The Undead King of the Palace of Darkness

Imagine this. A suspicious duo appears at the site of the old castle every night. One of them is a peerless beauty and the other one has superhuman physical strength. You split up with them every night when returning after finishing the job and never meet them during the daytime. You’ve met them in ‘Dessend’ only once, at an unusual bar that doesn’t serve garlic at night.

It’s strange for me to say this but, Mister Lazar and his group must have something wrong with them as mercenaries. How can they act together with such an extremely suspicious duo and not even feel suspicious. At the very least, if I was in their position, I’d have immediately cut off the relationship or reported to the employer. In the first place, they still haven’t withdrawn despite being attacked by the undead they couldn’t handle numerous times. I’m so speechless from their stupidity, I can’t even sigh.

But, I quite like Mister Lazar and the others, the mercenary group, who are neither useless nor helpful. I can sympathize a lot with their compromising attitude that everything is fine as long as they’re benefitting from it and as long as it’s not hurting anybody. Looks like Mister Lazar’s group is getting a cash bonus according to the number of undead that appear. I gave them all my rights to claim that amount in place of keeping us secret. It’s pretty nice when interests align. It’s ideal if we’re fighting together temporarily.

But it looks like I’ll need to make another move soon. There are too many things we don’t know, I can only check things one by one. If things start to seem dangerous, we just have to hurry up and run away.

After finishing today’s work, Senri and I were sharing information at the inn in ‘Dessend’. “I think that ‘Dessend’ is hiding something.”

“… I agree.”

To start with, regardless of whether this matter concerns the undead or not, it’s kind of strange that they didn’t contact the Order of Death Knights. The Mirage Demon King was an enemy of the Order of Death Knights, defeated a long time ago. It wouldn’t be strange to contact them after undead started to appear again and the Order of Death Knights wouldn’t ask for the reward so it’s not a money-related problem either.

I nodded strongly, while making my line of sight crawl on Senri’s white skin that was highly exposed to her shoulders, satisfied at us having the same opinion

As I put my arms around her delicate back, Senri doesn’t resist the movements of my hands and changes the direction of her body. The softness and warmth of her flesh, the hardness of her bones that I sometimes touch, her shiny hair and of course the blood flowing through her body, everything is first-rate.

We’re on a single-person bed. There’s nobody around. On the long-awaited feeding day, I’m thinking with all my might where to bite today.

Senri’s voice is calm. But her heartbeat is slightly faster than usual and it’s also taking her longer to continue the conversation. Also, although it’s difficult to see in the darkness, her skin is also slightly dyed crimson. The five senses of a Lesser Vampire won’t miss even the slightest change.

It was kind of different from what I expected, so I slightly pushed Senri, who was facing sideways, to lie face down. I hook my finger around the collar of her thin nightgown, slide it slightly down and evaluate. I still don’t know everything about Senri, but perhaps because of her great blessing, there are no wounds on her body no matter where I check, so it’s hard to choose where it’s better to bite.

I continue while holding back my aching teeth by licking them with my tongue.

“There has to be a reason why the Night Crystals are multiplying. I want to check the moment of its appearance once.”

“…”

Night Crystals give a special kind of discomfort to the undead. At the very least, there’s no trace that the crystal appeared while I was hunting the undead together with Mister Lazar’s group. In other words, something happened after we were gone ―― between the morning and the night. That’s a big problem. Sunlight doesn’t reach inside the underground passage, but the vampire’s powers still decline at noon unrelated to that. It’s a bit dangerous to hide in the basement. Of course, I’ll do it if it’s needed. But is it worth going through so much risk?

I have my nose close to Senri’s neck like a dog, as she’s lying face down, but as expected, it feels kind of different, so I lightly grab Senri’s shoulders and turn her sideways. After being turned sideways, Senri’s eyebrows twitch. The glimpse of her collarbone hopelessly entices my urges.

“Or I could try to investigate the higher-ups of‘Dessend’ who hired Mister Lazar’s group… but if I reveal my identity they’ll find your location, Senri, and I can’t exactly threaten them so―― it’s difficult.”

I’ve heard that powerful vampires have the power to manipulate the hearts of their targets, but I don’t have that. I’ve been making some various suspicious actions and if I’m careless, this town might be more dangerous than attacking undead. After all, they even have perfect vampire countermeasures.

The bosom wrapped in a loose nightgown is moving slowly.

“… Indeed, we need to act cautiously. But, before that, End――――”

Senri says with a little sigh.

“If you’re going to drink blood, do it already.”

“… I’m choosing where to bite. You already said that you’d allow me that much, Senri.”

“Sure, I said it. But I’ve been turned over for the third time already. It’ll be morning at this rate.”

