The Unwanted Undead Adventurer: Volume 8 Read online

  “So you think we’re right?” Wolf asked.

  “Yes, but I thought I was hunting a lesser vampire that was acting alone. I thought there was a high chance they were hiding in Maalt itself. But considering the quality and quantity of the thralls, it might be best to toss those expectations aside. If there are multiple vampires, though, I would have expected more casualties.”

  “I think a pretty large number of adventurers and civilians disappeared, though.”

  “Not that many, relatively speaking. A lesser vampire needs to feed on a couple humans per month. They wouldn’t necessarily have to kill anyone if they had humans willing to provide them with blood on their own, but they’d have to be highly organized for that to work. There was no organization like that in Maalt, at least. Maybe I just haven’t investigated thoroughly enough, but I would guess they’re using blood medicine. That’s a surprise.”

  Wolf cocked his head. “What’s blood medicine?”

  “A special drug that can suppress a vampire’s blood-sucking urges. But it’s not easy to produce. A handful of vampires wouldn’t be able to make it on their own, I can tell you that. Hm, now I’m really itching to capture this vampire.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Because they have to be getting the blood medicine from somewhere. If we capture and question them, it should lead to a huge gang of vampires. It’ll be a vampire hunting jamboree! What’s more exciting than that?”

  Nive’s sincere enthusiasm was terrifying. I almost felt bad for the vampires she was pursuing. Wolf probably thought the same thing but kept it to himself.

  “Well, glad you’re passionate about your job,” he said. “If you can capture the boss for us, Maalt will go back to the nice little town it always was. I’m counting on you.”

  “Of course. I’ll capture the vampire, I assure you.”

  I looked at Nive’s grin, reminded of how much I hated having to work with her, but there was no way around it now. Thankfully, there would be someone else around to keep an eye on her. I looked behind Wolf and saw Myullias running toward us.

  “How many times do I have to tell you; stop randomly running off!” she shouted between heavy breaths. It wasn’t very saintly of her.

  Side Story: Isaac Hart

  “What are you fighting for?” she asked, and I answered with the utmost honesty. From where does the sun rise, and where does it set? What happens to a bottle that’s dropped on the floor? What happens to water after it gets hot enough? The answer to those questions was obvious, as was the answer to this.

  I responded without hesitation, and she smirked. “You haven’t learned a thing, have you?” she said peacefully. “Or maybe you just couldn’t give up. But even so, it will be impossible for you.”

  Naturally, this made me deeply angry. Why must this person reject our noble goals? How would she know it’s impossible until we tried? I posed these questions to her.

  “Then let’s make a bet. If you can kill me, you win. If you can’t, I win. And when I win, you must give up on your goals. Now, how much time shall I give you? You have until you die, I suppose.”

  I felt insulted. Did this little girl sincerely think a rebellious knight such as myself couldn’t kill her? But in the end, the results were clearer than fire. I couldn’t kill her. The bet was still ongoing.

  ◆◇◆◇◆

  Standing in the room I was provided, I took out my old and beloved sword for the first time in a while. Its thin, silver blade was full of mana, and an image of a unicorn impaling a dragon was etched into the hilt. When I first obtained this, I was overjoyed. But now it had been sitting in my drawer for ages. I no longer needed it.

  I was currently working as a servant in this house. I sometimes fought monsters as well, but ordinary equipment was enough for them. This weapon was only to be wielded against specific foes, so I never expected to use it again. But I still felt some of the pride I had back then, and I couldn’t forget what this sword meant to me, so I couldn’t bring myself to dispose of it. I didn’t think my mistress would appreciate that, but then again, she likely knew I still had it anyway.

  Everything I did was but a trifle to her. That wasn’t limited to me alone, though. Perhaps she thought our actions to be trivial and meaningless as a whole. That was presumably why she rejected us, and the point of her bet with me. Maybe my future efforts also meant nothing to her. In her view, maybe the past was behind us and there was no need to dredge up old conflicts.

