power of the Stake King’s retainer.

“Well, if it is you, you will not die. If you were to die, you would die faster. Be glad that all you got was a stomach ache.”

This guy’s just blabbering on because it’s somebody else’s problem… Will this ever get better?

“No idea.”

The Lord’s phantom disappeared. He just said whatever he wanted. But, this is bad. I wanted to leave this town, but now I can’t move even if I wanted to. Will I be able… to fight?

I held down my stomach, which started to protest with a ‘no’ and twisted my body.

“End, can you transform?”

“I don’t, know.”

If I transform into a puppy, Senri will carry me. I feel like I could transform if I gave it my all, but leaving aside whether I can even transform, it’s really doubtful if I’ll be able to control it with my current state of mind. I don’t have the confidence. If Senri, who entered with a puppy left while shouldering a giant dog, she’ll undoubtedly be stopped. An excuse that the puppy just grew up wouldn’t work.

“I might get better if I drink your blood, Senri.”

“… Do you want to drink the next portion?”

“…”

I’ll refrain. I’m kinda not in the condition to enjoy Feeding.

That being said, what do I do? Sable found out my location. It’s quite dangerous to stay here. Senri is powerful, but if they find out that she’s alone, there are plenty of ways of dealing with her. As I was thinking things like this, Senri whispered.

“End, it would be better if you stayed here until you got better. The vampire countermeasures at this place… are almost perfect. Sable won’t be able to enter.”

“There were, werewolves. All they have to do, is carry her, and climb the outer wall.”

“End, werewolves don’t have absolute obedience and unless she has her heart, which produces her power, she can’t cross the water.”

I guess what she’s trying to say from Senri’s words.

In order for the vampire to cross over the wall, they must borrow the help of the werewolves while having a heart. If they’re wary of the betrayal, they might not even be able to choose the option of crossing over the wall. Flowing water drains us of all powers. Certainly, killing a vampire in a powerless state would be as easy as taking candy from the toddler for werewolves. Even Senri could easily kill me if she decided to do it. You can’t enter this town without having mutual trust.

Although, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t other ways. For example, destroying the wall from outside and filling the canal… but if they go that far, that means war.

“Besides, because you burnt it without thinking about anything, we don’t have spare Night Crystals.

That’s right. I entrusted Senri with only one Night Crystal and left the rest to myself. And everything I had burnt down when I used Cursed Flame.

I’m an idiot. I wasn’t thinking about anything, By the way, I held onto a lot of those because there’s a limit to the amount of power Night Crystals can conceal and I needed multiple to completely erase my presence. Right now I’m hiding my presence with the Crystal I gave to Senri, but my negative aura seems to be leaking out to the extent that it can be discerned by Death Knights on sight.

At this rate, I can’t live as a good-natured mercenary young man who moved to the countryside with his beautiful wife and only goes out at night.

I’ll definitely won’t forgive you, Sable. What should I do to you the next time we meet?

As I was cursing in the darkness while shutting my eyes tight and enduring the pain, I felt Senri suddenly stand up outside.

“Mister Lazar and the others are here… looks like they have some business with you.”

“I haven’t told them where we’re staying.”

“There are ways of investigating that.”

Well, we can’t exactly hide it forever. ‘Dessend’ isn’t that big of a town.

“It’s probably about yesterday’s case. You defeated a bit too many yesterday.

Senri reasoning is fair. In addition, I collapsed with a stomach ache, so we didn’t have time to purify things as usual. No matter how one looks at it, that amount wasn’t something an ordinary mercenary would be able to deal with. Until now I’ve had them make reports to the town while hiding our presence, but it probably got impossible to gloss over.

What should I do? As long as my location is uncovered, the means I can take are limited. As I was thinking while enduring the pain, Senri said quietly.

“I’ll go talk with them.”

It’s dangerous. But, Senri is strong. I can’t really go myself. I thought for a while but I couldn’t come up with anything. I break the silence with a heartbreak.

“… Roux, I can’t move because I’m exhausted from yesterday. There’s something suspicious in this town, be careful. Come back soon”

“I know. Don’t worry, Baron ―― rest.”