She’s right. But it’s hard to decide. Senri gives me her blood once every 10 days. In other words, it only happens 3 times in a month and I have some leeway until I hit the limit of my feeding urge, so depending on the situation, it might take longer. And Senri, being stingy, only allows me a single bite just once. I’m also only allowed a minimum touch of her skin.

Once I sink my fangs in, I just have to suck from there. The pace at which I can suck blood is up to me, but since Senri is delicate, there’s only a limited amount of blood I can get from her without causing any problems and no matter how much I try to prolong the feeding time, there’s a limit to it. She’ll mostly overlook me touching her skin while sucking blood, so I can endure it to some extent, but the most fun thing for me is the timing at which I sink in my fangs. And that’s also when Senri has a nice reaction too. Her reaction is different depending on the location of the bite, so I can’t help but put my effort in choosing carefully,

“It’s because you only allow me to bite once, Senri. It’s not like it’ll increase the amount of blood I suck anyway…”

Senri glares at me as I complain.

“I allowed it to some extent at first. But then, how many times did you bite me, ―― End?”

“… I don’t remember. But there are no marks left.”

“You kept biting me through the whole night no matter how many times I asked you to stop.”

Isn’t it fine? It’s not like she’s losing more blood. It’s just play-biting, a proof of my trust! It was the best, to say the least. I protest while staring at Senri’s neck.

“That’s a lie. You never told me to stop.”

“That’s because… you were covering my mouth with your hand.”

Did something like that happen?… There’s no way Senri would lie, so most likely it did happen. But, I’m also compromising to some extent.

When I experimented with Monica, I bit her more than I ever did Senri, the place where I got the biggest reaction from after biting was the base of her leg. But I’ve never asked Senri to let me bite her leg. I’ve been heartbreakingly holding back on sucking her blood while showering together or taking off her clothes. I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but there is definitely no other gentlemanly vampire like me. If cutting my guts will make her forgive me, I’ll cut my stomach as many times as needed.

Besides, it’s because I knew that I’d take a long time selecting that I’m choosing while consulting about the future. Is there anything wrong with my actions? No, there isn’t. Senri narrowed her eyes, laid on her back and asked me with a solemn voice from below.

“End, can you swear that you’re seriously doing this for nutrition replenishment and not for your personal enjoyment?”

“…I’ve decided. As expected, I’ll do it from the front. Thank you for the meal.”

As I thought, it’s better to suck while looking at her expression. Senri caught my arms that I had stretched out to get into the main dish, and said with an almost reproaching tone. “Also, stop saying ‘thank you for the meal’ too.”

☠

“? What’s wrong? Did you guys have a fight?”

“It’s a delicate problem so I’d appreciate it if you don’t ask anything.”

“… You’re sure frank.”

Mister Lazar stares in wonder. Senri glares at me. The old castle was quiet. Today I’ve been here in a suitcase since the evening, but nothing out of the ordinary seemed to have happened. Just a few tourists came by. ‘Dessend’ also seems to be pushing for this castle as the sightseeing spot and no strong monsters seem to be appearing around, so things like that happen too.

And, looks like today is a ‘miss’.

I go to the underpass like usual and wait for the attack of the undead.

“The guy who gave us the job is suspicious. ‘I didn’t think you guys were so capable’, he said.” “Well, you guys really aren’t that strong, Mister Lazar.”

“Kuh… well, we’re nothing, compared to Vampire Hunters.”

Unlike the undead, humans can’t kill living creatures or monsters to gather death energy, however, in my experience ―― strong enemies have an aura of strongness around them. All the people I’ve faced until now were veteran warriors. Among them, only ‘Keeper’ was a pure human who didn’t amplify his power with blessing or curse, but that man also had a mysterious air about him. I don’t feel that with Mister Lazar and his group. I don’t know what the gap between them is, but I’m sure there’s a huge wall.

Albertus resented the undead enough to turn into a black dog, but I’m sure Keeper’s resentment wasn’t weaker than hers.

I received blood so I’m overflowing with power. And today is the full moon. My power is stronger than ever.

Perhaps that’s the reason I was able to notice it before Senri. It was probably not something I caught with my five senses. There is probably some kind of connection between me and my kind.

I declare to Senri, who looks surprised perhaps because she has noticed it, in advance. “I’ll do it today.”

It’s the presence of a closely related kin. Their strength even surpasses that of the ‘Skeleton Giant’ from the other day. They haven’t shown themselves yet but I could see that they were serious today. Looks like the enemy ran out of patience before we could make our move. There’s even a chance that the caster will appear too. If we can capture them, we could hear their plans.

Senri whispers, as if putting a damper on my enthusiasm.

“I won’t give you a reward even if you do your best.”

“…” I’m working for free, but I’ve already gotten more than enough payment, Sucking blood isn’t the only instinct vampires have.

Perhaps sensing what was happening from our attitude, Mister Lazar and the mercenary bunch had frozen up. As I regained my fighting spirit, I shrugged and ran upwards.