  But I couldn’t forget the past like that. I came to realize I was still a fool after all these years. I thought I had changed, but maybe this was reality. I tried to accomplish something great, but reality forced me to my knees and broke me down until I clung to the helping hand that was extended to me. That was it. I was nobody.

  I recalled something I’d heard the other day. It was after a boy came to visit the house, and I was taking him to someone from his village.

  “By the way, the Ally who invited me asked if I’d ever heard of somebody named Isaac Hart. Is that you?” the boy asked me.

  I had already heard that an Ally, someone from a group distinct from the village, invited the boy to this town. Then he mentioned that their goal was to make their existence public; they wanted to be treated with the same rights as humans. That was what convinced the boy to come to Maalt. However, he was unable to meet up with this Ally in the city. When he ran out of medicine to suppress his urges, he was left with no choice but to come to this house he’d heard about from the village elder. It didn’t sound like he knew much, but when the Ally had invited him, my name came up.

  “Why would this person ask you about that name?” I asked the boy.

  “How should I know? He kind of just asked it randomly, but it sounded like a pretty important question.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Because he acted a bit different when he asked it. I was always causing trouble in the village and made a lot of people mad, so I got pretty good at reading people’s expressions. When he asked that question, he reminded me of how the villagers would look.”

  The boy was rebellious and motivated enough to leave the village and come to this town when he wasn’t allowed to. That he developed a skill like this came as no surprise. I couldn’t guess how accurate his assessment was, but it sounded almost certain that the question wasn’t just asked to make small talk. Somebody was looking for me, and I had a decent guess as to who.

  I hung the sword from my hip and headed to the estate’s exit. I ran around the side of the hedge maze and opened the front gate.

  “Isaac, are you going?” someone asked from behind me just before I walked out to town. I turned around and saw a girl leaning against the gate. It was my mistress, Laura Latuule. Her eyes betrayed her youthful appearance, so deep in color that I could see into the depths of her soul.

  “My apologies, but our bet may be settled now,” I answered and looked away from her.

  “You’re awfully stubborn, you know. Do as you will, but stop hoping that someone else will settle the bet for you. If and when the time comes, bring an end to it yourself.”

  In essence, she was telling me to return alive no matter what. I felt the corners of my eyes get warmer.

  “Yes, understood,” I said curtly, then turned around and headed to town. Our relationship had been smoldering for ages, and this was the end of it. At that moment, I wholeheartedly thought this to be true.

  Chapter 2: Where the Vampire Was

  “Oh, hello. I’m Nive Maris.”

  “I’m Lorraine. I guess we’re working together.”

  Nive held out a hand, and Lorraine shook it. Lorraine looked bitter, transparently confused as to why this person was here. She didn’t particularly hate Nive, but being that I was a vampire and she was a vampire hunter, our proximity to each other probably looked like something to worry about. I wouldn’t have associated with her either if I could get away with it, but it was Nive who latched onto me.

  Lorraine didn’t
provide her last name because it was the same as the one I was using and she wanted to avoid too many questions. But some adventurers simply preferred to work under their first name alone, while others provided their full names, depending on their preference. Adventurers were generally rowdy, and some could be troublemakers, to put it lightly, so there was always some portion who preferred to keep their last names private. It was a known custom among adventurers and not especially unusual. Most of those who did provide their last names wanted their family background and status to be known or wanted to establish trust. It was like bowing when greeting someone rather than simply saying hello. Similarly, only stating your first name was the normal thing to do.

  “I’m Myullias Raiza.”

  “A saint as well? I’m Lorraine. I’m delighted to make your acquaintance.”

  Lorraine was more polite with Myullias than with Nive because Myullias was a saint and Nive was an adventurer. Adventurers didn’t bother with formalities even when speaking to others of a higher rank. Most found such language to be tedious. As long as you weren’t exceedingly rude to an adventurer, you could get away with anything.

  But saints were another story. They had religious followers and powerful organizations backing them. Some saints would be absolutely livid if treated like an adventurer. That didn’t apply to saints from the Church of the Eastern Sky, but from what Lorraine told me, many saints from the Church of Lobelia and other religions with origins in the western nations tended to be that way. As such, Lorraine had learned to be polite around all saints. She wasn’t especially religious, but she wanted to stay out of trouble.

