The Undead King of the Palace of Darkness

The atmosphere was feverish in the tavern which had all its windows tightly shut.

There were only a few patrons. Everyone whispered to each other albeit excitedly. All the booze in the air could make anyone’s olfactory senses go crazy.

The silver crucifix adorning the wall was not present in the tavern a while back.

I sunk into one of the chairs and crossed my legs.

The quiet sound of the clock ticking. You could sense slight gloominess in the voices of the intoxicated customers.

The night is coming.

Apparently, it has been two years now since those words invoked dread in people.

The crucifix put up in the tavern, the water trickling around it and the tightly shut door are all byproducts of that fear.

Continuing to survive as nothing but a heart buried in the ground was not all that painful. I could not even feel pain.

I was simply suspended in a state of nothingness. I passed out after getting Senri to safety and before I realized, three years had passed.

Absolutely absurd. The world that had barely changed in the past decade, now had completely transformed in the three years I was gone.

Every pub and tavern had crucifixes put up and people stopped going out after dark and there was flowing water around almost everything in the town.

Shops verified the identity of every customer and did not welcome any strangers into the fold. And of course, the proportion of garlic in dishes had also risen significantly.

“Sorry, but we’ve run out of garlic.”

The waitress who carried food and drinks to the patrons spoke apologetically to the person who walked in.

That is a lie. There is a huge stock of garlic in the pantry behind the tavern. Moreover, this tavern had always added garlic to its food even before all the uproar.

The customer looked taken aback at the seemingly absurd response.

“H-Huh?! You’re open at this time of the night when you have no garlic? Are y’all insane? Don’t you know what happened to the bar next town over?!”

Vampires bring fear with them. Though they pay a heavy price for it, they learn to live with it, as they wade through their lives as vampires.

Being a vampire myself, I am well aware of all the limitations. I know that neither running water, holy water, crucifix nor garlic are weaknesses too crippling.

Water can be made to dissipate or kept at bay using magic. As long as no direct contact is made with a silver crucifix, it has little to no effect. And while garlic is a weakness, that does not make the blood of someone who has ingested garlic off limits.

Which brings us to the girl sitting opposite me, looking at me as she poked at bird fry, this town’s local specialty.

Platinum blonde hair that falls to her feet. Pale skin that makes you wonder if she even has blood flowing in her veins and dainty limbs that might break at the slightest squeeze.

Mirele Noah. Senri was rather dainty as well, but Mirele is much thinner than others her age as a result of being bedridden with an illness for a few years.

The girl who could barely stand up until just a few days ago, shot a look of scorn at the male customer, but seeing no response from me, she turned toward me.

“Brother, Oh Brother, what were you thinking?”

“… That crucifix is not an official one. It looks a bit crooked, and crucifixes have no effect if they don’t have the perfect proportions. Its only saving grace is that it’s made of silver.”

“I see!! Brother, you’re amazing! I’ll work hard to become like you!! I need to write this down… only official crucifixes are effective…”

Mirele smiled looking like a pretty flower and moved the food out of the way and pulled out a pen and notepad (gotten through unknown means) and started writing.

Maybe because Senri, who was much stronger than me, was my companion for a long time, Mirele’s reaction makes me a little uncomfortable, but I am sure it is good that she has goals.

Just then, the man who was quarreling with the waitress turned around to look at us and was taken by surprise.

“… What the heck?! Why are there kids in a tavern at this time of the night?!”

Our eyes meet. He trembles and reflexively takes a step back. And I gather my power in my eyes and whisper.

“Come on, calm down and take a seat. It’s not too unusual for the tavern to have run out of garlic nor for kids to be in it.”

“… You… have a point.”

The man’s eyes went out of focus momentarily, he nodded vigorously and sat down obediently as unsteady as he was on his feet.

This is the ability one gains when they become a Noble Vampire, which can be used to control a person’s mind through their eyes, called ‘Fascinate Eye’.

As an ability only gained by becoming a noble, it is rather a powerful one.

Particularly, this ability allows one to disregard the basic rule of needing an invitation to enter someplace. Glass surfaces are no obstacle, and it can even be used when the staff identify visitors to the tavern through a brief peek through a small gap in the door as per the rule in place now. And they can be made to invite the person in.

Naturally, Fascinate Eye is not absolute. Depending upon the opponent’s willpower it can either fail or succeed and professional vampire hunters or Death Knights take care to never make eye contact willy nilly. However, it is impossible to be on their toes with every single person they come across.

Even with the increase in the number of vampires, there being very few of the noble kind has probably contributed to the delay in setting up proper countermeasures.

“Amazing brother! Do you think I’ll be able to pull off something like this someday?”, asked Mirele nervously.

I drained the chilled glass of tomato juice in one gulp and smiled.