  I wanted to visit the western nations at some point, but I was the kind of adventurer who found formalities annoying. I needed to ask Lorraine about what to watch out for before visiting, or else it sounded like things could get ugly. I wasn’t a fan of getting in trouble either, so I had to make sure I didn’t draw attention. Of course, now I had to accompany Nive to a dungeon, so I was doing a lousy job of not getting in trouble already.

  “You don’t have to be so polite with me. Treat me like you would anyone else,” Myullias said with a smile. She was the sort of saint who didn’t care, apparently. She was unquestionably a beautiful saint when she was like this, but she had been acting like a hannya with Nive not long ago.

  A hannya, by the way, was a female monster from an island nation to the far east. The term was used in Yaaran to refer to a furious woman, but it had foreign origins. Those monsters were collectively called oni, which were similar to ogres, but smaller and smarter. They also had their own culture, and some coexisted with humans. I hoped to meet one someday. From what I’d heard, they excelled at metallurgy and handiwork much like dwarves.

  “Are you sure?” Lorraine asked Myullias hesitantly. Lorraine was more easygoing than the average woman, but she was still reserved at times like these. Maybe saints were just that difficult to deal with for people from the empire. I could only imagine what kinds of abuses religious folk committed there. It was scary to think about.

  “You’re certainly on edge about this. Are you from the empire, Lorraine?” Myullias asked.

  “You could tell?”

  “Yes, I know citizens of the empire talk to saints like you do. I understand how you feel. You can talk to me however is most comfortable for you, but I want you to know that you can speak freely and I won’t mind it. Honestly, the way they treat saints may make sense for the more accomplished of us, but I’m not terribly impressive as far as saints go, and I hardly think I deserve it.”

  Lorraine raised an eyebrow at Myullias’s gloomy attitude. She must have noticed that Myullias acted more like a commoner than the average saint. Also, what Myullias said was perfectly fine in Yaaran, but it might have been taken as criticism of the church in the empire. Lorraine always told me that saints were to be given the utmost respect as a rule. Commoners had to do that, or there was no telling what would be done to them, according to her. What Myullias said could also provoke a loss of trust in the church and put her in a difficult position, but she said it anyway. Maybe Nive rubbed off on her somehow. Nive would say even brasher things, so Myullias could have lost any sense of propriety after spending so much time with her.

  “If you say so, then,” Lorraine said. “But next time I go to the empire, I had better not find myself persecuted for insulting Myullias Raiza.”

  “I know how the inquisitors can be,” Myullias replied with a smile. “That won’t happen, of course. I decided to treat my time here like a vacation anyway, so I’d like to enjoy myself.”

  That didn’t sound like the kind of thing a saint would say, but Lorraine seemed to believe it. She reached out a hand to ask Myullias for a handshake.

  ◆◇◆◇◆

  “All right, this way!” Wolf shouted to us from Maalt’s main gate.

  We headed over and saw a carriage coming toward us at a considerable speed. It was going to take us to the New Moon Dungeon. Most carriages were currently fleeing Maalt, and the ones that went to the dungeons had shut down their services, so this must have been hard to find. Or maybe he forced someone to cooperate.

  “This’ll take you straight there,” Wolf said. “Now get on. I’ll be staying in Maalt to deliver orders.” Then he jumped off the carriage and disappeared into town.

  As soon as we entered the carriage, the coachman promptly whipped the horse. This horse had six legs, a species said to be descended from Sleipnir, and it was especially fast.

  There was a fair distance between Maalt and the New Moon Dungeon, too far to run there, but this carriage would get us there in no time. Nive might have been able to run faster than a carriage, I guess, but I sure couldn’t. Or maybe I could manage it somehow, but it would be tough to maintain that speed, so I preferred to just ride. Also, there was no way Lorraine and Myullias could run that fast. If we were leaving them behind, I suppose Nive and I could dash to the dungeon on our own, but that’d expose some secrets I’d rather keep hidden.

  A couple more carriages came, and some other adventurers boarded them. Wolf had said he was picking the best of the best, but it didn’t look like he was expecting us to handle the job all on our own. Including us, there were three parties exploring the New Moon Dungeon. Wolf probably trusted Lorraine, but I was a monster, Myullias served a church, and Nive was Nive. It was self-evident why he didn’t want us going by ourselves. Strictly in terms of combat skill, I thought we were about the best you could find in Maalt, but there were too many other reasons to doubt us. However, Wolf did seem to depend on me anyway, and sending other adventurers along wasn’t necessarily a matter of trust. He probably had certain obligations as the guildmaster.

  “We have a pretty disconcerting team here,” Lorraine muttered. Myullias and I nodded, but Nive just whistled to herself. It was a melody I’d never heard before. Maybe she could compose songs too. If so, she had a ridiculously extensive set of skills.

  ◆◇◆◇◆

  “Now, let the thrall hunt begin, everyone!” Nive declared at the entrance to the New Moon Dungeon before charging inside. Myullias followed after her, followed by me and Lorraine.

  “Myullias, you don’t seem to be an adventurer, but it looks like you’ve had a fair bit of physical training,” Lorraine said as she ran through the dark dungeon.

  “Yes, well, saints with more divine power don’t have to do that, but my saintly abilities are rather minor,” Myullias answered. “I thought I’d be a bit more useful if I learned to fight. Compared to professional adventurers, though, I don’t measure up.”

  “I wouldn’t put yourself down like that. You seem to have the foundations pretty well in hand, and you’re able to mostly keep up with Nive’s speed. But she’s a Gold-class, and Rentt and I are both Silver-class, or at least of comparable strength. You may find this challenging, so would you mind if I physically enhance you?”

  Lorraine’s offer was both to be considerate and to get more use out of Myullias in the event Nive went on a rampage again.
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  “I wouldn’t mind, but are you sure?” Myullias asked. “We don’t know exactly how many thralls and vampires we’ll encounter. You should save your mana.”

  “You’re not wrong, but I have mana to spare. Besides, Nive’s taking the lead for us anyway. We just need to keep up with her.”

  Lorraine looked at Nive up ahead. Skeletons, slimes, and other ordinary monsters had been appearing, but Nive had sliced them all to pieces with her claws. Seeing her crush the skeletons’ skulls and blast them to bits felt like watching my brethren die before my eyes. It was a little depressing. I wasn’t a skeleton anymore, but it was the first body I had after becoming a monster, so maybe I kind of took a liking to them. My later evolutions were creatures like ghouls and thralls, so I looked back fondly on when I didn’t have rotting flesh.

  “So it seems,” Myullias said, a stunned look on her face as she watched Nive from behind. Nive had just shredded another skeleton, smiling the whole time. If I were a skeleton, I sure wouldn’t want to go near her. “Then please do.”

  Lorraine enchanted Myullias with a physical enhancement spell. It was more effective on oneself than on others, but the fact it could be cast on others at all was highly advantageous. You could give non-combatants a decent amount of stamina. The spell was surprisingly complicated because it had to take the target’s mana into account as well as the caster’s, but it seemed to be a breeze for Lorraine.

  “How does it feel?” Lorraine asked.

  Myullias ran around a little to check. “I feel much lighter,” she replied. “Thank you.”

  “That’s good. Then shall we go after Nive? I don’t know if I’m imagining it, but she only seems to be getting faster.”

  It definitely wasn’t her imagination. Nive probably smelled vampires or something. I didn’t smell anything, but as a fellow vampire, I felt like I could sense their presence. A vampire was near.

  ◆◇◆◇◆

  “Oh, stop right here, everyone,” Nive said when she reached the corner of a hallway. She put a finger to her mouth to tell us to be quiet. I wanted to point out that she was the loudest of all of us, but I suppressed that urge because this wasn’t the time for it. I really wanted to say it, though.