“Of course, you can. As it’s my blood you’ve received.”

☠ ☠ ☠

It was the descent of the dark age.

The circumstances that set things in motion happens to be the collapse of the first-class knight, Epée the Destroyer.

Setting aside the fact that I find it utterly impossible to believe that the monster who almost erased me, from a distant at that, could collapse, all the demon kings who had only been involved in skirmishes up until then, gathered to attack the Death Knights in unison as if they had been lying in wait for the opportunity.

Among them, the demon king who sent Sable to recruit me, the Stake King, was the strongest of the lot.

With a main army of around a thousand vampires, who were only few in existence until then, they marched on towns, razing them to the ground with their overwhelming display of power.

The reason the Death Knights had an advantage over the dark forces was not only because they were elite warriors but also largely because demons or powerful dark beings, especially vampires, have always been few in number.

However, that premise has now been broken. Demon armies with numerous vampires in their ranks were too much for even the Death Knights to handle.

The Death Knights are heroes. Albeit still human. They were not strong enough to face off against monsters with an inexhaustible supply of energy all the while protecting deadweights called humans.

Thus, the Death Knights were eliminated.

Well… I suppose eliminated would not be the right word.

They are still fighting. Under the command of Senri Silvis, the Destroyer’s successor.

That said, human settlements are unfortunately very dispersed. Even the Death Knights, after being backed into a corner, could hardly protect everyone.

The world was engulfed in a whirlpool of wars. Despite the demon kings still focusing on the Death Knights, several towns have perished, countries felled.

There are a number of towns that are still standing, but a demon king’s army is too strong to be handled by a group of casually trained knights.

The Demon Kings themselves are rather powerful, however the real opponents are their armies. It was different in the case of Rainel owing to his personality, but generally in a head-to-head battle with a Demon King, even a noble vampire would not come out unscathed.

Also the only reason I was able to keep up with Rainel was because of Senri’s blood of top-notch quality.

After revival, I was pushed to face reality and admit that I had no viable options.

☠ ☠ ☠

“What’s up? You keep staring at me.”

I blinked as I asked Mirele who had her eyes fixed on me.

Mirele rested her chin on her hands and answered absentmindedly.

“Brother… you’re so cool.”

“I… see…”

Saying I look cool when I am sitting here doing nothing, is this a side effect of turning her into my follower?

Mirele had been afflicted with the same Dead Soul Illness as I had in the past. And now, she is my, End Baron’s follower.

Traveling from town to town, I looked for people ill suited to life or ones with the makings of an undead.

It was all to make new comrades.

In order to fight the demon kings, to be of help to Senri, and consequently help save mankind, I need strong comrades.

I had promised Senri I would not make any followers, but if she were in my shoes, I am sure she would understand.

It is a common misconception that a vampire bite can turn humans into vampires, but the process of vampirification is something else strictly speaking.

Feeding is done through drinking blood, whereas vampirification is done through giving blood. There is no doubt that the curse of the felled “Beast King” which helped him create werewolves was a derivative of this ability.

Anyone who is given the blood of a vampire turns into a vampire.

I wonder if that is the reason Mirele started calling me brother despite not being related to me.

Mirele frowned. And her small nose twitched.

“Brother, I smell undead… approaching this place.”

Recently, towns in this neighborhood have been subject to frequent attacks from vampires who target taverns and shops with poor anti-vampire measures.

Up until my resurrection, vampires were all but an illusion, oh what a dangerous world we live in now.

The reason for my visit was to stop these occurrences.

Suddenly, the door was smashed apart, and a huge rock came flying in, destroying the interior of the tavern. One of the drunks got caught in the crosshairs and was turned into a pancake.

The tavern is filled with a strong scent of blood, the sound of screams follows a beat later.

However, Mirele, who had been a human until a few days ago, looked unfazed.

Her nose twitched and she smiled.

“Brother, do you mind if I take care of it? I’ll make you proud.”

“Oh, sure. Give it a try.”

As my words reached her ears, Mirele’s body swelled. The thick jacket she had on was torn from within and a silver pelt took its place.

She was using her power.

Vampires are only capable of creating lesser vampires, but as someone who received the blood of a noble vampire, she was born a vampire instead.

And after becoming a vampire, her soul continues to descend into the depths of the abyss the same as mine.

Mirele had transformed into a smart looking silver wolf.

Though she looks no different from my past dog form, why does she look so much cooler?

The wolf glanced at me with eyes which hinted at her intelligence, turned around, tore through the wall and took off.

The debris scattered everywhere. I nibbled at the leftovers of Mirele’s fried dish and sighed.

If her instincts ever become too strong and take control of her, I may have to kill her.

I would like to avoid that as much as possible, but if nothing had changed, she would have died anyway. I am sure she would have no regrets.